Experience how the neglected areas of your home and life light up and flourish when they are regularly tended and cared for.
This interview first appeared at DailyOM here
Today we are speaking with DailyOM author Stephanie Bennett Vogt about her course, Clearing Physical and Emotional Clutter. Stephanie teaches a highly effective yet gentle method of decluttering and reducing the overwhelm in our spaces and life. The small steps guided throughout this journey will help you feel more beauty and vibrancy, inside and out.
DailyOM: Tell us what inspired you to create this year-long course for our DailyOM community. How is it different from your other courses, A Year to Let Go of What’s Holding You Back! and Clear Your Home, Clear Your Life?
Stephanie Bennett Vogt: The creation of this course was inspired by my other 365-day course that you mentioned, A Year to Clear What is Holding You Back! With tens of thousands of participants completing that program and many begging me in the comment thread for a Year Two, it was a no-brainer. I wanted to create a way for them to keep going. The beauty of taking a year to gently tend to our physical, mental, and emotional attachments (and discover the spacious goodies that are hiding beneath them all) becomes such a delicious, nourishing habit. You don’t want it to end. And it doesn’t ever have to. At the end of the year you can begin all over again with either course and have a different experience, because you keep getting lighter and freer. That is why I call it a clearing journey. And you do not have to complete the former to get value from the latter. The two are completely separate experiences. They stand alone.
What you get in my Clearing Physical and Emotional Clutter course that you do not get in any of the other programs is a deep-dive experience of my 5-step method for clearing, a proven method that works from the inside out to release physical, mental, and emotional clutter for good. These 5 steps are: slowing down, simplifying, sensing, surrendering, and self-care, delivered in that order and building upon each other. Cultivating these steps one at a time, over time, has proven to reduce a key underlying issue that keeps us stuck: overwhelm. One minute of my slow drip clearing approach morphs into more minutes, less effort, and less baggage. It promotes a calmer nervous system, a quieter mind, more ease, more space, and more joy.
DailyOM: Tell us more about your slow drip approach. What makes it so effective?
SBV: When I first began doing this work, both as a space clearing practitioner and a student in my own home, I watched how hard it was to keep it up, and how easy it was to give up. As a keen observer of my own struggles with clutter, I realized rather quickly that it was not the clutter at all that was my problem. It was letting go of it. With continuous study and practice, I could feel the energetic strings that tied me to my things, and I could feel the sludgy stuckness as I began to move things into boxes and out of my house. By becoming more of a witness to these unpleasant sensations, I discovered how quickly they would pass. And like a weather system moving in and out, the lightness and clarity I felt on the other side of my struggle was palpable. And sublime.
The challenge then became how to break down my slow drip method into smaller steps that were digestible, sustainable, and deeply nourishing. It took me twenty years to develop and field test it. The result is a method of five simple steps called the Spacious Way, a conscious approach to clearing that distills ancient principles in space clearing, modern science, mindfulness, and Kaizen: the Japanese concept of small steps leading to big changes through continuous improvement. That, in a nutshell, is what you experience and cultivate in this program.
DailyOM: What can students expect in the way of homework and actions?
SBV: What’s great about a whole year is that you have time to gain traction. And the daily practices are designed specifically with simplicity in mind (so as not to activate an overwhelmed or reactive mind). Through a series of inspirational messages, stories, and practice tools, the lessons provide a mix of conscious doing with conscious not doing. On the doing side, for example, you might be asked to rearrange a drawer with a specific goal in mind, or tune into a space by following specific guidelines in mindfulness. On the non-doing side, you might be invited to unplug for a short period of time, noticing the various internal weather patterns that it produces. Mostly what you will be getting each day is an opportunity to reflect on your experience of one of the five steps. There is no limit here. You can reflect as much or as little as you wish. What you receive from doing the daily practices is directly proportional to what you put into it. The most important thing to remember here is that without awareness and consistency we cannot create new habits and transformational change.
DailyOM: We all know that it can be difficult to let go of our “stuff,” the things that we attach to. We might be afraid to make that tough decision, or dread the empty space that remains after letting something go. How does your course help with these issues?
SBV: It does so beautifully. Here is why: stress and stuff does not grow overnight, and releasing it takes time: time to rewire the brain that goes into fight-or-flight; time to soften resistances; time to grow new habits that feel really good and create lasting change. The benefits of taking even just one minute to consciously slow down, simplify, sense, surrender, and cultivate self-care, consciously and daily, are beyond measure. If you’re willing to play the big game, the long game, and not just go after the quick fix, you will experience how the neglected areas of your home and heart light up and flourish when they are regularly tended; you will delight in discovering aspects about yourself you never knew existed; you will realize that clearing at this level is not a diet, it is a feast! By saying yes to a year, you are saying yes to you. All you have to do is take it one baby step a time.
DailyOM: Are there any tips you can share as to how to best approach this course and get the most out of it?
SBV: This 365-day course is divided into 52-weekly themes. The best way to approach it (and stick with it) is one week at a time. Even if you feel lame in your efforts or all you can handle is one minute of time, open each daily lesson (preferably at the same time of day) and read it with as much awareness as you can. Complete the daily practice with a notebook handy to jot down some impressions. Even if you have nothing to say, the simple act of writing something down seals in your commitment and resolve. The only way to grow new lasting habits is consistency. In this journey, this means daily.
DailyOM: What kind of feedback have you received from people who have taken your course?
SBV: Some of the spacious reveals that have emerged from those taking this course go from small to big. Here is one example: “As this course comes to its completion, but not really a ‘close,’ I am amazed, firstly, that I actually stayed with it. To boot, my notebook blossomed into an art book I love looking at and then thus, reviewing lessons. In some ways, it’s still the beginning of the course…a good feeling…lots more to look forward to.” Another participant told me: “I am amazed reading the letter I wrote [my future self] at the start of this course that I have achieved almost everything I set out to achieve. Where I haven’t quite got where I want to be, I am at least headed in the right direction.” Another great example: “In many ways I am in a better place for having followed this course. Some days I just set very small targets, and progressed all the same.”
Click here for more information about Stephanie’s Online Course
More…
- Q&A – DailyOM interviews Stephanie about her course A Year to Clear What Is Holding You Back
- Q&A – Stephanie answers questions about her journey with clutter, clearing, Marie Kondo, and other things
- “Homes are Like Us” – Stephanie’s shares what home means to her
