From My Perspective: Making Room

Happy 2022! I hope you all had a wonderful start to the new year.

Although I’ve stated before I’m not a huge proponent of making resolutions, I am a huge proponent of making changes to things. It seems that as a new year begins, I find myself re-evaluating the schedules, routines, relationships and more from the previous year, and at the same time thinking of things I want to do.

What I’ve found in the past is that I was always just trying to add things in, and I was never trying to let anything go. This ranged from schedules and commitments all the way to the items in my home.

Since I came back to Lincoln in 2017 after my brief time away in the Billings area for work, I’ve come to realize I can’t have the changes without making room for them. I can’t keep holding on to old thought patterns, old beliefs, old relationships that don’t work and old tangible things if I want to make room for anything new in my life.

So, this coming year, I will, as always, be making room by letting the physical things go. This is an ongoing process for me that I do really well at for a while, and peter out on. We all have our nemesis, and physical clutter has been one of mine since, well, forever. This year, I’m evaluating and digging deeper into the root cause of why this is always such a problem for me, so that hopefully, I can conquer this demon and implement permanent changes that allows me to live more simply and continue to have room for the things that are truly important.

But, the making room I’m talking about is more than just physical stuff.

It could be about identifying the people who are bad for you. The ones who make you feel less, or who make you grumpy when you’re around them. It could be those people who drain you, criticize you, or even hurt you physically or mentally. These people can often be family, loved ones, partners or people we consider friends. There’s no law that says you have to keep these people or these things, a part of your life forever - especially if you want to make room for better things in your life.

Now, I’m not telling you to ditch your family, partner, or friends without attempting to work things out, but if you’ve really tried working things out, maybe it is time. That decision is yours, and no one should make it for you.

I’ve talked about decluttering before in various columns, and it had a lot to do with stuff. This year, as I make room for the people I want in my life, adventures I want to go on and business ideas, goals and dreams, I’m decluttering in a very different way. I’m making room for more awareness of the things I want and the people, places and things that no longer serve me.

I’ve felt guilty about doing this in the past, but this year as I focus on my collective health, I realize that feeling guilty is one of the old habits I need to kick to the curb to make room for a much better one. Guilt is one of those negative emotions that trigger all sorts of negative health aspects, and I won’t be entertaining it this year.

Other things that I believe are having a negative health impact include people-pleasing, saying yes when I really want to say no to things, considering other people’s negative thoughts and opinions about me and not living up to my full potential.

I’ll be letting those things go to make more room for me and the things that are important. More time with those who deserve my time, more time at home - making it a home. More walks with the dogs, rides on the horse, hikes in the mountains, time to read books and, when the warmer weather returns, fish, camp and appreciate more of the beauty around me.

After all, we can’t make room for new things, new friends, and new experiences if we keep repeating and holding on to the old.

So for 2022 (and beyond) I invite you think about what old things you’re holding on to that are preventing you from allowing the new things to come into your life. I invite you to do your own evaluating of the things that no longer serve you, and to make room for all the opportunities to improve the small and large aspects of your life. By making room, you grow, and by growing, you live.

Make room… and live.