Posted on by BWThomas

Clear your clutter. Clear your mind. Your home reflects you. Do you like what it says?

Clear Your Clutter Clear Your Mind - Photo of clematis by Belynda Wilson Thomas

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Clutter is anything that doesn’t belong in a space – whether it belongs elsewhere in your home, or doesn’t belong in your home any longer. Unknown

Our house is a reflection of us. When people look at our house what do they think?

This question can be a two-edged sword. We want clean, orderly, livable, welcoming. We don’t want to set our standards so high we can’t meet them because this moves into perfectionism and perfectionism is enemy of the good. I watched a hoarder on TV, her house was filled top to bottom with stuff. The declutter team cleaned out her house, which underneath all that stuff was a really nice well-furnished house. She could only keep her house clean by not really living in it. The skills to make a mess and clean it up she hadn’t redeveloped. She lived alone and all of the clutter came after divorce or death of a spouse. We see on the show Hoarders there is always a story behind the hoarding.

Just getting it cleaned is not the answer unless you can afford a cleaning person to keep it that way. Does it say anything about us if we live in an orderly house but cannot keep it that way our self?

We now have blogs and websites that focus on organization porn. A term I found on the internet this morning. Being organized and clean is good for us. Perfectionism is not.

A study led by Nicole R. Keith PH.D. found people with clean houses are healthier than people with messy houses. Women who describe their living spaces as cluttered or full of unfinished projects were more likely to be depressed and fatigued than women who describe their homes as restful and restorative.  The research found women with cluttered homes had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. We become overwhelmed by clutter making it harder to focus and complete tasks efficiently.

A National Sleep Foundation study found people who make their bed in the morning are 19 percent more likely to report getting a good night’s sleep, 75 percent report getting a better night’s sleep when their sheets are freshly laundered.

A study in the Journal of Obesity found people who carefully plan their exercise program, set goals and regularly report their progress are more likely to keep an exercise program than people who show up at the gym without a clear plan in mind.

There is a theory we crave organization in our homes because of the organization within our bodies. Neatness and order support our health – and oppose chaos.

Keeping baggage from the past will leave no room for happiness in the future. Wayne I. Misner

If we feel better when we keep our homes clean, organized and clutter free,  which makes us feel better about ourselves, more productive and physically fit, then why is it so easy for it to get out of control again and again?

Once that first dish goes in the sink, more are sure to follow. A Cornell University study found women with one box of breakfast cereal on the kitchen counter weighed an average of 20 pounds more than those who didn’t have any cereal in plain view. Women with soda sitting out (even diet kinds) weighed an average of 24 to 26 pounds more. People with a bowl of fruit out in the kitchen weigh an average of 13 pounds less than those who don’t.

A British survey found the color of our sheets reflects our intimacy level. If you have purple bedding, you have nearly double the intimacy of gray bedding, walls or furniture. Reds and pinks spice things up while beige and white inhibit intimacy. Wow, could purple sheets be as good as Viagra?

We think we are in control of what we think and what we do. It is obvious our surroundings affect us to a great extent. We can use this to our advantage. Cleaning systems to help us clean up the clutter and get organized are numerous. Color theory explains what the color of our front door means. A red door means we are not afraid to say what we think. A blue door says we are naturally at ease in most situations. Green doors broadcast traditional values, and black means we are consistent and reserved. The only door color I haven’t had in this house is a blue door.

The Feng Shui  Connection to a Healthy Life by Mary Jane Kasliner connects clutter to health problems depending on what part of the house our clutter is in.

The Feng Suit Connection to A Healthy Life by Mary Jane Kasliner

How Clutter Affects Your Aspirations and Health

When superimposing the ba-gua over the entire house or an individual room via door entry or compass points, we can determine the life aspiration groups and body systems. Clutter in any gua can impact our health and livelihood negatively. Below is an overview of the type of impact clutter will have on our life.

  1. Family Sector: Clutter in this sector can cause discord between family members and potential ailments with the liver, gallbladder, and feet.
  2. Wealth Sector: Stagnation of our finances and resources can occur when clutter is in this section. It may also affect our thighs, waist area, liver, hips or gallbladder.
  3. Fame: Clutter in this sector can affect how we are recognized socially and how enthusiastic we are in life. The body systems that may be affected are the eyes, heart, circulatory system, and small intestines.
  4. Relationship Sector: Clutter in this sector can stagnate our personal and social relationships. It may cause ailments in the abdominal region or cause digestive problems.
  5. Creativity & Children Sector: Clutter in this area can inhibit our creative juices and our ability to connect with our children or younger people. It may cause dental problems, skin irritations, or intestinal ailments.
  6. Helpful People Sector: Clutter here can interfere with our ability to attract others into our lives for guidance. It can also hinder our desires to travel and experience the world. Headaches or chest colds can potentially occur.
  7. Career: Clutter here tends to stagnate your career or make your job feel challenging at every turn. The urinary system and ears are the body systems that can be vulnerable to ailments.
  8. Knowledge & Self-Cultivation: Learning may be challenging when clutter is in this sector. You may also find it difficult to grow spiritually and make clear decisions. The hands and fingers are the body parts that may experience difficulties due to stagnant ch’i from clutter build up.
  9. Center: Clutter in the center of a room or the entire structure can cause a number of health challenges and overall feelings of confusion and instability.

Nothing is what it seems. Whenever I look at any self-improvement book, system or ideology cleaning the clutter comes up as necessary for personal growth. Are you thinking new bedding with purple or red sheets should be on your wish list for Christmas? Is painting your front door a spring project?

Get rid of clutter and you may just find it was blocking the door you’ve been looking for. Katrina Mayer

The Feng Shui Connection to a Healthy Life: A Guide to Healthy Living & High Vitality by [Kasliner, Mary Jane]
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The Feng Shui Connection to a Healthy Life: A Guide to Healthy Living & High Vitality Kindle Edition

by Mary Jane Kasliner (Author)
Posted on by BWThomas

Make it a habit, good habits make great lives. Start something great. Be willing to start small.

Belynda Wilson Thomas painting - "The Journey"

Create a good habit by starting small. Good habits are the secret to a great life. I’ve always told my kids, “continue to develop good habits.”

Exercising first thing in the morning is a good habit. I started it, because it has done so much for my mother, who at 93 still does morning exercises before she gets up. She still goes for a walk most mornings, cooks her own food, cleans her own house, looks after her plants, reads and quilts. She stays in touch with my late father’s family and knows all the news. She is engaged in life.

To create a habit start small. As I reflect on my writing it is a habit, and that habit enabled me to complete a novel. One word on top of another word added up. It is that simple and that difficult to master most things we want in life.

Starting is half done and don’t quit. One simple habit that I think starts the day off right is making our bed in the morning. No matter how your day goes, you’ve accomplished one thing. On a bad day if nothing else you crawl into an inviting, made bed.

So often we want to make big changes, but if we start small they can become big changes over time. You want to bring exercise into your life. Start with two push ups per day. If you haven’t done them before you get into bed, you can probably muster the energy for two push ups. Once you start you might not stop at two, but two is all you have to do to complete that goal. It sounds silly to set your goal at two push ups but try it. You will change your life if you keep it up.

My goal when I started writing on October 9th, 2000 was to keep a writing journal. I wrote down the time I started, the time I finished and the number of words I wrote. By making that entry in my journal my writing session was a success. I didn’t know it at the time but I was creating the habit of writing.  It has added up to something, a soon to be published novel, now a blog. My art is the same; I always try to have a painting on the go. I am not a fast painter but conceptualizing a new painting as the old one is close to finished keeps me going forward.

Start small, but start, because starting is half done. I watched a video on blogs and one piece of advice stood out. Don’t wait until you have your about me page perfect before posting. So I didn’t, my son set up my blog and the next day with trembling hands I pushed publish. Then I relaxed, for better or worse my blog was out in the world. Just do it! Then do it again until you have a long line of accomplishments. It is mostly true, it is never too late to start, to be the person you know you should be. Perfection is enemy of the good. Too many of us have never done the things we dreamed of because something wasn’t perfect. It will never be perfect and maybe it shouldn’t be perfect, maybe it should be just like you and just like me, perfectly imperfect.

 

Posted on by BWThomas

Belynda – about me. A journey of self discovery.

Photo of Belynda Wilson Thomas
Photo of Belynda

Life is a daring adventure, or nothing at all. Quote by Helen Keller.

Hi I’m Belynda and I’ve written a soon to be self published novel. I started in 2012 and at first I didn’t tell anyone I was writing. My son would ask me if I intended to publish it and finally I said. “I think I’d like to.” I joined Toastmasters as a way to get over my hesitance at putting myself out there.This blog is a continuation of that.

So hello world here I am. I am a wife, mother, writer, artist and I work with my husband in our home business. I have learned through writing and other creative endeavors it is in the doing not putting the creation out into the world where the magic lies. It is a journey and when we find our voice, we find our self.

With this blog I hope to continue my journey and encourage others on theirs. We all start where we are, continuing on this wonderful journey called life, and doing the best I can is my goal.  Creativity is how I feed my soul. Marriage and family is where I find meaning and purpose. Enjoying all life has to offer is where I find joy. Work is how we keep body and soul together. There is always a new up and a new down around the corner. We need to learn to surf the highs and lows of life.

I wish everyone the best as they continue on their journey. It isn’t over till it’s over, and there is always some small thing we can do to improve. It’s never too late to become our best self, the person we know we are to be. Start small, be kind to yourself. Live till you die.

Enjoy the ride!

Update: October 21, 2021

In August 2020 Secrets and Silence was published. When Can We Get A Puppy was published October 2021. I’ve learned a few things along the way.

Creativity feeds our soul, and when we find our voice we find ourselves. We don’t know what we can do until we do it, and we don’t know what something will become until it is finished. Life is a journey of self-discovery. When we complete a project we need to start a new one because it is in the creating that we find joy.

When we complete a project there is a hole where our project was and we need to start something new. The journey never ends, until it does, which it will for all of us one day, so we need to make the best of it while we can.

Nothing takes the place of family and keeping our relationships strong is important. If we want more love in our life we can get a dog because we really are at the centre of their lives, they love us unconditionally, and always have time for us.

Look on the bright side, and clouds do have silver linings if we look for them.