How to Declutter Your Mind Using Your Imagination
"The subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between something that is real or imagined".
-Bob Proctor
It's finally spring! During this time of year many of us are opening the windows, breathing in more deeply, clearing away the cobwebs,and decluttering our closets. We often hope that once the house has been freshened up that it will also bring us a sense of inner peace and clarity. What many of us don't know is that we can also declutter our minds. This can become a practice that we can do for ourselves daily to remain clear and present in our lives.
Often we don’t recognize that we are overloaded with mental clutter until we are completely overwhelmed .Our subconscious mind is like a sponge taking in information all the time. There is so much information coming in from the outside world that it overloads our mind with clutter.
We have to learn to instruct our subconscious mind about what we need from it because if not it will function based on old situations. We are often not aware of our limiting beliefs – we think they are a reality. We carry the past and project into the future, and go back and forth but are often not focusing on the present.
Mental clutter is old thoughts/ideas that are not aligned with the present moment or with our authentic self. Symptoms of a cluttered mind are feeling overwhelmed, having emotional outbursts, inability to sleep, feeling inner restlessness, being absent-minded, and having negative self-talk that continues to analyze and clutter our mind.
How do I begin decluttering my mind?
Set a time to begin! Daily practice is key – decluttering can be done in minutes
Be still and relax, breathe deeply, this lets mind release
The more we avoid decluttering, the more clutter builds up
Let your mind express itself through writing – let thoughts stream out onto page
Be creative from your heart and not from your head - let go of perfection
Allow clutter to flow from your subconscious onto paper using colors/images
Afterward tear up, burn, throw away what you created
We can learn to teach our subconscious minds to empty/clear on a daily basis through using creativity and metaphors. Research shows that our minds do not know the difference between what is really happening and what we are imagining is happening! This means that it is extremely important that we take the time to direct our subconscious minds to clear the clutter or it won't know that it needs to!
We can release mental clutter using images held in our mind's eye. We can also participate in active letting go by letting our creativity flow onto paper. For example you might imagine or draw all of the clutter of the day being put into a bag that is then put outside at night to get recycled. You might take a deep breath in, and as you breathe out imagine all of the mental clutter going out of your body and down to the center of the earth where it dissipates. Through the creation of the image in our mind's eye or onto the paper we are able to consciously let go. There is no right or wrong way to do this. The most important thing is that you create a metaphor that feels right for you and use it to declutter, clear, and let go of mental clutter every single day.
