Spring Cleaning for your Mind

As you begin spring cleaning, buying new parking safety equipment and tending to the outside landscaping of your home, also think about cleaning out the clutter of your mind, with meditation and mindfulness. Imagine your mind as a garden. Positive thoughts are the beautiful flowers that brighten your life. Negative thoughts are the weeds that spread and suffocate the flowers. Tending to your garden is an ongoing process.

My natural weed killers are yoga, meditation, inspirational reading, and hanging out with positive people. Weed fertilizer is worrying about what other people think, taking things personally and stressing about things that are out of my control.

I used to find myself having drawn-out imaginary conversations: “And if she said this, I would say that…” with absolutely no outcome. Now I catch myself and change the channel. I am constantly pulling those weeds.

It’s easy to over-think things, jump to conclusions, or get wrapped in negativity when you don’t have others to give you a fresh perspective. It then becomes a bigger problem when you alienate the ones who love you the most because you’re difficult to be around. When we clean out the weeds in the garden of our minds, it is easier to find room for kindness and compassion for ourselves and others.

Complaining is pointless. It doesn’t make things any better, and it drains the complainer and everyone else around them. We can all use the garden metaphor to bring an awareness of what helps our own mind grow and flourish, rather than cultivating a dark, tangled mess.

What’s on your list of fertilizers and weed-killers? How does your garden grow? Take a moment and list ways you can tend to your own garden and inner spring cleaning.

Written by Jeannie O’Neill, Director of Development for the School For Radiant Living at Yoga Farm. For more information about self care practices, visit www.RadiantLiving.us.