Clearing Circles: Start Your Own Clutter Clearing Support Group

If you feel you would benefit by sharing your clearing experiences with others and could use the support and encouragement, I recommend you organize a Clearing Circle in your hometown or neighborhood.

If you already belong to a book group or support group, ask if they'd be interested in joining you on a clearing journey. If you can't find anyone to join you from your immediate circle of friends, put an ad in your community newspaper or convene a clearing group by going online to sites like Meetup.com and see if it generates any interest. If your friends live too far away, simply conduct your circles via speakerphone.

Remember, all you need is one other person and you've got yourself a group!

Once you've assembled your circle, consider having everyone pick up a copy of "Your Spacious Self: Clear Your Clutter and Discover Who You Are." This handbook includes among its many features: discussion topics, sample listening guidelines, and six meeting agendas to help you facilitate each of your gatherings. The guided clearing program, which is one of the cornerstones of this book, follows a gentle six-part sequence that is easily modified or expanded to suit everybody's needs.

If your group would like to deepen the clearing experience even more, either as a follow-up to the book, or in place of the book, consider adopting the new and expanded companion Online Course as your source or primer. The exercises, audio meditations, and cutting-edge journal spaces in each of the ten sessions provide a terrific base for discussion in your weekly or monthly book group gatherings. The wider array of process-type activities are designed to help you calm the noisy mind, and soften holding patterns you didn't even know you had! You can learn more about this unique program in the section below: read what people are saying and listen to a couple of short audios by Stephanie that will give you a sample of what the clearing experience looks and feels like.

The thing about us humans is that if we don't feel safe, we will not budge an inch! If letting go of old patterns and habits is your highest priority as a group, it is essential to honor everybody's process, air time, and confidentiality. The programs in the book and the online course are designed to help you create a super-safe container!

Hi Stephanie!

Just wanted to send you a follow up email about your Chicago satellite group :-) . It's been going very, very well, and we all love your book. One of my friend's job situation has changed for the better and now has a few exciting job prospects in the horizon, and she truly believes it's because she de-cluttered and thus opened room for these opportunities. So exciting to see the metamorphosis of this one person!

The other 3 of us have also been excited about our clearing journeys - ranging from basements, to email inboxes, to smaller steps (like you say - one paper clip at a time). Since I have 2 little ones, I've been on the smaller side - for example, cleaning up the sippy cup level of that drawer, or the lazy Susan, or one bathroom.

A powerful exercise in that regard has been the one for everything having its place - just putting the dental floss back every night in the same place has been MIND BLOWING!! Truly! And has flowed into other areas!

Another powerful unexpected outcome for me has been the "weather management" - how when I stub my toe or ten hats fall on my head, I just let it be THAT - a stubbed toe or ten hats on the ground, instead of the good old days when it snowballed into so much more. Granted, some days I can't help that, but overall, I've been AMAZED at the change in that regard!!

I've read a few other feng shui or decluttering books, and yours goes way beyond the rest - it's SOOOO holistic - such a combination - not just de-cluttering, but good soul stuff too! What a gift this book is! It has changed my life!

Thank you Stephanie!!! Hope to see you sometime..! In the meantime I'll await the online workshop.

Take care!

A.C.,
Chicago, Illinois

"I am becoming more conscious of my thought patterns, particularly the negative ones that are causing me pain, and I am now redirecting those thoughts with 'I choose ease' and 'I am enough.'"

"The wisdom of "putting away" that you so beautifully convey, is something that I KNOW to be a key factor to discovering new energy, inner peace, and a greater connection to our higher source!"

"I tried the "Unplugging" suggestion, and immediately felt a difference in my attitude toward my mother and other strong-willed women in my life. THANK YOU! Your work is amazing."

"As a life-long hoarder of things, you helped me to change - initially I noticed that I was able to keep my house neater, but the biggest change was how I began to throw things away."

"I found this course very powerful. In the "Tour of the Home" meditation I was led to think about a "stuck" place that was completely a surprise to me...."

"Waiting on news from a recent biopsy produced a lot of "weather." On the way to work I thought to myself, 'OK here's an opportunity to remember that my container is bigger than this.' After I had the awareness, all that weather shifted. How interesting!!"

"This course has changed my life. I have a completely new perspective-still dealing with reality, but in a different way."

Thank you for my amazing spacious self experience!!!!"

"I cannot begin to tell you how much my life is changing!"

Your Spacious Self Online Course shows you how to unwind the slow and steady way. It is an adventure of self-discovery--a journey of clearing, untangling, shaking out those invisible cobwebs, releasing, feeling...

Your Spacious Self Online Course is a self-guided program designed to deepen your experience of clearing.

This course features...

* Ten clearing sessions, which correspond to the ten chapters in the book
* Twenty-two lessons, which offer a treasure-trove of information and wisdom
* Twenty-three exercises, which convert this wisdom into simple practices designed to deepen your experience of clearing and letting go
* Live audio meditations to soothe and calm the noisy mind and shed light on the areas in your home and life that feel stuck
* Cutting-edge, private online journal pages to record your insights, review your progress, and stay on track
* Quotations by notable visionaries sprinkled throughout to nourish and inspire

To learn more and listen to an audio of Stephanie describing this course click "Learn More" below, or go to: http://www.yourspaciousself.com.

Clearing anything releases energy that has been stuck for a long time, sometimes for an entire lifetime. When energy is moved in a big way, it is possible to feel more tired than usual, or more cranky and edgy and uncomfortable. You may feel more emotional, have a bout of grief, panic, anger, or sadness. You may notice yourself wanting to sleep more, or overeat, or quit. You may experience spaciness, memory lapses or mental fog, or, the opposite: more alive, energized, excited, and clear. You may feel awesome one moment, and completely fall apart the next - all in less than sixty seconds!

All these responses are NORMAL. Clutter is a sticky, dense energy. As you begin to clear it away, your bio-energetic system will be responding to these changes - not unlike the stormy weather that gets stirred when a high pressure system collides into a pre-existing low pressure system. Consider that you are detoxifying your home (and yourself) and it may not always feel very good.

Self-care is your secret to reducing the side-effects associated with clearing. Here are some simple ways to support your journey:

1. Don't Identify

Anytime you notice another bout of "weather" moving through in your journey, take it as a sign that energy is shifting. Begin by allowing this weather to come through to the degree that you can handle it. If it's clammy hands, notice them. If it's resistance, experience it. If it's nausea, allow it. If it's tears, shed them. If it's shame, embrace it. As you feel each weather pattern, do your best not to take any of it personally. Remember it is just energy. The less you personalize these symptoms the quicker they pass.

2. Reduce and Repeat (R & R)

Anytime a task becomes too overwhelming and threatens to stall your efforts or shut you down, take it as a sign to slow down. Reduce your clearing task and/or time spent on a task to something that feels doable and manageable (i.e. doesn't elicit stress) and repeat the same or similar task, every day.The R & R approach to clearing the refrigerator, for example, would be to clean, clear, or consolidate one item a day, beginning with the leftovers, moving on to the condiments, ending with the stuff in the freezer, every day for one week, or until the task is complete . The R & R approach to clearing a behavior you'd like to change, like surfing the Web for example, would be to set an alarm clock for a specific time and stop when the bell rings. Reduce the time spent by one minute increments each day. Adjust any task as your stamina and desire increases. Remember, any feeling of overwhelm, worry, or stress would be an indicator that you've taken on more than you can handle, and suggests you reduce your range even more. No matter how small your effort, clearing or moving even just one paper clip or one pencil nub off a chronically messy desk every day with intention, creates a powerful energetic shift that can change your life.

3. Rest

It may not seem like much at first, but even the tiniest clearing efforts can be enervating. Remember to rest a lot and often. Give yourself plenty of space to integrate the deep clearing work. Take a break, take a walk, take a nap. Do something that keeps the energy moving in a positive, uplifting way. Do something that makes your heart sing. Do something that makes you laugh. You can only recharge your batteries to the degree that you allow yourself to experience a level of deep rest.

4. Drink Water

Drink plenty of good water, at least eight glasses a day. Clearing of any kind is very dehydrating.

5. Take a Salt and Soda Bath or Shower

This is a wonderful remedy for integrating deep clearing work. Use equal parts coarse sea salt (not Epsom Salt) with "Arm and Hammer" Baking Soda. For a shower, make a paste in your palm and rub it all over your body, including your hair, and shower off. For a bath, just pour into the tub and soak. It doesn't matter if it's a cup to a cup or a teaspoon to a teaspoon, as long as it's equal parts of sea salt and soda.

My journey of self-discovery began with clearing out a single drawer.

Suffering from major burn-out in all aspects of my life, I walked away from a successful twenty-year career teaching at some of the most prestigious Boston schools in 1996 to enter a long period of reflection and re-invention-a terrifying place I call "not knowing." By releasing a huge part of my personal and professional identity, I was able to get in touch with the things that made my heart sing (and cringe): my passions, my longings, my fears... my clutter!

I noticed that every time I cleared a bookcase or took a box to the Goodwill I would feel certain unpleasant side-effects. If I didn't identify with the sensations I was experiencing as mine every time I moved something from one place to another, I noticed that the symptoms would disappear, or pass more quickly.

Intrigued by the idea that our spaces reflect us, affect us, and ultimately can support us, I spent the next ten years training and certifying with some of the World's top experts in the field of Environmental Space Clearing, Personal Clearing, Feng Shui, Clutter Clearing, and Dowsing.

Equally fascinated by the feminine principles--of slowing down, self-care, Mystery, and spacious detachment--that underlie my clearing message, I devoted as much time studying Women's Spirituality and alternative healing modalities.

I wrote my book as a way to process this ten-year journey of clearing and self-discovery, and give others a reason to hope that they too could experience clarity and spaciousness in their home and life--one small step, drawer, or moment at a time. Your Spacious Self: Clear Your Clutter and Discover Who You Are is a personal, humorous, and poignant look at what can happen when we dial down our lives in a big way.

For the teacher in me who lives to find those keys that unlock an ah-ha moment (and gets a rush every time she does!), it is a dream come true to generate companion programs like my Online Course and my Free 30-day Email Series and that can possibly reach and touch millions all over the world via the Web.

For all the inspiration that I've received through life experience, extraordinary opportunity, and study with brilliant teachers over the years there's no replacing the wisdom that simply comes from living life in present time, embracing (by feeling) the shadow when it shows up, and entering each moment with innocent curiosity. When I can bring these qualities to the table, I feel totally spacious-and complete.

If you do start a clearing circle in your hometown or neighborhood, or as part of book group or women's circle, and would like to share what has worked or not worked, we'd love to hear from you!

Email us at: ClearingStories@spaceclear.com

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Share your experiences in the Guest Book below!