5 ways to declutter your mind, inspire a chain of positivity

Creating a more focused mind starts with making decisions about how we spend our time every day. Here are five ways to declutter your mind:

Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness meditation, a practice that helps you return to the present when you become distracted, can reduce the stress of daily life. To do this, gently return your awareness to your breathing and come back to the present.


When people notice that their mind is racing or they’ve become anxious, they are typically thinking about something in the past or the future. To refocus on the here and now, start by noticing the sensations in the body.

Use the transitional moments of the day — when you wake up, right before or after a meal or when you change your physical location — to practise mindfulness.

Try The Bullet Journal
Jotting down thoughts in a journal can improve well-being.

One method is the ‘Bullet Journal’, an organisational system that can be an exercise in mindfulness — since it requires you to constantly reevaluate how you’re investing your time and energy, and deciding if those things are worth it.

Through journaling, one can also discover previously unseen patterns: The experiences that give one a sense of purpose or pride, or those that are seen as acts of service to help others.

Reduce Information Overload
A relentless news cycle sending a fire hose of information at us through breaking news and social media can leave us anxious, angry or even helpless, especially during a pandemic. To cut down, choose just one or two reliable sources and read them at specific points of the day. For example, a podcast while commuting to work can round up the day’s top events, as will a newspaper at breakfast.

For a more severe detox, a 30-day break from social media can be an option. Think of what you’d do in the time before you had social media. Read a book? Take a walk? Listen to relaxing music? Do them now.

Declutter Your Space
In the initial stages of the lockdown, many people finally began clearing the junk out of their homes. If you didn’t do it then, it can be a good time to do it now. Hiring a professional organiser to help sort through the mess can be an option, but for those on a budget, rely on a friend. Having a second person can be a sounding board to help you make decisions.

Reconnect With People
We may have lost touch with many people during the pandemic, and this social isolation may have had an emotional impact as well. And it might feel awkward initially to reestablish contact. But just be honest. Say, “We lost touch but now that things are calming down, I would really love to see you.”

It might even inspire a ‘chain of positivity’ where the person you contacted feels inspired to do the same with others.