Remove Emotional Clutter for a Better Love Life

If you’ve noticed that clutter may be a real issue in your house, perhaps it’s time to take a step back and start by looking at your emotional clutter first. By removing this emotional “stuff” from your life as needed, you can better organize your physical belongings and even lead a better love life.

June Saruwatari is the author of Behind the Clutter: Truth, Love, Meaning, Purpose, which goes over the four major things you need to ask yourself for each piece of emotional clutter. Saruwatari believes that layers of mental, spiritual and emotional “stuff” can manifest itself in the form of physical clutter. In a way, clearing up your physical clutter will help your mind clear up as well.

When tackling mental clutter, it helps to have an almost child-like perspective and ask yourself: truth, love, meaning, and purpose. Is the item truthfully you? Do you absolutely love it, or is it a “sort of” like? Does it have any meaning to you specifically? And, lastly, does it have a purpose, or will it serve a purpose in the future?

Saruwatari uses a ring for example. That ring may have been from an ex-boyfriend, but is that truthfully why it’s in your life? If so, do you still love the ring? If you hesitate on the answer, you can already get an idea of whether or not you should keep it. Does the ring still have meaning to you? It may represent a part of your past although it’s no longer part of the present. Finally, think about the purpose. Why do you still have it? If its purpose is to remind you to never give yourself away as easily again or lose yourself in a relationship, then it may be worth keeping. If however you can’t come up with a solid answer, it is probably time to move on.

Anyone can benefit from getting rid of mental clutter using Saruwatari’s techniques, including kids, families, couples, and even entire companies. Practice it to understand yourself better, and it will feel liberating once you remove those items from your life. It may be difficult to remove items that once meant more to you, but it does get easier to decide what should stay and what should go once you do it a few times.

Spending time removing emotional clutter from your life will not only help you, but it may also improve your love life. Saruwatari believes “truth, love, meaning, purpose” can extend into relationships to help determine if you are in a toxic or healthy relationship, and whether or not you should continue to be emotionally invested.

Referring back to the ring example, Saruwatari says, “Once it comes down to something you want to share, a lot of times it’s hurt feelings. By doing truth, love, meaning, purpose, you can help disarm the negative emotional clutter and help yourself grow, and nurture your love life.” Instead of attacking someone personally, going over the four words to yourself can give you a clearer sense of being, removing any negative energy you may be bottling up.

In the accompanying audio segment, special guest June Saruwatari joins Wellness for Life Radio to explain how organizing your emotional “stuff” can help you rediscover a happier life for both you and your partner.