Her bed was surrounded by papers. There were heaps of papers on her nightstand. There were papers in fully stuffed plastic containers and shopping bags at the edge of her bed. There were papers stacked on the chair next to her bed. And there were papers spread out on her bed.
She told me that she didn't sleep well at night and that she was always exhausted. I told her that she takes all these papers to sleep with her at night. I said, "It's worth going through these things so you can get the rest you need."
We sat down on the floor and went through one piece of paper at a time. She told me she felt badly that she let it get this bad. I told her that this way of seeing things was just adding more clutter to her life that she didn't need.
We came across a lot of notes she'd written to herself a long time ago. She wanted to keep them without looking at them. I had her look at them. Sometimes we assume that because something was important to us at one time means it will always be important to us. But we are always changing and it's important to keep in check with our current needs and see if the things in our environment support them. She ended up letting go of most of the notes.
I told her it felt like she had taken on too much and this left her feeling overwhelmed. She had all these papers as a wall to protect herself, but the thing is, the wall fell in on her every night when she slept. I said it makes sense that she chose this strategy because she was overwhelmed. When our personal hard drives crash, we don't think well. Seeing it this way also takes away the guilt that the person did something wrong.
We continued going through the papers. A lot of them were financial papers that she chose to shred. There were stories that she wrote long ago that she no longer cared for. There were articles that she once wanted to read, but not longer cared for. She kept some papers and those she put into files.
When we were done, I had her stand by her bed and notice how peaceful it felt. Anything good to come from her life, will come from this peaceful place. It opens her up to her resources. We have gold mines in us!