By Judd Matsunaga, Esq.
The brain is the body’s most complex organ. Neuroscience allows us to understand the many workings of the mind as operating through networks of neural connections. Neurons communicate using both electrical and chemical signals, just as computers operate through electrical connections.
The scientific study of the nervous system provides crucial insights into the workings of the mind and brain, and is thus indispensable to psychology.
By studying how these neural connections work, we can promote healthy living and the treatment of disease. Here’s the key — life experiences change the nervous system. The space you live in, the objects you choose to keep around you, the energy flowing through your home, all of it is either lifting you up or slowly draining you. There is no middle ground. Your environment is not neutral.
Over the past 30 years serving the Japanese American community with their estate planning needs, I’ve personally visited hundreds of homes. Some of the homes I visited were immaculate, some were very clean and organized, but some homes were a mess. This Rafu Shimpo article is to point out five things that are probably in those homes right now, draining your energy, clouding your mind, and keeping you stuck every single day without you even realizing it.
Unfortunately, most people live their entire lives without realizing their surroundings are programming them. According to Dr. Joe Dispenza, New York Times best-selling author, researcher and lecturer, “Every object in your home sends signals to your subconscious mind. Every corner of clutter tells your brain that chaos is acceptable. Every broken item you keep whispers to your inner self that dysfunction is normal. And here’s the truth that can change everything. When you remove the following five elements, you don’t just clean up your home, you literally rewire your brain for success.” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wflSKXuuU4&t=591s)
The first element you must eliminate immediately is broken items you’ve been meaning to fix. Yes, that flickering lamp, that drawer that always sticks, the picture frame with the cracked glass, the chair with the wobbly leg. Take a quick mental inventory right now. How many things like this are in your home? How many objects are functioning at less than their full capacity? Here’s what’s happening in your subconscious. Every time you encounter one of these broken items, your brain registers that mediocrity is acceptable.
Your nervous system adapts to dysfunction as if it were normal. Without realizing it, you’re training yourself to settle for less than optimal in every area of your life. When you wake up and that lamp flickers, your mind says, “This is fine.” When you open that stubborn drawer for the hundredth time, your brain accepts that things don’t have to work properly.
But the impact is far deeper than you imagine. Every time something doesn’t work as it should, your stress hormones spike slightly. You may not consciously notice it, but your body does. By the end of the day, they’re enough to leave you feeling drained and irritable without knowing why.
Dr. Dispenza says, “In my studies of the homes of highly successful people, I found a consistent pattern. They repair things immediately or remove them entirely. They intuitively understand what neuroscience now confirms. Our external environment directly shapes our internal state. When everything in your home works as it should, your mind begins to expect the same from you.”
In other words, highly successful people reprogram their minds to expect excellence; they stop settling.
And here’s the most revealing part. When you eliminate these broken items, you’re not just freeing up physical space. You’re sending a clear declaration to the universe about your standards. You’re telling your subconscious, “I deserve to be surrounded by things that work perfectly.” You’re raising the bar for what you accept in your life.
And almost like magic, when you raise that bar in your physical environment, you raise it everywhere else.
The second element you must remove immediately is belongings from a past self., i.e., a past version of yourself. A version that no longer exists. These objects represent money you once invested, dreams you once had, identities you once embraced. This is where most people get stuck. This step can feel like a small death because letting go of the past inevitably means facing the fact that you are no longer that person. But it’s also a rebirth. And if you do it intentionally, what comes next often surpasses what you’ve left behind.
But here’s the harsh truth — holding on to all of this is like trying to drive while only looking in the rearview mirror. You’re anchoring yourself to a past that prevents your future from emerging. When you release these items, you create mental and emotional room for new aspects of yourself to emerge. It’s giving permission for new interests, habits, and relationships to take shape, reflecting who you are today and where you’re going.
Your home should be a launch-pad for the person you’re becoming, not a museum preserving who you used to be. Every object tied to that past self is taking up physical, mental, and energetic space that could be filled with things aligned to your current vision. And every time you see them, your subconscious revives the story — “I left this unfinished.”
Just like a computer can’t run at full speed with outdated software, your mind can’t focus on the present if it’s cluttered with information from a you that no longer exists.
The result: you sabotage your present to protect yourself from your past. Clothing is a particularly powerful example. If you keep smaller sizes every time you see them, you reinforce the feeling that you’re not there yet. And if you keep larger sizes just in case, you’re reinforcing the expectation of going backward. In both cases, you trap yourself in a constant state of dissatisfaction with your body and self-image.
The third element you must remove immediately is anything in your home that triggers automatic consumption and passive distraction. The snacks conveniently placed around the house so you can eat without thinking. The remote control always within arm’s reach, ready to turn on the TV the second you sit down. Each of these items trains your mind to seek instant external stimulation instead of building the ability to generate interest and satisfaction from within.
The human brain is wired to conserve energy, which means it will always look for the path of least resistance. If your environment makes it easiest to flip on a screen, open a bag of processed food, or scroll through pictures of someone else’s life, that’s exactly what you’ll do. And here’s the dangerous part — if you do it often enough, it becomes your default mode. It’s a form of silent conditioning.
Instead of creating, you consume. Instead of choosing consciously, you react without thinking. You get used to instant gratification and become less willing to engage in processes that require patience. This is why so many projects you start lose momentum before you finish them.
The problem is this pattern steals your most valuable resource, your attention. Without attention, there’s no creativity, there’s no true connection. Not with others and not with yourself.
When you remove these items from your home, your mind begins to generate its own stimulation. And in that space, original ideas start to emerge. You uncover interests and talents buried under layers of passive consumption. You become the creator of your time, not a passive spectator of your life. It’s about making sure your leisure choices are just that, choices, not impulses. Because when you choose consciously, you’re more likely to pick activities that nourish you instead of draining you.
The fourth element you must remove immediately is anything in your home that represents broken promises you made to yourself and never kept. I’m talking about things you bought with a clear intention, but that now just sit there collecting dust, silently watching you every time you walk by. It could be that stationary bike you swore you’d use every morning, or the ukulele you dreamed of mastering.
On the surface, they look like abandoned objects. But in reality, they’re far more dangerous than ordinary clutter because every time you see them, your subconscious hears the same message, “You don’t follow through on what you say you’ll do.” And when you hear that message enough times, it begins to shape your self-confidence.
In psychology, this is known as learned helplessness. When you repeatedly start things but don’t carry them through, your mind starts anticipating that you’ll quit again.
And without realizing it, you approach every new project with less energy and less faith in yourself. It’s as if part of you is whispering, “Why bother trying? I probably won’t finish anyway.” The impact isn’t just emotional, it’s also physiological. Because every time you see one of these reminders, you get micro doses of guilt and frustration.
You may not always notice it consciously, but your nervous system does. And over time, those little hits of disappointment accumulate, draining your motivation and energy.
When you remove these items, you’re doing far more than clearing physical space. You’re breaking the mental pattern of accumulating unfinished business. You’re freeing yourself from silent reminders of I’m not consistent. And you’re starting to rebuild trust in your own word and your ability to commit.
The fifth element you must remove immediately is toxic ties, i.e., anything that keeps you connected to people who drain your energy. We’re not just talking about physical items. We’re talking about emotional and energetic ties that remain alive through them. It could be a gift from someone who constantly criticized you or made you feel small. Letters, keepsakes, clothing, or accessories from a relationship that ended badly. Contact information for people who every time you interacted with them left you feeling empty or diminished.
What most people don’t realize is that every object in your home is like an antenna. It transmits an emotional frequency. And if that object comes from someone who drained you emotionally, it’s still radiating that energy into your space even years after the relationship ended.
Neuroscience has shown that every time you see an image, your brain reactivates the same neural networks that lit up at the moment that image was taken. That means if the photo is tied to a painful period, every time you look at it, you’re reliving, even subtly, the emotions of that time.
Gifts from toxic people are even trickier. On the surface, they may seem like acts of kindness. But the object carries the real emotional imprint of the relationship you had with that person. And if that relationship was full of criticism, emotional abuse, or constant draining, every time you use or see that gift, you’re unconsciously reinforcing that dynamic.
Even the contacts in your phone matter. Even if you never call them, your subconscious knows they’re still there, like leaving a door slightly open for that negative energy to return at any moment.
When you decide to let go of these items, you’re cutting invisible threads that still tie you to people and moments that don’t belong in the life you’re building now. And in doing so, you create space for relationships that support, inspire, and push you forward.
This process can stir up intense emotions. You may feel sadness for relationships that, though harmful, were once important to you. You may even feel an initial emptiness because you’re releasing a part of your history. But that’s part of the healing. Grief clears the ground. And that empty space is exactly what allows the new to grow.
Judd Matsunaga, Esq., is the founding partner of the Law Offices of Matsunaga & Associates, specializing in estate/Medi-Cal planning, probate, personal injury and real estate law. With offices in Torrance, Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Pasadena and Fountain Valley, he can be reached at (800) 411-0546. Opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.