Spring cleaning, decluttering and clearing

With the support of the energy of spring all around us, we are invited to widen our vision, to open to the possibilities … for the new to come, we need to let go of the clutter. Just as our cupboards and wardrobes can get full and we can’t fit anything else in, we need to clear not just of the physical stuff of the spring cleaning and clearing of our homes, cupboards and wardrobes, we also benefit from the cleansing of our body tissues through movement, breath, diet, fasting, fluids … And, we can also to clear and let go of aspects of ourselves that we don’t need to retain. With a lightness, kindness, and curiosity we can notice these residues from times past that we do not need. We hold onto opinions, beliefs, habits, assumptions, tendencies, reactivity.

I have come across the concept of Liminal thinking: which is the process of creating positive change by understanding, shaping, and reframing our beliefs. When we change our underlying beliefs it changes our experiences.

Beliefs are created models based on a selection of facts and experiences and as such are imperfect and incomplete in a complex world, because they are based on a selection of facts and experiences they tend to reaffirm themselves. Beliefs are tied to our identity and create shared understanding, but also blind spots.

It is useful then, to envision possibilities to explore our beliefs, to assume we are not objective, to look at many points of view, to question, disrupt routines, to test our beliefs … and be willing to change them.

An example of this for me is my understanding of the body. I was taught that the body operated like a machine and that muscles acted on the body independently and the joints were like levers. I was taught that the tendons did not stretch, the muscles did. My belief in how the body functions has completely changed. I now believe that it is far from a machine, that it is a whole, interconnected complex system, that the forces of movement are distributed very differently than how I first learned.

Let’s clear out, open up, question what we are doing, thinking, and believing, and find a freshness as we move forward in the new phase of growth.