Inside Out and In Between: How Your Body and Your Space Are Connected

What's happening inside you shapes what you can tolerate around you.

Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is how connected the state of our bodies and the state of our homes really are.

I notice it in myself. On days when I'm feeling off physically, maybe I didn't sleep well, maybe my digestion is giving me trouble, maybe my energy is just low for no reason I can name, my tolerance for chaos in my home drops significantly. Things I could walk past without a second thought on a good day suddenly feel genuinely bothersome. The pile on the counter feels like a whole thing.

And it goes the other direction too. When my home feels cluttered and disorganized, it's harder for me to make good choices about my own wellbeing. There's something about external chaos that makes it harder to stay regulated internally.

I think a lot of us feel this without quite having words for it. So today I want to give it some.

The body and the home as one system

Our gut health affects our nervous system, which affects our emotional regulation, which affects our decision-making capacity, which affects how we're able to deal with our physical environment. It's all connected. When we're in a hard physical season, our organizing capacity genuinely goes down, our tolerance goes down, the overwhelm of clutter feels amplified.

That's not weakness. That's biology. And understanding that can help us be so much gentler with ourselves when we look around and think: I should be able to handle this.

What this means practically

It means that decluttering isn't only about your stuff. It's also about how you're doing in your body and your mind. When you're in a physically hard season, it makes sense to lower the bar for what you expect of your home. Be gentle with yourself.

It also means that some of the overwhelm you feel about your home might actually be telling you something about how you're feeling internally. Worth paying attention to.

They support each other

And here's the hopeful part: working on your wellbeing and working on your home are not two separate projects. They genuinely support each other. Sleep, food, movement, and managing stress affect how much capacity you have to deal with your space. And a calmer home gives your body and nervous system a little more room to breathe and regulate.

Inside out. Outside in. They're always working together. Which means progress in one area helps the other. And that means you have more starting points than you might have realized. 😊

Ready for more?

If you'd love to talk about any of this with women who are navigating the same things, come join us in the free Creating Space with Julie Facebook community. A warm, honest, judgment-free space.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/creatingspacewithcommunity

With love and encouragement,

Julie xo

P.S. Have you ever noticed a connection between how you're feeling physically and how you feel about your home? I'd genuinely love to hear your experience.