How To Heal Your Life One Step at A Time
Start by tidying your room
Healing is not as complex as you think. People complicate it because they don't know where to start.
What do you need?
- A willingness to get well
- New thinking
- Patience
If you are not happy and you know something is wrong, start by examining every area of your life.
Go like a detective and find the issues, one by one. You can’t solve every problem all at once, so look at what’s causing you the most stress or anxiety now, and start there.
For example, if you’re broke, you need to find a way to earn money. Not borrow money, but to use a skill you have and to monetize it.
If you are flat-sharing with a crazymaker or someone who parties all the time, but you’d rather read books or relax at home, then find a new place to live, or set boundaries.
If your boyfriend/girlfriend makes you feel terrible, why are you still with them? Have you told them how you feel?
Don’t even think about a deep healing journey until you've done the essential decluttering first.
How to start?
Jordan Peterson, a Canadian professor of psychology says, we need to have an aim in life, otherwise, we are aimless. Sound obvious, I know!
He says we need to orientate ourselves towards something. If we don’t find this focus, we will drift through life without ever feeling fulfilled.
Many of us get overwhelmed by the prospect of putting our lives in order.
When the idea becomes too much, we either go into overwhelm or boredom.
Both responses lead to inaction. And this inaction causes us to feel bad about ourselves, which in turn leads to negative thinking and feelings of failure, inadequacy, etc.
Both overwhelm and boredom do the same thing. They both shut down our nervous system because the idea of doing something that we think we could not cope with, becomes a threat, and so the system shuts down.
When I go into a feeling of overwhelm, I stop myself from dreaming or imagining a better life.
And it’s the same when I go into a state of boredom, I feel I can’t manage what lies ahead, so I shut down, zone out, and keep it out! (my dream, desire, or ambition).
Jordan Peterson suggests you should start to get your life in order by first cleaning your room.
In short, he says our surroundings are an extension of ourselves. Look around your room. How does it look?
Is it in a mess? Are your books, papers, and clothes all over the place, or is your room tidy and in order?
If it’s disorganized, he says to start there, because it forces you to think, plan and get moving, even if it is just your “damn room.”
You will be forced to clean it and then be creative in designing it. These simple actions are actually putting your inner world in order too.
You do not need a lot of money for this. You can clean your room and make it attractive for very little.
Below is a video that will explain it in more detail. I hope you find it helpful.
Final thoughts —
Tidy up your outer life first and that will restore some level of calm on the inside so you can move towards your goals.
The first step to any change is to put your thoughts in the right order.
When you live in a space that makes you feel nice and happy, you will then be ready to create bigger dreams for yourself.
After that, you can commit to a journey of change and move towards your definition of enlightenment.
But first — tidy your room.
© Orla K.
