Episode 599
599-A Holistic Approach to Spring Cleaning: Mind, Body, and Digital Detox for 2025
This episode focuses on the importance of spring cleaning for your mind, body, and digital space. Learn how decluttering your physical, emotional, and digital environments can lead to a more balanced life. Discover how to evaluate your social media presence and unfollow accounts that don't align with your well-being or life goals. The episode emphasizes that spring cleaning isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about creating a peaceful and harmonious space that reflects who you are now. Spiritual Homegirl also tackles emotional clutter, encouraging you to confront unresolved feelings for personal growth and healing. Tune in for practical tips on decluttering your life for peace, clarity, and a more fulfilling existence.
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Transcript
Hey, y' all.
Speaker A:You were listening to another episode of the Spiritual Homegirl, where we better self in spirit and make peace with the day through wisdom, education, and practical, easy to follow tips.
Speaker A:I am your host, Maria, your spiritual homegirl, who's also a mental professional.
Speaker A:And I know that this is episode 599, and I was going to do the little Red dress episode when it was time to debut.
Speaker A:That's not that time.
Speaker A:And I wanted to do my birthday wisdom episode.
Speaker A:And normally I would give y' all a certain amount of.
Speaker A:Of.
Speaker A:Or certain number, I should say, of lessons that I would have learned.
Speaker A:I'm not doing that episode right now.
Speaker A: before it got too late was my: Speaker A:Okay, the reason why I believe that this is the most urgent episode is because we are almost, what, heading towards the halfway market spring.
Speaker A:I said, goodness gracious.
Speaker A:I know that the spring, the equinox, and everything happened on.
Speaker A:What was that?
Speaker A:The 20th of March.
Speaker A:So I was like, oh, goodness.
Speaker A:I was so busy.
Speaker A:And I said, this is not the time.
Speaker A:I wanted to always make episodes in proper energy.
Speaker A:And because my energy was very much at capacity, I said, no, when it's time, I do it.
Speaker A:So I am back at capacity.
Speaker A:So let's run it.
Speaker A:So we're gonna get into a different kind of spring cleaning.
Speaker A:And usually people think, okay, we're gonna get Lysol and dust masks and donation B.
Speaker A:Going to get rid of some of this clutter.
Speaker A:Now, be clear, those have their place, but I'm talking about cleaning house on every level.
Speaker A:Mentally, emotionally, spiritually, digitally, and yes, of course, your physical space, too.
Speaker A:Because sometimes when the energy gets stagnant, it starts showing up in all kind of ways.
Speaker A:My mama and my granny always said, like, you know, you really can't.
Speaker A:Like, how can you.
Speaker A:How can you progress with it with a bunch of clutter?
Speaker A:And sometimes clutter can take up space.
Speaker A:And when we're wanting to welcome in the new, it's kind of hard because we have a lot of the old just sitting around, not in their proper places, whether it is on a shelf or in the trash.
Speaker A:Sometimes we're unable to move forward because we have certain people that are not in their right place.
Speaker A:Or sometimes we have things that we're connected to or we engage with online that are not in their proper place.
Speaker A:Sometimes we have habits or situations that we give our emotional bandwidth 2 that are not in their proper place.
Speaker A:So it can also show up in different ways.
Speaker A:You really can't focus.
Speaker A:You're irritable for no reason.
Speaker A:You feel like there's some blockages, your body feels heavy, or you're feeling drained every time you're online, or you hate coming home because everything looks a mess.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:Or sometimes we don't know why, or we don't even know why this is how we feel, but we know that's what we feel.
Speaker A:Usually that's a sign that something needs to be cleared, at least in my personal experience.
Speaker A:Y' all know I can only speak for my personal experience, but today we're gonna do a whole life sweep.
Speaker A:Let's just get into it.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I'm gonna walk y' all through a full reset.
Speaker A:We're gonna walk through your space, your mind, your heart, your spirit, and your digital world.
Speaker A:Now, again, y' all know I love alignment.
Speaker A:It's never been about perfection.
Speaker A:It's never been about getting things 100 right.
Speaker A:It's never been about looking like you have things 100 together.
Speaker A:It's about knowing that how you feel and what you're doing are matching, or what you want to do and what you're doing and how you're feeling are matching.
Speaker A:That's, to me, the easy version of, you know, explaining alignment.
Speaker A:It's all about alignment.
Speaker A:We got to get everything where we need to have it so we can attract and maintain or sustain the things that we do want to maintain and have.
Speaker A:So first things first.
Speaker A:Physical spring cleaning.
Speaker A:Let's reset this energy.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Clutter holds energy, law, vibration, all that stuff.
Speaker A:Things hold energy.
Speaker A:Old stuff, dusty corners, dirty baseboards, piles of laundry you've been ignoring.
Speaker A:They all carry weight, even if you're not really thinking about it.
Speaker A:Now, before we get into this, be clear.
Speaker A:If you have a clinical diagnosis and you know that some of these things are related to your diagnosis, this is not where I'm going to overstep.
Speaker A:And try to play the role of your therapist.
Speaker A:If you are on medication or if you have a mental health professional, by all means, please seek them first.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:This is not designed to be therapeutic in any way.
Speaker A:This is just homegirl advice, homegirl wisdom.
Speaker A:So you know.
Speaker A:But ask yourself, does the space that I'm currently dwelling in, whether it is just a room you're renting, whether it is an apartment, a house, a cottage, a farmhouse, wherever, a mansion, wherever you stay, Because I've.
Speaker A:From what I've seen on that listener survey, I got a little bit of everybody, which is pretty cool.
Speaker A:But does your space reflect the person that you're wanting to become or the person you're actively becoming?
Speaker A:Or does your space remind you or have remnants of who you used to be?
Speaker A:We all have different versions of ourselves that we grow and share it from, right?
Speaker A:So if you're trying to be a better person, does it remind you more of who you used to be that you're not happy with or a person that you kind of give gratitude for but you know, you don't want to go back?
Speaker A:What remnants does your space have and who does that remind you of in terms of who you used to be?
Speaker A:Let's also be honest.
Speaker A:You got some clothes that don't fit, let them go.
Speaker A:Whether they too big, whether they too small, we all grow and we all you, we all evolve.
Speaker A:Sometimes our clothes are not the clothes we love and want to hold on to.
Speaker A:They're not the clothes we can fit.
Speaker A:Okay, look, I can relate, okay.
Speaker A:I have gained some happy weight and I'm like, these pants I used to fit, these don't fit no more.
Speaker A:And at first I used to want to be like, you know, I'm going to lose a little bit of weight and I'mma just go ahead and jump back in them.
Speaker A:Or I don't want to buy more clothes.
Speaker A:I'm just going to try my.
Speaker A:No, no, I'm nope.
Speaker A:The body that I have, we good.
Speaker A:Them clothes is going in the trash.
Speaker A:Well, not the trash, they're going in the trash bag.
Speaker A:And then I'm going to donate them because I know somebody can make good use of those jeans.
Speaker A:Also, if you have anything in your refrigerator and look, shout out to my elders.
Speaker A:Sometimes you got to go through your elders refrigerator cuz sometimes they don't know or they don't pay attention or sometimes they don't care.
Speaker A:Cuz some of us will be like, leave my mustard.
Speaker A:I don't care if it expired a year ago.
Speaker A:So some shout out to those who've done it.
Speaker A:Cuz I know even my granny, I had to go through her refrigerator to make sure she, her stuff was good in there.
Speaker A:But if you have expired makeup, expired hair products, expired again, food products, if you can let them go, let them go.
Speaker A:Cuz and what I mean by that is sometimes there are some folks that are food insecure and we're not going to judge you for that.
Speaker A:So if you need to hold on to that, hold on to them.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:But if you know that you could probably get some more, you know, then go ahead.
Speaker A:If you, if you have it in your budget, get rid of them.
Speaker A:Especially the food products.
Speaker A:Wipe down the Mirrors, sweep under your bed.
Speaker A:Clean them.
Speaker A:Baseboards, please clean them.
Speaker A:Clean the corners that you've been avoiding.
Speaker A:Any type of dust.
Speaker A:Oh, clean your fans, too.
Speaker A:Look at your fans, okay?
Speaker A:Just because the dust is not just all over the place doesn't mean the dust doesn't exist.
Speaker A:Clean your vents.
Speaker A:Sometimes there's dust hanging out there.
Speaker A:When's the last time you disinfected your doorknobs, your light switches, things like that?
Speaker A:This isn't just about aesthetics, okay?
Speaker A:This is just about energy, hygiene, if you want to make a routine.
Speaker A:And what's so interesting is that people don't realize that some of the things we do are kind of sacred rituals in our culture.
Speaker A:Like when you think about every Saturday or Sunday, depending on what it was for.
Speaker A:For my family, it was Saturday when I heard Earth, Wind and Fire or Anita Baker or the Isley Brothers or Keith Sweat when I heard me.
Speaker A:Or even current music at that time.
Speaker A:Black street, swv, tlc.
Speaker A:Whenever I heard music on early Saturday morning, I knew that before I watched Soul Train at noon, because Soul Train was my favorite show growing up, and it still is one of my favorite shows to this day.
Speaker A:I knew that the house had to get clean.
Speaker A:That Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson, Mickey Howard.
Speaker A:Oh, I'm showing my age.
Speaker A:Oh, oh, I love me some Mickey Howard.
Speaker A:You can say Gerald Lavert.
Speaker A:Lavert, the OJs, Phyllis Hyman, even whenever I heard that music growing up, I knew it is time to clean.
Speaker A:Anita Becker was always like one of my fave faves to play or to hear when cleaning the house.
Speaker A:Very calming.
Speaker A:So going back to some of the cultural rituals that we have, and people don't like to use the word rituals because they make it sound so demonic, and it's like, what?
Speaker A:That is not.
Speaker A:That's not.
Speaker A:Like what?
Speaker A:Like what?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Some things are just really just sacred to how we've grown up in some of our core memories.
Speaker A:It's not always about the devil.
Speaker A:Like, come on, relax.
Speaker A:But in this case, if you want to go back to your childhood and some of the cultural traditions that we've done, maybe designate a day, get your playlist ready.
Speaker A:You're cleaning old school playlists.
Speaker A:I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of them on Apple Music and Spotify.
Speaker A: would say, if you're feeling: Speaker A:If you're feeling like you want to connect to a Family member that's been gone for a while.
Speaker A:Maybe your grandmother, grandfather, great granny, big mama, big daddy, whoever in your family, Meemaw or whoever, Gigi, an elder in your family.
Speaker A: currently you're feeling real: Speaker A:If you want to light candles, if you want to light incense, I mean, usually, you know, the hummies I know we normally will.
Speaker A:Will light some candles and incense just on the strength of just.
Speaker A:Or potpourri or a simmer pot, you know, with cloves and cinnamon oranges, just for the smell.
Speaker A:Open your windows, you know, safely, of course, because that pollen is pollen.
Speaker A:So be careful so you don't let the pollen in your house.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:Or if you have an air purifier, whatever you want to do, if you want to pray before you start cleaning, you know, like this is a space of peace.
Speaker A:I'm praying that, you know, I have the discernment to determine what will stay and what will go and everything will be for, you know, the betterment of this home and making sure that it is in alignment with what you want for my life.
Speaker A:Whatever you got to do, pray on it or set the intention, whatever works best for you.
Speaker A:Our homes are extension of us.
Speaker A:When it's clear, we feel clear.
Speaker A:When it's calm, it's easier for us to move around.
Speaker A:But if we don't have the time or energy to deep clean because again, sometimes some of us have the motivation or some of us are very busy with our schedules.
Speaker A:No judgment, it's all good.
Speaker A:Do the same thing, but just pick one room at a time.
Speaker A:And even if it takes you a couple days to do the room.
Speaker A:Steady steps.
Speaker A:I'm always a person that is all about one step.
Speaker A:One step.
Speaker A:If your capacity.
Speaker A:If you're listening right now, you're like, Maria, I don't know what you talking about.
Speaker A:Today is May so and so.
Speaker A:I don't have a Saturday.
Speaker A:I work too much or I'm a mom or I'm a dad, I'm tired or I got too much going on with, with.
Speaker A:With my personal issues where I just don't have the motivation.
Speaker A:Okay, I thank you for at least checking the episode out.
Speaker A:We're not going to judge your situation.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But All I will tell you as your homegirl that loves you and wants to see you win, if the spring cleaning takes you 30 days, bit by bit and you can't get the room, maybe we can get a closet.
Speaker A:And if you're unable to do the closet one day, maybe we need to take a week for the closet.
Speaker A:Maybe there's certain things that are not there.
Speaker A:And maybe instead of just trying to attack the whole room, we can just say, hey, if you got clothes that are stacked up in your closet, let's get a trash bag and let's just see what we would want to keep at least and what we need to put in that trash bag to get to the Goodwill or the Salvation army or to whatever non profit that will take donations.
Speaker A:Maybe we can start there and then when you're done, maybe we can see how many hangers we have.
Speaker A:Do you need to go to the dollar store?
Speaker A:Because if you don't want to spend no money on hangers, that's fine.
Speaker A:If you want to get your hangers from somewhere that's super duper fancy and expensive, fine.
Speaker A:Wherever you want to get them from.
Speaker A:If you need to do an inventory of how many hangers you might need, if you don't have enough, go get the hangers, hang the clothes, maybe you can work on that.
Speaker A:If you actually have too many hangers and you may want to donate them or keep them, you can make that decision.
Speaker A:And then from there we could also work.
Speaker A:Okay, well if you did the closet good, that might take you a week.
Speaker A:We're not gonna judge it now.
Speaker A:Maybe we can look at the drawers.
Speaker A:Maybe we.
Speaker A:If you don't, if you absolutely don't have the capacity to do maybe all three to seven drawers, depending on how your drawer system is set up.
Speaker A:If you don't have the capacity to do that, maybe one day you pick one drawer.
Speaker A:Because remember spring, I don't want anybody to feel pressure like, oh my God, oh my God, if this is not done by the end of spring, I'm not, I'm not accomplished or something bad's gonna happen.
Speaker A:No, it's not.
Speaker A:It's all about your pace.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So when you're hearing the things that I'm saying, even if I put it in a short term context, if you absolutely know, and this is the key about being self aware and understanding, right?
Speaker A:Understanding who you are, if you know that that is not going to align with your personal capacity, by all means, slow it down.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:No judgment.
Speaker A:Also, that's an example for those who are wanting to Slow it down.
Speaker A:I hope that lands for somebody who.
Speaker A:Who needed that.
Speaker A:But again, we take it one step at a time.
Speaker A:If you have the capacity to do that, by all means, do your thing, boo friend.
Speaker A:If you don't, by all means, do your thing, boo friend.
Speaker A:Just do it a little.
Speaker A:A little slower.
Speaker A:No worse.
Speaker A:All right, so let's go to our mental spring cleaning.
Speaker A:Thoughts, mindsets, detox.
Speaker A:I've talked about this before on a previous year of.
Speaker A:Of spring, but I like refreshing these episodes because as time evolves, so do we.
Speaker A:So I'm very grateful to be able to give more of an evolved update on what it means to clean mind, body and spirit and socials.
Speaker A:But mental clutter is also real.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:And I know some of y' all feel me on this, and sometimes we're overwhelmed, and I say we because I'm never above what I say.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:We're overwhelmed not because of what's happening, but because our thoughts won't slow down.
Speaker A:And I see why.
Speaker A:Because the type of environment that we live in, information is coming rapidly, nanoseconds, it seems.
Speaker A:It's news story after news story, and everything is breaking and everything is presented as important.
Speaker A:And sometimes a lot of this stuff is presented as the world is ending.
Speaker A:And that can lead us to subconsciously hold on to things that now creates this mindset where we are living in super duper fear, or we're living because we don't want to.
Speaker A:We're living in a way where we have the courage even to live how we want to live because we're scared of what's going on in the news.
Speaker A:And my thing is, as much as people like to demonize fear, I understand how human of an emotion it is, no matter how tough.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:I just cannot believe it.
Speaker A:I just don't believe that anybody that.
Speaker A:That unless you have something going on mentally where you don't feel any kind of fear.
Speaker A:Because there are some folks that have zero fear, and I think there's some diagnoses associated with that.
Speaker A:And when I say diagnosis, I don't mean that in a bad way.
Speaker A:But there are some things where people say, hey, this is what.
Speaker A:What it means when you don't have any type of feelings on anything, whether it's remorse, whether it's fear, whether it's anything.
Speaker A:But unless you have something like that going on, I believe everybody has somewhat of a healthy amount of fearful experiences.
Speaker A:I feel like the pandemic was one of them.
Speaker A:I mean, the pandemic really activated a lot of fear responses in folks that probably wouldn't have had them in different situations.
Speaker A:I think that was a test.
Speaker A:And I'm not saying that in a bad way, but because we're still coming out of a collectively traumatic event, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody was still feeling like they felt, you know, like there was some.
Speaker A:Some hesitancy or some reluctancy to kind of live their life the way they want or go, you know, without some of the restrictions that we had during the pandemic.
Speaker A:There's some people that are still wearing masks, I've noticed.
Speaker A:And again, I'm not saying this is where you wear a mask or not.
Speaker A:We're not going to get into that conversation.
Speaker A:But there are some folks who still are taking precautions from that.
Speaker A:And, you know, everybody has their right to do what they want to do.
Speaker A:But what I mean by that is because there's so much information and we're still recovering collectively from a super duper traumatic global event, sometimes we become overwhelmed with all the things that we're still holding on to on top of the new information that we're getting in in all of this short amount of time.
Speaker A:So I would like for y' all to just question yourself.
Speaker A:What are you carrying that doesn't belong to you?
Speaker A:What narratives are you thinking about in your head that keep you feeling small or playing small?
Speaker A:There was this viral tick tock and I'll clean the language up, of course, but he was like, you gotta think big.
Speaker A:You're not thinking big.
Speaker A:And a lot of people were, like, really inspired by that because it wasn't until this man had just came up on his niece's tick tock talking, you know, talking that talk, like, hey, y' all.
Speaker A:Y' all ain't where y' all want to be because y' all thinking small.
Speaker A:You gotta think big.
Speaker A:Sometimes we don't realize we're playing small or thinking small because we're just so used to it.
Speaker A:And sometimes it happens from events and things that's happened to us that have not been the most favorable and that have not been the most positive.
Speaker A:So please, just.
Speaker A:Just doodle it out.
Speaker A:Even before I realized this was something that people do in therapy.
Speaker A:And again, this is not therapy, but even just writing things out, journaling, you know, like, get that stuff out.
Speaker A:I forget what they call it in the spiritual sense.
Speaker A: g, long time ago, probably in: Speaker A:But whatever it is, just get it out and just look at it.
Speaker A:Like what?
Speaker A:Sometimes we just be believing stuff just because somebody else said something or we believe something based on one experience and we don't realize that there's other types of outcomes that can happen and we just hold on to those things.
Speaker A:Or sometimes our programming from our PAR or from our immediate environment kind of makes us feel like, oh, well, this is facts, because this is what it's shown to be true.
Speaker A:And sometimes in a whole different environment, somebody's having a whole different experience.
Speaker A:Sometimes our beliefs are super limiting and we think, oh, that's just being.
Speaker A:I'm just keeping it real.
Speaker A:That's what really can happen.
Speaker A:But sometimes that can keep us from actually being authentic to what we truly want.
Speaker A:Sometimes keeping it real can keep us real stuck.
Speaker A:And I'm just being honest.
Speaker A:Like, let's just think about it.
Speaker A:Like, what's draining you?
Speaker A:What do you need to let go?
Speaker A:And what do you know in terms of what thoughts you're having that could be actually supportive and not limiting to you in that moment?
Speaker A:Toxic positivity.
Speaker A:Let's talk about that, because I've never been a fan of that.
Speaker A:Yes, keeping it real can keep you stuck, but acting like everything is always super positive all the time, I think that can cause more harm than good because it doesn't allow you to face reality when it does happen, even if it.
Speaker A:It doesn't feel the best.
Speaker A:And that kind of reminds me of the spiritual bypass and I think keeps people in cycles to where they're unable to manage and cope with the realities of life when they're not the most positive because all they know is positive, positive, positive.
Speaker A:Don't acknowledge the negative.
Speaker A:That's low vibrational.
Speaker A:No, I mean life is ebbs and flows.
Speaker A:It just depends on how you view the experience of life.
Speaker A:Now what I don't think is toxic positivity is transmutation of quote, unquote negativity and finding ways to make that work to your betterment.
Speaker A:So the reason why I don't think that is because when you transmute negativity or things that are hard to process, that means that you can acknowledge that, yo, this is not what's up.
Speaker A:Like, this is, this is not cool.
Speaker A:So we can acknowledge that this is something that is not the most comfortable situation.
Speaker A:But at the end of the day it's like, okay, how can I make this fuel for me to find a solution and get past it?
Speaker A:So that's why I don't believe transmutation is negative and I don't believe that it's toxic positivity so anybody that can use transmutation as fuel for the car to get through, by all means, do your thing.
Speaker A:Mental spring cleaning is again, not about toxic positivity.
Speaker A:It's just about being honest, intentional with the solution.
Speaker A:And it also allows yourself to have some grace.
Speaker A:Like, look, I don't have to keep thinking like this just because I've always have.
Speaker A:That's the tricky thing about tradition.
Speaker A:Depending on the tradition, that can be conducive to the betterment of whoever is benefiting from that or the detriment.
Speaker A:So the next type of cleaning, spiritual and emotional spring cleaning, it is time to clear your heart space.
Speaker A:Boo friend.
Speaker A:Now, it's easy to do the physical, it's easy to do some of the mental.
Speaker A:But sometimes the hard work is a little harder.
Speaker A:Sometimes that emotional clutter shows up as overthinking, snapping on folks, you're emotionally exhausted or you're numbing yourself, whether you're self medicating or not.
Speaker A:And sometimes that's when you know you should be feeling something but you want to avoid it.
Speaker A:So I am kindly challenging you to challenge yourself, to determine what are you holding on emotionally.
Speaker A:That doesn't serve you anymore.
Speaker A:One thing I noticed about humans is that we hold grudges very well.
Speaker A:We forgive, kind of sorta, but forget it.
Speaker A:Absolutely not.
Speaker A:And I do believe there's a time and a place for those kind of things.
Speaker A:I think there's a difference between remembering the history of things and not letting forgiveness rewrite the history of the experience.
Speaker A:Because at that point we're lying.
Speaker A:Once we start rewriting stuff, we're just lying.
Speaker A:And that's not honest.
Speaker A:But sometimes we hold the grudge and don't realize it.
Speaker A:And the grudge is not even that person can't even feel the grudge.
Speaker A:But we can.
Speaker A:Or sometimes there's a conversation we need to have and we're scared to have it.
Speaker A:We're scared because we're not ready to have the conflict or the conversation or the conversation if it doesn't end up in that.
Speaker A:Or we are scared of the outcome of the conversation, or we are not ready to give or forgive to somebody because we're still stewing in the situation that has hurt us.
Speaker A:And I want to be very gentle with this topic because one thing I have not been a fan of is forced forgiveness.
Speaker A:And I understand in certain religious contexts it's been, and this is not even just Christianity, this is just in general.
Speaker A:Sometimes people will tell others, you just need to forgive quick.
Speaker A:But it's easy to say that when you are not in someone else's shoes.
Speaker A:Some of us can easily forgive because that's just how we're either wired or rewired based on that experience.
Speaker A:But I don't think it's fair to tell people that are not wired like us that they should be like people that are like that just because they were able to wire or rewire themselves to quickly forgive, to try to force forgiveness without really processing what you've been through.
Speaker A:I believe that does more harm than good.
Speaker A:Again, based on my experience all the way through, it's hard to move forward on something that you just kind of skip through.
Speaker A:It's like jumping from point A to point C and you're still holding on to point B.
Speaker A:It's like, okay, I see, I could probably do point B and I could probably process this, but nope, I'm going to go from point A, action that hurt to point C.
Speaker A:I'm over it.
Speaker A:But you know, you're not.
Speaker A:And at that time, yeah, you can give that other person, you know, the, the facade of forgiveness, but you know that that hurts you.
Speaker A:And I've seen it where folks have gone 5, 10, 15, 20, 40 years, even holding on to stuff that hurt them because they were taught that you should just get over it and, or you should just forgive quickly.
Speaker A:Not for them, but for you.
Speaker A:But it doesn't really serve you.
Speaker A: on to stuff that happened in: Speaker A:It's, it's stuff that we hold on to that we don't realize because we do so well as society as, as just kind of moving forward.
Speaker A:We just act like things don't exist until we see a trigger.
Speaker A:And all of a sudden we're upset.
Speaker A:And that lets us know, oh, I might not be over this like I thought, or you might have a conversation with somebody that reminds you that you're not over, or you might have a thought in your head, or you might have a dream or something that reminds you of the.
Speaker A:And after all of those quote unquote years of being quote unquote over it, you realize in that moment you're not really over it.
Speaker A:You just skip past it.
Speaker A:Point C.
Speaker A:And this is not where we judge it.
Speaker A:This is where we get honest about it.
Speaker A:Check in with your spirit.
Speaker A:You feeling heavy about something?
Speaker A:You feeling restricted?
Speaker A:You feeling tight?
Speaker A:You feel like you can't move around.
Speaker A:You feeling a little bit of bitterness, something made you feel away, that you're not over?
Speaker A:Or are you feeling a little bit more open, a little bit more peaceful, a little calmer, a little lighter?
Speaker A:So there's different ways you can address this, and it's going to depend on your belief system.
Speaker A:And here at Spiritual Homegirl, we welcome everybody.
Speaker A:Okay, the core message of everything I have done ever from the very beginning has always been love.
Speaker A:So I've never been a person that will try to steer you in either direction.
Speaker A:But it's very obvious where my foundation is lied, which has been Christian principles.
Speaker A:So I'm always going to speak from a place of love.
Speaker A:But I also have a lot of respect for a lot of other traditions outside of mine.
Speaker A:I mean, I've had different traditions on my podcast, people of different traditions and religions, and that's why I want to remain that way.
Speaker A:I want to remain very open to people who are just wanting to move in love.
Speaker A:Because at the end of the day, everybody that I've had from different religions, whether it has been ACRs, whether it's been Rastafarianism, whether it's been Islam, it's always been love.
Speaker A:So what you could do, if you want to, you know, take it to God, by all means, do your prayers, and then, you know, let's talk.
Speaker A:Talk about it to God.
Speaker A:If you want to write some things down, you know, and just keep it to yourself, or if you want to destroy it, whether you want to tear it up, whether you want to burn it submerged in water, whatever it is, as a release, by all means, do your thing.
Speaker A:Again, if you want to use psalms, meditation, breath work, prayer, whatever, anything that's.
Speaker A:That's a sacred text, whatever you feel works best for you, because I'm never going to tell you what you need to do in terms of that.
Speaker A:You will know what's better for you.
Speaker A:I'm just gonna hype you up to do it.
Speaker A:But you deserve to feel clear.
Speaker A:Boo, friend.
Speaker A:But you cannot clear your spirit if you refuse to face the weight that you know is sitting on it.
Speaker A:Okay, and then lastly, digital and social media spring cleaning.
Speaker A:Y' all know I love digital minimalism.
Speaker A:I love that book.
Speaker A:And that book came out about eight years ago, still relevant to this day.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:I think it was prophetic in a way where it dictated and.
Speaker A:And predicted properly, actually, the addiction that folks will have to social media and how it will negatively impact society.
Speaker A:Cal Newport knew what he was doing when he wrote that book.
Speaker A:And apparently he still knows what he's doing because his social media presence is very minimal unless it's to promote some of the things he's talking about, about deep work and or social media detoxing.
Speaker A:So some of us, and I say us, I'm never above what I say.
Speaker A:A lot of us are spiritually drained.
Speaker A:We don't realize it's because it's scrolling.
Speaker A:It's the scrolling too much that has us drained.
Speaker A:We are taking in so much.
Speaker A:And as I said earlier, it's a lot of information at one time, but consuming everybody's energy, everybody's opinion, everybody's bad days, trauma, hot takes all day.
Speaker A:That's energy exchange.
Speaker A:We're giving.
Speaker A:We're giving all the time.
Speaker A:There's a mental and spiritual diet that we might need to detox.
Speaker A:So we need to look at it.
Speaker A:Look at your timeline, whether it's Facebook, tick tock, Instagram, LinkedIn, even whatever social media app you're on.
Speaker A:Does your timeline reflect who you're becoming or who you want to be?
Speaker A:Because sometimes, just because it's reflecting who you becoming doesn't mean that's who you want to be.
Speaker A:Sometimes we think we're doing stuff towards where we want to be and we realize we need to course correct because we've fallen off.
Speaker A:So I'm going to adjust that.
Speaker A:Does your timeline reflect who you want to be?
Speaker A:Not perfect, because that's impossible, but healthier.
Speaker A:Do the accounts that you follow make you feel seen?
Speaker A:Do they make you feel heard?
Speaker A:Do they feel like this aligns?
Speaker A:Or do they make you feel anxious?
Speaker A:Or do they make you feel competitive or less than?
Speaker A:Do they talk down to you?
Speaker A:Do they disrespect you?
Speaker A:If it drains you, maybe you need to mute it.
Speaker A:If you're realizing that you can't look at this person's page without feeling insecure or feeling a certain way, that might not be them, that might be on you, but either way it goes, if you need to unfollow them, then by all means do that.
Speaker A:If you realize that the content you're consuming might be a little messier than how you're moving these days.
Speaker A:And that's not fun or cute to you.
Speaker A:No more.
Speaker A:Okay, that's fine.
Speaker A:Release it with love.
Speaker A:Unfollow or block.
Speaker A:A caveat to this lurking.
Speaker A:Now, this is for those who are on.
Speaker A:Well, honestly, it's not even just for public people like myself.
Speaker A:And when I say public, I mean spiritual Homegirl being public because Maria is very much Janet Jackson.
Speaker A:And even though we're still the same person.
Speaker A:It's just certain things that are sacred to me that I just am not going to share with the world now protect with my life.
Speaker A:So, you know, it's just certain things that I'm just never going to make for consumption because it ain't nobody business whether I was spiritual homegirl publicly or Maria at the house chilling privately without spiritual homegirl.
Speaker A:But sometimes you got to get rid of the lurkers, too.
Speaker A:Now, look, shout out to my lurker crew because some of y' all showing a lot of love, but sometimes.
Speaker A:I'm not saying anybody in particular or anything like that.
Speaker A:It's not about anybody in particular, but sometimes the lurkers can get weird, too.
Speaker A:And the lurkers don't always be private accounts.
Speaker A:The lurkers are the ones that you got a common friend with.
Speaker A:The lurkers are the ones who you might know that never talk to you and never really have nothing to say.
Speaker A:But all they do is just look, look, look.
Speaker A:And there's nothing wrong with that, right?
Speaker A:Unless there's something wrong with it.
Speaker A:But the only person that's going to know that there's something wrong with it is going to be you.
Speaker A:Now, me personally, you got a couple.
Speaker A:You probably got one and a half, two good times to be weird.
Speaker A:And then I'm gonna get rid of you.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because I don't have time to determine whether somebody is safe or not.
Speaker A:If it's not safe outright, and I can't say, yeah, that's safe.
Speaker A:That's a no for me.
Speaker A:Energetically, spiritually, that's enough for me.
Speaker A:If my spirit don't take it, I'm not even gonna play with it.
Speaker A:I'm very cool.
Speaker A:I'm very open.
Speaker A:I'm very.
Speaker A:I'm very.
Speaker A:Hey, how you doing?
Speaker A:Like, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm not coming into it like, oh, what's this person's motive?
Speaker A:No, I'm very much chill.
Speaker A:Everybody got a clean slate until everybody gotta go.
Speaker A:That's me.
Speaker A:You good.
Speaker A:So you not.
Speaker A:And if you're never good, it's not because I just came up with some random idea.
Speaker A:You probably did something that was very weird and I just couldn't reconcile it.
Speaker A:And I wasn't about to sit here and just keep doing the most, like.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:When it comes to online stuff.
Speaker A:No, I mean, I'll give a, you know, grace.
Speaker A:Grace is reserved for folks that.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:To me, online is too far for grace.
Speaker A:And what I mean by that is I'm not saying be me, but What I mean is that it's too distant of a connection sometimes to say, okay, I don't know.
Speaker A:This account that has a million letters in their name.
Speaker A:Account number 6, 375,000,000,000,xxxx, GfK xx I don't have, like, I don't know who that is.
Speaker A:Now, I've had folks try to imitate me the whole time I've been spiritual homegirl, whether they was bots or whether they was folks in different countries, whether they were people, don't mess it.
Speaker A:I thought they were just gonna call themselves spiritual homegirl.
Speaker A:So for me, based on my experience, I rather not play.
Speaker A:I mean, I feel like the grace is you doing your research before you decide to call yourself that or you understanding that.
Speaker A:If you want to impersonate me, that's the grace I give.
Speaker A:I give the grace of, you know what, if you still want to do this, by all means, that's your decision.
Speaker A:But I have to respond.
Speaker A:And when I say respond, I mean be messy.
Speaker A:I just mean protect, you know, protect what it is that I've built.
Speaker A:So that's the grace I give.
Speaker A:It's like, all right, well, I mean, that's what you want to do.
Speaker A:That's what you want to do, but I'm gonna do what I got to do.
Speaker A:So when it's people that you know, though, it's a little different.
Speaker A:Sometimes people go through things and they lurk and they don't have the capacity to have a conversation with you.
Speaker A:Or sometimes people actually look at your page for inspiration.
Speaker A:Or sometimes people look at your page and probably screenshot and report back to people that you don't fool with.
Speaker A:It really just depends.
Speaker A:People, like, for all kind of reasons, people will learn Sometimes for SWOT analysis, they want to see what they.
Speaker A:They somehow in competition with you.
Speaker A:They want to see if there's a way that they could pick out your weaknesses.
Speaker A:Which is crazy because never know unless you know them.
Speaker A:Like, people display all kind of stuff online, so that's not really accurate unless you're just doing like a media swat analysis.
Speaker A:But sometimes people just have all their different reasons.
Speaker A:You just never know.
Speaker A:But it's going to take your spirit of discernment to determine what type of lurker you going to let stay and what type of lurker you going to let go.
Speaker A:So it just depends.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:My whole girl's laughing right now.
Speaker A:Because a lot of times people.
Speaker A:People show love.
Speaker A:Some of the lurkers show love.
Speaker A:Like I did a post a couple years ago that said, shout out to the lurker crew.
Speaker A:Cause y' all active.
Speaker A:Y' all be liking all kind of stuff.
Speaker A:And then sometimes there's people that'll, you know, be all over the place, and you request them.
Speaker A:They know where to be found.
Speaker A:I'm like, what?
Speaker A:Okay, that's.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Well, that's fine.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:You all over here.
Speaker A:That's cool, I guess, child.
Speaker A:But, you know, it just depends on how you feel about those things and whether you want those people to be around your space.
Speaker A:Like, some of my favorite supporters, some of my most loudest supporters have been folks that I've connected to I've never met a day in my life.
Speaker A:And they're.
Speaker A:They're loud.
Speaker A:They're loud with their support.
Speaker A:They're just not allowed online, you know, and we talked.
Speaker A:Like, those are people that connect to.
Speaker A:So shout out to the boo friends that tap in my private accounts that be in the dms or.
Speaker A:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:Like, shout out to y' all, because y' all have been really, like, matter of fact, Destiny.
Speaker A:Destiny.
Speaker A:One of my faves.
Speaker A:My fave faves.
Speaker A:And she's always been very active with her support, and she know who she is.
Speaker A:Destiny, thank you so much for your support.
Speaker A:I'm not gonna call her a lurker because she actually taps in, but she's very much out the way, and I like those kind of folks because, to be honest, if I didn't have spiritual hunger, I'll be out the way too.
Speaker A:I get it.
Speaker A:But in terms of them lurkers that you questionable about, it's gonna go back to your emotional safety.
Speaker A:If it's not an automatic yes, you need to explore that and determine if it's truly a no and what you're gonna do about it.
Speaker A:Also, dms, you don't have to respond to every DM if you don't want to.
Speaker A:If you are a business person, you might want to, you know, figure out some automated ways to respond so you don't have your capacity.
Speaker A:Or maybe you hire somebody to handle your DMS or something of that nature.
Speaker A:Even if you're scrolling.
Speaker A:Why are you scrolling?
Speaker A:Are you bored?
Speaker A:Are you anxious?
Speaker A:Are you avoiding something?
Speaker A:Are you looking for something?
Speaker A:Because sometimes they're looking for stuff also cause you stress, especially if you find it.
Speaker A:And then maybe think about, like, what does it look like if I do something different during my scroll time?
Speaker A:Maybe, you know, when I'm at work trying to sneak.
Speaker A:If I'm gonna sneak and scroll, maybe I can sneak in.
Speaker A:Maybe I Can sneak and text somebody in my family that I haven't texted in forever.
Speaker A:Maybe I can catch up with them.
Speaker A:Or maybe I could go to the Calm app or Headspace and get a quick meditation in, or go to YouTube and listen to assignment or for healing frequency music or something.
Speaker A:Like, maybe I could do something a little different.
Speaker A:Maybe I could play a game, an online game that.
Speaker A:That can take up some of my time and then look at your feed.
Speaker A:Remember, this is your online space.
Speaker A:Even though we can't control people post, we can control what we choose to consume with whatever power we have.
Speaker A:Because sometimes they just put all kind of crazy stuff on your for you page or your following page and it's like, what?
Speaker A:I don't follow these people.
Speaker A:Like Instagram has like a for you thing.
Speaker A:And I think it's kind of weird because it's like some people, there's a lot of stuff that pops up that we would never engage with.
Speaker A:And it's like, why did you show me this?
Speaker A:I don't like anything that's remotely able to this.
Speaker A:And I think that that's somewhat of a problem, letting technology kind of do things that they shouldn't do, because it's almost trying to tell you what you want to see, even if you don't want to see it.
Speaker A:But if you engage with it, it'll just train the algorithm to keep showing you certain stuff.
Speaker A:So it's odd, but it's just about having more of an intention rather than scroll past it.
Speaker A:If you know you need to block it, just block it.
Speaker A:If you need to mute them or restrict them or unfriend them or take them off your friends list, do it.
Speaker A:That means kind of doing things that we've been avoiding.
Speaker A:Maybe taking five minutes, scrolling through your followers list, seeing if it works or not.
Speaker A:And for me, you know, sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker A:Take all that research.
Speaker A:It either works or it don't.
Speaker A:Like this either clicks or it doesn't.
Speaker A:I like this.
Speaker A:I like this.
Speaker A:That's a little messy, but it's not too bad.
Speaker A:Okay, all right.
Speaker A:Or eh, this is not it.
Speaker A:This don't fit.
Speaker A:This doesn't fit.
Speaker A:Remove, remove, remove.
Speaker A:Do what you got to do.
Speaker A:And just because someone's accessible on social media doesn't mean that they're entitled to access you too.
Speaker A:By all means, if you are a person that even overshared and now you want to keep your business under lock, by all means you have the right to do that.
Speaker A:Lock it up.
Speaker A:Let them talk.
Speaker A:People like people gonna talk regardless.
Speaker A:Too that's another thing too.
Speaker A:I don't want people to think things.
Speaker A:And I've had these conversations with folks that are scared to put the boundaries well.
Speaker A:I don't want them asking questions.
Speaker A:Who cares about them people questions?
Speaker A:A lot of times people talk because they don't want to talk about themselves.
Speaker A:Because if you want them to talk about themselves, it might be a little messier than what they're saying about you.
Speaker A:It's easier to talk about other people's lives when you got stuff in your own life.
Speaker A:You know, you got to deal with you and you ain't dealing with.
Speaker A:So don't worry about other people.
Speaker A:These are humans on the same playing field.
Speaker A:Nobody's less or above you.
Speaker A:Nobody is exempt from the ultimate ending, which is death.
Speaker A:Everybody got their own things to do before they meet the Maker.
Speaker A:Everybody has their own divine assignments they have to accomplish.
Speaker A:Everyone has their own lessons to learn.
Speaker A:So just remember, these are humans going through their own journey.
Speaker A:Just like you.
Speaker A:Ain't nobody set your boundaries.
Speaker A:There are nobody that you need to be worried about.
Speaker A:Set your boundaries.
Speaker A:Lock it up, okay?
Speaker A:And if you're a person that cares too much, you might want to figure out, why do I care more about these people's lives than my own?
Speaker A:Why am I so invested in their lives and not in my own healing and my own progress?
Speaker A:What is it about my life that I'm avoiding?
Speaker A:Because I know mine might be a mess right now.
Speaker A:Why am I so invested in their mess when I know I got my own mess?
Speaker A:Why am I worried about somebody else house not being in order when I know mine ain't?
Speaker A:How come I'm worried about somebody else's front porch not being clean?
Speaker A:I know I need about five brooms to clean mine up.
Speaker A:That's what we all need to be having the conversation about.
Speaker A:When it comes to being nosy and people business, we all have the right to set our boundaries.
Speaker A:We all have the right to clean up our messes.
Speaker A:We all have the right to mind the mess.
Speaker A:In terms of.
Speaker A:When I say mine that I don't mean get involved.
Speaker A:I mean leave it alone.
Speaker A:You can mind your mess, but just know that if you start minding other people messes a little too hard, somebody's gonna put that light on your house.
Speaker A:And if it's not in order, you might not like what goes out.
Speaker A:So I always tell people, when it comes to being messy in other people business, if you are okay with your whole T being sprayed, by all means, just when you know the consequence, do your thing.
Speaker A:As long as everybody knows the consequence of what they do.
Speaker A:I always say you grown.
Speaker A:But if you know you're not ready for that smoke, or you know that you're not that kind of person that will want your business out, minding somebody else's don't really seem like the most logical thing to do, right?
Speaker A:So again, remember, just create your.
Speaker A:Your fee with love, intention, and with boundaries.
Speaker A:And remember that your access is rolling.
Speaker A:It's very fluid.
Speaker A:You're always free to revoke that or grant it based on your level of safety, because that's most important.
Speaker A:So spring cleaning is not just about tidying up, y' all.
Speaker A:It's just about making space all across the board.
Speaker A:Whether it's for clarity, whether it's for peace, whether it's for joy, whether it's for alignment or for all of it.
Speaker A:We can't receive what's meant for us if our hands, our mind and our hearts and our spirits are full of old stuff or stuff that we know that isn't good for us.
Speaker A:So whether it's your house, your mental, your heart, or even your social media feed, start clearing, start releasing.
Speaker A:Choose what you want to carry.
Speaker A:Moving forward with intention.
Speaker A:Now, if this episode gave you some clarity or a little spiritual, a little spiritual hype you up to do what you need to do, please share with somebody you love.
Speaker A:To have a life that is reduced of clutter is a healthier life.
Speaker A:Screenshot it if you send it to them.
Speaker A:Screenshot.
Speaker A:Tag me on spiritual homegirl everywhere.
Speaker A:If you text into your homegirl, block her number out, okay?
Speaker A:Block her picture out.
Speaker A:Let me see.
Speaker A:I want to see.
Speaker A:I want to know.
Speaker A:If you out here sharing episodes, by all means, let me know.
Speaker A:But that's been today's episode and of course y' all know I can't do any podcast episode without thanking you all for listening.
Speaker A:So thank you for listening, Boo.
Speaker A: t there in podcast land since: Speaker A:And I really appreciate that all over the world.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker A:Matter of fact, I probably need to get back to doing my gratitude shadow episodes because I have been gone for so long and I really would like to know who's been tapping in listening because.
Speaker A:Because I want to know.
Speaker A:Matter of fact, let me be nosy real quick.
Speaker A:I know we almost at 40 minutes and I do not want to.
Speaker A:I don't want to overload y' all, cuz I haven't done a long episode like this in forever.
Speaker A:But let me see, let me see.
Speaker A:Matter of fact, let's go.
Speaker A:But I haven't done an episode in a minute, so let me.
Speaker A:Let me do the last 90 days.
Speaker A:I'm just curious to know who been tapping in.
Speaker A:Okay, okay.
Speaker A:You know what's so cold is usually.
Speaker A:It's usually the UK and Germany that come in after the United States, because United States usually holds it down for the most listening country.
Speaker A:And there was a couple of instances where that was not the case, and I was shocked.
Speaker A:But it looks like the US and the UK And Germany, with Australia being a close fourth, we're holding it down.
Speaker A:Looks like we have some Caribbean folks in the mix.
Speaker A:We had tnt, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.
Speaker A:S.
Speaker A:Virgin Islands.
Speaker A:Shout out to my family out there.
Speaker A:Literal family.
Speaker A:So let's see.
Speaker A:I don't even know if they were listening.
Speaker A:Somebody in the VR.
Speaker A:Shout out to the VR, you know, but let me see.
Speaker A:Japan tapped in too.
Speaker A:Shout out to my people in Japan.
Speaker A:It was a lot.
Speaker A:The Netherlands, Cayman Islands, Ireland, Switzerland, Singapore, the Dr.
Speaker A:France, the ivory Coast.
Speaker A:I haven't seen the Ivory coast in a long time.
Speaker A:So they must have been tapping back in Jamaica, New Zealand, Belgium, Cambodia, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Uganda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Romania, Philippines, and Nigeria.
Speaker A:Wow, that's a lot of countries in the last 90 days.
Speaker A:Shout out to y' all.
Speaker A:Shout out to y' all.
Speaker A:All right, y' all.
Speaker A:So I don't want to hold y' all for too much longer, but don't forget, I got my birthday wisdom episode coming up.
Speaker A:I did seven lessons that I have either reaffirmed or affirmed through, you know, my experience or whether it was firsthand or third hand on the journey.
Speaker A:And then we also have to do the history of the little red birthday dress before this year's 13th annual reveal, whenever I catch up from everything else.
Speaker A:So sorry, y' all, but this has been another episode of the spiritual homegirl podcast.
Speaker A:My name is Maria, your spiritual homegirl.
Speaker A:And remember, boo, friends, trust the journey.
Speaker A:Trust yourself, and whatever you do, do it with love, decluttering included.
Speaker A:Okay, Love, y' all.
Speaker A:Peace.
