Clutter

I went to a yoga class last night outside at Kettle Cove. I almost skipped it because I just wasn't feeling it. It was foggy, chilly and I was feeling bogged down by life. I'd spent the afternoon in the couch in a funk, eating my way through the kitchen. 

I was in a fog: literally and emotionally

As we moved through a flowing practice in the mist, the teacher talked about clutter. Most of us tend to emphasize the physical clutter, when really we should be trying to clear our emotional clutter. 

 When it comes to physical clutter, I am all over it. I am a neat freak and I am constantly picking up and cleaning out. We specifically don't have a registry for our wedding because we don't want more things.

However, I realized that I am not so good when it comes to emotional clutter. I hold onto worries, past hurts, resentment, and fear. I treat them like my favorite books. I take them out, use them for a while, and then instead of passing them on, I put them back on the self. I know they aren't serving me there, but I just can't let them go. So they just sit there and pile up, until I can't even get a thought through the mess anymore. 

Which is why I need yoga so much. Not only does it give me this fantastic physical release, but it clears the clutter from my mind like nothing else. It is only as I breathe and move my way through a practice that I can allow a thought in, acknowledge it, and then let it go.

So even though, I hadn't wanted to go to yoga, at the end I felt a million times better. The fog lifted and the sun came out, both in my mind and in the world around me. 

What helps you to clear you emotional clutter? Do you have a harder time with physical or emotional clutter?