33 Rituals for Spring Cleaning Your Subconscious Mind
Kaleido bounding towards me on our beach walk.
Collectively and personally, the last few years have felt challenging. I know I have picked up an assortment of survival beliefs that have sneakily encoded themselves into my subconscious mind’s programming. So I am taking time this spring to gently clean out my subconscious mind of what no longer serves to protect me and actually may now limit me. Any kind of spring cleaning used to spiral me into an intense period of cleansing and frankly, isolation. I would read all about ways to release the malaise of the winter months. It was all very restrictive and rules-oriented. Through the last decade, as I have worked on my self-abandonment, I have realized I do love seasonal rituals, and as we therapists love to say it’s “both…and”, not “either…or” - I can have seasonal cleansing and it can be gentle. I can implement rituals without being self-restrictive. It can be challenging for me, though, because I am so kinesthetically oriented; I feel like I have to be at maximum intensity to release the most energetically and emotionally. I now find ways to integrate bodywork in gentle ways that are not about restriction, but reconnection. I am also choosing to add in instead of cut out … you know, the crowd out method. I am now using this period to connect with friends over tea and nourishing snacks and to prepare me for the more outward energy of summer, where I will spend more time outside swimming and walking. Below are some rituals I am implementing for spring - I will not be using all of them daily, but I usually stack them together when I do. I will come back to most of these to ground myself in this season, as I have a feeling it is going to fly by into summer with sessions booking out and group classes launching. I hope you feel held by some of these rituals given your access, ability, and intuition.
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33 Rituals I am Stacking for Spring Cleaning My Subconscious Mind:
Conditioning desired behaviors
The famous behaviorist Pavlov (remember the dog with the bell?) writes in his book, Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex, that the process of conditioning is a process of stimulus substitution. A previously neutral stimulus acquires the power to elicit a response which was originally elicited by another stimulus. The change occurs when the neutral stimulus is followed or “reinforced” by the effective stimulus. Pavlov’s insights relate to our lifestyle because all day long, we do things on autopilot which means that our environment triggers our routine behaviors. We can use this to reach our desired outcomes by integrating new systems of organization into our day-to-day lives. Pavlov’s research demonstrates that we can change our behavior through conditioning, and by setting up our environments with systems we can elicit the desired response. Essentially, our brain can be trained to associate daily routines with new and healthy habits with organizational assistance. How is this implemented? Well, we just pair the desired behavior with things we do regularly. Which stimuli and responses does we unconsciously associate with each other? How can we use the principles of classical conditioning to transform our lifestyle through utilizing systems?
Creating space with spinal decompression & spinal hygiene
I do this in a few simple ways, by using an inversion board, playing on my lyra, or laying on my back on a hard floor. For a better stretch, I like laying on my back, bending my knees, placing my feet 1-2 fists away from my bottom, and using my hands at the top of my thighs to press my lower body away from my upper body. I like to signal space and decompression to my subconscious by practicing spinal hygiene paired with the theta wave state.
Going on spring walks
I create somatic embodiment hypnoses that draw upon subconscious work, somatic experiencing, and EMDR for myself and clients to pair with walks for whole brain synchronization. Walks are amazing for your subconscious and your brain’s processing in general because of the bilateral movement. This kind of movement engages both hemispheres of the brain and improves their ability to work together. My partner was homeschooled and in their homeschool room, they had a brachiation ladder to help promote brain development and function. When babies and toddlers crawl, they are getting the same benefit, but it is even more critical for their early development. Personally, I am working towards engaging more of my right brain for spring and summer, activating my creativity and intuition. Movement like walking engages both hemispheres of the brain.
Heating up rice socks or using red light therapy
My fellow North Noder, Jamie Ni from Sonorous, was just talking on her IG stories about how it is still wind season, so I am trying to cover my neck with turtlenecks and scarves when I remember. I am also gently thawing myself out of winter by heating up rice socks and placing them on my lower back, belly, hips or knees as I relax or work. I also love using red light therapy and pairing this with hypnotic time/age regressions to subconsciously reconnect with the version of myself I was before I left the womb like Meeting Yourself Pre-Being Earthbound Hypnosis.
Hanging crystal prisms everywhere
I overdo this with probably 33 crystal prisms around the home to catch the sunlight and create rainbows everywhere for some energy shifting. I also have a stash of rainbow effect window film roll in case there are not quite already enough rainbows in my life. If you process visually and your subconscious language is visual, we can utilize the color therapy of seeing more ROYGBIV to activate our communication with our subconscious mind.
Decreasing digital distractions
Michelle Pellizzon HWIC at Holisticism and my North Node teacher talks about deep work a lot, so I am re-ordering Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World & Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World through my local library. I am also silencing notifications from certain text threads, muting, and unfollowing people. The next layer for me is spring cleaning my phone and computer. It may sound like I am drowning myself out all day with hypnotic beats, and while that is not untrue, I actually prioritize silence. (Also, there is some silence implemented into hypnosis recordings where we are allowing space so we can pull up answers from our subconscious). While working on productions, I have no desire to listen to podcasts or self-help books because I am essentially listening to and consulting on self-help bites remotely or on set all day. I guess it is similar to when I am seeing a lot of clients as a therapist, and I do not seek out listening to narrative stories in my down-time. Part of decreasing digital distractions for me is about allowing for more silence, so I can slow the constant downloading into my subconscious and I can have more spaciousness.
Prioritizing dental care
Our health and feeling of well being in our mouths can subconsciously signal to the rest of the body. I am prioritizing tongue scraping, flossing, using my water pic, and brushing with an electric toothbrush (sad to give up my charcoal and bamboo toothbrushes, but my dental hygienist said the bristles were too soft). I also use glass straws for coffee, tea, and juice. I am starting Nadine Artemis’ book, Holistic Dental Care: The Complete Guide to Healthy Teeth and Gums, and have prioritizing a dental cleaning. I find that when I have a toothache, I chew only on one side and do not process emotionally as well. We want to be able to engage both sides of the body to engage both hemispheres of our brain for whole brain synchronization and processing. I also love to signal wellness to my body by listening to Theta Waves & Hypnosis for Inner Wellness.
Activating my olfactory neuroprocessing system
My neuroprocessing type and how I communicate with my subconscious is predominantly olfactory and kinesthetic (if you want to know yours, I determine it in our first session). So because mine is mainly olfactory, I constantly have a witchy herbal brew stewing, fragrances wafting through the home. My partner always has to ask before we leave for our daily walk, “Did you turn off the flame on your cauldron?” You can use it to clear your home and activate your neuroprocessing through the olfactory system. My base is usually some form of herbs from the garden, which right now is my hearty rosemary that carried through the winter, lemon and orange rinds from my morning green juice from Misfits Market, and then maybe cinnamon or cloves if it feels like the right timing for that smell.
Integrating casual soothing tea memory “ceremonies”
I am gently thawing out of winter into spring for my nervous system. I used to be really into shocking my nervous system like all the biohackers who love The Wim Hof Method and cold water therapy, but because being anxious is a precursor to being down for my nervous system, I am playing with being more gentle with my nervous system. I am currently drinking Chaga tea from morning until bed… literally splitting nearly a gallon each day with my partner, which is probably way too much, but do not tell me because I do not want to know. I got mine from Woodsong Mushrooms, which sources from a small farm in Pennsylvania. I grew up swinging on vines in the woods, making forts, following Darby creek as far as we could, and jumping in the water even in the winter. Now that I no longer live in Pennsylvania, I sometimes find myself reminiscing about exploring and getting lost in the forest, especially in spring, so I nourish myself with forest healing tea and listen to Forest Medicine and theta wave tracks throughout the day.
Learning from Astrogeography
Do you ever go back to your childhood home and begin to behave in ways you did as a child? Or your voice changes or gets a little higher pitched or cracks? Or stuff you most definitely thought you got over resurfaces and activates you in ways that you have not even seen in awhile? Age regression is real, well at least it is in the subconscious, which controls 95% of our behavior. And as they say in recovery programs, “People, places, and things.” Our subconscious mind needs to be shown that things can be different - things can be fun, easy, good! Remember: we are evidence collectors scouring the area to support our catastrophic thinking. I took a North Node class on Astrogeography last week to see what planetary lines I am in the radius of and are influencing me. Woah, it was spot on. I have been referring clients to the teacher and I am now entranced with pulling up my Astrogeography chart and doing Opening Subconscious Portals Hypnosis at the same time to be led by what is stored in my subconscious over my conscious mind for what energies I am working with in certain locations in the world.
Sitting on the floor as much as possible & thawing out of freeze state
We often think of the main stress responses for our sympathetic nervous system as flight or fight, but the often forgotten physiological response is freeze. Sitting on the floor encourages movement into different sitting positions and more movement in general. I have to sit on the floor as much as I can, otherwise my lower back and hip hurt, so I sit on the floor throughout the day with my homemade dopamine latte (you know, my executive functioning boost) at my ancestor altar, doing computer work, if I can in sessions, writing in my BuJo, pulling oracle cards, or sometimes even into chill time. I remember hearing a fellow yoga student while I training for my RYT-200 with Yoga with Spirit say that she sleeps on the floor with her partner and I was fascinated but never followed up. I often think about this when I look into furniture-less lifestyles for inspiration. My therapist often reminds me that we are still animals, and animals often play dead or freeze in reaction to threat. I love listening to Hypnosis to Thaw out of Freeze State.
Utilizing my neurostimulation device
I got one of the Fisher Wallace devices and then several more for my loved ones. I would say my family members use theirs even more than I use mine. But, my favorite thing to do with it is pair it with subconscious reprogramming hypnoses. Whenever people come over, they love to try it out, and their reviews are as diverse as they are positive. (Do not use neurostimulation devices if you are pregnant. Please check with your doctor to try any of these rituals).
Placing offerings at my Ancestor Altar
I miss my maternal grandmother a lot, especially in the spring. I was extremely blessed to have her as my primary care taker during my foundational years because she shaped me so dearly. To honor her and connect with her, I have made an ancestor altar. To help connect with your ancestors, you can start with some objects that represent the elements: earth, water, fire, and air. I know she would love this, since she had her own superstitions: she always made sure we had vats of salt in the house because “out of salt, out of money”, she would not go out a door she didn’t come through, and “Alexandra, do not stir with a knife, for it stirs up strife.” She was beyond kind, incredibly magical, and absolutely generous despite all of her hardship, which always reminds me of the human capacity for love. I have many items on my ancestor altar for her, but unlike my other ancestors, I do not have a photograph of her. Although she was strikingly beautiful, she detested being photographed, and I believe we must respect the wishes of those who have passed over to the other side. My therapist and I talk a lot about intergenerational trauma. I also talk a lot about it as therapist and as a hypnotherapist and executive coach for Alljoys, because we carry the lineage narratives and experiences in our subconscious and somatic bodies. I often pair my time at my ancestor altar with Ancestor Meeting Hypnosis. (If you have a loved one who recently passed, let them rest and do not use this hypnosis or call them to your altar).
Learning to use a facial reflexology tool
I love following the tutorials from Danna Omari at Noy Skincare on IG, and we love to pair the somatic with the subconscious at Alljoys. I am highly suggestible which means my subconscious is pretty impressionable. If you are interested in learning your suggestibility levels, I do suggestibility tests in sessions with clients. As a suggestible person, hypnosis works very quickly on me, but it also means that whatever I expose my subconscious to can slip through easily and lock in as programming. So I am taking a deep look at what my eyes are scrolling past and what teachers I expose myself to. Even if it is positive lesson, if I am not utilizing that lesson, I will often have the subconscious belief, “Well, I am not succeeding at this because I am not following my Human Design, or aligned with Astrology, or I have not increased my energetic minimum for that, etc.” So I am looking at what is programming me and planting unintended limited beliefs. This started out years ago for me when I was really into nutrition and would read things and then have a lot of limiting beliefs like “I am breaking out because I ate X.” I love listening to Already Healed Hypnosis for times where I feel I am not doing things “correctly” to be “healed” or “aligned” or “magnetic.”
Caring for what I wear or what I visually see all day as an extension of myself
I listen to subconscious reprogramming around letting go and up-leveling while doing skincare routines or doing laundry with care. As we care for what we dress ourselves with, we cleanse and create space for who we are stepping into being. Similarly, even if I am not seeing people, I love to adorn my hands with jewelry that is imbued with subconscious messages of worthiness and protection. Some people may like to get manicures. We see our hands all day long as we work and go about our days. Our hands are energetic magnetics — we can plant the subconscious seeds of deservingness and expand that outward with how we treat our hands. I love to couple this with Hypnosis for Self-Worth.
Building community
We are social beings wired for connection. Being in community and reading other’s facial expressions is really nourishing. I am prioritizing friendship and platonic love this season with a whole lot of fun and laughter. Being silly and laughing with friends is the best.
Adding foods that feel spring-y & aligned with ancestry
I am definitely moving into eating more foods that feel spring-y, including artichokes, green soups paired with sourdough, tartines (I miss Le Pain Quotidien) with herbs & cheese, maitake & oyster mushrooms, homemade herb dips with chives and scallions, green tea, matcha, and egg salad all made with ingredients from my Misfits Market orders. This helps move my subconscious mind into the new season with ease and delight. I am also working to incorporate more foods from my ancestry to pull more up from my subconscious and lineage with my senses while listening to Reconnect Hypnosis.
Donating time, money, or blood
When you donate, you move your subconscious out of scarcity and into abundance. When I am healthy, I donate blood. I am donating money to Black folx - it is violent erasure that Black people have still not received reparations from the state.
Getting outside as much as possible
I get outside as much as possible for fresh air and sunlight to oxygenate my brain and move out of SAD season. This will probably look like stepping out in the morning and evening to get more of the violet and orange tones, which are scarce these days with all the blue light from devices. I also walk my dog throughout the day with one longer nature walk, and I will start doing my movement outside as well once the weather gets warmer. I have asthma and because indoor air quality can be a lot worse with furniture off-gassing and mold living in dust, I try to get outside as much as I can. Obviously if you have outdoor allergies, this could be entirely the opposite for your experience. But when my asthma kicks in and I am having trouble breathing from chronic inflammatory response from mold illness, I can start feeling panicky which pulls up deep-rooted fears from my subconscious. So fresh air and healthy spaces prevents this spiral for me.
Cleaning & clearing physical space
Similarly, I also try to open up the windows, clean surfaces as much as possible, and prevent clutter that collects dust to keep indoor air quality good. You can also often find me waving my selenite wand around between sessions to clear my energy field. Kaitlyn from Spirit Garden Tarot says there is enough fire in the world so I am trying to limit cleansing that involves burning or smudging. But like many, the more writing I have to do, the cleaner my space becomes. I would go on literal cleaning frenzies during exams in grad school. I have to clear the space before I feel I can focus- actually before I sat down to write this, I had to clean juust one more thing. I am cleaning, clearing, and cleansing this spring, from my living spaces to my crystals while listening to Hypnosis for Clearing Out.
Dry body brushing
I usually like to do this in the morning to move lymph or before I shower, while listening to theta brain wave tracks like Hypnosis for Activation or Subconscious Blocks Hypnosis to pair the subconscious and somatic work for whole brain synchronization.
Observing bird medicine
I have always loved animal totems and you can always find me researching “What is the spirit meaning of…?” after I run into most animals, like seals, dolphins, foxes, bobcats, turtles, and birds etc. I also love animal spirit meanings because when spirituality can feel coopted by dogmatic and alienating forces, no one can come in between my subconscious spiritual relationship with the natural world’s messages, which I love to reinvigorate with Hypnosis for Mystical Experiences.
Moving through anger
I saw on IG from Dr. Lily Choi, who I discovered through Jamie Ni, that in TCM, spring’s emotion is anger and that anger harms the liver. I move through anger by talking things out with my therapist, sharing with my loved ones what is living in me, listening to subconscious reprogramming exercises like Hypnosis for Healing Self-Abandonment to process and free myself. As my mom always says, holding onto anger is like drinking poison yourself and waiting for the other person to die.
Learning from candle magic
I took another North Node class, Candle Magic with Spirit Garden Tarot, a few months ago and it was enthralling. My cousin and mentor who is an MSW from Columbia recommended that I get the book Enchantments: A Modern Witch's Guide to Self-Possession by Mya Spalter and I devoured it. I love learning from candle magic while doing Candle Magic Hypnosis.
Rebounding, playing a childhood sport, practicing Hypnoyoga©, dancing, somatic embodiment, or foam rolling
For the time being, I am not taking any exercise classes because I can really tap out of my intuition / dissociate in a dangerous way. Because of my hyper-mobility in my joints, I am often praised for my ability to “go deep” but I am only exposing myself to injury, not strengthening. This winter, I began playing tennis again and it really reconnected me with so much of my inner child joy in my subconscious. A decade ago, I formulated and started teaching Hypnoyoga© after I had completed my RYT-200 Ashtanga yoga certification and NGH hypnosis certification. I really enjoy pairing subconscious reprogramming with physical flows because it takes me on a journey without distracting myself out of my body to the point where I am prone to injury or not getting the benefits of movement that I am seeking. I also love pairing Inner Child Hypnosis with stretching, gentle movement, using a yoga wheel.
Selling a huuge portion of my belongings
I often feel that our items hold energy and tether us to a different time in our life energetically, and while I used to love a good psychic chord cutting, I find that letting items go and moving stuff around helps shift things in my subconscious and opens my field up to new possibilities. My partner calls me “hypersensory” and while that is not really a term - I certainly feel I have hypersensitivity to sensory stimulation. I love a clean, cleared space where I am not distracted by the energy that each item holds. One way I am doing this is I am selling a huge portion of my clothing or hand-me-downs on my Poshmark closet. Honestly, if I could wear the uniform I was required to wear from Flynn & O’hara Uniforms until I departed to public school in 4th grade - I would be thrilled. I hate choosing clothing and I just want it to be simple and functional for all my daily activities. My dream would be to really have a capsule wardrobe, but I do not know if I can get there on my own just yet. If you have a recommendation for someone to work with to design a capsule wardrobe for sessions, walks, and mat flows that is androgynous, neutral, and made with natural fibers, all while not making me look like I am part of a cult, please let me know. I was big on donating clothing until I learned about how sadly our thrift stores are overburdened and often have to ship clothing to developing nations where then our brands overwhelm and overrun sources of cultural or indigenous clothing, which is no longer worn or they end up in the landfill. I may even have a yard sale or a friend clothing swap so I can hope my clothing is getting a second home, not filling a landfill. But selling clothing rather than donating takes up a decent amount time, so I do it while listening to Subconscious Reprogramming for Clearing Out. I will probably end up donating some stuff though so go shop second-hand and let your subconscious mind help you time travel.
Organizing my finances
Women were only given the right to have a bank account in the 1960s. And most banks and financial institutions barred women from applying for credit and loans until The Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974. So us folx who identify as women have a lot of de-conditioning to do around feeling able, allowed, and confident in our ability to manage our finances. I enjoy Ramit Sethi’s book, I Will Teach You to Be Rich, for asset allocation and for general self-empowerment so I never have to fall prey to the scammy fees and Ponzi schemes of my family’s financial advisors. I tried You Need a Budget and it just did not work for my brain… I need flexibility/options in systems or else I ditch them entirely (I am a classic Manifesting Generator in Human Design in that way). You can find me using Excel or in my BuJo while listening to Subconscious Reprogramming for Wealth Management.
Loving my liver
I have not had any inclination to drink alcohol recently, so I am sort of following that for the time being without any strict rules around it. I think the sober curious movement is very cool, and I love having different fun non-alcoholic drinks offered. However, being sober curious about a decade ago was really rooted in control for me so I do not put myself in a box with these lifestyle choices anymore. I may even implement castor oil packs again, even though they can feel like such a messy hassle, or just listen to Processing Hypnosis & Hypnosis for Well-being. I am also taking a break from all supplements and capsule herbs. After working on the medical team in a hemodialysis clinic, I became extremely wary of kidney damage. I also have family history of kidney disease relating to renal failure and low glomerular filtration rate, so I am not messing around with supplements that do not require safety or quality testing anymore. In The Regulatory Review: A Publication of the Penn Program on Regulation, Wang et al. (2021) write in their article Is Your Dietary Supplement Safe?, “Dietary supplements have less stringent safety requirements than prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Companies can send their products to market without conducting any safety or quality testing—such as clinical trials to prove their products’ alleged health benefits. Current FDA regulations only require ‘reasonable assurance’ that dietary supplements do not pose ‘a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury’ when the product is used as directed, or with regular use if the label does not include directions.” I am cutting out supplements for the time being to communicate to my subconscious that I am not deficient and I am already healed.
Taking baths
Whenever I feel blocked or stuck, baths are quite the medicine, especially if I pair them with some candle magic and hypnosis. I ordered the book Harmonic Healing by Dr. Linda Lancaster from my local library which has some therapeutic bath recipes which I’ll pair with journeying with Explore Your Subconscious Hypnosis.
Snuggling or massage swaps
This stacks oxytocin, parasympathetic nervous system state, somatic work, and subconscious work like Hypnosis for Love to deepen the ability of creating new neural pathways.
Tapping + self-hypnosis
This is probably my number one stack. I literally used it for all 6 years of graduate school before presenting and for all auditions in the morning.
Prioritizing friendship & working with my attachment style
I so often have prioritized healing how I show up in romantic relationships, but only just scratch the surface of my attachment style and how it plays out in how I show up in platonic friendship relationships. And it plays out. I talk through it with my therapist; however, I now need to move into implementation and practice of working through my attachment style in friendships.
Up-leveling with hypnosis + somatic embodiment
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Resources:
Choi, Lily. Lily Choi Natural Healing
Kaitlyn. Spirit Garden Tarot
Ni, Jamie. Sonouros
Merrick, C. M., Dixon, T. C., Breska, A., Lin, J., Chang, E. F., King-Stephens, D., Laxer, K. D., Weber, P. B., Carmena, J., Thomas Knight, R., & Ivry, R. B. (2022). Left Hemisphere dominance for bilateral kinematic encoding in the human brain. ELife, 11. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.69977
Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned Reflexes : An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex. Oxford University Press.
Pellizzon, Michelle. Holisticism
The Regulatory Review. (2021, August 6). Is your dietary supplement safe? The Regulatory Review. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://www.theregreview.org/2021/02/27/saturday-seminar-is-dietary-supplement-safe/
* This resource offers information and is designed for educational purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace, professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other health-care professional. Do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your health-care professional because of something you may have read on this resource. The use of any information provided including advice on this resource are solely at your own risk. Never use hypnosis recordings while operating heavy machinery.