Wellness Leader Jess Ainscough Passes Away At 30

Today I am deeply saddened that we lost a great member of our community, and my friend, Jess Ainscough, at the age of 30.

I met Jess in 2010 after she mentioned MindBodyGreen on her Wellness Warriorblog. Just 25 years old, she was battling cancer and sharing her story with the world through her honest, thoughtful blog posts. After a round of chemo wasn't successful, she had decided to "conquer cancer with carrot juice," and it seemed to be working.

Jess soon became one of the first 20 bloggers at MBG. Back then, we had no traffic and were running on pure passion. And Jess had plenty of passion.

She kept writing about her healing journey and over the years, we traded emails and Skyped. She was always upbeat, healing and thriving with cancer. In fact, the lesions that had once covered her arm were now gone.

In October 2012, my wife Colleen and I finally got to meet Jess and her lovely fiancé Tallon. They'd flown to New York City from Australia days before Hurricane Sandy struck. They wound up getting stuck in a small apartment they'd booked on Airbnb with no electricity or heating.

Downtown New York was barely functioning, and the city was a mess, but this didn't deter Jess. We met at the Whole Foods Market in TriBeCa after it reopened and talked for a few hours.

When I said how sorry we were that she'd picked the worst time ever to visit the city, she shrugged it off and said she was having a blast. Not one complaint. After spending time with Jess, Colleen and I realized that you couldn't help but feel inspired by her energy.

Soon after that visit, Jess found out that her mother had cancer. Her mom — inspired by Jess's unconventional route to healing — opted against chemo and chose to pursue a drug-free path. Unfortunately, she didn't have similar results and passed away.

Jess was incredibly close with her mother and devastated by her death. It also rattled her beliefs about healing without Western medicine. Cruelly, bloggers began to attack her online for her choices.

Soon Jess' health took a turn for the worse. She published the following on her blog in December:

This year absolutely brought me to my knees. I've been challenged, frightened, and cracked open in ways I never had before. After my mum died at the end of last year, my heart was shattered and it's still in a million pieces. I had no idea how to function without her, and it turns out my body didn't either. For the first time in my almost seven-year journey with cancer, this year I've been really unwell. I've lived with cancer since 2008 and for most of those years my condition was totally stable. When my mum became really ill, my cancer started to become aggressive again. After she died, things really started flaring up.

I've had scans to detect what's going on in my body, and I can report that the disease is still contained to my left arm and shoulder, however I do have a big fungating tumour mass in that shoulder that's causing me dramas. Over 10 months of non-stop bleeding from the armpit has rendered me really weak (and uncomfortable) and as a result I've had no choice but to stop absolutely everything and rest. Tallon, my freaking hero, has had to step up and help me with everything from making food and juices, doing all of our housework and laundry to doing my hair.

As difficult as it has been to simply surrender and allow what was happening to happen, complete rest has been exactly what I needed. I've had no energy for distractions, so I've literally been lying in bed deeply pondering my situation. I've been meditating for hours, doing visualisation techniques, and feeling every single emotion that's bubbled up. I've always been numb to my emotions, coating everything in positivity, so this has been a game-changer for me and also very strange. Some weeks I've felt nothing but overwhelming sadness, others I've been really bitter and angry. The most important part though is that I didn't try to stop or censor any of it (even though I gasped and covered my mouth after shamefully and very uncharacteristically uttering the words "fuck my life" during one particular outburst).

I've also spent my time doing lots of research into treatment options. I've been speaking to doctors, healers, and specialists and I've been completely opening myself up to attracting the right people who will help me heal – whether they are from the natural medicine world or conventional. My beliefs have been completely shaken up and I've had to drop any remnants of fear and ego that were preventing me from exploring these options sooner. I've discovered that when we completely close ourselves off from something, the universe will sure enough give us an experience that makes us see that everything has a place. It's been completely eye-opening and very, very humbling.

I believe that as a result of my willingness to stop controlling my healing path and surrender to whatever the universe has up its sleeves to help me, I've attracted the most amazing healing team. I'm working with an oncologist who is kind, caring and non-judgemental – completely unlike any of the specialists I worked with in the early days of my journey. When we are open and in a state of surrender, the right people/situations/tools will appear. Final decisions and plans are now in process and I'll keep you in the loop in the new year.

So, that's me. It feels so good to finally be able to share all of this with you. I'm going back into hibernation for the holidays, but you can expect to see me back on the blog in January. I will be rolling out some big changes when I return, and can't wait to share them with you. Thank you so much for being patient with me, for being so understanding and for sending through so much love (I feel it all and it makes a big difference).

Here's to ushering in lots of miracles, fun and adventure in 2015. I hope you have the best Christmas surrounded by loved ones and I will chat to you again very soon.

About a week ago, I emailed Jess to see how she was doing. On Tuesday, she sent me this note:

"Thank you so much Jason! You guys are awesome. I'm so grateful for your support. Massive love, Jess x"

On Thursday she passed away.

Sometimes terrible things happen to amazing people and there are no good answers. This is one of those times. So today I'm drinking carrot juice in honor of an incredible woman who touched my life as well as the lives of millions of people.

Jess, we love you and we'll miss you.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17671/wellness-leader-jess-ainscough-passes-away-at-30.html

Changing Your Reality Involves Going Back To Your Past

People sometimes frown on the idea of “going back to the past” to heal themselves.

Some of the usual comments I hear are:

“I want to let the past go.”

“I don’t like rehashing the past.”

“That’s just a story my mind tells.”

“But I’ve already done it many times.”

All this may be true and valid. But I invite you to ask yourself:

Have you really healed the past or did you just try to plaster a new story on top of it?

You see, it is true that the past is just a story we tell ourselves, but a story is not just a two-dimensional picture that we can just change by changing the surface details.

If any aspect of your past is unhealed, you’d tend to repeat the story in your head. Overtime, you invest more and more power to the story until it becomes three-dimensional, filled with lots of your energy. It contains a piece of your consciousness, or from a shamanic perspective, a piece of your soul.

That is why it’s not enough to work on healing the past cognitively – it must involve your emotional and spiritual bodies, to extract your energy out of it and take your spirit back.

Changing the Template of Creation

An event that happened in your past which caused a negative reaction in you has locked in the story in your psyche: A story of injustice, being betrayed, abandoned, rejected, neglected, starved of love or lacking resources to escape from a bad place.

Often, the story becomes a template for future creations. As long as you have invested a piece of yourself in the story, it has the power to create similar stories in the future.

On the positive side, this means that when you retrieve your energy, power, consciousness or soul from that story, you end the cycle of recreating similar stories. It can make a difference between being stuck for years and being liberated from a familiar, unwanted pattern.

#1 Release the Emotions

Sometimes, we need to go back to the past and allow ourselves to feel the pain and hurts. Feeling painful emotions is one of the ways we learn valuable lessons – about life, about being human – and to open our hearts to love.

If those lessons weren’t learnt, on a soul level we may recreate a similar event to enable us to complete the learning.

Thus, you may not be aware of carrying certain emotions which you failed to express fully at the time. Subsequently, you may recreate another opportunity to access those emotions. One way to avoid recreating or remaining stuck in painful situations is to access your emotions now.

Allow yourself to be vulnerable and feel them fully. It is okay to judge and blame at this stage because it enables you to connect with your true feelings.

You may find it useful to verbalize or write out your thoughts and feelings; whatever tools you use, ensure that you let out your feelings until you run out of steam, and you naturally transition to a bigger-picture perspective of the event.

#2 Find the Abundance

Most likely, your reference of the past you are revisiting for the purpose of healing is limited. You probably perceive yourself then as small and powerless, in a world that is harsh and lacking in love, joy and abundance. This is due to your attention being drawn to the aspects that were painful. But when you expand your perspective and look around in that scenario, you could probably find more positive aspects – especially after you have released the emotions.

With fresh eyes, see if you can spot anything in the event that is positive which you didn’t notice before.

Perhaps where you had felt deprived of love, you realised that being deprived of love from one person does not mean there wasn’t any love around. Know that therewas love, and appreciate those other sources of love. Where you had felt deprived of abundance, notice that there was abundance, and appreciate those sources of abundance.

This will shift the energy of your past and your relationship to the event.

#3 Stand in Your Power

Lastly, change the state you were in. If you had responded in fear, anger or desperation, imagine how it would feel if you responded with calmness, delight or excitement. Instead of allowing the situation to take your power away, imagine you had managed to stand in your power.

Imagine how the situation might have evolved. Let the new story unfold until you feel satisfied, reconciled, with no unfinished business.

At this stage, the part of you that was stuck in the past will no longer be needing to remain there to fight your battle, but sailing happily through the ether back to you. ~

Which of these is the most healing and empowering to you? Write your thoughts in the comments below :)

 http://www.finerminds.com/personal-growth/changing-your-reality-involves-going-back-to-your-past/

How to make someone’s day (and why you should)

Last May I gave birth to my son.

I still remember every detail of that day.  It was 11pm when my water broke, and I wasn’t ready.  I knew they had to get the baby out of me somehow, but I was terrified of the whole experience.

The whole time you are pregnant you prepare for the baby. You are educated about the pain that comes with childbirth and the whole messy process. People tell you horror stories about their experiences. No matter how much you plan, you are walking into something completely unpredictable, that you know isn’t going to be comfortable and easy.

And to add to it, I don’t do well in medical situations. I have a fear of being poked by needles. I faint at the sight of blood. You have so many fears about the health and wellness of your baby.  What if something goes wrong?

And if that weren’t enough, when it was over I would be a mama – and I wasn’t sure I was ready.  What if I didn’t like my baby? What if I got postpartum depression? I had so many thoughts, fears, and emotions rattling around in my brain I couldn’t keep it under control.

When I set foot into the ER, I was a mess. I had been up since 5am that morning and I was exhausted.  My clothes were disheveled and soaking wet.  And tears were pouring down my face as I sobbed on my husband’s shoulder about how I just wasn’t ready yet.

And in the midst of all that fear and doubt, the thing that stands out the most was this wonderful nurse in labor and delivery room, who got me through it all.  She was so kind. She went out of her way to comfort me, give me a pep talk, and she even wrapped the IV in my arm with a cloth so I wouldn’t have to see the needle.

She told me about how she loved her job because bringing babies into the world was so magical.  When she spoke she did it with such passion and love, it inspired me. Her words made me think about that night differently – instead of something I had to get through, it was going to be a special day. And she gave me the courage I needed to get through the night.

What you do is important

We all have stories about people who have touched our lives in some way.  A teacher that spent a little extra time with us, more than merely just doing their job.  A boss or co-worker who went out of their way to make sure we really understood the problem.  Maybe it was one of your parents who sacrificed to give you a better start.   And that is just it, the things that we do for one another are important.

As you go to work every day, and you live your life, it can be easy to forget this lesson and take the easy way out.  But you never know when a little extra effort might make a big difference for someone else.  A small act of kindness or generosity can change someone and they may remember it for years to come.

Do your best all the time

A few years ago I had a fellow who worked for me named Jeff.  He was one of those people I know is going to be super successful.  Any time I asked him to do something, he always exceeded my expectations.  One time I asked him about his work, and he told me that his parents taught him to always do everything to the best of his ability.  He went on to tell me about how his mother taught him to make his bed perfectly with all of the corners tucked snuggly under the mattress.

That story always stuck with me, because it made me realize that truly great people give everything their best – including the mundane things like making beds.

Each day you are given many opportunities to do a little more.  To be larger instead of smaller; thoughtful instead of careless. Doing these small acts can improve the lives you touch each day.  By taking these actions you will be demonstrating that you are more than just ordinary, but that you are something, and someone, great.

The best place to start is here

Being kind to others can make you happier.  There is a study done by Harvard Business School and the University of British Columbia that concluded “giving to others makes us happy, even happier than spending on ourselves. What’s more, our kindness might create a virtuous cycle that promotes lasting happiness and altruism.”  The researchers called the last part a “Helper’s High” which created a rippling effect of kind acts.

Don’t you want to be the stone that creates a ripple of happiness and good in the world?

As with everything in life, you can start applying these ideas right now. Think about someone in your life that could benefit from your kindness – just like the nurse in the hospital that saw how shook up I was and took the time to help me.

You can send a thoughtful email; most of us don’t give enough praise.  For example you could send a “great job!” email to a co-worker who you could tell was really nervous speaking in a meeting.

Or it can be as simple as really listening when someone is speaking.  The next time someone tells you about their weekend, don’t just listen to respond, listen to hear what they are saying.

The next time someone rubs you the wrong way, be compassionate and give them the benefit of the doubt instead of getting defensive.  You can choose practice empathy and not judge others so quickly.

And when you do your work, do the best job that you can.  If you are going to take the time to do something do it right.  Strive to be proud of everything you say and do.

One thing is for certain, though: you will never regret being kind and generous.

What you do matters.  What you do is important.  And you have the chance to make a difference to those around you.

https://popforms.com/how-to-make-someones-day-and-why-you-should/

10 Natural Tips To Beat Chronic Stress

"If you really knew what was happening to you when you are stressed, you would freak out. It's not pretty," I said during the 2013 Third Metric women's conference.

I wasn't exaggerating. Chronic stress has become epidemic in our society, where faster seems better and we pack more obligations into our ever-expanding schedules.

Research has confirmed the havoc stress can wreak, with one meta-analysis involving 300 studies finding that chronic stress could damage immunity. Anotherstudy found stressed-out women had significantly higher waist circumference compared to non-stressed women.

Experts have connected stress with blood sugar and belly fat. Chronic stress raises insulin, driving relentless metabolic dysfunction that becomes weight gain, insulin resistance and ultimately diabetes.

Insulin isn't the only hormone that becomes out of balance with stress. Your adrenal glands release hormones like adrenaline and cortisol that flood your system, raising your heart rate, increasing your blood pressure, making your blood more likely to clot, damaging your brain's memory center, increasing belly fat storage, and generally doing damage to your body.

Want to reduce stress? Start with your diet.

The right diet can do wonders to reduce stress's impact. When you eat whole, real foods, you restore balance to insulin, cortisol, and other hormones.

Eliminating mind-robbing molecules like caffeine, alcohol, and refined sugars and eating regularly can help you avoid the short-term stress of starvation on your body. You maintain an even-keeled mindset throughout the day, even when things get hectic.

You'll replace those foods with clean protein, healthy fats, leafy and cruciferous vegetables, berries and non-gluten grains. Food is information that controls your gene expression, hormones and metabolism. When you eat the right foods, you balance blood sugar, restore hormonal balance and reduce stress's damaging impact.

Reconsidering Stress

Stress is a thought, a perception of a threat, even if it isn't real. That's it. No more, no less. If that's true, then we have complete control over stress, because it's not something that happens to us but something that happens in us.

Here's where it become interesting. Stressors can be real or perceived. You might imagine your spouse is angry with you. Whether or not they are, you raise stress levels. Real or imagined, when you perceive something as stressful, it creates the same response in the body.

Fortunately, a wide variety of techniques and tools can help effectively manage stress. Among them, these 10 are most beneficial:

1. Address the underlying biological causes of stress.

Find the biological causes of problems with the mind including mercury toxicity, magnesium and vitamin B12 deficiencies, and gluten allergies. Changing your body can change your mind.

2. Begin actively relaxing.

Humans remain primed to always do something. Even when we're not working, our mind is on work. To engage the powerful forces of the mind on the body, you must do something relaxing. You can't just sit there watching television or drinking beer. Whether that means deep breathing or a simple leisurely walk, find active relaxation that works for you and do it.

3. Learn new skills.

Try learning new skills such as yoga, biofeedback, and progressive muscle relaxation or take a hot bath, make love, get a massage, watch a sunset, or walk in the woods or on the beach.

4. Make movement your drug. 

Exercise is a powerful, well-studied way to burn off stress chemicals and heal the mind. Studies show exercise works better than or equal to pharmaceutical drugs for treating depression. Try interval training if you're short on time but want a powerful, intense workout.

5. Supplement.

Take a multivitamin and nutrients to help balance the stress response, such as vitamin C; the B-complex vitamins, including B6 and B5 or pantothenic acid; zinc; and most important, magnesium, the relaxation mineral.

6. Reframe your point of view.

Challenge your beliefs, attitudes, and responses to common situations and reframe your point of view to reduce stress.

7. Find a community.

Consciously build your network of friends, family and community. They're your most powerful allies in achieving long-term health.

8. Take care of your vagus nerve by using deep breaths.

Most of us hold our breath often or breathe swallow, anxious breaths. Deep, slow, full breaths have a profound affect on resetting the stress response, because the relaxation nerve (or vagus nerve) goes through your diaphragm and is activated with every deep breath. Take five deep breaths now. See how differently you feel?

9. Meditate.

No matter how much or little time you have to commit, find a practice that works for you.

10. Sleep.

Lack of sleep increases stress hormones. Get your eight hours no matter what. Take a nap if you missed sleep. Prioritize it, and if you feel like you're not getting high-quality shut-eye, find strategies to improve it.

What one technique or strategy would you add to this list to manage stress levels? Share yours below or on my Facebook page.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17660/10-natural-tips-to-beat-chronic-stress.html

The Secret to Having It All

No doubt you’ve heard the old saying, common in the Deep South, that states “when Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy…”

While this may sound like an old wives tale, it actually speaks to a very powerful universal truth:  The energy we bring to any situation or relationship has a far greater influence on the people we interact with than the words we speak or the actions we take.

If our energy is frenetic, we elicit tension, anxiety and resistance from those around us, and greatly reduce our chances of creating the outcomes we desire.  Likewise, if our primary vibration is one of feeling calm and appreciative, we put others at ease and naturally inspire their cooperation.

Yes, we get the job done, but in such a way that everyone involved is left feeling full, inspired, and…happy.

What a lot of women don’t yet realize is that generating this kind of happiness – in others and in ourselves – is entirely an inside job.  It has nothing to do with our kids cleaning their rooms, our partners treating us a certain way, or our co-workers doing what we tell them.

What determines our happiness is the degree to which we are connected with ourselves, because self-connection is the only way to become aware of the energy we are sending out.

As we become more familiar with reading our own energy, what becomes clear is that we are either in a state of allowing the outcomes we desire to manifest in our lives, or we are resisting the very results we are working so hard to achieve.

And here’s the key: We are either aligned with one state of being or the other; there is no in between.

Allowing is our natural state.

We are all born receptive, pliable, and open to receiving every possible manifestation of well-being, abundance and joy.  In its free and unobstructed state, our body-mind system is in direct connection and communion with the unlimited energy and inspiration of the universe; it flows through us like water rushes through an open pipe.

Resistance, on the other hand, is a conditioned response; a pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving which can become so habitual that it sometimes seems to occur as an automatic reflex.  Resistance blocks receptivity.

While it’s true that the universe is infinitely abundant, it’s also true that we can only receive as much of that abundance as we are willing to allow… and we are the only ones who can determine that.

We can have it all – in every area of our lives – but only if we are allowing and open to receive.

So, how can you tell whether you allowing or resisting the outcomes you desire?

Easy!  When you feel good, your energy is one of allowing.   When you feel bad, you are in a state of resistance.

By paying attention to your energy field, you can discover which frequency you are aligned with – and, more importantly, you can choose to deliberately alter that frequency.

Everything we draw into our lives is a reflection of our vibration, and we are the originators of the vibration we are sending out.

Once you understand this, your manifesting power grows exponentially: You begin to magnetize more abundance; you generate more new ideas and more expanded possibilities; and you draw people into your experience – employers, employees, publishers, assistants… you name it – who have the exact resources needed to bring those ideas to fruition in your life.  The great news is, it all starts from within.

It all starts with the signal you’re sending out.  It all starts with YOU.

The vibration we are offering with regard to any situation or relationship is the single most important factor in determining the quality of what we receive from that situation or relationship.

When Momma is happy, the rest of the world reflects that happiness!  Emotions are contagious.~

by Christy Whitman

http://www.finerminds.com/manifesting/the-secret-to-having-it-all/

When You Feel Behind: Turning Envy into Positive Action

“It is the way that we react to circumstances that determines our feelings.” ~Dale Carnegie

I can remember the incident so clearly.

A few years ago, my friends and I were all sitting around a table in a restaurant. It was the holiday season, and I was in good spirits. It was nice to see everyone again. The snow was drifting gently outside, reminding me of eggnog and Christmas trees.

After we ordered our food and took turns asking each other what we were up to, it was one of my friends’ turn to share. She casually mentioned that she recently got a job offer. Everyone looked up, in a mix of surprise and curiosity.

“What company?” someone asked.

She answered proudly, full of giddiness and excitement. As I looked around, I could see some expressions beginning to sour. As for me, it felt like a stone had just dropped in my stomach.

I couldn’t believe it. Out of everyone I knew, she seemed the least likely person to get a prestigious job offer. My spirits were suddenly dampened as I tried to process what had just happened.

All throughout dinner, I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that she had gotten a job offer from a company that I personally knew numerous other people had unsuccessfully applied to.

I had tried for the longest time to obtain an interview from the firm, unsuccessfully. Meanwhile, she was failing many of her classes at the time, and seemed to have few relevant work experiences.

It completely turned everything I had thought about life and careers upside down, as if all my efforts to secure relevant internships and achieve in my academic career had gone to waste. I felt like I had failed myself.

Slowly, I shifted from blaming myself to blaming everything and everyone else around me. At the time, I told myself that things were simply not fair.

It’s been a few years since then, and I’ve had many days to reflect upon this experience, as well as how I’ve grown since then. Here are some things I did to turn from envious to positive and the lessons I learned along the way.

Focus on yourself.

Harboring negative feelings toward others, whether it’s hate, contempt, or envy, takes up energy and ends up exhausting us. It’s unproductive and it doesn’t better our lives. If anything, people easily pick up on these unattractive, negative vibes.

The most important part of ridding oneself of envy is changing the way we approach the situation. Realize that there is nothing you can to do change events outside your control. What you can do, however, is find ways to make changes in your own life.

I was spending so much energy on someone else’s achievements that it took away energy from my own. After the feelings of envy and disappointment passed (as they always do), I decided to explore different ways of improving myself.

I took up new activities, such as writing, and made an active effort to speak to different people from different walks of life to learn more about their experiences. Learning from others with more experience than me became a key theme in my life. I wanted to understand other people, their struggles, and how they overcame obstacles to become successful.

When I became more productive and filled my schedule with things to do, it felt like I had less space and time in my calendar to be envious. I was too busy!

Things are not always what they seem.

When we talk to people, especially those whom we rarely see, we tend to highlight the best parts of ourselves and our lives. Just logging into a social media website shows this phenomenon.

Similarly, you’ll likely only see the tip of the iceberg when you first talk to someone. Dig a little deeper and little specks will appear. Everyone’s life has both good and bad, but it’s unrealistic to compare our own lives, which we know inside out, to the shiny, clean surface of someone else’s.

As for my friend’s situation, I truly do not know how she obtained an offer from the company. Perhaps they liked something they saw in her credentials, or she was a better fit. Maybe someone she knew vouched for her abilities.

The point is, it doesn’t really matter for me. It’s so easy to wrack our brains over things that don’t fit within our worldview. Some things are difficult to understand, but we can do our best to acknowledge that we don’t have all the information at hand and try our best to work with what we do know.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

At the time, it felt like I was falling behind. Despite all my efforts, it was if someone had “leapfrogged” over me and was soaring ahead. I worried that setbacks would accumulate over time, and I would spend the rest of my life behind everyone else, always trying to catch up.

How wrong I was.

The thing is, life isn’t a straight line moving in one direction. It’s sort of like a stock market—wiggly and filled with ups and downs. It’s unpredictable, but if you focus on improving yourself, despite the ups and downs, the long-term trend will be upward.

Envy is an unproductive feeling. It’s perfectly natural and happens to everyone, but it can consume our own lives to the point that it’s unhealthy. Envy is a feeling of helplessness.

I learned that I have control over myself and my actions. I could take steps to improve myself by putting out a detailed action plan and implementing it.

Make learning become a major theme in your life. Seek to learn from others’ successes and difficulties and apply them as lessons in your own life.

Because regardless of the inevitable hurdles everyone faces, nothing can take away the knowledge one has gained from listening to others and the wisdom in knowing what to do.

Excited woman image via Shutterstock

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/feel-behind-turning-envy-positive-action/

20 Ways Changing Your Space Can Change Your Life

Without space, where would we exist? Space is THAT important to life.

Not only is space vital, but we see and feel its importance even when we don't know exactly how to articulate it. You know the places you avoid. We all know when something is "off" or "not right" or feels "haunted," even if we don't know why or how to fix it.

We're inextricably tied to space and the energy of that space.

Take a moment to imagine the place where you've felt most at home in your life.

It's an amazing feeling, isn't it?

Do you feel that feeling now at home? If not, you can. You just need to make the connection.

Feng shui is the ancient art and science of creating incredible environments to support incredible lives. The more of a connection you can make to your own personal space, the more that space can help you to change your life.

Here are 20 of the most common ways I've seen lives change when spaces change:

1. You'll have more energy.

When you adjust your home in ways that eliminate basic obstacles and clutter, you create more flow in your life.

2. You'll clear away emotional blocks.

Get rid of just a few bits of emotionally loaded clutter and you'll feel the emotional weight associated with that clutter leave your life as well.

3. You'll amp up your personal style.

It's called "lifestyle" for a reason. Not "life obligation." Not "life rules." Beautification is also self-betterment.

4. You'll feel at home when you're at home.

Rather than simply being a place to live, a home reflects your confidence, security and deeper sense of belonging in life.

5. You'll become more creative.

A home filled with things that you love will inspire you to synergize new ideas, and even explore new ways to communicate.

6. You'll live with more depth.

The feeling of superficial existence — largely digital and fast-paced — melts greatly in the soft textures of a home that is a sanctuary.

7. You'll launch your dreams.

When you're organized and clear of clutter, you have a solid foundation to build a life that's so much more stable.

8. You'll break habits.

Going on vacation is a great way to help you break bad habits, as you remove common triggers to behavior when you go away. A home makeover can be just as effective, year-round.

9. You'll relax more.

Serene spaces — especially ones filled with nature — are intensely relaxing.

10. You'll sleep better.

Simple adjustments to your bedroom can help you sleep much more soundly.

11. You'll expand your social life.

Having a space to entertain instantly opens up your social life directly, but simply having a decluttered home that welcomes in fresh energy also opens up your life to more connection.

12. You'll make more money.

Money is energy. The more you can clear clutter and live in a high-energy space of beauty, the more abundance tends to come naturally.

13. You'll have more healthy boundaries.

Being drained by energy vampire personalities or overly committing yourself can leave you in last place; a clean, clear and organized home helps you put yourself first in an empowering way.

14. You'll think clearly.

Sit in chaos and darkness, and try to make important decisions. Now, go to a beautiful, light, refreshing space. Big difference, right?! A clear space reflects a clear mind.

15. You'll feel more wellness in your life.

Wellness is about connection. Connecting to your body, your emotions, your breath and your determination all fuel your well-being. Making this connection to your space will powerfully support your wellness revolution.

16. You'll make a fresh start.

In some sort of transition? Changing your home can help guide you through a time of big change, supporting you through a fresh start!

17. You'll become more grounded.

Imagination, ideas, vision and dreaming are all vital, but a grounded life helps you to put those ideas into action in a much more concrete way.

18. You'll risk bigger.

It's way easier to take a big risk if you're feeling great and supported by your life rather than when you're feeling stifled and confused.

19. You'll live with more purpose.

If your home is designed specifically to support and encourage your dreams, every step you take though that home you'll be reminded of your purpose!

20. You'll love more!

Ultimately, it's all about love, right? Love for your life, love for everyone in it, attracting love, living in love … all of it! From filling a room with colors that inspire you to decluttering objects from a brokenhearted era of the past, your environment can be a catalyst for so much more self-esteem and love every day.

Are you ready to make a space shift of your own? You can start small and open some windows for a few minutes, burn a candle and clean your house. That is a great feel-good step. You'll see and feel the difference instantly.

Want to really make a space shift of greatness? I've created a video course, Your Guide To DIY Feng Shui: Change Your Space To Change Your Life, to help you overhaul your space and your entire experience in the world. When you have a little guidance, you'll be amazed by how much better you feel!

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