I started cleaning and organizing a few rooms at home toward the end of last year. I knew from past experience that I’d completely fail if I tried to get it all done quickly so I decided to work a little bit each day until I felt satisfied. As I did, I enjoyed the increasingly greater organization and usability of those spaces. I also noticed a lot of emotions coming up, many of which were connected to specific objects that I found. This got me thinking about the link between physical cleaning and emotional cleaning.
I get used to physical messes just as I get used to emotional messes. They become so normal to me that I don’t notice them even though they’re causing me a lot of problems. It’s only when they become overwhelming that I finally start working through them. Whenever I do even a small amount of work, it becomes clear how much those messes were holding me back, how much better I feel, and how much more I’m able to do after cleaning them up.
Whenever there is cleaning of a physical space or emotional space, it’s going to be messy for a while. Maybe even messier than the existing mess. Fear of making a mess or thinking that the mess will become impossible to manage prevents many people from doing the work they need to heal. Something that helps me at times is reminding myself that messiness is just part of the healing process and it will soon pass. Without some physical or emotional upset, there couldn’t be the cleaning or healing that feels so good. I hope that helps you as you work on cleaning up any physical or emotional messes in your own life. It’s difficult at times but always worth it.