Yes indeed it’s that time of year– Spring has sprung…

One of my joys is simple gardening. It calls for pruning plants so that they may grow stronger, last longer and blossom more fully in splendor. Many of us can understand this and so I think it is a great analogy for what we need to do with ourselves.

Bottom line, whether you have flowers and sunshine or snow and cold, you cannot control nature and so it’s time to focus on letting nature emerge in its organic rhythm.

And focus on what we can control by listening to our internal clock telling us it’s time to take inventory and discard and sort.

I always coach to looking at ourselves in a 360 degree way. As complex and yet simple beings, spring cleaning simply needs to look at 3 primary areas.

Body, Mind, Spirit

Body, Mind and Spirit each intersect and one impacts the other. All shifts here start from the inside, with intention and then actualizing our decision. Of course what is internal to us gets impacted from outside influences and needs to be carefully filtered so that your consciousness is expanded and not negatively impacted. It takes effort, so worth it, to guard ourselves. Your body is your temple – care for it so that it may serve you as the best place to live. Your mind rules your emotions so ”ride the elephant” and tame your thoughts so that they too may serve you and others for good. Spirit is all that guides and reminds you who you truly are as a manifestation of greatness of the most High. Certainly worth considering the ebb and flow of all your elements and the intersectionality. I believe this has everything to do with mastery, discipline and contribution of our best selves to the world.

Body:

I need to see what I have stored through the colder months, residue from the last year, learning and releasing what is no longer working for me. I question where I have reaped the benefits of being still and being active. What clothes, colors, jewelry work for me now may not be what had a draw in the past if I am honest with myself. So giving to others what no longer serves me for them to enjoy provides its own freedom.

Nature is a flawless and consistent teacher . Spring comes forth gently and yet predictably. Timing of course is not in our control, but the shifting we need to do to get in sync with our natural emergence is withing our control. It pays to ask ourselves,

How and where do I need to move differently? Faster? Slower and more gently?
Am I right eating for me? Nourishing myself and leaving a little room in my belly for breath and the ability to move with ease?

This is a great time to walk and see anew, the flowers, butterflies, clouds, trees budding, even new snow patterns or parched lands…

Mind:

Lots of questions to consider what is worth taking up our mental real estate and what is just not worth it anymore. Sure makes meditation a lot easier with less “spacial debris” floating around in my head. Consider:

What no longer works for me?
What is weighing me down?
What brings me joy?
What fuels my fire?
Where is my thinking expansive? Where is my thinking restrictive?
Who is living in my head “rent free” and needs to be vacated (do this with humor and love)?

Spirit:

The whole notion of spring cleaning is that we need to clean up, sort out, enhance our world. Where and how we live, our surroundings internally and externally both.

Where is my clutter?
Am I expressing gratitude to elevate my altitude in life? And not just for what I have but as well for what I NO longer have to contend with.
Where am I sharing and caring as I already know it comes back ten fold?
What am I reading, learning, doing, watching, saying that adds value?

Cleansing & Blossoming

May you blossom to your full splendor and often by pruning. That is, releasing and eliminating and cutting back more than adding on. New growth can come through where there is energy to feed it so lighten up. While I may never quite make it as a minimalist, I do believe Less IS more. I know that I have moved away from doing more, piling on more, and the focus on releasing is paying of in body, mind and Spirit for me.

May you limit suffering by recognizing it comes from a false sense of separatedness. Keeping Body, Mind and Spirit integrated with focus and due diligence daily. Spring cleaning enables renewal, rebirth, reclaiming of self. I celebrate you, I celebrate me in this season of this time.

I pray simply and dream big, how about you? Please share your thoughts, below.