How To Make Mindfulness A Habit – Cleaning Your Home And Clearing Your Mind

Post by Bella Middleton.

You are not alone. Adult life is stressful.

Balancing bills, caring for children and building a career can get on top of the best of us. But the good news is, a few small changes will create the extra time you need to care for your own (often forgotten) needs.

First things first, we are going to be talking about mindfulness. I know that sounds a bit… unrealistic… but please bear with me. Mindfulness is not just a nice thing that other people do.

You can make mindfulness a central part of your daily routine without even really thinking about it. But first, let’s get a good grounding of what we are actually discussing.

What Is Mindfulness (And Why Should You Give It A Go)?

The NHS defines mindfulness as “Paying more attention to the present moment – to your own thoughts and feelings, and to the world around you”.

When you think about it, that doesn’t have to mean clearing half an hour out of your day to sit perfectly still in a dimly lit room (although that does sound very nice!).

In fact, effortlessly incorporating mindfulness into your daily routine is a fantastic way to combat stress and anxiety while feeling a renewed connection with the all the positive things in your life which often go forgotten. Your new-found self belief could be enough to lift you above that cloud which seems to loom above these cold winter days.

For you and I, mindfulness can take very simple forms that have a wonderful effect. Let’s explore my favourite method for incorporating it into my (far too busy) days.

How To Make Mindfulness A Habit (When You Really Don’t Have The Time)

There aren’t enough hours in the day as it is. Trying to squeeze in anything else would mean even less sleep. Not good for your mental health!

To combat this, I combine mindfulness exercises with the various housework tasks that we all have to do every day.

When you stop to think, that actually makes perfect sense. Mindfulness is about feeling a renewed connection to the environment that surrounds us and the positive aspects of our lives. Cleaning does essentially the same thing. And you already spend plenty of time on housework anyway.

Really, it is all about the mindset. At the moment, you probably think if cleaning as something that just has to be done. You grab your bottle of disinfectant spray and that damp cloth from next to the sink then whizz around the house getting the essential things done. Other than a cheery rendition of I Want To Break Free whilst vacuuming, there isn’t much joy to be found in the whole routine.

What if you changed that mindset slightly? And took a second to think about what you are actually doing? Housework is really just the process of creating a clean, welcoming environment for you and your loved ones. Maintaining your own personal space in the world where you can live your life exactly how you want to.

When your focus shifts away from “I must get this cleaning done” to “I am going to take a few minutes to care for the space that I spend my time in”, the whole experience changes. Your cleaning routine doesn’t take any longer or shorter but it becomes much more efficient. Now you are cleaning your home and clearing your mind in the same period of time.

Making Mindful Choices For Your Home

All I need is the air that I breathe and to love you was sung by The Hollies in 1974. It is still a staple of late night radio love shows.

Now you have that stuck in your head, have a think about the cleaning products that are currently sat in the cupboard beneath your sink. How many of them would you feel comfortable using with small children running around the room?

You already intuitively know that a lot of your cleaning products are full of harmful chemicals. The kinds of toxins you really don’t want to be filling your lungs with every time you clean.

As the focus of mindful cleaning is taking care of your personal place in the world, the next step is to consider the kinds of chemicals you are releasing into it.

This realisation was part of the reason I founded my business (although this article is not a sales pitch). Try making your own natural cleaning products using baking soda, citrus and essential oils. You will find that they clean just as effectively whilst smelling wonderful. You will be so much more comfortable using it around your pets and children.

A Final Thought On Making Space For Mindfulness

Hopefully you can now see how you could incorporate the principles of mindfulness into your own daily routines. I hope that you don’t stop there.

Marie Kondo opened millions of peoples’ eyes to the various ways our possessions and surroundings can bring us joy. Once you get the hang of mindful cleaning, you will find you are naturally incorporating the same techniques into other tasks. There are plenty more methods to choose from.

For example, I am writing this in my small study with the window open. For the last five minutes or so, a Fieldfare Thrush has been digging through the leaves at the bottom of my garden. Its song, a harsh chak-chak-chak sound, has been the backdrop to a lot of this article for me. I have found myself typing to its tempo.

A few years ago, before I made a conscious effort to connect more with the world around me, I may never have noticed that small brown bird and smiled as it danced among the crunchy leaves beneath the slightly overgrown beech tree that my son spent most of his summer trying to climb.

Allow yourself to smile. You have earned it.

Bio

Bella Middleton is a mum of three young children and the founder of Norfolk Natural Living. After the birth of her third child, she founded her business to create a range of heirloom-worthy garment care and cleaning products which would allow people to care for their possessions in a less damaging and toxic way.