Life lessons from six feet under

October 13, 2007 · Posted in Change, Choices, Self-help 

Okay, maybe I should say ten feet under, because that’s how deep my basement is and today, my wife and I have been cleaning and organizing the basement. I don’t know if it’s because:

  • my wife’s pregnant with our third child (a boy to go with our two beautiful daughters) and has decided to start the nesting ritual a little early this time (we’re due in February)
  • there was so much junk that we just avoided going down there
  • it was time to reclaim the portion of our basement that we use as a garage and actually park a vehicle in it

Regardless of the motivations, we spent most of the day cleaning, stacking, packing, hauling and discarding our junk. But in the midst of all this domestic industry, inspiration hit me with a few lessons for life.

Life lesson 1: We all have too much junk in our lives

As I was looking around at all the stuff that was cluttering our basement, I wondered, “why do I still have all this useless junk?” I was looking at physical junk, but I was thinking emotional junk.

Why do we insist on dragging useless emotional baggage with us throughout our lives?

  • Is it really important to remember who wronged us in high school / college / our last job?
  • Why do we spend so much time worrying about what people think about us?
  • Why spend any time worrying at all?

Here’s an idea, let’s get rid of our emotional junk. You know what your junk is. You don’t need it. It does you no good to hang on to it and it provides no benefit to you. Let it go and be free.

Here’s an affirmation that helps me: “I release all negative emotions”. I repeat this to myself several times when I realize that I am obsessing about some kind of emotional junk. Try it.

Life lesson 2: Junk expands to fill the space available

Looking around our basement, I wondered, “where does all this crap come from?” When you have the room, you tend to keep things just in case you need them. I pretty sure that I’m never going to need an extra 4 wire dryer hookup again, but I’ve got an extra one in the basement.

When I had less room for storage, I had less junk. That’s amazing.

If you don’t keep your mind busy with worthwhile projects, books and adventures then you have created the perfect place to store and nurture all your emotional junk. When your mind is hard at work, there is no time or place for that crap, so it disappears.

Use your mind as it was intended – a problem solving machine and not as an incubator for future, imaginary troubles.

Ask your self this question when the emotional junk starts piling up: “Do I need more of this crap in my life?” Instead, focus on filling your mind with thoughts and ideas that are of a constructive, rather than a destructive nature.

Life lesson 3: Cleaning up your junk is a lot easier with help

I cleaned our basement last year. It took me about a week, by myself. With my wife’s help, we almost finished today, and we will complete the job tomorrow.

You can clean the junk out of your life quite a bit easier if you can find someone to help you. A friend, spiritual leader, a mentor, a support group, your spouse or a counselor. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Would you help those you care about? I’m sure that someone feels the same way about you.

Sometimes just letting others know that you have the junk is enough. Talk about it – after all it’s just junk and you don’t really need it, do you?

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Comments

3 Responses to “Life lessons from six feet under”

  1. Bob on October 14th, 2007 10:10 pm

    Getting rid of junk - both physical and emotional, can be so cleansing!

    We recently kind of did a “Clean Sweep” style job through all of our rooms and threw away/donated a ton of stuff. Our whole family feels good about it!

    One of our pastors at church frequently reminds us that good prayer can be like visiting a garbage dump. It’s a good opportunity to rid ourselves of burdens of guilt, shame, sadness, etc.

  2. Chris Melton on October 14th, 2007 10:21 pm

    You are right Bob, prayer is a great way to release our emotional junk. Sometimes I seem to overlook the best answer of all.

  3. Brad Baggett on October 15th, 2007 9:59 pm

    Clean it out! That is what we all need to do. Just like you said there is no need to worry about so many things that are not in our control. We don’t have to please everyone, we don’t have to make everyone happy, we don’t even have to like everyone, but we must all live together and accept everyone. As long as we are acting in the correct and honorable way, there it no reason to keep or carry any emotional baggage!

    Great article, keep up the amazing site.

    http://www.JuiceofChampions.com

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