Years ago, I watched Marie Kwondo's show on Netflix: Tidying Up. This reality show was about helping people to declutter their homes. The question Marie had people ask themselves when deciding if they should get rid of something was "Does it spark joy?" A simple but incredibly powerful way to evaluate the importance of your possessions and help you to determine if it is worth keeping or tossing.
And I thought about how transformational this one simple question could be if we could apply it to not just physical possessions but also to other things that have so much influence and impact on our day-to-day lives like our emotions and stress levels.
Things like,
- who we follow on social media (does reading this person's posts make me feel good or does it bother me in some way?)
- the mindless video games we play on our phones (do I feel like I wasted time playing these games or do they help me clear my mind?)
- the people we surround ourself with (do I feel energized or depleted after spending time with them?)
- the work we do (does it inspire me or tire me?)
Of course, not everything can or should "bring us joy". But getting into the habit of asking this question is an important step in raising our self awareness and lowering our stress levels.
The Power of Emotional Decluttering
Decluttering is an incredible way to lower stress. While most people think of decluttering as it relates to physical possessions, it has the most impact when we choose to use it to declutter things like resentment, anger, and disappointment.
To clear out those emotions that are using up our mental energy and wasting our time. So that we can surround ourselves with not just possessions that we love, but with people and experiences that we love as well.
Here are some ways to do it:
Look at your online time. Do you feel energized or depleted? Do you feel like you gained information that helped you or do you feel like you wasted time? The news, social media, gaming, all these things can lead to us feeling overwhelmed or disconnected.
Choose how you spend your online time based on how you want to feel during and after. It's one thing to stay informed and totally another to endlessly consume information without any boundaries.
Choose the people you follow on social media carefully. Unfollow those people that don't "spark joy".
Evaluate the work that you do. Overall, does it inspire you or deplete you? While we all have to do tasks that we don't like, we can often delegate them or "task-swap" with someone who does enjoy them (and we can do the tasks that they don't enjoy).
But what about those things that don't bring me joy but I can't declutter? I'll talk about that next week in Part 2 of this blog.