Our thoughts are a way for us to process our experiences and deal with our emotions…

Our thoughts are necessary  for us to understand our situation, to find solutions, to make decisions and to plan for the future.

Our thoughts plague us with negative emotions, stop us from leaving in the present, steal our joy and peace of mind.

It just seems that we just don’t stop thinking and our mind is constantly cluttered.

Four Reasons For Mental Clutter

Mental clutter can trigger several mental illness and physical symptoms. It may cause us to react and to respond in an unconventional manner.

There are four main reasons for mental clutter.

1. Life stress

We are stresses by our jobs, the daily headlines or social expectation. The first reason for mental clutter comes from our everyday life.

2. Too many choices

Having to choose between too many options can be a great source of anxiety, indecision, paralysis, and dissatisfaction. 

3. Too much clutter

Our home is filled with things that we don’t need.

Our mind is filled with data that doesn’t serve us.

Our time is filled with distractions and trivialities.

After a while, we start being too busy to declutter and start thinking negatively.

4. Negativity as reality

We react to negative events more easily, quickly and intensely than positive ones.

That is because we are “hardwired to overthink, worry, and view situations more negatively than they are in reality”. 

Therefore, we accept negative thoughts as being reality, we see “threats as more threatening and challenges as more challenging.”

Habits To Help You Declutter Your Mind

Mindfulness is the art of staying present, of identifying your thoughts and decluttering.

It requires a lot of patience, practice and building specific habits.

1. Deep breaths

Our breathing habits is directly connected to our thinking habits. Whenever we feel anxious or overwhelmed, our breathing changes immediately.

However, we have the power to adjust our breathing to control our thoughts.

To regulate your breathing, several times a day, you can:

1. Adapt your posture. Sometimes, the way we stand or sit constricts the air in our lungs. It is imperative to sit up straight or to relax your body.
2. Pay attention to your breathing pattern throughout the day. 
3. Use abdominal breathing techniques.
4. Practice slow and deep breathing. Deep breathing relaxes the body, improves general health, quiets the inner dialogue and forces you back in the present.

2. Meditation

Meditation, practiced for thousands of years and originated in ancient Buddhist, Hindu, and Chinese traditions, can be used as a tool for exercising and decluttering your mind.

Meditation reduces negative thinking, redirects to the present moment and improves creativity. To see the benefits of meditation, you must:

1. Practice meditation daily or in stressful times.
2. Find a quiet place and a adequate position to practice meditation.
3. Let your mind wander but always bring back the focus on deep breathing.

3. Mindset monitoring

Many people fall victim to their negative thoughts. They believe the negativity and think that they have no control over what they think.

however, our thoughts are not our identity and we have the power to challenge and reframe them. To do so:

1. Be aware of your thought pattern. You can witness them without judging  or becoming them.
2. Give a name to your negative thoughts in order to seperate yourself from them. 
3. Interrupt them before spiralling. You have the power to say no to the flood of thoughts coming your way. You can also use the rubber band technique to interrupt your thoughts. 
4. Identify your triggers. 
5. Distract yourself with positive thoughts and projects.

4. Mindset improvement

After decluttering your mind from negative thoughts, you need to fill your mind with new positive ones.

To integrate a new mindset:

1. Challenge the negative thoughts whenever they happen and replace them with positive ones.
2. Accept the negative situation that you are in instead of mentally fighting it. This will give you more control over your thoughts and the situation.
3. Take positive action that aligns with your values, goals and priorities.
4. Don’t stay too long in your head. Instead, set a timeframe where you can expand on your worries. Then, find something to distract yourself from your worries.

Review

Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking is a collection of several blog posts from S.J. Scott & Barrie Davenport.

It is written for people who want to become more productive, who have problems focusing and finding their peace of mind.

Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking frees you from addiction, distractions, overthinking, from negative and unproductive feelings.

It gives you tips to help you save time, build up your priorities and set the proper boundaries. The tools given are common knowledge and may not work for everyone. I find that the rubber band technique is painful for no reason, is not discreet and is not helpful when it comes to reducing negative thoughts.

However, there are different options that can work for you and your situation.

Furthermore, there is no reason to get discouraged because these techniques require huge commitment and have to be practiced quasi daily for you to see results.

Let me know below what you think about this book!

Favorite quote(s)

Our powerful brains are constantly processing all sorts of experiences and
analyzing them in the form of thoughts. Thoughts form what we perceive to
be reality.

We worry about our health, our jobs, our kids, the economy, our relationships, how we look, what other people think of us, terrorism, politics, pain from the past, and our unpredictable futures. Our thoughts about these things make us suffer and undermine the happiness we could experience right now if we didn’t have that constant voice in our heads stirring things up.

Ratings 3/5

Author

S.J. Scott

Barrie Davenport

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