DrDeClutterBlog.com

Mental Health care increases 30-35% during January and early February.

Over the past few decades, typically 80% of psychiatric and psychological problems are related to marriage and family, and the rest to professional and job conflicts. Now, we can add major financial debocals and recession and, and, and . . .

Here are some simple TO DO TIPS to manage post-holiday blues. 

. . . eat right.

. . . get plenty of rest.

. . . exercise regularly.

Do set realistic goals:

. . . organize your time.

. . . organize your space, stuff and things.

. . . make lists (use a notebook, not little pieces of paper!)

. . . prioritize.

. . . make a budget and follow it.

. . . set New Years Resolutions and Goals on which you can really follow-through and succeed.

. . . find ways to simplify your life on a daily basis (the “blues” can be directly related to feeling overwhelmed and getting little done on TO DO lists that are unrealistic to begin with.)

Let go of the past, embrace the new present and future.

Allow yourself to feel sad, lonely or melancholy when these feelings arise, these are normal feelings, particularly during and after the holidays – and before Valentine’s Day.

• Do something for someone else.
• Enjoy activities that are free.
• Spend time with family and friends, people who care about you.
• Spend time with new people or a different set of friends or family.
• Contact someone with whom you have lost touch.
• Give yourself a break: plan to prepare (or buy) one special meal, purchase one special gift, and take in one special event.
• Complete small jobs and projects, or let them go.
• Start a Gratitude Journal. Daily write 3-5 things you are grateful for.

Some people jump right in after the holidays and start the big take down and store it away. Others wait until into January and enjoy those lovely decorations and good memories. However you do it, have fun!

Set a date to undecorate. Make it a fun event!

Have a party!

Ask for and allow others to help.

Make it a pot-luck or make a fun snack spread with fun beverages and music.

Have fun, that’s what it’s all about.

“Christmas is not a time nor a season,
but a state of mind.
To cherish peace and goodwill,
to be plenteous in mercy,
is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
~ Calvin Coolidge

I wish you a very, Merry Christmas.
Kim, “Dr. DeClutter”

1. Check your expectations at the door. Whatever happens after you get “there” or others arrive at your house… is going to happen. Enjoy the people, not the stuff.

2. Let go of past hurts and misunderstandings, and present frustrations. This too shall pass.

3. Reality—it’s not going to be perfect! Have fun anyway!

Bottom-line… ENJOY!

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!!

Losses throughout the year of any kind, human, animal, health, wealth or of spirit can take an extra toll during the holiday weeks. Here are a few steps to take care of yourself during this time.

1. Make time to grieve.

Set aside time to really feel your feelings, cry your tears and let it all go where it needs to. Your body needs to mourn your loss or change all the way through.

2. Get support from others.

It’s not always easy to ask for help. Being “strong” isn’t smart. Being “human” is. Whether you talk to family or friends or see a counselor or minister, you will find layers of grief just waiting to spring forth when you talk to someone else and tell your story once more.

3. Develop skills that help you remember you are a worthwhile person.

You can let grief control you and fall into a deep depression or illness, chipping away at your self worth; you can ignore and deny it and stay busy, keeping your “mind off of it”; or, you can gain knowledge of how to embrace your pain and grow positively from it.

4. Create a physical environment that supports rather than stresses you.

During the mourning process stress levels increase. You need to create a space where you feel safe, comfortable, quiet when you need it and nurtured, even if only by yourself.

5. Take care of yourself.

There are physical as well as emotional aspects of grief. Exercise increases your strength and stamina and reduces your stress. Healthy eating gives your body the good nourishment it needs. Find quiet time. Schedule a massage to stay connected with your body.

Bottom line, grief is hard. Make sure to take the time to face it and deal with it, otherwise it will affect you for years to come.

• Is holiday shopping just too much for you?
• Is overconsumption and consumerism just too much?
• Do you feel overwhelmed and wonder how to stop it all?

America is the mecca for “Retail Therapy” and Christmas brings out the big guns!

Listen into my interview on ”It’s the Economy” Talk Show

from Thursday night, December 15th on

KGNU Radio, Boulder, CO.  

Mp3 –  http://www.kgnu.org/economy/12/15/2011

During this time of year that has become all about giving and receiving presents it’s important to stop and realize the real gift of “present” itself.

Your “present”, your “now”  is priceless!

The price tag to unwrap your “present”  (your “here and now”) is to show up – “here and now.”

Showing up is impossible when our minds are cluttered and disorganized with past and future to dos, to gets, shoulds, regrets and so much more that distracts us from our joy of now.

EXERCISE

Right now, take 10 seconds and just breathe – clear your mind of everything and just “be” here now. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Okay, how’d you do? 10 seconds. That’s it. Just 10 seconds.

Was your mind centered and quiet? Or, in just 10 seconds, did you find your thoughts leaping around like a monkey on steroids grasping everything from yesterdays mistakes, failures and regrets (should haves) from 20 years ago, to how much weight you need to lose, to your child’s school work, to your next vacation, to the coffee maker, to the holiday to do list, to….

Western culture and our mighty egos are obsessed with thinking and doing and knowing and fixing and controlling and activity and, and…. not being still and showing up…. for ourselves.

KEY: “Stop scaring yourself!”

All these rapid, rabid, incessant spinning thoughts tend to be fear-based. They (you) are scaring you.

SHOW UP FOR YOURSELF

Do you want to show up for yourself more often? To really be here for yourself in the moment (not in yesterday or tomorrow) to make life more present and real? 

CHALLENGE:

Today, begin a new healthy and positive habit, pattern and routine where you just “be” for a few minutes at a time. No thoughts. No action. No “doing.” Begin to retrain your brain to stop and be okay with it, calming it and your whole being and body.

“We’re not human doings, we’re human beings!”

The more you practice just being, you will find a new you in there (there, being in your mind) and you’ll find new ways to interact with your world – doing a lot less “reacting” at the world. 

We are so much more than we can ever know, but we have to stop long enough to listen, be still and show up for ourselves to find out. 

“We’re not human beings having a spiritual experience,
we’re spiritual beings having a human experience.”

“And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.
Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more!”

- Dr. Suess

Tired of holiday hype?

No matter what event or holiday you are celebrating that includes gift giving, you might just want to sit quietly and pick out something from a shopping trip in the “department stores of your mind!”

Even if it’s a week before Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, a birthday, wedding or anniversary, think about making your gift instead of buying it at a store, keeping it simple and personal.

Consider the following:
- Bake muffins, a pie, a cake or cookies
- Cook a special meal
- Put together a picnic basket and invite others out for a hike in nature
- Create a scrapbook page of photos from something you did with them, or of their childhood or a special event.
- Put together a music CD or digital recording – download or sing songs that you know they like
- Make an ornament significant to them
- Write a song, poem or story for them

There a lots of small and fun ways to give from the heart this year and always.

TIP: Ask the what they really want and like that you could make for them, and do it!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Kim

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold,
it would be a merrier world.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy  

It’s too easy to go through a rushed holiday season and forget to keep track of what was really good, awesomely yummy and something you want to bake, cook, or create again next year.

RECIPE AND MEMORY KEEPER

Create a simple Holiday Recipes notebook, scrapbook or index card holder where you can keep all of your recipes in one place, share with others and hand down to your children in the future.

Be sure to add your personal handwritten notes to them too! Those are  great to read by the generations to come.

SCRAPBOOK THEM!

Embellish with photos  of your family and friends enjoying them too! Make it really fun to look at and use every year. Keep them clean buy using clear plastic sheets or laminate them.

Happy Holiday Cooking!

You may know the Bible story about Lot’s wife. God told her not to look back on her village and “past” life or she’d turn to a pillar of salt. Well, she looked back.

Every time your attention is distracted into the past you turn to a pillar of salt. Your thoughts and attention literally “crystallize” (like rock salt) into “what was,” not “what IS.” You get stuck in old stories and memories; mental movies unable to stay HERE NOW, open to your PRESENT and move forward.

Most people today are walking, talking pillars of salt. Filled with thoughts, looping memories of regret, remorse, sadness, grief… how do you do this? Do you have items in your home, in your life, or stories that you tell that make you constantly “look back” to your past?

Look around your house right now. What photo’s, greeting cards, knick-knacks, letters, emails, articles of clothing, jewelry, books, gifts, etc. drag your attention into the past? Moreover, into a negative past filled with, “Why me?”, “Why them?”, “Should have’s,” etc.

You can’t open your PRESENT in the PAST! Stay present in your present. Open your present NOW, in the PRESENT!

                                     “Whatever the price, identify it now.
             What will you have to go through to get where you want to be?
      There is a price you can pay to be free of the situation once and for all.
               It may be a fantastic price or a tiny one — but there is a price.”
                  ~ Harry Browne, 1933-, American Financial Advisor, Writer

LEARN THE LESSONS, LET GO, LIVE YOUR LIFE – YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION
Life is about learning from our past and living in the NOW, creating plans for a better FUTURE. It’s time to LET GO (maybe, with all your might!) of whatever is not true for you anymore.

Will “letting go” be easy? Some will, some will not. But decluttering and reclaiming your space for your HERE and NOW “conscious” life is a very important decision and act to do for yourself – it’s in fact a very selfish act… good for you! Reclaim your home and environment as yours.

Grieve your grief, resolve your areas/emotions incomplete and move on, no matter what it was (“was” is the operative word here.) Reset your energy for TODAY and your wonderful FUTURE. LET GO of anything, anyone, any thought, any statements and old stories that keeps dragging you backwards.

                                                 “The world is a great mirror.
                                          It reflects back to you what you are.
                          If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful,
                      The world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you.
                                                 The world is what you are.”
                                                          ~ Thomas Dreier

GRIEF & DEPRESSION
Upon meeting a person I can pick up if they’re in grief or depression, and I certainly know upon just a few steps into a house if a person is still stuck in their past. I have worked with clients to declutter their outer stuff only to walk, sit and talk about their “inner” stuff – emotions, fears, frustrations, stuck places. Your outer world is a manifestation of your inner world. Start with either. Clean up one and the other will “shift.”

So, look at everything you have and if you get a twinge of remorse, grief, negative longing, sadness, etc., pack it away in storage (some are family heirlooms, etc.) or get rid of it. You can’t have joy and pain the in the same place at the same time. Choose one or the other: why wouldn’t you choose joy?!

YOU DESERVE THE BEST LIFE, EVERYONE DOES