Clearing

My friend taught me about this method called “Clearing” to help with anxieties and stressors throughout my week.  Upon completing the four easy steps, in under ten minutes, I felt so much better about the day and my mood had lifted. I’m going to share it with you. 

Step one: Write down a list of “Fears, Concerns, and Complaints”.  These could include statements like, “my bedroom is a mess,” or “I’m worried about my academic future.”  You could also include things that seem “good” such as “I was social when I thought I wouldn’t be.”

Step two: Respond to the items of step one with that critical inner voice. For example, “my bedroom is a mess” might have a response like, “I am lazy.”  The idea of this step is to unearth your meanest judgements about yourself and recognize them.

Step three: Label each judgement as either interpretation or fact.  The difference between interpretation and fact is that facts require cold hard evidence.  Can you physically hold it and support it with evidence? For example, “I am lazy” isn’t a fact, it’s an interpretation of myself.  “Lazy” isn’t something you can hold, it is not tangible. The idea of this step is to show you that your judgements about yourself are interpretations that you have created.  They are arbitrary measures for how you think you should be living. Interpretations can be changed, facts cannot.

Step four: Move from Disempowering to Empowering.  The statements you created in step two are not empowering, they put you down.  Turn them around and make your interpretations about yourself empowering. Think of it as bringing something to your day.  What will you bring? I like to bring Space and Breath to my day. Whenever you feel anxieties or negative thoughts appearing, think of the space and the breath you are standing with for the day.

This “clearing” method has helped me greatly, I do it a few times a week (usually in the morning) to clear away the worries.  If you try this out and it helps you or you have any questions about it leave a comment in the comments section and tell me what you think.

Thanks for reading :)