The de-cluttering diet
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The de-cluttering diet
De-cluttering is something we associate with clearing out, discarding and letting go of the things we have been holding onto that are clogging up our space, getting in the way, cluttering up our living areas and making it hard to find things, move easily and freely or just to have a place to work in.
It is no different inside our bodies – the space we literally live in every moment of our lives. Our diet can be cluttering up our body with stuff we no longer need. A De-cluttering Diet brings a playful but profound perspective to the extra weight – the clutter – we live with on the inside.
External clutter is easy to see – all the bits and pieces that make up the mess or take up the space around us that we don’t use and don’t need but keep anyway. Internal clutter works the same way.
When what we eat is not needed, we tuck or cram it away somewhere inside the living environment of our body and it has an impact on how spacious and clear we feel.
We clutter with food inside by:
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Eating to put something away in our tummy just in case we get hungry later
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Overeating because it tastes so good
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Eating what our body doesn’t need but what we want anyway
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Thinking we need a lot of food and being scared that less won’t be enough
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Eating to make ourselves feel better
And that is why we also clutter food on the outside by:
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Keeping food in the cupboard because we may need it one day
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Buying more than we need only to throw it away later
Cluttering is a habit that comes with an energy, a feeling of needing, holding onto things ‘just in case’ or because they were expensive, hold some sentimental value or we might fit into or need them again one day.
Things come and go all the time. We don’t need to hold onto them past their use-by date whether this be a day, a month, a year or years, because after that they become toxic to us. Just like food, if we haven’t consumed it or used it when it’s fresh, there is no way we’d want to eat it or hold onto it when it’s decomposing.
Similarly, and like clutter in our house, when we hold onto emotional issues – either because it’s all too much or we don’t know where to start - we avoid tending to them and they back up in the body, leading to constipation and blocked up rooms full of stuff waiting for us to sort through to either keep or let go.
If you’ve ever been constipated you know how much holding onto stuff, both emotionally and physically, can hurt. Holding onto old ways – old diets, old habits, the comfort of the past, the foods, clothes, stuff we don’t need – clutters and bottles us up, and keeps our bodies and our rooms from feeling spacious and light.
Making a start with de-cluttering, even in the smallest of ways, begins to diminish the fear and overwhelm that can be part of what keeps us overstocking or holding onto things.
Letting things come and go in the flow of life we are a part of – the very big picture we are all co-starring in at once – is a familiar joy our body reminds us of whenever our diet is in sync with this: eating foods that flow through every part of our digestive system with ease ... with no clutter symptoms like heartburn, tummy ache, runny nose, heaviness, dullness, funny poo’s, rashes, swelling, sleepiness, insomnia or disturbed sleep, nausea, etc.
With clutter, we suffer
The de-cluttering diet is about being clutter free on the inside. When we start to let go of the clutter – all the things we thought we needed to hold onto – the world doesn’t end; in fact we get to know, by the way we feel, that we are everything we need – not our stuff – and how so little of what we thought we needed to get by is actually necessary.
De-cluttering isn’t about going without – it’s about going within and saying yes to a feeling of openness, spaciousness and stillness.
Investing in you
Why not make wise investments from a place of love rather than unwise investments out of fear?
Filed under
Digestion, Over eating, Emotions, Body awareness
