The other day someone told me he was reading my book and really enjoying it.  He then paused and asked me “It’s about more than your house, right?”

I smiled and said “Yes, it is.”

I look sometimes at strangers and wonder what they are experiencing at home. I have seen people who look like they have it all together, who are dealing with frustration and overwhelm at home, whether it’s mess, clutter, dust and dirt, repairs not done, stalled renovations, tension, or significant emotional stress. I have learned that you cannot tell by looking at someone what is going on in their world. I have also learned that issues at home are pretty much always a reflection of someone’s self-doubt, self-criticism and not recognizing their own incredible natural beauty and power.

My teaching is about home, yes, but, as people who are reading my book are discovering, it is really about helping you to be nicer to yourself, and to recognize your natural power to create a life that you love, beginning with the details of home.

To get your copy of HouseHeal: Transform Your Life through the Power of Home, come to my book signing this Saturday, May 5^th from 10 to 4 at 592 Danforth Ave, 2^nd Floor,Toronto!  info@househeal.com

Last night a bunch of people who have completed the 4-week HouseHeal into Practice course got together to see how everyone is doing and explore what would be helpful going forward. The discussions blew me away. As we went around the room to hear what was changing for people since taking the course, people weren’t talking about paint colours, new bedding and cleaning closets (although they mentioned shifts there too!), they were talking about how much better they felt about themselves, about how life is feeling lighter
in general, and how relationships with the people they love are changing for the better – with spouses, children, and even siblings they no longer shared a home with. They talked about a deep feeling that life is becoming easier and more exciting, especially at home. It was beautiful, magical and real.

So, who are these people who are experiencing such changes through the HouseHeal teaching? They are women, they are men, they are married, they are single, divorced, with children, without children, some students, some professionals, some business owners, some retired, some with lovely homes, some in transition, some financially comfortable, some not so much. What do they have in common? They are all smart, kind, down-to-earth, loving, fun people who want more for themselves, at home and beyond. They are people who are willing to admit that they would like life to be easier, and are open to exploring what is possible and step into their own power, beginning at home. And because they are ready, they are experiencing a transformation at home on a level beyond what is even possible to express in words.

Maybe you are ready for that kind of transformation too? It can be yours for the asking.

This morning I curled up on the couch in front of the fire, with a book I bought some time ago but had never really looked at. Within a few pages I smiled with recognition at the author’s observation as a meditation teacher that even people engaged in deep spiritual practice find it challenging to maintain their connection to inner peace when they step back into their homes and their daily lives. He says “The situation was the same everywhere. The realization was easy; living it was the challenge.”

That challenge to stay feeling good is precisely what I experienced for so many years. If I could take myself to an inner place of feeling safe and joyful, I wondered why those feelings were just glimpses and moments. Why couldn’t life in general feel that good, especially at home?  People talk about home being a place of peace (“home is where the heart is”), but I have observed that, in reality, for many people, home is a place of feeling stressed and inadequate. That’s why I love my teaching so much. Week after week I see people start to understand what it takes to make home a true place of peace, beauty and well-being, physically and emotionally, and it’s like a light goes on. Something beautiful inside people changes, and in time that change is reflected in how their home looks and feels.

I got this note on Friday from someone who finished the course on Wednesday: “I was thinking that your teachings and your embodiment of them are going to produce a seismic shift in my life this year. I really feel much lighter than my usual already optimisticself! And some pretty significant things – which could be called coincidences
but we know they are not – are already happening.” And just this morning from
another person who finished the course last year: “Sara, thank you for teaching us how to get what we want. I learned it, I believe it and it works for me. I will continue to use this magic technique to make changes in my life. Thank you, thank you and thank you.”

I believe that the connection to one’s inner peace does not have to be reserved for moments of quiet reflection, but rather it can become our “normal” place to live, especially at home, and that feelings of being overwhelmed by the chaos of life can become the fleeting moments instead.

During my HouseHeal into Practice (HIP) class this week, one of the participants spoke up with a sudden insight  “I thought I was coming here to feel better by making my house nicer, but I see that it’s really me feeling better that will make things in my home better.” Yes!! In the very first class of the course, the real lesson came through. If you think that getting your house in order (or renovated, or decorated) will make your life suddenly happier, you might be in for a surprise. Just like the person who wins the lottery and two years later is broke, unless you change your thinking, no amount of organization or renovation is going to
change how your life feels, at least not for very long. Lasting, feel good change at home begins inside you. The good news is that your home gives you lots of helpful feedback about what you are thinking and how much you are acknowledging your true power. When you truly understand the HouseHeal teaching
with all of its many layers, you can start to shift your thoughts and feelings at home and begin to make changes with relative ease. I encourage you to sign up for a class and experience the shift for yourself.

From  a note I received after class this week: “The content of your program is both amazing and wise - I understood last night that this is what has been missing for me – the spiritual context for “de-cluttering”.

Yesterday was my first public Open House at my HouseHeal teaching space in Toronto. For several hours people came through as I gave short intense introductions to my teaching.  Even with a brief introduction to the basic principles, I could see the stress lift and excitement spark as people started to see the potential for more ease at home. That’s because they saw that at the core of my HouseHeal teaching is the deep understanding that a beautiful, feel-good home begins with being kind to yourself. Everything is energy and you and your home are energetically connected. When something about your home doesn’t feel good it is a reflection of something in your thought patterns that doesn’t feel good. To shift how your home looks and feels, shift your thinking. As you develop the practice of thinking kinder, gentler thoughts about yourself, and more loving, hopeful thoughts about your home (which my HouseHeal teaching shows you how to do, step by step) your personal vibration will shift, and you will be pulled into good-feeling action at home with ease.

Can you guess the most energy-draining clutter in your home? What comes to mind? Is it in your closet? In your basement? On  your living room floor? On your kitchen counter? Maybe it’s in your refrigerator? Is it the piles of papers scattered around your house? Nope. None of those. The heaviest clutter in your home by far—have you guessed?—is your thoughts. In fact, physical clutter in your home is a reflection of cluttered thoughts.

Every day you have tens of thousands of thoughts and, if you listen to even a small sampling of them, you will discover that many of those thoughts are weary—thoughts that you have had over and over before, thoughts that keep you going in circles: thoughts of the past, thoughts of worry (usually about money), critical thoughts of yourself for not having done this or that, critical thoughts of others, and the list goes on. Listen to your thoughts for a little while and you will see what I am talking about. If you have physical clutter in your home, you can be sure that your home is also cluttered with thoughts of worry, fear, doubt, anger, frustration or other “heavy” emotion.

Want to clear out the clutter in your house? Start to notice your thoughts at home. Be more in the present moment, think about what is good at home, think genuinely nice things about yourself and others, and think optimistically and creatively about the future. Let stressful thoughts go. As you begin to think new thoughts and de-clutter your mind, you will find it much easier to be in action and clear out physical clutter at home.

Yesterday’s Globe and Mail had an article about de-cluttering in which every expert interviewed had a different strategy—start in the basement, start small, start at random, start with a system.  The strategy doesn’t matter. It’s about energy.

When you know how to align the energy in your home to match your goal, de-cluttering becomes easy, and just about any strategy will work. But jumping into action without understanding and changing what created the clutter in the first place is guaranteed to fail. That’s why even people who hire a professional organizer can still find themselves struggling with clutter.

People have clutter for a reason, and until that reason is taken away through personal change, no amount of action will make a lasting difference. The good news is that once people understand the process for change, big shifts can happen quickly.

Want my one big tip for dealing with clutter? If the thought of dealing with your clutter feels like a struggle before you even start, stop. Don’t even try. Until you get yourself to where the thought of dealing with your clutter feels like one big euphoric yee-haw!
whoo-hoo! roll the truck up and let’s get packing! spare yourself the agony. Clutter holds a lot of stuck and heavy energy, and until you have mentally and emotionally detached yourself from what is there, the heavy energy of your clutter will wear you out fast, even when you begin with the best of intentions.

So how do you get yourself into that whoo-hoo! state of mind? Well, that’s what my HouseHeal teaching is all about. It’s a process. It’s a simple, powerful process that totally changes how you see yourself and your home, and pulls you into action with ease. The
process makes so much sense and feels so right that it just becomes part of how you live.

It doesn’t matter if your issue is clutter, dirt, mess, arranging your furniture, decorating or general overwhelm—it’s all the same process to change it. In the end, it’s all about creating a beautiful, clean, organized home that feels good to live in and supports you in living a life that you love. In my HouseHeal teaching, I see over and over again the relief and excitement that people feel as everything they dream of suddenly becomes doable.

So how do you de-clutter? Once you align the energy, any way you like.

This morning I heard a radio program featuring people’s
admissions of how many New Year’s resolutions they had broken already by
January 3. It was quite funny, but not surprising. Why do we think we can suddenly
change our behaviour by simply stating a goal? Setting goals is powerful, don’t
get me wrong, but without understanding how energy works and how change happens,
you can fail quickly at unsupported goals and even do harm to your self-esteem.
Just look around your home for examples. How many intentions have you set at
home that don’t seem to translate to action? Where in your home are you
frustrated or “stuck”? One of the greatest breakthroughs I see in my
HouseHeal workshops is when people “get” the importance of aligning energy
to have decisions and action flow easily and naturally at home. If you haven’t
figured it out yet, the energy of your thoughts and emotions shapes what
happens around you. If you try to make changes at home (or anywhere) without
changing your thoughts and feelings to match your goals, guess what happens.
That’s right — not much. If want to achieve your goals at home this year, check out a HouseHeal class. If organizing, re-decorating or de-cluttering is on your list of goals for the New Year, you are in for a big relief, a HUGE bonus, and maybe even a little surprise. HouseHeal is SO much more than what you might imagine. If you want a beautiful home that supports you in living an easier, more peaceful, fun, exciting and love-filled life, there will never be a better time to take action than this magical year of 2012.