image: www.geograph.org.uk
It’s April…and not a moment too soon!
Open the windows. Let the air flow in. Sunlight is calling us outside for bike rides and walks. We feel the stirring desire to clean out closets. This instinctual urge for an April cleanse ties us into nature at the deepest level. I bet the animals waking from their winter hibernation get the same urges.
But we are human. There is more to us than the desire for a clean home. We feel a sense of hope for what is to come and we long to prepare the space to welcome our new adventures.
This year as you begin your spring-cleaning, consider taking this process to a deeper level by cleansing your emotional body as well. Emotional health is the well-spring to a happy life.
Here are five simple ideas to get you started:
- Clean out your closet: When you throw out the stained sweater or outdated tool from your closet, imagine that you are also releasing suppressed feelings, old resentments and emotional wounds that you have held on to for too long.
- Take a bath: In poetry, water is often a metaphor for emotion. In life, water often acts as a conduit for emotional release. Take time out of your busy schedule and fill your bath tub. Let the soap and water do the work. Simply be willing to release any emotions that no longer serve you… finding your way back to the restful relaxed state that you haven’t felt in far too long.
- Go for a walk: The energy of our world at this time of year supports us in feeling a deep release and hope of something new. Allow nature to support you. Go for a walk in the woods. Feel nature’s embrace. See the melting away of the old and the birthing of the new. Remember that you are a part of nature. It is your natural way to be supported in your growth.
- Write a letter: Now that you have let your thoughts rest into the emotions you have suppressed in the past, you may find your mind begin to spin with resentments of unspoken words. Allow yourself to experience these thoughts. Take a moment to write a letter… Perhaps once you write the letter of unspoken words, you will wish to shred it or burn it as a symbol that this no longer has power over you.
- Visualize: Sometimes the heart needs to cleanse beyond what the mind understands. Visualizations allow us to do this. Imagine yourself in a beautiful ocean. Feel the ocean waves rushing over you. Perhaps in the beginning it is a little turbulent as you get used to the rhythm. With time you are simply floating in the ocean, letting the waves support you. The waves represent emotions and this visualization supports you in letting emotions flow through you rather than suppressing or resisting them. Once you have relaxed into the rhythm of the ocean waves, see yourself emerging from the water to bask in the sunlight…the whole point of cleansing these emotions is to create space for the NEW beautiful emotions of joy, passion and love to fill your heart.
Once your house is clean, your heart is clean and your mind is clean, you are ready to embrace this new vibrant season of renewal!
What ideas and tips do you have for cleansing old worn out emotions? Do you have any spring rituals to help you do just that? My readers and I would love it if you’d share your comments below.
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Sheila Applegate
As a clinical therapist, motivational presenter, author & teacher, Sheila’s passion is to provide a forum for people to process emotion & integrate spiritual understanding into their daily lives. Her new book, Enchanted One: The Portal to Love, provides readers with a guide to embracing love in every moment. www.sheilaapplegate.com
