“GOD REMOVES THE LESSER TO BRING IN THE BETTER”
The term feng shui (pronounced: fung-shway) became very popular as an interior design concept starting in the ’90s. The concept, which originated in ancient China, stipulates as one of its fundamental principles that humans can use their energy force to harmonize with the environment. This energy, the life force known as “chi,” can be blocked by clutter. It can even be blocked by maintaining too many items. Thus, we are encouraged to declutter our lives and our minds.
The basic premise of feng shui is that energy should flow without restrictions. It is the art of decluttering to leave space to grow and develop both in calmness and confidence. You’d be amazed at how many restrictions we often place in our own lives: little roadblocks that create chokepoints in our natural flow.
I was a great architect of roadblocks: I built them daily for myself while serving as the senior pastor of my church. I allowed my life to become cluttered, and it led to the strangulation of my spirit and played a role in the dissolution of my marriage. Each setback spawned another until I finally forced myself to look at my life from an outside perspective. With that vantage point, I started to see the chokepoints in my way, and from that point even taking small steps to restore my soul’s flow resulted in tremendous changes.
The concept of feng shui even includes suggestions for strategic placement of key pieces of furniture, such as the bed, to encourage positive ends such as sleep or intimacy. There are even ideas for how to slow the flow of chi in gentle ways so you can relax without having your energy rush through the room. Energy should linger rather than zip right by.
No one needs to be a practitioner of feng shui to see the logic of the practice. We have all been in a place where the atmosphere felt so perfect that we wanted to linger there. There’s an appealing logic to the notion that freedom from clutter allows us to breathe better. We can relax in a space where everything seems to fit.
Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine revealed in a recent study that discarding our possessions directly affects the part of the brain that processes pain, creating a greater sense of ease. Similarly, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles found a direct link between stress response and clutter. Decluttering is essential to maintaining a positive mindset and achieving efficiency. Holding on to useless items traps you in negativity.
While this research speaks to the value of eliminating physical clutter, the same idea applies to your mental clutter. Just as physical clutter clouds our minds and creates stress, mental clutter can do even greater damage. It can block us from moving on, leave us dwelling on useless thoughts and emotions, and cause us to freeze in critical moments with too many things taking up valuable spaces in our minds.
Finding Items that Support Happiness Instead of Substituting It
The famous organizing consultant, Marie Kondo, instills in her clients that if an item does not give you a “spark of joy,” get rid of it. Constant reminders of pain inhibit our forward progression. When we create a space where we feel comfortable, safe, and at home, it is easier to focus on healing. Go through your living space, evaluate each item and ask, “What emotions does this item bring to me? Do they bring me love and joy, or do they bring me stress or pain?”
We don’t always see the impact of our living space or mental space until we make a change. Until the stressful clutter is gone, it can be difficult to even comprehend how these blockages can induce feelings of anxiety, or how too many reminders of an ended part of our life can affect us emotionally. Look around your living space as though viewing it through the eyes of a stranger. What do you see? Do you like everything you see? If not, change it.
You want a home full of joy in everything you see. By discarding the things from your past that give you negative feelings, you can receive joy from the other objects that are there.
We are always free to reinvent ourselves. We can embrace a new reality. We can give ourselves a new look or even a new name. We can certainly change our space. Eliminating items you never wanted in the first place and donating them to charity give you room for what matters. An uncluttered space is more agreeable. There is no need to subscribe to an ancient philosophy to feel this. Create an atmosphere that embraces change. Finding a new way to look at the space we occupy can help us look at our lives differently. Maybe what we see when we rearrange things will inspire and delight us. That’s true for objects, and it’s also true for the spirit.
If you’re moving on from a relationship, consider this an opportunity to reclaim your space. Negotiation is necessary when living quarters are shared, but reclaiming your space after you find yourself on your own again can be therapeutic and symbolic. This is your chance to create a sanctuary that is all your own. Spread out a yoga mat or set up a writing desk. Curl up on a bean bag and read, or operate your band saw and make birdhouses. It’s your space, and the sky’s the limit. Changing your space means claiming your joy. Access to joy is everyone’s birthright. Optimizing your digital and physical spaces can create a tremendous sense of relief.
