My client was going through a box of papers that she hadn't looked through in over seven years. She got discouraged.
I asked her to tell me what she was thinking. She said, "I'm infuriated with myself that I didn't follow through with these things. How could I let this get so bad? What was going on in my mind to keep these things and not go through them?"
I said those thoughts were like a bully in her head. A bully thrives on a person being intimidated and not standing up for themselves. I said a way she could stand up and be strong for herself in that moment was to stop believing the bully and answer the questions she had asked herself.
My client took a moment and thought about what she'd asked herself. I could feel her relax. Her face brightened. She looked powerful. She said, "This is all something that happened in the past. I feel a sense of compassion for myself and my situation. It's nice. I'm enjoying the feeling of being kind to myself. It's healing."
Her heart was no longer cringing with the feeling that she'd done something wrong. Her heart was mighty. She had compassion for herself. She saw in the past she didn't have the wherewithal to take care of the situation. But now she did. And she was taking positive actions one piece of clutter at a time.