I always say that my home is a microcosm of my mind feels and looks like. Whenever I feel mentally stuffed, unmotivated, irritable or distracted, it usually comes down to my flat being disorderly. I like order in my flat. A clean space is a clear mind. Everything has its own home.
When there are a lot of things, not living the right spaces and places, it affects my mood. Whether that is at home or my current work-from-home station, it affects my mental health. Having a clean space has nothing to do with being a cleanliness fanatic, but with my general health and wellbeing. It brings safety, improves my quality of sleep, inspires me to make good food choices and makes me feel better about my environment and surroundings.
A clean space is a clean mind. I interpret a space to be anything. Whether it is a physical space such as your home, your environment or a mental space such as your thoughts, biases and actions. A clear mind is a space where we can declutter our mindsets. By unlearning and relearning things, getting rid of toxic thoughts and judgments, removing toxic people from our physical life in a way that doesn’t harm us.
A clean space is a clear mind. We can improve our mindset. It can boost our productivity and help us to live a healthier life both mentally and physically. It took me last week to make that connection. I learnt that as long as I continue to sculpt my home into an oasis of cleanliness, my mind will always be in a state of peace and I can live a better life.
Think “Me”
How often do you exhale and let go of today’s events and live in your peace?
I am learning to shut down from technology and do other things that require me to move or engage with something to bring me peace. This summer feels different than all others. I believe that it is because outside is opening back up. No one wants to stuck inside and glued to their devices for entertainment anymore. People are living within their peace whether that is inside taking care of themselves or outside filling themselves with social care. Shut down. Have a pocket of time for yourself to breathe in nature, to clear your mind as well as release. I feel restless and bored without movement so I have started to go on mid-day and evening walks again. It makes me feel more alive within myself.
Define Your Happy Place
I don’t know about you but these last 16 months have pushed me to do some introspective work. Constantly, I have asked myself, does this make me happy? Am I happy working here? What is my happy place? These are not questions that can be answered just like that.
It has taken me a while to sit and ponder what happiness means to me and whether I can pinpoint what parts of my life make me happy. Being happy is a choice that we can plan. If you are not happy with a part of your life, make a plan and do something that gets you out of that space. I’m working on getting myself out of a space and I know that it is going to take time until that happens. I’m throwing myself into something that I enjoy doing as it is my passion and that is my happy place.
Purge Your Mind, Create A Clean Space
Let go of all the hurt, the worries and disappointments that flood your mind. Grab a notebook and pour all those emotions into writing. Write down your feelings, your thoughts and anything that is taking up too much space in your mind. Release them and leave them there. I don’t journal but each morning I like to read Stoic teachings and Toltec wisdom for my meditation. Those morning sessions give me a moment to release everything that has formed roots in my mind and pour them into writing. I haven’t gone back to read any of them and maybe I will in a year or two to see my growth. It gives me a sense of closure. Finished it is. It has ended and I can move on.
Budget Your Time
Burnout is real. Social burnout is even more real especially when we have been cooped up inside for long. Last weekend was the first weekend all year that I did nothing. I had a lie in which is something that I rarely do and I just sat in my flat reading and enjoyed the silence. Time is something that we all have but we cannot get back. Having busy schedules with work, social functions, being on social media, family time, admin time and more; it can feel like you are being pulled in some many directions without space to breathe.
As we budget our money, we should budget our time as well. Schedule time for you and doing things alone. Go on solo dates, solo travel trips and schedule those in. Don’t exhaust yourself. Learn to decline others to avoid the overdraft fee of being drained.
A clean space gives us a clarity to be more present and intentional with our time and our lives. Learn to create a plan of serenity within your physical home, your mental home and other spaces that are important to you. Keep it organised and make sure that it remains that way so you are able to navigate through the waters with ease, peace and happiness. You can’t pour from an empty cup. Make sure that your cup is full and take care of number one first.
I hope that you enjoyed this topic and I hope that it resonated with you. Let me know what cleaning your space means to you. I have been testing out a new times for blog posts and I’m thinking to move Sunday’s posts to another day in the week. I’ll probably change up the days from September onwards with all the new changes coming to the blog.
Until next time,
Folakemi
