A Certified Simplicity Parenting Coach and KonMari enthusiast with over a decade of experience, Christine coaches women to create home environments that support harmony and connection.

Christine coaches from the heart, using joy as a guide and her clients find so much peace in having less, doing less, and editing their lives and their homes with intention.

In this episode, Christine will share her unique approach in helping moms find their own path in creating an intention-filled life. Christine transformed her space with the support of her husband and their young, spirited daughter.

You can follow Christine on her website, Creating Calm Coach, on Facebook at Christine O'Brien Coach or on Instagram @creatingcalmcoach. Download her Free Creating Calm Checklist.

Spark Joy wants to hear from you! Tell us your burning tidying questions or share stories about how KonMari has impacted your life. Find us at www.sparkjoypodcast.com, email us at contact@sparkjoypodcast.com to leave a question or comment for a chance to be featured on next week’s show. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter via @sparkjoypodcast.

In this episode, you’ll enjoy:

• Christine’s private Facebook group community, KonMari Method: Life-changing Magic for anyone working through the KonMari tidying process

• Christine’s virtual consulting program, From Chaos to Calm, which consists of group and individual support for making joyful transitions

• How Christine combines two powerful schools of thought to inform the way she supports moms to relax into full presence with their children: Simplicity Parenting and the KonMari Method

• Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne

• Re-occurring KonMari related pain points that may sound familiar:
  1) feeling too overwhelmed to start, 2) getting stuck at some point in the middle of the process, and 3) uncertainty regarding doing KonMari with a family

• How to guide a family through the process and how to find the joy click-point when you have growing kids

• How speaking to your items can “soften” and facilitate letting them go

• How focusing on the positive and the joy can apply to your vision for fitness and diet

• Learning about Brene Brown , who says that gratitude creates Joy

Christine’s favorite tidying tip:
“Tune in to your intuition and trust your joy checks.”

What sparks joy for Christine:
Her family and the transformation she has witnessed as a result of this process. She’s joyful about sharing this way of living!

Gems:

“The toys she’s interested in change all the time.”

“As you get more in tune with what brings you joy, more space develops for experiencing joy.”

“Put your oxygen mask on first and make sure you complete your tidying first before you move on to your children.”

“Different personalities come out for display when you do KonMari with a family.”

“What? Talk to my clothes? Say thank you and goodbye?!”

“The process is about connection and not perfection.”

You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home
You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy

Special Guest: Christine O'Brien.

In this episode, we discuss what "spark joy" truly means and how to apply it to your tidying event. We share practical tips on how to build your own personal awareness of joy and how to apply this concept to your decision-making. The term will start to become part of your vocabulary and you’ll see joy everywhere.

But first, we begin by sharing what's sparking joy for us today. We also answer a great question from a Spark Joy listener about how to determine what sparks joy when it comes to seasonal items, in this case, Halloween costumes.

Spark Joy wants to hear from you! Tell us your burning tidying questions or share stories about how KonMari has impacted your life. Find us at  www.sparkjoypodcast.com, email us at  contact@sparkjoypodcast.com to leave a question or comment for a chance to be featured on next week’s show. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, or on Twitter at @sparkjoypodcast.

In this episode, you’ll enjoy:

• Learning the Japanese language origins of the phrase, "spark joy." The Japanese translation is Tokimeku ときめく, which means "to flutter with a little thrill" in the same way that we describe how our hearts can flutter with joyful emotion when something makes us happy or excited

• How Marie Kondo demonstrates what sparking joy looks like while interacting with possessions. See videos below:
  -- Marie Kondo: Organize the World: Design Your Life to Spark Joy - SXSW 2017
  -- Marie Kondo explains Spark Joy

• How to avoid getting caught up in how many things you're keeping or discarding instead of focusing on the joy

• Being reminded of the importance of vision, as discussed in Episode 5, to keep your thoughts future-focused and in tune with the quality of life you envision for yourself

• How to set a high joy bar by developing a criteria for what stays and what goes

• How considering the passage of time and your evolution as a person can help you understand whether something is part of your future or just hanging out from the past

• Marie Kondo states, “When we really delve into the reasons for why we can't let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.”
  The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

• "If it makes you happy, then the right choice is to keep it confidently, regardless of what anyone else says."
  Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

Gems:

• “The practice is to pay attention to how your body reacts when you’re holding your possessions.”

• “You want to be able to live in harmony with your things.”

• “Does this item spark joy AND fit into of my vision for the quality of life I’ve envisioned for myself in the future?”

• “This is an area I really do want to invest in instead of buying the cheapest things to just make do.”

• ”Keep your joy bar high!”

• “Objects like having a job to do.”

• "If it makes you happy, then the right choice is to keep it confidently, regardless of what anyone else says."

You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home
You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy