Cleaning Up Is Practice
August 17, 2026 | 3 CommentsAudio only version is here
Meditation begins at 17:59
Hello Wonderful Open Heart Project,
One of the most important spiritual practices I know is this: clean up after yourself.
Not because you should be more organized or more virtuous.
Because every unfinished mess takes your attention.
We can clean up physically by caring for the spaces we live in, emotionally by apologizing when we’ve caused harm or addressing what we’ve left unresolved, and spiritually by becoming more discerning about what we allow into our minds and hearts.
Meditation helps with all of this. Every time we notice we’ve wandered and return to the breath, we practice reclaiming our attention. That same movement helps us return to our lives with greater honesty, clarity, and care.
Let me know what you think.
With love,
Susan
PS: Please check out my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics. It offers seven principles of meditation as a spiritual practice (rather than self-help).
categorized in: dharma, meditation
3 Comments
Thank you, Susan, for your talk and meditation. Good to take the time to practice and to listen to your talk.
Best to you, Patty
I have quoted the idea of starting your practice or developing discipline by cleaning up your room, eating well, wearing nice clothes, etc. to myself and others. It sounded like a great idea. But this email provided the reason for doing it and how it had the beneficial effects. Maybe I’ll listen better this time.
Thank you Susan for sharing your wisdom and experiences.
Faced with having to stay indoors for most of the day due to torrid heat and health incompatibility, I’m enjoying this time to do home and internal cleaning.
Compassionate boundaries are my current challenge… With next door construction workers refusing to uphold safety laws and me feeling guilty for insisting that they do. I want to be nice, not report legal infringements,, while also asking that the legal requirements to prevent water ingress into my home be upheld.. I haven’t succeeded… I’m trying to avoid my new neighbours unfriending me before they have even moved in…
So I’m trying to meditate and understand how to act both in friendliness, compassion for the workers who want to finish work fast in the heat, and the boundary to protect my house… Any advice is most welcome on this. 🙏🏻