Whole-Person Spring Cleaning: Reset Your Mind, Body and Spirit

By Theresa Nutt, MA, BSN, HNB-BC, NBC-HWC, director of Health and Wellness Coaching

Spring is a great time to pause and reflect to make new, inspired choices in our lives. Most of us are moving through life so quickly, and as a result, we don’t pause to reflect on the choices we make every single day that either contribute to or detract from our sense of wellbeing.

I have a way to help you reflect briefly that will make a big difference in how you spring ahead this year. Find a comfortable space and something to take notes with and take an inventory of your life and health.

Spring Cleaning Inventory

Start with a light spring cleaning. Ask yourself these three simple questions:

1. What is working?
2. What isn’t working?
3. What do I want for my life and health?

Then move into a deep cleaning, to look for what needs your attention. Look at every area of your life, including relationships, career, spiritual practices, leisure activities, physical lifestyle, community, finances, environment and learning opportunities.

Look for what’s fueling you or giving you energy. Write these bright spots down. Keep doing these activities or do them more often.

Now look at the same areas of your life and see what’s draining your energy. These areas help you identify what you want to stop doing or minimize so you free up time, energy and room for activities that fuel you.

Then, take a broader perspective of what matters to you:

• What do you want your health for?
• What matters most to you?
• What does your most inspiring life look like?

What did you come up with while doing your inventory?

• It’s important to start with what is working. Celebrate what gives you a sense of wellbeing.
• Highlight what activities you identified to stop doing or minimize. Our time, energy, and attention are precious resources. How we utilize them every day can make a big difference.

Connect to Your Purpose

One of the hardest things for most people I meet is remembering to invite in meaning, purpose and joy. I am passionate about this topic because in all of my years of working with patients, both as a nurse and a health coach, I have seen repeatedly that those who routinely experience meaning, purpose and joy do better and feel better. Research shows that people who follow their purpose make healthier lifestyle choices, are more resilient, sleep better, maintain better mental health, and have higher levels of cognitive functioning throughout their lives. (“How Creating a Sense of Purpose Can Impact Your Mental Health,” Psychology Today, March 2022)

Not sure what your purpose is? Here are a few ways to help you figure it out.

• Try out different interests until you find the ones you really like.
• Volunteer your time to different causes.
• Notice what brings you joy throughout the day.
• Notice what you wish would change or you feel strongly about.
• Ask others what they see as your purpose.
• Ask yourself why you make certain choices in your daily life.

All of these can point to your purpose.

Lessons

Take what you learned from this short inventory and ask:

• What do you want your life to look like a year from now?
• What will you be doing or not doing, being or not being? Don’t worry about how to make it happen. Those details can be figured out later.

This might be the one of the most meaningful spring-cleaning activities you do this year, and it will support new levels of health and wellbeing as you spring into 2023.

Theresa Nutt, MA, BSN, HNB-BC, NBC-HWC

Director of Health and Wellness Coaching |

Health and Wellness Coach

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