Goodbye Mental Junk Drawer: A Fall Cleaning for Your Mind

Fall is the perfect season for a mental reset, just as trees release their leaves, we can let go of the mental clutter weighing us down through a simple three-step process.

• Simple three-step fall mental reset to help you release, reorganize, and recharge
• Step 1: Release - Do a brain dump to empty out all mental clutter onto paper without judgment
• Step 2: Reorganize - Identify your three most important priorities for this season
• Step 3: Recharge - Fill your mental space with activities that fuel you, like morning routines or movement
• Daily routines help regulate your nervous system and reduce decision fatigue
• Even small movements like a 10-minute walk can dramatically shift your mood and mental clarity
• Setting boundaries and saying no to what doesn't align with your priorities is essential

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Tag me on Instagram @thechargingstationpodcast or @livingmyempoweredlife and share your reset ritual so we can cheer each other on. If today's episode encouraged you, please share it with a friend who needs mental clarity and leave a rating and review to help others find this podcast.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the Charging Station Podcast
• 3:16 Mental Browser Overload: The Problem
• 6:33 Step One: Release Mental Clutter
• 11:36 Step Two: Reorganize Your Priorities
• 15:36 Step Three: Recharge Your Spirit
• 17:04 The Power of Daily Routines

Transcript

Speaker 00: 0:00

Now playing: Podcast theme song.

Tracey: 0:26

What's good, everybody? Welcome to the Charger Station Podcast. It's your girl, Tracey Massey of Living My EmPOWERed Life. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I am here to help you unplug from the noise, recharge your spirit, and step back into the world fully empowered. What's good? How you doing? How are you doing? I am so glad to have you here today. I want you to go ahead and grab your coffee, grab your tea, grab your water, grab your wine, whatever your beverage or choice is, sister. Go ahead and grab that thing. Have a seat on the couch or couch. But first, let's welcome all of our new followers, subscribers, listening. Hey, Boo. I know that you are going to have a good time here today. Um, just make yourself comfortable, tap the hand sanitizer, have a seat on the couch. And if you are a returning listener, hey boo, you know I love me some you. Let's get into it. Yeah, now y'all know, y'all know how I do. I I try to keep it transparent and keep it real as possible over here. And I just have to be honest. Lately, I have felt like my brain has browsers open, like so many tabs. It felt like my brain was a browser with 50-11 tabs open, and 50 of those 50-11 were frozen. Have you been there? Like for real, have you been there? Like your mind is just all over the place. So between work deadlines, travel planning, my own goals, and just everyday life, my mental space was absolutely cluttered. But here's the thing fall is the perfect season for a reset, and just like the trees, when they let go of their leaves, we can let go of the mental clutter that's weighing us down, right?

Tracey: 2:22

So today we're gonna walk through a simple three-step fall mental reset to help you release, reorganize, and recharge so you can finish the year strong or finish the year lighter, whichever one you want to do. So make sure that you check out the show notes because I have a worksheet for you. And you get that worksheet to go along, you know, play the this episode back and use the worksheet to help declutter. All right. So go ahead and grab your journal. Like I said, grab your coffee, grab your tea, grab your water, grab your wine, whatever your choice is. Let's breathe together. Are you ready? Deep breath in. Exhale. All right, let's get into it.

Tracey: 3:15

So, step one, we're going to release. This is where we empty out all of the mental clutter, like kind of like cleaning out that junk drawer that you've been avoiding. Mm-hmm. I absolutely love to do mind dumps or brain dumps, whatever you call them, where I literally grab a sheet of paper and write down everything that's on my mind. Sometimes I do this daily with my journals. Sometimes I just do this whenever the mood hits me, or whenever I feel like there's just too, too, too, too much up in my brain. So with my brain dumps, don't judge it, don't organize it, just write until you feel lighter. And maybe you've been holding on the guilt over something you didn't get done, or maybe you've been overthinking that conversation you had last week. Get it out of your head and onto paper. Just dump it. And listen, give yourself permission to let go of what's not serving you. You're gonna hear me say this all of the time. This could mean forgiving yourself for dropping a goal or simply saying, I release this worry and I trust God with it. So here's a quick prompt for you. This is where you're gonna do some work. This is an interactive podcast, and this is where you're gonna do a little bit of work, okay? Quick prompt. What's one thought, fear or worry, you need to release today? I'm gonna say that again. What's one thought, fear or worry, you need to release today, not tomorrow, not five minutes from now, not next week, today. Say that thing out loud or write it down. And we're gonna let it go. All right, you got that? Good.

Tracey: 5:13

Step two, we're gonna reorganize. Now, once you've cleared out the mental clutter, now you get to choose what stays. I like to sit down and ask myself, what are the three most important things for me in this season? Now, it might be my health, it might be relationships, it might be building this community. But once I know what that thing is, I can filter everything else out, and through those things, I can prioritize. So here's the question you need to ask yourself: what are the three most important things for me this season? Now, one thing I like to do, I tend to work quarterly and change things up actually as the seasons change. So when winter comes, I'm gonna do this again. When spring comes, I'm gonna do this again. Actually, when we hit the new year and my birthday, I'm gonna do this again. So there's no really time set thing that I do, I just have these moments where I'm I'm it's the top of mind for me to do it. So you figure out when this will be best for you. If you're like me, you kind of need a rotation, you need a schedule, go ahead and do it when the seasons actually change. A lot of people do it at the end of the year, new year, new me, kind of thing, which I hate new year, new me, but anyway. So here's the freeing part about this: you don't have to say yes to everything, you have permission to say no to anything that does not align with those top three priorities. If it's not a priority, it's not aligning, it's not aligning with where I am trying to go in this season. Okay, and speaking of resets, let's talk about resetting your money mindset.

Tracey: 7:14

Now, you know I am all about helping you recharge and live empire emPOWERed. Well, my friends over at Mika Financial are here to help you do just that. Live emPOWERed and recharge with your money. They handle taxes, they handle bookkeeping, and they even have a smart money reset program to help you rebuild credit, budget like a pro, and grow your wealth. I love that their mission is simple. They help you stop overpaying the IRS and help you keep more of what you earn. Who doesn't want more money in their pocket? So if you want information, you can go ahead and follow them on the socials at Meka Financial. Email them for more information at info@Mekafinancial.com or just give them a call at 570-580-0624. Now, seriously, let them take the stress off your shoulders so you can focus on living your best life.

Tracey: 8:24

Amen. Amen.

Tracey: 8:27

Now we're at step three, recharge. This right here is my favorite part. Okay, once your mental space is clear and organized, you can you get to fill it in and fuel it, fill your mental space with things that fuel you. Y'all know I love filling my cup with things that actually bring me joy, and that's gonna sound weird with the way that this world is because there are a lot of things that's happening in the world that does not bring me joy. That's why this part is so important for me. Because with all the craziness going on in the world, I need space for me to have some J O Y. Okay, now this may look different for you, it just depends on what it is you want to accomplish, or what it is, those three things that you are prioritizing, and maybe one of the things that you're prioritizing is your joy. So maybe this looks like a morning routine for you, where you read a scripture, you journal for a few minutes, or you simply sit in silence before the world starts demanding your attention. I can honestly say me having a morning routine and an evening routine helps me just declutter, it helps me regulate my central nervous system, especially my evening routine, because I'm winding down for all of the chaos and the noise of the day. That morning routine helps me get on schedule. So let me just share what my morning routine looks like. I do the same thing every morning. In the morning, I'm up at around 4 a.m. I know that's early, y'all. Don't ask. My my um central, my internal alarm clock is petty. She is petty betty. 4 a.m. I'm up. I am in prayer, I'm spending time with the Lord, getting instruction for the day. I'm inviting the Holy Spirit in. It's just that quiet time where I have my worship music playing, and I also have my Bible open. So I'm reading scripture. Um, sometimes I do a devotional, but I'm having work, I have my worship music playing, so it just gets me in a good mindset to start the day. And then during that time, I like to journal in the mornings and in the evenings. So in the mornings, I'm basically writing down my prayers. So my my prayer journal is what I use in the mornings, and I'm writing down my prayers. Now, you don't necessarily have to write down your prayers, but I love doing that because that gives me an opportunity to go back and read sometimes because we forget, we prayed about certain things, so I can go back and look at my journals and see, oh wow, God answered this prayer. Well, I forgot about that, and you know, God just kind of blocked plopped this in my lap and it's like, yo, thank you, Lord. Thank you for thinking to me. So once I do all that, I get myself ready for the day. I'm I'm getting my clothes, putting on my workout clothes because then I'm heading to the gym. So I'm at the gym, I work out a good hour and a half um weight training, cardio, and stuff, whatever my trainer is trying to get me to do, child. We're gonna fuss the whole time, but I'm there consistently. So once I leave the gym, then I know I'm going to work. So I'm there. Once I'm at work, that's eight hours that's dedicated to whatever work happens, happens at work. But even then at work, I make sure that I take time to go for a walk to break the monotony of the day up, and also to clear my mind from whatever happened in the morning, the business of the morning at work. I have a break, stretch my legs because sitting in, I work in an office, so um, I'm sitting a lot. So I get up, stretch, get some fresh air, I'm back in the afternoon to finish up my day, and then depending on what happens throughout the day when I come home, um, my evening routine consists of me getting my gym clothes ready for the next day. I pack my gym bag. If I'm going to make lunch, which I need to start doing more often, I will make my lunch and just have everything ready for the next day. I watch my 80s 80s, 90s sitcoms because that helps me to not have to think and it calms my mind. So I watch something where I don't have to think about it. Like I don't have to think about the plot because I already know what's happened. I can say the line, I don't have to think about it. It's basically white noise in the background. So I do that for a couple of hours, and before I go to bed, you know, I take my shower, do my skincare routine, I sit down and I journal again and I pray before I go to bed. And so that's my routine. That's something that I do every day. And some people may find that boring, but when I tell you it keeps me to where I don't have to think and I don't have to keep making decisions about stuff. Life game changer. So I want you to do this.

Tracey: 13:44

Don't underestimate the power of movement. Okay. Since I've been on this fit, fine, and fabulous journey, my body now craves that I move. I have to stretch, I have to get some, and I have to get some type of cardio in, some kind of movement in. Even a 10-minute walk can change your entire mood. There have been times where I've had a crazy day at work, and I say, you know what, I need to go walk. So I'll go walk, do a couple of laps around the building. By the time I'm coming back upstairs, I'm ready to tackle whatever was attacking me a few moments prior. So you can even add in micro movements of joy. Light a candle, play your favorite song, groove some special tea. I love mint tea with lavender honey. That's my thing. But try to get in some movement each and every day. So let's take a moment and say this affirmation together. My mind is clear, my heart is light, and I am ready for what's next. So, my darling, now you've got your fall mental reset to release, reorganize, and recharge. And this week I challenge you to carve out just 30 minutes to do your own reset. Write out everything that's cluttering your mind, choose your top three priorities, and create one small ritual that helps you recharge daily. Set an appointment for yourself, put it on your calendar, block out that time. I understand that if you got family responsibilities, you got kids, block out some time for you, sis. If your kids are into sports, what are you doing when those kids are at practice? Carve out five minutes for yourself, carve out 10 minutes, start start small and build up. If you can build up to the 30, do it. If you can take the 30 a minute, 30 minutes immediately, do it. But if you need five minutes for yourself, build up to that five, then build up to 10, build up to 15, build up to 30. Shoot, eventually you may be able to build up like I do a whole weekend where it's just resetting.

Tracey: 16:10

So I would love to see what you come up with. Tag me on Instagram at The Charging Station podcast, Living My EmPOWERed Life, and share your reset ritual so we can cheer each other on. We need each other on this journey called life. Share what you're doing. You may inspire somebody else. You may inspire me. Because a lot of times you guys do inspire me. You know that, right?

Tracey: 16:37

But if today's episode encouraged you, do me a favor, make sure you share this with a friend who needs a little mental clarity. And if you haven't already, make sure you hit that subscribe button or that follow button and leave a quick rating and review. This helps to get the podcast out to more people. And it also helps them get the encouragement that they need.

Tracey: 16:59

Well, that's today's episode, you all. I am so proud of this community that we're building. I am so excited about what's to come, and I am looking forward to hearing about what you are doing in your reset, your fall reset journey. So until next time, Peeps, take a deep breath, reset your mind, and remember, you are powerful, you are loved, you are never alone. And most of all, remember, remember, God loves you. I love you. It ain't nothing you can do about it, boo. Boop, boop, boo boop, boop, boop. See you next time.