Mind Matters

Mind Matters:
Spring Cleaning Your Life

Wendy Jameson,
Success Coach

Spring cleaning your house can be a real drag. Just thinking about the clutter that has built up over the months (sometimes years) in closets, the garage, the kitchen, bathrooms… yuck! It is enough to discourage even the most organized person.

Spring cleaning your life can seem even worse, but it is certainly worth doing. Our psyches, relationships and physical bodies have built up clutter over the years that, for many of us, rivals the junk in our garage. No wonder we call it “baggage”!

With spring coming early in the Southwest, now is a great time to clean the skeletons out of your closet while scrubbing the grime off your baseboards.

For a quick checklist on spring cleaning, I turned to www.LifeScript.com and adapted their household cleaning tips into a personal health checklist for spring cleaning your life.

1. Plan your attack. Just as you consider which areas and items in your home need cleaning the most, you need to determine which areas of your life are most in need of scouring. Use the Wheel of Life as a guide. From 1 (low) to 10 (high), rate your satisfaction with your life in these key areas: fun and recreation, career, health, personal development, friends and family, environment, finance, romance/significant other. Start with the lowest numbers.

2. Take it easy on yourself. That love handle did not grow overnight, so you cannot expect it to go away overnight. Look at your plan of attack and consider how you can make small changes each day, even with each thought, and give yourself a time-based plan for expecting to see changes. For example: “I will not gossip on Tuesdays and Fridays.”

3. Hire a crew to help. Change is difficult, particularly if you try to go it alone. Involve your family and friends (maybe they need some spring cleaning too!) or, if they are part of the problem, talk to your spiritual leader or meet with a counselor or coach.

4. Avoid distractions. Screaming kids are not conducive to cleaning your house or your mind. Determine the distractions that prevent progress, and find a way to take care of them. Focusing on yourself means looking inward, and stressful people and events will prevent you from seeing clearly.

5. De-clutter your life. Specifically, clean out the anger, hatred, jealousy and self-doubt. Throw out misunderstanding, jumping to conclusions and lack of patience. Toss away tolerance, delay and procrastination. Make room for positive thinking, beauty and gratitude.

6. Invite the outside in. It’s spring! Can you hear the birds chirping and smell the flowers blooming? Scrub the negativity from your eyes to see the beautiful life that is possible. Lift the blinds and let in the warmth of friendship. Open the windows of your mind to new ideas and a fresh perspective on living a happier, more fulfilling life!

7. Have fun! Do not think of it as a chore, but rather a chance to make a new you. If you approach change anticipating pain and difficulty, that is just what you will get. Lighten up your thoughts with humor and fun, laughing and loving each day, mistakes and all. Remember, you create your reality, so why not make it a fun one?