How to Spring Clean the Spirit

This spring, consider refreshing, revitalizing and cleansing your spirit along with your home. Spiritual cleansing is an ancient tradition that can be as simple or complicated as desired. With a little diligence and creativity, you can spring clean your spirit any time of year to increase personal power and productive energy, inviting harmony and order to your life.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Stimulate self-awareness by writing down your troubles, listing situations that are bothersome and those you wish to change, such as "paying bills on time" and "asking my boss for a raise." Express internal feelings of sadness, happiness, frustration or any other emotion. Write to clarify your innermost sentiments and desires; the very act of writing can be cleansing.
2. Rediscover nature and its calm and healing potential. Take a walk in a nearby park or woods, or simply purchase an arrangement of fresh flowers for the kitchen table or bedroom nightstand. Plant seeds in peat pots, and nurture the tiny seedlings as they sprout upon your windowsill or porch.
3. Light colorful, fragrant candles, or burn incense to create a tranquil environment. Blue candles, for example, are conducive to peace and inner happiness, while white is associated with balance and purity. Cinnamon, jasmine and nutmeg are meditative fragrances; cedar, peppermint and thyme are thought to encourage cleansing.
4. Consider rearranging your favorite room according to principles of feng shui. The environmental balance created by carefully chosen paint colors, well-placed furniture and the addition of mirrors and plants can aid in the spiritual cleansing process.
5. Bathe with a mixture of special herbs or bath crystals, or refreshing Epsom salts. Traditional soothing herbs to experiment with include lavender, raspberry leaves, eucalyptus and chamomile. Practice clearing your mind of stressful thoughts, and enjoy silence or soothing music.
6. Eat for spiritual cleansing, selecting fresh fruits, vegetables and juices to detox your body as well as your mind. Good choices include strawberries, blueberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, leafy greens or anything that tantalizes your taste buds and is not heavily processed and laden with additives.

Tips & Warnings

• Numerous and diverse faiths and belief systems, such as Christianity, Buddhism, Santaria, Kabbalah and New Age mysticism, offer guidance and spirit-cleansing rituals that may particularly suit your ideals and lifestyle.