It’s not too late to spring clean. Spring cleaning isn’t limited to your house. It’s spiritual, physical, psychological, emotional, social…you get the idea. Spring Cleaning is conceptually connected to major religions around the world. It prepares us for a season of rebirth or renewal.
With that in mind, here are 5 things you must Spring Clean to experience the confidence and energy edge to get ahead and feel at peace moving into the rest of the year.
Your self-limiting beliefs
Your calendar
Your relationships
Your skin/hair/body-care routine:
Your wardrobe
Your Self-limiting beliefs:
These are the negative assumptions or perceptions that you have about yourself. They shape your self-talk. They live in your conscious and subconscious and are rooted in past experiences, often from youth. They could have been shaped by comments from others, values taught by family, friends, teachers, and through the media.
Self-limiting beliefs keep you from realizing your full potential. They keep you from becoming the person you were meant to be and living the life you were truly born to live. Here is how you overcome self-limiting beliefs.
Your Calendar:
“Show me your schedule and I will show you your values.” ~Robin Sharma
When you schedule appointments, do you protect your boundaries? There are personal boundaries, energy boundaries, and time boundaries to consider.
Personal boundaries protect you from the people, places, and experiences that do not serve you. You are allowed to say no to these appointments.
Energy boundaries protect your energy. You may technically have time between two appointments, but do you have the energy to show up to both? Will you be able to mentally and emotionally shift from one to the other? Buffer yourself with an “energy gap” between the appointments so that you can restore your energy reserves and show up feeling your best.
Time boundaries protect your time. Appointments can run long or the location moved. Give yourself some breathing space to account for life’s hiccups so you do not set yourself up for stress later.
Your Relationships:
(Related to personal boundaries above) Who in your life brings you joy? Who brings out the best in you? Who supports you and makes you laugh? And who doesn’t. You are allowed to outgrow relationships. Let go of the relationships that no longer serve you. Often friendships that aren’t meant to last don’t. They slow fade.
But sometimes you need to make a more clean break. Here are two resources to explore further (Article 1) (Article 2). Whether it’s a slow fade or a hard cut, do not feel guilty. You have to do what serves your mental and physical well-being, including letting go of what and who no longer serves you.
Your Skin/Hair/Body Care Routine:
Your body, like your mind, respond to the change in season. Longer days, change in humidity, increased sun exposure all affect your hair and your skin (head to toe). You will probably need to make some tweaks to your routine.
For example, I work with some of my clients on switching their cleanser from a foam to a clay, and moisturizers to a lotion from a cream. My clients also include exfoliating and increase their SPF use to prevent damage from UVA/UVB. Sun damage is one of the leading causes of visible signs of aging, not to mention it causes skin cancer.
For the hair, my hair stylist gives me a sun/heat spray that protects the hair from sun damage. You can get tips on both here.
Finally, you want to toss any cosmetics that are expired or older than a year and clean any brushes you have to prevent bacteria growth and spread.
Your Wardrobe:
This goes beyond the obvious. It’s obvious you want to clean out your closet with things that don’t fit or are out of season. It’s not so obvious to clean out clothes that don’t make you feel like a million bucks. You should dump the skin/hair routines that don’t leave you feeling like royalty too, btw.
Even if the clothes technically fit, if you aren’t feeling confident…and I mean your BEST self confident, then donate them or consign them. Get them out of your line-up.
Like skincare, when you look your best you feel your best. When you feel your best you perform your best. When you perform your best, you get the best returns. It’s an ROI that just makes sense.
Solita is an awesome image coach who can help get you started.
