Archive for April, 2005
Spring Cleaning
“Letting go is simply making a decision – no longer to allow something from the past to influence your life now or to reduce your inner sense of peace and well-being.”
— Sylvia Clare
We’ve officially transitioned into Spring, a season of renewal. With Spring often comes an urge to purge – to rid your environment (room, home or office) of clutter that has accumulated gradually over time, or even to remove the weeds that have settled into your garden or yard. Eliminating unessential “stuff” from your environment can be quite liberating, enabling you to lighten your load both physically and spiritually.
This purging process need not take place only externally. Internally, you likely have been accumulating clutter as well: old patterns that no longer serve you well, ruminations over past experiences, and attachments to people or things that are not adding value to your present life. It is hard enough sometimes to see the external clutter that surrounds you; as you become used to it, it becomes less visible to you. Yet, the internal clutter can be much harder to recognize.
Now is as good a time as any to reflect on what you have been carrying around with you, internally, day in and day out. Some of what you are carrying may have been with you much of your life. However, no matter how long it has been part of your life, once you begin to see this internal clutter more clearly, you have the option to release it – freeing yourself of this ongoing burden, and creating more space, potentially, for new patterns or responses that are more effective for you.
What can you let go of, right now, to lighten your load?
Minding Your Stress 