Start Anew With a Good Detox and Spring Clean!

6 min readMar 15, 2021

By: Emma Viglucci

Spring is almost here. Yay! Do you know what that means? It means it’s time to get ready for new beginnings.

As everything in nature will slowly be coming back to life and starting anew, so can we. We can take this opportunity to come alive, to engage more with our life, to create new beginnings, to reset, to recharge. We can start anew in any area of our life we choose. The best way to start anew is with a good detox and spring clean!

We can’t build on rubble. We have to clear the site first, then we need to establish a strong foundation, then we build the structure, then we fill in the details, and finally we make it pretty. We have to do the same thing in our life. This is how we keep up-leveling our life and creating our best life.

A good detox and spring clean help us to get rid of any rubble, clutter, toxicity, excess, and no-longer-desired elements we’ve accumulated since our last reset. This allows us to start fresh so we can update or create a new vision to serve as our guiding star as we go about creating the life we desire.

Clearing the way creates space for the new. This concept is applicable to all areas of life. This is what allows us to have a new beginning. It’s a best practice to do this every so often to keep our life fresh and always evolving.

So, today’s focus is to do a super good job at really clearing the no-longer-needed-or-desired. This is where you get to put on your big person’s pants and roll up your sleeves. The work you put in now will determine what you are able to design and create afterwards.

This is a great exercise to do amidst and post the deconstructing we’ve been doing in our current pandemic-laden world.

Here is to a good cleaning, with ease and compassion.

A deep scrub is in order.

Oh boy, I love me a good scrub! I’m ongoingly encouraging keeping things simple, clearing the decks, and streamlining.

But, today has the focus of clearing as part of deconstructing and continuing to create our new world…buckle your seatbelt!

1) Rubble.

I’m sure you’ve experienced some kind of a pivot, regrouping, or upside-down-life as a result of the ongoing global pandemic we are living through. There have been many challenges associated with it, but also tremendous opportunity to course-correct and align with the life we are meant to live.

What rubble has the pivoting, regrouping, and being upside-down created in your life? There might be very practical and material items, or more ideological and esoteric items. Like having moved, let go of office space, or closed down businesses, and like time split between homes, home schooling, and online educating our children.

What stuff have your changes and impact created that might still be sitting there and need to be cleaned out to free up energy, space, and time?

2) Clutter.

We continue to exist in this semi-lockdown world and are still spending a lot of time at home in close quarters with our loved ones. This includes doing a lot more of our life from home — kids and other activities, receiving services, etc.

Therefore, we are bound to have more chores and maintenance to do to keep up with our living environment. It is super easy to have stuff around us pile up if we are not intentional about our routines and keeping things tidy and streamlined.

The transition times we used to have to shift focus and help us manage and create our lives are a lot blurrier — days run into evenings, weekdays run into weekends, and seasons run into upcoming seasons.

Without these delineations, we are bound to get sloppy and not mind routines and their related upkeep as much, creating a build-up of stuff that impinges on our wellbeing. What part of your routine or lifestyle needs more delineation and what build-up do you have to clear out?

3) Toxicity.

Here is a doozy. Unless you’ve taking up a focus on personal development as part of your strategy for deconstruction-reconstructing and thriving as a result of this pandemic experience, most likely you’ve indulged during this time.

This means that you might be watching more TV, spending more time on social media, eating more takeout, doing more snacking, drinking more, and so on.

Take stock of how you’ve been managing your life and where you have let yourself go that is creating a toxic build-up. What is off about your wellbeing, your relationship/s, and your life that can benefit from a detox?

Are you gaining weight? Are your hormones off? Are you experiencing other health issues? Is your sleep compromised? Are your mood and mental health at risk? Are you at odds with your loved ones and other people in your life?

4) Excess.

This can go both ways. This can go toward over-spending, indulging, doing, and functioning, and toward taking unnecessary risks, being frugal, depriving, bumming around, and being super cautious. Either extreme doesn’t serve us.

In either case, we are having a reaction and overdoing the side we choose. We might have aspects of both sides, but they are still extreme in nature and therefore create an imbalance.

Take a look at how your approach is impacting your life and your wellbeing. What are you doing to the extreme that is creating frustration and pain in your life?

5) Undesirables.

I’m fascinated by the impact our current global situation is having on so many institutions and the world structure at large. I realize some are more aware of it than others, and that people have different value systems around everything that is happening.

Regardless of where you stand, take a step back and look at the big picture and its impact on your life philosophy. Take a look at how you view the institutions in your life, how you promote them, and the impact they have in your life and the world at large.

What lenses, beliefs, scripts, approaches, and habits have become outdated in your life and are now holding you back from living your best life?

Giving these five categories a serious review for any clearing and detoxing needed is incredibly powerful. Shedding light on anything we do unconsciously, out of habit, in reaction to, and such is a massive exercise in personal ownership and self-empowerment.

Once you get the lay of your land, the next step is to do the clearing and detoxing. As you tackle this, watch the surge in energy, opportunities, and lightness return to your life. This is good stuff; don’t cheat yourself of this gift by taking the lazy way out.

Assignment: Select the category that is the messiest and tackle it with gusto. Determine what is needed to free you to up-level yourself, your relationship/s, and your life. What is sucking up your energy that could otherwise be better invested in your life and relationship/s?

Do you need to set time to tackle the remnants of a pivot?
Do you need to take a weekend to clean your house from top to bottom?
Do you need to upgrade your routines and habits?
Do you need to have a food, substance, screen-time, social media, technology, or other detox?
Do you need to clean up your mindset about your coping and life approaches?

As with anything where we focus our attention, let’s focus positively and let our energy flow. Let’s remove roadblocks and energy sucks so that we can better invest them in creating our best self, best relationship/s, and best life. We’ll be tackling these in the coming weeks to embrace new beginnings. So get ready!

Wishing you much joy, connection, and love today and always!

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Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples. She is the creator of the MetroRelationship philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy that help couples succeed at their relationship and their life. To stay connected with her and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with personal development and relationship enrichment insights and strategies, visit her website.

Originally published at https://www.ellevatenetwork.com.