When the clutter buster has time off, his clutter busting goes inwards. It's like an emotional and mental spring cleaning. I become aware of things I think and do that are not serving me. I think because they went unchecked for a while, they got very confident and stopped trying to disguise themselves. I'm amazed how brazen the clutter can be.
One piece of clutter was about getting older. My birthday is coming up in a few weeks. I'm turning 49. I saw that a part of me was thinking, "oh, no, I'm getting old, this is gonna suck." I could actually feel my body bracing for something bad to happen. I realized that those thoughts were hard on me. They weren't making me feel better. My feelings were fear based ideas that I picked up over time that I never questioned as to their accuracy.
I remembered when I turned 21 and a friend of mine was 30 and he was complaining that he hated getting older. There was a sense of defeat and sadness in his voice. Then I remembered watching a documentary about the Who called The Kids Are Alright. The bass player was being interviewed and they asked him what it was like to be a millionaire and he said it was worthless because he was too old to enjoy the money. He was in his early 40s. I remembered a clutter busting client who was depressed about losing the vitality of his early years. He was 52.
I know my body is getting older. But I don't want to cringe in fear about the process of aging. I figure the anguishing makes things at least 75% harder. If the fretting goes unchecked, I'm certain it would have a debilitating effect. Recognizing the harshness of my loud and heavy mental clutter brings relief to my body and mind. It feels like a shedding. I think that's important for remaining healthy.