Podcast
Podcast Transcript
We humans are a weird lot. We tend to only believe or acknowledge what we can see. Put another way, we often operate on the premise out of sight, out of mind. But there are loads of things that exist which affect us that we can’t see.
Things like electromagnetic radio waves, atoms and even smaller quantum particles. Then there is life-giving oxygen and gravity. And what about our mind. We can’t see that!
Each one of these things are part of our everyday even though we don’t give them a minute’s notice.
But let something come in and disrupt or pollute or alter these things, and we feel the effects. Let’s take air for example.
All is well until the air we require to live becomes polluted or carries in it substances that can hurt us. Then we notice. But even then, these substances often go unnoticed and unfelt until the ill effects begin to bring us down.
We humans are a weird lot. We tend to only believe or acknowledge what we can see. Put another way, we often operate on the premise out of sight, out of mind. But there are loads of things that exist which affect us that we can’t see.
Things like electromagnetic radio waves, atoms and even smaller quantum particles. Then there is life-giving oxygen and gravity. And what about our mind. We can’t see that!
Each one of these things are part of our everyday even though we don’t give them a minute’s notice.
But let something come in and disrupt or pollute or alter these things, and we feel the effects. Let’s take air for example.
All is well until the air we require to live becomes polluted or carries in it substances that can hurt us. Then we notice. But even then, these substances often go unnoticed and unfelt until the ill effects begin to bring us down.
It is thought that radio waves immitted from our hand help devices and ever-present technology that surrounds us is doing a number on our body and we don’t even know it. Scary huh?
In today’s podcast we’re gonna talk a little about how things we don’t wee bring us down but more importantly, how to turn things around and deal with the unseen.
We Love Our Stuff
I love mulch, paint and rubber bins. Why? Because they hide things!
Mulch covers bare spots, paint covers dings, scuff marks and dirt and you can hide a lot of crap in rubber bins.
You can cram those babies full of anything, stack them neatly in a corner and your shoulders will instantly come down three inches, your jaw will unclench, and you can pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
Hiding things from view from the public (and yourself) is a great start.
But . . . and there is almost always a but . . . if you choose to simply hide it from sight, closing the door so it can’t be seen don’t assume it’s not affecting you. Owning it, lugging it around, thinking about it is draining your energy. Big Time!
Pack Rats
We humans are pack rats. Or at least most of us are now. We love our stuff. We buy lots of things, we hold onto things we really don’t like or need and find it excruciating difficult to part with it all. In the scheme of things, this is a new phenomenon.
Not too long ago, we bought only what we needed, used it all up and left a spoon or a pocketknife or a little framed picture for a relative at our death.
Now we accumulate A LOT of stuff!
Did you know that self-storage, such as rental units and pods, is a $38 billion a year industry? 38 BILLION!
Over 2.3 billion square feet of space is dedicated to stuff we aren’t using at all.
Over 9% of household in America rent space and pay an average of $92 a month to store stuff they don’t use, and worse yet, may NEVER use.
Think this doesn’t affect you? Let’s do some math. At $92 a month, that’s $1,104 a year and $5,520 in five years!!! To my way of thinking, that’s a nice European vacation or a gorgeous lanai on the back of your home or even a used, sporty little convertible to toodle around town on a sunny day. (I want all of those.)
And this is just the stuff we store away from our homes. What about the stuff in attics, spare bedrooms, garages and outdoor sheds?
That stuff is really dragging you down because you see it, step over it, you pay to keep it, worry about it, love it or hate it but don’t know what to do with it. Am I right?
Raising or Lowering Our Vibe
Here’s the deal. Things either are life affirming or life depleting.
The widely popular tidying expert Marie Kondo, (www.konmari.com) is urging everyone to keep only those things that bring them joy. Great concept and I love it! While I find people every day who are trying to live this way, I see more of us struggle to really know what to do with all our stuff or to take the first step. So, if you can’t quite do a major purge yet (or ever), here is something you can do.
Step 1
Make a commitment to do SOMETHING about this. Just do something positive to deal with your stuff. Don’t commit to the whole overhaul. Start by making a commitment. You’ll get to the task in the next step but right now you’ve got to COMMITT to doing something.
I’m not exactly sure what’s different about the times I commit to something and actually do and the times when I THINK I’ve committed to do something and I really haven’t. But this clearly happens. My hunch is that it depends on what part of me is making the commitment.
You know there are lots of different people living inside of you right? Ok, not people. But fragments or parts who have different agendas, different world views, different things they want done.
I often envision my cohort of parts as people/personalites on a bus. My bus is filled with “parts of me”, each representing difference thoughts and feelings and experiences.
So, lets imagine I have a part of me that’s always trying to do the right thing. Not because the right thing is the right thing rather to feel like she is a good person, to look good in the eyes of other people and to feel worthy. If this part of me is driving the bus, I’m likely to say “yes” to a lot of things I don’t want to do or write exhaustive goals and to-dos. But in reality, there is another part of me on the bus who is rebellious and surly and a bit tired of all this “be a good person” crap. These two parts of me could butt heads! Or at least have a see-saw effect of making goals that are really high and then not doing them.
So, making a commitment to doing something has to be made by the most mature, realistic part of you. I’m talking about our higher self. Our healthy adult self. The part that sees all these other parts and loves them but ultimately knows what’s best for all concerned.
We have to work mighty hard to make sure this higher part of us in the driver’s seat as much as possible. So, it’s needs to be can be the part of us that commits to taking actions to create the life we really crave.
Step 2
The next step is getting something on your calendar.
“But Cheri, I haven’t even decided what I want to do or where I’m going to start!”
I know! I’m recommending that you make the commitment to do something and schedule it before you decide. Writing something down in your calendar. Committing to do something anchors your commitment.
What if you pick something hard and scary that you believe you will hate doing? Like cleaning out he garage. If it’s not on your calendar parts of you will gang up on your and make sure to find something else that needs to be done.
So, make time in your calendar to work on your environment.
It can be 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 2 hours. I don’t suggest more than 2 hours. That’s a lot in real time. You can always work more if you’re o a roll but don’t over commit on the front end.
I like to do this with a friend. We call them Power Hours. We call each other at the top of the hour, state what we’re going to do and have a debrief at the end of the hour. This keeps me super focuses because I’m going to be held accountable.
I often envision my cohort of parts as people/personalities on a bus. My bus is filled with “parts of me”, each representing difference thoughts and feelings and experiences.
So, schedule time in your calendar.
Step 3
Pick something that matches your energy at the given time. Don’t be afraid to stretch yourself because the doing itself will give you more energy. But listen to your mood. Also weigh this against what, after it’s done, will make you feel the best.
It could be filing paperwork that has stacked up in the kitchen, sorting out the junk drawer, dumping out your purse and doing some reorganization. It could be sorting off-season clothes, cleaning all the nasty ceiling fans, getting rid of the spider webs all around the outside of your house (my hubbies favorite). Pick something and just start!
Step 4
Repeat Step 2. Calendar another time and then do another thing.
I like to keep an on-going list of the things that are making me nuts. Then when I’ve scheduled the time, I can read the list and pick one thing. This keeps all the parts of me more settled. No one has to worry about picking the “right thing”. They all need to be done at some time.
That’s it. Do it. Begin and do something.
If I were to add a Step 5 it would be to step back and evaluate and celebrate. So, dance a jig if you wanna.
Commit, Calendar, Clear, Cha Cha
Commit, Calendar, Clear, Cha Cha
That crap is dragging you down, man.