“We should start choosing our thoughts like we choose our clothes for the day.” —Farnoosh Brock

When we introduced ourselves almost a year ago, we stated “We’re stuffoholics because we can’t let go of stuff; stuff in the kitchen, stuff from the past, stuff on our phones and worst of all stuff in our heads.” Over past year we’ve focused (we use that word loosely) nearly always on physical clutter though recognising it’s our heads and hearts that are making the task a challenge.

Today we turn our decluttering attention to how one might tackle that jumble of thoughts packed in our heads. Especially, those old worries and bad memories that are kept there,  taking up space that happy thoughts could occupy. Every bit as unhelpful as unused dusty items sitting in cupboards, taking up precious space, once loved but now kept just in case. Or that stuff hidden behind other stuff so you cannot now find what you need.

What to do? A mental spring clean of course. Now this should be easier than the physical one, as no guilt that we’re killing a whale by throwing our thoughts away. Just as we made a choice to deal with physical space and stuff, we’re going to make same decisions for mind. It may be simple but it doesn’t mean it will be easy. After all it’s the thoughts all jostling to be THE thought that’s the problem and dusting some of them off to throw away could be emotionally challenging. If we were experts@discardingstuff.com then we wouldn’t be writing this blog. We also are not minimalists convinced that a tidy mind is our ultimate goal so we are going to curate our memories/ thoughts, not just throw them all out.

When is a good time to start? Well, as we have learnt over the past year, if in doubt start small and start now. Today going to consciously choose either a negative thought or a positive one for just a minute. Discard the others and see what happens.  Hopefully it’s a step on road to contentment and if it’s not, the whale is still happily swimming in the sea.