Every so often our email accounts prompt us to “Empty the Trash.” We click on the icon and we hear this satisfying crinkling swoosh, signaling that the excess that crowds our inboxes has been eliminated. Voilà! We have successfully cleared things up, and there is now more space for what deserves our attention.
As the holidays are upon us and a new year approaches, it is a natural time for emptying our personal, business, and even perhaps internal trash bins—things we’ve been holding onto, to best usher in the New Year!
How can we accomplish this figurative goal in a practical sense?
- Take a look around externally, and see what is outgrown, what is less necessary than it once was, even what we own that we’ve never used—never taken the proverbial tags off of! If pruning is hard for you, perhaps pick one thing—something you know is either destined for trash, or something someone else could better use.
- Look at the spots that are the usual culprits—such as the clutter on your desk, or in your closet, or car. What have you collected that is now “trash.”
- Now to look internally: internal trash that needs purging may be tasks you’ve put off, calls you’ve needed to make, items that need examination or fixes—things that must get off your docket!
- Perhaps there’s a resentment or a grudge that has been clogging your mental inbox. Is there a way to solve it, or perhaps let it go—drag it into “trash,” and feel that satisfying swoosh?
- If there are feelings you’ve wanted to cleanse or release yourself of, try an exercise in which you write them down, in all of their painful detail, and then…shred. This is a literal exercise for an intangible thing, yet the crunch and tear of the shredder could possibly offer a sense of comfort and riddance of a stubborn feeling. Do it more than once, if necessary.
FEEL the openness and freedom which can surprise and possibly inspire you for new beginnings in 2025 and create space for growth in the New Year!
