The Driftwood #23: Self-Care Corner

February 25, 2022

Spring Cleaning for the Mind

Spring is right around the corner, and what better time than now to throw out the mental closet clutter? Few people realize the amount of mental and emotional baggage picked up throughout the year that can actually be spring cleaned. More importantly, why should you, and how can it be done?

Spring cleaning for the mind is all about keeping a happy, healthy, positive outlook on life and, most importantly, yourself. It’s easy to get bogged down with negative experiences, bad habits, and past traumas. It’s important that we review our last year, removing what continues to hurt us and making choices that will lead to positive impacts in our lives, so we can be happy with our outcomes on a normal basis.

How It’s Done:

1. Journal for positivity. If you don’t know how that works, check it out in our last Driftwood issue here. It’s a great tool for improving your emotional well-being.
2. Get new habits. Patient Empowerment Network’s article “10 Tips for Mental Health Spring Cleaning” says we should focus on one area of our life we want to improve first, like eating better or exercising more, and implement the changes in our new daily routine
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3. Realize how you feel around others. Is there someone who makes you upset because they don’t understand your situation? Now’s the chance to take a moment and talk to them. If they can’t learn to treat you with more respect and kindness, consider removing that relationship from your life.
4. Take chances. If you’ve always wanted to try something new or go for a unique opportunity, do it. Those chances won’t always present themselves. Why not learn something new or have some fun while you can? You never know how it’ll turn out.
5. Change your perspective. One more of those 10 tips we mentioned earlier says to take a moment and realize that no one and nothing is perfect, especially our opinions on things we know little about. Take this time to learn about other perspectives and how you can support the growth of others, too, by arming yourself with new knowledge.