Hi, it's Sam. Welcome to Radio Headspace into Friday morning. I don't know about you,

but I find that over the course of the week, clutter tends to build up in my house. But

this week I've been noticing that my house is messier than usual. And this happens sometimes

when everyone gets busy and we just start putting off doing dishes or taking out the trash.

We actually start to ignore the mess in a way, paying attention to other priorities and

just not seeing what's been piling up until we trip over something and nearly break a

toe.

This reminds me of a time I stayed in a zen monastery for a week. In the monastery life

is greatly simplified. Your bedroom has only basic furniture, and your routine runs

like clockwork. Meditate, eat, work. Meditate, eat, and sleep.

And in the zen tradition, cleanliness and order are very important. Zen looks at all

activities from eating to cleaning as a meditation. Before meditation, we would take a few moments

to arrange our meditation cushion just so, making sure it was centered on the mat, and this

habit made me more aware of all the elements and details of my physical surroundings.

When I got home from the monastery, I saw my room at home in a whole new way. All of

the clutter that I had been ignoring suddenly came into sharp focus. And I remember going

to my bedside table and just tidying it up and starting to bring order to the space.

I remember first reading Marie Kondo's book, The Life Changing Magic of tidying up. She

talks about thinking objects and articles of clothing for serving us before letting

them go if they no longer spark joy. I find that the more we pay attention to the objects

in our lives, the more we want to take care of them and preserve them. This can also lead

to buying less, because we value order and spaciousness over the quantity of objects that

...