Aside from being a huge life event, many people find moving home overwhelming and stressful for a number of different reasons.
Whether it’s the thought of life changing, or not knowing a new area, moving into a new house can leave you feeling ungrounded and somewhat lost, which is when mindfulness can help to manage such emotions when they arise.
Mindfulness is a type of meditation that can be used as ‘a useful tool for decreasing anxiety and promoting happiness’ in a variety of different circumstances.
5 ways to practise mindfulness when moving house include:
- Come up with daily positive affirmations
- Declutter your belongings
- Try to remain present
- Use grounding techniques
- Explore and experience the area you’re moving to
1. Come Up With Daily Positive Affirmations
The first way to practise mindfulness when moving is to come up with daily positive affirmations.
There’s a lot that goes into moving house, and with so much to think about, your negative thoughts can pile up and you can begin to spiral if you allow yourself to.
In short, positive affirmations can be used in order to ‘challenge negative or unhelpful thoughts’, which can in turn be applied to your house move.
This could be coming up with an affirmation such as “I am exactly where I am supposed to be” and “My new home is ideal”. By writing them down and saying them to yourself out loud repeatedly, you can help yourself to shift your headspace.
Coming up with daily positive affirmations, then, is a simple yet effective way to keep yourself positive when those negative thoughts start to creep in.
Mindfulness is a type of meditation that can be used as ‘a useful tool for decreasing anxiety and promoting happiness’.
2. Declutter Your Belongings
Another way you can practise mindfulness when moving house is to declutter your belongings before you move.
It is no secret that ‘clutter and messiness can cause distress’, making the overall process of moving too much to bear.
Moving home is a fresh new start, regardless of how you might feel about leaving behind your old home, and is therefore the perfect time to go through all your possessions.
By going through your belongings and donating or getting rid of anything that you no longer want or need in your new home, you’re freeing up both physical space as well as providing yourself with more mental capacity to focus on what’s important.
Plus, this will make the process more convenient and efficient when it comes to your moving company helping you move.
3. Try To Remain Present
It can be incredibly easy to get caught up in the problems presented by everyday life, especially when you’re doing something as unsettling as moving house.
With the modern world making our schedules busier and busier, planning is something that we all do, especially with a house move on the cards. That said, when our time is planned to the nth degree, it can be hard to remain present.
The issue with over-planning is that you can begin to imagine a variety of things going wrong, before they’ve even been allowed to play out, which puts you in a negative head space for the upcoming move.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, instead of seeing the move as a huge event that is looming over you, try to see each task as a manageable stage that you can take one step at a time.
By doing this, you can remain as present as you can by taking each day as it comes, and deal with problems as and when they arise. After all, the present is all we have!
Are you curious to learn good luck rituals before moving house? Check out our article.
Grounding not only distracts you from any negative thoughts when you’re feeling anxious or stressed about the move, but also helps to keep you present through your senses.
4. Use Grounding Techniques
A way you can practise mindfulness when moving is to use grounding techniques. In short, grounding ‘simply means to return your focus back to the present’, providing support for our previous mindfulness tip.
Grounding techniques are often used to help manage anxiety disorders, and there are numerous techniques that you can try.
For instance, when you feel yourself getting worked up, the 5-4-3-2-1 technique asks you to come up with five things that you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing that you can taste.
This not only distracts you from those negative thoughts when you’re feeling anxious or stressed about making moving mistakes, but also helps to keep you present through your senses.
5. Explore & Experience The Area You’re Moving To
Lastly, you should explore and experience the area you’re moving to to help you get excited about your house move.
While it’s normal to feel a sense of nostalgia and sadness when you leave your old home and move to a new one, you’re not going to rectify this without a little effort on your part.
A way to practise mindfulness is to experience this new environment, as exploring your new area not only gets you excited about the move, but will also help you to imagine your new life and all the positive memories you’re going to make there.
So, get out there and start making some new memories before moving into your new home.
Exploring your new area is a great way to practise mindfulness and to get excited about the move.
To learn more about our removals services or purpose-built storage facilities, contact Nathan. At Falconers we use meticulous moving techniques, passed down and perfected through generations for over 132 years, to ensure your goods are moved with expert precision and kept in perfect condition. For more expert advice on how to pack, move and store your belongings — or other FAQs on how removals work — check out our blog page.
Written by Jemima Thomas for Falconer Removals & Storage.
