Decoding Spiritual Hygiene Through Digital Decluttering

Staying free of digital debris is necessary for safeguarding our spiritual hygiene, contends Mujeeb Jaihoon.

Our Cluttered Reality

Our homes echo a dangerous level of disarray: wardrobes packed with outfits from another era; gadgets that haven’t buzzed or beeped in years; tangled cables collecting dust in obscure corners. Stacks of newspapers and magazines clutter the living room, while cartons, books, calendars, cans, cosmetics, and even long-forgotten product manuals stare back at us—not out of purpose, but as witnesses to our lifestyle drowning in excess.

Our chaotic excess isn’t just tangible merchandise. We live in an age of digital bombardment too—where silence and focus are rare commodities. Notifications ring out from every corner of our consciousness, each vying for urgent attention. The message is unmistakable: the time has come to reclaim our time, space, and sanity. We need to become human again.

The Invisible Clutter: Digital Waste

We must look beyond the visible mess by liberating our minds and hearts from the subtler, more insidious infections—the digital trash that quietly corrodes our peace.

Unwanted apps sitting on our devices leech from our already diminishing memory. Redundant files bloating our cloud storage create guilt and lethargy. Constant pings and messages from corporations we barely relate to; forwards that propagate nothing but anxiety or misinformation; toxic digital groups masquerading as “community,” while breeding negativity—these are not harmless distractions. They are active viruses attacking our emotional well-being.

Silencing the Noise

Turning off notifications isn’t just a tech setting—it’s an act of self-care. By muting the digital chatter, we train our minds to respond instead of react. The burden of managing our cognitive landscape is on our shoulders alone. We cannot entrust savage cartels to colonize our sensitivities. Blinded by greed for supernatural profits, Corporations will not hesitate to obliterate the joy of our everyday humane experiences.

Minimalism as Liberation

Digital minimalism isn’t just about deleting files for storage efficiency or uninstalling apps to make room for new ones. It’s about rediscovering our focus, peace, and consciousness. It’s less about less, and more about clarity.

Minimalism is a spiritual revolution to rediscover our lost humanity. It pushes us to ask why do we

• • Flood our photo galleries that we will never organize?
  • Subscribe to so many newsletters we never read?
  • Stay in chat groups that drain our energy?
  • Hoard screenshots, memes, and downloads we’ll never revisit?

The question we need to ask is: can we differentiate between what informs us and what infects us? Even as we remain connected with the rest of the world, aren’t we disconnected with the person in the mirror?

Spiritual Hygiene

Physical clutter might irritate, but digital clutter invades. It occupies our time and shreds our attention. Staying free of digital dirt is inevitable for our spiritual hygiene. Excess is from the devil, while the essential is from the Lord. No one knows a ‘product’ better than its ‘Maker.’

(Mujeeb Jaihoon is an author and social critic whose work explores the spiritual undercurrents of contemporary life.)