In the process of selling my house, I came upon the idea of going mobile. Rather than buying another house, or renting for a time, I decided to do what I’d yearned to do and that is travel. I decided to travel to different places and stay for a month or two, then move on to the next place.
And that is exactly what I did. My soul rocks every time I think of it!
In order to prepare for this radical move, I went through the process of getting rid of stuff.
I’ve never been a ‘stuff’ person, not really into shopping, not a collector of doo-dads. I’ve been a lover of streamlined, clean and open space.
But I was in my last house for 12 years, and stuff does accumulate, especially when your strategy for dealing with things you don’t know what to do with is, I’ll just put that down in the basement until I decide! Turns out, you end up with a basement full of indecision.
Going through this process was and continues to be an extraordinary experience. Issues and memories of the past, revisiting people and events, that has been my journey. It has included coming to peace with my past.
And as I got rid of more and more stuff, I came to realize how much of who I am is defined by the stuff that I own.
Not just to the outside world, but to myself as well. I own original art, so I am an art-lover. I own contemporary furniture, so I am a sophisticated urbanite (or at least I tell myself that!). I have cool garden furniture, so I am ecologically aware.
We don’t start out being defined by our stuff. Most of us buy stuff that is in alignment with who we are, and so our stuff is a reflection of that identity.
But over time, we change, our identities change, we grow, and yet many of us, including me, still hang on to our stuff.
The thing is, it’s a way of hanging on to the past. It’s usually not a conscious process, but the past in the form of these things we’ve accumulated starts to drag us down, prevents us from moving forward into the present and the future.
Since I’ve gone through this process in a huge way, I’m especially aware of how the past kept its hold on me, partially through my stuff. In not being conscious about it, in putting stuff into the basement for some later point when a decision is made about it, and in keeping stuff I no longer love, I’d allowed myself to slow my own growth.
The great news about all of this is that committing to and going through the process of getting rid of stuff that no longer serves you, that doesn’t align with who you are now, and that you don’t love or need, is so accessible!
You can start on this any time. You can start in the smallest of ways. And as you move forward with it, you will feel the weight of past lives fall off of you like a burden you didn’t know you were carrying.
You will have freed yourself, and allowed yourself to step into who you are, right now, and in the full unfettered way that you owe to yourself, to live your true life.
So, I encourage you – pick a room, a closet, or a shelf, and start today. It’s an amazing way to liberate the true you!
Part 2 is next: how to make this process as easy and simple for yourself as possible.
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Have you been wanting to do this?
Have you had an experience where releasing your stuff has affected your business?
I’d love to hear about it!
Leave a comment below.