Gaining clarity is the first step toward solving any issue.
Unless you know what’s going on in your mind, you can’t really do anything about it—simply because you’re unaware of it.
Most of the time, the problems around us are not the real issue. The real issue is that we don’t take the time to define them. We don’t pause long enough to gain clarity or look directly at what’s troubling us. And then we wonder why nothing changes—why we feel stuck, and why the problem persists despite our best efforts.
In other words, we live in a haze of vagueness. And no real solution can emerge from ambiguity.
For a long time, I wondered if there was a simple tool I could use to gain clarity about certain areas of my life.
The good news?
There is.
It’s a tool you can use to gain clarity almost instantly. A simple yet powerful writing exercise described in a book titled Travelling Free: How to Recover from the Past by Changing Our Beliefs by Mandy Evans.
I won’t go into the full method here, but the essence is this:
to resolve an issue, you don’t need to force yourself to find a solution. What’s far more important is to clarify what’s actually troubling you. Because quite often, what we assume to be the problem turns out not to be the real issue at all.
The Writing Exercise (In Essence)
Take a pen and a notebook. Write the date. Then, in block letters, write down what you believe is troubling you. Writing it as a question works best.
For example, my closet had been overflowing with clothes and random stuff, and it was bothering me. So I wrote:
“WHY DO I HAVE SO MUCH CLUTTER IN MY LIFE?”
Once you’ve written the question, let it stay with you. Don’t rush to answer it logically—that defeats the purpose. The aim is not analysis, but recognition.
Sit with the question. Let it wash over you.
And when it feels natural, put your pen to paper and write whatever comes to mind.
Don’t edit.
Don’t analyze.
Just let the words flow.
When you feel finished, close the notebook and sit quietly for a minute or two. Then open it again and read what you’ve written. You may be surprised by what shows up.
My Experience
I’m glad I did this exercise.
It helped me gain clarity about the clutter in my life—and revealed something I hadn’t expected. The clutter wasn’t the real problem. It was a symptom.
What I discovered was a deeper feeling of unworthiness. The clutter was unconsciously filling an inner emptiness I hadn’t fully acknowledged.
All that time, I had been trying to fill a void—with things.
It turns out, nothing is quite what it seems.