The Joy of Decluttering the Mind

Seems everyone is doing the Marie Kondo "Does it bring you joy?" method of decluttering.  I read her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing a few years ago and managed to get rid of a ton of clothes (6 garbage bags' worth!).  Full disclosure: I may or may not have kept up the habit of organizing my drawers and folding shirts in that cool Kondo way.

Back when I was a "perfect" mom - ha!
As I get older, I find I have to declutter my mind as well as my physical space. Decluttering my mind often comes in the form of doing away with the negative self-talk.  I swear that we moms are the hardest on ourselves.  When I'm having a bad day, that negative inner voice starts reminding me of all the mistakes I made as a mother; of all the times I was selfish, or lost my cool, or didn't live up to my own expectations of being a perfect mother.  If left unchecked, pretty soon my head is so full of the negative that there's no room for anything else.  Since my kid is grown and out of the house, you'd think these thoughts would be no more, right? Wrong! In fact, some days they are worse than when he was little.

As I was reading articles about fighting the negative self-talk, I came across this suggestion:

Determine your strengths as a mother and reflect on them often.

I love this because we all have our strengths as moms, but sometimes we need to remind ourselves.  I'm going to write this list of strengths this week (things I did well then and now). I challenge you to do the same!



Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 15, 2019 at 6:28 PM

    I can totally relate! The job of a mother is immense and no woman can be perfect---especially we moms. We can only do our best, based on the gifts we have and the kids God has given us. You are a beautiful mother and you are a huge blessing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CarrieJanuary 15, 2019 at 7:19 PM

      Thank you for the compliment! We moms have to stick together in encouragement, right?

      Delete
    2. UnknownJanuary 21, 2019 at 8:51 AM

      We are definitely sticking together! You are a sweet mama, Carrie!

      Delete

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