Cleaning out the garage (and the mind)

I know there are people in the world who have pristine garages. A place for everything and everything in its place. They use their garage for the purpose for which it was intended and probably feel a flash of pride every time their garage door opens. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. I tend to use my garage as a catchall storage facility for everything I don't want in my house but can't seem to part with, everything that I have once needed or may ever need again, everything I don't want to deal with in the present but that needs a place to wait while I decide what to do with it. And I have absolutely no system in place to control the chaos. The bigger the mess gets out there, the more overwhelming it becomes and the harder to deal with. I tend to ignore the growing disarray as long as I can. But eventually, the mess has to be dealt with, and today was my day to face mine.

As I forced myself to make a decision about everything I touched--was it trash, something to be donated, a thing to be kept but organized or tidied--I realized that minds sometimes function like garages. We collect thoughts and feelings, all day every day. Some people are really good at keeping their minds in order. They are deeply in tune with their thoughts and feelings and are continually sorting through them to decide which are worth keeping and which need to be removed in order to keep the clutter at bay. But many of us struggle to maintain order, and before we know it, the mess in our heads has gotten big and out of control. But eventually, in order to be sane and happy, we must deal with the mess. We must examine our thoughts and feelings to see which ones are serving us well, which ones are only taking up space, and which ones need to be removed altogether. 

There were things in my garage today that were hard to part with because I've had them for so long or because they had sentimental value or because I thought there was a chance I might need them in the future. There were other things that were easy to dispose of or clean up; it was just a matter of taking the time to do it. As I removed trash and things that no longer serve a particular purpose for me, even though they once did, I began to feel lighter, freer, and happier. I began to feel proud of my effort and proud of the space. I began to have greater access to the things I actually need and want. And I know this is true of minds as well. We all have pet thoughts and feelings that we've clung to for a long time. They may not be serving us well anymore, but still we cling to them. We have sentimentalities that feel like a betrayal to part with. And we all have good and necessary thoughts and feelings that we will enjoy so much more when we can access them easily. 

We have to make decisions about every thought and feeling we have. Will we discard it or keep it, and why? Are the things that are taking up space in our minds actually useful, or are we just too lazy or overwhelmed to filter through them? It's easy to let unhelpful thoughts pile up and become chaotic, but when we are diligent to filter them and clean them up, we become lighter and freer and happier, and we create more space for the good and necessary stuff. The work isn't all easy, but it's definitely work worth doing.