Springtime is a good time for cleaning not only our houses, but also our minds. A clean mind is a better mind.
1
Tidy up your plans and hopes for this year. Label them on paper if you have to. Set goals. Turning them into reality will then become easier.
2
Empty your mind of thoughts. Do it for at least a minute or two every day. Better yet, do it for 30 seconds every time you remember. Take anything empty in your house as a cue – an empty bottle, an empty bowl, an empty pot. Learn emptiness from them. It can be wonderful.
3
Sweep your thoughts. Do away with negative thoughts. They will creep in, they always do. But what’s the use of them? When a negative thought strikes you, become aware of it. Then let it fade.
4
Straighten out your expectations. Do you want to become the best writer in the country? The top student in your class? The best athlete in town? Do you really need to achieve that to be happy? Maybe just doing what you already do is enough. Or maybe you only have to make a change or two in your life. The good things in life often lurk around the corner.
5
Wash away your sorrows. Wash them in the shower, wash them in the rain, wash them in tears if you have to. But wash them. You may not be able to wash all of them, but you’ll weaken them. Otherwise, they will weaken you.
6
Throw away all those ideas and prejudices and convictions that hurt you. Throw them away like the garbage man throws away the contents of a trash can. Keep your mind can empty for new ideas and discoveries. There’s no idea that will end all other ideas, there’s no final solution to any of life’s problems. There’s only change, only transformation.
7
Wipe away last year’s regrets and disappointments. Don’t let them stain your personality, your mood, your character. Don’t let them make you feel less than you are. Wipe them away.
8
Launder your beliefs. Do they make your life better or only limit your range of experiences and your outlook? Don’t be afraid to launder your beliefs. If they are truly yours, if you truly believe in them, they will keep their form and color after the washing, and when you hang them to dry in the open, they will smell good too.
Photo by Drew Graham on Unsplash
boy with a hat 
Sage advice.
The one thing I try and do more is write down plans/goals – there’s something to them being written down that makes reality more likely to meet them.
And number 8: ‘if they (thoughts) are truly yours’ < that's a very key point. Over a lifetime it's very easy to accumulate and assimilate the ideas of others and assume they are our own, when in fact they are merely projections, transference and can really hold us back from being ourselves.
Bruce Lee has a great quote: I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you're not in it to live up to mine.
Thanks for the reminder, Vincent! I’ll start cleaning today. 🙂
I agree with those above. Sage advice. I personally don’t think holding onto sadness weakens you, but I do believe it keep us from reaching our potential. Also, you had me going down a rabbit hole. I was trying to find the meaning of “lauder” and came up with mixed results. 😉