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    Zen of Hoarding
    Zen of Hoarding
    Zen of Hoarding
    Ebook208 pages2 hours

    Zen of Hoarding

    By Saira Priest

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Zen of Hoarding is a book infused with light-hearted spiritual wisdom, offered in koan-sized pieces for meditation. Each offering provides a thought for reflection as we unravel the mysteries behind our habits of hoarding.

    Zen of Hoarding strips the labels and stigma and unearths what lies at the heart of our decisions regarding things.

    Saira Priest reveals the emotions behind the things we hold onto long after we are done with them, and gently nudges us along as we find the courage to let go. In her journey with hoarding, Saira found lasting ways to clear the clutter and change her habits as well as help her family to live a clearer, easier life. She freed up time to do all the exciting things which define to her what it truly means to be alive. You can reclaim your life, too. Reading Zen of Hoarding will help. Feel a stronger connection with yourself as a kind friend walks hand in hand with you along the path to finding your better self under all the clutter.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSaira Priest
    Release dateNov 12, 2012
    ISBN9780972662895
    Zen of Hoarding
    Author

    Saira Priest

    Saira is the co-creator of "If We Were . . ." a children's picture book, and "Seek Joy, Find Beauty, Share Love" a contemplative coffee table book filled with beautiful images of our natural world and a meditative reflection on finding our place in it. Her latest book is "Zen of Hoarding - 108 offerings for deciding what we own." In it, she hopes to help others clear the space between the clutter and their calling.

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    Reviews for Zen of Hoarding

    3.5/5

    6 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A very interesting book on our personal life and behavior.
    • 3/5
      I received this book from Library Thing to read and review. Zen of Hoarding. Some points in this book seemed very relevant and right on. Then there were some sections that I’m not sure should have been part of this book. Maybe if “Zen”” is your thing this book may be more relevant for you than it was for me.
    • 4/5
      Awesome book! Not only a guide to uncluttering your home, but also your time and energy. Love how she addresses those comments drilled into you by others, A book not only for hoarders but anyone seeking that extra insight!
    • 5/5
      Remember the Serenity Prayer:God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.Such is the message of this book. Without negativity and no “you’ve got to”, Saira digs into the deep emotions behind hoarding. In fact the word “hoarding and hoarder” is used very little in this book.Instead what you will find is how to deal with the underlying causes of hoarding. Emotions and habits are identified and how to free yourself of their hold is explained, putting you back in control of your life.I was really surprised with the contents of this book as it is full of positives. Many ask why – well this book explains why and how to turn the negative into positive and take back your life. I did receive a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
    • 3/5
      I was given this book in exchange for a review on the library thing website.While much of the advice is sound, this book's approach to a practical topic is somewhat transcendental for my prosaic tastes. One cannot deny that one's psyche plays a major part in "Hoarding" and that the author has the necessary academic background knowledge to adequately tackle this topic from this perspective.This book would suit those who would fully embrace this "Buddhist" type approach to the topic.
    • 4/5
      Full of excellent insight on the how and whys of hoarding and gentle suggestions for ridding oneself of excess baggage and learning to live freely and unencumbered. This little book is big on encouragement and simplification. My epiphany (one of them, anyway) is the realization that putting things aside for the yearly garage sale simply moves clutter like a magnet from one area to another, where it sits in boxes and collects dust. Selling it is time consuming and is not as much of a good idea as it might seem at first. At the end of the day, there are still multiple boxes of stuff that must be repacked and taken to a site to be donated. Priest's suggestion of donate, donate, donate as THE answer to sending usable items to new homes is one that I will take to heart. So, if the subject interests you and this particular title speaks to you, get reading! Your epiphany awaits.

    Book preview

    Zen of Hoarding - Saira Priest

    Preface

    A Trip to the Resale Shop

    I have a houseful of stuff that I have to get rid of!

    This emphatic exclamation caught everyone’s attention at the resale shop where people lined up and waited, sometimes for more than an hour, to find out how much their used goods were worth (only to face the choice of whether the offered value was worth parting with their items). Meanwhile, some people browsed to see if they could fill their houses with things that others had finally decided to relinquish. The store owners intelligently give time to the sellers to browse while they await the answer to the value of their goods.

    That woman’s words loudly echoed what I had felt and thought in my heart and mind for many years. Since you are reading this, no doubt you, too, have experienced this sentiment on more than one occasion. Yes? Well, we are not alone. It is roughly estimated that there are 6 to 10 million households in the U.S. dealing with the issue of extreme hoarding - and that does not factor in the people who would say that they just have too much stuff. Furthermore, several sources stated that hoarding is the cause of 10-25% of home fires.

    Hoarding is not something that happens overnight, so we should not be expecting overnight solutions. It has many precipitating factors. It has many emotional ties. It can cause many other problems. Hoarding is a symptom of other underlying issues that crave attention. The accumulation of things reflects the accumulation of unaddressed emotions and experiences. In some cases, there appears to be a bottleneck, an initial cause that resulted in the effect of blockage and everything else got backed up behind the bottleneck. This bottleneck could be a loss, a traumatic event, or part of a chronic stress situation. We may falsely think that dealing with the associated emotions will take us further into despair. The surprising truth is that when handled with self-empathy and compassion from others, these heavy emotions can actually dissipate and dissolve, or we can transform them with our attitudes and actions into something more healthy and quite beautiful. We can only begin simply where we are and mindfully move through each new moment with care in order to find lasting solutions.

    Defining Hoarding

    Hoarding in the extreme sense has been defined under the obsessive-compulsive class of disorders. While it is certainly true that identifying a problem is a great first step in addressing it, I also urge caution on creating labels that can create a stigma and slow progress. On the continuum from disorder to order, each of us falls somewhere with our collecting and saving of things. I wonder who amongst us does not obsess in one manner or another. So I propose, what if we didn’t label this habit of acquisition as a disease, effectively shaming a person? What if we look squarely at the rationales behind habits of behavior and begin looking for solutions within those rationales? For purposes of this book, we shall define hoarding simply as unhealthy attachments to certain things, which create a dis-ease and interfere with daily life and lasting enjoyment. Simpler still, hoarding is holding on to things no longer needed. Clearing, then, begins with deciding what we own, both materially and emotionally.

    First Do, Then Confidence Comes

    How do we give people the hope and confidence to address this habit in themselves and with their family members? That is what this book aims to do - to provide hope, encouragement and empowerment to face these habits and transform them into habits of living a purpose-filled life with passion. When I had finally listened to myself say out loud enough times, We have too much stuff! and realized that only I could do something about it, then slowly I began a process of transformation: from too much stuff to the just the right amount. I discovered a wonderful person that had long been buried under all that junk. As I continue to progress along the clearing path, I have written this book in hopes that what I have discovered along the way so far will help you speed along your own process of discovery, wherever it is unfolding presently. You are already well on your way, since you have found this book, however it came to you. If it is a gift from a friend or relative, kiss and thank them because you are about to discover a beautiful home and an amazing you! It is time to re-imagine your life and time, totally in your control.

    Where does your confidence come from? During a bookmaking class, when I shared with a new friend that I was writing this book while still working on a coming-of-age children’s adventure novel, doing wedding photography, and spearheading the building of a 48-foot brick labyrinth at my son’s school, she asked me this question: Where did you get the confidence to do all these things?

    Upon a day of reflection on the question, the answer came clearly. First came the desire to learn how to make books, then came the need to be taught the process. After having made a book in the class, then I had confidence that I could make another, better book. First, I did the things, then I had the confidence. This simple approach will help you achieve anything you want in life. Approach your goal as a new class. Your process of unfolding the riddle of hoarding and freeing yourself from it will happen the same way. Desire. Learn. Practice. Confidence.

    Everything is Zen

    You have probably heard the word Zen many times, and for purposes of this book I will offer my personal definition. Zen is the very essence and the flow of life. When sharing the title of this book with a friend, I was asked "Is there a Zen to hoarding? Good question, right? As we are each dancing the dance between being in and out of the flow of life, I liken Zen as the flow, and hoarding as a step away from the flow. I would have preferred to call the book Zen of Clearing, or Zen of Clarity." I was advised that I would not reach the people I was hoping to serve, since the problem being resolved is not mentioned. It would be difficult to picture being there without the construct to get there. The title and the book aim to be the bridge, if you will, to get from where you are to being able to clearly see the path to where you want to go: into ease, simplicity and clarity.

    Zen is every ordinary

    moment

    of every ordinary

    day.

    If Zen is every ordinary moment of every ordinary day, then meditation is the practice that brings us to that state of awareness, to be present in every moment, and to receive each day in its wholeness. It is important to note that we are not here to change ourselves. We are perfect as we are; we are simply bringing awareness to each situation in its whole. From awareness, there is deep healing. When we are healed, we feel whole. When we are whole, we return to the place of comfortable kindness. We are home. Welcome yourself home.

    What Is Your Koan?

    "Zen is about questioning.

    Zen continuously questions."

    --Taigen Dan Leighton

    Zen masters give their disciples a Koan to decipher. We might call these riddles, with the exception that there are no definitive answers. Often, the exercise involves trying to figure out exactly where it is that we have formed some type of attachment or hold. I would call the answer to a Koan a sort of revelation of experience. Often, these Koans can take years to solve. The important thing is the questioning. Question what rules we have accepted or made for ourselves. Question what we think to be true. Does something feel more true than that? Always keep questioning.

    Here is one that the masters have used: There is a goose in a bottle. As the goose grows, it fills up the bottle. How does one get the goose out without breaking the bottle or hurting the goose?

    Experiencing this Koan, or to use a phrase I enjoy, by walking through it, the revelation one might come to is the realization of letting go your hold. It would feel like a liberating epiphany (a Satori is what the masters call it), a freeing moment where laughter is the only response.

    Between the Koan and the Satori is a very interesting dance we do with ego, with our focus on the permanence of things. Zen teaches us that things are changing perpetually and any attempt to catch the wind would cease the wind. We cannot keep sensations which are forever-passing. When we think our happiness is linked to permanent things, our happiness seems to be fleeting. When our happiness is tied to the fleeting moments as they are flowing, then we are truly happy.

    I would add to this that when we discover that there is something that is permanent and lasting and eternal, and we can trust and rest in that space, we are better able to witness, live and experience the beauty in each ordinary moment. We are also able to understand the meaning of letting go your hold.

    In hoarding, if we bring empathy to continually questioning what it is that keeps us from letting go of our hold, this brings us to understanding. Continual and compassionate self-questioning takes us deeper and deeper to clarity. With clarity comes ease.

    The more people I meet, the more I recognize that we each walk around with our personal Koans, as well.

    What is your Koan? What is your mystery that you are trying to solve?

    Somewhere underneath and in our stuff awaits a moment of lasting and freeing Satori.

    Shall we walk through it together?

    The Paper Riddle

    Most of my journey with hoarding began in the recognition of such an attachment. What I had been calling my nemesis, and now know as my Koan, has been paper. The beginning of the story, of course, was deeper - at times deep, overwhelming and near tragic – but more on that later. The attachment to paper was more like a love relationship gone obsessive, in reality. Inasmuch as it was about the love of the feel, touch, smell and textures of different papers, it was equally about the information contained therein that held so much value. A quick glance in every room of my house revealed that if only the paper stacks were removed, there would be immediate improvement and a sense of order and purpose to each room. Facing this attachment head on, as I tried to process or clear some of the paper, all the ingrained sentences that kept me holding on came flowing into my head. I might need this someday. This is important information. This is useful. This is good stuff. I need to share this, this could help somebody. Do any of these thoughts sound familiar to you? In order to free myself of this obsession, I challenged each thought. For what? What will you use this information for? Who will you share it with? and most importantly, perhaps, the two most foreboding (and freeing) questions of all: WHEN? and HOW? I forced my inner self to answer, even though she wanted to turn away and did not appreciate what felt like the Spanish Inquisition! As I came up with questions and answers, I wrote them in a journal as part of the healing process. I shall write a book, perhaps, I thought to myself, and share it with the world and surely it will help someone just as these thoughts have helped me. Otherwise, there would have been no point in saving it. So began my journey in putting those thoughts to use. Application of wisdom gained is a beautiful thing indeed. You are now holding the love and care I put into saving all those precious, helpful papers of information and the consolidation and connecting of information so that someone (hopefully you, dear reader) would glean enough insight to validate my having saved these things. If even one of the passages gives you hope or insight, a different perspective, a helpful hint, or simply a validating smile, then I can pat myself on the back and finally shred all those little pieces of paper! That is something to feel good about and I thank you for your support!

    Why Are You Reading This Book?

    I believe you picked up this book because you or a loved one have been dealing with habits of hoarding for a long time, maybe as long I have (more than 30 years), and you are sincerely ready to put them behind you and let something else more positive be at the forefront of your life. I believe that you, too, have discovered that hoarding is a symptom and not a problem in and of itself, although it can cause many other problems. You want to deal with this problem at the source.

    This book will not only help you

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