Adding Elegance to your Crazy Life!

Why add elegance?  Well let me tell ya!  One of the best ways to feel genuinely good about your life and your surroundings is to bring everything you love into your world on a daily basis.  Surrounding yourself with beauty, joy and passion will make you feel better, even when your circumstances aren't ideal.  

Let's discuss how to make that happen, shall we?  

First, I always recommend taking the time to learn what it is that you love.  I do that by looking through magazines for decorating ideas such as HGTV and InStyle Magazines, Pinterest.  There are so many others though.  Just pick up one or two magazines that cover your favorite subjects!  Then see what you can do to realistically incorporate things into your surroundings.  

Second,  declutter your home!  And your car!  And your desk!  As a matter of fact, read last week's Blog post about Decluttering your surroundings and your mind.  You need to make room for the elegance to come in!!!  

Third, clean up things as thoroughly as you can.  Nothing screams NOT FABULOUS like a dirty area!  Get straightening and cleaning!  Just getting things cleaned up will go a long way toward adding a feeling of elegance to your world.  But we're not stopping there!

Fourth, choose to add a few - or all - of the following ideas into your newly cleaned up life:

1. Fresh flowers!  Flowers are nature's CHANEL, and few things will make you feel as fabulous and special as a beautiful vase (or 2) of flowers.  And do we really want to wait for a guy to send them to us?  God no!!!  They don't need to be expensive either!  I've gotten some of the prettiest flowers from my local grocery store!  I treat myself to them once a week!  Tres elegant!

2.  Music!  Nothing creates ambiance like background music!  I have playlists for various times of day and feelings I want to create.  For example, I have a playlist for getting ready for work, dinner music, when I'm sad, when I need energy, when I'm exercising, for afternoon tea, for when I need to be distracted from something!  Music will create whatever mood you desire!  Don't know how to make a playlist?  Just get a CD or two that you enjoy and play them!!

3.  Write a letter!  Not a text or an email, but an actual letter to someone you care about or someone you need to thank for something.  Put it in the snail mail and let the recipient be surprised when they get it!  Make it even more special by spritzing it with perfume!  

4.  Speaking of perfume, find a scent that screams your name!  Don't worry if someone else will like it!  Find one that makes YOU feel like a million bucks! If you don't have anything in mind, make a trip to the best department store you have near you.  Go to the fragrance department and try a few on!  Not too many!  3 or 4 at the most!  Wear them for at least an hour.  Smell them one at a time, keeping YOUR feelings of elegance in mind.  When you find one that makes you excited or happy, THAT can be your signature fragrance.  Wear it every day, whether you are going out or not!  Put it on immediately after each shower.  Before you work out. Before going to bed.  Always wear it!  Perfume creates an elegant mindset!!  And you deserve an elegant mindset every day of your life!

5.  Get out the good stuff!  Good clothes, good shoes, good pajamas, good China, good crystal, good tea pot, good jewelry!  We own these things because we love them.  So get them out and USE THEM!  

There is nothing wrong with a champagne flute to use while brushing your teeth!  Or taking your vitamins with water from a Baccarat crystal goblet!  Keep a beautiful water glass on your night stand!  Keep the red solo cups for a picnic!  There is no reason to hide those exquisite items that you own!  Bring them to your life!  Enjoy them!

6.  Get yourself some beautiful, decadent, aromatic candles!  And light them!  A flickering, fragrant candle immediately adds elegance to any room! Even in the daytime!

There are so many more things you can do to create a beautifully elegant atmosphere around you!  Come visit

Www.brilliancefactor.com to learn more!!!

PS.  Coming soon is a self study course on adding elegance to your life!!!  Keep checking back!!

Love and fabulosity...

Donna

Declutter Your Space = Declutter Your Mind

Decluttering all of the areas of your life seems to be what all the talk is about these days.  People are writing entire books on the subject!  For good reason, too.  As time in our society marches forward and we become more and more self-aware, we are learning that unlike generations past, more is not always better.  Sometimes "more" is heavy.  Or crowded.  Or stifling.  Or just plain ugly.

There is definitely something to be said for lightening our load - in all of the areas of our lives.  When we declutter our lives, we are actually creating space so that what we truly love and desire can come into our worlds.  When we live in a cluttered mess, we close ourselves in.  We build barriers by allowing "things" to be in our way and slow us down.

Just think about how easy it would be to get ready for work, or any event if your closet was cleaned out and organized!  Just think about how easy it would be to find your freshest food if your refrigerator was cleaned out.  And how easy would it be to sit and pay your bills if your desk and miscellaneous papers were organized!?

Each area of your life that you can declutter and get organized will provide a small piece of freedom in your life.  As you gain control over more and more areas, your freedom, space and clarity will become bigger and bigger.

If your life and your mind are so cluttered and over crowded with all of the miscellaneous messiness that has evolved in response to your daily living, you won't have the freedom and clarity of thought to design, build and create your life into the artful masterpiece that you deserve it to become.  Once you've begun to work on this, you'll find that you will breathe easier and feel physically lighter on a daily basis.  Are you ready to feel that way?

Here are some areas of your life that I recommend decluttering:  Closet, kitchen pantry, kitchen junk drawer, your cosmetics, your shoes, your jewelry box, the drawer beside your bed, your book shelves, the trunk of your car, your desk, your music collection, all of the tables in your house!

Please don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed.  As you tackle each area, do everything you can do to make it an enjoyable experience.  Choose one area at a time - maybe one area each weekend! Play music!  Take breaks!  Dance!  Sing!  And above all CELEBRATE as you progress!  I'll be writing more on this subject, but in the meantime, Target, The Container Store, and your local Dollar Store are great resources for containers to hold some of your clutter.  You'll find some great ideas on Pinterest as well!

As you go through each area, ask yourself if each item brings you happiness and joy.  If the answer is no, it must go!  Of course, donate anything that you no longer need, but is still of value.  Remember:  One woman's old poodle skirt is another woman's TUTU!

I wish you freedom, clarity of thought, and lightness as you clean up your life and your surroundings!  Leave me a comment letting me know what you plan to tackle first!!

Love,
Donna

For more information on designing your life, please visit...
www.brilliancefactor.com  where you'll find more resources including how to work with MOI!

On NEW YEAR'S Resolutions!

Let's talk about your New Year's resolutions for a few moments.  Humor me.  This is a good one!

For how many years have we set New Year's resolutions for ourselves?   And how many of those resolutions have we kept for longer than three months?  All of them?  Congratulations!  I'm SO jealous!!!  You are among the 8% of people who actually keep their New Year's Resolutions!  You are among an elite group of Rock Stars!!!

As for the rest of us mere mortals, I have an idea for you - and for me.  I have taken this approach to setting New Year's resolutions for several years now, and it works so well for me, that I wanted to share it with you.  Here it is:

Rather than deciding what you want to do or to change in your life this year, consider giving some thought to who you want to BE instead!  Wow!  What a concept!  

Rather than a list of resolutions, or a to do list.  Make a "TO-BE" list instead!  What??? Seriously???  Yes.  Seriously.   And it is much easier than it sounds.  Take a few minutes - like 30 or 60.  Get your mind into a state of feeling as though anything is possible.  Absolutely anything!  

Here is a list of questions to get you started in this direction:

Who do you want to become this year?
Do you want to be a glamorous person?
Do you want to be a thin person?
Do you want to be an elegant person?
Do you want to be a world traveler?
Do you want to be an educated person?
Do you want to be more gentle to those around you?
Do you want to be more loving to those around you?
Compassionate?
More friendly?
More financially secure?

Do you want to be more effective at your job?
How do you want to show up every day? 

Whatever it is that you want to be, you have to live your life AS THAT PERSON.  And do it RIGHT NOW.  

Ask yourself this:  How does a "_________" person live their life?  How does a KIND person live?  How does a GLAMOROUS person live?  How does a GENEROUS person live?  Then - and know that you are COMPLETELY capable of doing this - live your life the way that person would live their life!  How does a thin person, an educated person, a world traveler live their life?  Figure it out and GO BE HER!!!

You will find, I promise you, that it is much easier to live a life that represents the person you want to become than it is to set and live by a set of goals, tasks and resolutions!  Rather than living in a datebook that is full of tasks and to do lists, this year try a Journal that is full of ideas, thoughts and a creative outlet that will help mold you into the individual you desire to become.  

Living your life as the person you wish to be will enable you to create the life you are truly longing for.

I wish you the happiest and most magical New Year you've ever lived!!!

Donna

PS.  For more information on this and many other topics, please visit www.brilliancefactor.com