There is no better feeling than picking up the clothes off your floor, finally getting rid of that pile of papers and mail that has been accumulating since January, and reclaiming your space from months of clutter. Once it’s done, you feel ten pounds lighter. Spring cleaning offers a time to address the mess in your space.
It is important during Spring cleaning to recognize your mind and mental state as a part of your space—equally in need of attention and care. Just like clutter can build up in our rooms, emotional clutter can accumulate over time – unresolved stress and negative thought patterns or habits that no longer serve us. Spring is a gentle reminder to tend to our inner space, much like we sweep out the cobwebs in our houses. It is a time to pause, reassess how we feel and welcome more clarity, balance, and peace into our lives.
Before you vacuum, remake the bed, or rearrange your shelves, you have to start by picking things up off the floor. You need to clear the way before you can clean. The same is true for your mental well-being. Before you set new goals or seek mental clarity, you need to take inventory of what’s taking up space in your mind.
One way you can clear up some space is by taking time to acknowledge the tough times that come along with the good. While those negative emotions or thoughts may be something you want to get rid of, you first must recognize what you gained from these experiences. This recognition is very important for self compassion, building resilience, and fostering personal growth. It allows you to learn from the past challenges and approach future difficulties with a greater amount of strength. Recognizing your hardship not only helps you to appreciate how far you’ve come, but giving it attention and moving forward means clearing space in your mind.
A helpful method for decluttering your brain is journaling. Oftentimes our brains are just a scramble of conversations, ideas, and emotions that can pack our minds so full it feels overwhelming. Imagine you have a guest coming over, so you shove all of your clothes into the closet to clear your room. Eventually you will have to open that closet, and inevitably things will come falling out. Writing down your thoughts and emotions on paper is more like removing and reorganizing one item at a time – a much more effective, lasting way to make sense of your inner world.
Some things to prompt you when journaling is:
Some clutter you can throw away or donate without second thought – but other things, like your baby blanket or card your mom wrote you for your seventh birthday, they hold emotional weight. Instead of discarding them, you find a meaningful way to store them. This way you can make space and clean up, without having to completely get rid of everything.
In the same way, there is emotional clutter such as grief, unhealed trauma, or beliefs, that we may not be able to rid of completely. They may fade over time, but they are a part of who we are. With these things, we can recognize their existence, check in on how we feel, and accept their presence. Acceptance allows you to embrace reality and your own imperfections. If they feel like they are beginning to pile up, seeking professional help is another option for reprocessing and reorganizing this emotional baggage. Professional help could include attending a group therapy session, individual therapy, or connecting with a life-coach to address deeper-rooted issues or simply help you enhance your overall well-being. There are different forms of professional help that can be modified to match an individual’s goals and comfortability, and can be extremely influential in helping an individual to open up and find comfort in the presence of others.
Once you’ve cleaned out the clutter it’s time to freshen up your environment. Open those blinds and let the sun beam in or light that candle that’s been sitting on your desk. One way to freshen up your mental space, is to bring more intentional positivity into your life through affirmations and gratitude.
While affirmations may feel cheesy at first – they can genuinely impact how you view yourself. In fact, a study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience found that self-affirmation activates an area of the brain that is related to processing and valuation. This region of the brain can help individuals focus on more sources of positivity and help to enhance their self-worth. Additionally, affirmations have been shown to decrease stress levels and improve different problem-solving abilities. On top of implementing more positive affirmations in your life, make attempts to get rid of self-criticism. This can be as simple as thinking before you say something negative about yourself and taking a minute to ask yourself why you were going to say that. Ask: Is it true? Is it fair? Would I say this to someone I care about? Being kinder to yourself helps shift your internal dialogue from judgment to encouragement.
Another thing you can do to freshen up your mind is bring more gratitude into your life. This can include random acts of kindness or expressing your thanks towards someone, even if it seems small. Speaking out what you are grateful for not only makes other people feel good, but it can help you recognize all that you have to be thankful for, improving your mood and brightening up your environment.
Spring cleaning your mental health doesn’t mean having everything perfectly sorted. It means taking the time to check in, let go of what you can, hold space for what you need, and add a little more light and kindness to your internal world. Like our homes, our minds are stronger when we care for them.
Putting in effort periodically throughout the year, leaves you less mess to clean up during your spring cleaning. So while this time is a good reminder to check in on yourself and how you are feeling, don’t let it be the only reminder of the year.
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