Here in Australia Spring has kicked into gear. The Sun has popped its head out and Winters face is starting to vanish. A lot of people will have started their spring cleaning. Streets are lined with old furniture and white goods, waiting to be collected by the local councils. We did the same ourselves a few weeks back, scrubbed the apartment from top to bottom getting rid of everything that wasn’t needed. Replacing most of it with some nice and shiny new things. Apparently spring cleaning comes from the Iranian practice of “Khooneh Tekouni” which literally means “shaking the house”. In all honesty this was a pain in arse to do, two days of moving stuff out, then taking the new stuff in, and finally shifting everything around. As hard as this was, there was a real sense of pleasure when all the hard work finished. It got me thinking this is great practice to put into any area of your life.
The ultimate clutter is the clutter that goes around in our minds on a daily basis. The so called negative chatter. That flow of thought that says you aren’t good enough to get that job, or you can’t lose that weight, whatever the case maybe. Stemming that tide of negativity is so important. In life we are faced with situations that force us to confront those emotions that drag us down. It’s really important that we learn to deal with those thoughts, in fact most of the time we can use them as a training exercise to improve ourselves. Learn to recognise when you get in that frame of mind, once you become familiar with the response then you can learn to change your habits. That is the time to put the spring cleaning into action and it’s the same process each time.
Own the situation. Be accountable and recognise that this is your problem don’t try and blame others
Deal with the issue at hand. Learn to release the emotions that go with any situation that’s negative. It might be anger, jealousy, and disappointment. None of these will serve any purpose in your life
Move On. Focus on what you need to do move forward. Be thankful for the good things that are going on and use these to motivate you to get where you want to be
People in general can get very attached to things or situations and generally will find it difficult to let go. Change is a little bit like loss so it can be hard to move on. Try and resist those feeling and learn to let go of the things that might be affecting your life. Here are some tips to help you get started
Don’t be afraid to let go. Try and resist the urge to hold on to things that you don’t need or that don’t serve any purpose in your life. Ensure that you remove any obstacles that might be blocking your goals
Change the easy habit first . Don’t start off with the hardest thing to change, pick out something small in your life and work from there
Don’t replace one habit with another. Try to stem the flow of repeating the same mistakes, don’t repeatedly put yourself in the same situations that got you there in the first place
Don’t waste your energy on the clutter in your life. Every time you let issues build up in your life it takes longer to clean up the situation. Own the problem, deal with it, and then move on. Don’t let it own you and have a situation where your energy is being drained unnecessarily.
It’s a slow process and doesn’t need to be rushed. Change takes time so whether you are dealing with whether it be a personal issue or maybe something at work, try and focus on one day at a time.