My Skype client had been doing a lot of clutter busting on her own but got stuck with a few items and needed my help. I asked what the items were.
She showed me a handful of cassettes and started crying. She said she was a musician and she got a lot of ideas for songs late at night. She kept a cassette player by her nightstand. When she woke up with an idea, she recorded it on the player. The thing is, she hadn't had an idea for a song in a long time. The songs sung onto these cassettes were years old.
She was crying because she wasn't interested in those songs anymore. She wanted to create something new. But she felt if she let go of the cassettes, the Universal Creative Force would be upset with her for not using those songs, and would not give her anymore songs. She was hanging on to the cassettes out of fear.
I said that it took a toll on her to live that way. Her crying was evidence. Every night that she went to bed, she took the presence of those cassettes and how she felt about them to sleep with her. When we are sleeping, we are in our most open and vulnerable place. Whatever we have near us, whether it's on a nightstand, or under or next to the bed, effects us. The angst she was feeling over the cassettes cut deep into her. They hurt her.
She said that life is sometimes hard, and hurts, and we have to endure and put up with what's happening.
I said there are somethings that happen to us that hurt like getting sick, or if your basement floods, or someone who we're close to experiences misfortune. It happens and we deal with it.
But there are other hurts that we get to say no to. We get to remove the source of the pain right away. In the same way if someone accidentally steps on your toe and you tell them to move off your foot - you get to remove items, people, or activities that are hurting you. You do this by asking and answering honestly about each thing in your life. You see what comes up. If something is hurting you physically or emotionally in any way, it's your right and duty to remove what's in question. Your job is not to protect the thing, but yourself.
I told my client that she was getting no benefit from the cassettes. She wasn't inspired to do anything with the songs. By hanging on to the songs, she wasn't getting any new song ideas. Their presence was making her cry. They were making her afraid of her creativity.
I said to her that letting go wouldn't be a crime against nature. It's actually part of nature. When deadwood is removed, it's replaced my new growth. When a restriction is removed, flow returns and new and fresh things take its place.
Creativity is a living thing that never stops. It's a relentless giver. It's not a moody force. It's Life itself.
My client let go of the cassettes. I told her I could see the life come back into her eyes and face. She looked so much lighter. Her smile was amazing.