Clearing Your Inner Landscape: Freeing Yourself From Emotional Deadwood

Home
>
Inspirational
>
Clearing Your Inner Landscape: Freeing Yourself From Emotional Deadwood

Clearing Your Inner Landscape: Freeing Yourself From Emotional Deadwood

Do you suffer from emotional clutter? Is suffering even the right word? Maybe it is, maybe a better description is 'living with' emotional clutter. Emotional clutter is like an addiction.

You carry your emotional baggage around thinking you can easily handle it, especially if you treat it like it doesn't exist. Eventually it reaches a point when you feel it's out of control, or even worse, you are out of control.

Learning how to 'let go' is the cornerstone of cleaning emotional clutter. It can be one of the most empowering experiences of your life. As you let go, you free up space to expand, unleashing the reasons why you hold onto your feelings.

Emotional clutter is a form of interference. When a river is blocked with trees, logs, bushes, etc. the water doesn't flow easily. The river begins to stagnate. So many people ask me why their lives are so difficult, why they always feel stuck. My answer is based on this same principle of the river being cluttered with debris.

Our emotional debris is like deadwood in the river. The more you remove and eliminate the deadwood, the better the flow. Generally we hold onto emotional clutter because there is fear, and often shame as well. When we finally make the decision to clear the deadwood, or debris, it means facing the fear and doing it anyway.

If your inner landscape is cluttered, your outer landscape may reflect that. Often people with emotional baggage collect material baggage in the form of clutter in their homes. Clearing the external clutter is marvelous, but unless you also clear the emotional clutter, you may be destined to repeat the cluttered house over and over again.

You may think that hanging onto things keeps you secure, so you don't feel loss and scarcity. In fact, that is far from the truth. We hold onto things because we already feel loss and scarcity. It only amplifies the feelings.

One of the first rules of manifesting abundance is to pay yourself first and to tithe 10%. Give it away, even if you feel you don't have enough. This is the act of trust. It shows faith in the knowledge that abundance will come back to you ten fold and there is abundance for everyone.

Holding onto clutter and emotional baggage may be the way you feel worth, or self confidence. It may be a false sense of strength and security. Remember, these are the times when you alone are holding the deadwood in place to block the river.

Many people are afraid to cry. They fear that if they simply let go then they will be washed away in an uncontrollable flood of tears. The truth is, once the dam is clear, there is an initial surge of water, eventually slowing to a steady flow.

It is the holding that causes so much pain. As you hold onto feelings, refusing to acknowledge them, you put yourself in a very tedious juggling act. You have assumed the role of guard, caretaker, juggler and strongman, not to mention judge and critic. There is plenty of fodder for the judge/critic to use to berate you and deem you unworthy.

Now all this could have been easily avoided, had you simply felt the feelings at the time of the incident. Sadly, the times we are really good at that are when we are very young. Something hurts = we cry, we're angry = we yell, stamp our feet, etc. I say this is sad because it is our ever-so enlightened society that has taught our parents to stop that process.

How many times have I heard in the grocery store a youngster being told not to cry, stop being upset, don't be angry, etc. This is when we learned to hold the feelings. This is when the dam began. Yes, we can thank our parents, but they were only doing their best with the same thing that happened to them when they were little. It is a societal pattern and it is rampant.

Learning how to let go is relatively easy once you know the steps:

1. Awareness
2. Intention
3. Choice
4. Action

These simple steps are used consistently in the process of releasing emotional clutter. Knowing how to use the tools is easy, it's actually the sorting needed to create the awareness that can be the most challenging part.

Sorting is the precursor to transformation and change. It is opening the door so that you actually have the awareness. This step can require assistance. It's difficult to do when you are standing in it.

It's like the TV series 'Clean Sweep' on TLC. Organizing professionals come into your home and help you sort your physical clutter. You can then have awareness, see your intention to change the situation, choose what you keep and what you eliminate, then take action by throwing things away or having a yard sale. The end result is usually two newly cleared, clutter-free and renovated rooms. You can see some emotional awareness happening, but remember, it took years of inner emotional cluttering to develop into these seriously cluttered homes.

The emotional changes do not happen overnight. There is a beginning sort and the first shades of awareness. Will the owners of the home return to their emotional habit of clutter? They may because their inner landscape was not cleared. Generally this inner clearing works differently. The inner clearing happens, and then the external cleaning happens as a result. The lasting effects are there because the people actually released the emotional deadwood creating the clutter in their homes.

It's simple, when we feel cluttered inside, we create clutter outside. One exception to this rule are the obsessive 'neat freaks.' They obsessively clean externally attempting to create inner order because they are so emotionally cluttered and may not know how to deal with the emotional deadwood. Either way, it is an act of control. We control our outer circumstances if we feel completely out of control on the inside. Or, we are so controlled on the inside, holding back the emotion that we are totally out of control on the outside. Which are you?

Of course, there is a third option, which we can all aspire to- the balanced person, centered, at peace within and living a clutter-free life. In fact, balanced people may be detached from material things. They have created an open space for flow. We can look at these folks with awe and amazement because they experience peace within. No longer is life about control and chaos, a battle between the inner and outer emotional life. It is now about peace and balance.

Which lifestyle would you prefer?

Jodie Foster is an Intuitive Counselor who assists clients to create extraordinary transformations in their everyday lives. Her work is uplifting, empowering and success-oriented. You can visit Jodie's website at http://www.illuminationsnetwork.com for further information and to schedule a private intuitive session. You can also look for weekly updates to her blog at: http://intuitiveinnovations.blogspot.com.

Publisher's Guidelines: You may freely publish this article online, in email newsletters, or in print so long as the resource box and byline are in tact. Author would appreciate a notification, but that is optional.

In The News:

Yahoo! News: Top Stories

Obama warns of dire consequences without stimulus (AP)

AP - President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that the nation's recession could "linger for years" unless Congress acts to pump unprecedented sums from Washington into the U.S. economy, making his highest-profile case yet on an issue certain to define his early presidency.

Retailers report dismal December sales (AP)

AP - Retailers are reporting dismal sales for December, confirming fears that the holiday season was the weakest in four decades.

UN: Israel kills driver on aid mission to Gaza (AP)

AP - A U.N. official in the Gaza Strip says Israeli forces have fired on a truck on a U.N. aid mission and killed the driver.

Ill. panel to grill Burris on Senate appointment (AP)

AP - Illinois Republicans are promising tough questions Thursday for Senate-appointee Roland Burris on why he accepted a position offered by disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich and whether he promised the governor anything in return.

Pink slips pile higher amid deepening recession (AP)

AP - Pink slips are piling higher as companies scramble to cut costs even deeper to survive the country's economic and financial storms.

Congress meets to count electoral votes (AP)

AP - The House and Senate are coming together in a centuries-old tradition to count the electoral votes from the November election and formally declare that Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States.

Stock futures lower as retailer jitters return (AP)

AP - Wall Street headed for a sharply lower open Thursday as investors absorbed bad news from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which signaled that even the stronger U.S. retailers are struggling.

Microsoft's Ballmer: Windows 7 is nearly final (AP)

AP - Microsoft Corp.'s next version of the Windows operating system is almost ready for prime time. That's one message Chief Executive Steve Ballmer delivered on the eve of the official opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show.

'Dark Knight' sweeps People's Choice Awards (AP)

AP - "The Dark Knight" soared away with every trophy it was nominated for Wednesday at the 35th annual fan-favorite CBS ceremony. The caped crusader flick won five awards, including favorite cast, superhero, action movie and on-screen matchup for Christian Bale's Batman and the late Heath Ledger's Joker.

Florida, Oklahoma play for college football crown (AP)

AP - The Oklahoma Sooners and the Florida Gators meet tonight for the BCS championship. It's a matchup that includes a pair of Heisman Trophy winners, an SEC vs. Big 12 debate and more than its share of trash talk.

Obama says recession will worsen without bold action (Reuters)

Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama will seek Thursday to rally support for a massive fiscal stimulus package by warning that the United States could remain mired in recession for years without bold action.

Rockets from Lebanon hit Israel amid Gaza offensive (Reuters)

Reuters - Several rockets fired from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Thursday, slightly wounding two people, police and medics said, in an attack seen as linked to Israel's war on Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

Citigroup sees synchronized global recession in 2009 (Reuters)

Reuters - Citigroup forecast a synchronized global recession in 2009 and said developed economies may "flirt" with deflation while emerging market economies will slow sharply, adding that global corporate earnings were only a quarter of the way through an expected 50 percent drop.

Obama to name law professor as regulatory czar: report (Reuters)

Reuters - The incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama will name Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor who pioneered efforts to design regulation around the ways people behave, as regulatory czar, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Citigroup, U.S. senators in mortgage legislation talks: report (Reuters)

Reuters - Citigroup Inc is leading other lenders in advanced talks with key U.S. senators on legislation that would allow judges to set new repayment terms for millions of mortgage holders who wind up in bankruptcy court, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people involved in the talks.

UK cuts rates as Europe's economic woes deepen (Reuters)

Reuters - Bleak economic data in Europe and a wave of profit warnings and job cuts worldwide renewed investors' fears on Thursday, strengthening the case for more government stimulus efforts and encouraging rate cuts.

India vows to end fraud as Satyam scandal shocks (Reuters)

Reuters - India vowed to strengthen laws to prevent corporate fraud after Satyam Computer, the country's fourth-largest software company, shocked investors by revealing profits had been falsely inflated for years.

Russia and Ukraine still deadlocked after gas talks (Reuters)

Reuters - Russia and Ukraine failed to resolve a gas row at a meeting in Moscow but will continue talks to end the dispute which has choked off supplies to Europe, a senior Ukrainian gas official said on Thursday.

Rocket attacks jolt Israel as Gaza war blazes on (AFP)

AFP - Rockets fired into northern Israel from Lebanon on Thursday jolted efforts to end the war in Gaza where Israeli jets carried out mass strikes on smuggling tunnels.

Israel bombs Gaza tunnels as peace moves gather pace (AFP)

AFP - Israeli warplanes bombed suspected arms-smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza early Thursday, as diplomats worked to secure a ceasefire in an offensive that has killed 700 Palestinians.

Clearing Your Inner Landscape: Freeing Yourself From Emotional Deadwood

Inspirational Inspirational