Is Decluttering Your Home Good for Your Health? (2022)
Good evening friends, welcome to Monday Musings.
As you know I’ve been reading The Source by Dr. Tara Swart – you can see my book review here: The Source by Dr Tara Swart — Jackie Mandeir
Last week, I shared with you the five branches exercise. Essentially it was about listing the five closest people to you and then using 5 words to describe each of the five, both negative and positive words. Then assess those 25 words because those are the traits that are influencing your life the most.
Needless to say, the exercise was insightful and the majority of words were positive ones. The questionable ones, I thought told me more about myself, as much as the people I spend most of my time with – those I’m still processing.
So, on to what has resonated with me this week. I love decluttering and love the idea of minimalism, but that is neither practical nor doable for me – I’m also sure I’d get pretty bored of my surroundings if they were entirely minimalistic.
I’ve always been interested in feng shui too – the dictionary definition of feng shui is “a system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of energy (chi), and whose favourable or unfavourable effects are taken into account when siting and designing buildings.” So when I came across this 7-day decluttering article it really caught my attention: 7 Day Declutter Challenge: Declutter Your Home in a Week! - The Simplicity Habit. The writer takes you through a process of working through each of the rooms in your house, something for the start of 2023 maybe.
In ‘The Source’ there is a section on self-care and one of the elements is called ‘clear your environment’ – Dr. Swart says that our physical environment plays a major part in maintaining our mood, perspectives and stress levels. Dr. Swart suggests asking yourself these four questions:
1. Is my home calm and happy?
2. Is it somewhere I can think clearly?
3. Is my workspace somewhere I can be creative and focused?
And then goes on to say if the answer is no to any of these questions, you need to think about practical measures to improve them. A home environment that offers a pleasant sensory experience is one that will help you feel calm and secure; a space to recover from stresses and worries, as these things, impact our energy, motivation and self-image.
Dr. Swart then suggests one or all of the following:
1. Have a major clear-out of clutter at home.
2. Try a workspace makeover; filing loose papers, clearing your workspace and choosing some empowering art.
3. Delete distracting apps from your phone, and look for ways to clear up your tech habits.
So on to sharing my favourite things this week:
Photo of the Week
Hot Lips Sage
Strange to say in mid-November but yesterday afternoon was spent tidying the garden, including cutting the grass because we’ve had such a mild autumn, the grass has continued to grow and another of my garden plants is still flowering long past when it should be - beautiful to see the burst of colour though.
Quote of the Week
“The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.”
YouTube
Not ‘strictly’ YouTube (ahem pardon the pun) but you can watch on YouTube, is the couple’s choice dance of Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal from Saturday’s Strictly Come Dancing – I’ve loved watching Hamza this series, he is such a joy to watch: Hamza Yassin & Jowita Przystał Couple's Choice to Jerusalema - Remix ✨ BBC Strictly 2022 - YouTube (if this link doesn’t work, please do search and have a look at it).
Question of the Week
And my question to you all is – what has bought you joy this last week?
Thank you for reading, I look forward to hearing your answers. Bye for now.
Jackie