5 Simple Ways to Reset for Spring
March 2021 | 5 Mins Read
“To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose.” Marie Kondo
The Easter long weekend (5 days in a row, yay!) is coming soon! How are you going to spend it? If you are feeling “OMG, I can’t believe it’s April!”, don’t stress! There is still plenty of time to get your year to organise and accomplish goals. As we are entering the Spring season, why not take this opportunity to reset, recharge and rejuvenate our mind, body, and home?
Here are five ways to reset for Spring and welcome the hopeful days of this refreshing season!
1 Declutter, clean, and Organise
Spring cleaning is one of the most common and effective ways to reset your life. To achieve the most satisfying outcome, the process of decluttering, cleaning, and organising are equally important. Decluttering is a step that is usually being missed or not being fully adopted. Without this step, we are only making our clutters organised not our home. The immediate result of decluttering opens up space and makes it much easier to clean. In the concept of a minimalist lifestyle, decluttering helps us to simplify life and focus on things that really matter. “But when we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.” Marie Kondo. Cleaning is the practical step of this 3 steps process. If you find cleaning not too exciting, spice it up with your favorite music, ready some pretty tea towels, and clean your home with some handmade refreshing cleaning products. Last but not least, organise your space, give everything a home and decorate your home in a way that will always put a smile on your face when you come home.
2 Mental Recharge
Having a self-care routine on a weekly or even daily basis helps you to recharge for the day or week. It could be getting enough sleep (simple yet many of us are struggling on), making yourself a healthy breakfast and enjoying it (another simple one that we need a reminder of), or getting a mini home spa. Everyone’s self-care needs are different so there isn’t a side-fit strategy here. Sometimes it could be taking off things in your routine rather than adding. Let's say you are a person who has a busy evening schedule full of work calls and networking events then perhaps having your evenings back for a week would be your ideal self-care activity. Meditation is another great self-care activity that you can practice to calm your mind and gain inner peace. It doesn’t take a lot of your time and can be added to your daily routine. A 5 minutes meditation or even a one-minute breathing exercise would add value to you. If you would like to kick start or add an additional self-care habit, studies show that journaling has many benefits. Don’t let the idea of keeping a diary scare you away, it doesn’t have to be filled with artistic calligraphy and pretty stickers. Get a new journal or a notebook that you already have, start writing down your thoughts, and your goals, or draw some doodles on it if you can’t think of anything to journal down and see how you feel. If you would like to learn more about journaling, read 5 benefits to keep a journal.
3 Practice Gratitude
Gratitude is the quality of being thankful. A simple appreciative gesture helps to strengthen our relationships with one another and build a more meaningful relationship. Read 3 Thoughtful Ways to Thank Someone and Make Them Feel Appreciated. Many often see the benefits of it in relationship building and underestimate the benefits it has on oneself. In fact, it is scientifically proven that gratitude has the power to change your life. When you are being thankful for what you have, you limit the amount of toxic emotion you have. In the other words, if you appreciate what you already have, you will pay less attention or complain less about what you don’t. Gratitude takes practice and you might not see very tangible results right away but it is indeed a habit that is worth building. The easiest way is to start by dropping down 3 things that you are thankful for each day (a few short lines will do) and see how you feel in a few months’ time. You might struggle at the beginning with what to put down at the beginning but gradually you will realise that there is so much you can be thankful for.
4 Spend some time outdoor
An article from Harvard Medical School states that spending time outdoor makes you happier and improves your concentration. These two are fundamental factors that would affect your productivity and how fast or capable you can achieve your goals. While spending a full day with nature, feeling the sunlight touching our skins, and breathing the freshness of the air would be an ideal moment for many of us, it might not be realistic when we are living in city life. There are many ways you can add more outdoor time to your daily routine such as choosing to walk to a location rather than getting a taxi if it takes 20 mins or less, enjoying your lunch in a nice outdoor area rather than at your desk or bring your exercise outdoor. If you are taking a day of two off, there are many places in hong kong where you can enjoy a picnic day with friends or a camping weekend with family.
5 Get Creative
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In this digital world, technology becomes a part of our life from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed. Technology made our life easier but getting too attached to technology might bring some negative impacts on our life. It is important that we take some time off the screen and enjoy activities that do not require the use of electronic products. An art and craft project would be a good and flexible option. You can choose the amount of time you want to spend on it based on your schedule. Even a 15 minutes art and craft time away from the screen would add benefits to your life. We don’t need to paint like Van Gosh or Picasso to enjoy the fun of creativity, it’s the process that matters. There are different craft kits that you choose from and get a taste of the type of crafts before building your art stations. Here are a few ideas: Stitching Craft Kits, Make and Paint Your Own Clock Craft Kit, and String Art Creative Kit. You can even make something special for your friends and family! Yes, gratitude my Dear! If you are interested to learn more about how to be more creative, read How to Boost Your Creativity.
Thank you for being an appreciative reader as always. We hope this blog post gives you some ideas on how to reset and organise your life. It takes time to build good habits so be kind to yourself on this. Remember that the future is full of hope and positive opportunities. If you enjoyed reading this blog post, please share it with your family and friends. Thank you and we will be sharing with you stories of craftsmanship, lifestyle, or culture again very soon. Until then, take care.
About the Author
The Qraftie blog aims to provide you stories related to craftsmanship, culture and lifestyle around Hong Kong.
