Clear Your Emotional Clutter So You Can Clear Your Physical Clutter

Recently, I was teaching a class on clearing one’s emotional blockages before attempting to clear the physical clutter, when one of the class members inadvertently drove the point home. She explained how easy it is for her to go her mother’s house and organize it from top to bottom, yet is totally stymied when it comes to her own home. This woman, like so many others, has several emotional issues that prevent her from getting organized and having the life that she wants. But where do you begin in attempting to deal with the emotional baggage?
First, it is important to identify the actual organizing challenge. So let’s start with woman named Nancy. Nancy is having problems with organizing her basement. After her father passed away and her mother moved into a small condo, many of her parents’ possessions, some heirlooms and some just junk, wound up being stored in her basement. This area was never a picture of organizational heaven, but now it was truly an impossible room to navigate through. But as much as Nancy wanted to organize and clean it, she would always find something else to attend to on her to-do list. Why could Nancy maintain order in the rest of her house but could not deal with this situation? Well when prodded about her feelings, Nancy admitted that she resented her family for dumping everything in her basement. There were some resentful feelings about her being the responsible sibling and always having to attend to family needs. She also had some other unresolved feelings about her father’s passing and her mother’s new limited lifestyle. And on top of everything else it didn’t seem that her husband was aware of her emotional minefield or was that concerned about the mess in the cellar.
The key to Nancy’s organizational situation was her buried feelings of resentment toward her siblings and husband and guilt about her parents. Well this was a start. It was recommended that Nancy try using a simple technique called the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) that helps unblock emotions that we tend to bury or overlook. This simple technique of tapping of the body’s meridian points is easily explained and demonstrated at the website www.emofree.com. Gary Craig, the founder, offers advice and help for free (there is a cost if one wants to order the instructional DVDs.) for dealing with various issues.
Basically, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is the tapping on the body’s meridians to release negative energy blocks. The EFT site explains why this tapping (releasing) works by stating: “The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system”. You can download the entire manual for FREE. I have found this technique to be very effective and simple and I have personally used it on a number of varied situations. Once you learn EFT, you can do it in a matter of minutes. I find that it is best to practice in front of mirror.
So you want to deal with your own situation but don’t know where to begin? First, identify your organizing challenge. Then identify the emotion(s) behind it. Sometimes it is necessary to break it down into steps because the situation could encompass various emotions and layers. Then practice some rounds of EFT. There are no negative side effectst o this technique so it can only help. If you are having trouble getting started, there is an amazing article on the EFT website by Figen Genco entitled: The 9 Phases of Organizing with EFT.
Learning to deal with our underlying emotional blockages and to develop our consciousness will help us deal with our clutter and be able to live the life that we desire.

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