198: Decluttering your Life with Angela Wagner

When you think of yoga, you might think of something relaxing, gentle, and filled with ease. Yet, as I learned from today’s podcast guest Angela Wagner, founder of Dallas YogaSport, the Power Yoga practice of the Baptiste school is the kind of intense sweat session that Type A motivated and ambitious professionals are attracted to.

(People just like our clients here at HTYC!)

They’re attracted to the Baptiste Power Yoga style of practice because it causes you to be so intensely engaged in the movement and the flow that you can lose track of time — and at the end of it, you feel completely exhausted and also energized. You surrender to the movement. Through that commitment, you experience both a workout and self-care.

Doesn’t that level of engagement sound rad? That same deep engagement can create deep, rich satisfaction with your work.

In order to get to that level of depth in your yoga practice (or in your life), you have to be willing to surrender the baggage that you brought into the yoga studio with you: the stress from your day, the worries about what’s for dinner, the questions about whether you’re getting a promotion. All of it has to melt away to allow you to get to the depth of presence and exertion that’s possible.

And it’s true in life, too: to become true masters of our craft, we have to let go of the buzzing of thought baggage and find work that allows us to settle in. It’s hard to do — but for the people who are willing to try it, the rewards of a de-cluttered mind and path are incredibly worth it.

If the idea of Marie Kondo-ing your brain sounds intriguing to you, keep reading.

This is a great place where the “how you do anything is how you do everything” principle can apply, and you can see how tendencies that show up in one part of your life will often bleed over into other arenas.

Pick a topic you’re feeling a lot of anxiety or discomfort around when you think about it. Whatever tends to send your brain spinning into a panic or stress is a great place to start.

What kinds of things drive you up the wall crazy?

For perfectionists, it can be having something out of order, not serving its purpose, or not fully being able to master a skill. (Maybe you’re striving to be a PivotTables master, but not there yet.)

For people who love to serve others, it can be someone in your life who isn’t asking for help but you can see needs it.

For individuals who value peace and harmony in their lives, it can be disagreements, relationship friction, or others’ feuds that weigh on your mind.

If you are the kind of person who tends to be overly accommodating and compromising, it could be resentment about having surrendered your personal power to help make someone else’s life easier. (The “I don’t know what possessed me to help pitch in on that deadline and cancel my sister’s birthday party” kind of nagging mental clutter thought.)

Or if you tend to be a people pleaser, your frustration probably has the word “should” in it, like “I should call my mom more often,” or “I should bring my lunch to work every day.”

Now take a moment to ask yourself: what items drive you nuts? What thoughts, beliefs or stories are distracting you, adding stress, or not increasing the joy in your life right now?  

If we treat these irritations and frustrations the same way we’d treat clutter at home, Angela (or Marie Kondo, for that matter) wouldn’t want you to have this mess laying out in the open in your living room, walking past it and feeling irritated about it every single day.

Instead of blindly walking past it or pretending it isn’t there, if it was a pile of trash in your home, you’d take care of it and throw it out!

You can apply the same principle to a mental cleaning: it’s time to take care of the thing that’s bugging you, rather than letting it sit and fester and take up precious mental energy.

So question number one to ask yourself is why is that pile of mental junk there? Why do you care? What makes that important to you? What’s keeping that thought at the forefront of your brain, rather than being something you’ve already taken care of?

Writing down your ideas and reflections about this can reveal potential hidden conflicts between your values, and help you see why you’ve been stuck in mental clutter.

For example, if you’ve been struggling with feeling like you can’t master Excel and spreadsheets, ask yourself why you care and what makes that so important to you. Is it because you actually want to, and you’re not creating the time? Or is it because you feel like it’s a skill that would help advance your career, but not something you actually have any internal drive or interest in learning?

Now, ask yourself: what’s most important right now? And, what do I need to stop so I can focus on what’s most important?

Having your brain hyperfocused on learning Excel like a dog hyperfocused on gnawing  a bone is often a symptom of a bigger priorities issue. Maybe what’s most important is doing work that you love, and you thought Excel was going to be something that you’d love, but it’s actually just a way to appease your boss.

Or maybe what’s most important right now isn’t learning a new skill, it’s honing the ones you’ve already learned.

Or perhaps mastering Excel IS the most important thing right now, and other things in life are getting in the way (stupid administrative reports, too many meetings, etc). By identifying what matters most, you know how to take action to remove mental clutter from your brain and let you get back into the focus zone you love.

The more you apply this process, the deeper you’ll be able to drop into the flow of your own life.

Tell us in the comments below: what’s a piece of mental clutter that’s been causing you stress? Why is the clutter there, and how can you focus on what’s most important so you can keep moving and get back into flow in your own life?

ABOUT ANGELA:

Angela Wagner is a mom, wife, entrepreneur, Life & Wellness Coach, Certified Yoga Teacher, and podcaster. She founded her successful power yoga studio, YogaSport, in 2004, and in 2010 launched the Spark program – a guided program that helps busy people create time, stress less, and enjoy life more.  In her coaching work, she teaches women to go from overwhelm and exhaustion to freedom, joy, and inspiration. Take the first step towards clarity with her free 7 Day Challenge:  7 Simple Steps To Make Your Life Sparkle So You Can Stress Less And Do More at www.angelawagnercoaching.com and listen to her Spark podcast on iTunes here.

RESOURCES:

Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Marie Kondo, Spark Joy

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