What is Hoodie-Hoo Day and what does it have to do with your relationship? The answers may surprise you.

Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo Day is a holiday (copyrighted by Wellcat.com) celebrated annually on February 20th to chase away winter and bring in spring. At noon, you're supposed to go outside, wave your hands over your head, and chant "Hoodie-Hoo!" Joining you will be other people who are tired of winter and want spring to hurry up and come.

Every relationship gets bogged down with extra baggage that needs discarding periodically, and Hoodie-Hoo Day provides the perfect opportunity to do some pre-spring emotional housecleaning. If your relationship closets are filled to overflowing with anger and bitterness, for example, there's no room for anything else. You have to clear out the old and familiar before you have space for the new and different.

Take a moment to answer the following questions and find out what you need to discaard so that your relationship can feel less weighty:

1. Are you the relationship historian who can recite all your partner's past mistakes without missing a single one?

2. Do you hold on to grudges and resentments and "keep score" in your relationship?

3. Do you focus on your partner's faults?

4. Are you critical of your partner to family and friends?

5. Do you always have to be "right"?

6. Do you ever attempt to get even for perceived slights?

7. Do you tell "little white lies" or "fudge" on the truth and then have to remember what you've said or not said?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, consider getting rid of these relationship-destroying behaviors that drain your energy. Make space, instead, for teh good things that you want to come into your relationship such as forgiveness, honesty, tolerance, laughter, intimacy, and joy.

Let your relationship be energized by your new "lightness of being" and positive approach. Out with the old, in with the new, and "Hoodie-Hoo" to your partner and you!