Reset Guide

Every now and again, you need to reset. You need to start over. When you feel like you’ve been living life doing the same things over and over, when you feel stressed out and overwhelmed, when you feel like your brain is a mess, you need a reset.

Oftentimes, we get busy and into a routine. While routines are a good thing, it becomes so easy to neglect the things you love to do in favor of the things you have to do. Even though, the things you love are probably the things that will keep you sane as things get busier and busier. 

When you feel like you need to get your life together, here’s a reset guide!

Step 1: Clean, clear, and declutter. 

These days, all aspects of our lives are messy. Our home spaces, our social media accounts, our digital filing systems. The more you accumulate, the more mess you have to make you more stressed out. 

The first thing to do when you feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety is to clean. Clean your immediate area. It gives you one thing to do and it’s one thing you can control even as your thoughts are spiraling. Even if it’s just the desk you’re working on, cleaning out all the old papers of to do lists and documents will leave you feeling lighter. 

Another big place to clear out is your closest. If you wake up every morning confused on what to wear, here’s a big tip.

Tip: Spend one month not buying any clothes and seeing what you actually wear in your closet. Flip the hangers of clothes you actually wear to one side. At the end of the month, collect the unflipped hangers. 

Once you see what you gravitate towards and what you don’t, think about your current lifestyle, where you work and what it requires of your clothing, and buy clothes based on that. Take time with your purchases and wait on an item to see if you really actually want it.

Digitally, do yourself a favor. Unfollow people who don’t make you feel good. As I said before with shopping, maybe you want to take a social media detox. Deactivate your Facebook. Delete Instagram. Instead of living digital, live in the present moment. That will help you monitor the emotions you experience digitally. 

Personally, the best space where you can clean, clear out and declutter is your bedroom. It’s often the place of rest and retreat. You don’t want to come home to clothes on the floor and scraps of junk food everywhere. You want to come home to a cozy bed and natural light from your window. 

Remove all the things you don’t need from your room. Fill your wall with art prints if you’re artistic. Keep it empty if you’re simple. Make your room a place where you can find comfort and peace.

Step 2: Step away and listen to the silence.

Now, I’m not some Buddhist monk who believes hiding in the forest for a few years is going to help you find yourself. But I do believe that the modern world is moving towards this noisy, restless, overstimulated environment. 

In order to find the things you truly desire, you have to step away from the opinions and thoughts of others. I’m not telling you to quit your job and travel to the top of Mount Everest for some deeper wisdom. I’m just saying find ways to step away. 

In the early morning wake up and listen to the birds while you drink your coffee. Take a walk outside your neighborhood after work. Make dinner without turning on the news. Drive your car in silence to work. 

Take the micro moments of life that are available and quiet yourself. Let yourself speak to you.

Tip: Let your mind wander in the shower.

You may think, what the hell? Why should I listen to the silence? It’s boring, it’s awful, and all the crappy thoughts about my life come out. 

Well, you’ll never stop believing the lives you’ve let control you if you’ve never come to know what they are. Silence makes space for all the fears and negativity to rise. But underneath those thoughts are dreams. Dreams that are scared to come out because they represent the deepest parts of you – the parts of you that doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. 

Let the silence tell you what you need to know. Maybe you need to forgive someone. Maybe you need to have deeper conversations with friends. Maybe you need to take a risk and apply for that job. Whatever it is, you can’t know it if you don’t give yourself the time to listen.

Filter out the noise and figure out what you want even if it is the craziest dream that you never thought you could make come true.

Step 3: Solidify your morning and night routines.

You shouldn’t be running on autopilot. You should know what you do as soon as you wake up and as soon as your head hits the pillow. A good life is one filled with rhythms that fit your values, so your morning and your night matter.

If your health matters to you, maybe you’ll go to the gym before work. If you like hanging out with friends, maybe after work, you go out to dinner. If you’re self-reflective, you journal. If you have a dog, you take it for a walk.

Oftentimes, when our lives have gotten out of control, we neglect the things that most align with our values. In order to feel like you’ve got everything under control, bring back the things that line up with your principles. 

Tip: Do one thing every day that you look forward to – in the morning or at night.

Step 4: Write it all out.

With all of these changes you are making by cleaning out, stepping away, and solidifying your routines, you need to know what other changes you can make to go in the right direction.

Perhaps you are not an avid journaler. That said you can still benefit from writing down your insights from what you’ve been doing. Buy a new notebook. Find your favorite pen. Start writing. 

Tip: The overwhelm is often a result of trying to cram too many priorities into your everyday. 

Instead of trying to cram in friends, family, work, health, personal projects, and whatever else. Spend each day focusing on your top 3. Leave the rest for the next day. In life, we are all given a finite amount of time. Don’t try to do everything. That’s actually impossible. Do all the things you really love.

Resetting your life has to happen sometimes. I hope this guide is enough to get you started. 

Signing off, 

Gigi

Tell me about your experience resetting your life. Why did you do it? What was the result?