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

by Donald Altman

Overview

A Fresh Start to a Healthy Emotional Life

Is emotional clutter blocking success in your personal and professional life? You’ve likely heard about the psychological benefits of clearing out the clutter in your surroundings, but how do you handle your emotional clutter — the psychological version of the jam-packed closet or impenetrable garage? Shutting away and trying to hide old pains and traumas creates toxic patterns that can keep you from having the life of your dreams. Integrating mindfulness and cutting-edge neuroscience, international mindfulness expert Donald Altman teaches how to modify entrenched habits and patterns with only a few minutes of attention daily.

Altman first helps you realize what your baggage consists of and how to transform or jettison it. He then shows how to avoid the daily danger of accumulating new emotional clutter. No matter how fraught your life or relationships may be, you can cleanse, heal, or accept the old wounds, mistakes, and disappointments. With Altman’s lifestyle tools, you’ll discover how to address your past, better deal with the present, and cultivate the best possible future. Start fresh with Clearing Emotional Clutter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608683642
Publisher:	New World Library
Publication date:	03/15/2016
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Donald Altman, MA, LPC, is a psychotherapist, a former Buddhist monk, and the award-winning author of several books, including One-Minute Mindfulness, The Mindfulness Toolbox, and The Mindfulness Code. He conducts mindful living and mindful eating workshops and retreats and trains mental health therapists and businesspeople to use mindfulness as a tool for optimizing health and fulfillment. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 Recognizing and Clearing Away Old Emotional Clutter

Chapter 1 Stop Riding the Emotional Elevator 15

Chapter 2 Inner-Facebooking 23

Chapter 3 Cultivate a Beautiful Garden of Thought 33

Chapter 4 The Peace of Acceptance 43

Chapter 5 Get Centered in Your Breath and Body 55

Part 2 Healing Relational, Cultural, and Ancestral Clutter

Chapter 6 Cleansing Family Emotional Clutter 65

Chapter 7 Reflections on Compassionate Communication 77

Chapter 8 Planting Friendship Seeds 87

Chapter 9 For the Love of Listening 97

Chapter 10 Expanding Your Tribe 107

Part 3 Preventing New Emotional Clutter With Daily De-Cluttering

Chapter 11 Change the Distraction Channel to Find Clarity 117

Chapter 12 Vaccinate Yourself against Affluenza 129

Chapter 13 Put the Brakes on Work and Speed 139

Chapter 14 Nature's Cleansing Power of Hope 151

Chapter 15 Daily Flexibility, Softening, and Letting Be 163

Part 4 Transformation and Fulfillment with Peace, Purpose, and Wholeness

Chapter 16 Awaken the Compassionate Heart Today 177

Chapter 17 Fidelity to the Moment 187

Chapter 18 Become a Master at Untying Knots Each Moment 195

Chapter 19 Take Daily Snapshots of Joy 205

Chapter 20 Now Is the Best Time to Connect with Purpose 215

Acknowledgments 227

Notes 229

Bibliography 237

About the Author 243

Editorial Reviews

Named one of the best spiritual books of 2016 by Spirituality & Practice


“Donald Altman’s de-cluttering lifestyle tools have the potential to rewire your brain so you can gain new levels of mental clarity, overcome limiting fears, enhance your relationships, and even untie knots of new emotional clutter in the moment.”
— Jeffrey M. Schwartz, MD, author of You Are Not Your Brain

“Just as physical belongings can accumulate and molder, so, too, can towering heaps of emotional baggage, and to our rescue rides Donald Altman, author of the new book Clearing Emotional Clutter. . . . Altman’s strength as an author is that he blends his mindfulness teachings with information culled from research conducted by psychologists, cognitive scientists, and neurologists. . . .The result is a useful guide to living our lives in a lighter, less burdened way, releasing ourselves and those around us from unnecessary ‘stuff.’ If that's not simplifying, what is?”
— Spirituality & Health

“Mindfulness expert Donald Altman shines a bright light on the relationship between mindfulness and emotional health in his excellent new book, Clearing Emotional Clutter, providing you with exactly the tools you need to make mindfulness a daily tool for emotional growth and healing.”
— Eric Maisel, author of Life Purpose Boot Camp

“Provides simple-to-follow but powerful-to-use techniques that will enable you to optimize your abilities and leave your emotional baggage behind.”
— John Baldoni, author of Moxie and Lead by Example

“[Donald Altman] guides readers through six clutter-clearing mindfulness skills . . . [T]he advice will be most helpful for those impacted adversely by past events.”
— Library Journal

“More proof that Donald Altman is a master of mindfulness practices.”
— Spirituality & Practice

From the Publisher

02/01/2016
At a time of year when many people are making resolutions to rid their homes of needless "stuff," Altman (One-Minute Mindfulness) proposes cleaning out the "junk" that's hindering mental clarity. To do that, he guides readers through six clutter-clearing mindfulness skills: present-moment participation, attuned acceptance, intentionality, reflection, and purposeful partnership. In a useful chapter on acceptance, the author focuses on being present, loving oneself, and forgiving others, all actions for healthy living. VERDICT Though the extensive text requires dedication to the task, the advice will be most helpful for those impacted adversely by past events.

Library Journal