Clean Up Your Act
Cleaning up your act is an old idiom that means to change the way you behave so that you stop doing bad, dishonest or illegal things. To behave in a more acceptable, moral and responsible manner. That’s no easy feat to casually take on. Especially in our modern era of responsibilities or distractions.
We’re not simple hunter/gatherers anymore plucking berries and banging rocks. Our brain’s have to process more than ever which is why the dependency of human offspring is far greater out of adolescence than any other animal. It takes 16-21 years for many of us to be trained and in some ways program to be sufficient enough to manage the complex layers of what it takes to survive in a modern human civilization and that’s disregarding the even larger expanse of managing the unexpected. To prepare for that, one needs to cultivate a solid understanding of one’s self so that the tides of life don’t swell and unanchor your boat to drift out to sea.
It’s important to control how you begin and how you end each day. You start small, even though it’s not really small. You’re room is an externalization of your mind. Whether you’ve realized it or not, a clean physical space allows you to take care of your psychological space. In a way, picking up your dirty clothes off the ground is picking up your suffering and baring symbolically.
What goal will justify the suffering of your life? The key feature to a clean act is that you have to orient yourself towards something or otherwise you’re disoriented which leads to suffering for you and those around you. It’s a personal process and a never-ending journey that shouldn’t be taken lightly. You should use your education of the observable world to inform that evolution.
At the beginning of your day, allow time to make your bed, you’re building a mindset of finishing tasks you start, which includes the task of sleeping the night before. By organizing your local landscape and scheduling your time, you start taking control of yourself.
Your space should feel like your sanctuary to unwind from the busy world. By tidying up before you start your day, you can come back from a hard day of work to a stress free space. However the day tests you, preserving your personal space for rest and solitude to help your creativivity and sanity.
-Busy Brain