Emotional decluttering: Clear self doubt, invite in positivity!

 Hello all,

I have been known to doubt myself a lot. I will have imposter syndrome. I've struggled with self esteem issues my whole life. I can act like I love myself and be a selfish person, but also I can loathe myself too. I don't like hating myself at all though.

I've been doing these decluttering posts and I'm hoping to do more of them. This is a first one for an emotional decluttering post. The goal is for all of us, myself included, to let go of past fears, self doubt, and to love ourselves and treat ourselves with compassion.

With emotional decluttering, it's not just emotions we declutter, but the physical, tangible clutter that comes with it. I'm not a hoarder in the A&E show sense, but I have bought a lot of things as retail therapy that I did not actually need. This blog post has been in the works for a few months and I just made a newer post about my flea market selling. I am trying to sell some of my clutter, especially once I've read it so I will declutter my clutter and feel good making a few bucks on it!

Emotional decluttering isn't just self doubt and self esteem issues, but it is also trauma too. We will always feel out trauma in some ways, but trying to bridge the gap and resolving and working some of out trauma helps declutter and heal the soul as well as physically decluttering our tangible possessions. You don't need to get rid of everything you own, that kind of minimalism is too extreme in my opinion. What you need to do is ask yourself if you will regret decluttering that item, would you go out of your way again to own it? (This is a tip from my cousin!)

Believe me, I have been through a lot of trauma. A lot of time I go on my merry way like nothings happened but I do suffer at times from my life's trauma especially because of my being autistic and having different mental health issues. I have had a lot of sad things happen to my family members, especially traumatic deaths. I lost my sister, my Grampy, my uncle over the years and I also lost my father to leukemia when I was still in elementary school. I could have lost my mom during her heart attack in August. I've had pets I've owned (guinea pigs) and family pets pass and it hurts, especially when they are your own and they pass away suddenly or get sick. The first guinea pig that ever passed away of mine was Creamsicle, my younger mate to Pineapple. She got bloat and I was depressed and anxious for months to the point where I had to be put on Ativan several times a day just to cope at one point. Pineapple lived to be 7.5 years and she was the one that lived the longest out of my Heaven guinea pigs. She was quite ancient, but it affected me with depression and even though I got two new guinea pigs months after she passed, I was sad. Bebe passed away unexpectedly last year and I was sad for a few months. It's especially sad when you cherish your pets and they don't seem to stay long. Guinea pigs are fickle creatures with fickle lifespans. I wish they lived as long as cats do, almost 20 years. I still have Hashbrown and she is so funny. I will get a cat in the future because they seem to last longer on average. It's hard to get attached and they leave so soon, the guineas pigs I mean.

I am trying to work on myself and it is hard, but worth it! I'm trying to declutter my emotional baggage. Next month is 10 years since my Grampy passed and I've felt lost without him especially in terms of my art. I do draw still sometimes but he taught me a lot of drawing and art things when I was a child and he was always spurring me on to draw more and get good even if it was just a hobby. I'm going to try and draw more now, sometimes my problem isn't even grief or sadness, sometimes I'm rusty and unsatisfied with what I've drawn.

I may be Christian on paper, but I love the stuff that Eastern religions teach about breathing in and breathing out and being mindful of your feelings both physical and emotional. In Christianity, it is taught that your body is a temple for God and the Holy Spirit. Even so, you're beautifully made by Him or whatever higher power you may believe in so you want to keep yourself in good repair and like a well oiled machine. You're like a dryer for laundry, your emotional baggage is the lint in the lint trap. Clean out your baggage and start yourself for a fresh new batch of laundry!

curlyalicia