Why Cleaning Is Great For Our Mental well-being?
As small kids, we have all been there when a person of authority has asked us to tidy our bedroom. My mum loved telling me to do this. I did hate it when I had to do it or help tidy downstairs. Maybe it’s because we were forced to do it and didn’t know the positive effects of cleanliness on the mind.
As an adult, I now know that it doesn’t only make your home or office space look neat but it’s great for decluttering the mind. A clean home equals a focused mind we like to say. You know the feeling you get when you have tidied up the whole house? How well does it feel? That’s a cleansing of the mind. A declutter of a negative atmosphere into a positive one.
As a father now, I see my younger self in my son. Especially, when we ask him to tidy up. At 6 years old we are trying to instil this positive habit in him as this is a great tool for the mind. Especially when it comes to focusing and creative thinking.
So in today’s blog post as you saw from the title – we will discuss the positive effects of cleanliness on the mind and how it has helped me. Also why tidying up is great for the mindset and how you can apply it to.
The Positive Effects
Boost your energy
When you clean your home or workspace it really does give you a boost of energy. You feel like you have accomplished something. We all know the feeling when we have succeeded or won a race. You get the same feeling from cleaning and your energy will be at a higher level for the rest of the day.
Create a new direction
Before you tidy up anything. You always have in mind how you would like the room to look after it’s done. This is a great tool for helping you move forward in your life. It can also help plan a new direction you want in your life too. It’s as if it has accessed the visualisation part of your brain and unlocks new possibilities for your future.
It calms your mind and reduces stress and anxiety
An untidy home can boost stress and anxiety tenfold. That’s why it super important to have a clean home and workspace. Especially if you are under stress at work or feeling anxious about things in your life. Cleaning has been proved to releases these tensions and I have experienced this too. Whilst you’re cleaning with the music in the background you start to feel more relaxed in the process. I definitely find cleaning quite therapeutic.
Its a form of meditation
Meditation is a great way to calm the mind and it’s something I practice daily. When cleaning, I get the same calming feeling too. With stresses of my life slowly going away whilst cleaning the dishes. With the repetitive actions is similar to the repetitive breathing techniques which is easy for the brain to perform without thinking too much. With the music on in the background, it also helps put you into a calm happy state similar to if you were hearing the wind chimes. Overall cleaning can help you get into that Zen state and help you feel better about yourself.
It tells you a lot about how you are feeling
How tidy your home can look can tell you a lot about how you’re feeling. If the hoover hasn’t been out in a while or those dishes are endlessly piling up. Something is wrong in your life that needs to be addressed. It has been proven that the tidiness of your space has an effect on your self-worth. So by just getting started to clean your space. You can start to form new pathways ahead and build your self worth with an amazing tidy up which can create a fresh win. It can be a symbolic message of change and the formation of new thoughts. Straight after cleaning, get your journal out and start planning for your future and what you want to change.
It’s a mini-workout
I don’t know about you but every time I clean, the sweat starts rolling off my back. Some tasks can take 20 mins and deep clean could take over an hour. Your body is moving repetitively for a long period of time so those calories are definitely burning off. You could actually look at cleaning as part of your exercise routine for the day.
A healthier family
Regular cleaning is also crucial for keeping you and your family healthy. With mould, a build-up of dust, bacteria on a worktop surface if left unclean can cause health problems. That’s why it’s important to clean regularly to make sure your health is not put at risk. A top tip is cleaning up after you have used something. Try having a day out of your week that’s designed for just cleaning. Your health will thank you for it.
Less maintenance
With regular cleaning, a great benefit is less maintenance on your home. Especially if you want your deposit back if you’re a renter. Keeping up to date takes away the pain of doing everything all at once which for me is painful. So I would set a list of things that are terrible to clean after long term use. I would do this once a month so you can keep up to date with your cleaning and then you will have less time for you to worry about it.
Overall the positive effects of cleanliness on the mind clearly show cleaning is essential for your mental well-being and for your health. It can be a great way to unwind and after a busy day a chance to do something simple and easy to accomplish. By planning and scheduling times to clean, it can also really help because if you don’t it will hit you all at once. As this is a real pain for everyone. Apply these tips and you see the benefits. SO GET CLEANING!
FUTURE MINDSET
At Future Mindset, we are here to push the boundaries of our thoughts and actions. By chasing discomfort in our lives, it can lead us to unlock things inside us we never knew was there. Let’s change our mindset to change our future.
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Chase discomfort and have a great day wherever you are!