Untangle Your Life – Part I

I love how the universe has a way of connecting bits and pieces of life together in order for them to take shape and manifest into a dynamic shift, an experience that is remembered or even viewed as metaphoric. I had a seemingly insignificant activity recently that turned out to be fairly profound, as I began to see hidden metaphors emerging.

There is an area in my bathroom that houses my jewelry. It was starting to look sloppy from not organizing pieces as I took them off, instead just loosely placing them in the general area. Hair and other particles seemed to be visible now. It was getting borderline gross. Also, there were pieces of jewelry that had gotten tangled together after a trip where I’d stored them together. There was one necklace that had it pretty bad. It was not looking like it would be an easy fix. Over the course of several weeks I would eyeball this space and think how I really needed to make some time to clean it up and fix my jewelry so I could wear it again.

“We are what we repeatedly do; excellence is not an act but a habit.”
– Aristotle

Over the weeks, I managed to de-tangle a few chokers and necklaces that were entwined. It only took a few minutes. It felt like progress. However, there remained the very knotted necklace that I knew would take more time. The area still needed to be cleaned and organized. It was starting to get under my skin, as cleanliness and order are things I value. Sidebar: I was at lunch with a friend who showed me a picture of her in-laws’ bathroom. She was remarking how cluttered and disorganized everything was. While spending time with them, my friend went through that whole bathroom, weeding out the items that were unnecessary or no longer needed. My friend is naturally gifted in cleanliness and order.

The photograph she shared was a great reminder to me that being disorganized was not something I wanted to be. Two days later, the thought wouldn’t go away. It was time to clean this area and to untangle the last necklace. Since I knew it was going to take awhile, I kept convincing myself that I had way more important things I needed to be doing with my time. Ha! Then the small voice inside said “just do it and be done.”

Lesson 1: Decision. Commitment to an endeavor.

The organizing and cleaning up of dust, dirt and hair went fairly quickly.

Lesson 2: Knock out the little things. Now it was time for that necklace. At first it didn’t seem like there was a place to start. Yes, it was that bad. With tweezers in hand, I started pulling pieces of the chain. Bit by bit it loosened. This process took over 30 minutes. Many times I was tempted to put it down and come back to it later. Since I had already done that many other times over the weeks, I remembered my commitment to get it done this time.

Lesson 3: Follow through. Finish.

“You are going to want to give up. Don’t!” – Unknown

As I saw and felt the mess breaking free, the last strand just easily pulled apart. In that moment it seemed like it hadn’t taken any effort at all. It was back to its perfectly natural state. Even though I knew the amount of time it had taken, the freedom that was felt in resolving this made it feel like it took no time at all. The exhilaration of an issue resolved felt very liberating.

Lesson 4: It feels good to accomplish something.

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”
– Tony Robbins

Lesson 5: The parallels to life. This little activity reminded me of all the things that can get tangled up in life. Relationships, family, identity, right and wrong, beliefs, thoughts, what’s real and what’s not. We are tempted to just drop whatever seems too difficult, replace what’s broken instead of working to fix it. We move on to other relationships without ever fixing what contributed to the failed ones. We practice avoidance or apathy instead of working to untangle one strand at a time. It is possible that as you de-tangle (or de-mystify) an issue, you may realize that something has changed and you no longer need the item, it is not repairable, or it has served its purpose and it is time to move on. Letting go can provide the freedom necessary to start fresh. Provided you did the untangling exercises to arrive at this decision, you will be unencumbered with any prior messes and can move forward with freedom and freshness.

Stay tuned next month for an amazing story on how you can untangle bound-up feelings and even relieve physical pain when you do!