There is this humorous banter on the presumed orderliness of one’s mind that is reflected onto the outside, the extensions of a person in their private environments, that says that a cluttered work space is a sigh of cluttered mind, but what is an empty table sign of then? The natural answer that pops up is of course not true and is a funny poke that the disorganized creatives like to attribute to their highly organized counterparts.

But messy or cluttered is not the same as dirty. Cleanliness has nothing to do with not forcing things into their predetermined places because the flow of the day and their utility will spontaneously find a logical place for them. Neither preference has anything to do with the richness of your inner world.

Here, at the onset of a new season that blooms with all the energy that’s been stored and bustling as potential in the naked branches during the winter, we don’t really care about the state of your workspace, if it’s an avalanche of dear trinkets or smooth sterile precise surfaces. We’re speaking of an internal spring cleaning of the soul, mind and heart of all the grit that has been sediment there, layer by layer. We’re beings of memory. We hold on to things and each time we revisit them the bodies react as we are reliving them in real time. We’re shaped but also marked by past events and emotions and can be forever entrapped by their power. Some of them are good and liberating, freeing and value generating rocks upon which you’ve built the you you are now, but some of them are toxic and become increasingly more so each time you go back to rummage through their halls. Take this as a rule of thumb – if more than 18 months have passed from an event that left a mark and you still regularly leave the today to wallow in it and relive it again and again and again and it makes you feel stifled and exhausted – it is time to let go, not forget, but liberate yourself from being its slave.

Remember what you need to and distill wisdom from it but release the toxic element. Most times you’ll do more damage by clutching until your finger turn blue than you’ll do by letting go. There is a net below if you release your grip, this is a promise. What’s done is done, what has passed is gone and has no more power over you. It might have already become something of a pleasant obsession, a perverse enjoyment in pain, or it is a dull thumping feeling that never leaves and you’ve probably known for a while that is time to let it go. The ways to go about this are unique for each situation. Maybe you need a goodbye, maybe you need to forgive someone for what they have done or maybe you need to forgive yourself, maybe its old resentment or anger that are draining you operating in the background… Release it. If you are having trouble with just switching do it as a little ritual, among witnesses of close life co-travelers or alone – cry it out, write about it, say it out loud and let the words float of, burn the paper you wrote it on, paint it out, sweat it out and say your farewells.

Do your spring cleaning, release old energy so that new one could be invited in. If you keep looking backwards you might miss the beauty, blessing and joy right in front of you. Things that will turn up will be challenging enough without living in the prison of your own making as well. Let what needs to lie at rest be. You don’t leave there anymore. Release it and breathe. It’s ok, you’re ok.