Four Mantras (and One Flowchart) for Decluttering Negative Thoughts

It's not always just our stuff that needs to be decluttered; it can be our thought patterns, too. Here are some words that I've found inspirational - maybe you will, too.

1. Stuck in some unnecessarily defeatist thinking? These are the words that help me get out of that rut.

This first one I saw many years ago in a newspaper article; the writer said she'd seen it on a T-shirt. It was unattributed, but later I was able to track down the source; I even bought a set of greeting cards with these words:

It is simple. We are where we should be, doing what we should be doing. Otherwise we would be somewhere else, doing something else. — Richard Stine

I'm also fond of a couple variations on this theme:

You can always pick up your needle and move to another groove. — Timothy Leary

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. — Steve Jobs, in his commencement address at Stanford University

And again, along the same lines, there's the Are You Happy? flowchart.

2. Getting too impatient with others — perhaps a bit too judgmental? I like to consider this:

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. — uncertain origin

Or, as Erin Doland writes on Unclutterer: "You never know what others are dealing with when you encounter them. The person who cut you off in traffic may be rushing to the hospital."

A man once berated me for not returning my grocery basket to the "proper place" after I finished my purchase, at a store I don't usually frequent. I turned to him and said, "My mother died three days ago." Given the look on his face, trust me - you don't want to be that guy.

So let that momentary irritation slip away, realizing there may be things going on in the other person's life that you are unaware of.