MGU 78 | Infinite Possibilities

 

The importance of our own indoor space has become more felt in this time of isolation and social distancing. As we are thrust into our homes, we are all slowly coming to realize and take notice of the things we have been taking advantage of. Our rooms mirror how we are feeling, and if it is just as chaotic as the world outside, then it will only create more stress in this already uncertain time. Jason Wrobel and Whitney Lauritsen invite someone whose expertise is very timely in the current situation we are all facing now. They talk with Dana Claudat, a modern Feng Shui Master and founder of The School Of Intention Feng Shui Certification Program. Having pioneered her approach to Feng Shui that is rooted in infinite possibility, creativity, and empowerment, Dana guides us in this episode to re-engage with our environment and make sustainable changes that help us heal and love ourselves more. She helps us reframe uncertainty into infinite possibilities where we see the unpredictable future in a more hopeful light, letting go of the things we can’t control and focusing on what you can, starting with your home.

Listen to the podcast here


 

From Uncertainty To Infinite Possibilities: On Feng Shui And Home Love With Dana Claudat

Several years ago, I had the wonderful pleasure, Dana, of inviting you over to my loft in Koreatown here in Los Angeles. I remember that experience being magical of getting to watch you in real-time over the course of 4 or 5 hours. You were in my home going through and creating this wonderful energy and this amazing experience of reinvigorating the energetics of my space. That was my first taste of your magical and masterful work with feng shui. I’ve been reflecting on that not only because here we are in this show and getting to have this beautiful intimate conversation with you, but spending so much time indoors during this quarantine period, I’ve been looking around my space being like, “We’re social distancing, but I could use Dana’s support with the new house. We’re not seeing each other in person. What do I do?”

First of all, I wanted to remember that beautiful memory of having you in my previous space and how much you brightened up the energy there. It also got me thinking, with everyone spending so much time indoors. What have you seen in terms of people re-imagining their spaces? You probably haven’t been going into people’s homes to do in-person consultations. What’s the experience been for you as this feng shui master receiving requests, emails, and DMs from people like, “Help me. My space feels stagnant.” What’s that been like for you during this quarantine period?

Jason, it was so much fun thinking back to when we met, thinking about your house, and how things have all transformed since then. Since this has all happened, I have to say it’s been such an eye-opener. There have been many people reaching out with a whole different awareness of, “I didn’t realize my house was like this.” I don’t know if you know this but my first experience with feng shui was when I was forced into my house for months. When I got sick, that’s how I found feng shui because I was like, “What am I doing with my place? How do I live in a place like this?” It was many years ago, I just got out of the hospital. It was all crazy. I saw my house and I was like, “What is this? I don’t even have anything on the walls. I barely unpacked.”

I started learning for myself while I was stuck at home and anything I could find. There was little to find then, but I tried everything I could. From there, I started to make a connection and it was out of this forced indoors. Here we are and a lot of people read the work and some people try one thing or try another. It’s heartwarming, brilliant, and amazing to see that many people are doing it, trying it, and having the experience of making the change. It’s exciting. What’s happening right now isn’t exciting, but it’s exciting to see people engaging with their environment because when we come out of this, it’s going to be supportive to have that sense that you do have a home, that you’re grateful to have a home, and that you’re connected to your home. It’s beautiful.

What comes up for me, Dana, when you talk about people having this new re-imagining or relationship with their home space, especially during periods of stay at home. Here in LA, there’s this go-go mentality, especially in big cities like LA, New York City, San Francisco, Chicago. We could name a lot of megalopolises and massive metropolitan areas. It’s interesting because for a lot of people, myself included at a lot of different points, have not thought about creating a sacred, balanced, and energetically pleasing home space because I’d be in my car all day long or hustling on set, shooting, or whatever the case may be. It’s probably uncomfortable for a lot of people to be in their homes as much as they are.

I’m speaking from my personal experience, but what you said spark that in me. Maybe for the first time, a lot of people are in their home space way more than they’re used to and being like, “Maybe I do want to change the paint colors in my bedroom. Maybe I do want to Marie Kondo my closet. Maybe I do feel like there is weird, icky, stagnant energy here.” For some people, maybe it’s the first time they’re ever having that intimate of an experience with the space they live in, which is exciting and also probably super uncomfortable for people.

It’s interesting because the word intimacy when it comes to a home is something we recognize when you’re having people over or you’re having a date come over or you’re having your family visit. Suddenly, we all recognize that we don’t want anyone to see our house the way that it is. We all get focused on how we’re going to present our home to the world. On some level, we all know that the home is an intimate space. In feng shui and the way that I practice it, your home is incredibly revealing. It’s a mirror view. It’s also a mirror of your energy. It shows you lots of blind spots that you might have in your life that you don’t see, but you and see them in your home. There’s this incredible, powerful thing happening in a house.

Flashing back years ago, when I was put into my home and I couldn’t leave for a while, I looked around and I was like, “This is what my life has been like and I haven’t noticed it before.” We were talking before about, what have I been busy doing? Why do I have suddenly so much time to do things? It wasn’t like I was out necessarily every minute of the day, but this showed me in my space, it showed me in my life. I had a lot of clutter and I’ve been in the effect of a lot of things. For a lot of people, you start to see in your home, “I didn’t realize my closet looks like this. Maybe my walls are a weird color. Maybe it’s time to invest a little bit of energy and doing a deep cleaning.” Also, it’s this massive confrontation with one’s self and that’s what a home is. It’s confronting yourself in many ways.

I’ve seen this metaphor thousands of times and when you start to actively engage in changing your space, suddenly you have this massive opportunity to change yourself on a deep level without having to necessarily get into the psychology of it. As Steve Jobs said, “You connect the dots looking back at all the things that have changed.” I encourage people instead of getting bummed out, frustrated, or overwhelmed being at home and seeing the state of their home is not what they want it to be, but rather to get inspired. Even if you have closets full of clutter, even if you have a mess, or things to clean or there’s so much going on, you have this major opportunity to make huge changes that will resonate in you and in your whole life.

Your home shows you the blind spots that you might have in your life that you don't see. Click To Tweet

This brings up an interesting point of the psychology for a lot of people. It’s this reflection of oneself. A home space is a reflection of oneself. What comes up for me specifically is wondering how deep into the psychology with a person you go. There’s one thing that I’ve noticed and I’m still working on, that is you brought up clutter. Whitney as my best friend can definitely attest to the weird food that is way expired. One of my big things is I hold on to expired food. There’s a weird science experiment in the back of my refrigerator or the back of my cabinets that I damn well know are there. Yet, there’s this strange deep subconscious belief system of lack that I’m now aware.

If I get rid of this food or I get rid of these old Maxim Magazines from the ‘90s or whatever the hell it is, there’s some part of me that associates the acquisition and keeping of certain material things with, “I’m safe now. I’m not going to go without it.” That’s probably part of my upbringing of struggling in a family financially when I was little. Somehow now as an adult, I’ve got this psychological tendency to hold on to things a little too long because somehow, I’ve associated that with safety or control. I know that’s a long rant but I’m curious when you work with people, Dana. How much do people reveal to you in terms of their psychology or their psychosis around certain habits or things in their homes?

Whitney has experienced my work firsthand. For those people who know how I work, I don’t work with judgment. A lot of feng shui comes out of space from a place of there are the rules and you follow the rules and then you get the results. You follow the rules. It’s not about the person. It’s about the rules. We’re all different. It seems bizarre or it seems shortchanging people to make this about, “I have to judge you because your bed doesn’t face in this direction. We have to put your bed in an awkward place and all these things.” Instead of doing any of that, I start with the person. It starts with tailoring a space to a person and what you specifically need.

I pick up naturally and we all do. Both of you and everyone reading can look at a bunch of pictures of people’s homes and you can look at TV shows of people’s homes and you can walk into your friends’ houses when we could and when we will again. You learn so much about them from what’s in their space. You pick it up whether you have any training in feng shui or not. My approach to everything is we’re all human and there’s no judgment involved. There’s no, “You broke a rule. There’s bad luck coming. Something terrible is going to happen.” I see a bunch of themes. I see a bunch of things. Usually, when a client is with me or when I’m working with them online and we’re talking about a space, it becomes clear that there are patterns like the pattern you mentioned, you realize it for yourself.

Because there’s no judgment involved, I am certainly not a perfect person sitting on a pedestal saying, “Anyone who doesn’t have a completely decluttered and pristinely organized life is a loser. You’re missing out.” There’s none of that. From that place, people start to talk. They start to open up. I ask a lot of questions. I don’t force people to reveal deep things but it tends to lead to deeper things because people want to make real changes. For everyone who’s had me come over and says, “I want a new relationship. I want more money. I want this. I want that.” Underneath it, it’s something much bigger. My focus is always, how can I help create a framework with you to get to this higher place, to more real self-actualization rather than, let’s do a bunch of little tricks in your house so that you get a little bit more money or you get a little bit more of this? Rather, how do we make sustainable changes? It naturally comes out.

I teach this method. I always tell my students that comes out usually towards the end of a consultation, someone will say, “I didn’t mention this but I’m also an award-winning painter and I haven’t painted in twenty years.” It’s usually unfolding and then people become comfortable revealing things. I’m not a psychologist, a therapist, or a trauma therapist. I refer people to people to get the help and support that they need. Ultimately, your home is showing you so much. You don’t necessarily even have to understand it all. Making the changes and bringing your intention to the space and diving in and doing the process can be groundbreaking. You’ll notice the change and then you’ll go, “What was that?”

What comes up for me in all this in terms of the emotional content too is, Whitney and I are very much about getting intimate and vulnerable. It seems to me that there can be some interesting emotions that might arise from your story, Dana, talking about years ago, and what you went through in this period of isolation and working on your health. It also seems to me that going into people’s homes and seeing these aspects of them in these intimate spaces, to me it sounds like it could get emotional sometimes. Do you see that people open up to you in a way or start crying or any moments where you’re like, “This got vulnerable and deep?” It sounds to me like that’s a wonderful opportunity as people crack themselves open and show them more of who you are.

To me, it shows the willingness that people are willing to go through to let somebody in their home and be like, “This is my thing.” It goes back to more about your journey. To loop it back a long question of your origin story of what you went through in terms of your personal health and that level of getting real with yourself. For a lot of people, myself included, I’ve battled certainly a lot of health issues in my life. I felt a lot of shame and guilt around certain things that were going on with my personal health. I want to jump back quick to your personal health journey and the start of this for you and how that shaped your life and who you are as a person.

In terms of how emotional people get, I sometimes cry before my clients do. Sometimes I am the person who gets the most emotional. It’s all whatever happens. When I was grounded, I was grounded by life. It came out of self-help, which is the irony of me being here and doing this. I grew up with a lot of failure to help people. I had a lot of things around me. My dad was an interesting character. He was away in jail for part of my childhood. There was a lot of turmoil. There was a lot of uncertainty all the time and I wanted to help. A lot of us are empathic, intuitive kids. All people are intuitive and empathic. I wanted to help badly and I kept failing to have the tools to help.

MGU 78 | Infinite Possibilities

Infinite Possibilities: Your home is really incredibly revealing. It’s a mirror of you and your energy.

 

As soon as my dad re-emerged in California, and this is in the ‘80s, suddenly he was Mr. Yoga, meditation, Tony Robbins, everything. When I was 10, 11, I started getting these books. I started getting these things. I started visiting him and getting these cassette tapes. It was cassette tapes time. I was immersed in self-help. Even with these tools, I couldn’t change and I didn’t see him changing either. I couldn’t change what was happening even though I knew that there was truth in them. I saw that they were working for some people. It was this massive search for answers that I was on forever.

I felt like in some ways I was broken or I didn’t have the answers and other people did. I went bananas in search of them, which led me to the moment before my total collapse. I didn’t get sick from partying too much or doing things that were wild and crazy. I got sick from driving myself to be a perfect person. It was intense self-help. It was intense optimization of everything. Everything was intense. I was driven. If you said, “You can do this a few times and it’ll be okay,” I’ll do it 100 times and it still wouldn’t be enough for me. It leveled me. I drove myself with stress into the hospital. My life was completely the opposite of anything optimal. The biggest thing was I didn’t feel like I was supposed to be happy until I got through finding whatever answers I was looking for.

When I was sick and then I was grounded at home and I was confronting all of this stuff, I realized, “What about all the things I liked to do? What about all the art in my world? What about all this stuff? Maybe I’ll go get a PhD. Maybe I’ll do this. What happened to me? Where did I get convinced that I was broken? How do I unconvince myself of that?” That’s when I started doing the work of having more fun and searching for more happiness. That all came into changing my home, bringing in the habits that I wanted, bringing in the things that I was excited about, bringing in painting, bringing in writing again, all these things that I let go. That was how it all came to be. I never intended for this to be a career. It’s why I’m emphatic about the fact that we can get all this data, but it’s useless if we don’t use it and no one is broken. My mega journey of health was to understand that I couldn’t change myself or fix myself or anything myself because I didn’t need to be changed or fixed. I needed to be able to just be.

Doesn’t that go against the prevailing narrative of so much work in the self-help or the self-improvement arena? One of the things that Whitney and I have talked a lot about on this show is the idea of being a perfectionist. It sounds a lot like what you described that was trying to make everything perfect or be perfectly healed or perfectly evolved or control the circumstances that were out of control in your family life or personal life, which I know I can relate to on a lot of levels. It’s an interesting thing though because one of the prevailing messages in the self-help community is this idea that there is an ultimate state to get to.

I feel like a lot of marketing and a lot of people pitch this thing of, “If you follow my ten-step program to make $1 million or to let go of all of your trauma.” The way you’re presenting it is interesting because it’s almost like flipping the script of instead of assuming that we’re broken, or we’re fucked up, or there’s a bunch of things that need to be fixed. I’m curious psychologically on how you handled moving through what seems like a strive for perfectionism into learning to accept yourself as you are. To me, one of the most difficult things to do as human beings is to learn self-acceptance and we’re not messed up. To me, that’s what comes up in all this. Whitney, what are your feelings on that?

I’m also curious about what led you to the work that you’re doing now. As I was listening to you, personally, I don’t hear that many people talking about the role the home plays in your healing. As you’re speaking, I’m reflecting on my home and realizing that I don’t give my home as much love as I give other things because I feel like the wellness, self-help world doesn’t put that much emphasis on it. You hear about crystals and how to decorate your home but a lot of the work that you’re doing is on such a deeper level. I’m curious how that evolved in your life and what led you to that path and realizing how much you wanted to support people with shifting the energy in their homes and how that can help heal them and how that helped you as well.

It’s definitely a paradigm shift from a quick fix for sure, Jason. Whitney, I understand there’s not a lot of emphasis. There’s Marie Kondo, which was the big popular culture realization. There have been people before who’ve put an emphasis on clutter and clearing it and its dramatic what can happen by clearing clutter. To me, this whole idea of loving your home is an extension of loving yourself. When it comes to how I got out of the depths of perfectionism, I’ll say the number one thing that I don’t want anyone else to have to do was to confront my own mortality. I’ve had to do it several times until the message stuck.

As a kid, it was one specific thing. It was a life or death eating disorder. As an adult, I’ve had two rounds of autoimmune to finally go, “Okay,” and serious stuff like several weeks in the hospital stuff that I’m grateful that finally the message took. I started to understand for myself, “I’m here. Does it matter what I do? What am I going to gain from being perfect? What am I missing?” I started to see that there was so much that I was missing out on because I was holding myself in some sort of prison of perfect. I realized that had nothing for me personally to do with being perfect. It had to do with forgiving a lot of people. It had to do with forgiving myself. It had to do with understanding that what if I was never some super awesome anything? Would it matter if I live my life well and if I had an incredible experience of being here?

There were a few times confronting my mortality that I had to choose like, “Am I going to go down the path if everything is out of control? Am I going to choose to want to live and thrive and be better?” I don’t want people to have to get to that place and to have that choice. That’s why I’ve been a real champion of the idea that you miss out when you try to be perfect. You even miss out on a tremendous amount of success. All of those make seven-figures in a weekend, things are starting to fall on deaf ears. It’s such noise and it’s unfortunate. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making seven-figures in a weekend. I certainly don’t think that there’s a way to do whatever it is and guarantee this or else here’s another program to get to this.

Loving your home is an extension of loving yourself. Click To Tweet

I was averse and almost allergic to the idea of having a business that had anything to do with anything like this. I didn’t even intend to have a business. When I was getting better and was working on my space, was seeing when I cared for my space and my energy, and when I understood that how I felt was being reflected in my home. Even when you’re having a bad day, you start to see, “The dishes can pile up. This can go. That can go.” If you do something as simple as saying, “I’m having a shitty day. I’m going to put on a podcast and wash the dishes and that will be great.”

Suddenly that gives you a little bit more momentum and then you start to see, “There are a few other things I can do. Maybe I can fold my clothes. Maybe I can do some laundry. Maybe I can walk my dogs.” It’s these small incremental things working with your environment where you can start to shift the energy around you. I became obsessed with how brilliant it was working for me because I no longer had to “force” myself into a mindset. Instead, I was living in it. There are plants everywhere. There are colors that I love. There’s my intention in my space. I don’t have to sit and try to make it happen. Instead, it was all around me. I started sharing it for fun. There was no wellness world. There were no big platforms. There was certainly no Instagram. There was nothing. There were no podcasts. There was none of it. I started sharing it on a Tumblr blog, which was the thing of the moment. I was sharing it for fun.

It was a lot of art. It was all the things I loved. I did it every day. I had a whole different career. It was crazy what happened. People started to reach out. They want to do it, understand more, and want to know more. Suddenly my years of all this self-help immersion and all of this stuff got activated in my life. It was like, “In some way, you were training for this since you were a little kid.” It’s been interesting. I kept following what felt right to me. I don’t fit in the traditional realm of feng shui because a lot of it is superstitious. A lot of it takes your power away. A lot of it is prescriptive. Every house needs this here and this here. I feel like you’re unique. The words you use, Whitney, of bringing love to your home is much more important than trying to create perfect rules and abide by them all.

I love that you brought that up. First of all, I find feng shui to be confusing. I remember when I first heard about it and I asked some questions, I felt like the person I was talking to is like, “It’s much deeper than that.” I felt like, “This is over my head. I’m not even going to look further into it.” I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of it. I did The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Is that feng shui? Were you bringing that up as an example of how that helped people tune into their homes? I still feel confused. I don’t even know if I would call that feng shui. That to me was such a great introduction to tuning into your home and the energy in it. I feel like there are many other levels to it. There are people out there that might give you the rules, etc. What’s wonderful about your work is that you’re customizing it to each person and helping them tune into what’s important for them versus reading a book and following the generic instructions. I’m fascinated by it for that reason because I feel like its deep.

Marie Kondo did everyone an amazing service and helping people to start connecting to your home, getting rid of the stuff, clearing space, whether it’s clearing clutter, clearing stuck energy, recognizing your habits in terms of what you’re holding on to. Is it out of a sense of scarcity? Why am I holding on to this stuff? All of these things and being willing even if you feel, “What could happen if I throw this away or if I recycle it or if I give it away?” You’re doing it anyway because you don’t need it, because it’s not bringing you joy. That’s brilliant and it was an opening for a lot of people and into this world of the magic of your home. What is it that your home can do for you?

I like to use this analogy of we always think of mind, body, and spirit. However you want to imagine it, we’re made of mind, body and spirit. We won’t exist without a place. You wouldn’t watch a movie without a set design. It would be weird. It’s even hard to watch theater if there are no props or no things. There’s always an environment. Sometimes no environment is the environment. There’s always an environment that people are interacting within. With feng shui, the way that I first saw it, I was confused. I was overwhelmed. I can’t even still use a compass, forget about figuring it out. I tried to do it on my phone once for something that needed to face east that had nothing to do with feng shui. I couldn’t figure it out. I was walking around shaking my phone and trying to figure out how to make it go north. I was like, “This is not for me.”

What I started to see over and over again was that when things are complex and difficult to do, for me it’s a red flag, unless it’s a mathematical thing or unless there’s some legal thing. When things like taking care of your home and setting up an environment are complex that you’re left confounded, there’s something wrong. Whenever things get too complicated, I feel like there’s always something going on. Someone overlaid their complexities upon something that could be easy. Back in the day, feng shui was all about survival. When it first began, it was all about getting connected to the earth, understanding how the elements were affecting your life so that you had the optimal way to survive. All the schools of thought and all the things that have been laid on top of these tools are confusing and confounding.

For a lot of people, it’s even sometimes terrifying. I’ve had a lot of people send me messages. I see this all the time. I get these emails, “Please help me. I heard that I’m going to get divorced because my bed is in this place. I found out that my door faces the wrong direction and there’s nothing I can do this year. This year is supposed to be bad health for me or it’s supposed to be bad luck. The number of my house like your address, you have the wrong address and it means that you’re going to be unfortunate,” and all of these horrible things to tell people. How crazy it can be? Working with people to untangle the mess of that has been one of the reasons why it pushed me further and further forward into doing what I do the way that I do it. I get it. I would never have done feng shui if feng shui was what was initially presented to me. I couldn’t ethically do it.

What comes up in that whole statement that jumps out, Dana, is the power of belief systems. You talked about numerology or the person whose bed might be in the death position or their feet are facing the bedroom door, whatever it might be. What came up for me was the power of intrinsic embodied energy and power dynamics versus the belief systems that we assigned to those things. I remember the first apartment I had when I moved to Chicago. When I was getting my bachelor’s degree I moved to Chicago when I was 21 years old. I lived on the thirteenth floor. I remember a lot of people having this reaction and they’re like, “You live on the thirteenth floor.”

MGU 78 | Infinite Possibilities

Infinite Possibilities: You really miss out when you try to be perfect. You even miss out on a tremendous amount of success.

 

First of all, they were mystified that I lived in a building that even had a thirteenth floor, but then they were like, “Why would you even choose that?” I remember telling people, friends, and family members, I’m like, “It doesn’t hold any power to me.” I’m not thinking that the elevator is going to come crashing to my death. Because I live on the thirteenth floor, something bad is going to happen. I remember all of these people trying to impose their fears and their beliefs on top of the numerology of living on the thirteenth floor. Quite frankly, I couldn’t give a shit. My experience there was fantastic. It was a great place to live. I remember what you’re saying, the superstition or the belief systems and how much that can color our experience of life when perhaps we have a choice whether or not to give it power.

The great thing about you in that circumstance is that you didn’t allow it to have power over you. It’s funny. I’m raising my hand as guilty and maybe many intelligent and sensible people have been They are extremely wise and I consider them to have incredibly great judgment. You get told something by an expert and that’s the wild thing. There’s superstition and then there’s superstition imposed or values and idea systems imposed by experts. If an expert tells you, “I’m sorry to say this but 2020, 2021, you might as well not leave your house. It’s going to be shitty.” That was partially accurate. This is the kind of thing that you could be told at any moment.

When it comes from an expert, I’ve had people that has been told, “Your home address is this and that means this.” This one woman had never had a financial problem before in her life and then suddenly she’s told by a feng shui person that her home address means that her finances are going to always be unstable. She tries to laugh it off but is mildly concerned about it and tries to let it go and notices that suddenly her finances are becoming more unstable. If anyone is reading this who is an expert, one of the things I stress when I train people in this work is your words are powerful. If you have any platform and you’re expert in anything, even with one single person, your words are powerful because people are investing a lot in what you say. Once that judgment hits some vulnerability or triggers something in someone, it’s damaging. I like to say that there are people who are immune to it. Jason, I’m glad you were. There are some people where if the right person comes up to them and says something, it’s like, “Oh no.” It’s a big deal. I’m a crusader against superstition.

I love that you brought that up because conscious languaging is such a huge part of the conversations that we have here and choosing the right words that represent your aim and being mindful of how other people are responding to it. That’s part of what makes feng shui seem confusing to someone like me. You hear other people talking about it in a way that doesn’t resonate with you or they speak above your head or maybe they use terms that feel like it’s some superstitious thing. There could be something that you hear and you feel a little bit turned off to it and that can happen with anything. We hear this term woo-woo get thrown around so much and people start to think, “That’s not for me. I don’t like that.” What I’m hearing from you, Dana, is that you’re taking an approach that not everybody takes. That’s the beauty of your work and being mindful of how it’s affecting people and helping them reach their goals and it might not be what they think it is. Your ability to be aware of how you’re positioning it is helpful.

I appreciate that so much. It comes from being on the receiving end because I sought it out. I sought out every expert to tell me how to live. Because I sought it out for long, I’ve been on the receiving end of, “You must do this. You must do that. You must eat food every day that is a rainbow on your plate.” It would drive me mad. I would be looking for something purple to put on my plate every day, “You must have this.” This sounds silly looking back at all the things I invested my energy, money, and energy in. It was a must system. Ultimately, it’s almost impossible to tailor your life to someone else’s belief systems completely and thoroughly. If I deviated from it, if I didn’t eat all rainbow-colored food for a while, if I didn’t do this thing, then I felt I wasn’t doing enough. I’ve also been told a lot of things by healers, by psychics, by people who were maybe not mindful of what they were saying or maybe they didn’t communicate what they wanted to say clearly. I was an open book. I allowed a lot of doors to be closed for me because of that, “Don’t go there. Don’t do this. You got to do this. You got to do that.”

Talk about this might get uncomfortable, I moved to Los Angeles because my psychic told me to move to Los Angeles. I did it over a weekend when I was here visiting with my boyfriend. We were staying in Beverly Hills. I woke up and I was like, “By the way, I’m staying.” He’s like, “What?” I was like, “I’m going to go look for an apartment right now. Since you’re back and forth, this will be fine.” I was like, “I have to do it. There’s no other way.” He was shocked and perplexed and I was like, “It’s what I got to do. It’s what I was told. She’s famous.” I love her very much. She’s a wonderful person. I don’t think that she thought I was going to take what she said literally, but that was me.

I love that. I’m intrigued by psychics. If you want to share any more about that, I would love to hear that because we haven’t dived that far into it. A number of my friends are into working with psychics. Before that, I feel like what you’re saying here is coming back around to the perfectionism. This has come up in a lot of episodes that we’ve done, how often with any element of health and well-being there is a lot of different paths that you can go down. We can get stuck in this idea of following the rules and trying to do everything right because we’re attached to an outcome.

We think that if we follow somebody’s exact strategy then we’ll get what we want. What happens is there’s so much conflicting information out there that it starts to become confusing and overwhelming. You end up having this long list of things to do. You get wrapped up in the perfectionism and that’s what I hear from you. I’ve experienced that so much myself too. Sometimes I end up giving up. It’s like, “This is way too much for me. I’m not even going to bother.” People say this a lot when it comes to food. It’s like, “Even a plant-based diet is complicating. I’m never doing it right. I have to think about it too much. It’s taking too much mental energy. I give up.”

When it comes to eating unprocessed food, it’s too hard to avoid it because I find myself reading the nutritional labels for so long. I feel like no matter what I eat, there’s something in it that I’m not supposed to have. I can relate to that feeling. I’ve gone through a lot of different phases of that in my life and luckily, I don’t necessarily give up. I’ll sometimes pause and wait for a time that I feel either more ready or an approach from somebody like yourself that feels more in alignment with me. I found a lot of people simply give up and that is something worth exploring, too. It seems to me like you’re trying to help people find what works for them and that’s nice to know.

We're made of mind, body, and spirit, but we won't exist without a place. Click To Tweet

Isn’t that the greatest diet thing? You start the diet and then you fall apart one day and then you’re like, “I’ll start the diet again in two weeks,” or something like that. That’s always the thing. It’s always this all or nothing philosophy. When you’re working with a home, the interesting thing is it’s difficult to be all or nothing. I’ll even tell my clients, and I know I told this to Jason and he did it progressively, but when you’re shifting things in your home and it’s done all at once, it’s overwhelming, but it’s also a lot of work. It’s not necessarily making one shift. Sometimes, I’ll hang a piece of art and I’m like, “I accomplished something great for my home today.” That was such a huge change. It’s a little different than necessarily what you’re going to cook or what smoothie are you going to have in the morning. Those are all easier things to accomplish but when you’re making home changes, even cleaning your home, it’s a big energy commitment.

My goal is always, how does that feel better? How does that not be overwhelming? How does that be exciting? I’ve followed this in my life clearly and it’s something that hopefully people take away from my work wherever they see it. That’s the energy with which you do things is more important than what you do. I’ve heard people say, “You don’t need to have all these perfect things or do all of these things. It’s the energy that you do them with that’s going to change everything.” It’s the difference between showing up and being the creator of your life rather than showing up and feeling like you have to do all these things in order to then be someone.

I’ve gotten clear about the energy with which I do things. It’s filtered into the way that I eat now after what’s been happening during this quarantine and all the things that have come out about what’s happening with animals. I’m pretty much done. I ate little meat for a long time and it was probably 80% vegan. I don’t have dairy or anything else. I’m hands clean done because it became clear to me that the energy behind it was totally not anything I could stand behind if this was the whole complex in the industry of it.

There’s a term I saw on your website, “Food Shui”.

The energy behind the food that you eat, eating more intuitively, and understanding that there is energetics to everything. If someone comes to me and says, “I want to energize my home and energize my stuff at the same time.” I’ve had clients like this because I don’t work only with people in LA where there’s a real “health focus” or New York or major cities, but also people who live in places where these foods are not easily available. Where it’s difficult to have unprocessed food to talk about, “How can you eat a little bit more intuitively? Can we start growing some herbs? Can we start doing some things?” Even if your home is amazing, if your energy doesn’t feel right, if you don’t feel good, your home will help you to feel better. Ultimately, if your home is amazing and you’re eating McDonald’s every day, it’s like that Karate Kid analogy, wax on, wax off. You take one step forward and one step back. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about what’s going to feel better.

For people that have been desensitized, and this is a question for both of you, Whitney and Dana because I’m curious about it. We get such a message especially in American society in particular, not exclusively, but since we are here and we live in Los Angeles in America, there’s this mentality we see with different luminaries whether it’s entrepreneurs or athletes or celebrities or whatever. They hustled their way, they clawed their way, the blood, sweat, tears, and the years of agonizing over this, and then they finally triumphed.

There’s a pervasive narrative that gets filtered down to us from these “avatars” or luminaries or people with these massive success stories of how hard they worked, how much they grinded, the sleepless nights, the blood, the doubt, the sweat, and all the things I mentioned. Yet Dana, what you’re talking about is a sense of joyfulness. You’ve brought up the word, joy, multiple times that have perked my ears up or fun or excitement. Often in those narratives of success at all costs, there’s not a lot of joy or fun or pleasure being talked about in those legends of those people we ought to aspire to. It’s mostly like gritting your teeth, grinding it out, being relentless, and doing anything as required. Whereas the ends justify the means.

I’m curious for both of you, how do we work to decode or deconstruct these old narratives that have been injected into us over the course of our lives and say, “Maybe success at all costs isn’t the greatest value in my life. Maybe making a ton of money, being famous, and doing everything I can to be a rockstar in my industry isn’t the highest good. Maybe it is joy or maybe it is a service.” I’m curious, how do we start to deconstruct that and rewrite those scripts for ourselves?

I’m curious to see what Whitney has to say, but I can tell you for me that my years of gritting my teeth, hustling, and all the stuff, were far less successful. I still work a ton and I want to disentangle the idea of working a lot, or creating a lot, or making a lot from this horrible arduous nature to it because I do work all the time and I love it. People say, “Don’t consider it work.” No, it is still work. I still have to show up and do things, but I love it. It’s fun and I feel grateful to be able to do it. If I don’t want to do something and I push and force myself, I have no success or it’s minimal. It falls flat.

MGU 78 | Infinite Possibilities

Infinite Possibilities: Bringing love to your home is so much more important than trying to create perfect rules and abide by them all.

 

For me, in terms of doing things that are sustainable and that are going to be this new paradigm people are starting to muse over with all that we’re going through in the world, personally, I feel like there’s a move toward maybe it doesn’t. I don’t have to be the rockstar in my industry or maybe being happier, more fulfilled, and feeling good will bring me more of those things. As soon as I said that I’m not going to suffer anymore, I’m not going to struggle anymore, and I’m not going to do it. I’m going to instead show up, give all that I’ve got in a creative way and be creatively self-expressed. I don’t care what other people think or how they respond. It’s like the floodgates opened and it keeps getting better. That’s what I encourage all my students to do, all the people in my programs, everyone on the blog, everyone I talked to, and all my friends. It’s like, “What if you showed up and you were truly excited and did the things that were exciting and felt better?” Usually, it’s more successful too. Whitney, I’m dying to know what you have to say.

We’re on the same page with a lot of that. Something I need to remind myself of almost daily is letting go. For the three of us, I imagine you can relate to a lot of this, Dana. We have been rising and growing our careers in a time where there were a lot of people that felt like they’re rushing to be the best or become the most influential, powerful, successful, and make the most money. There’s been a lot of this energy and it’s still there but maybe I’ve shifted a lot. Likewise with you, Dana. I don’t always need to lead with my credentials. I don’t need to convince somebody of my importance because of the testimonials I have, how many followers I have, what magazines I was featured in, all of these things, and leading with a lot of that external value.

More and more for me, it’s about the deeper internal elements. It also goes back to something Jason said before about scarcity. Ultimately, that is about scarcity. It’s like, “I don’t have enough.” Yet, what’s neat is we’re seeing a lot of shifts towards the internal side of it. For example, especially when it comes to our homes, you see this rise of the minimalist movement. In the past several years, it’s become bigger. You see a lot of younger people, a lot of times they’re in their 20s or early 30s having this huge desire to live minimally. I know Jason has been dreaming of a tiny house for many years. I don’t know if he still is as excited about it as he once was. I find myself wanting that more and I think about that a lot during COVID.

It’s like, “What don’t we need?” One of the beautiful things about being at home so much is not only focusing on what we have and how we can shift the energy but, “Maybe I don’t need to go out and buy all these things all the time.” If I am going to buy something, is it something that truly brings me joy and serves a purpose? Does it feel necessary? It’s looking around our homes and thinking about what we can sell?” I know that’s something Jason’s done a lot of and I’ve been trying to encourage myself to do like, “What can I let go of ultimately?” Versus, “What am I clinging on to? How am I trying to prove myself? Why am I gripping to something because it’s going to serve me in some ways?” I try to do more releasing than accumulating.

That’s something for me that I’m still working on because I do have a dream of the tiny house and the more minimalist living because I got a DM from my mom who will send me these tiny house listings. Apparently, there’s a new company in Singapore that will ship these amazing minimalist modern prefab houses. They make them in Singapore, but they’ll ship them worldwide. It’s $55,000 and they’ll ship it from Singapore to California for an additional $8,000 and it will sleep four people. It has all of these incredibly modern minimalist features and a cool sunroof on top of the house. If I look at this as an example of where I want to go to, if I open my cabinet and I see that I’m a man who lives on his own, I have 25 coffee mugs. What in the hell do I need 25 coffee mugs for? I think about this ultimate aim of living in a tiny house someday and I’m like, “You will not bring in 25 mugs to a tiny house. You may as well start now.”

To Whitney’s point, I have been learning to minimize and as part of that minimization, letting go of this need not only for material things, but the addiction that I have for approval or significance or the numbers on social media. My point here is I feel like this COVID situation has been not just a material detox, but a mental and spiritual detox to have like, “What can you live without? What have you thought or convinced yourself of that you’ve needed, that you can live without, and feel better as a result of not having it?

I’m deeply aware of a lot of people who are struggling and suffering, and I felt guilty for having any silver linings during this time because this is not a usual situation. It’s certainly been a lot to confront, “Why am I busy all the time? What have I been doing? What am I doing? Why am I busy? This is a big one and maybe you guys have experienced this, “Why did I not have time to connect with my family that I haven’t seen in so long? Why do I not have time to pick up a phone?” Suddenly, I have all this time for Facetiming and Zooming with everyone, but these people were always there. They suddenly came back again like, “Where was the time to do this before?” It’s all priorities and I’m grateful to realize that. As weird as it is, this disconnection from people has brought a lot of connection back.

It’s getting us to see those opportunities to reach out, get deep, and have loving and awesome conversations with the people in our life. I’ve been experiencing the same thing of like, “Why haven’t I reached out to this person that I feel close to?” It was for me under the guise and the illusion of you have to work as hard as possible to get ahead and maintain, which is fear and lack of consciousness. Now it’s like, “We’re going to put you in a situation where you don’t know.” For me, at least, I have not been great financially. I don’t know when the next project or client is going to come through. I have no idea. Can you be okay in the uncertainty?

Part of the thing is for me, at least realizing that if I’m super radically honest with people about where I’m at, be that friends, family, acquaintances, or whatever, it opens the space for deep and vulnerable shares. That’s been one of the most delightful things. To piggyback on what you said, Dana, about connecting with people and prioritizing that during this time. It’s not just a small talk like, “How was the weather back home? Basketball season is canceled,” but like, “How are you handling the financial downturn? How are your investments? How’s your mental health? How are you eating?” It’s digging deep with people I’ve known for years. It’s having I suppose another layer of connection and depth through those kinds of conversations that are not small talk. That’s been super refreshing.

In a space where you don't know what happens next, anything can happen. Click To Tweet

Let’s hope it stays this way. I hope that the connection stays. Connection is where all good things begin. My hope is that we maintain the connections that we’re building with other people with the things that we are interested in, with our spaces, homes, and dreams. There’s a lot of reprioritizing and re-evaluating. There’s a lot of planet retrogrades happening too. There’s a lot of slow down and reprioritizing, and that’s never a bad thing, so I feel you.

You hit a hot button, which is retrograde because there is such a funny aspect whenever particularly Mercury retrograde happens of, “My car broke down and my MacBook took a shit. I didn’t get a call back from this girl I went on five dates with,” and on and on. At least in my observation, there seems to be with some people a knee jerk reaction sometimes on social media to be like, “All this shit is going wrong in my life. Damn you, Mercury.” I’m curious, you bring up retrogrades because it seems to me to be a touchy subject for people. With the retrogrades that are going on, and I’m not privy to this, what’s happening and how can people be more mindful about living during a retrograde period?

I love it because I love the symbolism of retrogrades. There are different ways that people interpret different things like we were talking about with feng shui and how can people layer on their superstition and their belief systems. Remember, when astrology started thousands of years ago, no one had a computer that could crash. Who came up with that one? There always has been something layered on to the mix. I’ve always been interested in the themes of astrology. Not in the necessarily distinct definitive predictions, but the themes.

There’s almost always some planet retrograde, with the rare exceptions of a few months every year or a month or two here and there. There’s always something. It means slowing down. Some of them are taking a look at different aspects of your life. It’s these great reminders from this cosmic system to, “Let’s sit down and relook at this. Let’s rethink this. Let’s slow down a little bit here. Let’s become more mindful. Let’s get more connected.” That’s all it is. Any of it is to be more slow down. Planets don’t go backward. They just slowdown in the sky and they look like they’re going backward.

The way I interpret it for myself is it’s time for us to slow down in some ways too. Even though I’ve been at home for quite a long time and many of you have to. I have only left my house twice and yet, my mind has been going fast. My work has been going so fast. I’ve had to tell myself to slow down many times. It’s not just the act of moving, but where can we go? What am I doing here? Let’s look at it. I don’t subscribe to the idea that everything’s going to break down, you’re going to get divorced, you’re going to break up and have all these horrible things happen. Your car’s going to break and all this stuff that people layer on top of anything astrological.

I like to look at the bigger themes and it’s funny, all of the themes of 2020 that we started with, how to deal with massive change, recalibration, and shifting into what is more important, deeper priorities globally. Astrologers have been talking about this forever. You sit and think, “What could happen where it would change our global priorities?” I certainly didn’t expect this specifically. I love the themes, but all the rest of it is a nice way to point fingers. Also, it’s a funny thing, that whole idea of you get more of what you expect, the self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s the reason why I don’t read horoscopes and I don’t listen to predictions anymore. Going back to what Whitney was talking about with psychics, it’s the reason why I don’t take on other people’s stuff because we do fulfill a lot of prophecies, whether they’re ours or someone else’s.

It’s tempting to take on other people’s perspective, predictions, and all of that because it’s like a shortcut almost. At least for me, we are often conditioned and I certainly have felt this way when somebody is like, “I’ve got the answer for you. Do you know what it is? It’s a certainty.” What comes up so much is the element of feeling certain. I posted something on our Instagram about a tweet. It hit home for me when I saw this. I don’t know if you saw this in our Instagram story, Jason but I was scrolling through social media and I saw this tweet that a woman named Ashley C. Ford put out. She said, “You are watching people go through withdrawal from the emotional addiction to the myth of certainty.”

To me, that hit home because we are often addicted to the draw of certainty. “Can somebody predict my future? That way, I’ll know what my future is so I can be prepared for it.” “I’ll know what my future is so I can feel comfort in this current moment.” A lot of what’s been revealed to me is that nothing is certain and we can’t predict the future. That’s my perspective. I’ve never worked with a psychic. I’m curious about it but when I examine my curiosity, it’s based in my desire to feel some certainty, or to feel some comfort, or have someone tell me everything’s going to be okay, or have someone guide me in a certain way.

What I’m trying to do is be okay in the present moment, trusting, loving myself, grounded, and centered in myself because that’s the most powerful thing I’ll ever have. The outside or external is helpful. It can be confusing and it’s not always going to be accurate for you or maybe it influences you in a way that ultimately doesn’t serve you. I’m curious about your relationship with certainty and uncertainty, both Jason and Dana. We’ll start with Jason. I don’t know if you had seen that tweet that I posted. That would have been something that resonated with you. I’m curious about your feelings on it, Jason.

MGU 78 | Infinite Possibilities

Infinite Possibilities: You don’t need to have or do all these perfect things. It’s the energy that you do them with that’s going to change everything.

 

I did see it. It reminds me a lot of the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, which is that essentially everything is impermanent and everything is imperfect. Things are ever-changing and ever-evolving. Part of that to me is uncertainty. We’ve brought up Alan Watts many times because he’s one of my favorite authors and philosopher of Zen. We have no way to accurately predict what’s coming next. In a pragmatic way, I have no idea what I’m going to say ten seconds from now. I don’t know where my mind is going to go.

We don’t know what’s going to happen five minutes after we walk out the door to go get bread from the grocery store, have that phone call come in, or what’s going to land in our email inbox. It’s almost as if humans have had this selective version of reality where we try and filter out anything that threatens our sense of self. It’s almost as if I immerse myself in the nature of reality, which is unpredictability, uncertainty, ever-evolving and ever-changing, then what ground do I have to stand on? What proverbial safety net do I have?

For me, that’s been something I’ve been wrestling within a more acute sense during this quarantine period. You don’t know where your money’s coming from. You don’t know how your investments are going to do. You don’t know what’s going to happen ten minutes from now. This sense of freefall has been at times liberating and highly disturbing and uncomfortable for me. The more I dig into it, Whitney, to summarize your question, is I do feel if we look at nature, it is ever-evolving, uncertain, and unpredictable. If we are nature and we’re not apart from nature, we as humans are part of the natural world, then we as well are ever-evolving, ever-changing, and completely unpredictable.

That is powerful. It’s interesting that this question came up, Whitney. I’m glad that you brought it up. As both of you were talking, I was sitting here nodding going, “Yes.” It’s a question that I’ve been asked over and over about how do I shift the energy to deal with uncertainty? That quote that you posted is powerful because, when has anything always ever been certain? Having deep dive into psychics and all of these great things. I have had people accurately predict huge amazing things no one could ever have seen, but I wonder if I created them because they were told to me. When I look at life and how to approach it, I start with my own intuition and start to hear that. Maybe that’s one of the antidotes to the sense of uncertainty as what we do have an intuitive pull towards certain things. What would happen if we followed more of our inner guidance rather than this construct that things are going to always be a certain way and we have to keep going through the motions?

Intuition and creativity have been big. One of the things that I told my feng shui camp, the money camp, the Cash Camp, because this came up many times and I’ve been thinking about it, is that we could call it uncertainty or we could call it infinite possibility. Both are the same thing. You can’t necessarily name what it is, but in a space where you don’t know what happens next, anything can happen. I’ve traded in my mind this idea that things are uncertain for the field is wide open. There’s infinite possibility. What do I want to create next? How can I help someone next? What would be a great thing for me to do for myself? What can I do to help someone right now? What’s going to make me feel better? That’s been a big part of my work for a long time. It’s an infinite possibility, creativity, and intention. That’s the foundation of how I work. When you have certainty, then you have this one thing that’s going to happen for sure. When you have uncertainty, you have infinite possibilities.

I’ve gotten grounded in that space and it’s bringing a lot of cool creative things to life. It’s been helping a lot for what it’s worth. It’s not just because I’m such a genius. It’s because I talk about infinite possibility day in and day out, and teach it constantly in the way that I work. That might be a helpful thing to think about because it’s certainly been something I’ve been consciously bringing to my days. Instead of, “What’s going to happen next?” It’s like, “Anything could happen. I wonder how I can feel better doing this or what could happen?” The field is wide open to create stuff.

That’s a huge shift in terms of consciously choosing our languaging. We go back to how much we love intentional language and the embodied energy behind language because when you said that, Dana, of reframing uncertainty as infinite possibility, I could feel a change in my body. I thought, “That feels more relaxed, interesting, exciting, and fun to replace that phrase, infinite possibility, wherever I’m using uncertainty.” It’s not in a way to bypass either. My impression of it is not like, “Whenever I’m feeling uncertain or scared or fearful, I’ll just say infinite possibility.” It’s not in a bypassing way but it’s in a way of feeling a physiological response when you said that. You talk about intuition or your body responds to a certain language. For me, that’s been a huge part of choosing my language throughout this whole experience. How am I talking to myself? Being mindful of whose voice is that in my head.

Certainly, through meditation, mindfulness and sitting with myself a lot during this period, which I’m sure a lot of people have had time to do, to be with yourself. The mind can be a scary place to be sometimes, depending on which voice you’re listening to or which voice rather you’re giving power to. I love that you brought that up because it gives us our agency back and it gives us our power back in the sense of, “I don’t have to use language that scares me and makes me feel terrified of the situation. I can choose different words that have different energetic imprints that do feel fun, exciting and infinite. Thank you for that.

You’re welcome. That’s the whole point of this. I’ve learned so much listening to both of you. It’s the whole point of having these kinds of conversations. I know for myself, every time I have one of these conversations, it’s not just a conversation. I will then go and start realizing and looking at ways where now I’m looking at my house going, “Where have I held on to things because of scarcity? I have books I need to go and donate soon.” Whenever I have a conversation like this with anyone, it’s always this big reveal for myself too.

You can't control all of life, but you can control how you show up, what you create, and what you do. Click To Tweet

For anyone reading, I always say, if there’s anything that anyone takes away from anything, it’s you can’t do any of this wrong. Especially when it comes to your home, you can’t do it wrong. You can’t have the wrong intuition. It’s a matter of, can you lean into it a little bit and go and try a little bit of it? Dump some clutter and let some stuff go. Maybe look at how you’re talking to yourself and see if you could distract yourself when you find yourself down spiraling or anything else. Something that you can do because I certainly am not sitting here talking about this thinking that I have it all figured out.

I’m actively going to go do a lot of the things and look at a lot of the things, how I can bring even more of it into what I’m doing. That’s why I’m grateful for these conversations because they helped me as much as they help hopefully anyone. If it helps one person who’s reading, I’m excited. I wanted to say that because it’s easy. It’s not bypassing to use words like infinite possibility. Also, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m again sitting on a mountaintop going, “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s all a possibility.” It’s an important thing. There’s something to be said for choosing what you want to create. I know that I can’t control all of life, but I can control how I show up, what I create, and what I do, and that is powerful.

I’m glad that you said that because I was trying to think of a way to leave somebody with something, someplace to start because you can read things like this and enjoy it, but also feel overwhelmed with all the different options or be like, “I don’t know where to begin.” I love that you said that. It’s also such an important point because there’s a natural tendency when you’re listening to somebody speak who has a lot of knowledge and experience in something. It’s easy to say, “They’re the expert. They’re far beyond me. I’m never going to get there. It’s going to take long,” and then you get into a place of inaction.

It’s such a beautiful thing when people who have been doing something for a long time remind others that they don’t have it all figured out because I certainly don’t. I don’t think Jason does. I don’t know if anybody does. There’s always something more to live and learn. That’s part of the beauty of all of this. If we had it all figured out, it’d be quite boring. That’s part of the beauty with possibility and shifting that perspective on uncertainty and looking at it in a positive light because we’re constantly being shown that things can change at any moment.

Just because it’s changing, doesn’t mean that it’s negative. It might be positive and serve us in a beautiful way. I also love what you were saying about going and taking some action and looking around your home. I feel the same way. I sometimes get into a place of feeling stuck with my home or overwhelmed by all the things. One thing that helped me that I wanted to share with others in some form is that I knew that I needed to tidy up my home but I was feeling a lot of resistance about it. I got on the phone with a friend to catch up and tidy it up while we were talking.

The combination of those two things was pleasant because I don’t like to just sit and have a conversation. I like to be doing something and taking a walk or something like that. I found so much joy in having this catch-up call and then folding my clothes the Marie Kondo way. My biggest takeaway from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up was learning how to fold my clothes and organize them. I love doing that but I don’t always want to do it. For me, it was combining and finding joy and moving through that resistance of my home and whatever I’m feeling when it gets cluttered.

The amount of shift that it had when I walked into this particular room later that day, and I completely forgot I tidy that up. When I walked in, I was like, “It feels different in here and I want to be in here more.” I’m excited and it changed the energy. I know that but sometimes, I still get into a place of resistance. No matter how much I know what’s good for me, there are times where I don’t want to do it. Conversations like this help remind us of the power of that and inspire us. I hope that the readers feel that from reading everything that you’ve told us, Dana.

You totally got it. It’s interesting for someone who started saying they don’t know that much about feng shui. You certainly have a great connection and understanding of your own home. If anyone’s just getting started or has been confused, one of the first things you can do if you have done superstitious things or read things that were rules and you’ve forced yourself to. I’ve had people force themselves to put their plants up on pedestals because some plants are never supposed to be on the ground or force themselves to hang crystals in places and they don’t know why.

One of the most empowering things you can do to start is to take those things down if you feel like they’re not serving you. Take them down and as you do, remind yourself that you’re taking your power back from all these objects. Another awesome thing that we talked about a lot is home love. Whitney, you brought that out and Jason as well, this idea of investing love into your home. You don’t have to get it all perfect. You know when a space is loved and when it isn’t. Whitney, I love that you brought up the idea of how you found your own ritual to clean and put energy behind things that feel good to you.

MGU 78 | Infinite Possibilities

Infinite Possibilities: We, as humans, are part of the natural world. As such, we are also ever-evolving, ever-changing, and completely unpredictable.

 

Don’t force yourself to clean your house but maybe it is more fun when you’re talking to a friend or listening to something. I always listen to YouTube videos while I’m cleaning. I love it. Sometimes it’s music. Sometimes it is conversations with people. Whatever is going to make it a little bit easier. Some people like the silence and they find it inspiring and meditative. Whatever is going to move you into action and clean, open windows, get some air flowing, get some freshness in your space, and build your own rituals. You might even come up with your own little rituals. A lot of the things that I’ve come to do as part of my work were rituals that I created because my bedding felt flat in the morning so I started shaking it all out, burning incense in my bedroom in the morning, and doing all these things.

It became something that I started to share with people and be like, “See how this works for you.” They’re like, “I love getting up early now because my bed is all fluffy.” You have the power to do this. Make your own rituals and be good to yourself. Infinite possibility is a real thing. It’s definitely been a big takeaway thinking about scarcity in this conversation and other places where I’ve been operating with scarcity. I’m going to go and take care of some of that stuff in my bookshelf, my closet still, and also think about ways to even remove more of it from my life. I’m grateful to have been here and you’re both amazing, so thank you for having me.

To piggyback on the ritual side of it, you’re reminding me too of how much that can shift my emotional state. I’ve learned over the years that simply spraying a good smell in the air or putting on some essential oils or looking at a crystal and holding it in my hands. What I’ve done without even thinking too much about it is I place all those things around my home space to be nearby. When I’m needing a shift and some positive energy or to feel differently, those are right there for me. I have almost like a little altar. I don’t usually call it that, but my side table next to my bed where I spend a lot of time working or reading or whatever, or on my desk.

The places that I’m in the most often are where I placed those things. I have numerous crystals of different sizes and textures and colors. I have different aromatherapy, whether it’s a candle or incense or a mist or something that I’m going to put on my skin. The power of music or silence, however you’re feeling any auditory experience that you want, and opening the window. It’s those simple things you can do in a few minutes and feel a profound difference. I invite anybody reading to try something like that to see how it feels. Sometimes, those are the most powerful ways that I’ve shifted out of discomfort and into a place of feeling a lot better. Thank you again for bringing that up.

For us, we always want to encourage you, dear reader, to experiment as much as possible because we believe that the more life experiments you make, the better. This is truly an individual journey. All of the teachings and beautiful glimpses into her work that Dana has given us, if you’d like to learn more, we will have all the links to books and articles at our website which is Wellevatr.com. You can find Dana’s website, Feng Shui Dana, along with her social media handles on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, The Tao of Dana. If you’d like to follow up with her and find out about Cash Camp and her interesting, unique, and personalized approach to creating more positive energy in your life in your home. Dana, thank you for being here. It’s always an absolute pleasure, whether it’s in person, socially distance or physically distance. Thanks for downloading us with your beautiful heart and your beautiful wisdom.

Thank you, both. Big huge hugs to both of you and to everyone.

For more resources on our website to optimize your mental health and emotional wellness, we’ve got freebies like our eBooks, You Are Enough and Take Charge. If you want more resources, we have our online programs, Wellness Warrior Training and The Consistency Code because we are always wanting to give you the absolute best, juiciest, most fun, and joyful resources to help you shine in your life. Until next time. Thanks for getting uncomfortable with us.

 

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About Dana Claudat

MGU 78 | Infinite PossibilitiesDana Claudat is a modern Feng Shui Master and founder of The School Of Intention Feng Shui Certification Program. In the last 15 years she has pioneered her own approach to Feng Shui that is rooted in infinite possibility, creativity and empowerment. Rather than hope for lucky results and outcomes, she helps her clients to create them every day.

She’s a Stanford-educated art historian with more than a decade of experience in design yet her approach to space is simple. She is a longtime mindbodygreen contributor and instructor, and her work has been featured in design and lifestyle publications around the world.

You can work with her from wherever you are in the world in her online Feng Shui Camps and through her Online Feng Shui Consultations.

You can sign up for her weekly Feng Shui Rituals, including rituals for every New and Full Moon, right here!

 

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