Clear for calm: Reclaim calm and create a more intentional life

5 minute read

When we think about clutter, we tend to think of physical stuff and usually, excess, in our space. We picture things like overflowing wardrobes, heaps of shoes and mail in the hallway, piles of stuff on our surfaces and sideboards and drawers packed to the brim. But clutter is so much more than physical stuff. We can have cluttered minds and lives too!

In this blog, APDO member Laura Pearson shares her holistic approach to decluttering and how by considering three important areas of our lives - our space, our minds and our lifestyles - we can reclaim our calm and create a more intentional life.

I've experienced the benefits of physically decluttering first-hand and I've witnessed them time and time again with my clients. Back in 2015, I started my own personal journey to letting go of clutter and simplifying my life. At the time, I was in a busy corporate job, working 70+ hours a week, and I was feeling extremely cluttered, disconnected from myself and burnt out. Something needed to change and I decided to start with decluttering my space to welcome some calm into my life.

One of the first things that I decluttered was my wardrobe. The immediate feeling of lightness from letting go of clothes that I didn't wear, didn't feel good in and had no intention of ever wearing again felt amazing! I will never tire of hearing people speak about how light they feel after physically decluttering. I'm a big believer that our physical space impacts our mental and emotional space. In other words, our external world impacts our internal world. So, if our physical space is cluttered and disorganised, it is highly likely that we will feel cluttered mentally and will probably suffer from having cluttered minds and lives too.

This feeling of lightness prompted me to continue to declutter my space, until no area was left untouched. Some part of me felt compelled to continue on this path, to simplifying my life, moving into alignment with my values and feeling even more calm and self-connected, so I moved on to declutter my mind and my lifestyle.

At the time, my mind was extremely cluttered. I was your typical over-thinker. I struggled to switch off and relax. I found it almost impossible to allow myself to just be in the present. Other things like limiting beliefs, worrying about the future and never-ending mental To-Do Lists, occupied my precious headspace.

Meditation was something that I'd heard a lot about in the media and saw posts about on social media, so in search for calm, I decided to give it a go. I tried all kinds of meditations - guided meditations, meditation apps and practising sitting in silence unguided. At first, like most newbie meditators, I felt like "I wasn't doing it right". Thoughts would pop into my head. Sometimes they'd race around. I'd get distracted by my To-Do List or start thinking about what I was going to have for tea. The list went on.

But I stuck with it. I showed up for myself and my meditation practice. The key word is practise by the way - every single day. Whether it was two minutes or ten minutes, I made a daily commitment to get myself comfortable, tune inwards and declutter my mind. Within weeks I felt calmer, clearer and more connected to myself and my values.

Seven years later and I am more dedicated than ever to my meditation practise. I choose to meditate daily in order to declutter my mind, come back to the present moment, connect with myself, and most significantly, feel calm and clear.

As a meditation teacher, I also teach and guide other people through meditation in my recordings, programmes and classes. I truly believe that meditation is something that everybody can do. If you can breathe, you can meditate.

Learning to meditate is like learning any new skill and the more you do it, the more comfortable and familiar it becomes. At first it might feel weird or uncomfortable, and resistance might come up, but a big part of meditating is about practising awareness, acceptance and allowing things and yourself to just be.

Meditation is just one way that I believe you can declutter your mind and there are so many benefits that you can enjoy. Some of the key benefits include feeling calmer and more relaxed, increasing focus, reducing stress, managing anxiety, enhancing self-awareness, increasing productivity, improving sleep and generating kindness (towards yourself and others!). There are so many science-based benefits which you can easily find by having a quick Google.

If we consider the theme Clear for Calm, which is the theme for APDO's Spring Clearing Week, we must ask ourselves what is preventing us from experiencing calm right now? And more significantly, what can we do to welcome calm into our lives?

The answer will look different for each of us. Some of us may feel the urge to physically declutter our space. Some of us may feel called to explore how we can declutter our minds. Some of us may want to do a life audit and consider where we are spending our time and if we are clear about our priorities and declutter our lives accordingly.

There is no right or wrong answer. But, regardless of what you choose, we can all benefit from doing a little Spring Clear (of our space, minds and lives), in order to welcome in, and feel, calm.

Laura Pearson is a Professional Declutterer and Organiser, Intentional Life Coach and Meditation Teacher. She created her business Intentional with Laura to help people to declutter and simplify their lives, minds and space, so that they can consciously create and live their own version of an intentional, joyful, self-connected life. Her mission is to help people to reclaim their calm. Connect with her on Instagram or Facebook @intentionalwithlaura and download her free guide at www.intentionalwithlaura.com/5-steps-to-start-decluttering-freebie.

Laura Pearson (Laura Pearson Coaching and Decluttering)

If you would like any help finding your calm please click here to Find an Organiser local to you.