Illuminate - Living A Lighter Life Has Never Been Easier

Welcome!

As a former ad executive, I spent two decades convincing people that they needed the latest gadget to be happy. And for most of that time, I believed it.

Struggling to find deeper meaning in my job towards the end of my corporate career, I distracted myself by buying anything I wanted telling myself I deserved it since I was doing work that was no longer fulfilling. I couldn't take off my extra weight, my home was cluttered, and life felt complicated and heavy.

Then, I discovered minimalism the intentional pursuit of focusing on what matters most by removing the distractions that remove JOY from life and felt myself getting lighter by the day I walked away from corporate to pursue my dream of helping other women tackle their clutter, un-complicate their lives, and lose weight for good. And with that, School of Living Lighter was born.

Heather Aardema

founder, School of Living Lighter NBC-HWC, FMCHC, CLC

Guide Contents

That's why I created Illuminate This DIY mini-course is designed to help you DECLUTTER YOUR MIND, BODY, AND HOME so you can create a lighter life.

Ready to go from distraction to delight? Watch the 3 short course videos and then make your way through this guide. Embrace an idea or two and you'll immediately feel a difference. YOU WANT SOMETHING DIFFERENT BUT CHANGE FEELS HARD.

We have over 60,000 thoughts a day. Most are a repeat of yesterday's thoughts and the vast majority are negative. Why is this? We have an inherent negativity bias that is part of our biology It's what kept us alive all those years ago. As humans, we ' re drawn to overcomplication, drama, and chaos. It's the language of our primitive brain.

The good news is that we can start thinking on purpose. We can choose to think better thoughts. And with enough practice, those new thoughts become new beliefs. Before we realize it we ' re no longer victims, and we ' re the heroes of stories we want to tell.

If you want a lighter life, let go of the mind clutter and start thinking intentionally

THAT WAS HER MAGIC-SHE COULD STILL SEE THE SUNSET EVEN ON THOSE DARKEST DAYS – ATTICUS

” MIND CLUTTER

a light introduction

DO YOU RECOGNIZE ANY OF THESE EXAMPLES OF

MIND CLUTTER?

Catastrophizing thoughts

All-or-nothing mentality

Taking things personally

Taking responsibility for other people’s feelings

Worrying about things outside your control

Subtle justifications for why you should give up your dreams

Resentment

Unmade decisions

Wishing others would change how they behave

DIVING DEEPER ON MIND CLUTTER

Mind clutter is part of being human. The good news is that once we learn to recognize it in its various forms, we can do something about it...if we ' re open to it.

Truly want to feel lighter?

Get curious about the following 5 forms of common mind clutter.

SHRINKING & SAYING SORRY

The next time someone compliments you, consider accepting it with "I receive," instead of immediately telling them why they’re wrong or minimizing their words. Putting oneself down, compulsive apologizing, and shrinking of any kind are rooted in feelings of worthlessness.

Regardless of what anyone else has said, or led you to believe, you ’ re not too much and you ’ re perfectly enough You are worthy, period. Any thought contrary is a distraction and optional Yes, optional.

“SHOULDING” ON YOURSELF

"I should have had the green smoothie" or "I shouldn't have had ice cream " is a rumination on the past.

Listen, you did exactly what you were always going to do. We know this because it's exactly what you chose to do. And this is okay!

Want to move forward?

You didn't "cheat" or "fall off the wagon, " you just did an experiment and gathered some data. Instead of choosing to indulge in regret or shame, which keeps you stuck, choose to find the lesson. Carve out some open space away from distractions (this is the quiet stillness in between all of the busyness) and ask yourself, what matters most to me? What's my intention when it comes to living lighter?

Having these answers will keep you pointed forward.

CALORIE COUNTING FOMO

If you want to be healthier, here's why calorie counting doesn't make sense: foods are so much more than their calorie count. 100 calories of broccoli are going to do very different things in the body than 100 calories of candy.

When we count calories, we fill our heads with numbers that don’t tell the whole story.

Do you want to think about food all day long? Managing this information can be all-encompassing, and leave less room for other priorities in your life.

Focus on what and when you eat, and if you'd really like to count something, count your servings of vegetables.

(P.S. If you truly enjoy counting calories, and are focused on getting nutrient density as well, this isn’t clutter for you).

Fear of missing out has us thinking “ more is more ” and saying yes to everything from cake and cookies to an overflowing schedule and an overstuffed house.

If you ’ re constantly being pulled in multiple directions at once or you ' re always busy, but not really getting anything done, consider slowing down and prioritizing.

Find out what's behind your FOMO and replace it with JOMO JOY of Missing Out.

Do this by saying ' no thank you ' to the offers and invitations that are distracting you from showing up the way you want to. Answer for yourself, what's the joy in not saying ' yes ' to everything? What will I gain from not partaking in this?

HIDING BEHIND CONFUSION

When we tell ourselves we don’t know what to do, we give ourselves permission to do nothing. Unmade decisions are some of the heaviest mental clutter we carry.

We further complicate things by trying to rationalize the idea of the unknown. But if you stay in a state of indecision, you will move nowhere and you won't get any closer to the dreams that are so close.

Want to live lighter?

Stop indulging in confusion, and do something, anything, it doesn’t really matter what you choose as long as you choose something. This is because you'll gather new data that'll help you course correct if you want to. Not happy with your choice?

See #2: "Should-ing on Yourself".

GetStarted

WHAT

YOU CAN DO TODAY

SHRINKING & SAYING SORRY

Consider writing yourself a 'love' letter on why you'll stop dimming your own light and anytime you get the urge to say " sorry, " say "thank you " instead.

"SHOULDING" ON YOURSELF

Instead of focusing on the regret, write down three reasons why you ' re not going to waste your (perceived) setback and ask yourself how the experience can propel you forward.

CALORIE COUNTING

Want to count something much more meaningful? The IFM (Institute for Functional Medicine) recommends a whopping 9-13 servings of vegetables a day!

FOMO

Create a list of activities you ' re doing that are getting in the way of your goals. Choose one or two of them to stop doing for a week To counteract any FOMO, write down the JOMO of not doing these things. For example, no bloating from foods that are creating weight gain, a lighter schedule so you can focus on your priorities instead of someone else's, and more money in your bank because you didn't buy the 3 for 1

HIDING BEHIND CONFUSION

When feeling stuck, ask yourself, "if I did know what I wanted, what is one action I would take right now?" And then sit through the discomfort until the answer comes.

MindClutter

Chapter two

BODY CLUTTER

a light introduction

If we want a lighter life, we must start eating, drinking, breathing and moving intentionally.

Let's talk food. Your body gets you from A to B Are you filling it with good fuel? The food we eat gives our bodies the "information" and materials they need to function properly. If we don't get the right information, our metabolic processes suffer and our health declines.

But with so many conflicting messages on what's healthy and what's not, figuring out what to eat can be overwhelming.

And it’s not just the food we eat, but how we eat it, whom we eat with, and how many hours we eat before bed.

Too much of the wrong information creates excess pounds that get between you and the life you want to live.

DO YOU RECOGNIZE ANY OF THESE EXAMPLES OF BODY CLUTTER?

Unconscious snacking (grazing) throughout the day

Eating beyond full

Food that you regret after consumption

Feeling obligated to eat due to pressures from others

Food that you ' re sensitive to

Breathing in polluted air

Dirty tap water that you use to bathe in, brush your teeth with, and drink

Not moving your body enough

Personal and beauty care containing toxic ingredients

DIVING DEEPER ON BODY CLUTTER

Our bodies are doing the best they can with the inputs we give them. However, most of what we give is clutter. The good news is that once we learn to recognize it, we can address it... if we ' re open to it.

Truly want to feel lighter? Get curious about the following 5 forms of common body clutter.

CONSUMING COMPLICATED INGREDIENTS 1 FOOD THAT LEAVES YOU FEELING EMPTY 2 GRAZING 3 EATING FAST & LIVING FAST 4 LACK OF MOVEMENT

CONSUMING COMPLICATED INGREDIENTS

Convenient and cheap foods have become a staple in the Standard American Diet, appropriately named “the SAD Diet.”

Deep down, we probably know which foods are healthy and which foods aren't. But we ' re human, and we ' re going to splurge (which will be delightful as long as you like your reasons for splurging.)

So why is it so hard to pull back once we get started on a whole bag of chips? You can thank the food industry. Our primal brains love sugar, fat, and salt The food industry exploits this and manufactures foods that rival hard drugs for their addictive potential They do this by altering a multitude of variables with the sole intent of finding a perfect version of a product so that it is nearly impossible to stop eating it. Almost all widely available foods have been manufactured to hit a "bliss" point so that we keep going back for more. And not only are they addicting, but they're also inflammatory, which stalls fat loss and creates weight loss resistance in many ways, including insulin resistance, low energy, fluid retention, and digestive problems.

Processed foods are complicated; their ingredients clutter your body, confuse your chemistry and cause weight gain.

FOOD THAT LEAVES YOU FEELING EMPTY

Here’s the deal: food isn’t bad or good. It’s neutral.

The thoughts you have after you eat, about the food you just ate, determine your experience. When we eat to buffer from our feelings, we’ll always end up regretting it.

Eating can be a wonderful experience. Take the time to make it special. It's okay to splurge. Personally, I think intentional splurges are key to a healthy relationship with food. Regardless of what you eat, you will have a fulfilling experience if you do it intentionally.

GRAZING

There's a myth that grazing (snacking between meals) leads to an overall lower daily calorie intake. For the majority of us, it doesn't

More importantly, each time we eat, insulin is released from our pancreas to counteract our blood sugar increase. Simply put, this means that we don't burn fat, which is not an issue if you ' re at your ideal natural weight.

If you'd like to drop excess weight, when you eat may be more important than what you eat.

Intermittent fasting is evolutionarily embedded within our physiology, and it triggers several essential cellular functions If you don't spend the day grazing, your body can actually do the things it wants to do so that you can feel your best

Flipping the switch from a fed to fasting state helps us burn calories and lose weight. Fasting improves metabolism, lowers blood sugar; lessens inflammation, and even helps clear out toxins and damaged cells, which lowers the risk for cancer and enhances brain function.

EATING FAST & LIVING FAST LACK OF MOVEMENT

Is your schedule packed with to-dos? Are you running from one thing to the next?

Society praises busyness. Do more, go go go, faster! When we complete tasks, our brain releases the pleasure hormone dopamine, which makes us feel good.

Ask yourself, are you busy doing the things that matter most to you? And can you take a moment to be busy doing nothing at all?

Your parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for all of the daily maintenance of your body (such as digestion), needs moments of repose to work correctly, or your body is left in a chronic state of “Fight-or-Flight” which leads to burnout, exhaustion and weight gain

Typically how we live is how we eat. It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that you ' ve had enough to eat. Eat too fast, and you risk piling on extra calories before your body has a chance to signal that you don't actually need them.

Is your body full of toxins?

According to the Institute for Functional Medicine, there are ten times the amount of toxins in sweat than in urine.

Sitting has been labeled the new smoking, but you don't have to run marathons as any amount of physical activity no matter how small can have significant benefits.

So get out of the chair and start intentionally moving your body. Walk, run, garden, dance; the more playful you make it, the more fun you’ll have.

GetStarted

WHAT

YOU CAN DO TODAY

CONSUMING COMPLICATED INGREDIENTS

Try one day a week where you eat foods that are simple - 5 ingredients or less and while you ' re at it, check your tap water quality at www.Ewg.Org. Once there, look up the ingredients in your personal care products. What goes on the skin goes in the skin

FOOD THAT LEAVES YOU FEELING EMPTY

Make eating special Create a food plan that includes splurges a few times a week and then enjoy them fully. Weight loss through perceived deprivation doesn't work long term.

GRAZING

Read up on intermittent fasting. I've been doing this for a few years now and personally, I prefer the 18x6 schedule where I eat within the 6-hour window I find myself much more engaged with what I eat when I do eat, and I have more time for other things.

EATING FAST & LIVING FAST

Remind yourself that you are not you accomplishments and carve out time to stop, rest and recuperate Make a meal and then time yourself on how long you take to eat it. Ask yourself, how can you go slower?

LACK OF MOVEMENT

It's more than okay to get sweaty! Figure out what you like to do, and then do it. It doesn't have to be a marathon. It could be as simple as taking a walk around the block, or getting out in the garden

BodyClutter

CHALLENGE

WHAT IS ONE TIP YOU'LL TRY TODAY TO LIGHTEN YOUR BODY?

Chapter three

HOME CLUTTER

a light introduction

The average home has an impressive 300,000 items from pens and ironing boards to earbuds and smartphones that are purposely designed to become obsolete.

If we want a lighter life, we must start consuming intentionally

With almost anything you want only one click away, the new things coming into our homes are greatly outpacing the rate that things are leaving It's an equation that’s out of balance and we ’ re drowning in our own clutter.

The good news is that we can buy better and choose quality over quantity with every choice we make.

We pay for things with hours of our lives, so start by asking yourself if you want to continue to spend on things that will be mostly meaningless to you or forgotten in a matter of weeks.

WHAT KIND OF HOME CLUTTER DO YOU HAVE?

Clothes in your closet that you haven’t worn for years

Sentimental gifts that you don’t like, but keep anyway

Fear-mongering streaming from TV and social media

Using toxic cleaning items, like dryer sheets

Overly ripe produce on your countertop that you won’t get around to eating

Fumes from toxic Teflon cookware

Piles of paper that won’t be touched for weeks

Expensive items you ’ ve bought but never used

Unknown items in your freezer with freezer burn

DIVING DEEPER ON HOME CLUTTER

Home clutter represents all of the distractions in which we look for happiness. And perhaps you did feel happy initially, but now the items are weighing on you. The good news is that we can do something about it...again, if we ' re open to it.

Truly want to feel lighter?

Get curious about the following 5 forms of common home clutter.

AN UNCOMFORTABLE AMOUNT OF STUFF

SENSATIONALISM OBESOGENS

It’s not just the tangible that’s important. Do you have the media on non-stop? What kinds of conversations are filling your home? Chats on how things are falling apart can be physically addicting, however, if you ’ re feeling overwhelmed, it’s time to shift to something else. I’m not suggesting complete ignorance, but it’s okay to do a news-fast a few times a week.

So turn off the TV and instead, how about turning on your favorite music or picking up the phone to call a friend? And if you want some quiet time, I bet there's a really good book close by that you could immerse yourself in.

More than 42% of Americans are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Even with a clean diet, some experience an inability to lose excess weight due to metabolic changes caused by daily exposures to chemicals. These chemicals, called obesogens, affect human hormones and change the way our bodies make, store, and use fat.

They're found in dirty personal care products, as well as preservatives, food stored in BPA containers, food cooked on Teflon, and more.

DECAYING FOOD CLOTHES THAT DON'T FIT

Decaying foods don't do our bodies much good, nor the environment. Food takes up more space in US landfills than anything else.

Impulse shopping in the produce section typically ends as food waste. If you ' re tired of watching your things go bad as you tell yourself you'll eat whatever it is tomorrow, go to a grocery store with a plan Sounds simple, yet this is where many stumble. All you need to do is know what meals you ' re making next and stick to the list.

Our bodies want fuel that is vibrant and full of life, not rotting and close to dead.

Unless you love an item, donate your clothes that don’t fit. Storing large amounts of "Yesterday" clothes and "Tomorrow" clothes in your closet isn’t going to do your mental health much good. Once you ' ve hit your desired weight, go for quality over quantity when buying new clothes. And remember that you don't need much! Sales of 3 for 1 is not a good deal when you only need 1.

More is not better. Here's why: fast fashion and impulse shopping are creating an environmental disaster. On average we wear our clothing only 7 times before an item will start to make its way to a landfill. So do better by going for "less, but better", i.e. quality over quantity

WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY GetStarted

AN UNCOMFORTABLE AMOUNT OF STUFF

This can be as simple as setting a timer and picking up for 15 minutes. Don't have 15 minutes? Set the timer for 2 minutes and address one area.

SENSATIONALISM

Turn off the news and play an old CD or record Or open up the windows and listen to the sounds of nature.

OBESOGENS

Concerned about obesity? This could be a good area of focus for you. These chemicals are found in everyday household items like food containers, toys, cookware, personal care products, cleaning agents, and medical supplies tart by swapping your Glade plug-ins for some essential oils.

DECAYING FOOD

Consider not buying any food that is not on your pre-made shopping list Even if the food is on sale, it's not a good deal if it's not going to get eaten. And if you ' re only eating it so it doesn't " go to waste" and you ' re not hungry, then it is going to waste, on your waist!

CLOTHES THAT DON'T FIT

Take your clothes that don't fit or haven't been worn in ages to a donation center so that they have a chance at a second life Then go on a shopping fast until you ' re at your desired weight. Once you ' re ready for some new things, choose pieces that won't fall apart after a few wares and won't need to be replaced.

Home Clutter

You completed illuminate! Is your life feeling lighter? What did you learn about yourself?

Aardema founder, School of Living Lighter NBC-HWC, FMCHC, CLC

Heather

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