The Weight of Our Stuff
“Simplify, then add lightness.”
~ Colin Chapman
Madelyn was mad. After years of struggling with her weight and striving to be healthier, she swore this was going to be the year she took it off and kept it off.
“I’m so frustrated. I just don’t understand. I met with my doctor and a nutritionist, bought three new cookbooks to help me meal plan and prep, joined the gym my next-door neighbor swore by, and met with my sister’s personal trainer. Heck, I’ve even gone to therapy. But the weight just isn’t coming off like I’d hoped.”
As she got up to refill her coffee, I said, “It certainly sounds like you’re doing all the right things. I can see why you’re frustrated.
Now tell me about your house.”
“My house? What does my house have to do with it?”
“Your house. Tell me about it. What is your home like?”
“What do you want to know, exactly?”
“I’m curious about your environment and wondering whether it’s supporting or sabotaging your weight-loss journey.”
With a hint of agitation, Madelyn responded, “Well, to be honest, I’ve been so frustrated with myself, I’ve kinda let things go. I’ve been wanting to clean out the garage for years and right now it’s so bad I can’t even get my car in there, my guest room has become quite the catchall, and my closet is a hot mess.
But what does this have to do with not being able to lose weight?”
I responded, “I invite you to consider that our homes are a reflection of us and we of it. And just like us, our homes can become unhealthy and overweight. And even though you’re following all the recommendations to lose weight and get your body healthy, if your home stays overstuffed, overburdened, and heavy, it can impact your weight loss. An overfed house can be synonymous with the inability to lose weight.
I’m guessing you’ve imagined and visualized yourself healthy. Now it’s time to do the same thing for your home.”
As Madelyn pondered this, I could sense a spark of hopeful consideration.
“Where do I even begin?” she asked.
“Nine minutes for nine days.” I answered.
Studies have shown that people with excess clutter are 77% more likely to be overweight.
Our natural world, the place we’re intrinsically hardwired to feel the most at home, is expressed through sequence and order. From snowflakes to flowers to honeycomb and spiderwebs, patterns, shapes, and symmetries are evident everywhere.
We are nature; therefore, our brains tend to favor sequence and order and innately feel the most at ease when exposed to it. When we’re surrounded by clutter, i.e., disarray, disorderliness, and disturbances to a space that are devoid of some sort of natural semblance, our subconscious is constantly working to make sense out of the disorganization.
When our brains are working overtime in an attempt to make sense of a nonsensical space, it takes a toll on our psyche. Overworked brains are stressed brains and stress can impact our weight loss in numerous ways.
Stress increases cortisol levels which can result in hormone imbalances, mental and emotional fatigue, metabolic challenges, increased blood pressure, unregulated sleep cycles, clear decision making, and anxiety which can all sabotage and hinder our weight-loss efforts.
If our spaces are constantly signaling too much, too weighty, too heavy, our bodies receive those signals and can mirror back the messages they receive.
If we decide to take a weight-loss journey but don’t take our environment and the role it plays into consideration, we miss an opportunity to implement an important piece of the weight-loss puzzle.
If our home remains heavy, we too can remain heavy.
In order to begin to feel lighter, it’s important we lighten the spaces around us, introduce order, change the frequency, and ignite change.
When our spaces are full of excess, our bodies can also continue to physically hold excess. If our environment is perpetually causing stress and anxiety while sending us messages of shame, regret, and remorse, it can have a tremendous effect on our spirit and hold us hostage by its heaviness. If we want to feel lighter, more vibrant, and free, we have to release the buildup of accumulated physical protective layers both on our person and our space.
In 2023 the weight-loss industry in the US surpassed $150 billion. By 2030, which is just six short years away, it’s estimated that number will double reaching over $300 billion. (Yes, billion.)
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report, in the second quarter of 2024, household consumer debt has reached an all-time high with a collective total of $17.8 trillion. (Yes, trillion.)
I can’t help but be curious about the connection between these two statistics.
It appears we’re spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need to fill a chasm of conformity often leaving many of us weighed down, emotionally drained, and financially fraught.
We live in a consumer-driven culture. We’re constantly being fed messages of acquisition, materialism, and procurement. We’ve been conditioned to purchase, store, and stockpile. Untangling and detaching from the messaging of more stuff and more debt enables us to create intentional and supportive spaces that aren’t weighing us down.
When we declutter, we release our home from its excess. When we release our home from its excess and introduce patterns of simplicity and order, we create an environment that sends us messages of lightness, buoyancy, spactiouness, and weightlessness which we will absorb, carry with us, reflect, and project.
Madelyn and I met up again about seven months after our initial coffee date. When she arrived, I sensed an effervescence and airiness that I hadn’t detected during our previous meeting. There was a pep in her step that had previously seemed absent. She looked radiant and appeared to be at ease as she walked. She seemed… sunny.
As she sat, she smiled. There was no need for words. Her body language exuded confidence and calm. There was no need to unpack what she’d been up to. Her demeanor, her lightness, and the energy emanating from her told me everything.
Nine Minutes For Nine Days
Day 1 - Spend 9 minutes outside in nature away from all your stuff. Just notice the spaciousness around you.
Day 2 - Spend 9 minutes sitting inside you home noticing the space around you. What feelings does it conjure? Does it feel heavy or light?
Day 3 - Spend 9 minutes wandering through your home just noticing your belongings. I invite you to be curious about how or why they got there.
Day 4 - Spend 9 minutes considering the messages your home is expressing.
Day 5 - Spend 9 minutes considering your dreams and desires. I invite you to notice if your home is offering support or roadblocks in igniting those dreams and desires into fruition.
Day 6 - Spend 9 minutes reflecting on what services you’re asking your home to perform. Become curious about its purpose and consider setting intentions and establishing boundaries to protect those intentions.
Day 7 - Spend 9 minutes pondering the feelings you’d like yourself and others to experience inside your home.
Day 8 - Spend 9 minutes considering if the vision for your life is in alignment with what you’ve chosen to surround yourself with. If you were to curate a space for your future self to thrive in, what would that look like?
Day 9 - Spend 9 minutes committing to what it may feel like to partner with your home and have it work with you instead of against you.