What Cleaning Out My Closet Taught Me
I woke up last week and realized I was holding on to a lot of stuff that was no longer serving me, and that I desperately needed to purge my belongings and get more organized.
Everyone who hires me as a coach, we go through a very similar exercise and one I live by every single day. Something felt different this winter and I felt that I needed a bit more purging.
The first order of business was to go through all my clothes and figure out what was staying and what was going.
As I started looking through things, I immediately noticed that a lot of the things I hadn’t worn in a while. When I did this years ago, I threw out so many things that now are too small for me, so I tossed them in the pile of things to donate. I found older jeans in my drawers that I pulled out and really couldn’t believe I wore some of them! They were such a low rise!
This is where I was reminded, at how much body freedom has changed me. I had zero feelings about clothes being too small or about having to let them go. It was the easiest thing in the world for me, and for once I had zero attachment.
Years ago this would have sent me into a tailspin of despair knowing that I had gained weight. I probably would have even kept some of the clothes, thinking that I would ‘fit back into them’ eventually. It would have launched me into yet another cycle of yo yo dieting and restriction, or into overexercising.
But this time, I felt nothing but acceptance. The clothes didn’t fit anymore, so I simply let them go.
Some of the clothes in my piles were moments in my journey where I remember buying them, but deep down they really didn’t feel like ME. It’s so amazing what wisdom does for you as you age. You are able to let go of A LOT of things that were once sticky points.
The reality is ALL bodies change and that’s what they were designed to do.
After I’d sorted through all my stuff and more clothes, I also felt freer and lighter – a weight lifted from my shoulders. I was letting go of the things that didn’t serve the body I live in today.
Isn’t this the practice we want to encompass in all area of our lives?
When we try to hold onto things – relationships, jobs, opportunities that no longer fit the current versions of ourselves, it’s like keeping a pair of jeans that don’t fit anymore. We are hoping that someday in the future, we can shrink ourselves back into them, when in reality, it’s just time to let them go and find a pair that fits our bodies now.
When we let go of the things that no longer serve us, we create space for the things that are more aligned with who we are now. That always changes, just like our bodies are constantly changing.
So, how do you know if someone is no longer serving you? Listen to yourself, your intuition. Life has a funny way of nudging you and telling you when you are being overwhelmed emotionally, mentally and physically. It could be in the form of toxic relationships or friendships. Start evaluating your friendships and relationships. If you start feeling empty, drained or uninspired following your interactions with people, it’s time to reevaluate said relationship and consider removing them from your life.
The same goes with a career or bad habit that isn’t elevating you to be the best version that you can possibly be. If you don’t let go of the monotonous and what you deep down know within your gut, you will never truly experience life at it’s fullest. So many possibilities and opportunities start to reveal themselves when you let go of what is no longer serving you. This is how we grow as individuals.
And trust me friends, this practice is not always easy, but I can look back at so many situations in my life and see in hindsight how much it served me to let go – of people, of things, of opportunities – even though it didn’t necessarily feel easy at the time. In fact, it sometimes felt so painful, but in the long run it was always because it created space for something better to come along.
Cleaning out my closets showed me once again how far my healing has taken me and how good it feels to experience body freedom. I now exist in my body with so much less self-judgment, and it feels sooooo good.
This is why I coach a lot on healing your relationship around food. Because I want as many people as possible to experience that kind of life-changing freedom.
It truly doesn’t matter if it’s a lifestyle, a job, a friendship, clothing, or relationship, if it doesn’t make you happy, let it go!
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