Declutter Your Mind & Home

There are so many books, websites & top tips about decluttering. Why’s it so hard to live simply?
Why do we accumulate so many complications & things? To start a good habit and sustain it we need power. Meditation can help me to keep the mind more in order and give me the power I need to sustain inner-happiness.

Transcript

Om Shanti,

Welcome soul to soul and we're going to look at how to declutter your mind and your home.

This is Rose from Inner Space in Glasgow and a very big welcome to everyone.

So when we look at how to declutter there's so many books and websites and top tips about decluttering.

I'm sure you've looked at some things.

So why is it so hard to live simply and why do we accumulate so many complications and things?

Why is that?

Why?

Why do we do this?

So to start a good habit and sustain it we need,

What do we need?

I wonder what we need?

We need power,

Strength.

So where can I get strength from?

How can I get strength?

Meditation can help me to keep the mind more in order.

So it's all to do with our mind.

I wouldn't think it's our mind we have to get in order in order to order the things around us.

So the meditation can help me to keep my mind in order to give me the power I need to sustain what we're going to sustain.

Inner happiness.

We all want happiness and then I need less stuff to make me happy.

So what does it mean to have a tidy mind?

And how can I think less?

How can I do this?

Why would I recommend daily meditation as the method to constantly keep my inner world fresh and bright?

So you think how does that connect?

We all know the basics.

A place for everything and everything in its place.

But in Raja Yoga meditation we learn about the mind and the intellect.

So meditation is the method to keep me checking what's going on in my mind.

Then I can use the intellect with spiritual knowledge to adjust and tidy up.

I make decisions with my intellect.

I can see what's happening with my mind but I can decide where I'm going to place things with the power of my intellect.

So it's an ongoing daily duty to myself as I create a beautiful space within then I can share this with others.

Okay.

So back to the first question why is it so hard to live simply?

Oh because we are attached to thinking we need more and more things to make us comfortable and to make things beautiful and to feel I have and padded out with everything I need.

So if I look at all these things I want to make my life comfortable,

I want to make it beautiful and I want to be surrounded with everything I need so that I don't feel that I'm lacking in anything.

Okay.

So it's about filling a need in the self.

So why do we accumulate so many things?

Habits.

What's a habit?

Again it's I need this for that,

I need this for the next thing and I need this for something else and I haven't got this and maybe I should get one of those and especially as time goes on and fashion changes and new items come on the market you think oh that looks good oh I haven't got one of these maybe I'll try that.

So you just keep looking for solutions or external toys really?

Yeah.

Those distractions.

Yeah.

Why do I need distraction?

What am I distracting myself from?

Why can I not just sit down peacefully?

Because we're full of sadness and sorrow and feelings of loss and we don't know what else to do to keep myself feeling satisfied and accomplished that I've created a good life and I've done everything that I could do because if we don't know about spirituality we try to do things physically.

So clutter is kind of just another word for accumulating anything that I don't really need.

Yes.

It's not just sort of rubbish in a cupboard.

No.

So do you think everybody has this kind of emptiness or sadness?

Basically.

It's just plugged up in different ways.

Yes.

Basically I would say yes.

Even rich people feel they haven't got enough.

They want more and more and more and more.

So why do only some people end up looking to spirituality?

People that are listening to this for example have obviously decided spirituality is possibly a good thing.

They've obviously decided spirituality is possibly an answer,

A way to fill the void.

I think when you've reached the end of your rope if you like and you feel it's become,

There's no other answers.

You've done everything to try and make things work and somehow inside you feel that I don't know the answer here.

It's subtle.

You might not even have acknowledged this to yourself but when you've reached a stage where you can't go any further you turn to look for answers.

Some will go to religion and some to spirituality.

Two different things actually.

And then you'll start to look at what's the characteristics of the self when you look at spirituality.

Certainly seems easier to just go down the shops and buy something.

Yeah but after a while there might not be many shops with much in.

So what will you do?

Shops are all closing down big time and people have not been making the goods and so there'll be a lot of stuff going out of fashion.

Yeah I can see how it could remove fear because you become self-sustaining rather than dependent on externals.

Because you see the natural way of us is to be able to sustain your own life,

To make things,

To do things,

To understand how things work but that was physical as well but now it's like have a look at the skills that are inside your own head and you'd be amazed your masses of skills of self-sufficiency.

You've definitely got them.

So if I need life stuff to make me happy does that mean that I would just kind of live in a an empty room?

No you would have everything that would make you comfortable but you see but you see to have less stuff means that you're more content with yourself.

You're not so much looking to get all the different new things that are happening in fashion and all the things that are pulling at your intellect.

You're starting to look after yourself properly.

You don't need to fill yourself up with a whole load of stuff just to entertain yourself if you like.

You're looking at the skills that are in the self and you'd be amazed at the skills of self-sufficiency that are in the self.

It seems to me you're talking about contentment a lot and it seems such a simple thing and yet I don't think many people are deeply content.

No.

Everyone will be discontent.

It just seems to be the way of the world.

Everybody wants more and more and more and what happens is you see the more possessions you have the more fear you have the more sadness you have the more loss of self-respect you have because you feel I've not got that.

It's the modern thing and I'm the only one that doesn't have one and you'll think what if I lose that?

My heart will break if I lose oh there was my oh there was my favorite oh gosh that was my granny's and I've lost it and I'm like oh my goodness what am I going to do now?

And so you would be sad and the more possessions you have actually the sadder and the more burdened because everything you have you have to look after and the more you have to look after the more you're using your energy up when looking after some cups and glasses and cushions and stuff and a carpet and things and you're taking away your life.

You don't think that you think you're just hoovering the room and tidying things up but you're actually using up all your life energy looking after these bits of stuff so the less you have the less it takes up your energy.

Yeah especially technology you buy one piece of technology and it sometimes takes you a week to get it what takes me a week to get it running properly.

So it's taking all your energy learning how to use it.

Yeah yeah.

So it's to know when you know what's enough.

What's enough yeah.

What about this aspect of mind and intellect that's really interesting it's like a place for everything everything in its place so the marriage of mind and intellect helps me to do that spiritually to know what is enough to know where I should place things in my life.

So meditation shows you what you've got and what you should do and the intellect tells you the method to do it you can work out a method through your intellect.

Your intellect can say that's enough and it can tell the mind just don't go there stop stop encouraging them to get more that's enough so if I could realize the power of the mind and the intellect and bring them together then I could start to allow myself to become content.

So it sounds like the intellect kind of went to sleep or something went wrong there because the mind's just going crazy.

Yeah the intellect just totally switched off.

It couldn't cope with all the rubbish that was going on in the mind and all the I want I need I'm going to have I don't care what you say intellect I'm going there I'm going to get it.

So it's like the mind is just going to I'm going to get that I'm going to get 12 of them in fact I'm going to make sure that they last me forever.

So we make sure that we're self-sufficient for a long long time because we buy up enough to keep us going and so the intellect can't cope with all of that much like this is ridiculous and so it switches off it becomes disempowered and we don't use it believe it or not we don't use the power of the intellect anymore.

The meditation encourages us to bring the intellect back into the picture and say in meditation what would be the best way for me to go here where will it where will I go here what will I do here what would be the method and it'll probably say throw all of that out and you'll be fine with just what you've got.

People would faint at the thought of that.

How can I bring back the strength of the intellect how do you do that does it need new information does it need silence does it what does it need?

Silence,

Encouragement and faith in the self-strength,

Peace all the different energies love how to love people you can't love people without the power of the intellect as well you can have peace but to love you need the power to know you have the power to be kind and have understanding and gentleness and encouragement comes from the intellect and so you need to be able to bring all that back into your awareness otherwise you can't be kind you can't be loving all you can do is you might be able to be peaceful but then you'll still be selfish.

It could be me me me I need I want I need I want I'm gonna have no matter what doesn't matter just get it do it for me I need I want it's me me me.

So the intellect encourages us to become more balanced lovely loving kindly beautiful people.

It sounds a bit like a spiritual sorter as well yeah otherwise I'm just gonna be in a chaos but I can't just do one clear out and that's it you said it's ongoing it's ongoing well you've got to stop keep adding to it again and again think well I've cleared out so now I can fill up again that's where the power of the intellect comes in it says no don't go there anymore you've been there and you had to throw it all away so here you are again so be careful just like stay alert stay awake yeah and have appreciation because everything you buy someone made it and you know you just have to look out to see that as I say a lot of things are not being made anymore and when people make things they hardly get anything for is the people that make a big businesses that call the money and so just be very very careful what it is that you actually buy yeah yeah yeah that you're actually people are getting abused and making things and forced labor and hardly any money and actually imprisoned and made to make things so what kind of energy is going into the things that you're buying and filling your house with the energy you're putting into your house your home your cupboards are crammed with things that people broke their hearts and died over cried heartbroken whipped abused and made these little gadgets which you've now got a hundred of them in your house yeah that energy is there in the garment that's a week up isn't it mm-hmm mm-hmm and we watch these things and then kind of forget about them yeah I've watched some things and it's good to remind that intellect needs to keep bringing these things here to the front say do I really need this and give good wishes to everything you've got and clothes just make sure you just keep washing and looking after them and giving it good energy and if there was any bad energy that you didn't know about and by having good energy about these garments and thankful and we've been so trained to extract happiness from stuff now to consumer our positive emotions from stuff to switch that round spirituality can allow me to do that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah how to do it meditation and good intentions and an honest heart and be touched by whatever energy people put into making things that you find use really find useful not that you're going to pile your cupboards up with but you find useful appreciation yeah so just finally overthinking is one of the most popular topics people ask for people are aware that their minds are stuffed overstuffed if someone is experiencing that state where just you cannot see the wood for the trees your mind is so busy how do they begin well not everyone can do it because it's I mean you could live with someone for years and tell them all this and they just keep looking at you blankly it's all to do with what kind of person everyone is so if it's in your fortune and you're touched by wanting to seriously understand if you've got a soft and gentle generous heart and you don't want to be taken from it's like taking from the poor it's almost like stealing from children it's like taking from those who can't defend themselves if you don't want to do that and that's in your character that you don't want to go there you want to find out how to put a stop to the way you think when you want to fill yourself up with the rubbish so what you would do is find a way to practice meditation and it's the silence and stillness that gives you the strength to begin to understand yourself you can't really understand others you can see the picture outside of what's going on but you can't really understand others and so what you do is you start to change a full stop to certain areas of yourself where you don't want to go anymore you get rid of the clutter in your mind and around you and some people well it's a little bit different sometimes according to circumstances with lockdown and all the rest of it so but apart from that nothing that's unnecessary and nothing that you would think was being filled with cruelty you just wouldn't go there okay so now we'll have a minute meditation so sitting peacefully the meditation is the method to keep me checking what's going on in my mind and then I can use my intellect with spiritual knowledge to adjust and to tidy up so whatever's going on in my mind I can tidy it up with the strength of my intellect and this is a duty a duty that's ongoing for myself and I can create a beautiful space within a balanced space and I can constantly keep my inner world fresh and bright but method meditation is the method and then Raj yoga meditation will learn about the mind and the intellect it's a daily practice teaches me how to think less and it gives me the power I need to sustain inner happiness I'm the soul in the center of the forehead I'm a being of light a beautiful loving kindly friendly spiritual being I am the soul the life energy in the center of the forehead Oh shanti you you you

Reviews

Lovely

Thank you, Rose ❤️

Very helpful. I know I collect too many things and have lots of attachments to items and objects that end up just creating clutter. I will continue meditating and working on integrating my intellect to this situation.

Lovely! I have been struggling with why I am holding on to things. This meditation helped me see a different perspective. Thank you! 🙏🏼

Wonderful! Such a gift

Wonderful! Thank you!