During the initial tour of my client's home today, we got to her office, and it felt like she was being electrocuted by anxiety. I said, "Here, let's start here." I think this made her feel more uncomfortable because she sensed this was the hardest room for her to be in. But I figure starting in the most difficult space will bring the quickest relief.
She made a lot of money with her business, but it didn't seem like the money was giving her peace of mind. I told her I wanted to start there because it made her feel so out of sorts. She said, "I'm soooo frazzled! I literally can't stand it in here." I told her that meant there were a lot of things in the room that were no longer serving her and the quicker they went, the better she'd feel.
I picked the bookcase to start because it was the most densely packed space in the room. She had a large number of motivational books. I figured if someone has that many Let's Get Things Done books, they don't want to. I held up one book at a time. This made it easier for her to process what was there.
As we were working she revealed that she didn't like doing the business anymore. She wanted out. But she didn't know what else she could do. I said keeping things as they are wouldn't leave an opening for something new to appear. Each time she let something go, she could consider there was that much more space for good and new opportunities. That made sense to her. She ended up letting most of the books go for donation.
After we decluttered the bookshelf, I had her put back the things that still meant something to her. There were about ten books and a lot of photos of her family. She arranged them in a creative way. I remarked how much lighter she seemed to feel. I pointed to the books and things on the ground that she was letting go of. I said they were anchors that made her feel stuck. She'd hung onto them for stability, but they weren't allowing her to change. We're changing all the time and we need to flow with the changes going on inside and outside of us.