The Nature of Clutter

Excerpt from Breathing Room

by Lauren Rosenfeld and Dr. Melva Green

Bless your clutter.

Yes, you heard right: Bless it.

Bless everything in your life that is superfluous, broken, burdensome, and overwhelming--it is all here to teach you the most important lesson there is: what really matters. It will teach you about the importance of love, peace, and liberation--how to live authentically with only the things you really love and need. It is here to cast light on what is most essential to your health, happiness, and both human and Divine relationships.

Bless your clutter. It exists to help you discern what is truly important to you and what doesn’t matter at all. It will teach you to distinguish between what is useful and meaningful and what has no meaning or purpose whatsoever.

In fact, decluttering is a deep spiritual practice that can bring you closer to your true self, the people you love, and your Divine Source. When you choose to declutter your life, you are embarking on a journey toward your Highest Self. The light that dwells within you will find room to stretch out and illuminate the path you walk. Your clutter is your guide to that open, light-infused place. Like crumbs left on a trail, your clutter is the road map that leads you—object by object, choice by choice—deeper into the life you want. With every piece of clutter you remove from your life—whether it is old newspapers, outdated clothing, worn-out relationships, self-defeating thought patterns, destructive emotional patterns, or spiritual blockages—you draw one step closer to the life you are truly meant to live. You deserve a life that is open, unburdened, joyful, and free.

You have the potential to create something beautiful in your life, inside and out. You have the power to choose. Realizing that you have this power is the beginning of your journey to a decluttered life.

So here’s the deal, and it’s pretty darned simple: Whether the clutter is in your home, heart, mind, or spirit; if it’s weighing you down, crowding you out, blocking your light, cramping your style; if it’s become an obstacle you keep stumbling over; if it continually cuts you with a broken, jagged edge; if it’s stopping you from finding the things you really love, then it’s time for you to let it go.

It’s time for you to make some space for what truly matters. It’s time you found a little breathing room.

The Nature of Breathing Room

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine yourself in a room that is empty yet remarkably inviting. This room is spacious and full of light. The window is open and a gentle breeze stirs the air. Morning sunlight is shining through the glass--a sweet, soft light. You are alone in this room, but you are not lonely; instead, you feel that the new day brings with it a lifetime of blessings. In your heart, you feel as open, fresh, and light-filled as the air. You feel the room reflecting your heart and your heart mirroring the room in an intimate and infinite reflection.

Even though the room has four solid walls, it feels expansive. Infinite. Whatever energy you invite in enters without obstruction: love, joy, compassion, courage, patience, kindness, strength. These energies become the air you breathe. They infuse you with life. Like breathing pure air, you know that only by releasing can you be filled up again. There is no struggle or clinging. Only ease.

This room is empty, yet you have no desire to fill it. Because it is already full. It is a space filled with pure possibility. This is your Breathing Room: the space you leave open and empty, for the sake of compassion, peace, love--for the sake of you. And it’s time for you to move in.

Your Natural Resistance to Creating Breathing Room

In real life, it’s not easy to create breathing room. It’s the last thing we get to, if we get to it at all. And we will deny up and down and every which way that it’s even possible to create breathing room in our lives. We can’t imagine it happening. But that’s the point: breathing room doesn’t happen by accident, so if you are waiting for breathing room to appear on its own in your life, you will be waiting a very long time. It needs you to create it and maintain it as sacred space.

And therein lies the real challenge. We humans have a deepseated need to fill empty spaces. We believe that the only things that are real are the ones we can lay our hands on. But what we fail to see is that empty spaces are full—full of pure potential, a vast openness into which we can invite any energy we desire. Because most of us are blind to the true character of emptiness, we are in a feverish rush to fill it. We think empty walls need more artwork. Empty spaces on our calendars need to be packed with activities. Silence needs to be filled with small talk.

We may temporarily create space in our homes and hearts, but we have a hard time holding that space. Our culture does not value emptiness. In fact, it generates fear and anxiety. We associate emptiness with loneliness, boredom, depression, economic scarcity—a lack of mental, emotional, and physical resources or options. We avoid emptiness because it frightens us.

Yet in the life of the spirit, emptiness is precious. It is the space into which we can breathe. It is the clarity into which intuition shines. It is what Zen Buddhists call “beginner’s mind”: a mind (and heart) free of the preconceptions that block wonder. If a child sees a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, she will run and flap her arms in an attempt to join the beautiful creature in flight. Her mind is not yet filled with the limiting idea that people can’t fly. But adults can attain this mindset too: Orville and Wilbur Wright discarded that same notion and were the first humans to take flight.

Before you move any further down the road, it’s important to remember that this is a process that requires gentle patience, coaxing, and compassionate self-awareness. Perhaps you are resisting decluttering, but you may sometimes feel that it is your clutter that is resisting you. Not everything wants to come loose immediately. What makes it difficult is the way your possessions are intricately interwoven with emotions, history, memory, and self-definition. When you attempt to remove physical clutter, it’s important to be aware of this. Everyone declutters at a different rate. A desk drawer that would take one person ten minutes might take another several hours--or even several days. Only you will know what works best for you. Pay close attention to your own needs. Feel your deep emotions and share your significant stories. Listen to both with all your heart: it’s the only way to sustain the energy required for your journey of liberation.

Breathing Room: Open Your Heart by Decluttering Your Home

Everyone’s lives could use some serious de-cluttering. But de-cluttering isn’t just about sorting junk into piles and tossing things in the trash. De-cluttering can inform us of our burdens, help us to understand our attachments, and aid us in identifying what is truly valuable in our lives.

Written by a medical doctor and a spiritual intuitive, with case studies of people just like you, embark on an enlightening room-by-room tour where each room in your home corresponds to “rooms” in your heart, and where de-cluttering will not just make space, but improve the spirit.

So, if it’s weighing you down, if it’s become an obstacle, if it’s making it near impossible for you to find the things you really love…it’s time for you to let it go. It’s time you found a little breathing room. Buy your copy.