Clearing Emotional Clutter: Mindfulness Practices for Letting Go of What’s Blocking Your Fulfillment and Transformation

By Donald Altman

New World Library

Emotional clutter can appear in our personal and professional lives. Ongoing toxic habits can create patterns that impact the level of emotional clutter we experience. Altman is a psychotherapist, author, and former Buddhist monk. He proposes mindfulness activities to cut through the clutter and change the way we process information so that the past and present can be dealt with in a healthier manner. He says, “I like to think of it as a mindful lifestyle reboot—a way of clearing out the old, habitual methods of living and thinking that keep us stuck in emotional clutter to the point that we can’t imagine a way out.”

He offers readers a way out with six clutter-clearing mindfulness skills using PAIRUP, an acronym for P – present-moment participation, A – attuned acceptance, I – intentionality, R – reflection, U – understanding of suffering, and P – purposeful partnership.

Divided into four parts, the book provides readers with tools to recognize how clutter has negatively affected their lives, a section on how to address historical emotional clutter, and another section on how to move through the clutter and have a more satisfying life.

Additionally, Part 3 of the book, “Preventing New Emotional Clutter with Daily De-cluttering” includes activities to prevent the buildup of new emotional junk. What emotional junk is threatening to derail your goals and dreams?


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Last Updated on February 6, 2020