Hi,

It has been a few months since I quit my job and yet, I find no free time and everything seems to overwhelm me. For the past few weeks, I have been thinking of the various reasons why.

The only answer was decluttering my home, my schedules and my mind. I want to free these three main areas of my life from the shackles of everyday run down.

Decluttering the home

When I clean up one area of the house, it’s like I purr with satisfaction but, the next moment my eyes see the other corner which isn’t clean. I need to donate or throw away all that is good, bad or ugly in my home that is causing me to fret over my life everyday. The thought of the task in itself is so daunting that, I shudder to plan a path to freedom! I have to and soon else time will be up.

Time? What time? There is no rule that you have to clean up before Diwali but, this is where the mind comes in.

Decluttering the mind

It is also the freedom in thoughts. In fact, mostly it is THE thoughts.

At the mental level, there just has to be an acceptance that with a small child, I will not have the home looking as I had been able to maintain it earlier. Unless, I curb her natural instinct to explore and have silly fun, which I kind of love in her 🙂

I have to accept that there is no reason to feel disconnected if I do not login into some social sites or work on my blog for a day or two. There just shouldn’t be any guilt. The electronic devices are to make my life simpler and not more complicated.

The groups of friends and relatives are for me to feel blessed and not stressed in any way.

Everyone understands me but, me!

I have cut out my actual phone calls, my reading, my sleep and yet, should I not feel rested as my kid goes to school for four hours and I am no longer working with a full time job? I fail to because there is always something more important to do or manage around the house.

The grocery, the festival shopping, the online work (I still prefer calling it that!), the maintenance of everything broken in the house, the bank, the savings, the bills, the social calls, the everyday aches and pains, giving my child the best I can. Everything seems to sap my strength and my energy. It is MINE. My home, my child, my family and my life. Oh, wait, Is it really MY Life?

And yet, when I start to count my blessings, I can’t stop. I have met super people in my life and that includes my family, friends and even the helps.

At this point, I tell myself, “Take a deep breath”, “You need a break from time to time”, “You need to lighten up”, “Go out, have a life for a few hours every week”, “Girl, don’t just THINK, do something.”

And I did.

I started with music lessons which are once a week. I started with Yoga, which is one hour everyday but, I manage three times a week at least. I do my craft which may not be the ultimate in but it relaxes me. So why this “nagging” voice in my head which refuses to quit. “you have three items pending in your to-do list”, Oh no! “You have forgotten Diwali is so soon, start shopping, packing and labeling your gifts. Now, it’s only a week away, did you not finish?” I fail to understand why the Diwali cooking, shopping, gifting, socializing and cleaning is all left to the women?

There I go again with a complaint! It’s like my thinking cap is always on red alert. So you see, why decluttering my mind is so essential?

Decluttering my schedules, my daily life.

What schedules? Everyday they change. I seem to be awake one day till 3.00 am unable to sleep or I might crash around 11.00 pm. I am unable to get up early. I want to and I try to but the tiredness gets to you and my wicked mind which says, “Sleep when your child is asleep!”. There is sickness, absentees, holidays and festivals. All of which do not follow schedules. I seem to have four hours when my daughter goes to school and everyday those four hours are spent differently.

And yet, I find every waking moment, I am on my laptop! I don’t watch television so this is the next best option. I seem to think, I would do something useful on the laptop instead of the TV. If so, I should be getting a post done for my blog everyday! I also seem to be spending. Yes, yes, Money, money, where do you go? Or is it because it is Diwali?

Now, the key word is “seem”.

It seems like that to others and to me and yet, I do not feel, I am wasting my time. I don’t hang-out with friends, I don’t party, I haven’t watched a movie in a multiplex in a long time, I read a nice book when I took a vacation after ten months, I don’t snooze in the afternoon unless I drop (and I mean really drop off after days of insomnia) and I don’t have long parlor sessions.

Hey, I have started sounding so whiny to even ME!

Solutions for my home, mind and schedules.

Now, What I think I should do! I have to keep them simple, giving me no reason not to follow them. Call them Diwali resolutions if you will 🙂

Home cleaning, I have to plan it. There is no deadline for Diwali. Make your own comfortable deadline and stick to your plan as much as possible. Take it up as a project and release all the things which, I (Ahem! I should say WE) have not used in a while and all my (our) attachments to those. Yes mind, I know what you are saying, “You will need few of those things the very next day” and so, I am planning next to tackle you. Also some good organizational skills will make it all “magically beautiful”.

My dear Mind, let me go free. Be a pet. Do not make me fret! Ok, drop the rhyming! I must stop my thoughts from becoming vicious. So as soon as they start, I need to say, “STOP, form yourself in just a sentence and I will get your message anyway.” No circles please. I will also try to find some “quiet me” time and “quiet us” time with myself and my husband respectively. And the age old mantra – THINK POSITIVE, SPEAK POSITIVE, BE POSITIVE.

When I try to set any schedule, I start following it sincerely. I mean to but, after certain time period, it loses it’s charm. I become irregular and start neglecting it. What I must do is, try to understand the symptoms when I start to lose interest in my schedule and make a new one. It will let me feel, I am still in control. Nah! I must say “It will help me BE in control.” And everyday wake up half hour early at least and spend time in To-Do for the day so that I don’t think about the To-do for the weeks and months and make myself get frustrated for nothing.

You are not a superwoman and no one is expecting you to be one (other than yourself!).

Also, I must try to do some of the activities that I mentioned above. I seem to be thinking of myself as some martyr as I write, ” I haven’t done this and this and this!”. Don’t be crazy. Do them if you like them. It’s your life. It really is.

This diwali declutter your mind, your schedules and your life.

If you have any secrets you would like to share with me on decluttering, please do. Remember, Keep it simple, for me 🙂

Wishing you lots of love and happiness this Diwali.

Keep watching this space for some quick Diwali crafts.

Poornima

PS: It’s Friday. Yeah! Smile please 🙂