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Spring Cleaning for the Soul

5 minute read

The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming and there is a faint smell of freshly mowed grass in the air. That’s right, it’s springtime. When I think of the word spring, I have one word I typically associate with it… cleaning. Time to open the windows, sweep the dust bunnies out of the corners and put away all of my winter gear (due to mother nature being a bit of a prankster this year, I may wait till June to do this last one). We all make those new years resolutions promising to change things in our lives to become our best selves in the new year. For those of us who have not stayed on track (hand raised), spring is the perfect time to get started on becoming our best selves.

So, let’s get started!

1. Declutter

If you are like me, you may have an area or two in your life (room, office, car, or daily bag) that looks like a tornado blew through it. For me, it’s my work bag. A pit of lose change, old straw wrappers, receipts, and any other thing you can think of that I may come into contact with in my day to day life. Every time I go to grab my keys or my wallet, I’m left searching for them in the pit of despair. I’m left in a constant state of panic wondering if I left them somewhere or they fell out of my bag.

Organizing an area of your life that is in disarray can be an extremely gratifying experience. When you have order in your life, it gives you a sense of harmony. Having a serene space will provide you with a sense of gratitude for what you have and take away the anxiety of having to live in chaos. Remember, you become the energy you surround yourself with.

2. Rid yourself of toxic relationships

They say 89% of people will at some point in their life be involved in a toxic relationship. This does not necessarily need to be a romantic one. Some people have toxic friends or family members. These relationships tend to make you feel taken advantage of and leave you feeling hurt. Well, it’s time to clean them out of your life! Delete them on social media so they aren’t given a window into what is going on in your life. Block their phone number so they aren’t able to contact you to pull you back in. Write a goodbye letter to them telling them everything they did to hurt you and why you no longer want them in your life. Then, throw that letter away! You heard me right, throw it away. You aren’t sending the letter because you don’t want that relationship to mend. You are writing down your feelings and throwing the letter away because you need to mend and that means, cleaning that person out of your life. Remember, if you continue to keep bad relationships around, you won’t have room for good ones to come into your life.

3. Find your passion

What did you do yesterday or the day before that? Did you love it? Was it making your day better? Was it getting you to the place in life you ultimately want to be? If your answer is no, you aren’t doing something that you are passionate about. Now, if your passion is to become an actor, I don’t suggest you quit your day job and start auditioning for Broadway plays but, everyday you should do something that makes you feel good and gets you closer to your dream. How do you expect to do that when you go to work, come home, make dinner, and sit on the couch watching tv till you fall asleep? Enroll in an acting class or audition for a theater production in your community. Download monologues and practice reading them in the mirror until you figure out which one suits you best. The point is to push yourself each day to get to the place you want to be. When you clear out all of the things you are doing that aren’t serving you, you will be amazed at how much time you have for the things you love. Remember, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

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4. Journal

I never used to keep a journal. To be honest, I didn’t see the point. Then one day, I was so anxious about something at work, I didn’t sleep that night or the next or the next. Every time I would lay my head down to sleep, I kept thinking about the situation and, how much I hated it and, how there was nothing I could do to change it and, how I was going to have to deal with it the next day. One day, a coworker told me to journal at night everything that was racing in my mind. I thought it was silly but, I went to Barnes and Noble and got myself a journal. I assumed I would just start listing the few things that I was upset about but instead, that turned into 3 pages of me listing what I didn’t like, how it made me feel, and what I wanted to happen. After I wrote it all, I felt two things, relieved and exhausted. I had finally gotten it all out. I wrote until I felt content. I laid my head down that night and fell right to sleep. Since then I do not journal every single night but, when my mind is racing, I journal to get all of my thoughts out. Cleaning out the negative leaves your mind empty and open to fill with solutions to turn the negative into a positive. So, grab that broom, I mean pen and clear out your mind. Remember, clearing your mind helps you listen to your heart.

The word spring means “to move or jump suddenly or rapidly upward or forward.” When we “spring forward” for daylight savings time, the sun is out longer and leaves us with longer and brighter days. So spring forward in your life and start your spring cleaning… on you!

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