5 Steps to Lightening Up

1. Get started by throwing out the physical stuff. Go through your drawers (especially in the kitchen), wallet, and purse, and toss anything that depresses or diminishes you or just plain clutters up your life. Make a list of what you’ve thrown out or given away. Every time you look at it, you’ll feel good.

2. Examine your mental clutter. Make a list of the old convictions, fears, negative assumptions, past “mistakes,” and depressing “voices” that weigh you down. Commit to letting them go.

3. Add up the items on both your lists and keep going until they total 50. (Remember — magazines and catalogs count as only one thing.)

4. Review your list of mental throwaways every morning for at least two weeks and recommit to eliminating them from your day-to-day thinking. At the end of every day, congratulate yourself on the progress, however slight, you’ve made. I bet you’re feeling lighter already.

5. “Do it now or oh brother!” Just kidding. (Kind of.)