I had a bit of an epiphany, as a good friend was helping me pack up and start the process to move into my new home soon: you need to trim the fat from your life. Now, in the past few years, due to various life circumstances, I have moved approximately every two years, so while I should totally be used to the process, I’m not. I am never prepared for moves. I get anxious about having to pack, so I stare at my boxes a few days before finally kicking it into high gear. But this time was a little different, I made a date with a friend who offered to help, we made a plan, and we attacked.
After she left, with boxes piled high, and me getting ready to dig deep and live off of reusable plastic plates for a little while, it left only the things visible that we put in piles. We left a trash heap that was stuff I held onto that could be trashed (or recycled…just out of my house), and then there were the piles of stuff I needed to go through. Ugh. The things I need to go through is stuff I totally know I need to go through but just haven’t because I am dreading it. Why? I have no idea. Now, I am not a hoarder by any means, but I have my box of important paperwork, and next to it, my pile of things that may be important but I just haven’t felt like going through them. So tonight, I did! And I feel amazing. I accomplished my goal of packing, and only kept the most important things, and now I have rid my life of the excess. And dealt with a bunch of things head on that I haven’t wanted to.
Physically I have trimmed the fat out of the boxes, but I also feel like this was emotionally a huge hurdle; I cut ties from my past, and now I can look forward, to my new life, in my new home. Totally fresh and a real new start.
It got me thinking though, that I have done this at various times in my life, that I have felt that I have held onto “friends” or kept people in my life that cause anxiety/drama/stress so I try to keep them at arm’s length, maybe because of our past I feel I need to hold onto some semblance of a relationship, but it has become toxic. There have been a couple of those people in my life recently, that I have moved on from. While it is always sad to lose a relationship of any sort, it was also so cathartic. Much like throwing out some of the stuff I have been holding onto that I don’t need, getting the negative and toxic relationships out of my life has made me feel infinitely better, instantly happier, and so much more positive in every aspect of my life.
Every two years, you should re-evaluate and re-focus your life. I am not encouraging everyone to cut out everyone they are having a tiff with in their lives, but I am just thinking about ways that we can all make our lives simpler, happier, and easier. Whether it is ditching the project that you started and never finished that causes you to stress every now and again (or just getting the gumption to finish it up), or go out on a limb and do something that you’ve been wanting to try, starting that eating healthy kick, or surround yourself with positivity: trim the fat. Get the extra stuff out of your way that is preventing you from doing what is good for you, or what you want to do. You are the only person who can make the right choices in your life to get you where you want to be; you are the master of your destiny.
Think positive. Live positive. Be positive.
Yours in Good Health
B
