Decluttering Your Mental Space

This time of year tends to highlight two types of people: the hopeful personalities energized by the thought of a fresh start come January 1st, and the slightly more cyclincal folks who believe a change in calendar year (in this case Decade!) doesn’t offer anything special. Wherever you fall on this spectrum, I think there is something incredibly important in the midst of the closing holiday season to pause, reflect, and recenter.

How many of you find your heads swimming this time of year? With memories of the last twelve months, hopes for the next twelve, and even some fears. So why is it important to pause? Too often we are not creating space for thing that matter simply because we haven’t taken a single moment to realize we’ve filled our schedules, our thoughts, and our emotional energies up with other things that are pulling for our attention. We need to pause in order to consider if the noise— jobs, relationships, conflicts, decisions, deadlines— are the voices we want speaking loudest in our lives. The end of the year is as great a time as any to do that! I encourage you to set aside even a few minutes to quiet the demands of a busy schedule, a to-do list, friends, or family in order to reconnect with yourself.

So you’ve paused, now what do you reflect on? Let’s look at core values. Pushing aside all the noise and the demands, what are yours? Are they peace, happiness, or love? Compassion, family, authenticity, or growth? How about integrity, vulnerability, or wealth? Whether some of these values resonate with you or you dream up your own set of words, if we want to be people who live in alignment with our true selves then we have to be in touch with our core value systems. Take some time to think of a few words that feel right to you.

Having come up with an idea of your core values, it’s time to confront some hard questions: is how you’re currently living your life in alignment with who you desire to be? There is no shame whether the answer is yes, no, or I don’t know. Let this be a time of curiousity rather than condemnation. However if the answer is not a resounding “yes”, ask yourself these: why am I not currently operating out of my core values? What is getting in the way of me living into who I hope to be? Is there anything I need to change, add, or take out of my life in order to live in closer alignment with my values? What is one small step I can make today to get a little bit closer to the person I strive to be?

The changes won’t happen over night, but small choices make room for big, beautiful transformation.

Finally, recenter. You’ve reflected on who you want to be, now commit to yourself to show up as that person starting today. Success truly isn’t about the choices you made yesterday, or the intentions you set for tomorrow, but about the person you are showing up as right here, right now. And the choices you make each day after that to continue to show up as the person you envision yourself to be.

Happy New Year, all! Now let’s create some mental space today to imagine the people we can be tomorrow and all throughout this next year.