De-cluttering ones home very often has a very freeing and even healing effect on a person’s life. It reduces overwhelm. Therefore, for a person with a chronic illness de-cluttering is almost essential.
De-clutter Your Life And Improve Your Health
Do you feel like your life is stuck and you are constantly drained of energy? Are you under the weather a lot and feel claustrophobic in your own house? Then a good De-clutter may be just the thing for you.
This time of year is the perfect time to have a really good look at yourself and your environment and have a small overhaul.
I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to be gentle with yourself and take things at your own pace, stopping just before you get tired and resting at frequent intervals. Consider the whole clutter clearing activity as one low-level exercise regime; always remember to stretch gently before you start and afterwards to aid relaxation of your muscles. If boxes are too heavy to lift or if furniture needs moving ask a friend round to help you. They may also be useful when it comes to helping you to throw things away too. Snail steps are what is required, little by little, piece by piece and you will get it all get done and feel proud of yourself into the bargain.
De-cluttering is not just about having a tidier home, however, it also involves clearing your mind and body of unnecessary baggage too. The word ‘De-tox’ is banded about very readily these days but a good nutritional review could be just what the doctor ordered. In addition to this, to rid yourself of old bad habits, becoming aware and stopping repeating negative patterns and releasing internal and external stressors can help strengthen your immune system, give you more energy and increase your capacity to deal with everyday life in a more enjoyable and pain escaping way.
Ideally, your home should make you feel comfortable and happy physically as well as mentally. Too much visual stimulation and constantly worrying about ‘the mess’ can frustrate you more and not being able to move around freely without bumping or knocking things over can be quite tiring.
A clear space allows for a good flow of energy and having the freedom to move easily about your home can ease life immensely. If you have a calm place where you can unwind and switch off; from work, people and the outside world, it will help relax you and smooth away the stresses of the day.
It will also enable your system to recover and be ready for any other challenges it may face. As you will know, for a fibromyalgia sufferer a restful sleep and the ability to be able to relax is one of the main ways of helping your body to deal with the condition and make the pain less severe. If you have nowhere to relax and revive then stress and aggravation can stay in your body and may eventually drain you and cause more tension and pain.
Let’s have a look at what happens to the body when under stress.
In order to combat stress your body releases hormones into your bloodstream, pumping you full of energy to keep going which is great but, too many of these can lead to overload and that’s when your muscles constrict slightly and you find you are becoming tense and anxious.
If your muscles stay tense for too long lactic acid builds up inside them and you’ll become sore and achy. If you force your body to do more and it has put as many energy chemicals as it can into your system then it will switch to a more basic way of giving you energy. It will start to release adrenaline and cortisol into your system. This will keep you going for a while but eventually your body will need to stop, (if only for it to have time to create more adrenaline to use).
THIS is when the problems really start. Your immune system will be suppressed and there is now no adrenaline available to boost you, your plan B has been used up and there is now nothing to keep you going. All this added to your usual level of aches and soreness can really bring you down.
This is usually when colds, flu and illness in general can waltz in past your defenses and run riot. Leaving you feeling worn out and completely exhausted and if the illness hasn’t sent you to bed already your inability to do much will. NOW your body can recover but this may take a while. Whilst this may seem a million miles away from needing to get a new vacuum bag and sort the piles of post out believe me, the more you can do to reduce the physical and visual chaos in your home the calmer and healthier you will be.
No matter where you live, house or apartment, chances are your space could do with a bit of a re-shuffle. I’m not talking about throwing everything out so please don’t panic, I simply mean re-shuffle. Some things will have to go but a good sort through and re-organise can make all the difference. Just remember the ‘Golden Rule’ everything must have its place.
We will soon release a video with full de-cluttering instructions at http://fibroreliefmembeship.com in order to help you reduce overwhelm. You can sign up for a free or Gold membership already today.
Carey Boyse & Maja Iten
Excellent advice for everyone! I’m working on one room at a time and it is a fabulous feeling to clear out clutter, re-arrange the furniture, use something old in a new way — just be creative in the space. It’s a great way to de-stress! 😀
Thank you for your feedback. Isn’t the feeling great after de-cluttering?