By Katie Potter
Sometimes amazing things come out of absolute messes. And in this sense, it’s really quite literal. Right before the quarter started, my apartment exploded into an ultimate mess of hung-over spring cleaning. This means that on Sunday, I started to seriously clean — you know, like rearranging, pulling books off and dusting shelves — intensely cleaning. Well, anyways, half way through I was distracted by a most promising engagement, and thus left my apartment in such a half-way-through-the-storm manner to be finished another day.
On Monday, the quarter started and I realized it was a lot like jumping into a cold lake. Already I was so busy that there was no chance to clean, and if you’re anything like me you don’t like living in a really dirty apartment. Furthermore, when my room is in such a state, my self destructive tendencies kick in, and I am prone to simply make things worse! It works like this: there is a pile of dirty clothes on the floor. I know they shouldn’t be there, but they are, so I just throw my dirty clothes from today and add to the pile. In this manner, things just keep getting worse and worse, and I definitely don’t feel any better. I just keep adding to the mess that I have no time to clean up
On Wednesday, I was feeling quite down about the state-of-affairs of my apartment, and then a little light when off in my head. Yes, a light. I realized the key to making it through this plight was simple; although I wouldn’t be able to clean until the weekend, I could make it through the next couple of days by simply not adding to the mess. Literally, this meant acting as if the mess didn’t exist. In essence, even though I was living IN a mess, I was living in a clean way. Thus, I felt great and guiltless. For the next couple of days, whenever I was tempted to add to the disaster, I just remembered: “don’t add to it” and was thus motivated to do right.
Then, on Friday, it hit me. “Don’t add to it” came to my mind, not dealing with the apartment, but
dealing with some bad-feeling emotions. I felt bad and was about to do something that would have made me feel worse and I just thought, “don’t add to it.” Of course, I started laughing and got really excited. You could call it an unstable mood swing, but I am easily humored by myself.
If you are feeling bad, don’t do anything that will add to it. (Hello, drinking is a depressant and so you are choosing to be in a state that is worse than the one in which you currently are.) Just accept the bad feeling, and don’t add to it! I know this sounds so obvious, and I’m feeling a little bit dumb for writing it. But it seems to me that we often have so many problems that we just make worse and worse by way of thoughtless or habitual actions. Just because something is does not mean it always will be. It is like the clothes on the floor — they are there now, but I will clean them soon. But what matters is not that they are there, but how I respond to them. Do I, in blindness and habit, throw more clothes there, or do I put the current clothes I have to deal with in the laundry basket? It’s a matter of choice!
