This week I started work on a project that has weighed heavily on me for years.

Over the years, our garage has become the transit space for every item that we don’t need, want, or deal with anymore. Whenever my husband and I were motivated enough to tackle the garage, we ended up fighting. After years of ignoring this challenging mess, I asked my dear friend Marcia from Undercontrol Organizing to help us with this project.

We are nowhere near done, but we got off to a great start. In less than two hours we cleared clutter, rearranged what needed to be sorted, created space in a place that felt suffocating. I can’t tell you the relief I have been feeling since then… and here’s why.

The garage was something that I wanted to do, but never had the courage to do. It was this permanent unchecked box on my to-do list that ran in the background of my mind, reminding me of its existence every time I passed it (which is every day, because our car parks in front of it). It was something that I needed to address but procrastinated on. Things and feelings that need to be addressed, but aren't, can become energy leaks. Just like open apps running in the background of our phones draining our battery, taking up precious space.

It frustrated me that I, a very organized person, didn’t deal with this to-do. Did you know that unfinished business and unexpressed emotions, such as frustration, anger, worry or grief, can lead to internal toxicity? Think about them as pollutants, as contaminants, that are poured into our bodies every day. This affects us on a cellular level. Even though our bodies are geared towards (re)generating new cells daily, new organs every few months and years, energetically, our cells store our unexpressed emotions until we release them.

Some refer to the process of releasing as “clearing energy blocks.” I prefer to call it “creating space.”

I still have a long way to go. There are three storage bins of old papers and books in my living room now that need to be sorted. But I already know that most of these items will be tossed, recycled, or donated. And when I am done with these boxes, I am ready to face the next box.

What unchecked to-do's are your energy leaks and what can you do to create more space? Let me know in the comments.