Mental clean-up: how to do it yourself?

Have you ever felt like you were stuck? Like something is blocking you from being happy with the person you are and the things you do? Well the news I have for you might be shocking, the only thing stopping you from being happy is you! Believe me, a lot of times I’ve felt like something was holding me back but I realised all of these things are coming from within me. Happiness starts by allowing yourself to be happy.

At the moment we find ourselves in the age of information, this can be a good thing for some but unfortunately it can be bad for others. As this huge amount of information available to us is packing our heads with a lot of unnecessary noise. This can cause troubles in trying to find the direction we want to be heading in. So how can we liberate ourselves from these unwanted distractions? The first step is to declutter your mind, this means you need to rid yourself of all those pesky thoughts that don’t have any relevance to whatever it is your trying to focus on or trying to achieve. And that’s what I’ll be helping you with in this weeks blog, because our theme this week is all about mental cleanup! Discover how you can do this in 4 simple steps yourself! 

1. Eliminate useless information

So now how exactly do you start decluttering your mind? We’ll as you might guess, we need to start with identifying all useless information and erasing it from our daily lives. This means TV, radio, magazines, news and unfortunately for some: social media. Things like TV or radio and magazines speak for themselves, as we’re bombarded with information that has almost no relevance to our tasks at hand. Most of what we get from TV or magazines are advertisements anyway so why not cut it out of your life all together? You can simply turn to spotify instead and enjoy some relaxing tunes instead of getting your head crammed with ads for products you don’t need. And if you’re really missing TV, try using netflix instead as you’re just watching whatever program you want to be watching without any added clutter. I like to turn my phone off in the evening to avoid annoying notifications. 

And yes, social media is a huge cause of clutter. Some of us literally cannot live without social media. But there are ways of decluttering your social media as well without having to quit it all together. There’s a handy app for your web browser called Facebook News Eradicator. This does exactly what it says on the tin, it removes any so called news that just serves to stress us out and make us worry. Even more, it replaces this news with an inspirational quote to help you through the day! So this app is a must try for all!

2. Recognize toxic situations 

So now you’re on the way to decluttering your mind which is great progress already! But there’s another step you need to take towards inner happiness. And this one may not be as easy as deleting an app from your smartphone.. You need to start with recognizing toxic situations. These are those times you have to deal with other people’s problems that don’t bring you any joy and stress you out. Of course I’m not talking about simply ignoring all of your friends and family when they’re having problems, we all have to deal with things we don’t like and we want someone to listen to us when we’re having issues. But you do have the choice not to get involved with certain people that only seem to call on you when they need something from you. Those are the situations you’re better or avoiding as they only bring negativity with them, and that’s something you shouldn’t feel bad about cutting out of your life! Achieving this difficult step can lead you to healthy amount of self-respect and self-love, something we’re a 100% behind!

3. Set your goals 

Now that you’ve gained some much needed self-love, it’s time to start prioritizing the goals you want to achieve and the means to achieve them. Start by writing down what it is you want or need to achieve, write it down in caps on a big whiteboard if you can so you don’t lose focus of your goals! Once you’ve done this it’s just a ‘not-so-simple’ matter of avoiding procrastination or stalling. But you’ve already done yourself a favor here by erasing all those pesky sources of useless information, so feel free to congratulate yourself already! One way of staying focused on your goals is by starting with one to three goals you need to achieve each day (depending on the amount of time available to you ofcourse!). This can be a task for school or work, or a simple personal project like exercising more or eating healthier. Start out small and work your way up to more difficult things! And don’t forget to reward yourself, because a happy you should be a thankful you!

4. Work life balance 

Setting goals isn’t helpful if you’re a chaotic planner. You should try and split your day in several blocks and assign specific tasks to each block. Try to rid yourself of all distractions and find a relaxing space where you can focus on your task at hand. When it comes to free time you should do something important to you: sporting, meditation, good old me-time? Don’t let these beautiful moments pass you by!

Exercise: focus on your breathing

Mindfulness has become somewhat of a hype over the past few years and I understand why. It teaches you how to live in the here and now, without worries about what’s to come.There are simple exercises to help you gain that little extra bit of inner rest. One of my favorites is focussing on your breathing. Sit down in your favorite and coziest spot, away from distractions. Take a few deep breaths in and out , relax your body, solely focus on your breathing for several minutes. There might be several things going on around you, but don’t pay them any attention.

How do you create mental peace and rest? Let’s work on our mental cleanup together and enjoy the here and now!