Creating space in your life
What are you holding on to that is taking up capacity and making it difficult to create space in your life for what you really want?
Clutter is anything that prevents you from clearing a path or reserving space for what you want or need. There are many different types of clutter which can be roughly classified as:
- physical — persons, places or things
- mental — thoughts, beliefs or habits
Simplify Your Life Course
Take the 13-step course to learn intentional living by focusing on what is truly important in life while getting rid of the rest.
The universe is continuously enlarging itself and so it may seem that space is boundless and there is infinite capacity for new stuff.
However, expansion is not always a possibility here on earth where there are limits and boundaries we must operate within.
Even in the non-physical realm, expansion is sometimes an impossibility. For instance, how many different thoughts or ideas can you entertain at one time before your mind becomes exhausted?
What does it mean to create space?
Creating space is a method of opening up your time, energy and physical space to allow more room to live, create and enjoy life. To create physical space, you may need to declutter, change the layout of spaces within your home or office, or even find new places to do the activities that matter to you. Creating mental space can include removing things or people that drain you of your energy, getting nagging thoughts or ideas out of your head, or having a clear purpose and goals to bring focus to your life.
Why you should make more space
You only have so much capacity for physical and mental stuff. As you near your capacity it will become increasingly difficult to bring forth new stuff. Once you reach capacity your ability to create completely halts and nothing new can materialize.
Clear signs that you are at capacity include:
- a sense of stagnation or feeling as if you aren’t growing, flowing or developing as you should
- a persistent unease with certain things in your life that no longer seem to fit with the person you are or want to be
- a longing for freshness or a deep set desire to do, have or experience something new
- the perception of disproportionate resistance against anything you try to create (even small things that should be relatively easy seem hard)
Another telltale sign is that life starts to feel dense and heavy. Perhaps you are feeling physically or mentally sluggish for no reason or it takes so much more energy to do everyday things than usual.
This is an indication of overload and overwhelm. Just like a computer runs slow when its memory is full, you run slow when you’ve got too much stuff draining you and dragging you down.
With introspection, you can identify the areas that need to be cleared so space can be freed up.
Things like toxic relationships, outdated ideologies, and the accumulation of possessions you don’t need are all examples of clutter that’s stopping you from manifesting your desires.
Regularly clearing clutter, by evaluating what’s in your life and letting go of things that no longer suit you, should be an integral part of your personal development plan.
15 ways to create space
Here are 15 ways to make more space that you can start with:
1. Create space by decluttering unnecessary physical and mental stuff. What are the things, thoughts, activities, and people in your life that you don’t want or need? Take inventory and keep only the essential.
2. Create space by developing a morning routine. Exercise autonomy over how you spend the beginning of your day. Mindfully use this time for self-care and self-improvement.
3. Create space by practicing gratitude and learning the art of contentment. We all want to thrive but should beware of our desires becoming insatiable. Be appreciative of what you already have before embarking on a quest for more.
4. Create space by embracing procrastination sometimes. No, you can’t give the middle finger to everything in your life – but when you have a strong resistance towards doing perhaps it’s a sign that you should stop, take a break and just try being. One thing that you may find is that when you delay less important tasks, you may well realize that they weren’t necessary at all. Have you ever had something on your task list that you felt like you had to get done, then weeks later, you realize that it wasn’t really worth the time at all? Focusing on what is most important and spending your time on that will make you much more balanced and less stressed.
5. Create space by saying no when you must. Think before you say yes by not confirming spontaneous requests or making in-the-moment decisions until you’ve had time to evaluate their importance. And don’t say maybe when you really mean no.
6. Create space by leveraging the 80/20 rule. Use the Pareto Principle because of all the things you have and do only a few contribute significant value and meaning. Focus on those things over all others.
7. Create space by managing your expectations. Do you have too many big goals, dreams or hopes? When there’s a gap between what you want or expect and reality, it can cause a lot of anxiety, frustration, and discord. Try to prioritize your big goals down to the most important few.
8. Create space by having discerning taste. If it makes you cringe or evokes any type of negative feeling when you look at it, it should probably go. If it doesn’t bring about joy or other positive emotion, perhaps you should oss it. Work on refining your taste so the things in your life are curated around legitimate needs and wants.
9. Create space by going on a digital detox. Be diligent in your use of technology. After determining your short list of minimalist apps and useful online sites and services, cut out the rest. The pervasiveness of devices leads to an overload of stimuli that distracts and disengages.
10. Create space by being mindful and in the moment. You can’t change the past or predict the future, so try not to let what was or what could be disrupt what is. Live in the present and be appreciative of right now, since it’s what you can control. This could mean creating space for yoga, exercise, or simply time for stillness.
11. Create space by overcoming scarcity thinking. Stop assuming there aren’t enough resources to go around, and that you have to take from others to have for yourself. Get out of the fixed pie mindset and think more abundantly. By getting away from your own limitations, it will feel like the world expands and provides more space for you to do well mentally and physically.
12. Create space by indulging in simple pleasures. Life feels richer when you start to appreciate the little things. What you take for granted are likely to be the very things that add happiness to your life. Indulge in them often.
13. Create space by understanding how to be happy. If your life feels arbitrary there’s a way you can feel more in control. Determine what you will live by, and stand for, with a simple soul-searching strategy.
14. Create space by admitting when you don’t know. Release yourself from the burden of having to know the answer to everything. Sometimes it’s easier to admit when you just don’t know, rather than put on a facade. Furthermore, if you feel that you have to be aware of everything that’s going on around you, this can also suck time and energy from you. Clearly focusing on the topics that are important to you and accepting that you may not have knowledge or opinions around other topics can make your thinking more streamlined and effective.
15. Create space by doing what you want so long as you do no harm. Take the complexity out of ethical issues by granting yourself freedom to live by your own rules — so long as they don’t impede on anyone else. This can apply to your time management, the things you like doing, or even how you choose to communicate. When you are constantly trying to keep up with the rules and expectations of other people, you will never be able to keep up.
The less I needed, the better I felt.
Charles Bukowski
Create a space to live your life
Creating a space to live your life is a simple way to think about decluttering your physical and mental space.
Decluttering is not just a home organizational tool, a trendy method of folding clothes or a cute way to arrange your closet so it’s Instagram-worthy. It is a pertinent life principle that’s essential to the manifestation process. Think of the spaces in your life as the playing field in which the game of your life will play out. The environment that you create around you should be optimized to maximize your mind, body, soul and relationships. Taking the time to get clear on what you need around you will make it easier to take on life’s daily tasks, both big and small.
A great place to start is by isolating the areas of your life (work, relationships, hobbies, home, etc.) and breaking down categories (mental, physical, spiritual, etc.). When you examine each element for each of the aspects in your world, you can start to see the places that really need your attention. From there, you can start to free your mind and organize the actions that you need to take to get a new world in which you can thrive.
