Spring Cleaning…for the Soul
Spring time is known to many as a powerful time for cleansing, that is to say, clearing away old debris from past events that, when released, make room for the new beginnings that spring brings. “Spring cleaning”, as it is oft referred, is usually a reference to the cleaning out of the home. For others, this spring cleaning time has also marked the occasion for a physical cleanse to purify the body. Both a cleansing of the house as well as of the body, are both powerful rituals that support another type of cleansing. I offer to you, the idea of a spring cleaning for the soul.
Cleaning the home and cleaning the body alike can be very cathartic experiences to the emotions, the psyche, the soul.
Sometimes, it helps to address the soul cleansing directly, through other means. Just as there is accumulated debris after any fruitful activity, after a good meal, there are crumbs and plates to clean, after a long nap, a bit of stretching and eye rubbing needs to be tended too, so it is with the psyche and the soul as it goes through the experience of day-to-day living. So often, as we go through experiences, some subtle, some not so subtle, we do not have the time, energy, skill or awareness to see what left over questions, thoughts and feelings have yet to be processed. Whether it is a painful or even traumatizing experience, a pleasant, celebratory one, or a simple daily transition, there can be resulting energies, if left unprocessed, that can begin to block the flow of energy in your life. And just as a pile can sit in a basement, or at the back of the drawer in your desk, or worst of all, somewhere in the fridge emitting its telltale odor to try and guide you to its source, so too can unprocessed experiences sit within and clog up the works. Each “pile” in the soul requires different types and levels of urgency to be addressed, but even to begin realizing that this is a form of hygiene that is just as important as an other, is an important first step. The “odor” of an unprocessed experience can show up in many ways in your life, from repeated and unsatisfying life patterns or blocks to chronically challenging emotions or even physical maladies.
While we live in a culture that is more than happy to help you spring clean your home, and more and more accommodating to those prone to physical cleanses of the body, there are very few places where we can look to societal support or guidance for a good soul cleansing. Even in some of the places where we can find it, such as therapy, we often relate to it as something “wrong”, oil for a squeaky wheel, rather than simply good spiritual hygiene needed by everyone, and honored and shared between as all. In our society, crying, which can be a hallmark of a good solid soul cleansing, is often seen as a weakness or a flag that something is wrong and needs to be fixed, or at the very least, an uncomfortable disturbance. While this generalization is by no means true across the board, it is common enough to make it worth addressing. Even if one does find tears to cry, many only feel safe doing so in our most private spaces, which, in many ways, can be counterproductive to the purpose of crying as a cleansing for the soul. Oftentimes, what we need is to be witnessed and cared for in our cleansing in order to really clear completely.
In a Mayan Village in Guatemala, the tradition is such that, when a man or woman walks down the street wailing and crying in agony over whatever the subject may be, he or she is not escorted to a mental ward, nor given pills to quiet them, nor arrested for disturbing the peace, nor even consoled or asked “what’s wrong?”. Rather, the villagers turn to each other and say, “let’s go listen”. While the person expresses their grief, the village listens, until the grief has poured its way out, leaving the originating vessel a clean home in which to go forth living. In another village, this one in Burkina Faso in Africa, the people routinely have huge Grief Rituals where the village comes together to grieve the passing of life’s many longings and loves in a potently organized and beautiful ceremony. I had the supreme privelege to participate in two of these ceremonies led at a conference center in Massachusetts by Sobonfu Some, a native of the Dagara People to whom the tradition belongs. In both of these cases, what was once deemed an unpleasant, lonely and sometimes traumatizing place to be, that is to say, grief, becomes an opportunity to share in the devastating beauty and potency of the human experience, and so becomes a celebration of life, in its full spectrum of colors. In both, the full spectrum and its expression is more a matter of spiritual and emotional hygiene, rather than the fixing of a problem.
A major goal of my work as a Life Coach and Healer, is to aide people in remembering how to feel and to grieve fully and authentically; to relearn how to clean the dishes of the soul with just as much casual consistency and attentiveness as you would the ones in your sink (though I’ve found the more the dishes of the soul stay dirty, the more challenging it is to bring yourself to clean the ones in your sink, as within, so without). A couple years ago when I was going through a whole life phase that was all about soul cleansing, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon the work of both Martine Prechtel, and Sobonfu Some. I found Sobonfu’s Grief Rituals just when I needed them. I was going through a process of deep forgiveness for things that I didn’t even realize, until then, that I needed to let go of. I grieved, not a lost person in the physical sense, but I grieved childhood expectations, so subtle within me, that I did not even realize that it had been lodged in my psyche and soul, holding me back from forgiving, and thusly, fully living my life, free and empowered. I attended two grief rituals within the space of three months and I grieved from the very core of my being. I found a place of deep acceptance and forgiveness for the world, finally seeing the possibility of healing and wholeness, right here, in this world, with all its challenges. The experience was similar to when you clean your kitchen, but this time, you get in all of those little nooks, like the place between the sink and the wall, or those corners of the stove or cabinets where gunk accumulates. I scrubbed my soul squeaky clean, and I came out on the other side to a life of freedom, synchronicity, empowerment and abundance. I can not even begin to truly express the profound shift that has come in my life from this simple act of soul cleansing. And I continue to clean myself out with daily, weekly, monthly and yearly rituals, all in various degrees of structure, depending on the need.
Now, because you and I live in this society that we do, when you first begin to cleanse your soul, you might realize, whoa, there’s more in this basement than I thought there would be. So, go easy on yourself, take your time, and believe it or not, you can even have fun with it, especially if you find people to help, support, guide and with whom to share the experience. It may seem like a chore, but grieving in ritual, with intention and with a village is more of a pleasant celebration than you might at first think. I invite you to join me in this magnificent time of spring cleaning. Whether it is your house, your body, your soul or all three at once, may we all clean the channels that our souls come alive again, and again, and again!
