Eliminate the Mental Junk from your Life

#JunkFreeInJune has covered many areas of our life where we can remove the ‘junk’ and start living a healthier and happier lifestyle. My guest today in the Over 50 & Thriving Series is Shelley from Taming Frenzy. In order to Thrive we need to have clarity of mind and so I’ve asked Shelley to combine her thoughts on Thriving with my #JunkFreeInJune theme.

Shelley transitioned her blog a couple of years ago to concentrate on Taming the Frenzy that can take over our lives. In her description, Shelley explains that for years she had ‘a little critter on my shoulder for years. I’ve named her Frenzy because she delights in whispering negative things in my ear, creating messes in my house, and generally creating chaos in every area of my life’. I’m sure we can all relate to this so if you need tips, ideas and resources on how you can tame the frenzy in your life then be sure to connect with Shelley through the links to her website and social media at the end of her article.

Eliminate the Mental Junk from your Life

Anytime there’s the chance of going junk-free you can count me in!

Despite the popularity of downsizing, minimalism, the Konmari method, and Swedish Death Cleaning, most of us still have more possessions and junk than we really need…and we definitely have more than we can realistically use.

Fortunately, there are tons of books, TV shows, and blogs out there to help you clear the physical stuff from your life. You can walk down any bookstore aisle and find all the help you need to get your house in order. You can implement the ideas you find and with some time and effort, you can rid your home of much of the excess junk you’ve accumulated.

However, there’s still one kind of junk that can weigh you down, cause you distress, and decrease your happiness. It’s the mental junk that’s occupying space in your mind that you may not even realize is there. Even worse is the internal stress this mental junk creates for you.

Many of us are carrying around a lot of mental baggage without even realizing it.

The sad fact is that it’s been in our brains for so long, we just accept its presence and don’t even question its origins or value.

But perhaps it’s time we should.

How many of us are trapped in the past because we’ve accepted without question a statement made about us years ago?

See if any of these statements sound familiar:

• “You’re too loud”
• “Boys don’t like girls who are too smart”
• “You’re too bossy and demanding”
• “You’d be really pretty if you’d just lose a few pounds”
• “It’s a good thing you’re pretty…” (implying that your intellect isn’t your best quality.

Statements like these, even when made by well-meaning relatives and other adults – seep into our psyche and shape our behavior and self-concept. And when we absorb negative messages from those who “mean well”, just imagine the damage done to us by those who are intentionally cruel!

There comes a point when it’s time to examine the beliefs we carry around in our head.  We need to look at the root causes of our self-defeating behaviors, our opinions of ourselves, and our limiting beliefs. We’ll find that most of the things that hold us back are because of lies we’ve been told that morphed into lies we continue to tell ourselves.

This is one type of mental junk that we’ve carried around for too long.

But there are other types of mental junk that clog up our brains as well.

Secretarial Junk

Another type of mental junk is what I call secretarial junk. This is a broad category of “stuff” that we try to keep in our heads when there’s a better way to recall and retrieve it.

Secretarial junk is the list of appointments, important dates, shopping lists, To Do tasks, and other important information that needs to be remembered. But why do we think that our brain is the best  place to store this information?

I’m a huge proponent of getting this mental junk out of your head and into an easily accessible retrieval system. With the wide array of planners, calendars, notebooks, and digital options out there, there’s no need to waste brain space trying to keep all of the secretarial stuff in your head. I’ve even got several daily planning pages in my resource library for email subscribers.

The key is to pick a system that works with your natural style.

Are you someone who prefers digital options so that you can access your information on the go? Or do you like putting pen to paper and tracking information the old-fashioned way (this happens to be my preferred method)?

Either system can allow you to record appointments, track projects and tasks that need to be done, remember special dates and events, and note important information. It’s simply a matter of choosing your tools and being consistent.

Stress

Finally, there’s one last type of mental junk that can slowly chip away at your mental health and well-being…and that’s stress.

While it’s impossible to totally avoid stress in our modern world, there are ways to deal with stress and reduce its negative effects.

If you’re at the point where stress and overwhelm are eating away at you then it’s past time to get intentional about creating joy into your life.

The truth of the matter is that life is too short to wait around for those big moments to bring joy into your life. You have to purposely and intentionally look for the joy in smaller moments…and then celebrate the joy of life’s small moments.

And isn’t this better anyway?

We don’t have control over when some big, momentous occasion will occur, but we can incorporate those things that make us happy into our everyday lives. Whether it’s enjoying time with loved ones, seeking the solitude to indulge in a good book, or just enjoying the scent of a favorite candle, small moments – when wrapped in gratitude – can bring us joy and increase our overall happiness.

So while you’re working to clear the physical junk out of your lives, don’t forget about the internal, mental junk. Granted, no one can see that it’s gone, the impact clearing this mental junk from your life goes a long way to helping you create the life you desire…and that you deserve.

Meet Shelley

Does your life often feel like one crisis after another? Do you ever feel like you’ve got a mischievous little critter that sits on your shoulder and whispers negative things in your ear? Or your little critter is running around your house creating one mess after another.

I have one of those little critters. I’ve named her Frenzy because of all the chaos she creates in my life – both inside my head and inside my house.

At Taming Frenzy you’ll find information to help you create your best life by taming that mischievous little critter. You’ll find articles on how to deal with the myriad of small details that make up daily life

On a more personal note, I’m married and have three young adult children (Bubba, Music Man, and Butterfly). A former school teacher and administrator, I’ve recently returned to my hometown after many years of living away. I’m a bit of a political junkie and I have issues I care passionately about. I’m a huge fan of disaster movies, trashy novels (my term for anything that’s not work related), jewelry, bath products, home decorating, and anything with bubbles or that sparkles. I believe that there’s more than one way to skin a cat, that people can tell you no but they can’t kill you, and that a little vanilla in your drink makes everything better.

Connect with Shelley

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram