Clean up your room

Your room is you. Clean it up.

That observation from University of Toronto Clinical Psychology Professor Jordan B. Peterson is part of the advice he gives to patients in his clinical practice.

The concept is practical assignment for dealing with a chaotic world or a chaotic mind.

Peterson says the idea is the first place to start if you want to change your life or change the world. First get your own world in order.

Then once your room is in order, make it beautiful.

Peterson says beauty in one place lifts the spirits and makes it possible to make other rooms beautiful and, by extension, bring order and more beauty to your whole life.

This isn’t Peterson’s only message. In his book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, he advises people who feel anxious and chaotic to remember that suffering is normal, a part of life. But everyone can mediate some parts of it well:

-Take advantage of opportunities available to you.

-Don’t let bitterness drag you down.

-Make peace with your brother.

-Treat the people in your life with respect.

-Stop doing things that destroy your health and wellbeing.

-Assume responsibility.

In short, he advises: Stop doing what you know to be wrong. Start stopping today.