The magic that happens when you turn your attention towards your money...

Class starts tonight.  Magic.  I am ready and so excited to take a new group on the Indulgent Path!  Here's what someone from last year's group sent me last night about her experience. There are a lot of personal details here so I'm leaving off her name, it being the Internet and all...

"I took your Indulgent Path to Money Management class one year ago. At the time I was making a decent wage (50K), had minimal credit card debt (<1K), a fair credit score(620) and had a partner to share the bills with.

"I also had $10 in my savings account, roughly $500 in checking and spent an enormous amount of energy trying to figure out how to pay the next bill, what would happen in an emergency, and how could I possibly afford a vacation etc.

"I had no idea where all of my money went. I didn't understand how my unhealthy relationship with money was affecting my finances. I wanted more. More time, more freedom, more joy, more security and yes, a few more "things". I wanted the freedom to say "no" to things because I didn't want them, not because I couldn't afford them.

"A year later: I have 5k in savings, 1k in checking. My car is set to be paid off 10 months early. I bought a motorcycle (yes, it has a payment. But, I overpay it). My credit score is 710. We go out and have FUN every weekend. I started my own JOYFUL side business. I sleep well every night!

"I never wonder what I will do in an emergency. As a matter of fact a few months ago my dog, Pnut, needed to go to the vet. It was an emergency. $500 later he was fine and I didn't have to stress about the bill that I was able to pay for in cash! Two days later I hurt myself playing raquetball and was out of work for a week. Again, no stress about a lost week of pay as I had $$ saved!

"My partner and I are still together, happier than ever. We are planning a vacation. I don't know what it will be, but we can actually plan, not just wish!! We agree on how and when to spend our money.  No SECRETS!! No PRETENDING that I have what I don't.

"I know now where my money goes, and usually I am okay with how it's been spent. Once in a while I see that I might have been impulsive and I simply do it better next time. Here's an important lesson for me....I have often said, " I can't afford to" whatever...the truth that I have learned is really that I have often CHOSEN to spend my money on other "things" that seemed important to me at that time.

"I shared a lot because I think that some people really want to hear that they can get "there" from "here". That's not to say that I am not proud of how far I have come! I am! I am a hard worker and did everything that you asked of me in your class, but you are an excellent guide. You motivated, inspired and directed without ever making me feel small, shallow, insignificant or ashamed. That says a lot to me about a person. You rock!

"Oh!  And we also had a fabulous "STAYCATION" in Florida! Went sight seeing, jet skiing, stayed in a hotel on the beach, etc! For Christmas we hosted a Christmas party for 20 of our neighbors!

"My side job was able to employ an extra person who in turn who was then able to connect with someone who turned her on to a few side jobs of her own!!!! Spread the joy and the riches!"

Wow.  Just wow!  Hey, if you somehow didn't know about this class and are thinking you want to learn what this person did and turn your financial situation around, it's not too late to join in!  Click here to read more about it and sign up!  Let's make 2014 an amazingly prosperous and beautiful year!

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New space, new energy!

We have a saying in coach-land - your outer world reflects your inner world.  So if you're feeling stuck, jumbled, overwhelmed or otherwise out of sorts on the inside, there's often a part of your living space that reflects this. I see this with clients - they have a breakthrough and then they clean their entire home, or totally change their hair and clothes, or redo their bedroom, or toss all the old Tupperware in their kitchen.  And over the years I've seen it with myself.  Things that seemed so important to keep are suddenly needless clutter that is sucking my energy and making my space less livable.

My favorite example of this shifting is my new work space that I'm so in love with I can't even express it!  I now have a real place to work in my home - dedicated to just that!  The creation of this space has been in process since summer 2008.  That's when we converted the "junk room", which was basically like an indoor garage, into a serene space with French doors going out to a brand new deck.

Here's the transformation in pictures:  Before any changes, this space was a clutter repository and place to store the bicycles, cat food, tools, cleaning supplies and any and all other stuff we didn't know what to do with.  And it looked like this:

blue room

Talk about blocked energy! Then, when I quit my teaching job in 2008 and began working from home, the space became this - a complete transformation!

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It was still where we stored the bikes, but there was a fabulous futon where I could work. I was always a person who worked on a couch or on the bed, partly because my "official" desk in our house looked like this - still surrounded by the piles of teaching materials that I hadn't yet given away, sorted through or chucked.  It was a repository for papers and stuff I didn't want to deal with.  If you could do an "energy reading" of the space, I'm sure it would read something like BLOCKED, BLOCKED, BLOCKED!  STUCK!  BLECH!!!

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It was the Hoarders nook of the house.  I felt the energy suck from me every time I walked past it.  It didn't always look as bad as it does in this pic - sometimes the piles were small and there was nothing on the floor, but it was still a place for papers and other junk to go to die.

Interestingly, I've had a space like this in my life for as long as I can remember.  My childhood room grew messy fast.  Sometimes I got super-organized and fixed the room up just right, but it quickly deteriorated into paper piles.  The same thing happened in college. I had a place for everything in my little dorm room, but the desk was often the place where the disorder would start.  And I wouldn't ever sit there to work.  I would work from my bed or couch.

I had a friend in college who teased me about being a witch, because I could take my dorm room from completely wrecked to neat and orderly in about half an hour.  I just didn't have habits or routines to keep it that way. This continued once I was on my own.  I always had a dysfunctional desk space somewhere, and a whole lotta papers and junk around it.

So what's changed in the past week or two? Well, finally I have created a place to sit  and work, for real.  I have made a room I already love into a beautiful work space!  I feel all grown up and productive!  And my old desk area where that messy accumulation of papers was?  It's disappearing.  Nothing will be there soon, so it can be the new storage place for the bikes.

This transformation didn't happen overnight.  I had images of  beautiful work spaces on my vision board. I began collecting some little items that would eventually decorate the new area, like two ceramic bird candle holders in colors I loved. I just needed something to pull it all together.

Then everything changed with the big catalyst:  A table. My friend Elizabeth gifted me a beautiful round painted oak table that she no longer wanted.  Months before that, I had carted a bookshelf off the street, and added another piece of furniture to hold art supplies and other creative goodies.  But the table shifted everything.  Suddenly I had a place for those ceramic bird candles. And a place to sit and create.  With a view to the hummingbirds and blue jays outside.

Getting rid of the old desk space has shifted the energy in this house in amazing ways.  And having a place to "officially" work, that I LOVE, is making all the difference. I'm excited to sit down and get started, and then put it all away at the end of the day.

Here's the new space with the French doors open - it's almost like working outside!

sunshine windows

And being a person who loves re-purposing and saving things from landfills and consuming consciously, I love the story of the table before I received it.  Elizabeth rescued it too, from a relative's porch where it was languishing.  She did the hard work of cleaning and painting it, and used and loved it in her home for years.  And when she was ready to let it go, having rearranged her space (she's an excellent re-arranger of spaces) she passed it to me.

Want to make space shifts in your own world?  Here are some easy steps.

1. Find a space in your home that you're currently not happy with.  Imagine that space just as you'd like it - no holds barred.  Cut out images, draw pictures, collect color swatches - just imagine away!

2. On a regular basis - daily or weekly or whatever feels good to you - take away one thing that doesn't resonate with you in the space. Something that doesn't belong, that no longer serves you, or that you just don't like anymore.  Toss it, recycle it, sell it, donate it, relocate it.  Then replace it with something you love.  Or sometimes, just as effective, enjoy the open space of having nothing there! My little ceramic bird candles nested among the clutter for over a year while they waited for their perfect spot - but seeing them there reminded me that eventually I would fix a space for them that was just right! Little by little, one item at a time, you'll transform your space.

3. If you come from a long line of savers (as I do) be patient with yourself.  Take your time and just keep paying attention.  Something you thought you had to keep a month ago might now be clutter and ready to be released. If you rearrange and toss items more easily, you may be able to speed up the process and make a big change in a weekend!

4. Watch for big items (like my table!) that will catalyze the change and help your vision from step one become your reality!  And when you have a personal breakthrough, note how your space might not reflect the "old you" anymore, and be open to making the new space meet the needs of your new self!

5. If you need to, seek professional help.  Find someone who can help you gain some momentum.  If you're in the New Orleans area, try Stasia with Clear the Clutter - she comes highly recommended!

I'd love to hear your stories of shifting space and energy in your home or work space.  What have you done to create a space you love?

30 Day Challenge: Day 28 - closing in, looking forward

This is what makes it worth it - to get this far and see that it has made a difference - that things are better - that I have found time to draw!  Not having time is such a lie.  It's just about what we want to make sure we have time for; it's what we prioritize. Today I drew at one of my favorite places - a beautiful creek in Mississippi.  The weather was perfect for lazing on the sandy beach or drifting in the tea-colored water, while tiny fish nibbled on my ankles.

Looking forward, I plan to keep my current 30 day habits in place - they are part of what makes a difference to me in living my wild and precious life!  And I'm going to start another challenge.  I plan to: 1. Write in my journal every morning with great positivity and inspiration.  (I've already actually started this!) Writing is a great way to start the day, and over the past 30 days I have been writing something most days, but my plan is to be really intentional about positive writing that sets me up for a fantastic day.  I love doing this and it absolutely makes a difference for me!  2. Spend one dedicated hour each day (ideally in the morning!) working on specific projects, with all distractions like FB, blogging, email, etc. completely disconnected.  I've done some of this, but I haven't been super-intentional about it, and it's time for focused working to rise to the top of my list.  I'm excited about my new challenges and even better, I'm feeling peaceful and confident that I can keep up with my current ones.  I won't be blogging about my challenges anymore every day (it's a little time consuming!) but I'll keep you posted with a check in here and there, and I would LOVE to hear about your challenges!

30 Day Challenge: Day 27 - reveling in the routine

Day 27 -It's no longer weird to spend ten minutes a day in the grass.  It happens.  Either in the morning (often), in the afternoon (occasionally) or in the evening (sometimes.) It's not weird to open a bill, immediately record it in the finance book (it's autopay so I don't have to write a check), and file it, instead of allowing weeks and weeks of paperwork to stack up on the desk.

It's not weird to put on Pandora and sit down and play with my pastels.  It's part of what I look forward to.  It's my little oasis of creative time.  Half the time I don't know what I'm going to make until I sit down to start.

Today I meddled in abstract expressionism, unabashedly copying the style and colors of an artist whose work I saw in a local art publication.   Let me tell you, next time you go to a gallery and see abstract art and think to yourself, "That looks easy - I could do that!", think again.  Abstract art is not just scribbling.

I've been sitting in the same spot for the past few days for my grass time.  I think it's a path the turtle regularly takes, in front of the brick edging.  I think I found her scat, full of berry seeds.  I sit in the grass and notice all kinds of treasures.  Feathers. Snail shells.  Tiny jumping spiders standing still then hopping two inches in a split second.  And today, this cicada shell.

The cicada larva, who lived under ground for months if not years, eventually emerged from the soil, its body still covered in dirt. It split its shell and climbed out, jewel-toned, and took to the sky.  It's probably still flying around up in the pine tree, singing its loud cicada song.

It's made a complete transformation.  A completely new routine.  It doesn't even look the same anymore.

Sometimes it's harder for us humans to recognize the changes from a shift in routine.  Especially if our surroundings appear to be mostly the same.  What I notice is that I can breathe, and I do breathe.  The little wind-up tension in my jaw rarely makes an appearance, and when it does, I pay attention and shift what I'm doing.

What almost unnoticeable shifts do you see happening for yourself?

30 Day Challenge - day 24 - filling the space

Ok - this is interesting.   I don't have paper piles anymore.  And that means I can fill the space.  Not the physical space - I don't need anything in the place where the paper piles were!  I mean the mental space - the emotional space- the "worrying about what's in the pile that I haven't dealt with" space. I can fill that new beautiful empty space with relaxing, with reading, with coaching, with drawing, with writing, with hanging out with the cats in the grass, or enjoying wine and cheese with friends on the back deck.

Granted, I did these things when I had the paper piles too, but there was a corner of my mind taken up with thinking about the un-done stuff - a little messy stressy place in my mind to match the disordered places in the house.

Sometimes opening up space like that is scary.  What's going to go in that new space? It's like when you quit smoking, or quit bingeing, or quit hanging out with those toxic people, or quit your all night Netflix marathons - what are you supposed to do in place of that thing you used to do?  How will you spend that free time/space/money/energy?

I'm still amazed that I've made space for drawing every day but one for the past 24 days.  That's pretty cool.  Here's the progress on my turtle:

And here's a beautiful treat - the Queen of the Night bloomed last night.  Each flower only lasts one night - so lovely and fragrant! The flowers are the size of softballs.

What are you doing with newfound space?  Or what to you need to change to make space for what you love?  What will you be able to do, without any excuses in your way, once you make space?