When Clutter Hurts You

Dawn Damon 0:07

Hey, beautiful women. This is Dawn Damon, the brave heart mentor and you're listening to the brave hearted woman. This is a podcast designed to help you find your brave so you can live out your beautiful vision. I have been working with women for years. And now I want to help you too. I'm here to awaken the brave heart inside of you. So you can ignite the flame of your vision, you can reach your goals and achieve your dreams. Come on this good phrase.

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The visual distraction of clutter increases our cognitive overload and can reduce our working memory. So not only do our brains love order, our physical and mental health are affected by it too, because clutter makes us feel stressed out and anxious, but it can also create depression. For example, did you know that higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol has actually been detected in people that live in chronically cluttered home environments, so people have been found to produce more stress hormones when they're surrounded by clutter? And one article that I read by Libby Sanders said this, a study even showed a constant low grade fight or flight response. That's huge, all a fight or flight response, taxing our resources, designed for survival. I mean, when you are in clutter, you're in survival mode. That's massive. This response can trigger all kinds of physical and psychological trends affecting our immune system, our ability to fight off disease, right. And we also know that stress interrupts our digestion, so we don't digest food as well. So listen, clutter equals difficulty digesting your food. What? Yes, it's true, as well as leaving us at a greater risk of type two diabetes and heart disease. So that's what the hormone of cortisol can do to us. And cortisol hormones are at elevated levels when you are in clutter. So tidy homes have also been found to be a predictor of our physical health participants whose houses were cleaner, and they were more active and had better physical health were recorded in another study. So it's proof. And what about this? have you discovered that sleep is interrupted due to clutter. So cluttered rooms, entering into a messy bed. They said, if your bed is unmade, and you begin to get into your bed, and you have to move your computer and your books and some snacks that you were eating while watching TV, well, science shows that your sleep is probably going to be interrupted. Isn't that interesting that if you have sleep problems, including difficulty falling asleep, make sure that your environment in your bedroom is beautiful. Not only that, by the way, make sure that when you wake up, your eyes land on something beautiful. I like my eyes to land on my vision board. That's why right after my husband, of course, but that's why I have my vision board nailed right to the side of my bed, because those high levels of cortisol are actually more profound in the morning. So you could wake up with some anxiety to begin with. So make sure that you're doing yourself a favor, get that clutter out of your bedroom, clean sheets, a made bed all aid to you having a great night of sleep. And what about this, did you know that clutter could actually make you overweight. So there's multiple studies that have found a link between clutter and poor eating choices. So when your cupboards are cluttered, right or disorganized, or your frigerators, a hot mess, or your countertops that disorganization and that messy environment, it is actually proven that it leads participants to eat more snacks, so eating twice as many cookies, then they're not reaching for celery. They're not reaching for that good Apple, yes, being in a cluttered room makes you twice as likely to gobble down some chips, or a chocolate chip cookie before reaching for those green grapes. And by the way, again, six out of seven women under estimate their caloric intake by 600 calories a day. Who if you underestimate your calorie intake by 600 calories a day, you could lose up? No, you can gain gain up to two pounds a week. That's not good. So many years ago, somebody left a book in my home, whether they forgot it after a group meeting one night, because we do a lot of entertaining. Or if somebody planted it, I'm not sure but it was Murray condos book called The life changing Magic of Tidying Up, she now has a Netflix special. In a show. It's called tidying up. And she shares her decluttering method. And it's people are saying all over the place. Oh my goodness, this changed my life for the better. But she was one of the first people to do some of this research. And she really showed ultimately, that clutter and home environments that are cluttered, truly, ultimately decrease our satisfaction with life. Now this is not to say that the home should be a sterile environment, right where the kids can't climb on the furniture and you can't eat on the couch because that's very stressful in and of itself as well. But I want to ask you a question because you're brave and you can handle this. So is it time for you to declutter your home? Is it time for you to clean out those closets and purge that wardrobe? Do you know that when you stand in front of your closet and you have too many choices, too many choices lead to paralysis. So if you've not worn something in a year, get rid of it. One of the tips that Marie puts in her book is that every time you wear something well first of all start with your closet and put every hanger going the same way. So the hangers and the front of the blouse, let's say the buttons everything is heading to the left. When you get done wearing it, turn the hanger over and place it backwards in your rack. And at the end of six months, every hanger that is not facing right or going the opposite direction. You purge it you get rid of it or every year for sure. That means you haven't worn it in one year and the likelihood of you wearing it again, is doubled or tripled. You're not going to wear it you're not reaching for it and don't save it for a rainy day because when a rainy day comes you know what you're gonna say I'm in the mood for a new outfit and you'll go to the store. The other thing she says as well or before you do go to the store, shop your own closet. Make sure you go through your closet. on a regular basis and try on things I did this not too long ago, and I said to my daughter, Hey, will you come over and help me? Because I need to say goodbye to some of this close. You know, I'm a speaker and an author. So I'm on the platform on a regular basis as a pastor, I was preaching every Sunday. So I've got a lot of outfits. So I said, I'm having a hard time saying goodbye. She said, Sure, Mama come over. So I put the first one on. Oh, that's cute. That's cute. And then I put the son That's cute. Oh, I like that. That's cute. So we went through whatever, 30 things and I said, you're not helping me. Everything was cute. And by the end of this purging session, I have very few pieces that I was releasing, and but my daughter did have a big pile of clothes that she was taking to her closet. not helpful. A few years later, she gave them all back to me. So I have to start all over again. And yes, I admit, I have clothes that are over five years old, six years old, it's time to let go. And what about those skinny clothes, you know, those clothes that you think you're going to get into again, someday when you lose that? 10 pounds? All right, it's been 12 years, let it go. But also just for your sake, because brave women were wanting to reach goals, right? We have God's got big plans for us. We have calls on our life. We want to be focused, I don't want to spend a lot of time standing in front of a closet, trying on four outfits, throwing them on the bed, then getting home after work and having to hang everything back up while I hang up close on Friday. but you get the point. We don't want to do that. We don't want to stare at the cupboard. And because we don't have any healthy food looking at us, but just an disorganized mess. We grabbed the wrong choice. Let's get ourselves together. You ready? You with me? Come on. This is our season to declutter because the next season of our life, we are ready to rock and roll. We are making positive transformations in our life. We have a mindset of growth, continual learning, and developing and going forward and we don't have time for clutter. So make it beautiful, make it peaceful. And you will see the reward of the activity, the motivation, the energy and the good night's sleep that you get. All right, well that's what I have for you today. I hope you enjoy this. And I'm pulling for you. I'm cheering for you. I'm believing in you. I want you to find your brave

and live your vision.

Thanks for hanging out with me today and becoming brave. If this has helped you be sure to share it with someone and subscribe so you never have to miss another episode. For more about me my books, my coaching or online courses, visit Dawn damon.com. And as always be brave and live your vision