Messiness:
What to Do (and Why) for Those Who are Too Messy
by www.Sedona.com
Messiness is the poster child of laziness, disorganization, upheaval and chaos. To be messy is to be unproductive, misguided and lost. People who are neat, on the other hand, revel in their tidy palaces, able to find a receipt from a decade ago or eat off of their kitchen floor, if they so desire. At least, that’s how the stereotype goes.
Surely, there are exceptions. The office worker with the mound of papers for a desk who can find a phone number faster than you can ask for it. The messy homemaker who seems to be constantly cleaning. The child whose room is a disaster – but his appearance impeccable.
Yet, for some, being messy may be a loathed habit, one that has caused endless frustrations and missed appointments, but that seems to be an integral part of your very personality. Perhaps you don’t even know what it’s like NOT to be messy.
What causes some people to be messy and others neat? Everything from an underlying emotional issue (perhaps your parents were neat-freaks, and you rebelled by being messy) to not knowing how to keep things in order.
“For some, being messy does stem from emotions that are unresolved,” says says Hale Dwoskin, CEO and director of training of Sedona Training Associates. “For others it is simply a habit that has never been addressed.”
Is Messiness Such a Bad Thing?
Messiness is really only a bad thing if you perceive it to be one. True, it can cause you to become disorganized, and it will almost certainly cause you to be judged by others (your mother included), perhaps in an unfavorable way.
“The only danger in being messy is that you can lose things that you may need and you can be disapproved of by others for being messy,” Dwoskin points out.
Meanwhile, if you are messy in a “clutter up the house” sense, it can also interfere with your peace of mind. Getting rid of clutter, or keeping things neat, is a great way to allow your life to become simpler.
That said, there are those who maintain that being messy is actually a more efficient way to live. After all, if you’re messy you don’t have to spend much time filing papers or organizing your sock drawer, which means you inevitably have more time to focus on other things.
When it comes down to it, it’s likely best to be neither too messy nor too neat. If you find yourself falling victim to either one of these two extremes, The Sedona Method is an excellent, do-it-yourself tool that can help.
The Method teaches you how to release the underlying feelings that are making you succumb to messiness (or neat-freak-ness), such as pressure to stay organized, fear of losing something, or a resistance to conforming to “neat” standards.
“If you are wanting to change the habit of messiness, simply release your feelings about being neat and being messy so you will have a choice,” Dwoskin says.
When you have let go of the self-sabotaging feelings causing your messiness, you will indeed feel free to live a neat, orderly life, or a messy one, without feeling any stigma attached to it.
“Many people have gotten rid of tendency to be messy simply by releasing,” Dwoskin says.
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