Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.
One of the biggest setbacks to pursuing your creative dreams and challenges usually involves blocked energy from clutter of some sort or another. This clutter is usually in the form of mental clutter or physical cutter.
Examples of physical clutter could include a messy home, unorganized closets and drawers, piled up dirty laundry or dishes (or even clean laundry or dishes that you haven’t put away), etc.
Examples of mental clutter could involve negative mindsets, beliefs that disempower you, fears of some sort or another (the “fear” scale is great, but even a mild fear such as a worry can harm one’s creative flow), or some tedious mental task you’ve put off for a long time, such as doing your taxes.
Slowly but surely, I’ve been working on clearing the various types of clutter in my life so that I can create a brilliant clean slate for upcoming creative challenges.
[As a side note, I’d like to point out that one need not address and clear all forms of clutter before taking on a creative challenge. Sometimes the chaos of clutter can even prove to act as some kind of creative catalyst or stimuli. More often than not, however, I’d say that clutter acts to block creative flow, so it’s a better idea to clear — and keep clear — as much clutter as you can.]
One of the huge mental clutter blocks I’ve been carrying around with me for a long time is the task of catching up on my taxes. I put off doing it for many (many) years. I found the task daunting because it involved doing them in a way I had never done before (claiming various business/professional costs for contract work, for example), and I had let that one initial year pile up many succeeding years… and on top of that, moving apartments/houses a number of times and traveling a lot also put a big slow-down on this task. With each passing year, it simply got more and more daunting.
Finally… FINALLY, I am all caught up on processing all of my overdue taxes.
(I still have yet to submit taxes for last year, but they aren’t even accepting returns yet for last year until later this month!) It’s a huge creative-energy blocker that’s finally off of my shoulders and mind. WooHoo!!!
Other things I’ve been working on are maintaining positive habits such as making the bed as soon as I get up. It’s kind of amazing how this little action can help make my mind feel so much more disciplined and creative throughout the rest of the day.
I’m usually pretty on top of dishes, but have been making even more of a concerted effort to keep the clutter low in this area.
I still have yet to declutter my email inbox (I’m signed up to WAY too many mailing lists), and I’ve been meaning to attend to some mending for some time too. These tasks are definitely important, but attending to them doesn’t feel quite as important as finally clearing away that energy-block that consisted of my overdue tax returns.
I’m really excited to get back on track to diving deep into some kick-ass creative projects this year! 🙂
One type of clutter that I’d like to clear away is of a mental nature, and it involves various kinds of fears, anxieties or worries that I feel have been holding me back in some way.
As such, I want to use this blog to air some of this type of clutter. I’m pretty sure that doing so will help me to clear up even more blocked creative energy.
Expect a few very vulnerable subsequent posts as I write with the intent of clearing my mental blocks and paving the way for awesome, powerful creative flow.
Namaste, my friends.
<3