Five Tools for Inner Housecleaning

Spring cleaning is not just for Spring or your house!  Here are five tools for your inner housecleaning that you can use daily, as needed, and enjoy the fresh air that peace of mind brings!

1.    Meditate. For five minutes a day (at a consistent time and location), observe the thoughts that go through your mind.  Don’t push them away, judge them, or feel ashamed; just notice what they are saying to you and let them pass.

2.    Journal.  Write about the time during the day when you felt frustrated, hurt, sad or angry.  What were you feeling and thinking?  Get to know your reactions and look for a pattern in them.  Writing about your feelings can help you understand when to back off, and when to stand up for yourself. 

3.    Forgive.  Jane Hart’s Seven Steps for Successful Life Transitions is an excellent forgiveness method.  Unforgiveness balls you up in body, mind and expression; while forgiveness frees you to experience more overall joy.  

4.    Use difficult people to learn about your hidden issues.  Take that guy at the office that grinds you like fingers down a chalkboard.  Get your journal and list all the qualities and behaviors about him that bug you.  Ask yourself who this person represents to you.  You can learn a lot about what is blocking you from your potential by embracing those you find difficult to be around.  Forgive them even if you don’t know what it is that you don’t like.  The health benefits of this action alone will be worth your effort.

5.    Trust yourself above all others.  There is no teacher, master, therapist, guru, or life coach out there who is any good unless they are telling you to listen to your own inner promptings.  As you watch your own thinking and journal out your feelings, you will begin to understand more about who you are.  This is a wonderful and scary thing!  Trust that your inner wisdom will reveal itself and support you as you work to resolve fear and false beliefs.