I didn’t expect to get so much joy from this book.

A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind by Shoukei Matsumoto was in my “recommended for you” after reading Don’t Worry: 48 Lessons on Relieving Anxiety from a Zen Buddhist Monk by Shunmyo Masuno (which I will talk about a smidge next week).

I downloaded a sample on my tablet and got hooked right away.

It was quite interesting to see inside the life of a monk and what cleaning represents for them. One thing I resonated with was about an unclean bathroom.

The bathroom is used to “expel toxins” and is a place to feel almost “renewed;” If the bathroom is unclean, so is your mind and heart.

It sounds weird but think about it?

At least for me, if the bathroom is not clean, I don’t take the time to remove my nail polish [or paint my nails] because I’d want to take a bath after. Since the tub isn’t as “clean” as it could be, I prefer not to take a bath. If I don’t want to take a bath then I just avoid removing the nail polish [or painting my nails].

This cycle just continues and causes me to lose a moment that I could have spent doing something for myself; sort of a “self-care” mini spa session.

Not to mention, postponing the tub cleaning for 2-3 weeks causes MORE dirt and grim to accumalate causing a ten minute tub cleaning session to turn into 45+ minutes.  A couple of weekends ago after cleaning the tub [and after reading the bathroom portion in Matsumoto’s book], I felt renewed.

It was amazing how just the simple act of cleaning the tub and the rest of the bathroom squeaky clean, just put my mind at ease. Now I am not saying I don’t clean my bathroom on a weekly basis, but there is something different about deep cleaning the space as a whole.

It motivated me to try and get back to my once a week deep cleaning session of the tub that I used to have.

While there were some aspects of cleaning that didn’t apply to my life such as “how to clean an altar most of the concepts on how the mind and heart feel “calm” in a clean space stood out to me.

The jist is a clean space = a clean mind and heart.

While this idea might seem simple, take a moment to sit with it.

Don’t you feel stressed when your space is a mess?

How do you feel once the space is clean?

While our space can’t be clean and perfect 100% of the time, we just need to remember to take it one day at a time my friends.-Sabs 🌿