Ever since the pandemic started, I have been conducting an experiment in mindfulness. I only mention the pandemic because I have been home alot more than I ever have in my life (like everyone else!). When the first lockdown happened, I decided to declutter every single thing in my house and storage, with mindful intention toward the whole thing. I guess I was Marie Kondo-ing my life in a way, because I just didn’t like being surrounded by clutter and old projects all the time. I decided to declutter, streamline and organize in order to start manifesting abundance.
The results have been really cool and interesting and have resulted in ALOT of cosmic synchronicity and things showing up. Actually, the more I cleaned, sorted, tossed, and donated, the clearer my life became. It was almost as if I was throwing away parts of myself that I didn’t need anymore or that had led to bigger learning experiences. I was letting go of things that would be more useful to other people and that I simply did not need anymore. What I had expected to be an onerous, painstaking, time-consuming task became a thing I looked forward to. I committed to “one thing per day,” whether that was a drawer, a shelf, a plastic storage bin, or a box. Soon I was doing two or three a day, because I was gaining mental clarity on my life with everything I threw away.
At the same time, I noticed something really interesting– maybe because I was practicing mindfulness on a regular basis (or maybe because something more mystical was going on with the clearing out of clutter and releasing old energies), maybe because I was getting better at holding my focus and therefore inadvertently invoking the 17 Second Method, my manifestations seemed to be happening more quickly and abundantly than ever before. From March through December 2020, as I continued cleaning, I got a ton of money from an unexpected source, found the answer to a problem that had been bothering me for about five years, mended fences with my dad, reconnected with some old friends I had been missing, started a big project I had been putting off for a long time, and decided to wind down one part of my business that I wasn’t that excited about anymore (even though it had been my main source of income for about 2 years). That last one was the hardest, because I had been doing this particular job because it pays and because nothing else was really coming along, but what I realized was that nothing else was really coming along BECAUSE I was putting too much energy into the “day job,” if that makes sense. I also manifested an ideal scenario for a rental property (including a bidding war, which I had never experienced before), made my office into a place that is ideal for writing, thinking, and generally doing magic and law of attraction work, and so on. All in all (despite the enormously stressful circumstances in society and the almost-constant barrage of bad news), 2020 was a transformative year, and I attribute alot of that to this decluttering project, believe it or not. The more I let go of, the more I gained, and this was true with each passing month.
Now that I’m done with that ginormous project (and I mean– everything is totally clean and has a purpose, I know where everything is without even having to think about it, and I probably got rid of 50% of the total volume of stuff in my house (and that “day job” business), I really do feel like I can think more clearly, and it does seem like abundance is flowing into my life more freely than ever before. So, I can wholeheartedly recommend decluttering and organizing as a method for increasing your abundance. Organizing and getting rid of things is free (or it can even MAKE you money, if find stuff that you can sell or donate as a tax write-off), it is extremely satisfying to not be surrounded by clutter, and it can absolutely kick-start your manifestation and law of attraction practices. If you need a success story, here it is!
I was actually so impressed with how much my life changed once I started decluttering my physical space, I have dedicated 2021 to clearing out, organizing, and streamlining my digital life and my collection of projects I have started over the years. WOW! I never realized how many cool ideas I have started (but never finished) over the years, including domains/ websites I have been meaning to build for years, drafts of books I have written half of, courses I have started, and so on. It is actually sort of embarrassing how many things I have started, but I am finding that (exactly like the physical decluttering), the more I organize, the more I learn about myself and clarify what I want, and the more abundance is flowing my way (from sources that include these projects, but also from alot of other sources. For example, my “lost” tax refund from 2018 showed up the day after I purged 18,000 emails.
Coincidence? Who cares. It’s money! I’ll take it!
Here is how I am going about this huge project, which honestly might be more time-consuming than the 2020 Decluttering of My Entire Home and Storage. Seriously!
- I am unsubscribing to every email that doesn’t relate to something I current use, buy, or read. Previously I would just delete these, but I noticed that even taking a few seconds to delete unwanted emails disrupts my attention and takes a little bit of my energy. So, this whole year, every time I see an email that I don’t need, I am taking the time to actually unsubscribe. This has already lead to an interesting conclusion. I get distracted alot by “offers,” mostly for interesting courses or software. I actually don’t think there is anything wrong with being interested in new things, but personally I need to not sign up for/ buy anything new until I figure out what I already have (alot of which I have never gotten full value out of). This “Shiny Object Syndrome” actually got me thinking about something deeper in my life, which is that I have a habit of not having faith and taking the time to actually see projects through to their logical end. It seems like this is a pervasive thing in society today, but that doesn’t mean it is helpful with your life (or your manifestations). In fact, I believe that eery time you sign up for a new thing or start all over, it opens up a space where your energy is leaking out.Anyhow, this year I am dedicated to FINISHING everything I have started over the past twenty years.Wow, that was alot. Yes, I got all of that just from the fact that I need to simplify my inbox by unsubscribing to emails I don’t need anymore. Interesting journey of self discovery can start almost anywhere if you are mindful and paying attention!
- I am figuring out my username and password to every account I currently have and putting all of this login info in one place (with a hard copy backup in a journal). Doing this has streamlined my bill-paying process and has already helped me locate some lost money (again! money from unexpected places!) and to realize I needed to cancel some subscriptions I am actually not using. More streamlining, more simplifying, more found money!
- I am opening up and investigating (and giving my full attention to) everything I own online, including websites, social media, hosting accounts, domains that haven’t been developed, books that need to be updated, and so on. I have already found places where I am actually losing money (because of broken links or non-working code), discovered a whole audience of people on a mailing list I am paying for but not communicating with, and just so, so many other things. This part has been a little hard because I am seeing alot of lost potential and that makes me a little sad that I didn’t believe in myself enough to finish more things, BUT I am choosing to be grateful for this learning and growth opportunity!
- I am stopping to Google/ YouTube things that need to be figured out, which will improve my quality of life. By that I mean that I took the time to network two Alexas together and now I have stereo music in my house, switched my “to do” lists to run through the Alexa so I can streamline the “stuff I need” process, and finally figured out why my car makes that annoying honking noise when I leave my keys in it. Each one of these things seems like a little thing but has actually made a huge difference in my life. It really is the little things! This step has really made me feel so much more organized and empowered.
- Looking at every single habitual thing in my life (including vitamins, things I eat, exercise I do, things I pay for, and so on) and going “is this still working for me? Why am I doing this?” and if not, getting rid of it. Surprisingly liberating!
- Finish major projects you have been putting off. This includes things like “there is a large tree in my backyard that I know is dying, and I know it is going to be challenging to find an expert to cut it down,” “I know I need to get all the stuff together for this year’s taxes,” or “I have an enormous pile of stuff that needs to be shredded.” This year, I am proposing that we tackle one of these major projects per month until they are all done. If you expect it to take a month and you work on it a little every single day, you will be pleasantly surprised if you get it done in less time than that!
- Close open loops. Every time you encounter an “open loop” in your life, make an effort to close it. Set things to automatically update, fix errors, update credit card information, whatever it takes so things won’t keep popping up and bugging you. The “open loops” philosophy is described here. I am trying to do a little bit of this every day. It is definitely not easy, but after doing it every day for the entire month of January, I can honestly say that it is getting easier and I am feeling alot more powerful because my attention is not being pulled in a million directions all the time.
Since this is an ongoing exercise, I am going to continue adding to this post throughout the year as I come to more conclusions. Please feel free to join me in this epic decluttering experiment, because I am certain it will help to manifest wonderfully abundant things in your life as well!