One of my blog readers wrote me about the guilt she feels over tossing certain things. I wanted to share it because it sums up the frustration of feeling stuck.
"You are so right about how stuff you can't decide what to do with is
heavy on the soul ! I guess that's why I call it the "guilt
stack"....of course, no decision is really a decision. In reality, it
is a decision to keep the stuff sitting in the corner, and, for me,
feeling guilty in the process. Put it back in the closet, and pull out
the next time and go through the same process. Now that I am typing
this in black and white, I am wondering why I would want to do that to
myself - over and over again."
Hanging on to stuff out of guilt takes a big toll on us. It leaves us with a terrible feeling in our body and mind. When I work with clients, I point out the lousy feeling they are having and let them know, if they keep the item, they are truly keeping the negative feelings that come with it. I ask them if they want to have those feelings in their lives, or do they want to let them go.
Usually we just feel the guilt and shut down and that's why the things remain in our homes. But by seeing the bigger picture, we can isolate the guilty feeling and decide that we don't want that in our lives. No thing is worth making our lives painful. Our job is to ruthlessly remove what hurts.