Does Your Living Space Make You Feel Good or Bad?

You may have heard this line before: “Your outer world is often times a reflection of your inner world.” If you haven’t, well now you have! I will tell you why I am bringing this up in a few sentences.

So, I spent this entire week cleaning my house from head to toe. Scrubbing floors, washing almost all of my clothes, while getting rid of things I no longer wear, throwing things out, vacuuming and reorganizing. So you may be asking yourself – “Why would Paula go through all of this trouble?”

There are a few reasons; things that I thought would make for an interesting blog.

• The first being to talk about the concept of clutter, disorganization and having a living space that supports your overall intention in life.
• The second being about self-care and
• The third about how your outer world can relate to your inner world.

So if you have been following my blog over the last few months you have learned that I focus a lot on ED (Eating Disorders), body image, food, health, nutrition and the power of manifestation and goal setting.

While cleaning up your space doesn’t necessarily fit into any of these categories, it does hold a very valuable purpose for your life. Even though I don’t know that much about feng shui, over the past few years I have been learning a lot more about energy and the power that it has in affecting our lives. I must say there is no denying what happens to myself when I shift my focus and intend on having my place be a beacon of self-love, self-respect and a way for me to showcase my level of commitment to my overall self-care.

I wanted to share this with all of you, because the whole concept of how your outer world is a reflection of your inner world plays a huge part in this. Living in our day in age, where we are all so busy and have tons of things on our plates, expectations of what we should be doing, often times our homes can be ignored and treated as not being a priority in our lives. Now I am the last person to say that my house is always perfectly tidy and clean, because when other priorities come up my house seems to be the last thing I think of. Though I find after a few days of living inside of a space that feels disorganized and in need of a clean, I find my mental state changes. My anxiety increases and I feel almost disconnected from myself, less grounded and feeling as if I am not taking care of myself the way I deserve. Often times a simple clean, tidying up or de-cluttering can cause your mind to calm down and allow you to feel more present and grounded.

This last paragraph relates to the three points I spoke about earlier.

The first being to talk about the concept of clutter, disorganization and having a living space that supports your overall intention in life.

What I mean by this point is that when you choose to realize that your purpose is to live in a space that supports your overall intention – meaning the goals you have for yourself and your life – you begin to see your home through a different lens. No longer is it simply just a place where you eat, sleep, hang out and relax, your home has transformed into something much more sacred – you safe place, your comfort zone and your means to support yourself in becoming your best self. This leads to my next point…

The second being about self-care.

What I mean by this is that I find when you live on your own, which I am doing for the first time in my life, there is almost this new level of responsibility that you have for your surroundings. No longer can you place the blame on roommates, siblings or parents for the reason why things are the way they are – your home is a direct reflection and responsibility all on your own. I know for myself when I care for my home and treat it with respect, I in turn am treating myself with respect and care. By taking the time to have it ignite the feelings that make me feel calm, grounded and connected to myself – which for me means less clutter, tidiness (not perfection), lite candles and dim lighting, I know that having my home be the way I feel super comfortable in, is a direct reflection of personal self-care. This also relates to my third and favourite point..

The third about how your outer world can relate to your inner world.

Think about it if your outer world, not only in your home, but in your life is filled with chaos, drama, dysfunction and negativity, where do you think that stems from?
You have to think of it this way the world will give you back what you send it – if you are walking around sending out negative thoughts, feeling shitty about yourself, complaining that everything sucks, being a victim to your own life, focusing on all of the things that aren’t working, complaining about all of the people who are bothering you – How can you expect your experience in the world to portray anything different!!!!

It just won’t – it doesn’t work like that – what you send out you will get back.

This point is related to so many things, but I want to keep it to the theme of this blog, which is around your living space.

Think about it, if you inner world is filled with thoughts such as not being good enough, not being worthy, or simply not feeling like you deserve true happiness in this world – how can you expect your living space to represent that?

I need to point this out though – this idea is NOT to get mixed up with all of you that are obsessive cleaners and need to have everything be perfect. Living from that state has nothing to do with self-care but everything to do with trying to get it right, trying to perfect and having a fear that if everything is not the way your mind has convinced you to believe it “has to be” that you are wrong and not good enough. I know this because I used to be one of those people!

I am not speaking from a fear-based place at all, but rather a self-care place that is founded in love.

For when you truly begin to love yourself, everything around you changes.
For when you truly begin to love yourself, you want to take the time to live in a space that showcases this and supports this.

So I want to leave you with a few questions around this to answer….

1. How does your space currently make you feel about yourself?
2. What would you have to do to allow your space to make you feel the best you can be?
3. What’s stopping you from doing what you need to do to live in a space – even if it isn’t an entire house or apartment, but even just your room, that supports yourself and acts as a form of self-care?
4. What are you willing to give up to no longer allow whatever is stopping you from question number three to stop you?
5. When are you going to start treating your home with self-care? Choose a date – I suggest today!

I would love to hear you responses about this blog and even your answers to these 5 questions. The more we share with each other, the more we can all grow together and help one another!!!!

Until next week!!!

PS. LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW – I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS!

Paula Galli, Hons. BSc. Psych, CNP, RNCP, ROHP
MOTIVATIONAL COACH, NUTRITIONAL COUNSELLOR & EATING DISORDER EXPERT