Decluttering - A Spiritual Practice
Decluttering is just throwing old things out, right? Wrong! Learn about the art of clutter clearing and balancing energy in your home.
LAST UPDATED: 09/09/2021
Decluttering is a beautiful, life-changing practice. I’ll explain why.
From superficial to spiritual
I’ve always been a home-maker. Having my own room, then as I got older, my own home is one of my favourite things in life. I love making it look nice, looking after it, organising my things, welcoming people into it and spending precious time in it. But being a spiritual person – someone whose core beliefs centre around non-materialistic things – I always felt conflicted by my love for my home. It felt superficial in a way I didn’t want to be.
I spent years keeping these two parts of my life separate. My internal conflict remained until one day when I began reading books about organising and decluttering. I was only hoping for some new tips but what I found was author after author writing about not just the practical parts of home organising, but the never-ending benefits of it to your mind, body, and spirit. I realised that the two parts of my life I thought were separate were, in fact, deeply connected.
Look after your home, look after yourself
Wherever you go in life, you go with your body. Your body carries you – not just the physical parts, but the essence of you. It’s easy to see how important your body is to you. Your home works similarly.
Your home is an extension of your physical body. It’s where you spend most of your time and where you keep your things. When you look after your home, you look after yourself.
We’re affected by the energy in our home
There’s an unseen energy that surrounds us wherever we are. That’s why we can walk into someone else’s room and sense if there’s been an argument. When we enter a home, we can feel a range of different emotions from peaceful and calm to unsafe and on-edge, simply by being in the space.
The energy of a home affects how we feel. And since our homes are extensions of us, it has the power to affect us in every area of our lives.
If your home is a stagnant, negative space, you can be sure your life feels that way too. What’s more, energy gains momentum and increases over time. So if you’re negative and you don’t do anything about it, that negativity will grow. So the negativity of our home grows and ends up radiating to other areas of our life, leaving us with less and less room for the positive.
It is vital then that for your life to work, your home must work.
Feng what? (Feng Shui in simple terms)
That is where Feng Shui comes in. Don’t be put off. I’ll try to give you a simple explanation.
Feng Shui is the art of balancing and harmonising the energy in your surroundings (home) which, in turn, positively affects your life.
Energy in the Feng Shui world is called ‘chi’, but you don’t need to worry about that. All you need to worry about is that you feel good in your home. And you can feel good by following Feng Shui practices, one of which is decluttering.
What has decluttering got to do with Feng Shui?
Decluttering, also called clutter clearing, is a part of Feng Shui.
Feng Shui has many different aspects, such as furniture placement and using elements to harmonise your space. Clutter clearing is one of the first steps in practising Feng Shui as it is the process of clearing out the old to make way for more positive energy.
The benefits of clearing clutter and organising your home are endless. Here are some of them:
The benefits of decluttering
Clearer mind
Clutter is anything we hold onto that makes us feel negative. Holding onto too much clutter can cause us to procrastinate. Once you’ve decluttered your home, you’ll be able to think more clearly and get more done.
Wealth
Healthier body
Clutter builds up in our bodies, making us look and feel tired and unwell. It also makes us less likely to look after ourselves.
Clearing clutter cleanses and energises the body. You’ll likely find you feel more inclined to take care of yourself and eat better. Often, we eat to distract or comfort ourselves from negative emotions. Once we’ve cleared this clutter from our homes and lives, we’re less likely to overeat.
Cleansed spirit
Emotional stability
Self-development
Achieve goals
In Feng Shui, your home divides into nine areas (baguas) which relate to different areas of your life. There are things you can do within Feng Shui which help improve each of these areas. So you could decide which area of your life you’d like to improve first and tackle that corresponding area of your home first, not just in terms of decluttering, but adding or removing certain elements and colours and creating a better flow in the space.
Improve relationships
According to Feng Shui, one of the nine areas of your home relates to your romantic relationship. You also have another related to your family and another to your reputation. So it makes sense that practising clutter clearing and other Feng Shui practices in these specific areas of your home should help improve the relationships in your life.
Alongside this, there is another reason why decluttering improves your relationships. When you treat your home and thus yourself with more respect, others notice. They see you as someone who commands respect and will start treating you better.
Attract a better future
Clutter makes us feel stuck. In avoiding it, we avoid taking responsibility for our lives. It’s common to put whole areas of our life on hold due to clutter!
But by decluttering, we release our past and make space for a better future. And just as negative energy gains momentum, so does positive energy – and we start to fill our home and lives with a positivity that grows on its own, bringing more and more good things our way.