Cleanse Your Life: A Guide to Living Cleaner

Written By: Emily Spring

What do you think of when you think of clean living? Maybe you think of juice cleanses, complicated low-calorie diets, or trips to an oxygen bar. But thankfully, clean living is a lot easier and more accessible than that.

Clean living is about getting back to basics for your mind, body and home. That means a nourishing diet, replenishing mental health practices and cultivating a living space that makes you feel, well, at home. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? 

From cleansing your mind to cleansing your living space, this guide will jumpstart your journey to living clean.

Cleanse Your Mind

Your mind is the keystone to your overall health—it’s the epicenter of every decision you make in your life. But the stress of day-to-day life, distracting thoughts, and anxious feelings might make your mind feel stagnant and cramped. A few clean living choices can clear your mind, aid in cognitive function, improve your mood and help you make better decisions for a full and healthy life.

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is essential for improving your mental health. But what is mindfulness? It’s the process of focusing on what’s happening in the present moment. That means putting aside worries about the future, or feelings about your past, and instead, settling into what’s happening to your mind and body now. Mindfulness allows you to focus, balance your moods and improve your perception of yourself and the world around you. 

There are many ways to practice mindfulness. Try one or two of these mindfulness activities:

• Yoga – Yoga requires full body awareness and mental focus. Adding yoga to your weekly  routine can provide a replenishing mind-body clarity. 
• Meditation – The goal of meditation is to empty your mind to achieve a clear mental state and a deep sense of calm. The results? Multiple studies show that regular meditation can decrease stress, improve emotional health and increase a sense of mindfulness. 
• Go for a Walk – Just taking a walk around your neighborhood can be as beneficial as a meditation session. Focus on the steps you take, the birds in the trees and how you fit into the world around you. Keep your thoughts on the present moment so that  your evening strolls can be a wonderful addition to your clean living practices.

Limit Technology

Technology has become an essential tool for our lives and work. But too much technology exposure can lead to depression, feelings of isolation and anxious thoughts. Cleanse your life of excess tech to improve your self-esteem, clear your mind of distractions and focus on the things that matter most in your life.

Need a place to start? Check out these strategies:

• Tech-Free Meals  – Turn off your phone during meals. You’ll be able to enjoy your food more and give your mind a break from texts, emails and other digital distractions.
• Get Off the Screen and Get Out  – Instead of spending an hour watching TV or scrolling on your phone, consider getting active. Clear your mind with a walk rather than escaping to your phone or a TV show.
• Find A Creative Outlet  – At the end of a long day, you might find yourself zoning out on the couch, watching TV and scrolling through social media feeds. Instead, spend that time working on a creative project like writing, baking, painting, or practicing a musical instrument. Creativity does amazing things for cognitive function and can help your mind relax more effectively than an endless Instagram feeds.

Sleep

Think about the state of your mind after a good night’s sleep. Do you feel more refreshed? Do you have a more positive outlook on life? That’s because a good night’s sleep is like a nightly mental cleanse. As you sleep, the processes of the brain reset and replenish for the coming day. Start your daily clean living routine with healthy sleep practices.

Do you have a hard time dozing off? Here are a few ways to improve your rest and increase the quality of your z’s:

• Stick to a Bedtime Schedule  – Establish a strict sleep and wake-up schedule for yourself. You may have a hard time falling asleep at first, but by sticking to your sleep schedule, eventually you’ll find it easier to drift off.
• Relax – Before you go to bed, take the time to relax your mind and body. Create a routine that promotes a sense of calm. This could include before-bed stretches, reading a book or enjoying a cup of herbal tea.
  
• Turn Off the Tech – The blue light glow of a screen tells the light-receptors in your brain to stay awake. Set aside your phone, television or computer an hour before bed. Your mind will naturally ready itself for rest.

Clean Living Tip: When it comes to mental wellness, CBD oil can be a valuable tool to help achieve mindfulness. A couple of the ways in which CBD can be helpful is if you’re easily distracted by the buzz of thoughts during your meditation or if you toss and turn in bed when you should be sleeping. 

Cleanse Your Body

You know the old adage: your body is a temple. But it’s also the physical home for your thoughts and feelings, how you experience the physical joys of the world and your life’s living history. No wonder the body is considered a holy space. And the better you maintain and care for that space with clean living, the more sacred it will feel to you. 

Try these clean living practices to honor your body:

Choose Chemical-Free Skin and Body Care Products

Have you ever read the back of a shampoo bottle? Or the label on your nightly face cream? Chances are, you probably won’t be able to pronounce most of the ingredients in your skin and hair care products. But several chemicals common in those products have been linked to serious long-term health issues. When you can, choose products with natural ingredients you recognize. When you can, avoid the following chemicals in your products:

• Formaldehyde
• Coal tar or coal-tar pitch
• Parabens
• Phthalates
• Sulfates
• Oxybenzone
• BPA

Eat Clean

Clean eating is about getting the most nutritional value out of the food you eat every day. By fueling your body with nutrient-rich foods, you can improve your mood, energy levels, mental well-being and physical health. But what does clean eating look like? Here’s a quick guide to getting the most out of your meals: 

• Less Refined and Processed Foods – A good rule of thumb is that the more processed a food, the more nutrients and vitamins it lost along the way. For example, super processed chicken nuggets have far fewer nutrients (and more fats and salts) than a fresh chicken breast. By eating a diet of minimally processed foods, you’ll be maximizing the health benefits in each bite.
• More Fruits and Vegetables – Meals of colorful fruits and veggies have been linked to increased gut and skin health as well as decreased risks for cancer, obesity, diabetes and autoimmune diseases.
  
• Limit Sugar – Enjoy your sugary treats in moderation, and you can pave the way for a sweeter future. Limiting your sugar intake can decrease your risk of heart disease, diabetes and other health issues.
• More Water – All of your organ systems rely on water to function. So the more water you drink during the day, the better your body’s systems will run, and the better you’ll feel. 

• Go Organic – The Dirty Dozen refers to a list of 12 crops that typically have the most pesticides. By buying food grown or cultivated organically, you can dramatically decrease your absorption of these plant pesticides, additives and hormones. The extra cost for organic foods is worth the health benefit.

Make Time for Exercise 

Clean living for your body isn’t just about what you put into it. It’s also about what you do with it. Exercise can increase feelings of happiness, improve bone and muscle strength,and even help you sleep better. Create a regular exercise routine to get your heart pumping and celebrate the extraordinary things your body can do.

Cleanse Your Space

A study conducted in 2010 showed that people who described their homes as “cluttered” were more likely to be tired and depressed than individuals who called their living spaces “restful” and “restorative.” The study also found that individuals with messier homes experienced higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. 

What does all that mean? A clean home can help calm your mind. By investing time in creating a clean living space, you can live a clean life inside and out. 

Declutter Your Space, Declutter the Mind

When you walk into your home, how do you feel? Do you feel overwhelmed by all there is to do? Or do you experience a distinct sense of relaxation? It depends on how much time you’ve spent cultivating a clean living space. Read on to learn how to give your living space a replenishing cleanse. 

• Eliminate Clutter the Marie Kondo Way – Author of the best-selling The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo is practically an Olympian when it comes to decluttering. She suggests going through your home and only keeping the non-essential items that inspire a deep sense of happiness. Or, in her words, “spark joy.” You’ll wind up with a cleaner living space filled with love and joy.
  
• Take Time Every Day to Tidy Up – Have you ever had one of the busiest weeks of your life and couldn’t wait to finally relax at home, but by Friday night, your home is a chaotic mess from the week? Take a few minutes every day to care for your space. Even if it’s just fifteen minutes of putting away clean dishes and wiping down kitchen counters, a little effort will go a long way.
• Get Inspiration from Professional Organizers – Fill your social media feed with organizer aficionados. You’ll learn some tips, get inspired, and feel a deep sense of satisfaction from the pictures of their perfectly-organized closets. 

Clean Living Tip: If you’re a busy professional or have a full-time family, you may not have a lot of time to tidy. Instead, focus on one space that you always keep clean and clutter-free. Maybe that’s your desk. Maybe that’s your kitchen table. It might even be the area around your favorite reading chair. By keeping one area clean, you’ll be guaranteed an oasis of calm in a world of distraction. 

Clean Living for a Better Life

Whether you choose to build a clean living space or start a mental cleanse, clean living can affect all aspects of your life. Mind, body and living space all affect each other, so a positive change in one means an improvement for all. Whatever clean living path you decide to take, your destination will be a healthier and happier life. 

Plant People for Your Daily Clean Living Needs

Clean living is a choice you make for better mental and physical health. But maintaining your mind and body wellness can be difficult when dealing with life’s daily chaos. That’s why Plant People developed CBD Oil Mind + Body Drops. Made with 100% organic hemp extract and coconut oil, these drops can alleviate daily stress and help you focus on your clean living goals. 

Written by Emily Spring 

Emily Spring is the Director of Marketing at Plant People. A longtime proponent of balanced living, she has enjoyed over 8 years driving growth in the lifestyle, health and wellness sectors with deep experience in functional solutions for optimizing anyone's everyday life.

Reviewed by Gabe Kennedy

 Co-Founder of Plant People, Gabe Kennedy is an acclaimed chef and entrepreneur. Growing up in a house of healers and herbalists, he is passionate about the power of food as a tool for health, and actualized this passion and belief system into his company, Plant People. Named to Forbes 30 under 30 Gabe has shaped menus and cooked his way around the world with his mission to promote a more communal, green and healthy world.

 Gabe is a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. You can learn more about his work at his website.