Today marks the first day of spring, and while we look forward to warmer days, later sunsets and blooming flowers we can also be feeling the pressure of our busy, spring schedules.
Many of us focus on deep cleaning our homes as we prepare for spring, getting rid of things that we no longer need and breathing in the deep sigh of a clean environment. What would it look like to also take a look at your schedule, routines and day to day life in order to see if there is anything that no longer serves you as it once did. Are there habits that you have find yourself doing every day but they no longer work for you or bring peace, joy or contentment to your life? In the same way that you may look for pretty new containers or a fresh set of sheets to welcome in this new season, what would it look like for you to refresh your morning routine, how many commitments you have said a begrudging “yes” to or what your nighttime/bedtime rituals look like?
As you mindfully shift into this next season, take a few minutes and consider a few potential action steps to integrate a fresh start into your spring routine:
- Review Your Routines. Take a few minutes and intentionally look at your morning, daytime, evening and bedtime routines. What about these rituals bring joy or peace into your day and what parts feel like a rut or a bad habit that just made itself comfortable in your day to day hustle. What holes are there that leave you feeling drained, spread too thin or missing something positive? As you take a mindful look at habits or consistent patterns in your day and week, give yourself permission to introduce a new idea, test drive new options for how you enter, sustain or wrap up your day. This can be individual for yourself, or include your children, family or work life. Being intentional about what gets access to your time is a way to revitalize your schedule and feel refreshed and clean as you start your Spring.
- Do a Calendar Check-In. Sit down with your calendar (or let’s be real, calendars!) as you prepare for this new season and mindfully review where you are spending your precious time and energy. Check in with yourself about parts of your calendar or things that you currently say “yes” to that no longer make sense in your day to day rhythm. What about anything that you passed up but now find yourself wishing that you could be a part of. Did you volunteer for a group at your kid’s school only to realize it was more responsibility than you anticipated? What about that pickle ball league that you thought you were too busy for, but in hindsight think that it would have been a fun way to get some exercise into your day. Let this season be a time to try new things, give up some old things and re-assess how the things you are busy with impact your mood and body.
- Simplify. There can be a lot of pressure to be involved in EVERYTHING and that saying “no” is a bad thing. To be a “yes” person, give yourself or your kids all of the experiences and find a way to always make it work. This may work for you and your family, but it also may leave you feeling stretched beyond what is sustainable or just downright tired. At the end of the day, a few, intentional activities, experiences and “yeses” can be more than enough in a full life. Simplifying your routines, your schedules and especially your expectations can leave room for necessary quiet, for slower weekends and the gift of boredom.. when some of the best adventures can happen! This may feel impossible right now, but start with one thing that you can do differently and go from there.
It can feel daunting to think about taking the time to review your calendar and routines in a way that would let you spring clean your day to day life. This doesn’t need to be an intense process, but rather a few mindful minutes as you have time to check in with your brain and body and see what deserves to keep its spot in your calendar. Pulling from another recent Northsar blog, just because you “can”, doesn’t always mean that you “should”. Similarly, just because you are currently doing something doesn’t mean that you must keep doing it if it no longer makes sense in your life. Use this season of Spring to review, test drive and you can always re-evaluate in Summer or before then if a change you make doesn’t work. Sometimes that Tik-Tok inspired closet re-do doesn’t work and that’s okay. In the same way, give it a try and see what great things are on the other side of “how it has always been done” for you!