Spring Cleaning: Body, Mind & Home

Spring Cleaning: Body, Mind, and Home                             April 1, 2023

After a long cold winter, spring is finally here! The change of seasons brings a renewed motivation and inspiration. Energetically this is a good time to begin or recommit to healthy habits and clean and clear out our body, mind, and home. 

Your Body is Your Temple

Your body is your instrument of action to do good work in this world. In Yogic understanding there are layers of our being called “koshas”, similar to layers of an onion. The outermost layer is annamaya kosha which relates to our physical body, it is sometimes also referred to as the food sheath. Reflect on your relationship to exercise, food, and sleep. Find simple ways to improve these routine habits. Small lasting change is the most impactful. Moving inward, the next layer is pranamaya kosha, your energetic body. These koshas can be cleared and balanced through yogic exercise, asana, and breathing techniques, pranayama.  

Consider embracing a dinacharya practice as your morning self care routine each day. Keeping these two aspects of your being healthy gives you more strength, flexibility, and healthy flow of energy through your body, bringing greater vitality and energetic connection to yourself and the world around you. 

Declutter Your Mind

Remember when you were a child and would hold hands with a friend and spin in circles faster and faster until you were dizzy and had to stop. Sometimes sitting for meditation can feel just like this. When we finally sit still and get quiet, we feel dizzy with overstimulation. Our lives are so busy, where the end of one activity becomes an invitation to start another. We are constantly contemplating the past or anxiously preparing for the future. So rarely are our minds at ease in the present moment. 

What happens when you stop thinking? 

What do you feel? What do you sense?

 When we allow the body to become very still, and we allow thinking to stop, or at least slow down,  you are in the here and now and are fully present. Giving yourself time to “unthink” at least once a day is incredibly important. It allows us to become unstuck in the body and mind and from our habitual ways of thinking. It opens us up to more fully experience our lives and relationships. We become more grateful for each moment of life because we are truly living it. 

If seated meditation seems too daunting, begin with a walking meditation. Start with 5-10 minutes each day and gradually build up from there. 

Refresh Your Home

Items in our home not only take up physical space, but also mental and emotional space. Leaning out our home opens up our mind and hearts to new possibilities and experiences because we are no longer clinging so tightly to the past, or items that represent something from our past. The eyes are our most powerful sense organ and are constantly sending cues to our brain. A more minimalist home allows our eyes and brain to be more at ease. 

I believe items should serve their purpose. If we are not using it, and perhaps haven’t used it in years, donate the item so that someone else might use it. Some suggestions: Go room by room, drawer by drawer and throw out/recycle/donate/compost items appropriately. 

Pay special attention to

• Bathroom medicine cabinet and under the sink. The only way to know what you really have is to pull it all out, all of it. Expired bath and body products lose their potency and are more likely to cause skin irritation, it’s not worth it, throw it out. Consolidate or rubber band together multiples of the same item so you use them up before buying more.

• Refrigerator, Freezer & Pantry.  As food sits longer and longer it loses its prana, the nourishing life force. Check each item and throw away/recycle expired containers. Food tends to hide away longer in the freezer. If it's been in there longer than a year (even if it’s not expired) get rid of it.

• Closets. Think bedding, towels, clothes and shoes. Think about this- we use 10% of our clothes, 90% of the time. We all have those items that we keep holding onto year after year, waiting for that rare occasion that we might need it. Ok, so save a few of these, donate the rest. When a monk goes on a silent walking pilgrimage throughout India they take only the clothes they are wearing, one blanket, one bowl for water and food, and often a staff/pole for walking. I have seen many sadhus who have been walking throughout India for years in silence with nothing more. While this extreme is not possible in our modern householder lives, it is possible to live happily and comfortably with much less.

An important part of the Spring cleaning, and possibly the harder part, is to adjust our habits to not collect clutter in the house. This involves curtailing our spending habits and reflecting on “What do I really need”?

Happy Spring Cleaning! Body, mind, heart, soul, and home.

Please contact me with any questions, comments, or to work together privately on these practices at michellemartoneyoga@gmail.com