Who am I? I did not choose my name, my religion, my ethnicity, my parents or my body. I have been given many labels that have determined my path in life. Only when I started removing these layers of clutter was I able to find my true, authentic self.

I always used to believe I was my true self, until a pivotal moment changed my perspective. I was on a trip a few years ago with a group of people who did not judge me. This was a truly liberating experience, as my default mode was to impress or please others. I felt free and truly happy. In fact, I was so happy that on the way back home, I got out my diary to note down my experience to share with my wife.

During this process, tears started to trickle down my face and did not stop for half an hour or so. Prior to this experience, it was extremely rare for me to be seen crying—it showed weakness, which is not manly at all. That, coupled with my poker face, had given me the nickname ‘Iceman’.

I asked myself: What on earth was going on?

I then realised that I had commenced my path to finding my purpose. Through awareness, I understood that I became vulnerable by removing my masks and becoming my authentic, true self. I was able to find a deeper connection with my being, and in turn, find my true state of happiness.

I could not recall the last time I had felt this way. How long was I hiding behind these masks? By looking to make everyone else happy, I found only emptiness and unhappiness instead. Although the world I live in involves judgement, I knew that even if I could be half of what I felt during my trip, I would already be in a much better place than I am today. I started to look at what was weighing me down and started to untether myself from it. My journey of decluttering began.

I started by decluttering my body. I concluded if something did not feel right, it probably wasn’t. After being referred to an integrative medicine specialist, I got to know about my vitamin deficiencies and high food intolerances. Once these were addressed, I stopped having dips in energy throughout the day and I was no longer constantly bloated. It is amazing how much better you can do if your body is working as it should!

Having lost 10% of my total body weight in fat, the next step became easy as most of my clothes did not fit me. As my size has remained pretty constant for two decades, I had a lot of clothing to give away. As I started giving away my material items, something very interesting happened to me—I felt lighter and free. Each item I owned occupied some real estate in my subconscious mind and with each item I gave away, I now had space to fill with whatever mattered most to me.

Using the same framework, I continued down this path to declutter people and my mind. I now spend more time with people that raise my energy. Strangely enough, as my positive energy levels got higher, I started to attract more amazing people in my life.

Decluttering the mind was the hardest for me. To look in the mirror and have conversations with myself was both nerve-wracking and liberating. I covered several areas which included acceptance, assumptions, freedom and emotions with the hardest being forgiveness. The more I decluttered, the more liberated I felt, and that gave me the momentum to continue on this path.

The journey of decluttering allowed me to remove the noise in my life. And that has resulted in more time to fill with my passion and priorities, greater focus and awareness, stronger and deeper relationships, the ability to start each day on a high and with more energy, and the freedom to live life with love rather than fear. More importantly, I now know my purpose in life is to spread this message so that I can inspire people to be happier and healthier versions of themselves. This has launched my speaking career where I now travel the world to speak to various audiences on my methodology of decluttering to help them become their authentic self and live a life of purpose.

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Author(s)

  • Saahil Mehta

    Author & Decluttering Coach

    Born and raised in Belgium and of Indian descent, Saahil’s life has blessed him to live in five countries across three continents giving him a global outlook. Struggling to balance his life, Saahil was not comfortable with the labels given to him and had lost touch with his authentic self. While on a trip, unmasked in an environment without judgement, his eyes opened to how happy he could be. This feeling of euphoria triggered him to declutter from the material world, body, people and mind in search of identity resulting him to discover his authentic self and living a life of passion and purpose, giving unimaginable results. He now offers his audience the opportunity to experience the same through the art of decluttering.