“I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.”
— Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet
I’ve always loved the adventures of the world’s favourite detective and the deeply intriguing dialogue among many others. This makes me wonder about the deeply fascinating mind of ours, and how we furnish it over time by what we repeatedly allow into it.
Take a memory trip back to your early twenties, didn’t the mental attic feel a bit more spacious? And now to life right now with work, relationships, family, and life’s inevitable curveballs, that same attic feels quite crowded. Over the years, our minds get filled up with experiences we gather, our beliefs, memories, the choices we make, unsorted emotions, expectations, and the quiet stories we keep telling ourselves every day. All of these slowly, often quietly, fill our mind and create pressure, self-doubt, and mental clutter.
In Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), we talk about how our internal map of the world and the language we use internally shapes our mental state and behaviours. Our thoughts manifest as reality and shapes the internal map. The subconscious mind is a master archivist, storing every thought or internal dialogue as if it’s a factual piece of furniture converting into a pattern you want to keep forever. If you constantly tell yourself “I’m not enough,” your brain accepts that as the blueprint for your emotional home.
If your mind were a real attic, you would probably revisit it often, dusting corners, clearing old boxes that no longer serve you, and organize it to make space and ease of fetching anything. Mind also needs intentional attention to keep what nourishes you, and let go of what no longer serves you for your own emotional upkeep.
So, how do we tidy up?
We can use our VAK modalities (Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic) to check in with ourselves. So pause and notice:
- What am I seeing?
- What am I hearing?
- What am I feeling?
Once aware, the ask yourself – What needs to stay? What needs to go?
In between lies the answer to what’s pushing you ahead and what’s holding you back.
Pausing and simply noticing these and reflecting without judgement, you create a powerful space where healing begins. You get to discard the rusty “I can’t” and intentionally replenish your attic with self-compassion, boundaries, and empowering beliefs. Perhaps that’s when we flourish.
After all, this is your mind space. What are you allowing inside your attic today?
