My client's entire home was inundated with stuff. The too-muchness of it all overwhelmed her and she had given up.
I said I understood. When we're overwhelmed, we shut down. We're like machines, when we go past our limit, we break down. We stop functioning.
My client told me that in addition she had been dousing herself with negative thinking. The self-criticism was crippling her from being able to help herself.
I said what doesn't help is thinking you've done something wrong, that you should be able to overcome your predicament. But you're not the problem.
It helps to admit that the situation as it is has become too much to handle...and leave out the blame.
I helped her go through some of her things to give her an idea of how to approach the clutter busting in a supportive way. We went through some boxes of clothing. She found some items that no longer fit her. She was now twenty pounds heavier. She said she wanted to hang on to the clothes in case she lost the weight. I said she sounded tired and defeated. I could feel the giving-up in her voice.
She agreed. I said it's good to trust that the tiredness was her way of saying no to keeping the clothes.
She decided to donate the clothes.
I said keeping the process simple will help her get through the stuckness. Any sense of indecisiveness or depression is her body's way of saying no to the item(s) in question. Knowing and acting from this is a way of skipping past the confusion and negativity. It makes the letting-go smoother.