Spiritual Spring Clean

Every year, as the months get warmer and the days get longer, the yearning to rid myself of all manner of clutter surges within me. Usually this would mean yanking all my crumpled clothes out of the cupboard, and tossing out that Reading Festival '07 t-shirt that's just been moth fodder for the past decade or so. This year, however, my spring clean is a little more spiritual, rather than simply physical.

Having turned 30 last month, my contemplative side has been in overdrive, evaluating the worth and place of everything currently in my life. Nothing has escaped this inspection, least of all aspects such as my career and the relationships in my life. Over the past few years, I've seen friendships that were dear to me fall apart or fade into the ether, and I've sensed a mounting unrest that I'm simply not doing what I'm meant to be doing whilst here on this earth.

Whilst turning 30 is by no means a magic number that clarifies everything, or anything, in your life, it has spurred me on the clean out everything not serving me and my happiness, and to instead step boldly into the unknown that is following my heart. Throughout my life I've felt pinned down by fear of judgement from other people; I've always be known as 'the crazy one', 'the wild one', perhaps capricious at times. Despite having the most wonderful family and friends around me, the scars from the past and the expectations of others have prevented me from fully stepping into my creative side, and expressing myself in all my wonderfully wacky glory.

Well, no more. I refuse to allow myself to spend another decade tied down by the chains of fear and apprehension, and so this year's spring clean is dedicated to ridding myself of habits, opinions, people (yes, as harsh as that sounds), and situations that do not support me and my growth, or make me happy.

But how do you accomplish such a mammoth cleaning task? A quote came to mind as I begun to dust off my demons: 'Be the change you want to see in the world'. If I want to fall in love with my life, and achieve my greatest potential, I have to fall in love with myself first, and remind myself of my greatness. So, my spiritual spring clean has begun from the inside-out. I sit in meditation as often as I can. I recite affirmations daily until they spill out of me effortlessly. I practice gratitude for everything I currently have, so that I can joyously invite more in. I take time to simply stop and breathe.

The work has gone deeper, too. I've begun to tackle some old, lingering habits that have sat like rainclouds over my head, darkening the horizon, and obscuring my vision of future success. This process has felt like travelling into the basement of my being, and bringing up all those dusty old boxes that you've just felt too damned overwhelmed to tackle until now, and finally making space for something shiny and new. It's not easy - there's a lot of heavy mental lifting involved - but when you finally empty out those boxes, the weight of years past is lifted.

To truly make sure this cleanse is deep and effective, I've also turned to the doyenne of decluttering, Marie Kondo. Although her process focuses on objects and clothes, addressing her question of 'Does it spark joy within you?' to every element of my life that I examine has been the tool I needed to rid myself of dead energy. Just as you would with clothes, I sort everything into 3 piles: keep, recycle, and throw out. If it makes me happy, it's staying and I'm getting more of it. If it doesn't, but I can alter it to my satisfaction, it's getting recycled. If it brings me no joy, it has no space within my life. When you remove everything not serving you, it's easier to prioritise what remains.

Once your spiritual spring clean is complete, however, how do you make sure that you never accumulate dismal detritus again? You repeat the process, but on a smaller scale, every. single. day. For every thing, person, and situation that comes into your life, ask yourself: 'Does this bring me joy?'. Whilst some things will take longer for you to suss out, just know that there is always a helper nearby who knows the answer before you do: your gut instinct. This voice, feeling, or sensation, inside of you knows immediately if something should be kicked to the gutter or not - that is, if you'd only drown out the voices around you for a while, and listen to yourself . After all, who knows you better than you do?

So, this year, as you embark on your annual spring clean, perhaps it might be a good idea to extend the clear out to every aspect of your life. Take the time to sit with yourself, to take an inventory of your health, career, relationships, and free time, and highlight everything that makes you happy, and circle everything that does not. Don't hesitate over things that no longer fit you, but that you want to keep around as vestiges of the past: just like we'll never fit back into those jeans from when we were 16, we've outgrown habits and people and places from our past too. Audition every aspect in your life for the role of joy-sparker: examine its credentials, look at its history, and consider its future. Every single thing should be working for your happiness, not against it. When you're done, I think you'll be surprised at just how full that bag of things to throw out has become...