Hi,
This is Brooks.
Thanks for joining me.
Before we begin this talk,
I want to let you know that I'm gonna have a new 30-day course called Let Go of What Doesn't Fit Your Life in 30 Days.
And it starts on March 17th,
Available right here on Insight Timer.
And in this course,
You'll learn how to eliminate unwanted mental,
Physical,
And emotional clutter as you regain freedom and develop a deeper appreciation for life.
And it's gonna go really deep into all areas of your life.
And I think you'll find it a very profound course.
You'll be able to find and remove a lot of things that aren't serving you.
And as a result of that,
You're gonna get your life back.
So I hope you can join me on that course.
So today we're gonna talk about how you're sacred and your things aren't.
And that's quite a different message because what we're used to hearing is that that things are more important than us.
That we're not okay as we are.
And we see that repeatedly in ads.
You see a product that's been advertised and the person in the ad is hurting in some way or another physically or emotionally or spiritually.
And they get the product and suddenly they're better.
They're happier.
They're fulfilled.
It's like a religious experience for them.
And so we hear this message repeated over and over and over again.
You're not okay.
You need this to be better.
And we start believing that we aren't okay and we need a product or service and then we're gonna be okay.
And the more products and services we get,
The better we're gonna be.
And I'm here to call that into question.
It's okay to start looking at yourself as what's important and the things in our life as something that needs to support us or they go.
And that's a bold change and that's quite different than the message we're used to hearing.
But I've been doing this clutter busting work with people for over 20 years and I've never met anybody with who has a lot of stuff and they're happy because they have all this stuff.
They're usually suffering one way or another because they're living with a lot of things that don't serve them.
And I think that's the case for a lot of us.
And this whole process is about making it okay to start taking this personal curious inventory of what's in your life,
Of everything,
Questioning everything with the idea that I want to take care of myself.
I love and care for myself.
So I'm gonna look at everything in my life,
One thing at a time,
And see what serves me and what doesn't.
And what doesn't serve me,
I'm gonna let it go.
And this is all about giving you permission to let go of the things that are no longer serving you.
And sometimes we get afraid.
I mean this comes up a lot when I work with people.
They feel like I don't need this thing but what if I do need it?
You know there's a fear like something bad's gonna happen if I let this go.
I'm gonna be less than I am.
It's not it's not our fault for thinking that.
You know it's again that message has been repeated to us over and over again and everybody believes it and they encourage everyone else to believe it.
And again this is all about going in the opposite direction.
It's really calling this whole thing into question.
And every time you pick up something and you look at it and you go,
Do I like and use this or not?
Does this serve me today or not?
You're reconnecting with yourself.
You're putting yourself first.
You're making yourself sacred and you're taking away the sacredness of the thing.
That doesn't mean we have to live with nothing or that we have to be a minimalist.
But we're putting ourselves first and we're questioning the things,
The activities,
And the people in our life.
And we're saying you have to prove yourself.
You have to prove that you're helping me today.
That you're making my life a better place to be today.
That you're making it easier for me to do things in my life that I want to do today.
Or you gotta go.
It's a ruthlessness.
It's very exciting.
I mean it's amazing when I work with people because usually those first few minutes there's this intense resistance even though they're paying me.
There's this resistance like I can't question these things.
It feels wrong.
And so you know there I am asking them questions about each thing.
Do you like and use this or not?
Very matter-of-factly without any judgment because it always has to be the person's decision.
You know every time you ask about something in your life you're making a decision.
Yeah like if I gave you a plate of food and you took a bite and I said do you want to continue eating this or not?
Do you like it or not?
That's it's very much a similar thing as you go through your stuff.
How do I feel today?
What happens for a lot of us is we look at something and then we go we will remember what how it used to serve us.
You know oh yeah 20 years ago 10 years ago whatever it's like even like you know a month ago oh yeah but we're different today we change all the time.
You know our bodies are changing all the time our mind our heart changes.
You know emotionally and physically we're changing constantly so we might come across something that really did make a difference in our life in the past but today is a different story and because this is all about your sacred and your things are not you're finding out what serves you today.
And if something you know in this in the same way that you went through the food in your refrigerator and you found something that was stale maybe when you bought it it was fresh you know it was delicious it would have been delicious it's just just been in your fridge for a while and it's got mold on it and you could remember oh yeah when I bought that it would look so good and so delicious I was so excited about it but I can't throw it out even though it has mold on it.
That's what it's like to look at something and go oh yeah this I remember this you know thing and I was excited about it and but now I can't I can't eat it I can't have this in my life anymore it doesn't serve me.
And the more you ask and the more you go to your heart and you ask this question you know do I like can use this or not or does this serve me or not or can I let it go the more you do that the stronger it gets the stronger your connection with your heart gets and the easier it becomes to ask.
Like I said it might be hard at first you know that's my experience with clients there's oh you know there's I don't want to do this and then after 15 minutes half hour it really kicks in there's that discriminating ability that we all have it's natural to us to take care of ourselves you know like if we find it for our walk-in we have a stone in our shoe we take our shoe off and throw out the stone because that's our nature to remove something that hurts and clutter hurts it hurts us it damages us it restricts us there's no benefit to clutter we can be tricked into thinking there is you know we could spend a lot of money on storage lockers putting our stuff in storage because we value our stuff more than we value ourselves and so we give the things that we don't like and use the things that aren't actually part of a life we give it a house to live in that's temperature controlled and it's guarded by security and it's not serving us that's that's how crazy clutter can be for us but once you start to question it once you start to really see then it becomes a lot easier I've worked with a lot of people who've gone through their storage lockers and got rid of everything in there and then got rid of the storage locker so not only did they get rid of this stuff that wasn't serving them they also saved a lot of money so maybe I might be repeating myself a lot but it's really good to hear this message a number of times you're what's sacred and your things aren't and and there's freedom in that you know we don't have to go to our things to become better we start to recognize I'm okay as I am as I basically am I'm totally okay and I'd like to figure out what things are that I like and use that I want to continue to use and I also want to discover the things that are hurting me so that I can feel when those things are gone to feel a sense of relief and freedom and when those when the clutter is gone it allows you to enjoy the things that you really do care about and so I wish you the best in your search I think this is a you can never go back you can never go wrong by looking at the things in your life and questioning them and asking do I like and use this or not with the curiosity you know I've worked with clients sometimes I felt badly about having clutter and all the clutter that they've had for a while but I just say it doesn't matter the past doesn't matter let's just start taking a look today you know you don't have to blame yourself for this we've all been encouraged to to bring things into our life to make our lives better to make our to make ourselves better and that never worked so the spell is broken today's the day and we start to take that look and and the rewards are huge the sense of freedom getting your life back is huge so I encourage you to take the look and I encourage you to ask questions maybe you're finding your own way of asking questions you know you want to avoid anything that's a maybe because maybe means no you know do I like can use this or can I let it go I don't know can I put it in a maybe pile so sometimes people ask that you know and I say like maybe means no if something think of something that you really love and use today that's a real essential part of your life today and that could even be an activity or a person you know there are being in your life or that activity being your life really makes a difference you really enjoy them and think of how that feels you know what I want to let that go no I like that I want to protect that in my life and then you look at something that's a maybe maybe that says so much that means usually it just means like I don't want to make a decision about it because I don't want to say no to it so you know you're those things will come up and you'll notice them and anyway I wish you the best in your search and and really I just encourage the starting sometimes the hardest part is the starting you know it's hard to admit I'm more valuable than the things in my life but I encourage you to take a look and then as you start that's ask the question it becomes apparent yes I'm what's important and it's okay for me to remove anything that's hurting me so um take care I wish you the best
