If you know my mother, or me for that matter, you know that as soon as the snow melts we're in spring cleaning mode. This means taking apart the chandeliers, hosing down window screens, and getting in all the nooks and crannies with the duster that we miss throughout the rest of the year. It's a lot of work, but we both feel so much better afterwards. Along the way, room by room, we make lists. This needs to be fixed, the ceiling needs to be painted, I need to buy this, this area needs way more attention....and all of the sudden we have our 'action plan' for the rest of the year.
It may sound silly to you, and you may be reading this thinking 'oooookay crazy lady'. But let me drop a little knowledge on ya...you do it too. Maybe not with cleaning. I think cleaning to the degree my mom and I clean is reserved for a special brand of people. But you still do it with other things. Think about the last time you stepped on the scale or saw yourself naked. I need to eat healthier, tone this, firm that. You might do it with school, or work when you get feedback. I need to reply to emails quicker, get organized.
You may not spring clean your house, and it may not be in spring....but you still spring clean.
In every area of our lives, we're hell bent on improving and making action plans to do better.
We often neglect one area, and a really important area as well. When do we ever spring clean our mental health?
It effects us so much and in so many ways! When we have poor mental health it gets it's dirty little fingers into all of our clean cupboards and leaves greasy hand-prints on the fridge just after we wiped it down. It effects our physical health, our sleep, our relationships, our environment....everything!!
Now, you may not be 'officially diagnosed' with anything, but it doesn't matter. You still have a mind and thoughts that need to be aired out and hung on the line to dry. How often do you do that?
Let me tell you how often you should do it. Ever failed? Ever been rejected? Ever been stuck in a negative thought pattern? Those feelings after we've experienced something negative....that's like getting an emotional papercut that you need to take a look at. If you ignore it, it'll fester and you'll develop bad habits. If you ignore that, then...well...it'll just keep getting worse, ya dig?
I'm not saying that for every papercut you need to go book an appointment with a therapist. I'm saying that we, as a society, need to get better at identifying our emotional papercuts and addressing them before they start to fester. There are so many reasons to do this, but the bottom line is that it will build our emotional resiliency and allow us to become more compassionate towards ourselves.
Guy Winch does a fantastic job at explaining this: http://www.ted.com/talks/guy_winch_the_case_for_emotional_hygiene
So when you start your spring cleaning, I hope that you consider practicing some "emotional hygiene" as well. When you fail, look for positives instead of brooding on the negatives. Turn "I can't do this" into "Here's how I'll do better next time"
It'll be worth it, I promise!
