NEW YORK (AP) — Amid spring cleaning season, it can be easy to dismiss housework as drudgery, so dreaded or anxiety-inducing that it’s best delegated to others if at all possible.But experts from Zen monks to psychologists say there are mental health benefits to be found in such manual chores as sweeping, mopping and clearing away clutter. These tasks can encourage mindfulness or permit the mind to wander, all while producing a concrete sense of achievement in accomplishing the basic tasks of daily life.As one famous Zen saying goes: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”What the monks knowZen apprentices, or “unsui” monks, spend much of their time cleaning and tidying.“We sweep dust to remove worldly desires. We scrub dirt to free ourselves of attachments,” Shoukei Matsumoto, a Buddhist monk living in Kyoto, Japan, wrote in his book “A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and a Clean Mind.” “The time we spend carefully cleaning out every nook and cranny of the temple grounds is extremely fulfilling.”
Holly Schiff, a clinical psychologist based in Greenwich, Connecticut, confirms that the process of cleaning can be calming and almost meditative.
