If you could give the reader one good piece of advice, what would that be?
It’s no secret that we live in a culture that is more overwhelmed and disconnected than ever before. We are drowning in stuff, or swimming in stress, or both. And even if we had time to process it all, we are so overwhelmed we have no idea where to even begin.
If each of us took a moment to slow down, pay attention to the simple daily tasks that we do every day anyway (mostly on autopilot): like put the dishes away, round up the clothes off the floor, sweep the front steps, make the bed, move a pile – with awareness – we might actually feel better.
And when we feel better within ourselves, guess what? Everything changes “out there.”
Simple practices done with awareness have a powerful effect on the nervous system. They quiet the mind. They lead to well being and lasting change.
After so many years bringing space clearing into the mainstream, you have distilled it down to a simple method you call the Spacious Way. Can you tell us more about that?
When I began my career in space clearing in 1996, which was relatively unheard of as a modality back then because of how it worked with the invisible side of clutter, I was troubled by the growing epidemic of stress and stuff that has become the reality in our culture and our world. With all the resources and support available to us, I wondered by most clearing methods, though well-intentioned, were falling short of helping people clear for good. Why did they always feel so tedious, and onerous, and joyless?
It took me twenty years to break the code: to answer these questions, field-test them, and develop a whole new method that can address an epidemic that could bury us alive.
The result is the Spacious Way: a conscious distillation of space clearing, modern science, mindfulness, and Kaizen: the Japanese concept of small steps leading to big changes through continuous improvement. Blended together, they work to release physical, mental, emotional, and energetic clutter – from the inside out.
Instead of “attacking” the stress, “getting rid” of the stuff, and “overcoming the overwhelm, as most methods promote, the Spacious Way works more gently to release the underlying causes – the patterns, resistances, attachments – of anything that holds us back. One minute of “slow drip” clearing morphs into more minutes, less effort, and less baggage. It promotes a calmer nervous system, a quieter mind, more ease, more space, more light, more joy.
The Spacious Way changes the paradigm from effort to ease. It offers a whole new way to clear that is simple, feels good, and lasts.
It’s not just a game changer. It’s a life-changer.
How did you get into space clearing?
Great question, since I started out as a high school Spanish teacher over forty years ago. You could say I accidentally bumped into it, or it bumped into me. It was definitely not on my radar.
In 1996 I walked away from teaching at one of Boston’s preeminent schools at the height of a twenty-year career. I was at the top of my game, and burned out. I didn’t know what I loved anymore, or who I was. As someone who prided herself in being neat and tidy and super-organized, my discovery that I had a lot of clutter came down like a sledgehammer on my self-concept and world view. So I began to study space clearing – a relatively unknown field at the time – with some of the best teachers I could find.
Going on a deep dive into this internal world of home spaces (and people who occupy them) was the only way I could think of to explore and process my own colorful (and messy) relationship with clutter, and to decode, in the simplest way possible, why most clearing efforts, though, well-intentioned, don’t last.
These personal explorations over the past two decades led to two certifications in space clearing, an established teaching practice, and a creator of several bestselling online programs. Never in my wildest imaginings could I have predicted that clearing out my drawers and closets would lead to my becoming a teacher again, a passionate writer, and an author with five books and four online courses!
In a way, you could say that I’m still doing what I was doing forty years ago: teaching concepts that feel like a foreign language at a level that most people can understand. Who knew? Being a high school Spanish teacher has prepared me well!
Have you read Marie Kondo’s bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and what did you think of it?
Yes, I’ve not only read it, I’ve put some of her tidying suggestions to the test in my own home. Her book was so provocative that I wrote a series of four photo-essays that chronicle my experiences of her methods. If you’re curious to know how the KonMari approach to home tending stacks up (as it were) to the Spacious Way method, and wonder how you can incorporate both systems into a nourishing daily practice, I invite you to visit this page HERE. You’ll find the entire series I wrote, plus a homemade video of me adapting her method to folding my clothes. And p.s., you might be interested to know that my “slow-drip” approach to clearing wasn’t just some crazy idea I dream’t up. It is grounded in science and based on another Japanese principle, in fact, called Kaizen: the practice of continuous improvement.
How do you define clutter?
Clutter is anything that prevents us from experiencing our true nature and best life. It is not just the junk you see spilling out of the closet. It can also be a thought, a fear, or a memory that doesn’t serve and support you anymore. My definition of clutter is much broader than the usual, and includes the myriad ways that we humans hold on and create imbalance in our lives.
How is inner and outer clutter connected?
As a longtime professional space clearer, I have become intimately and acutely aware of the interconnectedness between humans and their homes; how the spaces we occupy respond to our attentiveness (or lack of it) and how they, in turn reflect us, affect us, support us (and oppress us).
Our homes are not just these big empty boxes that we fill with our collections of stuff, life experiences, and unique personalities. They are alive and dynamic, just like we are. When we tend our homes in small and mindful ways, we care for ourselves. When we nourish ourselves, we bring our lives, and world, back into balance. There is no separation.
Does one ever get done with clearing?
The bad news is that clearing never ends. The good news is that clearing never ends. It becomes more enlivening, juicy, and fun!
As I see it, clearing the things and thoughts that do not serve us is a journey to be lived and cultivated, not a linear task to be completed by a certain date or deadline. To the degree that we can enter into the experience with wonder and spacious detachment is when clearing becomes a thing of beauty: a spiritual practice that reveals that divine essence and mystery that we are.
Why would we ever want to stop doing that?!
More…
- About Stephanie
- About the Spacious Way, Stephanie’s signature clearing method
- About Stephanie’s books, online courses, and how they fit together
- 15 (quirky) things about Stephanie that most people don’t know
