Spring is here! The snow is melting, the birds are chirping and finals week is around the corner. Before you start packing up your room, planning your summer and cramming for finals, take a minute to enjoy spring and clean out the clutter of a long, tiring winter season. With these seven steps you’ll feel refreshed, rejuvenated and ready for the sun!
1. Clean out your closet
Whether it’s reorganizing, reevaluating or truly just getting rid of old clothes, we all could use a little closet intervention. Toss out those jeans that you haven’t squeezed into for three years. Come to terms with the fact that you’re maturing and your wardrobe should mature with you. Recognize the fact that you own twenty pair of jeans and thirty v-neck t-shirts. How many basics do you really need? Someone out there could probably use your extras more than you do! Play the “would I wear this clothing item tomorrow” game, and if the answer is no, toss it! By toss it, I mean donate it to a local thrift store, homeless shelter, or trade-in store. Own clothes and accessories that fit you, flatter you and make you feel beautiful!
2. Reevaluate your friendships
Take a step back and look at your social surroundings. Are all of your friendships benefitting you in a positive way? Whether you’re feeling some friendship tension, itching for a little space or honestly looking to break it off, make sure to COMMUNICATE your feelings. A friendship is not functional without a lot of give-and-take communication. Give some attention to the relationships that harm you more than help you this spring. A little bit of honest and friendly confrontation will do wonders for your self-confidence and outward positivity!
3. Revamp your phone and internet usage
Take a minute to scroll through your phone. How many unwanted contacts, messages, pictures and apps are you hoarding? Get rid of the clutter! Delete contacts that you haven’t talked to in years, delete your useless messages, take yourself off of irrelevant e-mail aliases and delete Temple Run, Angry Birds and all of the other games you got sick of months ago. Clutter in all forms leads to stress, so clear out the mess and replace it with positivity! Download apps that will inspire you to be happy and productive. Put your background photo as something that makes you smile every time you see it. But most importantly, get off of your phone and enjoy the sunshine.
4. Change up your exercise routine
Sick of going to the gym four days a week and doing a thirty minute elliptical workout followed by crunches and planks? Your body is too. Give your body a rest from its weekly routine and try out some new workouts. Take a Zumba class, go on a bike ride or walk down the hill with a friend. Try to participate in exercise that doesn’t seem like a chore. You shouldn’t dread physical activity, so treat your body kindly this spring and give it the sun, fresh air and movement it needs.
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5. Make a few small beneficial changes to your diet
Spring is a good time to look back on your good ol’ New Years resolutions. Are you still following the diet restrictions you put on yourself, or did your resolutions die on January 2? Regardless, now is a great time to start fresh. Try to avoid fad diet or unrealistic restrictions. They will only make you crave unhealthy foods more. Instead, pick three unhealthy things in your diet that you continually come back to, no matter how strict your diet regimen and set realistic goals to avoid them. For example, only drink coffee or soda three days a week instead of twice a day. Save desserts for weekend meals, and always carry a healthy snack with you in your backpack. By making little switches instead of huge lifestyle restrictions, you’re more likely to be healthy in the long-term and see positive results.
6. Get rid of unnecessary commitments
Take a look at your weekly schedule and assess how every individual commitment is benefitting you today, tomorrow and in a year. Are you in a music ensemble because you want to be or because your parents want you to be? Is ten hours of work a week too much? Are three student organization meetings three too many? You deserve free time and your commitments deserve your full passion and attention. Pick and choose the commitments you really love and ditch the ones that you feel so-so about. Regardless of what society tells us, multitasking is highly overrated.
7. Do at least one thing every day that only benefits you
Now that you ditched your unnecessary commitments, you have more time for y-o-u. Set aside some time every day to live for yourself (not friends, not paper deadlines, not the guy in your Psych class). Whether it’s a solo walk around campus, a late-night jam session or a weekend Netflix binge, do something that helps you relax and rejuvenate. You deserve it!
Cleaning can be tiresome, but these steps are easy and for the better. Happy Spring, Oles, and enjoy the outdoors! After the winter we suffered through, your homework can wait.