As the snow melts away and the trees begin budding, our hearts explode with excitement with the spring weather. Spring cleaning has arrived my friends. This year, I am here to urge you to clean out more than your closet. While our homes are most definitely in need of some attention after a long winter, our bodies and our minds are also in need of a little spring cleaning. Come take a look at the whole picture and find a bit of inspiration. This is a perfect time to spring clean your life from the ground up and embody your best self!
Begin spring cleaning your life with deep, cleansing breaths.
Kick off your spring cleaning adventure by taking the deep breaths that you and your nervous system deserves. Let go of any negative thoughts and bring in positive change. Too often in our culture we put the cart before the horse and prioritize our to-do list before ourselves. Because of this, it is incredibly easy to operate from a way of thinking that says, “I don’t have enough time! Why would I sit down and breathe? I have a million things to do!” This is something that lots of us struggle with. We know that a meditation practice would benefit us greatly, but there is, for example, a laundry pile in the corner making us feel guilty. Let go of the excuses, carve out a bit of time, and give yourself permission to love yourself through some type of breathing practice. This is an excellent way to practice self care.
For those of you who are new to meditation, or if you just prefer a nice step by step guided practice, I highly recommend Headspace. This is an app for your phone that specializes in helpful, guided meditations. Because I am one of many who struggles with committing to a regular practice, I find this app to be incredibly useful in helping me to sink in and stick with it.
Move your body in some way, every day!
Help to clean out the internal cobwebs by getting your body moving. Exercise is so incredibly important, as it affects the way that we feel on so many levels! I have been amazed by how effective exercise has been in my life at kicking depression in the butt, giving me new energy, and making me feel like a completely different person. Try goal setting by counting your minutes of exercise each day and working this into your daily routine.
I love merging my breathing practice and my exercise together through yoga. Yoga can truly be any kind of workout you want it to be. Because it is all about prioritizing the breath and integrating it into our movement, I cannot recommend it enough. Find a yoga studio near you TODAY if you’ve never been. It might just change your life. Your physical health is hugely important. You deserve to feel good. Try that on as a new perspective!
Consider how you could clean up the way that you spend your time.
Take a closer look at the way you spend your time this spring. How can we make good use of our time? Where can we make small changes to bring more positive energy into our lives? What potentially toxic behaviors or thought patterns can we get rid of? What amazing, soul-feeding things can we replace those things with?!
This is the ultimate version of spring clean your life! Once we start treating our minds and bodies well, with the love that we deserve, it begins to become clear what patterns we have fallen into that do not serve us. Let’s lift ourselves up out of anything that isn’t bettering us. Because we don’t have time to waste, which is a liberating realization to have. To that I’d like to add, NOTHING is SOMETHING worth doing! Don’t get caught in an overly productive mindset that isn’t healthy. We all need to slow it down and get real with ourselves.
Take a good look at your plate and spring clean your life through the things that you eat.
Over the winter, and the holidays, many of us tend to get pretty relaxed about the food we are eating. Because of this, I think it’s a great time to lighten it up a bit as springtime rolls around. Fill your body with whole foods and invite this way of eating into your life as a new habit.. Think more greens and less cookies during this time of year. Adopt a point of view that highlights your good health as the most important thing.
A great way to spring clean your body is with a cleanse! There are so many different flavors and various levels of intensities when it comes to cleanses. Do what works for you! For example, you may want to start with something a little less extreme by cutting out things like alcohol and refined sugar. Or you may be ready for something to really clear your body out such as a juice fast or a master cleanse for your fresh start. Whatever you choose, your diet is a good item to consider on your spring cleaning checklist.
Whatever route you choose to take, just clean it up! Your body will thank you for it! Truly, you may be surprised at how amazing you feel when you become a bit more “picky” about what you’re putting into your body.
Spring clean your home from a place of love.
Lastly, cleaning out the physical space that we reside feels amazing. After a nice, long, cozy winter it is time to kick it into gear with the warmer weather and spring clean your life by cleaning up your home.
Dive into decluttering!
Letting go of physical clutter this spring season can help you to more greatly embody this new beginning for yourself. Having too much stuff in your space does not feel good. These things are energetic blockages. Clear out the junk drawer and the unused apps. A lot of things seem to creep into our space without us noticing. By clearing out these physical items you can spend less time cleaning and organizing. This will also help to clear out any mental space and reduce stress levels from stagnant energy those items have been carrying with them. This is hard work and it is so incredibly worth it. Marie Kondo is an expert at decluttering and organizing. If you don’t already know her methods on how to keep a clean space, you really should.
I want to reiterate that the way we take care of our bodies and minds should be prioritized. Please don’t go balls to the walls cleaning and end up skipping meals (guilty…) and holding your breath! Get into a flow state and clean the energy of your home as you go! Cleaning from a place of love feels eternally more gratifying than cleaning in a rushed, scattered state. Make your space sparkle and clean from your heart.
Check out this article of mine on indoor air quality to learn how to clean up the air inside your home this spring. You and your family deserve to breathe the cleanest air possible.
Thank you for being here. I hope this article has helped you to look at spring cleaning from a different perspective that will lead to more self love in your life.