Kitchen Refresh, Digital Renewal, Financial Reset. Spring clean your life.

Get Stable, Grounded and Ready to go.

As spring unfolds, it’s the perfect time to lighten up our mindset. The winter heavies can linger and limit our connection to this expansive quality. Get ready to move in a new direction or at least approach life with a fresh perspective. Before we settle into creation mode, it may support us best to do some spring cleaning. Make way for some flow and clear out any stagnant energy that may leave you feeling stuck. Yes, the house may need a deep clean and a drastic decluttering, but there are other factors that could use your sparkling attention. Energy flows where your mind goes. With a little extra effort we can free our creative energy so it rises like sap. Then, look out world. Here you come.

Kitchen Refresh

It’s time to ease off the comfort foods that we’ve become so attached to this winter. The most direct path to boost vitality is to focus on a kitchen cleanse. Spend some time organizing the pantry, cupboards, and spices. You’re more likely to prepare a healthy meal when the space is efficient and you are inspired. 

• Pantry Purge: 1) Throw out everything beyond its expiration date and rotate stock with the oldest up front. 2) Donate everything you aren’t going to use. 3) Get rid of the worst processed food offenders. Read labels, if it has more than 5 ingredients, ditch it.

• Fill your fridge with bitter greens. They support your liver function and are rich in vitamins (A,C,K) and minerals (potassium, calcium, iron, and magnesium). 

• Go through your cookbooks and pick 5 new healthy recipes to make this spring. Make an ingredient list on an index card to take to the grocery store for when you are excited to make it.

• Streamline what you need and use most, get rid of chipped dishes, containers with lost lids or gadgets you don’t use.

• Add ayurvedic CCF tea to your daily routine for a digestive boost.

  

During the pandemic, I was preparing meals fully from scratch. Trying new ingredients all the time. It was easy and exciting to put a lot of effort into enticing recipes.  Both my attitude and my meal plans burned out. For months now feeling underwhelmed, I have fallen into bad habits and quick fixes. I can feel it in my body. It’s time to pivot back to the underlying truth that food is medicine. 

What inspires you in the kitchen? Intriguing ingredients, a certain genre of music, a recipe you’ve never tried, a cooking show?

Digital Detox

The great outdoors are calling. It’s the best time of year to untether yourself from devices as often as possible. We need a break. Endless streams of information bog down our brain and dampen our creative output. Under the constant influence of the world online, we deplete enthusiasm and joy from our immediate surroundings. Creating systems and folders makes everything easier to find, so you spend less time and are more focused. A digital detox protects your senses from the overstimulation of social media. 

• Unsubscribe and unfollow. If your social media feed isn’t feeding your soul, unfollow anyone that no longer lifts your spirits. Hit unsubscribe on any emails from people or companies that aren’t relevant to you right now. 

• Create folders and labels that help you keep track of emails you want to read again or read later. Work, Family, Finances, Shopping Deals. Delete or Archive everything else.

•  Clean out pictures, screen shots, and apps you no longer need.

• Declutter your desktop. Organize current projects. Move everything else off your desktop into appropriate folders. 

• Delete all outdated documents or move unnecessary files to a flash drive.

My desktop is a hot mess. (Don’t even mention my  inbox)  It's where I dump everything I don't want to think about. A quick save and I will deal with it later. The consequence is total chaos. I forget that future me will be so happy not having to track down files. With just a little more organization I am giving myself back the gift of time. Time untethered from the screen. To me that is a beautiful freedom. 

What gives you time away from your computer, tablet, and phone? Better boundaries, more organization, time limits, filtering your emails and social media?

Financial Reset

Financial housekeeping and money management are huge contributions to your empowerment. Recognizing that the money in your bank is an energetic currency. Physically, mentally, and emotionally- you burn your energy earning it and you expend energy spending it. In those terms it’s an incredibly precious resource. It represents your time, vitality, and longevity. Ladies, I am talking to you, we can no longer ignore it or wish for it. It is time to engage with it. Setting a big picture plan each season keeps you connected to financial goals that support your dreams. Stop working for money, let it work for you. 

• Deal with debt. Review how your plan to pay off debt is going. Was there an obstacle that popped up? An unexpected emergency? What can you do to make some progress from here forward?

• Review your budget. If the budget you currently have set for yourself is not realistic, then adjust where needed. When setting your spring budget, think about the 70/20/10 rule: 70% of your earnings goes to immediate needs, 20% goes to savings, and 10% goes to paying down debt.

• Prioritize savings. Earmark some for a short term goal, like a trip or purchase. The rest for a long term goal in an IRA. 

• Get Savvy. It’s empowering when you make some space to think about your money mindset. Or learn more about investing. Pick a financial wellness podcast to listen to while you make dinner.

• Organize your financial documents. Taxes will become less daunting. Assess what you really need to keep and have a bonfire with the rest. If you don't need to keep hard copies of statements, go digital. The trees will thank you.

For decades, I was like a horse with blinders not wanting to look at my finances. They were scary and uncomfortable. Talking about money felt wrong. In the wellness industry especially. These days I am on a mission to shift my beliefs. There are some issues to address with value, worth, and deservability, but I am on this journey. Healing this weakness will become my empowerment. 

What keeps you interested in your finances? A debt plan, investment education, a money milestone, an earnings goal?

  Take a few days or even a couple weeks to set the stage for your success.  When you have a healthy relationship with these three key facets, you have a solid foundation. Ditch the financial overwhelm, clear the digital brain fog, and root into your wellness. You are fed, structured and supported, free to follow your heart. Spring cleaning and decluttering can clear up some headspace and plug you into potency. Wishes, goals, and desires are rebirthed in a creative visioning. 

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Process winter. Welcome Spring.

Get a copy of the reflect and review journal to make way for some new energy…