Spring Cleaning For The Spirit
By Susan Apollon

Spring is in the air and with it comes an innate need to clean and de-clutter our emotional and spiritual world.

It happens every spring. As sunlight reawakens tiny buds and fresh breezes dust the fields with lilacs, a strange compulsion kicks us out of our winter stupor. We actually want to clean. Floors suddenly seem grimy and corners cobwebby. The cluttered basement starts to really bug us. Even that previously insurmountable task, window washing, sounds like a good way to spend a Saturday. Our annual spring cleaning frenzy is more than mere tradition: It’s the manifestation of a primal urge for renewal on a deeper level.

We have a need to mimic the Earth’s own rebirthing cycle by de-cluttering our homes and our lives. While a pristine, life-affirming home is a nice by-product of this urge, we shouldn’t stop there. No matter how organized and spotless our physical world may be, it won’t matter if our soul is cluttered with emotional debris.

In other words, it’s time to embrace “spring cleaning” for our spirit. Spiritual cleansing and healing can and should be done all year long. Replacing those spiritual bad habits with new ones that will lead to healing and joy on every level.

What exactly is spiritual healing? It’s about balancing thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and actions. It’s about becoming whole. It means learning to live in such a way that we don’t spend all our time fretting about the future, worrying about our kids, or obsessing over health issues. It means coming to a place where we refuse to settle for a job, a relationship, a lifestyle; a life that doesn’t fulfill us.

Healing spiritually means we accept and align all the parts of ourselves in a way that allows us to genuinely feel we are being true to ourselves. We get to feel an authentic connection with our higher and lower self, which also enables us to feel more at peace, as well as more confident in our worth and wisdom. It is knowing we are so much more powerful than we ever believed; it is knowing we are connected with something much greater than ourselves.

Spiritual healing happens when we work with the Law of Attraction, which is basically an understanding that energy attracts like energy. Wherever we are vibrationally, we attract experiences of a similar vibrational level. What we choose to focus on (thoughts, images, beliefs) causes us to vibrate at a particular level, resulting in either good or not good feelings. Focusing on thoughts or images that cause us to feel relatively good or better will enable us to be at a higher level energetically and, consequently, will draw to us a higher level of vibrational experience. In essence, it is what we have been taught for many years…our thoughts are our creations. High thoughts, high vibrations; low thoughts, low level vibrations.

Everything we desire is available to us, if we can just get out of our own way. We put our own stumbling blocks in our path by way of our attachment to negative or low energy thoughts, images, concerns, unresolved issues, our inability to forgive and release old feelings of anger, judgment, and pain, etc. Suggestions such as lighten up, let go and surrender, detach and move on all represent appropriate ways to energetically shift to a better place.

The trick, of course, is to become aware of how we are feeling in order to allow ourselves to do the work of cleaning up (or out) our spiritual closets and bringing in what feels energetically better. This allows us to attract wonderful things and experiences rather than those things and experiences we don’t want.

To do this we need to decide what it is we intend to do or make happen in our lives that will make us feel happy, satisfied, joyful and peaceful. Once we have our intentions, we can give them power and create them by giving ourselves permission to really focus on them.

Practice Your ABCs
Once you have clarity, it’s time to practice “the Art of your ABCs.” Intertwined with the ABCs technique is, the “Face, Embrace, and Replace” method. Here’s how it works:

• A = Awareness And Acknowledgment

Become aware of your thoughts and images at the “head” level that do not feel good at the heart or belly level. Here, you’re “Facing” what makes you feel bad.

Put hand on heart or belly and ask, “Am I feeling good (or okay) or not good at this moment?” If the answer is “not good,” put the same hand on the forehead and ask, “What is my thought, picture, or image that makes me not feel good?”

Now, take time to Acknowledge or “Embrace” the picture or thought. Give yourself permission to really feel the pain associated with your image stored deep within you. Kick, scream, or cry it out if needed.

• B = BREATH & BREATHING OUT PAIN

Learn to use the Gift of Breath and your ability to lift yourself energetically to a higher level of well-being. Take three deep breaths. As you breathe in, visualize breathing in the colorful and magnificent energy of the Universe or Source. Watch and feel this powerful healing energy coming in and filling your body with amazing warm, relaxing energy, causing you to feel so relaxed and heavy and at the same time…so light that you are aware of your body shifting up energetically.

• C = CHOICE & CHOOSING THOUGHTS & IMAGES THAT FEEL GOOD or BETTER

Here’s where you “Replace” your negative energy with positive energy. Utilize thoughts and images that lighten your vibration and enable you to allow in those experiences you have viewed as your intentions, hopes, and dreams. It is all about choice. Be conscious of how you are feeling, moment by moment, and focus on anything and everything that brings you relief and feels good.

Practice your ABCs and Face, Embrace, and Replace often. They are the tools that lead to healing.
Here are a few other suggestions:

• Create Harmony and Balance through Breath Meditation. Choose to start each day by practicing the breath meditation technique for 15 minutes: Visualize your breath coming in from Source or the Universe, merging with you and filling you with healing energy. On your out breath, visualize your breath gently nudging out all your negative, painful thoughts or images. Feel your breath shifting you energetically, leaving you feeling greater warmth, relaxation, and peace.

• Become Conscious of Your Power through Journaling. Choose to journal for 15 minutes a day about situations, times, and incidents when you could feel and/or were aware at some level of your power and how great it felt. Then note your fears, insecurities, their roots, whether they make sense or are completely irrational, and how they have stolen your power. Finally, write of ways in which you can begin to reclaim your power via actions, self-dialogue, affirmations, breath, meditation, taking courses, getting counseling assistance, etc.

• Affirm Your Power throughout the Day. Write affirmations. Visualize and feel the power within as you make these high-vibrational statements to your cells: I Am worthy, I Am wise, I Am beautiful, I Am intelligent, I Am compassionate, I Am loving, I Am forgiving, I Am strong, I Am lovable, As I breathe in, I Am a part of God, I Am always protected and watched over, I Am that I Am. I Am, I Am, I Am! Write them on sticky notes and place them all around to remind you of your power, with I Am … everywhere.

• Choose Forgiveness. Consciously detach from and surrender to the Universe any attachments to old hurts, resentments, betrayals, and so on. Bring to mind the person or issue that creates pain; then Face it, Embrace it, Breathe it out. Choose to say, “I forgive you” or “I surrender you to Source” because I choose to move on with my life.

• Practice the Art of Visualization. Envisioning what you want is a tremendously powerful technique. Because we think visually, picturing what we want in our mind’s eye—good health, Divine protection and so forth—helps us co-create that outcome.

• Perform an Act of Compassion, Caring, Kindness, and Service Daily. Make a difference. Choose any activity in which you do something for another person or group of people with authentic feelings of compassion and love. Do a physical deed that impacts on the quality of life of another, whether it’s bringing dinner to one who is shut in or helping the elderly, blind, or others in need of assistance.

• Choose to Be Inspired. Choose to read or listen to materials that inform, soothe, entertain, and connect you with your own soul.

• Take Action Regarding at Least One Intention. Choose to gather your courage each day and take action toward the creating of at least one intention.

• Remember Your Blessings. Show gratitude when you address your higher power, be it Source, the Universe, your angels, Jesus, Mary, Buddha, or any other deity. Thank you is a high vibration. Throughout the day, express appreciation for every one of your blessings.

• Love Yourself First; Then Love Others. Love yourself every day by devoting at least a half-hour to an hour or more doing something for you. Find your passion and pursue it!

• Smile, Laugh, Listen To Music That Makes Your Heart Sing. Laughter and music are good for the body, for raising your energetic vibrations. Remember, you are here for joy…it is your birthright.

As a psychologist and author, Susan Apollon empowers and heals the body, mind, and soul; as an educator, she informs; as a speaker, she inspires and touches the heart. Visit: www.TouchedByTheExtraordinary.com ; www.HealingStoriesOfLoveLossAndHope.com .