Verified by 
As the daffodils bloom, the birds chirp, and the days get longer, many people embrace the spring season as a time of growth and rebirth. In the United States, "spring cleaning" is often invoked as an opportunity to get rid of clutter that is dragging us down, and to scrub and shine our environments to feel like we have a fresh start. Within that mindset can be an important metaphor for our psychological well-being too: Using the rebirth of the season to motivate us to let go of mental habits that are not serving us, and taking the time to plant tiny seeds that will bring meaningful growth later on.
All too often, when people try to adopt new mindsets, they go for changes that are too sweeping, that are impossible to maintain, or that feel like punishment. And so these attempts—just like we see with unrealistic New Year's resolutions—are often doomed to fail.
Instead, slow but steady changes are the ones that are bound to have the biggest impact over time, because you can stick with them and not get exhausted. Changes that can be incorporated into your daily life as it already exists, rather than expecting to change your daily life altogether, are most often the better bet.
If you are looking for a little boost to your mental health this spring, here are some simple but meaningful actions to consider.
1. Observe your all-or-none thinking.
For the very same reason that overly ambitious resolutions and attempts at extreme mindset shifts don't typically work, all-or-none thinking is often a major saboteur of our daily well-being. Sometimes referred to as black-or-white thinking or dichotomous thinking, all-or-none thinking is rigid and often needlessly catastrophic, contributing to helplessness and pessimism.
As a first step in changing this pattern, why not make a commitment to observing the ways that you overgeneralize? Do you have a lot of "always" or "never" statements in your vocabulary? Do you often refer to things as "ruined," or make the comment that things are "the worst" when they've gone just a bit downhill? Our vocabulary doesn't just reflect how we think, but it can affect it as well. And the very first step in changing thought patterns that can contribute to pessimism and hopelessness is to observe them.
2. Commit space for gratitude.
Most of us have heard how helpful gratitude is for our mood and well-being. But practicing it takes an extra level of commitment, and it's very easy to slip out of the habit when life gets busy or stressful.
As a small but meaningful tweak, why not dedicate or rededicate yourself to a pause for gratitude each day? It need not be more than 20 seconds long, but the key is making it a regular occurrence. If you tie the moment of gratitude to an activity that you know you'll do like clockwork without fail, like perhaps brushing your teeth at night or drinking coffee in the morning, then the habit will be easier to build.
Remember, gratitude does not have to mean counting your blessings to the point where you attempt to mask or avoid negative emotions. But it is choosing to embrace the entire picture of your life and celebrate the light. A brief daily ritual of acknowledging the good—whether as small as a tasty meal or as profound as the health of your loved ones—is a great way to do this, and to let it build on itself.
3. Prioritize your social time.
This tip is often the most fun-sounding, but it doesn't mean that it's truly that much easier to prioritize when life gets busy. Although many of us understand intellectually that social time is healthy for us—both mentally and physically—it often is one of the first things to be dropped when other obligations take up our time and mental energy. And yet, when we are at our most busy and perhaps our most stressed, the stress relief of spending quality time with people whose company we enjoy is at its most beneficial.
Give yourself permission to carve out time with friends as something that is as important as working out or taking care of your home. And if you feel like your friendships are lacking, give some attention to creating goals that can put you closer to developing the type of relationships that you desire. With loneliness at epidemic levels in the United States and worldwide, prioritizing social connection and belongingness is a crucial mental health issue that is more than worth it.
4. Increase your connection to nature.
If you live in a place where the weather is warming up, flowers are blooming, daylight lasts longer into the night and birds are singing, there is no better time of the year to make a goal to get outside more. Sunlight can be a mood booster in its own right, especially when we are coming off of the daylight depletion of the shorter winter days.
And time in nature in general can be very positive for our well-being. Not only does it help connect us to our evolutionary roots, and help bring inspiration and moments of awe, but it also can get us out of the behavioral ruts that might be keeping us rigid and in a cognitive rut, like perennially scrolling through our phones.
Incorporating an after-dinner walk into your evening routine or a ritual of enjoying coffee in the sunshine rather than indoors, or even just bringing a new plant into your life—each can be an effective way of getting closer to nature, and helping your body calm itself in the process.
