Transform Your Mindset: The Mental Health Benefits of Decluttering

Understanding Decluttering and Its Impact

You might be thinking that decluttering is just about keeping things visually organised, but its implications reach far beyond aesthetics. When you intentionally curate your environment and remove items that are no longer aligned with you and your life, you create a physical space that fosters clarity, emotional wellness and peace of mind.

The transformation of your physical surroundings can significantly contribute to your psychological well-being by:

• Eliminating distractions

• Reducing procrastination

• Helping you manage stress more effectively.

Physically decluttering helps you mentally declutter; it creates opportunity for new thoughts and perspectives, and frees you up from past versions of yourself that you may be hanging on to through items you own, and that no longer align with who you are and your evolution.

Do you have items, clothes, material pieces in your life that are no longer 'you' and yet you continue to hold onto them?

What thoughts and feelings do you get when you see them in your space?

How Decluttering Can Alleviate Burnout

Burnout is a state of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual exhaustion, and an increasingly common issue in our fast-paced society. It is caused by long-term conditions of stress that exceed resources and deplete you. This means your nervous system becomes overwhelmed to a point where it has less and less capacity to keep you in a state of balance, and as a result, it saps your energy and motivation and impacts your ability to function. This can lead to various symptoms and behavioural changes including feeling;

• Hopeless

• Helpless

• Exhausted

• Trapped.

The process of unwinding Burnout involves decluttering the overwhelm you are carrying, and reclaiming your capacity to make choices that support your wellness.

When you're burnt out it can feel hard to make decisions or even believe that you have a choice, the overwhelm, feeling trapped and hopelessness can feel all consuming, and this is where decluttering a small space in your environment can really help you; Every time you choose what gets to have a place in your physical space, you are making an empowered decision for yourself under your terms.

This re-teaches your nervous system that it is SAFE to make choices, that you CAN be empowered in your way of being, and that your choices DO create change and positive outcomes. The more you engage in activities that promote your empowerment, the more 'evidence' your nervous system and mind collects to affirm your growing capacity and confidence.

The physical act of decluttering is also beneficial to your nervous system when it is stuck in hypo-arousal, (an overload of parasympathetic activity) which is common with Burnout and can make you go into Freeze state where it feels difficult to start anything or shutdown where you feel numb, lethargic and apathetic. Physically moving yourself and items around a space upregulates you by creating more sympathetic activity within your system and this will help bring you out of hypo-arousal and back to feeling more regulated and more like yourself again.

More Emotional Benefits of an Intentionally Curated Space

Aside from helping you beat Burnout, a well-organised living or working space has been shown to evoke productivity, inspired action and feelings of accomplishment. This can lead to improved self-esteem, self confidence and creativity and satisfaction.

By creating a space that reflects your personality, dreams and feels inspiring to spend time in, it sets you up to thrive.

Conclusion

A chaotic physical space exacerbates a chaotic mind, making the daily responsibilities that Burnout can make feel hard to follow through with, even harder! Decluttering your physical can help everything feel more manageable, and when day to day life begins to feel more manageable, your nervous system becomes less overwhelmed and you will begin coming out of survival mode.

What is a first step you can take to declutter your space today, and watch as the positive effects ripple through your daily life?