Mental Clean-Sweep

To Reduce Stress

by Nancy Wagaman, M.A.

This is a great exercise if you are feeling overwhelmed or having trouble focusing on what to do in your life. When you're done, you will likely have lots more energy and feel more focused and less stressed.

1. Do a "Mind Dump" Onto Paper

With lots of blank paper on hand, create a list of everything you've been holding in your mind. This includes your entire mental "to do" list, all of your dreams of things you might do, become, experience, or acquire (from childhood to the present), things you have ever thought you would do someday (like travel to a certain country, learn to dance, etc.). To get more ideas, walk around your house and look in closets. Then review your life year by year to uncover more items.

2. Sort Your List

When you can't think of anymore, go through your list and sort your items into the 3 following categories:

To Do: Things you absolutely plan to do or take steps towards in the next 6 months. [Transfer these to your official To Do list, and mark the top 10 on which you plan to take action, starting this week.]

• Someday Maybe: Things you would perhaps like to do sometime in the future. [Use these to start a "Someday Maybe" list that you keep for future reference.]
• Done or Dropped: Things you consider to be complete enough to drop, that are no longer working for you in your life, that you no longer want to do or that don't feel on-track anymore, that you are content to let other people do, or that you just choose to consider "resolved to my satisfaction." [Cross these off your list and consider them "done."]

3. Out with the Old, in with the New

When you are done, shred or burn your "clean sweep" list you started with, as a way of releasing those old things that you no longer choose to hold in your mind. This exercise usually frees up a great deal of mental energy that you were using to hold your mental "to do's" - energy that will now be available to focus in your new, chosen directions.

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