The sun finally sets later, bees are back to chasing me for my Cantu hair products and heavy coats are no longer needed; springtime has officially arrived.

For whatever reason, spring is accompanied by a commercialized incentive to “spring clean.” I witnessed countless church sermons, TV commercials and casual conversations all focused on spring cleaning in a quite literal way. The socialized concept of spring cleaning is cool and all—people should dust their living spaces anyway—but after a very interesting winter, I’ve become convinced that spring cleaning shouldn’t be categorized exclusively by physical spaces around us; spring cleaning our lives, friends and partners are healthy means of self-care.

In the most poetic sense I can articulate, just like the trees bloom in the spring after being unpollinated and dead all winter; our relationships with others can easily become the same. I had an amazing winter; a lot of the relationships that I maintained and found absolute comfort in, made me just that: comfortable. They were cozy, warm and familiar. I neglected my own social concept of mental cleaning, testing my boundaries and getting out of my comfort zone. I was around people a lot and never really gave myself time to listen to or laugh at my own thoughts. I even bought more pairs of shoes, knowing I had enough already.

Now, I’m not saying that springtime came and I hopped out of bed with some kind of emotional awakening that made me reevaluate my 20-year-old life or anything, but nonetheless, life threw me some absolute torpedoes that made me think a little harder after recently seeing a spring cleaning commercial.

So what did I do? I spring cleaned mentally, held myself accountable for my mistakes and became at peace with relationships that ended because nothing is wrong with loving somebody from a distance.

Grab your metaphorical Clorox bottle and spray the corners of your mind, deep clean your life—I heard it’s worthwhile.

For those of you who have a pile of clothes on your bed,

Xoxo,

Big Sis