Have you ever routinely rounded a corner in your home only to catch yourself pausing with labored breath as your peripheral vision targets a dust collecting pile of books or papers? Overcoming or dealing with feelings of anxiety in relation to one’s clutter can tie us up in knots for sure. An alarm is going off inside our mind and body. If you can, watch yourself. Where does that knot go? Does it travel up the length of your spine and burrow its nose in between your shoulder blades? Is it accompanied by panic? A hot flash? Sudden irritability.
All signs that anxiety is running the show. Your electrical circuit is saying you better “hold on tight” or “run!”. There is a great article I happened upon last year summarizing how stress effects the brain and the body from The Franklin Institute. Learning to observe one’s reactions from a neutral distance is all we sometimes need to release and relax into a more prepared even stance when approaching our piles.