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.

Well, hello there, my beautiful, brave hearted women. How you doing today? I'm hoping that you are experiencing joy and peace and beauty in your life. And that you're taking great steps of bold, courageous action to create the life that you want. Hey, today, I'm going to help you by talking about clutter. Yeah, I said the word I know it. And I'm not coming from a place of judgment at all. Because I tend to be a clutter bug. Yeah, that's just kind of how it happens. Before I know it, I've got piles everywhere. And I'm, it's not easy for me to declutter, because I like to save things. I'm not a hoarder, per se. Because true hoarding, by the way is a serious psychological disorder. There is treatment for that, but I'm not there. But I do flirt with it from time to time, because I have a mindset that says, I might need this someday. Or my kids might want this, or I'm going to need this The day after I give it away. And the truth is that has happened to me before. So I learned to hang on to things. And also, when you are raised perhaps in a family or you have a situation where you get hami downs and you share, you want to hang on to something because you want to give it to someone that you know needs it, or somebody that will appreciate it. And so you just wait for that right moment. Well, all of that adds up to clutter. Now I don't have a problem decluttering someone else's stuff, I can easily discern, you don't need this. This is garbage. This goes in the circular file, aka the trash. But when it comes to my stuff, my stuff is sacred. It's meaningful. It's important, it's beautiful. So I have a hard time letting go of stuff. And I will tell you, by the way, and if my children are listening to this, they know they don't want my stuff. And I come from a long line of of flirting with hoarding. relatives, Okay, you know what I'm saying, My mom would show up on a regular basis with a bag full of stuff. And I would take it because my mom would find peace and joy knowing that it was going to good use. I on the other hand, may open the bag, or it might sit for seven months in the corner, I don't know. But often there were treasures in there, of course, and who doesn't love treasure hunting? I do. But I've been in the season of decluttering. And as I move forward in my life here with some new creative endeavors that I want to do, I once again have discovered that clutter does indeed short circuit, my creative juices just does. And so I'm in this season of decluttering. And so that's why I thought I would share that with you. Because my desire to innovate and create really does get diminished. When at first I look around and there's nothing beautiful my eyes don't find a place to rest. And guess what? It's science. clutter can affect our anxiety levels, our sleep, guess what clutter can affect our ability to focus, it can affect our weight, and even our relationships. So hey, let's unpack this a little bit today. And if you're identifying already, make sure you review this and send this podcast to someone like us and subscribe because I'm going to share more powerful tips with you but clutter makes you less productive. It just does. And what do we mean by clutter? While we're talking about piles of stuff, we're talking about closets that are full. We're talking about walls that have too much art or decorative things on them. We're talking about countertops that have too many, your toaster, blender, Panini maker, mixers, whatever, you know, candles things, we're talking about clutter. So just like when you read something, you need a certain amount of whitespace, they call it or negative space where your brain can rest. So do you need that in the natural, that's why nature is so good for us and so beautiful for us. But you have to have places in your home. And in your bedroom, specifically places where your your heart, your eyes, your brain can rest. So did you know that clutter causes you to procrastinate, because you become paralyzed, I become paralyzed. We don't know where to start, when we have too much clutter, we can employ avoidance and coping skills instead of getting to our project. And what we find ourselves is because that overwhelm comes on us, we can grab our favorite bag of popcorn or chips or Oreo cookies and head for the TV room. So once again, science shows us that our physical environments significantly influenced our brain, our mood, our emotions, our motivation, and our actions. And so just as we've discovered through science years ago, that color, the color of your walls, the color in your space does something to your brain, that's another podcast, but so does organization. And if your relationships at home feel stressed or people feel hyper, take a look around your environment. What color are your walls, red walls yellow, they're those in sight, anxiety on hyperactivity. So according to Psychology Today, clutter causes stress in part because of the excessive visual stimuli. It also signals to our brains that our work is never done, and it creates guilt and anxiety, and just that feeling of being overwhelmed. Also, in 2011, neuroscience, researchers used what they call functional magnetic resonance imaging, f MRI, they found that clearing clutter from the home and work environment resulted in more focus and increased productivity. So we learned that our brains like order, they just love order, and the constant visual reminders of disorder actually drain our brain. Yep, it just drains our energy and our mental capacities, and it reduces our ability to focus.

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