De-Cluttering Your Life
This week is National Simplify Your Life Week!
That’s right. The entire week is dedicated to considering what effects over-complicating your life is having on your stress levels, physical and mental health.
De-cluttering is not just about that mess in the kitchen, or those overflowing drawers in the bedroom. Oh no.
Mental cluttering takes an incredible toll on our bodies, draining us of energy and productivity. When your mind becomes cluttered with thoughts of upcoming tasks, priorities, next moves, you’re not sure what resources you have, and you’re not sure when you will ever have the time to relax, you are at risk of becoming overwhelmed and highly stressed.
Stress triggers the flight or fight response, which causes fatigue, irregular heartbeats, and the constant feeling of being on edge. Eventually, your body will no longer be able to cope. You will be less capable of making decisions, feel constantly overwhelmed and be more likely to create additional problems.
If simplifying things can tame some of this stress, then wouldn’t you like to make those changes? It may seem a lot to consider at first, but here are a handful of things you can do to begin de-cluttering your home, schedules and your mind!
Learn To Say No
It’s brilliant to be helpful, and to be willing to contribute to others, but you must remember yourself first. It is extremely easy to over-extend yourself by always saying ‘yes’ to situations for which you simply don’t have time, or because you didn’t want to disappoint. Make sure that you create a healthy balance, and never take on more than you can handle.
Delegate
This is particularly important in work, but you can use it at home too. If you find you are doing everything at home, try asking for a little help. Delegate chores among the whole family. Pass some of your responsibilities over to others if they are happy to do it. There’s no point trying to do everything on your own. It simply won’t work. “Doing everything, will achieve nothing.”
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
Starting your day in rush automatically increases stress levels. Try to organise your lunch the night before, get your clothes out ready for the next day or plan your meals for the week. It is a hard habit to first get into, but once you get into a routine, you’ll be surprised how much calmer and stress-free you feel in the morning.
Live in the Moment
This doesn’t mean you can’t be organised. It just means that you practise mindfulness. Your present moment is going to be much less stressful and much simpler if you aren’t thinking about the things in the future or relieving stress from the past. Try practising some mindful meditation to help you achieve this one.
The Fingley characters love keeping everything clean and tidy, and try to concentrate on living each moment as it comes. They like to help each other with different tasks, so everybody can live simply and contentedly.
