By: Daniel Sullivan
It’s almost that time of year in Chicago – Spring And with this season comes a moment of change. After all, there’s lots of work to do. Windows need to be cleaned, floors need to be shined and clothing needs to be switched out. All of it is part of an annual ritual that many of us look forward to in the Windy city and throughout the Midwest.
Often in our lives it’s pack away the old to make room for the new. Yet slowly but surely clutter begins to build up and before we know it our lives are filled with the clutter of old which no longer fits our lifestyle. We think of spring cleaning as something we do with our homes.
However, with our clothing, with our vehicles. However, spring is also a great time to do some spring cleaning in various areas of our life. The areas which have begun to feel cluttered or even contaminated.
Patterns which have led to the same outcome, friends who once were a shining part of your life now just don’t seem to fit or habits which are keeping us from achieving the serenity that we all so desire. How do I begin well here are 4 areas of your life that need spring cleaning.
1. Our Homes
So, we’ve already discussed the need for cleaning away the winter blues from your home . As you look through those closets are they filled to overflowing. Maybe it’s time to go through those closets and clean out the clothes you’ve not worn in years or the stack of tax documents going back to 1989.
Bring some open space back into your home, pack away neatly what you do not need for the spring and purge yourself of those things that no longer fit your lifestyle.
Often a disorganized home filled with all that “stuff” dirty and unkempt is a reflection of something greater. It may be how your life feels uninteresting, chaotic, muddled and filled with a bunch of things that no longer represent who you are. Hence, we are going to start with the outward and work our way inward as we move forward with our spring cleaning.
2. The Body
The cold has just made it more challenging to go to the gym, walking to the local store or the continuous ordering take out because it is simply just too miserable out to want to move.
Having just been give the go ahead to go back to the gym due to a back injury the bleak days of winter seemed much more overwhelming. My healthy eating habits were put by the wayside and replaced instead with GrubHub. As this is not my typical lifestyle I found that I was more melancholy, more irritable, slept way too much and battled physical ailments along with my constant pain.
Spring cleaning needs to include a concentration on breaking unhealthy patterns of eating and getting myself up and walking around, including going back to the gym. What have I found as I’ve spring cleaned this area of my life, I have more energy, my mood is more positive and overall I feel more like “me” than I have for quite some time.
I’m not saying go on a crash diet or make unachievable workout goals, but start changing out he unhealthy for the healthy. Before you know it, you’ll be feeling like a new you. Spring cleaning of the body will have a significant impact on your emotions
3. Emotional/Psychological
How many of us have been muddled down with that seasonal affective disorder which you have struggled with for most of the winter. It’s time to dust yourself off and consciously change that which doesn’t belong in your life depression will be replaced by an energetic, more here and now focused, content individual.
Look out at the sunny skies which we never thought we would see again and remind ourselves that healthy thinking where you focus not on the past or too far into the future but instead concentrate on the here in now. Stop and smell the roses.
Don’t let life just pass you by. But, instead fill your life with positive and newly spring cleaned home and body. As you begin to clean out the clutter in your life externally and internally this may mean that those relationships which are no longer line up with where you are with your journey in life. Thus, we move onto the next area that needs spring cleaning…our relationships.
4. Relationships
With whom do you surround yourself? People who encourage the best in you or those who live the life as if it was a Lifetime Movie…full of drama but little substance. Take an assessment of those individuals who are a part of your life. Is it time that you take a step back, look at the accentuating and non-accentuating individuals in your life and do some cleaning. Freeing yourself from the bondage of unhealthy relationships.
Final Thoughts
There you have it four areas of your life working from the outside in where you can begin spring cleaning. What areas of your life need a spring cleaning? Are you battling addictions, perhaps your anxiety levels are high and your mood is exceptionally low leading to anxiety and depression.
Maybe you have a relationship which needs a tune up or the way you perceive yourself isn’t healthy. Whatever, areas of your life that need spring cleaning, you don’t have to do it alone. If you’re feeling bogged down as you contemplate spring cleaning in your life pick up the phone and make that call for help.
