Tuesday 27 March 2012

"certainty and elation is the measuring stick for something being a part of her life."

If you have clutter, you should read Brooks Palmer. His book Clutter Busting isn't really about stuff; it's about us. He has a new book coming soon called, not surprisingly, Clutter Busting Your Life. I don't know this man. I just like his book and his blog.

Anyway, today a paragraph in Brooks's post Clutter Busting with Brooks Palmer: Permission to Let Go jumped out at me.

He was writing about a lady who had some papers in her kitchen. The papers were problematic, but she was resistant to dealing with them.

"I knew she had cats," he wrote, "so I asked if she liked her cats. She exclaimed, 'Yes, I love my cats!' I said that certainty and elation is the measuring stick for something being a part of her life. I pointed out that when she talked about the papers, she sounded depressed and exhausted. I said nothing is of value to someone when it takes their vitality."

This paragraph echoes something that my psychologist said recently. We weren't talking about clutter. We were talking about my life.

In particular, we had been talking about some courses I was thinking of taking. After a while, I told her that I actually have a dream. Not a sleeping dream. A crazy fantasy but-who-do-I-think-I-am kind of dream. Dr. V practically jumped out of her chair. You know that jumping move that you make when you're watching a sporting event and your team has a scoring opportunity? My psychologist did that.

So I told her about my dream. She categorically stated that she did not think it was crazy to pursue my dream.

Later, she elicited the fact that pursuing my dream made me feel, in my words, "elated, happy, excited." She said that those feelings are cues -- cues that I am making the right decision.

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