This summer, I improved my life dramatically. I unexpectedly succeeded in creating a comfortable life in a short time. That experience gave me a hint to improve our lives. So today, I will talk about this topic: cleaning the dirtiest parts of our lives improves our lives dramatically.
How to know what to change
Sometimes, we want to change our lives due to disgusting things, such as stressful work for money, relationships with people we don’t like, or less freedom. So, we often want hints to change our lives.
At such a time, cleaning the “dirtiest parts of our lives” could change our lives. Because the “dirtiest part” usually means the most efficient part to get comfort by “cleaning up.” That is the most stressful part of our lives. So, if we clean it up, we will improve our lives dramatically in a short time.
But it is usually difficult for us to do it because we are not aware of it. We usually hide it from our consciousness to reduce its stress.
So, we need to notice what we are avoiding. If we can focus on it and be aware of it, we might be able to “clean up” our sources of stress.
Cleaning the “dirtiest part” of our lives
To explain it, let me talk about my experience. As I mentioned above, I improved my life dramatically this summer. The trigger was my heat stroke. It made me exhausted. So I seriously wanted to change my life.
At such a time, I suddenly felt like cleaning my kitchen. After I discarded my disgusting things, I naturally wanted to do so. I seriously wanted it, although I didn’t know why at this point.
That made me focus on what I had been avoiding.
After deciding to clean the kitchen, I noticed that there was the dirtiest place I had avoided facing in my kitchen. It was the range hood over the stovetop. It was so polluted with oil. And the hood cover stuck together with hardened oil.
Lies to ourselves multiply our stress
It had been so bad since I moved into this house. When I moved to this house, I felt it was difficult to remove the hood filter and wash it. So, I hid it from my sight. I added an extra filter over the range hood filter.
It looked clean, superficially. I believed my kitchen was clean and beautiful. But I knew the inside of the filter was so dirty. I had lied to myself. It sometimes smelled of old oil. But I ignored it and forgot it immediately.
Such lies multiply our stress because we get used to avoiding facing our honesty. A lie to ourselves brings us another lie. After a while, we forget our honest wants. It makes our lives complex.
Hiding and lying cost
In other words, we start to confuse what is wrong in our lives. We believe our lives are no problem superficially. But we suffer and feel our lives painfully. We don’t know what to change.
So did I. But this summer, I noticed and remembered it. So, I decided to clean the range hood.
It took time and effort. It took two days. I used some sponges and brushes to clean it up.
But it took only two days to clean up. I had stress from the dirt for years and years! I seriously understood that hiding and lying cost.
Hiding it and lying to ourselves are easy. We can avoid painful efforts to clean up the problem. But it costs too much in the long term.
It would take far less time
Our daily stress is the same. When we want to change our lives but don’t know what to change, we usually have something hidden.
At such times, we need to reveal it. We can find it by asking ourselves, “What is the dirtiest part of my life?” or “To be honest, what do I hate doing?”
Perhaps it will take time and effort. But it would take far less time than being patient with disgusting things for years and years. Sometimes, only several weeks of “cleaning up time” would solve our long-year problems. I think this is worth doing.
Honesty brings another honesty
And honesty brings another honesty because we will be free from the stress of lies. It will give us a more comfortable life. That motivates us to clean up the next “dirtiest part” of our lives. So we can change our lives dramatically, one after another.
In my example, after cleaning the range hood, I felt like cleaning another place that I avoided. I cleaned the kitchen drainage that I had left dirty. I also repaired the sink to prevent roaches from entering. I felt more freedom as I cleaned up the place that I hid.
After I solved all of the lies to myself, I remembered my grandmother’s kitchen from my shiny kitchen, as I mentioned in an earlier post. It was the “home” that I could go back to. So, I was able to start living as I am. I noticed that that was the comfortable life that I wanted to create.
Conclusion
So, I think cleaning the dirtiest parts of our lives improves our lives dramatically.
We can find them by asking ourselves, “What is the dirtiest part of my life?” or “To be honest, what do I hate doing?” Although it would take time and effort, it costs far less than being patient with disgusting things for years and years.
If we understand this logic, we might be able to change our lives.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you at the next one.
