Gillian dunn a registered nurse talks about how we can change our lives by changing our closets.
How we live in abundance but suffer from scarcity mindset.
She says that often when we come out of the shower to our closets for selecting what to wear we end up thinking that we have nothing to wear .
The closet is just one of the areas in which our stuff overwhelms us. We wear 20% of our clothing 80% of the time. We live in a time where with the click of a button, we can order something online and have it arrived at our doorstep without even leaving the couch.
We have no problem gathering stuff but have a problem using it .
She shares a personal experience about when she went on a family vacation and bought a beautiful blue candle and was excited to light it . She returned home and thought that today was not the day. And she was going to save it for a special occasion. So she tucked it in her closet and forgot about it.
Two years later she remembered about the candle and thought of lighting it . So she pulled out the candle and opened the box , her beautiful blue candle had turned into a big puddle of wax. Her candle had melted.
It struck her that her candle had done exactly what it’s designed to do. It’s designed to melt but it had done it without her.
That’s the day that she learned: Don’t let your candle melt in the closet.
All of the things that we gather have one thing in common. We decide that they’re special.
She learned this on a new level one day when
She was out shopping. And overheard a man compliment the other man on his watch. And the man responded “If you like this one, you should see the ones I don’t wear.”
This sounded really strange to her, until the other man responded: “Absolutely. The best ones never leave the box.
Now these watches tick instead of melt but their batteries run low as their owners wore their second-best watch saving the best watch for another occasion.
She says that our tendency as humans to stockpile stuff is based on two mindsets: I am not enough; and I don’t have enough.
I don't have enough:
She summarized with a quote by author Lynne Twist :
“For me and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is: I didn’t get enough sleep. This is quickly followed by the thought: I don’t have enough time. Whether true or not, these thoughts occur to us automatically, before we even think to pause or examine them.”
Iam not enough:
We as a society love to shop. And when we’re shopping, we’re looking for those things that are missing in our lives.When we’re shopping, we’re looking to fill our lives with the things that are missing. We stand in the store and we convince ourselves: I can become enough for these items.
But something happens between the cash register and our closets. Whatever convinced us in the store that we could become enough for these items disappears. We make room in the closet and we make room in the garage and we forget about them.
It’s also a reminder that you’re in control of your life. So why not make it one that counts.
She says that What if these items aren’t just items? They write promises… promises of someday when. These items dictate the milestones in our lives. We think to ourselves I’ll wear it when… I’ll light the candle when... I’ll use it when…. you fill in the blank.
As she was a registered nurse she tells that When people come to a emerge, they don’t bring their special watch , they don’t wear their finest suit. You come as you are and everybody gets the same blue cotton gown that looks terrible on everybody.
That life can change in an instant.
Her takeaway from working with life and death is: life is what you make it. So make it one you enjoy.
It’s a mindset shift of viewing yourself as enough to have and use your things.
Image source: pexels.com
You Check her full ted talk on YouTube:
