OK. So what does organizing my home have to do with reducing binge eating? Let me tell you, A LOT!
I woke up this morning and was so happy when I looked around. I was the only thing on my bed; no piles of papers, no catalogs, no unopened mail. As I started my day, I was confident I was NOT going to see chaos everywhere I looked. I felt calm, even proud. I had eliminated one of my most common binge eating triggers; a messy house.
But yesterday was a different story! Yesterday, my house was a mindless mess. For the past two weeks I had been preoccupied with my mom’s health issues and a busy work schedule. Yesterday, Don, my handyman, was coming over to do a handful of small tasks. He was going to be in many rooms in my house. Panic! So I set my alarm early to do a clean sweep. I knew I needed about one hour to make the house presentable (organize, dust, sweep the dog hairballs off my wood floors).
In years past, it would have taken me days to accomplish what now takes me 30 minutes to an hour, and I would have been binge eating through it all. 30 minutes to 1 hour to get my house ready for company is a miracle. It’s also a sign of how far I have come toward being mindful; keeping things more organized as I go…and toward practicing self-care.
How is keeping a clean, organized house self-care you might ask? Because when I like what I see around me, when I’m not scared someone is going to ring my doorbell, when I can find what I need easily, I don’t have to turn to binge thoughts to avoid or stuff feelings of frustration and/or shame.
Now, in the name of full disclosure…the green couch in my office, which tends to be a repository for everything that needs to be filed, was the one exception to my de-cluttering success story yesterday. But I’m OK with that. I like not being perfect! It’s so much less stressful knowing I’m not, nor do I need to be, perfect :-)!
