The Mental Benefits of Tidying Up

By Seth J. Gillihan, PhD

Marie Kondo has sparked a de-cluttering craze with her new Netflix show Tidying Up. And I’ll admit it—I’ve caught the bug. I felt an unexpected sense of excitement recently as I talked with my wife about all the de-cluttering we needed to do, and then I spent a couple hours getting to work on my closet. The results were deeply satisfying, including ample room for my backpack, which previously lived in a corner on the dining room floor.

As a psychologist, I’ve long been interested in how our living space affects our mental health. Why is clutter so distressing? And why are clear surfaces so pleasing, not just aesthetically but emotionally? Better organization seems to have the following benefits on our well-being:

• It shows that we care for ourselves. Every time I open my recently cleaned closet, it feels like someone just gave me a gift. Even when we’re the ones who did something nice for ourselves, it can give us the feeling that we’re worth taking care of.

• It offers a sense of satisfaction. Even if your clutter is stuffed in closets and drawers, you know it’s there, and it can feel like a continual accusation of your inadequacy. When we take care of our space, it gives us a feeling of accomplishment, which our brains find tremendously rewarding. So every time you open that previously junky kitchen drawer, for example, you get to pat yourself on the back rather than criticize yourself.

• It makes cleaning easier. When books and papers are stacked on end tables or the kitchen counters are cluttered, it’s hard to do a satisfactory job of cleaning them. And who knows what’s lurking in those piles and behind the mess?

• It fosters clear thinking. Clutter fills our visual fields and gives our brains endless stimuli to process. As a result, it’s harder to focus on tasks, as there are more things to draw our attention. In contrast, tidy spaces let our brains relax, increasing our mental space and concentration.

• It improves efficiency. The more stuff we have and the less it’s organized, the harder it is to find what we need. For example, I have batteries in three or four places and never know where to look for the right size or when I need to buy more (I’ll be organizing them as soon as I finish this post). The time we invest in organization pays off in future savings of time and energy.

• It decreases frustration. Much of the stress we experience comes from daily hassles—a can opener that won’t work, a missing tape measure, a junk-crammed drawer. We often underestimate the effect that these seemingly small annoyances have on our well-being; for example, something as minor as a misplaced measuring spoon can affect whether we end up in an argument with our partner. Thus, a well-organized home can have wide-reaching effects on our mood, happiness, and even relationships.

• It can catalyze further change. Making changes in our living space gives us momentum that we can carry into other areas of our life. For example, we might use our newly cleaned off desk to launch that job search we’ve been meaning to do, or use a nicely organized kitchen to start preparing more healthful meals. Let yourself be surprised by where tidying up can take you.

Now, time to organize those batteries ...


https://blogs.webmd.com/mental-health

How Stepping Outside Could Change Your Day

By Seth J. Gillihan, PhD

When my three young kids are at each other’s throats, sending them outside to play is one of the most reliable ways to make the fighting stop. There’s something about being outdoors that makes kids more agreeable—not always, but often.
Going outside can have similar benefits for adults. I’ve found that even a quick trip to take out the trash can improve my state of heart and mind, as I breathe in the fresh air and look up at the sky. Whether I’m feeling stressed, gloomy, or restless, my mood generally improves the minute I set foot out the door.
What is it about being in the great outdoors that can have such a powerful effect on our well-being?


Stress Reduction
 
Research has shown that being outside activates the calming part of the nervous system, and quiets the fight-flight-or-freeze stress response. You can often feel this effect with the first breath you take outside: Your shoulders relax, your mind clears, and things just seem lighter. We can take our stress with us when we’re outside, of course, but it’s easier to let it go.
Action Step: When you’re stuck with difficult emotions, spend a few minutes outside. Focus on your senses or on an activity, rather than trying to change your mood, and see what happens.


Broadened Perspective 
 
Staying indoors can put us in a small frame of mind. Like goldfish who grow to match the size of their container, our imaginations can be limited by the size of a room and height of the ceiling. It can be especially easy to focus narrowly on our imagined problems, like seeing them through a telescope, as we ignore everything else.
Stepping outside expands our point of view. We’re reminded that the problems we mistook for all of reality are but a speck on a speck in the vastness of the universe. We regain a rightful sense of scope and perspective.
Action Step: Step outside and look up at the sky. Notice what’s happening with this particular sky at this particular time—the color, the light, the clouds or stars. Be reminded that there’s a whole universe that you’re a part of, that goes on pretty much the same with or without you.

Technology Break

 

When we’re inside, we’re almost always in close proximity to a computer, phone, or tablet. The first hint of boredom will compel us to reach for our phones, which stops the boredom but does little for our long-term well-being. While digital devices promise to deliver the world at our fingertips, in reality they shrink our universe to the size of a two-dimensional screen.  

Going outside can offer a break from screens (provided you leave them behind, of course). Most of us feel a jolt of uneasiness at the thought of venturing anywhere without our phone, and if we move through that initial reaction, we usually find a great sense of relief on the other side.

Action Step: Go for a walk without your phone. See what you notice that you usually miss when you’re looking at a screen.  

Connection to Others

 

Going outside often opens the possibility of having positive social interactions, like with your neighbors, which can provide a mood boost. There’s also a different quality of connection with the people you live with when you’re outdoors—especially when you’re walking side by side. The simple act of moving through the world shoulder to shoulder embodies a sense of togetherness. Walking together also tends to change the quality of the conversation, versus sitting together inside.

Action Step: Make a date to walk with a friend, or go on a walk with someone you live with.

Renewed Spirit

 

Being surrounded by human-made things eventually is exhausting, and the deepest part of you—your spirit—longs for the outdoors. We’re often not aware of this longing until we step outside, like not realizing we’re famished until we start to eat.

Your spirit resonates with the outdoors, in a way that’s easier to sense than to describe. There is something that feels true and right about being outside, as though the core of your being recognizes itself in the natural world.

Action Step: Stand outside with your hands at your sides. Feel your feet on the ground. Look around and take in what you see. Feel the air as it fills your lungs. Notice what it’s like to be a living being in this world.

If you spend most of your time indoors, find a way each day to be outside. It doesn’t have to be for hours on end—just spend a few minutes between activities, or when you need to clear your head. Invite others to join you, if possible. See what happens as you make outdoor time a daily habit.  

https://blogs.webmd.com/seth-gillihan-phd 

Writing as Therapy

The next wave of writing therapy is a throwback to expressive journaling that attempts to make sense of past stress

 

Article by:

• Katie Hurley, LCSW

A few years ago, a study came out claiming that reading books could make you live longer. Other studies confirmed the benefits of a good book: reading could reduce cognitive decline, encourage empathy, decrease stress, stave off dementia, boost happiness, and reduce some of the symptoms of depression.

For decades mountains of research have shown the benefits of writing too: It helps you work through your thoughts and emotions, regulates your feelings, and teaches you to express what you’re going through.

The Mental Benefits to Writing

In a classic experiment, James Pennebaker, PhD., University of Texas, assigned healthy undergraduates to one of four groups. All were asked to write for 15 minutes for four consecutive nights. Three of the groups were asked to write about some traumatic event in their lives; the fourth group wrote about some other trivial topic. All four groups were then tracked for the next six months and researchers found that the three groups who wrote about traumatic events had fewer visits to the health center.

Since that seminal work by Pennebaker and his colleagues, many more studies replicated similar findings showing a connection between expressing emotions and enjoying good health. Pennebaker has also written several books, Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions, Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering From Trauma and Emotional Upheaval, and Opening up By Writing Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain.

His work is often the basis for writing therapy workshops and interventions. They typically start with the same fundamentals of his early experiments and go something like this:

For the next 3 days, I would like for you to write about your very deepest thoughts and feelings about the most traumatic experience of your entire life. In your writing, I’d like you to really let go and explore your very deepest emotions and thoughts. You might tie this trauma to your childhood, your relationships with others, including parents, lovers, friends or relatives. You may also link this event to your past, your present or your future, or to who you have been, who you would like to be, or who you are now. You may write about the same general issues or experiences on all days of writing or about different topics each day. Not everyone has had a single trauma but all of us have had major conflicts or stressors—and you can write about these as well. All of your writing will be completely confidential” (Pennebaker & Chung, 2011, p. 419).

In the past couple of years we’ve heard a lot about gratitude journaling, but this more focused, expressive writing might be the next wave of writing therapy. Whether you use journal prompts created by a therapist or written in a book designed to help people work through emotions (like Pennebaker’s) or simply put pen to paper and write freeform based on the instructions from Pennebaker’s original research, writing can provide a healthy outlet to work through ups and downs.

The one caveat: If you’re suffering from moderate to severe depression or PTSD writing can open raw emotions without proper closure. And therapeutic writing isn’t recommended immediately following a traumatic event since you might not yet be prepared to face the flood of emotions writing can stir.

Article continues below

The Physical Benefits to Writing

In addition to the mental benefits, writing can even improve physical wellbeing. Research by Dr. Pennebaker and Joshua Smyth PhD., Syracuse University, suggests that writing about emotions and stress can boost immune functioning in patients with HIV/AIDS, asthma, and arthritis. There has even been research showing the biopsy wounds heal more quickly in patients who journal.

While scientists can’t say exactly how therapeutic writing benefits work, the consensus is that the writing shouldn’t just be a replaying of the events but should make attempts to understand and contextualize them. Susan Lutgendorg, PhD., of the University of Iowa did an extensive journaling study where she found that the writer needs to “find meaning in a traumatic memory as well as to feel the related emotions to reap the benefits.”

Pennebaker agrees with the assessment saying people who write words that indicate growth or change from the experience like “because,” “realize”, “understand” tend to have better outcomes.

How to Start Therapeutic Writing

Try these five steps to get started:

1. Carve out time. You don’t have to do it every day, but aim for 15 minutes three to four days a week.
2. Experiment with your method: There’s nothing magic about writing by hand, you could try typing or doing voice memos. The point is to be thoughtful about the experience.
3. Find the right place:Where you write can affect how you feel about it and whether or not it “works.” The most important thing is having a quiet place.
4. Don’t edit yourself: Part of the exercise is to access your feelings and you can’t do that if you’re constantly redirecting yourself.
5. Reread…just not right away: It’s a good idea to go back and see what you’ve written, but don’t get carried away with it. If you read your previous entries before you start, it might influence what you end up writing.

 https://www.psycom.net/mental-health-wellbeing/the-healing-power-of-writing/