Get rid of things that don't serve you

When I pruned the shrubs in my backyard, some sprouted quickly, evidence that the plant was growing fuller and stronger. One group of cedars, however, appeared to be just a dry skeleton of branches that was all but dead. Although it took several months for sprouts to appear, the plants did recover but very slowly.

The plants that recovered flourished after pruning had received more attention over the years while the cedar hedge had been so neglected that it died inside. The overgrowth had restricted the plant’s access to the elements essential to life (light, water, air) and it had deteriorated.

The plight of the plant can happen in our lives as well. When our days are filled with too many things, we feel stuck and stagnant. Like the neglected plant, we struggle to get enough of the things that keep us feeling balanced and healthy. Once we lop off some of the extras, we feel lighter and freer.

Activities and expectations that are not serving us keep us heavy and unbalanced. In order to get clear about what we want, we need to take some time to get quiet and ask ourselves what is true for us in our hearts. Two tools that I have found to be effective are:

· “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” This is the advise of William Morris, furniture designer and founder of the Arts and Crafts design movement. This can be a powerful catchphrase when deciding what to keep and what to pitch. Donating your unwanted items to a worthy cause can make the releasing more bearable.

· Eliminate clutter ten things at a time. Take a few minutes to quickly put away or get rid of ten things. Ten things, that’s all. This brief burst of activity will give you satisfaction, and may even be done while you’re on the phone or waiting for someone. By the end of the week, you’ve eliminated 70 items and by the end of the month, 300.

· Give yourself an immediate sense of space and order by quickly boxing up all the things in a room that you don’t need right away or use frequently. Label the boxes with their contents and plan to go through them later. Usually, I don’t miss the things in the boxes and when I go back to them, I get rid of almost everything.

As soon as we release some of our clutter, we feel the freedom and openness a plant feels when it is pruned and we are better able to grow and expand in new directions.