The Art of Healing … making room for…. Growth, Prosperity, Expansion, Love… Creation
Have you ever noticed that you have your most creative thoughts while you are showering or mowing? The paper tends to get soaked and the mower is too bumpy to capture a complete thought, however. I call them my little moments of clarity. They come to me when I am doing mindless tasks. You’re probably thinking, “an experienced artist can force themselves into a creative zone anytime”. My best stuff comes when I am folding the laundry.
Mountains of mess and collections of stuff stifle my creativity. One may collect because they enjoy a certain item, look or subject, too often I see collectibles collecting dust. At this point I call it clutter. It is hard to be creative in clutter.
I am not just talking about things, there is also emotional clutter. Thoughts or feelings we hold onto. Fears; fear of loss, fear that there may not be enough. We are afraid that if we do not keep this thing or feeling we might forget and lose it forever. We can become completely full with thoughts of lack and limitation and this leaves no room for growth.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest and most fundamental level of needs at the bottom and self-actualization at the top.
The basic four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called “deficiency needs”: esteem, friendship and love, 
security, and physical needs. With the exception physiological needs, if these “deficiency needs” are not met, the individual feels anxious and tense. Maslow’s theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will focus motivation upon the secondary or higher level needs.
“What a man can be, he must be.” This level pertains to what a person’s full potential is and realizing that potential. Maslow describes this desire as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. For example, one individual may have the strong desire to be expressed in painting, pictures, or inventions. As mentioned before, in order to reach a clear understanding of this level of need one must first not only achieve the previous needs, physiological, safety, love, and esteem, but master these 
needs.
Tips on clearing clutter:
Paper: Touch it once. Notes from the teacher- respond; Mail- pay the bill, reply, put it on the calendar right then- then THROW IT AWAY!
Dishes: Wash as you go.
Laundry: Separate colors in bags as you pick up; if you have not worn it in a year give it to a shelter.
Clutter- Emotional clutter that becomes physical; this is the hard part….
The card your child made, the gift your sister gave, the shawl your distant aunt crocheted, the dress your friend’s grandma gave you, the broken down classic car…. Are these things bringing you joy or are they stacked in a scary room filling an emotional/insecure void? If they bring joy, store them well, but consider where you will hang that Van Gogh.
Heal yourself. Make room for new memories, make room for stuff that brings you joy. No one in their right mind will be angry if you throw away that broken figurine. We speak of white space in text and advertising, it accentuates the message. The same is true for our walls and our minds.
“If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.” ~Abraham Maslow
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