If you are a get sh*t done kind of person, living in a busy 21st century world, mindfulness will seem like a horribly unappealing, non-productive waste of your precious time. You are just sitting there. While you are just sitting there your dishes remain dirty. Your dog doesn’t get walked. The number of emails in your inbox only goes in one direction. Who on earth has time for this?
But what if you were doing something more than just sitting there? What if you were Marie Kondoing your mind?
For anyone who has not come across Marie Kondo, she is a Japanese professional organiser, who has helped many millions of people rid their homes of mountains of useless crap. To aid in this decluttering, Marie invites people to examine an item and determine whether it sparks joy. If not, she advises to thank the item for its service and let it go.
Mindfulness is an awful lot like this, just with thoughts instead of all the random stuff in the second drawer down.
Most of us have minds that are crowded. We have a whole load of thoughts crammed into our craniums that we really don’t need. Our precious brain space may be cluttered with past regrets, useless worries and harsh self-judgements that we are constantly tripping over.
With all this clutter, we have less room for the brave thoughts, playful thoughts and lovely little sparkly genius thoughts.
Mindfulness allows us to observe our thoughts and question whether they are wise, useful, joy-bringing or of any real benefit at all. If not, we can thank them and let them go.
By dedicating just a few minutes to decluttering our minds, we make them much nicer places to hang out. We suddenly have room for daydreaming, play and all those other miraculous things our minds are capable of when they are not overcrowded with useless bits and bobs.
While no one can expect their mind to be as well organised as Marie Kondo’s sock drawer, letting go of what you don’t need can feel wonderful inside your head!
If you are ready for a cranial declutter, we have a simple guided mindfulness exercise that can help you get started. It’s called Say Hello and Let it Go.