Tidying up, it's not everyone's favorite task and it can be incredibly difficult. An obvious reason why Mari Kondo has become so popular with her Netflix program where she helps people tidy their homes. Cleaning up is also really one of those jobs where you can suffer a lot of procrastination and where you mostly feel like you're cleaning out other people's clutter.
Why is clearing important?
Everyone knows that cleaning up is important, but why really? Perhaps primarily to prevent your home from becoming so full that you actually become more of an uncontrolled collector.
Tidying up can be done right and done wrong and the funny thing is, people who are either extremely tidy or people who always have clutter on their desk are the most creative and productive. Do you always have a bit of clutter and find that you really can't work in a messy environment? Then it's helpful to keep your workspace super tidy for the most productivity and creativity[1].
A tidy room also affects what you eat and give. Research conducted in 2013 shows that people who are in a tidy room are more likely to choose healthy foods and are more willing to donate. So it also makes you more generous[2].
Clutter in the home can cause irritation and stress. By keeping your home tidy you reduce stress and irritation, allowing you to experience more peace of mind. Research conducted on women in 2010 showed that women who experienced their homes as cluttered and were constantly reminded by the clutter of what they still had to do had more cortisol in their blood than women who did not experience their homes as cluttered and, in addition, the women in a home that was tidy for them had fewer depressive moods[3].
Note! So this is a subjective sense of when a house is tidy. This means that if your home feels tidy to you and you are not reminded by stuff you have in your home of what you still need to do your home is really tidy enough.
On the contrary, if you do suffer from irritation and the feeling that you still need to do all sorts of things in your home, then you are suffering from a cluttered house and it is time to tidy up.
Beliefs that prevent you from cleaning up
Cleaning up is no fun and there are always reasons to not do it. Especially if you are not the only occupant in the home, it is very appealing to think:
Belief: It's not my mess
You are irritated by the clutter in the home, and you notice that your partner or children leave their clutter everywhere. As long as they don't clean up, you won't either. Then they'll see how quickly the place turns into a pigsty!
It's very natural to see other people's clutter in particular, which is why you may get the conviction that you are not a clutter fan at all. By cleaning up after all and starting with your own clutter, you may discover that you make a little more clutter than you thought. That will be a relief.
Belief: This is very important stuff
Regret is something you absolutely don't want to suffer from, which is why some things are very important to you and it's hard to part with them. For example, if you want to clear out your baby stuff, you may suffer from the feeling that you need it all to properly remember that wonderful time (even though you have at least 10 photo albums full that help too).
This belief is what can eventually cause many people to even become uncontrolled collectors. For example, if you already think receipts are super important, something is really wrong. So always check how logical it is that what you want to clear out is actually super important.
A hypnosis expert can help you with this if you notice an imbalance.
Belief: It has to be fun
Regret can also come from wanting to get rid of gifts and unused clothing that just take up too much space while cleaning up. We'd rather not face negative emotions. Like regret that you bought those clothes or that they no longer fit. Or how about choice stress where to leave everything.
As for that choice stress. You can start by asking the question, Should this go away? You then only have to choose between yes and no. The yes's will already do an awful lot to clean up your home and then you will have so much space left that the question for where to leave the rest can be easily answered.
What we often do when we don't want to throw something away is think of how it can still be used in a practical way, because that's fun. But for tidying up, this often means keeping more boxes in which goods have been shipped, and that again can be very messy. Therefore, consider exactly what it costs you when you hesitate about throwing something away or keeping it.
Do you get really super cranky about tidying up? Then a hypnosis expert can help you figure out where that's coming from and whether you're suffering from this in other parts of your life as well.
How hypnosis helps with clearing
As you may have read, hypnosis can help you when beliefs block you from cleaning up. Not liking tidying up can demand so much attention that all the other benefits of tidying up don't even occur to you and so you are left in the mess.
Hypnosis then helps you, among other things, shift your focus from the negatives of cleaning up to the positives. Initially, a hypnosis expert can start the conversation with you to find out why you don't like tidying up and your home is actually seen by everyone as a junkie hole and you yourself are actually unhappy and still won't tidy up.
Then the expert can counter this with positive hypnotic suggestions that help you shift your focus from negative, to positive. These suggestions are often given to you on an mp3 for you to listen to at home so that they have a longer effect and you find tidying up to be the most normal thing in the world. These can be suggestions such as:
"You really enjoy cleaning up, it gives you energy."
"You relax really well in a tidy house."
"You work much better when your workplace is tidy."
"You act healthier when your house is tidy."
These are just examples of hypnotic suggestions. Depending on your beliefs about clearing, the hypnosis expert may give you other suggestions.
Regression for more clearing
Cleaning up is something you often learn as a child. Sometimes that can also be where you find it really hard to start cleaning up or to continue once you've started. With regression, you can find out when your subconscious has determined that cleaning up is a bad idea. Because many beliefs originate in childhood, you will often go back to a childhood event where tidying or a messy house left an impression on you that still influences how you view tidying today.
Sometimes it can also be a totally unrelated experience why you find clearing difficult. With regression, you can discover this and immediately correct your beliefs so that cleaning up comes naturally.
Clearing practice with a guided visualization
Is it such a mess in your home that you can't see through the mess? Then a guided visualization can help you put yourself into action mode. After all, we often need to see behaviors in front of us before we can carry them out. If you can no longer do this yourself, a hypnosis expert can help you with this.
With guided visualization, your imagination is so affected that you can almost feel yourself clearing out. In athletes, it even affects muscle memory if they first totally visualize how they are going to do something. For example, you often see people who visualize a bobsled track before they start sliding every turn is already taken in their mind. It is the same way with guided visualization.
Every room is then cleaned up. All clothes are washed and your closets are sorted by color (if you want to go that crazy).
So tidying up is incredibly healthy for you and it promotes all kinds of positive things in your life. A cluttered workplace can still promote creativity, but if you don't have a creative profession and are at home, a tidy room is really better. Hypnosis can help you find the tidier person in yourself.
Want to learn more about how hypnosis works and exactly how these techniques (and others) are used? Then come to a hypnosis playshop or enroll in one of our trainings. Ask about online options if that suits you better.
[1] https://pmj.bmj.com/content/94/1110/246.abstract
[2] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797613480186
