Declutter your mind and get rid of unhelpful thoughts. Here’s how!
Do you know that clutter is not just physical? Your mind can be cluttered as well!
Let’s do a quick check:
Are you always worrying about things that are out of your control?
Do you find yourself thinking negatively when a situation comes up?
Are you harboring negative feelings like resentment, anger, sadness, and pain?
Do you find yourself spacing out even when you have company because you are thinking of a problem, or something that you think you should be accomplishing at the moment?
Are you constantly pushing yourself to do better all the time?
If you answered “yes” to any of the questions above, chances are you are wasting your mental energy and you do have a cluttered mind.
A cluttered mind creates stress, confusion, distraction, and disorganization. It can prevent you from reaching your full potential when it comes to being productive, and staying focused on your goals.
It keeps you from being present at the moment, making you lose connections to your relationships and your environment.
Now’s the time to let go of these mental habits. If you strive to be intentional with the physical stuff around you, you also need to be more intentional about how you spend your mental energy.
So let me give you a list of tips that can help you declutter your mind.
1. Declutter your mind by learning to let go.
Learning to let go is not just about forgiveness. It is also about letting go of worries and frustrations.
Harboring ill feelings is like dragging mental baggage around with you wherever you go. These pent-up feelings can easily affect your your mindset and your relationship with others. It always puts you on guard, unable to trust the people around you.
When you learn to let go and not dwell on such feelings, you are able to face challenges easily and be able to think more positively.
This tip can be very difficult but believe me – once you get the hang of it, it will be worth it.
2. Identify your priorities.
What do you want to achieve?
Some of us do not know what we want. Because of this, we often have unclear goals, which affect our mindsets and choices.
Life goals are important because these point out what direction you should be heading to.
Just picture yourself in the future – where do you want to be five years from now? Work your goals around that vision.
When your goals are clear, it’s easier to focus, because you know what you want to see in the future. You will also recognize distractions when they come – because these won’t be aligned to your goals and vision.
By identifying what matters, you will know what to eliminate – distractions and empty endeavors.
3. Get enough sleep.
Remember the last time you did not get enough sleep? You probably went through the day like a zombie – having a hard time remembering things and unable to organize your thoughts.
This is often referred to as “brain fog.” This happens because your brain cells are unable to communicate with each other properly due to sleep deprivation.
If you do not get enough sleep daily, not only your mental state is compromised, but also your physical health since sleeping is the way our bodies recharge and rejuvenate.
So if you want to get rid of mental lapses, check your sleeping habits, and make sure that you are getting seven to nine hours of sleep.
4. Declutter your mind by writing down your thoughts.
One of the best ways to let out all your thoughts is to transfer them to paper. Writing down your thoughts allows your brain to let go of the responsibility to remember them.
It’s like unloading your brain and getting more space!
If you are always bombarded by ideas, you should carry around a small notebook that can fit in your pocket so that you can easily jot down notes when you need to. A lot of creative minds swear by this method because this allows them to keep all ideas and inspirations in one place.
Now if your brain is mostly bombarded not by ideas but by emotional thoughts or problems, you should try out journaling. It can be in a form of a diary or a bullet journal.
Whatever journaling method you choose to do, it will help you organize your thoughts and be in tune with your emotions. Writing in a journal has been proven to be therapeutic and it is being used as a helpful tool in managing mental health.
5. Stop multitasking.
Are you the type who multitasks everything because you feel you are being more productive?
The truth is, multitasking actually reduces the quality of your work and it pushes your mind to overwork itself.
So instead of trying to do two things at once, list down your tasks by priority, and focus on them one by one to avoid overloading your brain.
You may think you will be moving slower but you will actually be more focused and less stressed. The result is a better output!
6. Decide quickly.
As you go through life, you will be facing a series of choices. Some of these are simple while some could be life-changing.
When faced with a choice, some are unable to deal with it and decides to delay making a decision. This only gives you mental stress when you spend the next hours worrying and mulling over the choices you have until you reach a decision.
Then after deciding, you worry whether you did the right thing or not.
You should not let your mind go through all this!
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not telling you to have an answer right away every time you are on the crossroads. There are big decisions that need to be thought over for a while such as moving to another place or starting another career path.
I am just asking you not to sweat the small stuff. Practice being decisive to avoid mental clutter.
7. Declutter your mind by meditating daily.
Meditation is a practice that trains the mind just as exercise trains the body.
There’s a lot of meditation techniques and approaches that allow you to achieve an emotionally calm and mentally clear state. Some are simple enough to do in your office for a few minutes. When you commit to practicing meditation regularly, you will be able to reach mental and emotional clarity with less effort.
This reduces confusion and distraction, allowing you to focus your attention on your priorities.
So do allocate some time in your daily routine to learn meditation. You will be surprised how mentally stable you can get.
8. Declutter your environment.
When you are surrounded by a cluttered environment, the mess and chaos compete for your attention.
For instance, in an office desk – when you have a lot of paper clutter, you feel more pressured and stressed. But if you get rid of the non-essentials and file them in an organized manner, you have more room in your desk and you will be able to focus more on the job at hand.
The same thing can be said about your home. When you go home to a cluttered mess after a long day of work, it’s so hard to relax! It feels like no matter where you look, there’s chaos and there’s something you have to do.
So, take a look at your home or office. If it’s a mess, then you should start decluttering. When you declutter your home, you declutter your mind too.
Here are articles that will help you declutter your home. Check them out!
9. Practice work-life balance.
Do you drown yourself in work – working harder and longer hours?
This is very unhealthy.
I know that most people who drown themselves in work do it to make ends meet but you also need to rest and relax sometimes.
This will allow you to recharge, helping your mind and body make up for all the work you have been doing.
Spend time with your family, go out with your friends, do your hobbies – any activity that will take your mind off work.
Work-life balance helps prevent burnout and even allows you to be more productive at work.
10. Declutter your mind by going offline.
The Internet has made our lives easier but too much of it can be toxic and it adds to the clutter in our minds.
Every time we read blogs, catch up on the latest news, and watch viral videos, our brains get a huge amount of information. So you’re actually feeding your brain more information to work on instead of making it relax.
Social media posts that boast of luxuries and vacations can trigger feelings of insecurity and depression. Debates also often happen online, which can be toxic and stressful and can trigger feelings of anger.
I guess this will depend on who and what you associate with online. If you feel that negative feelings and thoughts are often being triggered by social media posts, take time to go offline.
11. Say a little prayer each day.
Although prayers will not give you immediate solutions, it does calm you and make you feel at ease. It is one of the best things you can do to declutter your mind.
Prayer is where we communicate with God in a deep and personal level. It’s actually an acknowledgement on our part that we can’t do it all without the help from above.
So when you pray, aim to tell God all your problems, all the negative thoughts and feelings that you have. Know that He can handle it all. There’s nothing too big for Him.
To have total peace of mind, you do need to enrich your spiritual life. And praying does enrich your spiritual life. Faith is powerful and you should never underestimate it.
Life is as simple as we make it.
Sometimes, we do cause our own stress. We overthink, overfeel and overwork.
Rather than adding to the day’s troubles, why not take the time to walk away for a while and just relax your mind? There is no need to complicate things.
Remember, a clutter-free life is not just about the stuff. It’s what goes in your mind too. So if you’re decluttering your things, don’t forget to declutter your mind too!
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