Would you like an easy, free way to reduce anxiety and frustration?
Years ago, decades actually, stop, drop, and roll was a catch phrase used to teach kids fire safety. If their clothes were ever to catch on fire, they were instructed to stop, drop to the ground, and roll, as a method to extinguish the fire.
It must have been an effective campaign because, decades later, I still recall the phrase and the accompanying instructions. In the event my clothes ever catch on fire, God forbid, I’ll know what to do.
Recently, while I was working at my desk, I was feeling completely overwhelmed. Piles of paper were everywhere; my desk was a cluttered mess, and I could feel my anxiety mounting by the minute.
Despite trying to complete a project, I stopped what I was doing and completely cleaned my office. I organized the piles of paper, put away the clutter, the garbage was taken to the dumpster and the floor got a good vacuuming.
When I resumed working on my project, calm and control had replaced my spiraling anxiety.
What I realized is that, for me, stop, drop, and clean is an effective remedy for reducing anxiety and frustration.
Is stop, drop, and clean legitimately an effective way to reduce frustration and anxiety?
Consider this:
Mental clutter increases significantly when accompanied by physical clutter.
A physical mess is brain overload. Not only is it visual overstimulation but trying to do any kind of work amid a physical mess makes it so much more difficult.
Consider how you feel when you are digging through a pile looking for a lost piece of paper. The physical mess is a huge contributor to anxiety and frustration.
Cleaning and organizing your personal space has a calming effect on the mental clutter that is happening in your brain.
In the case of a physical mess, out of sight, out of mind, can be applied literally.
Stopping what you are working on to clean, declutter and organize causes a shift in focus.
Cleaning and organizing your personal space is like allowing yourself a mental time out.
Instead of focusing on the thing that is causing anxiety, your focus shifts to bringing order to the area around you.
Cleaning is actually a pretty decent workout.
Cleaning gets you moving. And physical activity of any kind is a great stress reducer.
Depending on what you’re doing, you can burn some pretty serious calories simply by indulging in some heavy-duty cleaning.
If I can burn the same amount of calories cleaning as I can exercising, and the result is a cleaner space, by all means, I am going to choose cleaning!
You see immediate results.
After a cleaning spree, no matter how short, the results are very obvious. It’s a great mood enhancer to step back and immediately enjoy the fruits of your labor.
A clean and organized area simply makes life easier, therefore, reducing stress and anxiety.
Calm replaces chaos when you no longer have to frantically search every time you need to find something.
So, is intentionally stopping what you are doing, dropping the thing on which you are currently focused and proceeding to clean a legitimate way to reduce stress and frustration?
For me, it is a definite yes.
The next time you feel yourself spiraling, consider trying stop, drop, and clean as a way to reduce your frustration and anxiety.
You have nothing to lose, and a whole lot of clean space to gain!
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We should frame “stop drop and clean” so true!