May is a great month for several reasons. In addition to nature in full bloom and summer approaching, we have Mother's Day, Memorial Day, and of course Cinco de Mayo (even if we don't fully understand it, we know it's a good reason to celebrate). .
May is also known as the time of spring cleaning and is also Mental Health Awareness Month, meaning it's the perfect opportunity to discuss how these two topics are related.
Let's start with the main heading: Our brains don't like clutter and don't cope well with it, whether we notice it or not.
The presence of a disorder creates cognitive overload in our brains, which have an innate preference for order over chaos. When we enter an environment where many different things are competing for our attention at once, our body triggers a stress response as our brain quickly analyzes, processes, and prioritizes multiple, jumbled areas of attention.
I pause here to point out that awareness of disorder-related stress and anxiety varies from person to person, but behind the scenes, our brains are reacting to the disorder whether we are aware of it or not.
For example, let's say you were hosting a Cinco de Mayo party and the house was full of people on Saturday night. The daisies were flowing, the music was playing, and by the time the last guest left it was past midnight and there was no interest in cleaning up. On Sunday morning you walk into the kitchen and see the mess left after the party. Imagine a sink full of dishes, plates full of leftovers, food cooking in pots on the stove, a broken blender, decorations, deflated balloons and all the crime scene evidence for an incredible party. You take a look at it and decide it's okay until you drink a cup of coffee and spend some time on the couch looking at your phone. Your spouse arrives on the scene and upon seeing the mess immediately sets about cleaning because the sight of this disaster in the kitchen is overwhelming and needs to be addressed immediately. You may have a higher conscious tolerance for clutter and visual chaos than your spouse, but it's safe to say that both of your brains have very similar subconscious stress-triggered responses. Remember that what you think is a conscious decision to go into the next room and relax on the couch is probably an unconscious invitation to move away from the "system overload" environment.
This isolated case of post-party disorder is a simple example with a simple solution. The biggest opportunity is to reduce the clutter and clutter that accumulates over time in our living environments and in every room. This is especially true for bedrooms, which are often very cluttered, as we know guests rarely see this part of the house. Unfortunately, we spend about a third of our day in this room. So when it's full of clutter, piles of clothes, and general disarray, we end up being exposed to an environment that constantly triggers a stress-inducing response. perhaps on a conscious level, but certainly on a subconscious level.
I recently wrote about monotasking versus multitasking , arguing that our brains work best when we focus on one thing at a time. In a crowded living space, our brain is constantly overloaded with the task of separating the important from the unimportant. Furthermore, as most of us can understand, trying to find something we need in a clutter of drawers, closets, or piles of stuff leads to frustration and wasted time, unnecessarily increasing our daily stress and anxiety levels.
Here's the good news. We can dramatically improve this area of life without much effort and you will see and feel the results immediately. Here are some simple ideas to get you started:
- Start small . Like many tasks in life that seem insurmountable, they are much easier to accomplish when you break them down into smaller pieces. Prioritize the areas you want to work on first and tackle them one at a time rather than jumping around trying to get something done in multiple places. For example, start with your bedroom or bathroom, and once that room is clean/tidy, move on to the living room. The sense of accomplishment that comes from completing one area will increase your motivation for the next. If it helps, write a schedule outlining which areas of the house you will focus on each week for the next month.
- Not old anymore! Clutter often consists of things we no longer use and hold on to out of sentimentality. This habit can be difficult, and you don't have to be a collector to be hesitant to part with old things, especially clothing. If you need help, ask a friend or family member to objectively help you fill out the donation fields. (My daughter Riley, for example, is a ruthlessly efficient killer, clearing out clutter and making sure everything old finds its way to a new home.) Be happy to know that many people will greatly benefit from what you let go of , when it is no longer useful and collects dust.
- Be realistic. If the thought of decluttering causes analysis paralysis and just getting started seems overwhelming, perform a microcleaning. First, plan to spend 5 to 10 minutes in a small area. Is there a desk or shelf that has somehow been transformed into something that resembles a flea market full of various items? Put on your favorite music, grab a box, set a timer on your phone for 10 minutes, and start cleaning a few things. Even this short period of time brings progress and experiences of success that help develop the habit of doing more. (Even 10 minutes a day means more than an hour of positive change a week!)
When it comes to improving our environment, the main goal is to reduce the clutter that creates distracting visual stimuli. Simply being in an environment full of clutter can trigger a stress response. The opposite happens in an orderly environment that provides a feeling of calm and relaxation.
I'll give Marie Kondo, author of the New York Times bestseller "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up," the final word of motivation with this 5-minute excerpt from the audiobook version of The Magic of Tidying Up. Life Change on YouTube .
It would be an exaggeration to say that you look forward to cleaning the house every week, but I am convinced that you will become addicted to a stress-free environment where there is room for everything and everything is (mostly) indoors. His place. After all, perfection is an impossible goal, but the path to improvement is always under construction.
Eric Bartosz is the founder of BAR40 and author of the internationally acclaimed bestseller " BAR40: Achieving Personal Excellence ." He lives in Center Valley with his wife Trish, daughter Riley, and pug Piper, is an MBA assistant professor at DeSales University, and serves the community as an Upper Saucon firefighter, board member of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of the Lehigh Valley, and member of a local race. Organizer. Eric has been a runner and runner for over 20 years and can often be found logging miles on the Saucon Rail Trail . Find Eric's latest Bar Talk columns here.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire