Yesterday's client said, "I'm afraid I'll toss something that means a lot that I won't be able to retrieve." As a result of her fears, she lived amongst piles of stuff that had taken over her space and were making her feel badly. She was stuck.
I told her that we often hang onto things that meant something to us when they were a part of our life. It's a way of trying to hang onto moments that are passed. It's frustrating because we can't hang onto a moment. It ends up creating a stagnant feeling that dulls us.
The best thing we can do for ourselves is venture into our stuff and separate out the things we love and what we no longer care for.
We found three big plastic cassette containers. The cassettes were over twenty years old and hadn't been looked at in that time. They were tapes of her singing. By considering one tape at a time she was able to let the majority of them go. The great thing is she was surprised she could do this. I think when we shut down because we're overwhelmed by all our stuff, we believe we can't rise out of the mire. But when we work with encouragement and a small amount of things at a time, we're capable.
Another interesting thing was as she let go, her voice went from a dull monotone to a singing happy quality. That's the sound of someone's life coming back.