The following in an excerpt from my book "Clutter Busting: Letting Go of What's Holding You Back. It will be available at book stores March 2009.
We try to give our lives significance by adding things to our lives, filling them up. But it just doesn’t work. You never get the feeling that there is enough. By removing things which are important to others you live more spontaneously, your natural joy comes through. Now is the time to be self-reliant and unadulterated. Now is the time to let go.
Hanging onto things is a way of avoiding change. Change can be your biggest fear - and greatest foe, as there’s nothing you can do about it. Change is inherent in every cell and molecule of your body. It occurs every second of your life. Nothing stands still. You can pretend change is not happening by distracting yourself with things that don’t matter. But, that doesn’t suit you. You’ve been anesthetizing yourself with things to create a false sense of stability; meanwhile, change is going on inside and around you all the time.
When you begin to let go of the old useless artifacts of your past, you ACCEPT CHANGE, and you discover a profound peace of mind because you are moving with the flow of life. There’s momentum and power in that. That feeling of personal mightiness replaces the need to acquire things that you want to give you the same feeling. Many of us own things to suppress feelings that we find difficult to face. But you cannot permanently suppress feelings. Now is the time to let those things go. The world misses you while you’re in hiding. Come out. It is safe.
(c) 2008 Brooks Palmer