Hi,
This is Brooks Palmer,
And thanks for joining me for this talk.
Today we're going to go more in depth with clutter busting,
But decluttering.
And I wanted to say one thing I've noticed from doing this for about 20 years is that most of us feel like things are more important than us.
And we've really been raised on that idea.
You know,
We continually see ads ever since we were very little that show a person who's in a lot of pain physically or emotionally,
And they get a product or service,
You know,
Whatever the advertisement is,
And suddenly they're happy again.
They're like,
They're fulfilled.
It's more than happy,
It's like fulfilled.
You can see it like,
It's like pure deep happiness.
And you see that message repeated over and over again,
And you end up feeling like there's something wrong with me.
I need something to be okay.
I'm not okay as myself.
You can't help but feel that.
And as a result of that,
We end up addicted to things,
Addicted to getting things,
Feeling like things are going to fulfill me,
That everything's going to be okay once I get,
You know,
Filled in the blank.
It could be a thing,
It could be a situation.
And most of us live day to day with that feeling on some level.
It's usually unconscious though.
And then basically we end up suffering as a result because we feel there's something wrong with us,
That we're not okay.
And this really never gets called into question.
It's just assumed there's something lacking in me and I need whatever it is.
It could even be spiritual,
You know.
If I could just learn to be more forgiving or more loving,
Or if I just become enlightened,
You know,
Or if I could just be more compassionate,
Then I'll be okay.
And I really challenge that.
I really challenge it fully.
And I encourage people,
I encourage you to question that.
Is that true?
Is that really true?
It's my feeling,
My real deep feeling is that as you are is okay.
You are okay as you are.
No matter if you're in pain or you're having difficulty or life is hard in some way or another,
I still think you're okay.
And whenever I go to work with somebody for decluttering,
They're usually in some bad state like feeling overwhelmed and such like that.
But I never feel that they're in a bad state.
I feel they're okay as they are.
But I think they're going to feel some relief if they start removing these things that they brought into their lives to try to make them better,
You know.
And that's what happens.
People start questioning the things that they brought into their life.
They realize quite a lot of it is not serving them at all.
And they get their life back,
You know.
It's not like they become something new.
It's just they remove something that's draining them.
And living a life feeling like you're not enough is very draining.
And living with things or activities like that you feel are going to make you better,
More whole,
More real,
You get drained.
Because essentially we really are okay as we are.
I'm being okay,
I mean we're enough.
Because I can see that because I've worked with people who are famous like celebrities or have quite a lot of money or have things that a lot of people think if I only had that I'd be okay.
And they feel miserable,
You know.
They're not happy.
A lot of them aren't happy.
And so it really comes down to starting to question the whole belief system that pretty much all societies are built up on,
Especially in here in the United States.
And starting to say like,
Am I truly okay as I am?
If I get so and so,
Are all my problems going to disappear?
Or am I just going to be the same person with this thing,
With this additional thing in my life?
That's not to say things are bad,
You know.
Things are very useful.
I'm recording on my phone to be able to talk about this and send it out there so you can listen to it.
This phone is very useful.
It's not fulfilling,
It's not changing my life,
It's not the ultimate,
You know.
Although Apple products want me to believe that,
It's functional.
It takes care of things,
You know.
And essentially I'm okay with or without this phone.
But it's nice to have it,
You know.
It allows me to do certain things that make life easier for me.
And that's okay,
That's what things are here for.
But again,
I'm okay whether I have this or not.
At one point I never had this phone,
And now I do.
I was okay in both situations.
So I talk about this just to invite in that idea,
To create that crack,
You know,
In the whole system of things being more important than us,
Just to create a crack in it.
Because like Leonard Cohen says in that song,
You know,
A crack is what lets the light in.
And so I encourage you to consider that,
That you're okay as you are.
And that you're enough.
You truly are enough.
I've never met anybody who I thought wasn't okay or wasn't enough,
Regardless of their life situation.
And once you start,
That was a fork.
I was just moving a fork on a plate.
Once you start being open to that idea,
It really changes your life around quite a lot.
You know,
There's something very wonderful about feeling I'm enough,
Regardless of what I have,
Or what I'm doing,
Or what people think of me.
I'm enough.
So thank you for listening.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate you.
And thank you for listening.
Bye.
