Cleaning

It is impressive our capacity of accumulation.

Through life, as we come and go, we attach to ourselves all sorts of things, from material to emotional. For some reason, we have this ease of acquiring more and more until we get so overwhelmed we have to re think and re cycle.

An easy way to reflect on this is to look around our own houses. Probably the amount of things on the walls, over the tables, not to say hidden deep inside the closets are enough to blow our minds. The most amazing is that each one of them has a clear and concise reason to be.

I guess if we truly look at this, we will have a notion of comfort. Yes, I think that is the reason. Comfort.

It comforts us. The world we built around us serves as a reminder of who we are, of our identity, of our knowledge, of our memory, of our past. Maybe on some very deep level, we are so scared and afraid of losing our identity that we need these mementos to remind us of whom we are, what we did and what we want to do.

Unfortunately, but true, without even knowing, we go through life carrying all of them. And sincerely, they only slow us down.

I could realize this after I started, a couple days ago, a cleaning ritual. My wife and I decided we had to go through all we carried, and clean, throwing away what was useless (despite the emotional value) and putting aside what was in good shape and could be donated. The first impression I had was that I was not able to do it all at once. It was too much to let go and the process has revealed a bit painful, and it had to be ongoing.

Nevertheless, we are getting better and slowly emptying the entire luggage we carried with us to this point. At the same time, a feeling of lightness and relief filled our hearts and the sensation of having our own minds cleaned together.

In the end, I could say that everything points to our emotions. The picture given by my wife, the bowl I bought while I travelled to a happy place, the T-shirt from grandma and so forth. We always have emotional reasons to have what we have. We are attached to our stuff even though sometimes we don’t need nor use them.  The cleaning process is necessary and can yield great consequences. But beware, not to start all over again. Take advantage of your refreshed mind and set on new standards. In some good ways, less can be more; especially if you looking for peace and fulfillment.