Energy Detox: Clear Your Environment, Clear Your Mind, Become Who You Want to Be

Alina Shahnazari wrote Who Do You Want to Be? after leaving NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to explore what actually creates a joyful, successful life. She wasn’t looking for more motivation, she was looking for truth.

One truth she names clearly is this: over time, we become “heavier and heavier”, not in body weight, but in the emotions, thoughts, and behaviors we absorb from parents, school, culture, and the environments we live in.

An energy detox is how you get light again.

Not by pushing harder, but by removing what drains you, so your life can support who you’re becoming.

Why an Energy Detox Works (It’s Not Just Cleaning, It’s Reprogramming)

In Who Do You Want to Be?, Shahnazari explains that your environment influences your subconscious mind through repetition. What you see every day becomes part of your inner world, often without you noticing.

That’s why an energy detox is not “extra”. It’s foundational. If you keep trying to build a new life in an old environment, your energy keeps getting pulled backward.

Or as she puts it: “Clutter in the house usually means that some areas of your mind are cluttered.”

Start Here: Ask the Power Question Every Morning

Before you touch your phone, before you step into everyone else’s agenda, Shahnazari offers a question that sets the tone for everything:

“Who do I want to be today?”

This isn’t a cute thought. It’s a daily identity decision, and your environment either helps you keep that promise or breaks it for you.

Step 1: Declutter Your Space to Unclutter Your Mind

Shahnazari is direct about clutter: it doesn’t just take up space, it takes your future.

She explains that clutter blocks creativity, makes your mind busy with unnecessary thoughts, and steals calmness and positivity. Too many objects from the past can keep you living in the past, making it harder to imagine and make room for the future you want to create.

Then she gives the deeper truth most people miss:

“Decluttering—cleaning up our act physically, mentally, and emotionally—frees us from those stuck places and helps us become proactive.”

Clear what’s piled up

She specifically calls out “old clothing, papers, objects and other unnecessary stuff” that has piled up. Remove them and, as she promises, “watch magic happen to your mood.”

Make your current space a smaller version of your dream

You don’t need the perfect house today. She teaches that your current environment should support your vision, even if it’s a simpler and smaller version of your desired space.

Step 2: Give Each Room a Job (So Your Mind Can Focus)

Your subconscious is always reading your space. So Shahnazari recommends designing each room so it matches its purpose:

• Your bedroom should feel calming and relaxing, not filled with business books and success-related items.
• Your workspace should not be packed with family photos, vacations, and social-life cues, because that space is for focus.

This is an energy detox because it stops your mind from switching identities all day long. Your space becomes a clear signal: “Here is who you are right now.”

Step 3: Design for Your Five Senses (Because Your Mood Lives There)

Once clutter is gone, Shahnazari recommends designing your environment through the five senses, because what you see, hear, smell, touch, and taste affects your mood, energy, and motivation.

Sight

Surround yourself with clean, organized, inspiring, lovely things. She suggests hanging quotes, paintings, and decorative items that match your vision board.

Color

Use colors that “speak to your soul”, through pillows, flowers, or wall decor.

Scent

Find essential oils and flowers that motivate you, keep your energy high, and calm your mind.

Sound

Play music that boosts your mood and motivation. She also notes that the sound of water is a natural tranquilizer, suggesting fountains or water features to block out noise.

Taste

She’s clear about the food environment too: declutter your refrigerator and cabinets. Remove unhealthy, heavily processed foods, and replace them with whole foods that support your body and your dreams.

Step 4: Declutter Your Media (The Invisible Mess That Programs You)

Shahnazari warns that consumer-facing apps are designed to hook you and hijack your attention, often using psychologists and behavior design to build addiction.

Her guidance is simple and strong:

• Don’t become prey for distractions that pull you away from your true self.
• Unfollow people who make you feel bad.
• Make your feed a place that supports growth, not a place that lowers your self-worth.

This is part of an energy detox because what you consume mentally becomes what you think, and what you think becomes how you live.

Step 5: Detox Your Thoughts (Stop the Loop, Change the Life)

Shahnazari teaches that many of our thoughts are negative and repetitive. If you don’t interrupt that pattern, you keep recycling the same inner world, and then you wonder why the outer world won’t change.

Practice: Let Go of Negative Thoughts

Her exercise is straightforward:

• Set aside 10 minutes of quiet time and listen to the negative dialogue in your mind (“I can’t… I don’t have the talent… too old… too young…”).
• Let it all out, breathe deeply, and let it go.
• Replace every negative statement with a positive one.

She even gives a specific example:
A thought like “I am not good enough” becomes “I soon will be good enough. I am learning and making progress every day.”

Step 6: Come Back to Now (Because Creation Happens in the Now)

Shahnazari calls “now” calming, special, and magical. She warns that worry steals the beauty of now, and even makes the body tense and more prone to illness.

Practice: How to Live in the Now

She suggests:

• A few times a day, find a calm place, breathe deeply, and exhale slowly, noticing how your breath relaxes your body.
• Take long walks in nature, noticing birds, trees, sunlight on your skin, and the earthy smell, she says this practice energizes you and anchors you in the present moment.

Step 7: Protect Your Dream Like a Seed

This is one of Shahnazari’s strongest hidden messages: your dream is fragile at first, and the wrong environment can kill it.

She uses the seed metaphor and gives a clear warning:

“Do not share it or talk about it with people who don’t have the same desire or beliefs as you do. They will kill it in a second.”

An energy detox is also social. It means choosing positive people, good vibes, and environments that support your growth.

Because when your energy is finally clear, you don’t just feel better.

You become different.

So today, before you try to “fix” your life with more effort, ask the question that changes everything:

Who do you want to be today?