The Transformative Power Of Decluttering Your Mind

I’m sharing why decluttering your mind is so transformative and talking you through how you can free your own mind so you can move forward with your plans with clarity and confidence.

All of us pick up mental clutter as we go through life. You know, things like beliefs, ideas and experiences that are either no use or have a negative effect on us. They build up and spin around your mind getting in the way of your thinking and decision making. 

So, before you can move on to exciting new plans and goals, you need to deal with this clutter or it can potentially hold you back or slow you down. 

Click on play to find out how!

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Transcript

[00:00:00] All of us pick up mental clutter as we go through life. You know, things like beliefs, ideas and experiences that are of no use anymore or have a negative effect on us. They build up and spin around your mind, getting in the way of your thinking and decision making. So before you can move on to exciting new plans and goals, you need to deal with this clutter, or it can potentially hold you back or slow you down.

In this episode, I'm sharing why decluttering your mind is so transformative. I'm talking you through how you can free your own mind, so you can move forward with your plans with clarity and confidence. Are you ready to declutter your mind? Then let's dive into this episode. Hi, I'm Nicola O'Hara, and not so long ago, I navigated my way out of a successful corporate career to launch my dream business and haven't looked back.

Now I live a life of freedom and work where, when, how, and with whom I choose. I created this podcast to teach you [00:01:00] the strategies I learned and share the knowledge and tools I needed during my escape journey. So you can make your move out of your day job faster, smarter, and with greater ease. Think of me as your mentor, teacher, guide, and cheerleader.

Through the highs and lows of the employed entrepreneur rollercoaster, if you're an aspiring entrepreneur feeling trapped, unappreciated, and unfulfilled in your job, and longing to break free to build a business and life you're passionate about, you're in the right place. This is the Powering Your Passion podcast.

Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Powering Your Passion podcast. I'm gonna let you into a secret. I love a good declutter. Way before Marie Kondo's book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up came out, I was fond of clearing out my wardrobe and drawers and shelves on occasion. I love the feeling of renewal it gives me, a fresh start in whatever part of my home I've just tidied up.

Though unlike Marie, [00:02:00] I don't do all the special folding and organising to the level that she does. But I do know the power of tidying and getting rid of things you no longer need in your life. It makes you feel so much more ready to take on new things, and more focused on things already in your life.

Like the old adage says, tidy desk, tidy mind. But what if tidying up physical things around you isn't enough? Sometimes there is stuff inside your head that needs to be cleared out before you're truly ready to move forward and make the changes in your life that you know you need to make. So, just like it's good to have a regular tidy up of your desk, refresh of your wardrobe, or clear out of that attic or garage, your mind needs to have a good reset every so often too.

After all, the more you experience in life, the more that gets crammed in there. And if you want to make big changes and turn your life around, you need to have the mental bandwidth to make it happen. Imagine what it would be like to have a mind that is clear, focused and calm, that only [00:03:00] holds the knowledge and information you need right now, rather than filled to the brim with leftover or irrelevant ideas, thoughts, plans, and a load of other stuff you don't need, that holds you back.

You'll be able to access the information you need or make decisions without wading through distracting thoughts. That is where mental decluttering comes in. And just like physical decluttering, mental decluttering can make a huge difference. A clear focused mind makes better decisions. By clearing the clutter, you enhance your ability to make thoughtful, considered choices, which is a valuable skill when making big decisions for your business and your life as a whole.

In our modern, fast paced society, we are constantly bombarded with information from all directions. This influx, paired with the stressors of a demanding job and everyday life, can cause your mind to become cluttered with thoughts, worries and doubts that are left over from past experiences but are no longer relevant to you now.

Imagine trying to find a specific document in a room filled with [00:04:00] stacks of paper, boxes and various other items scattered around haphazardly. It's a daunting, time consuming task and you may never be able to find what you're looking for. And even if you do, you'll be so exhausted from sifting through all that paper, you won't have the energy to deal with it.

It's the same when your mind is cluttered. It becomes challenging to focus on specific thoughts, remember important facts, make decisions or generate creative solutions as you wade through the emotions, memories, ideas and knowledge that's built up. The mental fog produced by this clutter can also lead to increased stress levels, anxiety, and even burnout, which can further inhibit your ability to effectively plan and launch your business.

Mental clutter can also distort your perception of time. With so many thoughts competing for your attention, you might feel as if there's never enough time to tackle everything. This perceived time scarcity can contribute to feelings of being overwhelmed and stuck. Well, actually, if you can sort through those thoughts, the situations may not be as complicated [00:05:00] as you think.

Now, an important part of mental decluttering is to release beliefs, ideas and experiences from the past that don't serve you. A lot of the fears we have and the clutter we hold in our minds come from experiences in our early life and key events along the way. So before you can move on to your new plans, you need to deal with these fears or beliefs that potentially can hold you back.

These past experiences can often create internal noise that hinders your ability to move forward. So how can you do this? Well, start by acknowledging the mistakes and decisions you've made in the past that may be burdening your mind. Perhaps you're holding on to regrets about past career choices, or personal decisions that have led you to where you are now.

Recognizing these thoughts is the first step towards releasing them. Every decision you've made, every mistake that that's occurred has led you to where you are now. Instead of viewing past errors with regret, see the most valuable lessons that have shaped your perspective and prepared you for this new journey.

Be gentle with yourself. [00:06:00] It's all too easy to be your own harshest critic, especially when reflecting on past choices. Cultivate self-compassion by acknowledging that everyone makes mistakes and that these missteps are part of human experience. Holding on to past mistakes and regrets only serves to fill your mind with unnecessary clutter.

So consciously release these past experiences. Remember, you can't change what's already happened, but you can control your reaction to it. Once you've acknowledged, reframed, and forgiven these past mistakes, shift your focus to your future as your own boss. This shift signifies self belief and resilience, signaling to your mind that you're ready to embrace your new journey unencumbered by these past regrets.

Forgiveness is a powerful tool for mentally decluttering. By forgiving yourself for past mistakes and decisions, you free up your mental space, allowing you to fully commit to your way of life. It can be difficult to sift through all these thoughts, feelings, and memories. So I'm going to share three ways that can help you wade through it all and come out more clear and [00:07:00] focused than ever.

But before I do I just want to say that these methods will be enough for most people to help you work through their thoughts and declutter their minds. If you find you can't do it alone, that what you have in your mind is too much for you to deal with, you may need to reach out to a counselor, therapist, or psychologist.

Please do get the help you need if that's the case. Okay, so first up, I'm gonna talk about journaling. I said it before and I'll say it again, this was really a game changer for me. I started journaling every morning about two years before I actually left my job, thanks to a recommendation from a mentor of mine.

And it really helped me deal with all the mental clutter spinning in my brain about my job, and all I wanted to do in life. The practice of journaling has been hailed for centuries as a powerful tool for self reflection, emotional expression, and creative exploration. Leonardo da Vinci, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Marie Curie all famously journaled.

And if we think about people who are from the modern day, Richard [00:08:00] Branson, Warren Buffett, Lady Gaga, Ariana Huffington and Oprah Winfrey all also journal regularly. Former US President Barack Obama is also a passionate journaler and says that this practice not only helped his work as a world leader, but also helped him to write his books.

He says, writing teaches you how to think. It forces you to ask questions of yourself and forces you to try to figure out how to reconcile different attitudes. How to process different experiences, and how to give voice to your opinions in a coherent way. As you work out how to navigate from your job to your next life goal, your mind is bound to become a swirling whirlpool of thoughts and ideas.

Journaling provides an outlet for these thoughts, a place where you can dump everything that's crowding your mind. The physical act of writing can also serve as a release. Helping to reduce stress and anxiety and feeling of being overwhelmed. I immediately feel calmer and more focused on my immediate next steps after I have a 30 minutes or so [00:09:00] journaling.

With all my thoughts laid out on paper, it becomes easier to sort and organise them. So when you're doing it, you can group related ideas, prioritise tasks and flesh out your next step strategy. It's like having a conversation with someone you know really well. Someone who gets what your struggles are and want to help.

Even if I've started a journaling session with a negative mindset, I find that after a few pages, I've taught myself out of it. Like I would do with a friend who is a bit down. In most cases, we know what we need to hear, but our feelings and emotions block it out. The process of writing allows you to separate out the two.

You can give yourself the advice you need. Journaling also allows you to look inward and be really truthful with yourself. As you write, you may discover underlying fears or doubts that are contributing to your mental clutter. Acknowledging and dealing with the root of these feelings can provide a deeper understanding of what's holding you back, which then allows you to address these concerns and clear your mental roadblocks.

By incorporating journaling into your routine, you create a safe space to unload, organise [00:10:00] and understand your thoughts, Reducing your mental clutter and paving the way for your success. Okay, so the next way to declutter your mind is mindfulness. I've got to admit I was always resistant to mindfulness and I still don't really use the traditional methods to be mindful but I do practice it in my own way.

I do know that many successful people in the world, business, sport and celebrity, practice it and swear by it daily. When he was compiling his book, Tribe of Mentors, Tim Ferriss asked 140 people at the top of their fields to answer the same 11 questions. And he was surprised by one finding. So he said, despite the fact that these are people from tennis to surfing to cryptocurrency to fill in the blank, like any field you can possibly imagine, some type of morning mindfulness or meditation practice would span, I'd say, 90% of the respondents.

And myself, when I was researching this episode, there was just too many names to mention that credit mindfulness as contributing to their success. So mindfulness is the [00:11:00] practice of being fully present and engaged in the current moment. Thank In our multitasking culture, your attention may often be fragmented between past regrets, future anxieties, and present demands, leading to a somewhat overwhelmed mind.

By practicing mindfulness, you train your mind to focus on one thing at a time, reducing mental noise, and fostering clarity. In one of his most famous quotes, Steve Jobs said, If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse. But over time it does come, and when it does, there's room to hear more subtle things.

That's when your intuition starts to blossom, and you start to see things more clearly, and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in that moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It's a discipline, and you have to practice it. Now a major benefit of mindfulness is it's been scientifically proven to lower stress and anxiety levels.

By creating a calm mental environment, you make [00:12:00] room for clear strategic thinking. It also can stimulate your creative thinking and problem solving skills, which are crucial attributes for any aspiring entrepreneur. By clearing your mind of unnecessary distractions, you pave the way for innovative ideas and solutions to flow.

So you can use mindfulness to temporarily declutter your mind so you can focus on one thing, or you can use it in a more long term way to deal with thoughts and feelings that are getting in your way. So things like doubts or fears you may have about changing your life, or limiting beliefs based on things in your past that you need to work through.

Once you face and deal with them, they can be cleared out of your mind. So in one mindfulness session, you could focus on whatever it is you need to work through blocking out everything else. Now you can practice mindfulness in many ways. You just need to find the one that works for you and is most comfortable.

So there's the traditional way of sitting or lying down with your eyes closed and maybe listening to a meditation. You can go for a mindful walk which is a favourite of mine. It can be having a shower, [00:13:00] mindful gardening, mindful painting, or washing the dishes. So mindfulness is about cutting out distractions, and if you find it difficult, like I do, to do that just while sitting, then having a gentle, repetitive task can be enough to keep intrusive thoughts at bay.

So try mindfulness to sort through your thoughts, feelings, and experiences that you need to deal with before you move on to bigger and better things. Okay, so the next one is digital detox. So, constant exposure to digital content can clutter your mind with excessive information. It can disrupt your focus and heighten your stress levels.

Every email notification, every social media alert adds another layer to this mental clutter, diverting your attention from more important tasks. Doing a digital detox is about deciding on a set period of time where you stop using all digital devices. It could be an hour a day, a full day each week, or an entire week where you're on holiday.

Whatever works best for you. Then use the time to get back to do the things you enjoy that don't rely on your phone or [00:14:00] your laptop. For example, you could fit in that mindfulness practice I hope you now want to try out. If a full digital detox isn't possible for you, you could try a partial detox. This might involve setting specific offline hours each day, limiting social media usage, or ceasing screen time at a certain hour in the evening.

For example, stopping screens at 9pm can enhance your sleep quality, leading to a better cognitive function and less mental clutter for the day. Digital detoxing is more than a trendy wellness practice. It's a powerful tool for mental decluttering. By consciously controlling your digital consumption, you can effectively reduce mental clutter and create a mental space ready for all your new goals and experiences you want to achieve in your life going forward.

The bottom line is, Decluttering your mind is more than a strategy. It's commitment to your wellbeing and an essential stepping stone in your entrepreneurial journey. Every unnecessary thoughts, every self doubt, every past regret that you let go makes room for something new, something [00:15:00] better, be it a brilliant idea, a strategic insight, or a wellspring of motivation.

The benefits of a decluttered mind are transformative. It allows you to navigate your daily challenges with ease, freeing up cognitive resources to dedicate to your budding business. With a clear mind, you're more focused, more creative, and more capable of turning your entrepreneurial dreams into reality.

Imagine a life where your past doesn't hold you back, but propels you forward. Where your daily digital distractions are minimized, not magnified. Where your mind is a haven of clear, focused thoughts, not a whirlpool of chaotic ideas. That's what a decluttered mind feels like. You have the power to reclaim your mental space, to navigate your thoughts, and ultimately to reshape your reality.

Now, this practice may be challenging, but in every challenge lies an opportunity for growth. Your dreams are worth it. You are worth it. That's it for this time. If you enjoyed this episode, then please take a moment to share it with anybody you think will find it useful. You'll find the link to share in the episode description along with a link to [00:16:00] the show notes.

Remember, you deserve to live your passion, so go for it. This is your time. Hey, so if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, or Amazon, so you know as soon as a new episode is released and don't miss out. And while you're there, feel free to give a rating or drop in a comment.

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