Today I wanted to share a powerful story with you about what is possible when you do the personal and spiritual work required to create major life transformations.
Two to six percent of the US population exhibit behaviors of hoarding. Hoarding is defined as a severe psychological disorder that leads to someone collecting and maintaining vast amounts of things, generally contributing to messy, unsanitary, cluttered, and sometimes dangerous environments.
According to online medical sites, hoarding can stem from trauma to the brain or lesions on the brain, OCD and altered serotonin levels, the stress of major life changes, early deprivation or wartime rationing, or a learned behavior from a family member.
What is not taken into consideration is the connection between hoarding and past life experiences. I have worked with many clients who range from having messy disorganized homes to full-blown dangerous hoarding. Hypnotherapy and past life regression are powerful tools for getting to the specific root of their problem and changing this behavior.
My client, Carly, is a great example. Carly asked me to help her with her issue of hoarding. Things had gotten so out of control, she couldn’t allow people to come to her home, She felt it was getting unsafe, and it was definitely unsanitary.
But since hoarding is a symptom of something going on much deeper, we went to work to discover what was hidden beneath this behavior.
We explored her early childhood and found that there was a feeling of lack in the family. Her parents had lived through wartime rationing and had carried on in the same manner while Carly was growing up. Everything was saved because at some point there may be a need for it. Nothing could be thrown because someday it may come in handy. The problem was that some of the stuff would never have a use, like old pizza boxes and hundreds of plastic bags.
Her logical mind understood the necessity of throwing things away, but the emotional and psychological compulsions couldn’t be overridden. So we eventually decided to explore her past lives as well. This exploration revealed a lifetime where she was a man who had survived a devastating fire that destroyed all of his belongings. Everything was gone and he was destitute.
In that lifetime, he had to scavenge for food and anything else that he needed. He learned to collect anything that may have potential usefulness, and to never throw away anything because it may come in handy or be used for bartering. He spent his latter years trying to pull his life together and never really succeeded.
Once Carly saw that lifetime, and really understood the origins of this pattern, she was able to start unraveling it in this lifetime. After about a month, she informed me that she had already cleaned out one room in her home, and was excited to continue. She felt so good about it, and was relieved to be bringing such space and clarity into her life.
Over the course of about six months, with diligent attention to clearing her space, Carly had a relatively clear space in which to live. And more importantly, a safe and sanitary place. She began to turn her attention away from cleaning and organizing to decorating and making the space comfortable and pleasing. She wanted her home to be her sanctuary to soothe her emotions in a fresh way.
She had broken the pattern and was on her way to a healthy lifestyle.
Ending Thoughts
There are many reasons why a person becomes a hoarder. It can be a devastating and embarrassing problem to address. But, getting to the exact cause for an individual, understanding where it started, how it developed, and the emotional attachments to the items piled up in a hoarder’s house, is an effective and efficient way to remedy the situation.
