When you are stuck. When your wheels are turning without traction and when you feel like you find it hard to breathe, try cleaning a little. Ok, forget a little, start cleaning a lot.
Don’t forget to clean. And not just metaphorically but physically.
It doesn’t matter what it is that needs cleaning. Perhaps you have a pile of laundry that has been gathering in the corner. Maybe your garden needs some weeding. Maybe your garage door needs painting. Maybe there are so many children toys all over your living room floor that it is impossible not to prick yourself with a lego block, and hide your tears in vain.
Don’t forget to clean.
I am not sure what it is about cleaning, about sorting things out in our physical plane of existence that has such therapeutic spill over into the rest of our life, but it does. It really truly does. I have experienced it many times. I experience it today as a matter of fact. I went to be early. I was feeling sorry for myself and my body wanted nothing to do with anything. So I went to bed and after close to ten hours of sleep, I didn’t feel any better.
I have a lot on my mind. I have dormant dreams that I have awoken and I am working really hard to realize some of them. It’s a lonely business, dream making. It is a long and wonderfully frustrating undertaking. Not for the faint of heart, and it sometimes weighs heavily on you. Where you want to be is not where you are. Things aren’t moving fast enough. Things are tougher than anticipated. There is so much to do, not enough hours in the day, and list after list after list, nothing seems to be happening.
I looked at my kitchen counter which has been cluttered for months and I decided that something had to be done. Now, it probably helped that my kids were getting out of hand and I got a little angry as well. That certainly got the cleaning going a little faster and a bit more efficiently. I don’t necessarily recommend that part of it, but take it if it comes.
Before I knew it, the counters got cleaned. My emotional state got a lift. I got down to business of identifying what I needed to do next. Writing this was amongst them, and my task is almost complete.
I don’t know what the connection is about cleaning our physical lives and keeping our minds in order but I have seen it work every single time. Sometimes doing more gymnastics in your mind is not as fruitful as putting your muscles to work and generating a little bit of sweat. Sweat is important. Remember that even in a physical act, your mind continues to work, it continues to ponder, it may even be brought to see things, it didn’t have a chance to see before.
So don’t forget to clean.
Clean whatever needs it. Clean often, don’t half clean, clean something until it is done, and if by chance you run out of things clean around your house, you are always welcome to swing by and give me a a hand here as well.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Pan Xiaozhen via unsplash.com
