Clear Clutter & Drop Extra Pounds!

We are so lucky to have such a fabulous human being guest-blogging for us today :). Meet Dana Claudat, and soak up her wise words on clutter…and how it actually affects your weight loss!

Dana is a Pyramid School Feng Shui consultant, writer, and founder of the feng shui lifestyle blog?The Tao Of Dana. Dana?s mission is to help everyone in the world become more positively engaged in their environment and, thus, in their lives.

Clear Clutter & Drop Extra Pounds! - Learn more at https://heidipowell.net/2639

When people think of physical fitness, the first and most obvious thing to think of is your body and perhaps food. However, in the grand scheme of fitness, weight loss and wellness, there are so many other factors that influence your success in gaining and maintaining balance. Your mental state, the way you can organize and carve out time, the supportive people in your life and, yes, your environment all have a hand in striking and maintaining those awesome fitness goals. Even if you know what your plan is to get in shape, even if you have the best information and even love the physical activities, if you are weighed down with the burden of clutter in your life you may find that you are struggling to make it through your awesomely planned weeks!

Clutter is an extra burden that makes everything far more of a challenge. Clutter is excess weight, negative emotion, confusion, defeat and obstacles. Clutter is the feeling of being stuck. Clutter is frustration. Clutter is also easy to eliminate.

In my world of modern feng shui, working to create environments that support healthy lives, clutter stands out as a huge obstacle in nearly every space I encounter. There are four main kinds of clutter: actual junk piled up, lots of bad memory stuff, mental clutter and what I call ?the clutter of obligations.?

Let?s look at a few ways to clear some of this clutter to lighten the load and set you free to accomplish your goals:

1. Actual junk. This is an easy clutter fix, although a daunting one. If you have some serious dumping to do, there are two great ways to tackle it. First, you can set aside 10-15 minutes every day to actually round up and haul out a bag of stuff from your home. Do this for a week or two and you will gain momentum as the space clears. Alternately, if you have a friend that is up for the task, put on some music, invite them over and tackle a big mess. You can also hire someone to do this with you- the motivated company makes a big difference.

Keep in mind that junky food is also actual junk. Doing a good de-cluttering in the kitchen and washing out your refrigerator will set you up for a fresh start with a healthy diet.

2. Bad memory stuff. The gifts from former lovers that didn?t end on a high note, the pictures that remind you of bad times, the ephemera of less-than-great seasons in your life: there?s no reason to hold on to that stuff. I once had a client tell me that she had cleared out every last vestige of her cheating husband from her house, but she was still miserable. I asked her what she kept in a box in her bedroom corner and she answered, ? My divorce proceedings.? Those papers left the house and her life started to flourish. The bad memory stuff can go. You don?t need to hold on to anything that does not make you feel good.

The Artist's Way - Learn more at https://heidipowell.net/2639
3. Mental clutter. In this category I lump both the clutter of self-defeating thoughts as well as the clutter of turmoil words and actions of vampire people. I?ll explain! First, self-defeating thoughts. That?s fairly self-explanatory. I have had a lot of personal success dumping the thoughts that clutter my mind by keeping a journal and writing them out on a page so I can purge them objectively. If you want to go deeper, I always recommend The Artist?s Way book by Julia Cameron. The exercises in this book over the course of twelve weeks help you get out of your own way and start creating freely. Living a balanced life is a huge act of creativity, and it is something worth the investment.

Now, I mentioned vampires. Vampires: You know, the people who leave you feeling like you are about to fall asleep or jump out of your skin after a conversation, the people who spin your head, make your life all about their crisis and take you along for a thankless ride on the rollercoaster of their lives? Those people are clutter a lot of the time. While I don?t suggest ever cutting people out of your life, if you recognize that these types of relationships are adding lots of weight and effort to your day you can mindfully keep these relationships lighter and stay focused on the positive.

4. ?The clutter of obligations.? Busy-clutter. Saying yes to everything except yourself creates a clutter of obligations that will litter your life with lots of stuff to do and nothing accomplished in your own world! If I find myself looking at the week ahead and sighing with dread, I know I have started to create a cluttered mess of my schedule. Saying NO more often and starting to excuse yourself from everything non-essential is so key to having a lighter life, especially when you are focused on making changes in your habits and routines. Taking more time for you is a key way to get grounded. When you are grounded, it is much easier to make life-affirming decisions and it is much more intuitive to exercise, to eat well, to sleep soundly and to enjoy it all!

In my way of feng shui, your space should help you feel invigorated every day. Basics go much farther than complex rules and absolutes. If you can de-clutter just a bit every day for the next month in all four ways, I guarantee you will feel lighter and likely more energized as well. Motivation won?t be something that comes from someone else, it will be intrinsic to your life and reinforced by all the clear, dynamic space you have created. Many clients have lost significant physical weight in the process as well! One parting note on this: clutter clearing can be emotional, so don?t be surprised if you actually do something like cry out of the blue (it has happened to me) after eliminating lots of junk. That junk has emotions attached to it and you are letting it go.

Have a great time sweeping away the old that you no longer need and creating the radiantly new, lighter life that is waiting for you!

xoxo Dana

DanaClaudatHeadshot

 

 

 

 

 

 

20 Responses

  1. I de-cluttered my house about a year ago because we our home had recently been flooded. I have many people wanting to buy me ‘things’. When I politely tell them no they can’t understand why I don’t what they’re offering. It is my belief that people hold onto to much clutter. When our home was flooded it was quite devastating at the time. It offered our family the opportunity to detox. Now before something comes into my home it must serve a purpose and not just take up space. Feeling quite content with less.

  2. Love this… I feel like my house is always clutter no matter how many people tell me it not. But every time I declutter a room it’s like a weight has been lifted and makes me want to change more of my life. For example read a self help book, excersice a little more or just spend time reflecting.

  3. I live with a hoarder. It makes it so very difficult to de-clutter anywhere. One step, one room, one counter at a time!!

  4. I have been putting off decluttering my home and now it’s been years just little things that have piled up right along with my weight. Looks like its time for a garbage bag 🙂

  5. This is SO for me, if things around the house get cluttered I loose track of not only where things are but also what I need to do for myself. I absolutely love you guys and extreme makeover has been my motivation to loose weight. I have over 150 lbs to lose and am having a hard time with it but remind my self of what Chris says during the show and it helps keep my eating habits on better check.

  6. I just moved into a new home and this advice was priceless. Following what is written here will definitely help me drop the weight I need to and lose weight in a healthy manner. I am just learning to put myself first in my life and to take care of myself before anything else.

  7. Great advice, thank you. We’ve just moved and so we had a chance to de-junk before we packed, it definitely feels like a weights been lifted having a more streamlined home environment.

  8. Wow, this was extremely helpful & insightful! I am printing it out and starting work with these tips this weekend! I have been saying I need to de-clutter for years, but not actually done it. I am also working on loosing weight, so I love reading about the weight loss & de-clutter connection:)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

CHOOSE A DATE: