25 Apr Focus on Spring Cleaning
What is spring without a little spring cleaning? I’m not sure why spring was designated as THE season for thoroughly cleaning our homes but here we are. It is a time when we clean all the things we barely touched during the rest of the year. We move furniture and dust and vacuum in all the hidden places. We clean the windows to give us a better view of the world outside of us. We get rid of all the clothes we no longer wear or fit. At the end of it all, we feel a little bit lighter and perhaps, we are breathing a sigh of relief. In the spirit of cleaning all our dark places, seeing the outside a bit clearer and disposing of things we no longer need, I want to propose that we all pause to do some internal spring cleaning. Don’t we all deserve to feel a little lighter and better about ourselves?
Hidden places
Let’s start in the hidden places. Move some things around in your mind and reveal for yourself all the hidden areas of your life that hold you back. It may be something from your past. It may be your biggest regret. Perhaps it is a feeling or a situation that you can’t quite shake. It is time to move the cover that you so carefully placed over it and clean it up. Make that phone call and apologize after all these years. Make an appointment with a therapist and commit to dealing with that past trauma once and for all. Life is too short for regrets or for living a partial existence because of something that happened to us or because of our own past choices. Remember, we are all doing the best we can at any point in time.
Cloudy vision
You know how you can’t see anything well when the windows are really dirty? Everything that you see is through a cloudy filter. That is how our lives are when we fail to focus and create a clear, distinct vision. We put up a haze of excuses like “maybe if I take one more class” or “ maybe if get this money” or “when the kids get older.” We create messy, complex visions like I will write a book, write a blog, start a podcast, start a YouTube channel and start a nonprofit all in the next week! Clean up all the excuses and all the extras. Sit down and develop a distinct vision with specific action steps. We do not have to conquer the world all at once. Once we clean up our view of our purpose, we will find that our vision becomes a whole lot clearer.
Holding on
Throwing stuff away is perhaps the hardest of cleaning tasks. How many times do we clean our closets and hold on to a pair of jeans because we are sure we will lose weight this year. We hold on to a sweater because a dear relative or friend gave it to us decades ago and we can’t bear to part with it. Let it go!! I have made a pact with myself that if I buy something new, something has to go. Some of us need to make that pact in our lives. If we are going to move forward in something new, something has to go. If you want a new position or job, give up your old habits of tardiness. If you want a new sense of peace, give up daily calls with your drama-loving friend. If you want rest, give up that extra hour of TV at night. It is time to stop holding on to things that are holding us back. Let it go!
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