It's Spring Cleaning Time

A gentle reminder that with spring comes the infamous "Spring Cleaning" - a perfect time to purge items from your house and body that have been stored up during the winter months. Sadly our current society is one that builds up a LOT of STUFF quite easily. We collect all manner of bits and pieces, odds and ends from our lives that end up cluttering our lives. In addition we eat all manner of foods that contain hidden or unknown amounts of preservatives, sugars, fats and garbage that doesn't do the body good. Some of the most popular reality shows on TV deal with hoarding and obesity, which likely make us feel a bit better that our situations aren't as bad. So I offer you a few tips/suggestions along with some recent pictures on the theme.

1. BIG/LITTLE SWEEPS - "Sweep" through your house and do a quick assessment of the overall situation. Find out which areas need the most work and get a sense of the time required to make the changes you want to accomplish. Make sure to give yourself a chunk of calendar time to achieve your goal, and do lots of little sweeps in the pockets of free time. Don't overdo it or stress yourself out in the process - little sweeps are great and give a sense of accomplishment.

2. BRIEF MORATORIUM - Give yourself a break from buying or receiving any new items. Whether it be for a week or more, set a little time period to halt new clutter from coming in while you get rid of the piles. Resist the temptation to bring ANYTHING in, ticket stubs, little trinkets — it all adds ups. And try not to do any shopping for a period of time, which includes groceries. Have fun making use of all the items in your cupboards to clean it out. You may be surprised to find some items with expiration dates buried away! Do the same with your body, give yourself a break and do a short term cleanser to rid the body of unneeded toxins. Many religions and spiritual practices have the idea of “giving something up” for a good reason.

Marianna receives the refreshing aspects only Nature can provide

3.PLAN A PAMPER/ NATURE ReTREAT - Is your schedule filled to maximum with various activities? Give yourself a healing, relaxing break from it all. In the winter I like to do “Hibernations” where I escape from the outside world for awhile, but this is Spring, so go forth and connect with nature - a “ReTreat” if you will, because it is a treat upon your body and spirit. Whether that comes in the form of taking a hike, gardening, rolling down a hill and rubbing flower pollen all over your body (grin), or like these pictures reflect, a dip in some natural hot springs - getting ourselves in touch with Mother Nature in the spring puts us in direct contact energetically with the flourishing, rejuvenating aspect of Spring! You just can’t get a better healing than from the Source!

4. MAKE ROOM FOR CREATIVITY - If you don’t have a clear workspace to make art, you are less likely to be able to make art. Make space and dedicate a space for the making of your work. It sounds simple, but clear spaces get cluttered VERY fast when we see a opening to set things down. Do your best to keep a space open and if you don’t have a dedicated station for your creativity, now is the time to designate one.

5. CREATIVE RE-USE - Consider making art out of your junk. Perhaps you have some rather interesting items lying around that are broken or really aren’t that useful, but you like how they look and so haven’t gotten rid of them. These hard to part with items could be put into a large box and when the time comes, use them to for some assemblages and multimedia artwork. Just don't let them gather up for long or take up space. I’ll go more into depth about this in another blog another time…

Many more tips to come in future Your ReBegin blogs! Hope this has inspired you to tap into Spring in whatever form your creativity musters!

Some natural healing spot like this can be found near you - seek it out...

...and it will welcome you with open arms.