Believing You Can Be Organized
If you’ve spent your whole life being disorganized, you might have a really hard time believing you can be organized. Even if you consciously tell yourself positive affirmations or think optimistically, there may still be a deep underlying belief you can’t be helped. If your subconscious doesn’t believe you can make a change, you won’t be able to. In this post, I’ll three of my favorite ways I like to use to help people get their subconscious on board so they can make lasting progress.
Your subconscious has many jobs to help keep you alive and safe. One thing it does not like is change! Since you’ve survived this long on Earth, it wants to keep things the same, even if those behaviors are not making life easy on you! When you want to make a change, you’re going to have to battle not only your conscious limiting beliefs, but those limiting beliefs that you can’t even pinpoint in your mind.
Metacognition
The first step is to recognize when you’re having negative thoughts about your ability to declutter and be organized. Whenever you notice yourself going down a mental rabbit hole of all the reasons why you can’t do this, I want you to catch yourself. Interrupt the thought. The easiest way to do this is by saying or thinking “what if?” Even better would be to say/think “what if [everything works out just fine]?” (or another positive curious question).
There are two main reasons why this works. One, you’re reforming new neural pathways. When you continually let your brain list off all the reasons why you can’t be organized, that mental thought pattern (or neural pathway) gets stronger and stronger. Think about it like a deep groove. When you’re stuck in a ditch, it’s hard to get out. The only way to make that groove less deep is to start forming another groove (the curious positive one). When the curious positive groove gets stronger and stronger, your thinking will start to default to that one, rather than the negative one. This will allow you to start finding possibilities and solutions rather than continuing down doom lane.
The other reason this is so effective is because positive affirmations can be hard to believe if you don’t have any proof. It’s more of a mental hurdle to try to believe that your positive affirmations are true. There’s nothing wrong with using positive affirmations, they might just take longer to work than getting your brain to be curious. In the state of true curiosity, you will start seeing solutions.
Using a Vision Board
This can be done in a variety of ways, and does not need to be elaborate. The most important thing to remember when you’re using your vision board is: you’ve got to be able to control your emotions so that you can feel gratitude that everything you want has already been given to you, rather than a longing feeling. If you continuously look at your vision board with a longing feeling, it will only push what you want farther away.
- The traditional vision board: Using hardcopy images or words to help you visualize what you’re working towards.
- The hidden message vision board: Use simple post-it notes or more decorative notes in hidden places that you see on a regular basis (like inside a cabinet door, inside a drawer you open regularly, or even written with soap crayons in the shower). Use questions like “what if organizing is easier than I think?” or “how am I inspiring others to be more organized too?”. Make your questions kind, loving, and approachable rather than questions that make you feel bad or bring out negativity.
- A digital vision board: This could be as simple as a photo of an organized space on the wallpaper of your phone. Or you could use an app like Canva to group together a collection of photos that inspire you. My favorite is to make a slideshow! Gather inspiring photos in an album on your phone. Even better if you include photos of yourself and the positive “what if” questions. When the photos are in an album, you can easily add/delete/rearrange photos. You can also set it to a slideshow and add music! Another added step is to use EFT tapping while you’re looking at it. You could also add a scent like rolling on an essential oil, or even a flavored lip balm. Engaging your senses in a positive way will make this more effective.
Hypnotherapy
Whether you work with me, work with someone else, or even just listen to a pre-programmed recording, hypnotherapy is the fastest, easiest way to provide lasting change.
I’ve provided two free recordings on my website (I called them “meditations”) and I’ll be coming out with another one soon.
Summer Solstice Decluttering Meditation
Springtime Decluttering Meditation
There are many other subconscious techniques I like to use and recommend, but these three are the easiest and most straight forward. They also work really well! How do you like to get your subconscious on board? Send me a message! I’d love to hear your technique.
Posted By Jean Prominski, Certified Professional Organizer
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