15 Ways to spring clean your soul

Morning pages are basically the practice of stream-of-consciousness journaling for three pages first thing in the morning. Think of them as a brain drain. They help clear your mind so that you can go about your day with more focus. They also help you get in touch with yourself and truly find out what it is that you want, what you don’t want, what brings you joy, and what makes you unhappy.

Realizing that you are not your thoughts is a game-changer. Separating yourself from your thoughts allows you to observe them, question them, and let go of the ones that are causing damage.

For example, if you have a negative thought about yourself, you can observe the thought as if it were something nasty on the floor your brain and you can simply sweep it away, like you would if something nasty were on your actual floor. Pa’ fuera with that nonsense!

Connecting with nature is good for our mental health. The Mental Health Foundation reports that “Nature can generate many positive emotions, such as calmness, joy, and creativity and can facilitate concentration.” Additionally, being connected with nature is associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression.

We can’t all connect with nature in the same way, but we do all have access to natural environments. You can go to a public park, a beach, a lake, a garden, or even a backyard to take advantage of nature. You could even lie on your back outdoors and look up at the sky.

I find this particular five senses exercise incredibly helpful when I feel myself getting anxious. Ideally, you would do this while walking outdoors in a natural setting, but it also works indoors.

Start by taking a moment to focus on your breath. Then find five things that you see and label them to yourself. As in “tree,” “grass,” etc. Then label four things that you feel like, say “feet on the ground.” Next, label three things that you hear. Then label two things you smell. Finally, label one thing you taste. You can repeat the exercise as many times as necessary to get centered.

Every single one of us is creative. Period. If you think you aren’t, you are absolutely wrong. You are simply not giving yourself credit. Creativity is our birthright and we use it every single day to problem solve. We should also be using it to be creative because it feeds our souls.

You can be creative by doodling, junk journaling, sewing, knitting, or painting. It doesn’t matter if what you create is beautiful or not. What matters is that you are allowing yourself to create.

There are people who feed your soul and there are people who drain it. Identify the ones that give you energy and spend time with them, invest in your relationships with them. As for the ones who drain you, minimize contact. You don’t have to tell them they drain you or that you will be spending less time with them.

Sometimes we don’t even realize when things are weighing us down because we are so used to carrying that load that we think it’s normal. This is where you can examine what you’ve written about in your morning pages to identify what you complain about or don’t look forward to doing.

Examples of things that might be weighing you down include other people’s opinions, feeling like your home needs to be picture perfect, or attending events that are not in your budget (like a destination wedding). Remember that it’s none of your business what other people think of you, that your home is supposed to looked lived in because you live in it, and that an invitation can absolutely be declined.

I tend to get really stressed before we take a trip. I feel like our home needs to be cleaned from top to bottom before we are allowed to leave because that’s what my mom used to make us do when I was growing up. Not gonna lie, I still think it’s nice to come home to a clean house, but it’s also nice not to make everyone miserable before our trip by barking orders at them.

I’ve let go of my “need” to have everything cleaned and instead focus on what I think must be cleaned. Now, I make sure the kitchen is clean, the beds are made, and all the garbage is taken out. No more stressing myself and everyone else out before leaving for a trip.

All that scrolling isn’t doing your soul any good. It’s cluttering up your brain, giving you FOMO, and making you want to buy things you don’t need. Instead, commit to replacing some of your scrolling time with reading.

Reading has health benefits. Like what? It helps reduce stress, can help you sleep better, and it keeps your brain sharp. However, what you read does matter. Reading something stressful isn’t gonna help you relax, so keep that in mind.

Learning new skills keeps your brain healthy by stimulating the process of “neuroplasticity,” which is how your brain adapts, changes, and grows. It’s a great way to reduce your risk of developing dementia. Think of learning as exercise for your brain.

Getting a compliment feels nice and builds self-esteem, so don’t wait for someone else to compliment you. Instead, develop the practice of complimenting yourself. The more you do it, the easier it will get—and it beats putting yourself down.

I’m not telling you to turn into a minimalist or never buy anything, but I do think we all need to delay gratification when it comes to shopping. It’s easy to get addicted to the dopamine hit you get every time you hit that buy button or get yourself something at the store. That’s why so many people call it “retail therapy.” But it’s not actually therapy and can seriously affect your financial well-being, which in turn will affect your mental health.

Instead of instantly buying things that you don’t technically need, create a shopping list of all your wanted items. If you still want it after let’s say a week or a month, and you can actually afford it, go ahead and get it. But having a constant influx of purchases and packages in your life is not what we should be normalizing.

The “Let Them” theory as put forth by author Mel Robbins is about letting go of your need to control other people and instead focusing on your own goals. Of course, if you are a parent of young children you’re not just going to let them stick forks in light sockets. But when it comes to the adults in your life, let them. Let them judge you, let them get mad when you say no, let them not invite you to things. Most importantly, let yourself accomplish your own goals.

It’s easy to focus on the things we lack because that’s what we’ve been trained to do and continue to train our brains to do. The great and amazing thing about our brains is that we can train them to think differently. Even if we are flat broke, we have so many things to be grateful for that cost nothing. We have libraries that are free, public parks, beaches, mountains, and so much more that is ours.

You are allowed to suck at something and still do it. If you want to play guitar and suck at it, that’s OK. It’s not like you’re headlining a stadium tour and charging people to come see you perform. Play guitar for yourself and have fun. Same goes for anything else that you love, but aren’t good at.

When a baby is born, they are worthy. They are worthy even though they don’t have a job that brings in six figures. They are worthy simply because they exist. This idea that as we get older, we must prove our worth by acquiring things and accomplishing more than the next person is a lie that we buy into because of hustle culture. Stop the nonsense. You were born worthy.