Spring cleaning but with a healthy twist, mental health spring cleaning. Spring cleaning has been taking place for centuries – some even trace the origins back to the Persian New Year which celebrates the first day of spring.
Other people may recognize spring cleaning as a time to pack up winter clothes and winter home items. We focus on our physical items and living spaces but what about another place that we live in all day, our mind?
Mental Health Spring Cleaning for Your Mind, Unlock Your Inner Peace
Before we can achieve inner peace, let’s talk about mental health. What is mental health? According to Mentalhealth.gov, mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being.
That said, our mental health impacts how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. If you’re going to take care of your physical space, why not also focus on your mental health too?
Mental health and your mind are the ultimate partners. Doing a mental health spring cleaning is something that’s ideal for the spring but also any time of the year.
When your mental health is in a good place, your mind can function at its best. When your mental health is not in a good place, your mind may experience changes that impact your entire body and life.
It’s a healthy mindset that will allow you to live the best life possible. Below you’ll find some ideas and tips for a mental health spring cleaning.
How to Declutter Your Mind – 7 Easy Suggestions
When you begin to declutter your space, mind, and environment, make sure that you are not too tough on yourself.
Decluttering can be exhausting and a mental health spring cleaning can bring up old emotions. When you embark on this journey, go at your own pace and celebrate small wins.
Stop checking your phone in the morning
This might be a tough one for some but don’t worry, we aren’t talking full digital detox (not yet).
We suggest that you limit screen time when you wake up so your body and mind can naturally without extra stimuli. According to Adeola Adelayo, MD, Scrolling through social media first thing in the morning can also send your stress levels soaring as you subconsciously start comparing yourself to others’ Instagram-filtered lives.
Suggestion: Turn your phone on airplane mode when you sleep so you aren’t stressed out by notifications when you rise. If you’d like to embrace other healthy ideas when you wake up, here’s a list of 11 healthy morning habits.
Create a daily gratitude ritual
We love this one!
It’s also an easy way to change up any routine and you can practice gratitude anywhere.
You can journal as a gratitude ritual, say three things out loud, or even write what you’re thankful for on a sticky note. Gratitude sticky notes can be hung in plain sight so you can practice your attitude of gratitude throughout the day.
Suggestion: If you don’t know where to start, start small – be thankful for your body, your family, and your pets. If you love to express your gratitude, make a gratitude board.
Meditate when you’re overwhelmed
But also, when you’re not overwhelmed!
Meditation is a great way to declutter your mind and focus on the present. Even if it’s 4 minutes a day, start small and work your way up to longer meditations. Meditation is a practice that can decrease stress and anxiety when practiced regularly.
Suggestion: InsightTimer is a wonderful app with paid and free meditations. Youtube also has tons of free meditations.
Practice positive self-talk
Negative thoughts can fill and overrun your mind. Do you naturally think negative thoughts? According to research conducted by the National Science Foundation* around 80% of our thoughts are negative. And we have around 12,000 – 50,000 thoughts daily. These negative thoughts can clutter your mind and limit you from living a happy life.
Suggestion: When you start thinking negative thoughts, try to stop yourself and re-direct. Try to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts. Stop yourself and ask – Would I say this to a friend? Try to replace negative thoughts with self-love affirmations.
Allow yourself to feel, do not try to hide your emotions
Have you ever tried to hide your emotions? Have you bottled them up or suppressed them? Suppressed emotions get held in the body and create a host of downstream effects, including depression, anxiety, and stress-related mental illness.
Suggestion: Acknowledge your emotions, and recognize that emotions. First acknowledge, then accept. After doing this, ask yourself why you felt that way or what triggered you, and try to let it go. Journaling is a great way to express your feelings and going to therapy is another great example.
Practice Relaxation
Relaxation does not need to be earned, relaxation is key to mental health and is needed.
If you are constantly on the go and don’t have time to rest or relax, your mind might be on overdrive. Take some time to focus on yourself. Work, life, and things get busy! If you are not used to practicing relaxation, we have a list of self-care ideas before bedtime. These activities are great for anyone and everyone!
Suggestion: try to find a way to relax or take care of yourself every day even if it’s for 5 minutes.
Sleep, sleep, sleep!
Getting enough sleep and quality sleep will provide you with the best opportunity to stay mentally strong. Getting enough sleep is also linked to higher levels of cognitive performance, creativity, and improved moods.
Suggestion: Prioritize your sleep – make sure to get 8 hours of quality rest each night.
Free Resources to Help You on Journey to Declutter Your Mind
We are so happy that you’ve stopped by to read about how to do a mental health spring cleaning. We wanted to provide some additional resources that may help you on your journey as well:
2 comments
Thanks so much for this. My mental health definitely needs a good detox.
I totally agree with not immediately checking your phone when you first wake up! A game changer.