How to Eliminate Mental Clutter

Do you ever feel like your thoughts are swirling around in your head and you just can't get them to settle down? Are you mentally worn out when the day is over? Does that sound like you? Do you ever feel like, "It's hard for me to hear God's voice. There's just too much going on. There's too much noise." Have you ever thought, "Even if God was speaking, I wouldn't be able to hear him because my mind is just too full." If that sounds like you, you're probably experiencing mental clutter. Clutter. And just like you need to clean out your house, you know, we understand the concept of spring cleaning. You need to clean out those extra rooms in your house, those boxes, your purse, your office, your car. Your mind needs to be cleaned out and cleared out every now and again. And when you start feeling like, I just can't think, I just can't think, that is a signal that you are experiencing mental clutter. And I want to talk to you about what it is and what you can do about it. Today. Okay, there are signs of mental clutter when you, when you are tripping up in ways that don't make sense. That is a signal. Let me give you some other examples. You walk into a room and you forget why you're there. Now, that one could be mental clutter. It also could be perimenopause. You're constantly thinking about your to-do list, but you rarely feel like you're making progress. I totally have been there. You can't sleep because your brain won't stop spinning. That's another example. Maybe you open your phone to do one thing and then you end up scrolling for 30 minutes. Here's the thing, you were trying to read your Bible, you're trying to pray and your mind just drifts. If you feel like you're carrying the emotional weight of everyone around you, or you're overthinking decisions, even small ones, being afraid that you're going to make the wrong choice, that is a symptom of mental clutter. And it is up to you to notice these types of symptoms— those are just a few— so that you can deal with it. You were not designed to operate ongoingly in a space where mental clutter lives.

Why?

Because you need clarity of mind to function. It's important for you to have clarity of mind to function well. So I want to talk to you today about what it is, why it matters that you deal with it, and what you need to do. I want you to not toss in bed at night. I want you to be able to hear clearly from God. I want you to be able to finish the things that you start and to not feel like you're overwhelmed by a bunch of little things. So even though these are symptoms of all the things that can lead to mental clutter, what we're going to do today is talk about what it is and how you can get rid of it. So let's talk about this mental clutter, a definition. It is a pileup of thoughts. It is your worries, emotions, regrets, your shoulds, your what-ifs, your what if that never, and all of that stuff circling around in your head. It's not that none of these things are non-important, it's just that they pile up. So in my bedroom, on my dresser, that is the place that collects all of the paper that typically is sitting in clutter on my kitchen table. But if someone's coming over, or if I'm I'm hosting my family for First Sunday dinner, I'm gonna scoop up all of those piles of the things that are on my kitchen table, which shouldn't be there, but I'm going to move them into my bedroom and put them on my dresser. If they are on the kitchen table, that means they're important. These are bills to pay, checks to cash, um, documents to sign. That's why they're there. But when I move them into my bedroom, I tell myself, well, I will come back to this later. But except it stays in there, and then the next time I have to clean off my kitchen table, that pile goes on top of that. And so my bedroom dresser had been piled up with a lot of important things. So just because stuff looks messy, just because it looks cluttery, does not mean that it's clutter or not important. It's just that you've been stacking it up because you'll deal with it later. And when you don't get to it or you can't get to it, then it just becomes something that is weighing you down and in the back of your brain. This is also translating into noise in your life. It's like background noise. It's like radio static. It's that you can hear, but you can't hear clearly. You can't hear your soul clearly. You can't hear God clearly. You can't have clear focus, and that often is what makes you feel stuck. So mental clutter may be invisible, but the weight of your mental clutter is real. I can tell you that that clutter on my dresser began to become invisible because I was so used to seeing it there. But I wanna tell you, just like I don't have to live with a clutter-filled dresser, you don't have to live with a clutter-filled mind. 1 Corinthians 14:33 says, for God is not a God of confusion. He is a God of peace. Imagine that you are cooking dinner, and one of the rules that my mother taught me is that you should clean as you cook. But when you're a teenager, 20-something, you don't want to do that, right? It's too much work. If you are cooking dinner though, and you are an experienced cook, you more than likely have learned how to not make a big mess when you clean, to clean up as you cook. Because if you do all the cooking and you make a mess, you don't feel like cleaning that up later, and then you are littered with a dirty kitchen. And after cooking, you don't feel like cleaning it up. So the goal is to operate with a clean kitchen. The goal is to pick things up and move them as you can so that you're always operating with a clean slate, with a clean countertop, and with a clean mind. So here's what mental clutter will do to you. It will keep you reactive, not proactive. It'll keep you being reflexive, like reflective, um, and not prescriptive. You'll be distracted and not discerning. It'll block you from experiencing peace. It'll block you from walking walking in your purpose, and it will definitely keep you from being productive. Studies have shown— and actually on a video I did in the Inner Circle a few weeks ago, I said that studies have shown that we have 60,000 thoughts a day. This is actually a rabbit hole that I went down last night. I actually have a whole window on my computer right now dedicated to multiple tabs of how many thoughts do we have a day. This is apparently indicative of my daughter's prescriptive, uh, me being ADD. Charis is convinced that I'm ADD. I'm like, no, I can focus. She said, no, you hyperfocus, and that's a sign of it. You don't know that. Are you serious? Breaking news. We're gonna let that go. I did some homework and realized that that is based on information that people actually haven't been able to find. So the true thought is 6,000 thoughts a day. There's actually a study that's been done in 2020 by Queen's University where they could measure worm thoughts or thought worms. You can see random blips like little, like little dots on a radar, a bunch of little dots That's not a thought worm. A thought worm is this dot connected to this dot connected to this dot. It's like a string of dots. When you see a thought worm, that says, "I can hold a thought about 4 to 5 thoughts a minute." And if you do that and do the math, it's 6,000 thoughts a day. We have been told that the majority of our thoughts are negative. That has been proven to still be true. We've also been told that these negative thoughts are things that we worry about happening, things that we're anxious about happening, things that we are fearful about happening. And most of them never actually happen. So we're thinking all day about things that are cluttering our mind. So if you don't clean your mind, not only do you have the clutter, but you're cluttered with things that steal your peace, things that steal your joy, things that steal your focus, things that steal your discernment, things that keep you from using the higher area, the higher level of your brain. This is not what you want. This is not what you want. You want to clear your mind of mental clutter because it's stealing something from you. If you've ever walked into a hotel room after you've been in the hotel room the night before, and you walk back into the hotel room and the housekeeping has been there and the room is picked up, the bed is made, especially if you're in a fancy hotel, because then they take in your bathroom and they line up all your makeup things, but they line it up and they put it on a towel and you just feel extra special. There's a feeling of— and that my husband actually used to say it. He would come in the hotel room after being gone for a while, and he would come and he'd say, oh, I love walking into a clean room. There's a book called Make Your Bed. It's by a captain in the military who said the basic things that you want to achieve in life start with basic small areas of discipline. And these basic areas of discipline of regularly clearing out your mental clutter will keep you regularly feeling this way about your life. Ooh, because your life will be filled with the things you want to be intentional about. I know that you don't think that your clutter is impacting you, but trust me, is— trust me, it is. Has anybody ever watched an episode of Hoarders? Here's the question: how did they get there? My daughter actually said to me one time, she said, Mom, you're like a baby hoarder. I was like, oh, what? What are you talking about? That is so offensive to me. But then I ask myself the question. It's like My 600-lb Life. How do we get here? I can tell you how we get there. You want me to tell you how we get there? Let me tell you.

Mm-hmm.

We get there one key lime pie at a time. We get there one slice of pizza at a time. We get there one vacation at a time. We get there one sweet tea from Sonic at a time. You wanna know how we build body clutter? One bite at a time. You wanna know how we build mental clutter? One thought at a time that we don't clear out. And if you're having 6,000 thoughts a day and the majority of them are concerns, they are responsibilities, they are weighty. Clearing them out is how you keep from feeling overwhelmed. When your mind is cluttered, here's the problem too: your spirit can't breathe. The last time I checked, Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still and know that I am God." That speaks peace. Our God is not a God of confusion. He is a God of order. But stillness is hard when your mind never stops spinning. Listen, there is one thing you can always do to help you with mental clutter. You ready to hear it? Here it go. Do nothing. Give your brain a break. Take a vacay. Now, you can do this at home on a Saturday or a Sunday, but you can also do this getting away from home. And I would love to invite you to come away with me in 2026. I am taking a cruise. This will be the first Sister Circle cruise, and I'd love for you to join. We're gonna hit the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the PR, the DR, and a few Caribbean islands. And I'd love for you to come along. Why? Because a vacay ain't ever hurt nobody, okay? And I need us to not cook, I need us to not clean, I need us to have a good time and laughing amongst women who love God. The Sister Circle, y'all. This is a Sister Circle cruise. And knowing that there are some other women on the boat who think like you think, who understand life the way you want to understand it, but also want to have a good time This is going to be amazing, and I'm inviting you to join me. So go to thesisterscircle.com/cruise for more information, and be sure and sign up so you can get the room that you want. You can come alone, come with your husband, bring your sister, your mama and them, your cousin and them, but sign up so that you can hold your space today. Y'all, mental clutter, let's deal with it at home, and we not apologizing for dealing with it by getting away. The thing that I need to talk to people about— first problem is I probably need to talk to you about it because I'm going through it or have been through it recently. The other thing is once I decide that I'm going to talk to you about it, then all of a sudden it becomes an issue. Let me just pause here. Can I just tell y'all what I'm gonna start talking to you about? I'm gonna start talking to you about Fiji. God sent me to Fiji, give me that experience. I'm going to start talking to you about being skinty. All right, Lord, put me under a size 10. Uh-huh, I believe I receive that. I'm going to start talking to you about being a millionaire. Come on, somebody, let's talk about that. Maybe if I talk about that, that will become my experience. But let me tell you why I want to talk to you about this. This is super personal. When my mind is full of clutter— and my team has seen this, my husband has seen this, my family has seen this— because I'm kind of a go-go-go girl. I'm high capacity, I move fast, my brain thinks fast. When my mind is full of clutter, I freeze, I struggle with decision-making, I can't communicate clearly, I procrastinate. And here's what people around me don't see. I have butterflies in my stomach, my chest feels tight, my body feels on edge, my brain feels foggy. And I'm not an anxious person. Like, there are people that have struggled with anxiety their whole lives. I am not, by definition, an anxious person. But when I start feeling that, like, that is my indication that mental clutter is, is, it's over the top, that I need to pause and clean it out. This, this effect of mental clutter, y'all, is not just about your brain. It's about your body. It's physical. It's hormonal. Your mental clutter can trigger anxiety. Your mental clutter can spike your cortisol. Your mental clutter can introduce stress hormones into your body. This means with all of this stuff happening in your body, it's going to impact your sleep. It's going to impact your immunity. It's going to impact your digestion. It's going to impact your memory. It can lead to headaches, chest tightness, stomach pain, fatigue. If you are experiencing mental clutter, you need to deal with it. That's, I guess, what I'm trying to tell you, because you weren't designed to live that way. Your body keeps the receipts for what your mind doesn't process. Okay, so you've got to not live in a state of fight or flight. It's like your mind is carrying, uh, something that's too heavy, or like your mind has too many tabs open. Now listen, I can't help you with that. I personally, right now, I think I have 12 windows— follow me, track with me— in Chrome. I have 12 windows open. On each one of those windows, I have multiple tabs. One of my windows has over 150 tabs open. Let me tell you why they're open. They're open just like tabs are open in my brain. I can't close that because then I'll forget to A, B, C. Okay, this is what happens. So sometimes, y'all, I just suck them up. There's actually a feature in Chrome, it's a, uh, an extension, it's called OneTab, and I download it because every now and then when things are overwhelming to me, I click the button. And you know what happens when I click the button? All the tabs close, but they close into a clickable list that I can get to later. And sometimes we just have to start over. We just have to have a clean slate, and sometimes that's the answer to your mental clutter. I recently took everything out of my room, my bedroom, off of my dresser, and one stack at a time put it on the kitchen table. I set a timer and I did not leave until the timer went off or until I got through the pile. If the timer went off, I took a break and then I came back and I set the timer again because I had made the decision to clear the table. My brother gives this illustration. He gave this illustration back in, uh, 2019. He was at the Sister Circle Retreat, um, and he said, if God wants to put something new on your plate but you have not cleaned up from the meal before, there's no room to receive.

My mom growing up used to cook for us all the time, and she can cook, you know what I mean? Our, um, and my job, one of our jobs, all of us, was to set the table. Now, if we had our homework all over the table and stuff all over the table, there could be a hot meal ready to be served that would not get put on the table until we cleared it. And if we waited, it would get cold. It would not be— it would not be what it could have been if we would have cleared the table. And I believe that the hardest thing for me and the work I have to do is to make sure that the table of my life stays clear because I'm getting hit up with stuff to put on it all the time. But that stuff will never be as good as what God is preparing for me. So that's the— you have to constantly work because people come put stuff on your table. They don't care about what he's preparing for you. They'll just put something on your table. So that balance of like, nope, that doesn't go there, take that off, that doesn't go there. And, and anticipating what God's about to come set down.

When you have too many tabs open When your mental clutter is on your counter and it's full, when your hands are full, when your table is still dirty from the last meal, you have no room to receive. Do you not understand that we serve a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills? Do you not understand that he is a God of abundance? He is a God of overflow. Do you not understand that he loves to give his children good gifts? And I'm not talking about name it, claim it, prosperity, all you have to do is wish it and it will be. I'm not saying manifest and put it on your vision board. I am saying that if you don't have room to receive even the basics, If you don't have open hands, there's no place to hold whatever it is that he wants to give, even to the utmost of your basic satisfaction. So what does this mean that you're supposed to do? It's kind of like one tab. You just clear the table, clear the dresser, close the window. You cast, you throw it. 1 Peter 5:7 says, you cast all your anxiety on him because He cares for you. The premise is that you have a Father who cares for you. If you don't believe me, go read Ephesians 1. You are blessed, you are chosen, you are forgiven, you are redeemed, you are a part of the royal family. He loves you. Jesus died to save you. If you don't know that, go to chrystalevanshurst.com/tellmemore. Read that page, super important. He's a good Father. Whether or not you had a good father on earth, you have a good Father in heaven. So whatever is weighing you down He's like one tab. You can cast it and he'll catch it. He's like my kitchen table. You can bring it out and he'll clear it. And he does the same for the mental clutter that's in your mind. God didn't design you to carry the mental load of everything, but we do try, don't we? And it's literally making us sick. So here's what you do about that. How do you begin to clear the clutter? It's not about perfection. It's about your intention. So let me give you 3 starting points. What does it mean to clear the clutter, to click one tab, to put it on the table, to cast it? The first thing is you need to create margin. I know that sounds simple, but you need to take intentional pauses. Rest isn't lazy, it's holy. Matthew 11:28 says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He cannot give you rest, he cannot give you anything if you don't pause, if you don't press the pause button, and create margin. What does margin look like? Margin looks like get off of social media. Margin looks like get up a little earlier and sit there in the bed or at the kitchen table with your cup of tea in quiet. It looks like take the long way to work or get to work a little earlier or stay a little later so you have a minute to breathe. Margin looks like put your kids to bed. Do not let your 5 and 6 and 7-year-old stay up till 10 o'clock. They need to be in bed at 7:30. Listen, their sleep is your rest, is your margin. It looks like saying no. It looks like putting blocks on your calendar. There's nothing happening that weekend except you. It looks like taking a Sunday afternoon nap. It looks like maybe trying the early service so that you can have an actual full day of Sabbath. It looks like breathe— breath in your schedule. It looks like having 15 minutes in the bathroom to yourself. It looks like going walking with nothing in your ears long enough to hear and feel your heartbeat. It may have 5 minutes in your life, 15, 50, or a day, but find margin. Find it. Your life depends on it. Then you need to decide what stays. I created margin in my life to clear off my dresser drawer and— or my dresser, the top of my dresser. I set a timer. That was my margin. I said, this is ridiculous, clear it off. And I set a timer so that I could decide. Chrystal Hurst, if this has been on your dresser for the last 6 to 9 months and you haven't needed it, do you actually need it? If it doesn't have a place to go, does it need to be in your house at all? Does it need to be in this place? You can look at what is in front of you and say, is this true? Is this helpful? Is this mine? Train to carry. I want you to know what it is to take your thoughts captive. Romans 12:2 says that you need to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Philippians 4:8 talks about thinking about things that are noble and good and true and beautiful. You have to know how to look at your thoughts and say, does this stay or does this go? And the litmus test for what works and what doesn't work is God's word. It's what works and it's what moves you forward. Is this true according to God's word? Keep it. Is this working? Keep it. Does this influence where I'm going? Keep it. If God said no, throw it away. If it ain't working, get rid of it, or save it for another time. Not today. If this does not move you forward, why is it in your head? Some people are in your head, and if they are not serving where you're going or serving where you are right now, and if God himself has not told you to love them or give your life for them, let them go. If you are holding yourself, and a part of the mental clutter is your own shame, guilt, embarrassment, or insecurity, if that does not move you to where you believe you're supposed to be going, if that does not serve you for what, what God said you're supposed to be doing right now, if it's not true according to God's word, let it go. You have to pull it out and decide what stays and what goes. You got a brain dump. You legit have to sit there and take out what's in your head and write it down. You gotta write it down. Sometimes we are overwhelmed because it's swirling around in our head. It has no place to land. Do you know what happens when you write it down? You write it down in this book. You can write it down on a notepad. You could write it down in your, you know, in your planner. You can write it down in a 3x5 Mead book. You can write it down. And I, I'm not talking about your Apple Notes. Notes. Get your hand and write it down. The physical act of getting things out of your head and putting it on paper helps you to see what the clutter is. You want to know why you don't deal with the clutter? Because it's just piled up. It's just sitting there. You have to take it out and sift through it. Writing it down is how you do that. And then you use your filters. Philippians 4:8 is one of them. Whatsoever is true, noble, right, pure— think on these things. What is the other filter that I gave you? Is it biblical? Did God say it? Does it serve me now where God wants me to be? Does it serve me later where God's telling me he wants me to go? And if not, it doesn't fit in your life. If you need help with this, this is what therapists are for, friends are for, counselors are for. If it doesn't align with truth it doesn't belong in your mind. So like I said, I keep a mind dump journal. Sometimes I dump in this book. I've got blank books everywhere, y'all. I got a stack of blank books over here. I believe in getting it out. When I feel my body swirling, when I feel my mind not landing, I literally take a pen out and just— if I can't do that, if I'm driving, do you want to know what I do? I take my phone, I press the audio record, and I just talk it out. Get it out. It's like toxicity. And when you get it out and you can see it, then you know what you're dealing with. You know what happens when you're sick and they're trying to figure out what's wrong with you? If you get admitted to a hospital or if you go to an ER, what do they do? They take your blood. They take it out so they can put it under a microscope and see what the problem is. Do you want to deal with mental clutter in your life? This is the gift you give yourself. Create margin, decide what's there, see it, and then as you look at it, use your filter. Now I know, y'all, I know throwing things away is hard. I literally have conniptions sometimes when I throw things away. Am I gonna need this later? But is your future life worth the risk of getting rid of the thing that's weighing you down? I think so, because if it's yours, guess what? It'll come back to you, and it'll come back to you in the right season. A tip for the business owners here: some ideas that you have are not for your team. Some ideas that you have are not to be shared. Some ideas need to go in your blank book. They need to go in your blank book. Everything you think is not to be shared just because you think it. You're a visionary. You have more thoughts than your team can activate today. Hold it until it's time to activate it. So that's my mind dump journal. That's my mind dump process. And every few days I dump, I write everything down and I circle the most important things. No judgment. We listen to ourselves and we don't judge. We just release. We listen and we don't judge. So peace in your life is not going to come from controlling everything.. It's going to come from clearing space for God to move in your life and for him to speak and for you to know what it is thus saith the Lord. Your peace is not an absence of problems, it's the presence of a clear mind, a clear, sober mind that is anchored in God's plan for you. So I want to leave you with this: what one thought— and I want you to tell me in the chat, y'all— what one thought, what burden, what mental loop are you willing to lay down today so that peace has room to take its place? You don't have to carry it all. You just have to make space for the one who can. I hope this was helpful to you. I hope that this helps you to close your mental tabs in your brain, to release your physical tensions in your shoulder and your chest, to help you feel less behind. Because listen, there's a whole lot of things we keep doing because we feel this way. We say yes when we don't want to. We're irritated, we're snappy, we're trying to multitask, but finishing very little. We get anxious when our phone rings. We start something, but we don't finish it. You make lists every— everywhere, but you rarely follow through. You're feeling mentally frozen. I want you to be free of that, girl. Free of that. But this is up to you. It's up to you to decide what sits and swirls in your brain. It's up to you to decide how you let it go. So what burden are you going to release? I look forward to seeing your comments in the chat. And if you are not already subscribed to my YouTube channel, following me on all the social spaces, please do, so that way you'll know when I'm live, when I'm sharing videos. Again, until we see each other next time, adieu, adieu to you and you and you. Drink your tea, girl. Relax. Do you want to know if you're dealing with mental clutter? Go to chrystalhurst.com/mentalclutter. Download my free PDF. It's a quiz, and it'll tell you if you're struggling with it, if you're dealing with it, and what you can do about it. Listen, I want you to have a clear mind, a calm spirit, and the confidence you need to live a life you love. I want you to intentionally live doing things every day that that truly matter. Now, if you need more help, you can check out this video right here. It's about what to do if you're just carrying too much, because y'all, listen, life is too short and we need to learn to let it go, cast our cares, and live with less stress.