Spring is a great time for decluttering your home and office and detoxing your body. There is a lightness and a renewed energy as the weather warms and new life begins to spring up all around us. This season, what if you added a new ritual to your Spring Cleaning routine? Clearing out your THOUGHTS!
For many it may be a relief to realize the voice in our heads isn’t always right. While many things in the world remain out of our control, the one thing we have ultimate control over is the way we think, the way we choose to perceive circumstances and events. We have the power to deliberately choose the thoughts we think.
Here are 3 Tips for Spring Cleaning Your Thoughts:
1. Use Your Emotions. Each thought creates an emotion, and emotions always have a sensation in the body – we can either feel expanded (hopeful, optimistic, joyful, peaceful, relieved, etc.) or contracted (angry, doubtful, worried, fearful, pessimistic, etc.). You can use your emotions as a gauge to determine if the thoughts you think throughout the day create a feeling of expansion or contraction in your body. Throughout the day, notice how your thoughts cause either an expanded or contracted sensation in your body. This can help you determine which thoughts are moving you in the right direction (expansion or positive emotions) and which are those you can make a choice to let go of or change (contraction or negative emotions).
2. Take It 7 Days at a Time. As with any new habit, I encourage my coaching clients to take it seven days at a time. For most people and for most new habits, seven days is a realistic, do-able goal. For this Spring Cleaning exercise, commit to connecting thoughts with emotions and becoming willing to let go of the negative thoughts that are keeping you stuck. If it begins to feel overwhelming, remind yourself that you are only doing this for seven days. You can even take it one hour or half a day at a time. A mantra I use when I find myself lost in a powerful negative thought is, “I can think this thought a week from tomorrow but for now I’m releasing it and focusing on a thought that feels better.”
3. Use Your 3×3 Meditation Time for Positively Focused Visualization. 3×3 Meditation means three minutes, three times a day. Set reminders in your calendar or cell phone and set a timer for these meditation breaks. Lose yourself in the images and feelings of what you want to create in your life, anything from a healthy body to financial security to achieving a business goal and everything in-between. Our imaginations and our ability to focus are or greatest assets in creating a life we love living.
Taking a new habit 7 days at a time, one 3×3 Meditation at a time, is the biggest key to success I’ve found. Small steps enable us to play full out and ease any feelings of overwhelm. You can have anything you want for your life by harnessing the power within you!
