LexiYoga

Eliminate Everything That Weighs You Down

We know longevity is compromised when a body carries too much weight, but what about when a life carries too much weight? When a woman's rooms, storage places, her car and her purse, her desk and her calendar are so full there's hardly room for the person in her own picture? She won't feel young and free, that's for sure. And she'll have to work more to pay for this collection of miscellany, not to mention being sure that it's polished or pressed or put away.

clear clutter

There is nothing wrong with having things, as long as you can visualize your rooms and corners and closets and drawers and feel at ease about them. Right now, mentally walk in your front door and look around the first room you come to. How do you feel? Look in other rooms, the basement and the garage, under the beds and inside the desk and in the glove compartment of your car. At every stop along this imaginary journey, ask yourself how you feel.

If you can breathe freely and feel content, you're not a slave to the various objects you've bought, received, or inherited. If instead your make-believe home tour makes your chest feel tight or your stomach queasy, you may have hardening of the household. In other words, your environment is saturated with clothes and collections, papers and possessions, that clog your life the way saturated fat can clog your arteries. One problem shortens your life; the other just makes it a lot less fun.

So-clean out: drawers, cupboards, cabinets, basement, garage, trunk ... not all at once, but systematically, and with no iota of judgement about what is left undone. Just moving things around gets an energy going that was stagnant before. Keeping clutter manageable and showing "stuff" who's in charge is inseparable from your growing-younger venture, because youth is about freedom.

Maybe you can remember when moving house involved nothing more than loading two suitcases, a portable stereo, a few books and records, and some hand-me-down dishes into a VW Beetle. Few of us would care to return to that level of simplicity, but there is a balance point between la vie boheme and beings o burdened by possessions we couldn't get away to Woodstock if a time machine offered tickets back to that legendary summer.

You see, everything we own has the option of either serving us or burdening us. Most do both since even serviceable items require cleaning, repairing, insuring, and the like. The ideal situation is that everything you own gives you more in terms of usefulness or happiness than it asks in terms of expense, upkeep, and anxiety.

So clear out a drawer and congratulate yourself. Clear out a cupboard and feel pleased. Clear out the basement and feel darn near reborn. Unless you're naturally organized - some women are (some women are also five foot ten and have to drink milkshakes to keep their weight up) - you'll need to stay with this. Clutter tends to reproduce like the guppies that pet store guy told you were both females. It's okay, though: clutter doesn't have to be annihilated to help you grow younger. It only has to be coming under control.

Rejuvenate Yourself with Action:

I let go of every possession and every entanglement that hols be back or weighs me down.

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