Ready to Receive: Making Yourself at Home with Dana Claudat
Introductory Highlights
Oftentimes we try really hard to expand. But it’s like sitting in a home full of people yelling at you all day long that you’re all the things that you were in the past. Like imagine you had a bunch of people sitting in your house yelling at you, calling you names, reminding you of the most embarrassing, saddest, most heartbreaking times of frustration, limitations, all of it. You would throw those people out.
I remember as a kid people just popped around sometimes. Yes. That is almost a social crime these days. And I am very mindful of it. But I’m wondering if that’s something we should be exploring like, why would it feel so intrusive if somebody were to just pop around.
All of this stuff is so ridiculous. Like why not be the ultimate expression of you? That’s the reason why you were put here. Rather than everything else.
Introduction to Feng Shui and Creative Living
How can feng shui help you live a more creative and joyful life?
Welcome to the Peri Moon Podcast, and today I am joined by a spectacular woman who… I perhaps have one word, I have many words to describe you, but one word in particular that leaps forth would be joy. And, um, Dana Claudat is a feng shui master. But more than that, for me, it’s really about your orientation towards possibility and play and purpose.
There’s so much more that you offer beyond feng shui, and it’s just such an honour to sit with you today. Welcome Dana Claudat. Thank you so much. I’m so grateful to be here. And you’re one of the most expressively, uh, layered, incredible artist that I have had the pleasure of having in the school. The way you write, the way you speak, the way you show up, and watching all of this creativity unfold, all of the writing that you’ve done, all of the art that you’ve made, all of the things has been such a joy.
Aww. I I really want to to credit you towards some of that because I remember when I was writing my book, I started the course and I’d had this looming, you know, expectation from so many people, so many mentors. Like, you need to write a book. You need to write a book. And I started the course because I was probably in some sort of, um, procrastination or detour detour mode from writing the book.
And, um, I got up to the elements section of your course and you introduced the notion of wood to me. I discovered I had a wood deficiency, and suddenly that expectation to write the book became so much less heavy, and it became really about play and fun. And this thing that I thought had to be nonfiction became fiction and fun and joyful, and one of the most profoundly life change, like it’s before book and after book for me.
So I’m so grateful for your school and everything that you share with the word, with the world, you know, like the infinite possibility. That was another exceptional offering that you gave to me during that time, and I’m so grateful for your, for your school.
The Feng Shui School of Intention
Why do people return to the Feng Shui School again and again?
Something I’ve noticed, I’m, it’s such a beautiful community, so many amazing souls in that community, and, you know, quite often many women have the same experience as me as like, I’m trying, I’m starting the course again, you know, I’m starting the school again, this, and I’m always like, yes, go for it.
Because I know either you’re going to get, you’re going to finish it or you’re gonna have some profound life changing experience and you won’t finish it, but your life will be forever changed. Do you find that’s really common in your school and did you consciously orient towards that or, I always, I’ve seen people who have gone through the whole programme.
12 times and I’ve seen people who’ve done it once all the way through. I’ve seen people who have done pieces of it over time and then came back and did it all. I always feel whatever you get from anything, and I do this with myself when I’m learning things, whatever I get from an experience is what I’m meant to get that time at that moment.
But I always leave everything open so that people can come back and have that live experience. I always get very stressed when I have just one period of time to do something and then when it’s not done, oh well, um, I just wasted my time, wasted my money, um, and, you know, feel, regret and beat myself up.
And I just wanted this to be a really expansive experience. When people join. We’re talking about the Feng Shui School of Intention. When people join a big programme like that, like a six month long programme, I think there has to be grace for life to happen. Everyone is so busy already. This is an expansive experience.
It’s meant to give you more of all the creativity we were just talking about. And that’s not something you can force and it’s not something you can like, kind of like bulldoze your way through. I don’t wanna think of anyone cramming, you know, to try to catch up or, you know, sitting and doing a marathon session.
Living Instead of Intellectualising Life
Why is truly living more important than constantly learning?
I want you to live it and I want everyone to just live more in general. I think that’s a big deficiency that we all have, is that everything has become very conceptual. I think a lot of dangerous ideas in society are proliferating because people are being more conceptual than actual in their lives. And that goes for everything from health things to life things.
You know, when you stop living, really living like deeply in the trenches of living and you start theorising and you know, philosophising about things and intellectualising everything you get so cut off from your creative core. You know, I’m seeing this rose behind you as we’re speaking, even though y’all can’t see it.
There’s this beautiful rose on the wall. And I just, I think about that blooming that being a kid was like that. Being a a an adult without the internet was like, and now, and now more and more and more, we’ve all been sort of forced into our heads and my goal is for everyone to live again. And I think then you see there aren’t that many differences between all of us.
There aren’t that many things that we don’t want differently. It’s just when you in introduce all these ideas, everything becomes like a strange mental game rather than this beautiful, ferociously awesome process of living. That’s so beautiful. And yeah, I feel, um. It, it’s, it’s an interesting dance because I have this, I have a very intellect, like I’m very intellectual and I really enjoy, you know, learning new things.
And also we are energy, aren’t we? It’s like we cannot deconstruct, you know, and we can’t cherry pick which parts of energy are moved when we move in any direction. Um, everything moves with us, which is, it’s such a, to be able to sit in that energetic body and integrate all of the, in, you know, the intellect or integrate all of the information and data that comes our way, and to be able to move through the world, utilising that energy and, and engaging with the energy field around us.
How Your Home Shapes Your Energy
Can changing one room in your house change your life?
I think that’s one of the biggest things that Feng shui has taught me. Like I decluttered my bathroom a while back, and that’s in my legacy. Well, it’s in, it’s in the legacy area of my home. Um, and then just all this, you know, building my empire almost came through. It was like, how am I going to, what am I going to do with my art?
How am I going to create, how am I gonna share this? How am I gonna create longevity for my family? Um, and it is, it’s like you can’t, you can’t isolate specific parts of your life and have, you know, that be an island and nothing else is changed by it. I agree. And I am a huge academic. Like I, you know, I am strongly rooted.
If I wasn’t doing this, maybe I would’ve gotten a PhD in becoming, became an art history professor or some sort of, you know, uh, sociological art and visual, uh, synergy type of, of academic. But ultimately my favourite academics were the people who lived. And I actually told myself when I graduated from college, I cannot get a PhD before I’m 50 because I need to actually go and live it.
Because all my favourite professors, I was really blessed to, I studied with a lot of art history professors who lived the art, who were in the movements, who were, you know, I had Anna DeVere Smith as one of my, uh, at one point as one of my professors in a, in a class, which was mind blowing. You know, these people who are really doing it, really in the trenches making the things.
And I think that’s a really important part of being. A beacon, you know, and setting that example, that all this information is to live it, not to just ponder it. And I think for everyone listening, like if that’s one thing that you could take away from this is all the things you’ve learned, all the things you’ve heard, just try, try them or don’t, but learn with the intent of not just enriching your mind, but actually somehow, like you said, integrating it, bringing it into tangible being.
The reason I do work with homes and environment so much is because it’s tangible. I got so lost in my head, very overthinking, um, rationalising, intellectualising everything. And when you would like to create a problem, your mind will allow you to create them.
You start to go, oh my gosh, like, yes, I’m taking a new opportunity. Yes, I’m moving in a new direction. Yes, in your case, I’m building this empire. Yes, I am going for this. I, you get not just clarity, but I really can’t stress this enough. As much as I love energetics. It’s a huge part of what I do. It’s really that tangible life experience that I want everyone to have.
And this work is about living bigger. Mm-hmm. And creating space for that. I think it, it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s this, you know, that interplay between matter and space ultimately, and being able to create this space where it’s like, it was my bathroom. Nobody would ever expect that. That had created clarity in my business and for my ambition and for my passions to thrive.
It was one very specific hidden away place in my house that I created space in. But now, whenever I go there, it’s like, ah, you know, I exhale. It’s like, oh, this feels like I’ve got beautiful plants. And then it’s such a different experience for me. And just having a shower in there is like, and you know, if we think about the shower gods or where all of our great ideas come from, so the fact that I started getting really great, inspired ideas from creating that space, in that environment, um, it’s, it’s not really, it’s pretty obvious, obvious in hindsight, but yeah, it, it is creating that space and that dynamic for things to, to grow and to flourish.
Why Decluttering Is More Powerful Than Manifesting
Why should you declutter before doing mindset or manifestation work?
It’s so beautiful and it’s something so different from what lots of us, some of us were raised with a conscious awareness of how important environment is, but for most people, it’s mind, body, spirit. You know, if you get that far in your immediate, uh, in your immediate environment when you’re growing up, you know, you take care of your mind.
You go to school, you take care of your body, you, um, you eat healthy. All of these things. You brush your teeth and then spirit if you come from a family who has any sort of religious or, uh, spiritual inclination, but that’s it. Space is very limited in terms of like society at large and how much people really are aware of it.
The farthest people get usually is, they know about decluttering and they know it’s a good thing to do, and they know it on a very practical level, like sitting in a mess doesn’t feel good, but there’s so much that your space holds and really it’s like. An adjunct to everything. I just finished filming something and one of the things that I was talking about over and over again is I love mindset work.
I love, um, you know, I love energy work. I love life hacks of all kinds. I love learning new things. Biohacking. So cool. There’s always something interesting to learn from spiritual spirituality and energetic practises and all of these things, ancient traditions, other cultures, everything so much to learn.
But before you do any of that profoundly declutter your space because so many people are just piling in, like you said, taking in all this data, all this information, and you are sitting in a space right now, wherever you are that represents you right now. Unless you’ve consciously designed it to be something to live into, something to expand into, you’re basically living in a mirror of you right now.
And what’s that saying? If you do what you’ve always done, you get what you always gotten. And it’s really that, it’s like if you live in the same environment, you will get the same results. It doesn’t matter how hard you work, how curious you are, how passionate you are. You are sitting in, if you’ve ever heard of this, saying like, we all have an abundance set point.
Like people talk about how we have this comfort level with a certain amount of abundance or visibility or, um, anything else. We, wherever we’re at right now, this is what we have been comfortable with, for lack of a better word. We can expand and then everything expands with it. But oftentimes we try really hard to expand.
But it’s like sitting in a home full of people yelling at you all day long that you’re all the things that you were in the past. Like imagine you had a bunch of people sitting in your house yelling at you, calling you names, reminding you of the most embarrassing, um, saddest, most heartbreaking times of frustration, limitations, all of it no one would want.
You would throw those people out. But we leave our clutter here. We leave it all sitting around us, and it’s the most scientifically proven one interesting thing that I can always lean to science for. It’s been proven that all of these things are habit triggers. That’s why when people come out of addiction therapy, oftentimes the first thing people do is they’re told to remove certain things from their home that trigger their addiction.
And it doesn’t have to be that, oh, get rid of the coffee pot so you don’t smoke cigarettes. It can be something random. It could be, you know, every time I look at the five o’clock news, I wanna go have a drink. Like you don’t it. It’s just we all have weird triggers, different, like when I say weird, just not typical, not on the nose.
And your home is full of them. And so if you’ve been stuck in a way of being, or you’ve worked so hard and you’re so passionate and you’re so into doing all these things and you’ve never addressed your environment as a mode of transformation, then this is your invitation to do that because it will change everything.
Decluttering After Divorce and Letting Go of the Past
How do objects hold emotional memories and identity?
I absolutely agree. Just with the, and, and even as a way of like moving through and processing emotions. I, um, after my divorce, you know, I was doing a big decluttering, but there was one, you know, these beautiful organic he overalls that I got from Greece when, uh, we were over there getting my children baptised.
Like it was just this beautiful, wholesome memory. Um, and I had really resisted, like, they had a stain on them that I’d never been able to remove, so I wasn’t wearing them anymore. And, you know, I, I don’t think you have to get rid of everything, but being aware of the trigger that that caused, when I would hold it, I’d be like, I don’t want this anymore.
I don’t need this anymore, but I can’t let go of it. And for me, what was really coming up was that this was the best time in my life. You know, I felt so accomplished as a mother. I was writing my, like, all of these amazing things were happening in my life at that time, and it’s never gonna be like that ever again.
And that was what those overalls represented to me is like, if I let go of these overalls, that’s the best time of my life that I’m ever going to have gone. And I really had to come to, had to, I had got the opportunity of being like, no, the best time. Like I, I’m not gonna be that woman that thinks this is the best time of my life is behind me.
Like, I’m going to release these and be like, the best time of my life is so in, in front of me. And I get to play with what that looks like. I get to be curious. I get to enjoy different pathways to see how that looks. It was such an expensive experience of being able to just sit with one object and feel absolute freedom and a, and a stream of possibility flood through me from that.
Ugh, what a joy. What a joy. It’s so powerful hearing you talk about that. There are so many objects that.
And so many emotions. I, I think again, this reductive idea that every emotion is going to be like sadness or regret, like you come to see for, for yourself, how mixed the emotions are in so many things. Like there are certain objects that dresses that I have that I love, but have such bad memories attached to them.
Like, I need to get rid of them. And then I’m like, but then it’s this. And then I remember that and then this. And it’s like, no, goodbye. Like, I’m done. I don’t want it. And it, it takes a lot. You really see, and I don’t ever, for all of you who interested in decluttering, I don’t recommend forcing yourself to be ready before you’re ready.
You really do have to process these things. And I think, you know, there’s a time and a place when you’ll say, you know what, yeah, I’ve hit that point where I can say for sure the best days are in front of me. Like, I don’t wanna look back to this anymore. I don’t need this anymore. And there’s nothing wrong also with keeping some complex memories and there’s nothing wrong with, but it’s the acknowledgement, like you said, you’re consciously aware of it.
We’re unconsciously holding on to so many things that are dead and gone. You know, we’re unconsciously doing that and kidding ourselves. And then our intellect is so capable of saying, oh, well you know, this is this and then this, and then this, and this is the reason why. And then that, and you could just go on and on and on.
Expanding Into a New Version of Yourself
Why do you keep decluttering as you grow?
I just had the lights behind me, changed on the walls last night. I could have done that eight years ago. And I was like, I’m not gonna ask why it doesn’t matter, but I’m just acknowledging that something in me has shifted to the degree that I will not settle anymore. And I think that’s another helpful thing for everyone is there’s this urge sometimes to be like, well then now that I’m free of it, why don’t I just muse upon it forever?
You know what I mean? It’s like, no, let, let’s let it go. Let’s acknowledge what a win. If you have some profound realisation come out, that’s always wonderful. And if it if’s useful, but. You don’t need anything else tying you into the things that you have outgrown. There’s so much of the past that’s amazing and wonderful that you can cherish.
And I’m not a minimalist by any stretch of the imagination. I want people to live with all the things they love. I want you to design your dream life. That’s the whole point of all of this work. And so it’s not about getting rid of everything, it’s about getting rid of all the things that really are not what you are living into.
And as I’m looking at you right now with the big rows behind you on the wall and all of the plants and all of the flourishing, you could see your space as something that you’re expanding with. And there really is that feeling. And you can even try it for yourself. You don’t need any special training. Go into restaurants, cafes, places you like to go and notice which ones expand you.
I bet you the ones you go into all the time, for some reason, they expand you. They feel, you feel harmony or you feel taller, you feel energised, you feel something, you feel peace, you feel activated in a way that you need to be. And sometimes you notice you outgrow not because of the food or the coffee or whatever.
Nervous System, Creativity and Space
How does your environment change as your nervous system heals?
You outgrow your favourite spots and you don’t know why. And it’s almost like, well, I need to go to a new place that expands me. I, I’ve really had that experience. So for such a long time I was, you know, I had to be in an off, like my office and to write and to chan, it was like, no, but this is like a wholly experience for me.
And I really close to myself and like be nested somewhat. And now I’m in such, like, my nervous system feels so much healthier and so much more regulated that I’m open to those more expansive places. Whereas for a long time it felt like I need the, the nesting, you know, I need to feel nourished and, and like I’m really being held.
And now I’m so much more open to bigger, more expansive places. I go co-working with a girl, you know, with a, a girlfriend once a week and it’s this huge like warehouse coffee shop thing. So it’s interesting where we’re at and how that sort of, you know, dictates almost, I know it does feel like it dictates, it’s like not really a conscious choice to be like, this is the type of place that feels good.
And I think if we can bring awareness to it and be like, why am I cloistering myself? Why am I, you know, what in me doesn’t feel safe to feel that expansion? Yeah. Um, I think about all the ways that I’ve done even my own decluttering and then gone back a few years later and been like, why did I keep all this?
And you just realise like, the new you emerged. Yeah. And so there’s this new way. And so, you know, I think that, like I said, like resisting the urge to kind of, uh, put it on you. You can really make yourself feel bad for it. I could say, God, I spent all of 2025 decluttering and now I’m doing more. Like, why didn’t I just do it all the first time?
Or I could say, wow, I grew, I see things differently and now I can like lean into, I don’t need to sit in an office. I can be out and doing new things. It’s almost like we all say this, why didn’t I do this sooner? Because you weren’t ready yet and maybe that’s okay and maybe this isn’t erased. You know, where are you running to?
Creativity Beyond Performance
How do you stop performing and become your authentic self?
And that’s really been a big lesson for me because I’m always running around. There’s so much going on all at once. And even though I’m always busy is like not busy in a frantic way, but I really love to be creative. I think that you very much are on that vibe of I love to be making things. It’s it’s soul expression type stuff.
And when I’m not, I’m fine as well. Like I could definitely be leisurely. But I’ve noticed lately that one of the more important things that I. Have shifted is I’ve stopped thinking that there’s some place I’m supposed to be at some time. I’ve watched too many people die. I not to be morbid, but I have watched too many people die, some horrible deaths.
I’ve seen way too many things happen now in life. I think we all have, you know, we all have these experiences and we can take them however we take them. For me, it’s, I don’t wanna sound really, um, nihilistic, but like this might as well be a game at some point and like, why not really enjoy it? And the more I’ve allowed myself over the years to really enjoy, even if like, I’m always like doing something, I’m always really enjoying it.
I enjoyed having those things put up on the walls. Last night I had this amazing conversation. Um, while it was being done, I learned how to instal lighting. It was really fun. And I’m like, I’m enjoying everything. And like, why not? And when I started doing that, not only was that an accelerant for my whole life, it made everything go faster and everything bigger.
But you also tap in to a level of creativity that you don’t have when you’re in that performance mode, if that makes sense to everyone listening. And the more I’ve made myself at home in all ways, metaphorically speaking, the more I could shut off that performance mode. And now sometimes when I scroll on social media and I see people that they’re exuberant happy, and I’m like, I don’t buy that.
Like, I, some people are exuberant happy, and I, I could be like very unicorns and rainbows at times, but you just see people kind of pushing and performing and here’s my bit and here’s my thing and you know, all this stuff. And. I just wanna tell everyone, please slow down, make yourself at home. So many more people would watch your videos, so many more people would get your messages.
Um, it’s almost like sometimes we’re, we’re performing our way away from ourselves and, you know, all of our gifts, all of our talents, those masks that we all wear, and I could always tell when I’m working on someone’s house, meeting them, chatting with them, showing up at their house. I’m like, oh, there’s such a difference between who you are publicly and who you are as a person.
Let’s make the two come together. Mm. And that’s where real magic happens when you can be you through and through. There’s no more performance, no more rushing, no more, uh, competing, no more, you know, regretting like, what is that? You know what I mean? I, I feel like there’s like this slipstream of creativity you get into when you drop all that performance and, yeah.
And being able to, and I think, you know, this time of coming into midlife and, and having, having had life experience and the human experience, I think that’s when it really starts to show. You know, you can tell when somebody’s very one dimensional on social media. It’s like, oh, this is their, their whole thing is like being this happy, shiny person all the time.
But when you’re, you know, you, you get the privilege of sitting with people in their depth and in all of their textures and in all of the, the shades of them, because I’m the same. I, I feel like a lot of people often think I’m really a, you know, I’m so positive so much of the time. And it’s like, oh no, that, that has come from having, being able to sit in that without the performance when I was in grief or when I was, you know, depressed or whatever it may be, whatever experience it was that I’m having, I allowed myself to sit in that without performance.
And now I can sit in, enjoy without performance. And it’s such an honour to be able to have that whole spectrum. And I feel like it is, it’s a slipstream to creativity. I had, um, Jesse Sobool and I Jesse’s on here regularly and we, we chat a lot about creativity and I feel like so often what drives that, those beau most beautiful pieces that I come up with is from being able to, or having had, you know, that experience of sitting in the depths of something and being able to transmute it and bring it through to this ultimate joy or ultimate beauty.
Letting Go of Other People’s Expectations
What happens when you stop caring what other people think?
It’s very powerful. It’s so interesting. If there’s one regret I could say I have is that I wish that. I could shake myself at 24 and or 25 and be like, stop caring about all of these things that really don’t matter. Just stop. It took me so long, I think half of my life was dropping all of the concerns that other people had.
All of the concerns about what metric, what, what Mark you, like you said, like reaching certain points where it’s like, this is the most successful I’ll ever be. This is the happiest I’ll ever be. This is the best thing. This is the year. You know, even when people tell you like, oh, well I remember I went to my eye doctor and he was like, oh, well get ready.
Your eyes are just gonna keep getting worse every year. And I was like, no, they’re not. And I was like, I really like you. We’re gonna talk about this right now. Or I’m never coming back. My eyes are not getting worse every year. There’s no such thing. My eyes have been the same forever and they’re not getting worse every year because I reached a certain age like that.
I just don’t believe it. I, I don’t. But when we all take it in, you know, these words, these things, these stuff, blah, blah. That’s a lot of the clutter that accumulates is around all of these things that are just not us. The performances, the masks, the stuff. It’s very uncomfortable sometimes to confront how much you didn’t show up as you.
Mm-hmm. That to me is like the really uncomfortable part of it. It’s like, cringe. I think that’s a good word. It’s a very cringe for me to be like, oh my God, I cared about what people thought about my outfit. You know what I mean? Like all this stuff. Like, it’s like, oh. Um, but even deeper than that, like the way that all of these philosophies, whether it’s, you know, what you look like, how old you are, what diet, what, what house you have, all of this stuff is so ridiculous.
Like why not be the ultimate expression of you? That’s the reason why you were put here. Rather than everything else. And I think that’s another thing that when people join the Feng Shui school, they’re often shocked you weren’t, because I think you came in with a very open mind, um, often shocked that a lot of what we spend time on is you, it’s very hard to help people to become themselves when you’re not fully rooted in yourself.
You know, it’s very hard. Like I, I come across a lot of people and that are like, oh, you know, this doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. It’s just, you just have to be you. And I’m like, gosh, I’m not surprised that you are struggling right now because I don’t know who you are. Like, I’m talking to someone, but I don’t really feel you in front of me.
Relationships, Home and Belonging
Why does feeling at home begin with your relationship to yourself?
And if we could all just be closer to who we are, everything would be so much easier. Mm. And I, and it, for me, it makes relationships that much deeper and more profound as well, which is, I think, you know, a, a lot of what I feel I’m here for is to shine light on relationships. Like, I feel like that’s, it’s, you know, really beloved passion of mine is relationships.
And the more we are ourselves, the more we can give to another, and the more we they are themselves, the more we can receive. And it’s that beautiful, like a tantra, you know, that it’s being able to, to hold both of those things. Whereas so often we become more homogenised and it’s like, well, I don’t really get to see you.
You don’t really get to see me. And it becomes very transactional in life the way we experience other people. For me, relationship is the deepest, deepest joy and, and the greatest privilege that we have while we’re here. The relationship with ourself comes first. So powerful and yeah, feel at home. I want everyone to feel at home for all those reasons.
I mean, I think about the, you know, since I was 14 with eating disorders that were unexplainable using my body as a battlefield. Like all of these things that I’d gone through, and I don’t really remember it. People think I’m like, I have amnesia. I’ve done so much work on that whole period of my life only to realise that the only way that I could, and it never went away, the way that it went away was for me to really allow myself to be myself.
I really had to plug in. And if I could, like I said, if there’s one thing that I wish is that I, like like shook myself awake fully sooner, but that’s the whole point of living, right? We’re supposed to go through it all. And like that was the, the journey to get there. And along the way, I did a lot of great things.
I learned a lot of stuff. And I’m sure when I’m 80 I’m gonna look back and be like, gosh, if only I shook myself when I was in my forties and fifties. And, you know, I’ve been like, what are you doing? Um, we’re all gonna constantly be looking back going, oh, I wish I knew better. But that’s the whole point, right?
But I, if there’s one thing I do wish for everyone is to feel at home, because it’s not just about interior design. I love interior design, but it’s not about interior design. It’s to the degree that it’s about you feeling you.
Designing a Home That Reflects You
How do you create a home that feels like an extension of yourself?
And you look at, you know, design magazines and things like that, and I, I feel like a lot of people really intentionally, this is what a home has to look like.
And it’s, at that point I feel like a lot of it becomes self abandonment. It’s like, yeah, but where are you? Why aren’t you loving you? Like, I have quirky stuff all over my house. I love my quirks, I love all the crevices, I love all the edges. And I’m sure I’ll ex, you know, I’ll find more and I’m willing to explore them all.
But there’s quirky pieces all over my house that are like, oh yeah, that’s for this facet of me that’s, that’s, um, needs to be expressed. And so often people tend towards this is what it’s meant to look like. And this is what, if anyone, you know, we don’t even really have guests as often as when I was growing up, guests were more of a thing these days we don’t even really host people in our homes quite as often.
But it’s like, well if somebody debt, you know, was to come here, I’d want them to see my home as being like what a home should look like. Versus I want them to see an extension of me and to see my energetic field, you know, in full colour around me. I love that. I love that. And as it should be. And I really, you know, another idea for everyone, have guests over.
Yeah. It’s so good. I mean, that’s one of the beautiful things about whenever people tell me, oh, I finished my house and then I had people over for dinner, or I finished my house and I was able to have people come and stay with me, or whatever it was. Or, and it’s not about the finishing, but you know, getting to a place where you feel like things are in order, you’ve gotten all the mess out of the way things are in flow maintained, upgraded, where people feel so proud.
But it’s not, when you’re inviting someone into your home, it’s not like, Hey, look at what I’ve got. Look at what I’ve made. Look at the money I have, or look at the taste I have. It’s saying, Hey, look at who I am. I’m so excited to share this with you. And that’s a really beautiful thing about it.
The Lost Art of Having People Over
Why do we need more spontaneous connection at home?
And I really do think that’s part of what I was saying earlier, this intellectualising of things getting stuck in our heads.
We don’t go to people’s houses that much anymore. We don’t go randomly show up places as much anymore. It’s not good. Mm-hmm. Like, that’s a big part of our human experience, you know, I keep seeing again and again and again, loneliness is the biggest pandemic. Mm mm I remember as driving people to crazy things.
Yeah. I remember as a kid it’d be like people just popped around sometimes. Yes. That is almost a social crime these days. And I am very mindful of it. You know, I probably would, wouldn’t appreciate if someone just popped around, but I’m, I’m wondering if that’s something we should be exploring is like, why would it feel so intrusive if somebody were to just pop around, you know, if they were thinking of us, you know, and I think accessibility, like we are constantly accessible by, you know, by mobile phone and messages.
It’s like we are so constantly accessible through technology, but not accessible at all through a human experience unless it’s been planned and, you know, conceptualise and every part of it’s been thought through. It’s like, where is that spontaneity and where is that? Just that spontaneous connection. We need it.
I mean, I have friends, obviously a lot of people work at home, I think. So during the day type things is kind of odd for a lot of people because that’s a new phenomenon. No one worked at home either. When I was growing up, like no one, like zero people. I think I knew one person who was an author who worked at home.
There’s nobody. And so I think that new phenomenon is this, kind of like your workplace during the day. But aside from that, the weekends, the evenings, like my mom always had people coming, like people were always showing up, but her house was always also. Ready to receive people. That was a part of that philosophy was like, you were always, house cleaning was never considered as much a chore for my people around my mom as it was like putting on makeup, you know what I mean?
It was like, let’s freshen up. Let’s make everything beautiful. Let’s glow up. Like there was a feeling around it.
House Cleaning as a Form of Self-Care
How can cleaning your home become an empowering ritual?
If anyone sees my work, I am really into house cleaning. I’m really into house cleaning methods and fun things and cool tools and all this stuff because I grew up with such a favourable view of it and how it really helped my mother process so many emotions and hard things.
And it really kept momentum in our lives that everything was always so orderly and so pristine. And not in like a rigid way. This was like joyful, like my mom would be so happy after she cleaned and even while she was cleaning, she put on music. It was like a whole thing. Mm-hmm. And so I, I don’t, not everyone has that favourable impression deep down of cleaning, but there’s something to be said for looking at caring for your home as a form of self-care rather than as a chore.
Rebranding it for yourself, reclaiming it if you have a negative viewpoint of it. I know some people were punished and forced to clean and all these things. It’s gets very muddy, but reclaiming it for yourself as just the biggest glow up. And when you’re always ready to receive people, somehow more people start showing up.
Mm. It’s almost, you know, I’m getting the, the feeling, the sensation of my heart opening as well. It’s like being ready to receive. Yeah. Not only people, but you know, whatever, whatever abundance may look like to you, if you feel in your home. It’s like, I’m ready to receive whatever it may be. People or money or love or health, whatever.
Having that experience, you know, the, the home used to be, um, an extension of ourselves and I feel like a lot of us have, you know, especially when, when you walk, work away for such a, a big chunk of your life. It’s like the home’s more just somewhere you sleep at night and, you know, it’s such a shame because it’s an extension of our energy.
A field. It is. It’s an extension of who we are. You know, it’s probably the most money that’s anyone’s going to invest in themselves and to not have that feel like I’m ready, you know? Oh, I love that. It’s so fun. I know. Now I’m really inspired. After, after we finish our podcast, I’m going to go get light bulbs so that I turn and hang art on the walls.
Mm-hmm. And now I’m thinking about it from a whole different perspective of like this reclaiming, it really is, it’s, it’s very interesting. Make a small change in your home that feels good. Forget about the rules. Who cares about rules. Mm-hmm. Make a small shift that feels good in your home and you start to realise like, wow, there’s something in this for me.
Mm-hmm. Something bigger, something and, and don’t have a preconception of what it is, but you know, even shift your opinion on cleaning and see if you can reclaim that if you need to as something empowering. All of these processes can be. So basic, but huge, bigger than you think, bigger than, you know, the manifesting class or whatever it is.
Like it’s, I love all that stuff, as I said at the beginning, but nothing beats feeling at home. I absolutely agree. And I lived in almost, you know, a really beautiful mansion for a long time and then through divorce and now I’m in this really quirky, beautiful little old house and I love it so much and I feel so at home and I’m feel able to express my quirks because, you know, it is, and you know, the environment does is a mirror of us as you mentioned before.
Where to Find Dana Claudat
Where can you learn more about Dana Claudat and feng shui?
And gosh, there’s so much joy to be had in finding yourself at home. And thank you so much, Dana. I’m just so grateful for this conversation and grateful for the insights you bring me. And, um, I’m sure our listeners will absolutely adore hearing what you have to say as well. Where can they find you in the world?
Well, first of all, thank you. I love your questions. I love your stream of consciousness. I, like I said, I love your creative spirit and everyone can find the work at fengshuidana.com, fengshuidana.com. And there’s everything you could find me at The Tao of Dana everywhere, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok everywhere.
Your YouTube, I must say your YouTube channel is what I play when I’m cleaning or decluttering most of the time. ’cause you’re, you’re just so positive and it like keeps me going. ’cause I don’t have that beautiful experience of cleaning. It is a chore to me. So listening to you is like, oh, this is gonna be so good.
Great stuff’s gonna happen. So you helped inject to that positivity into my cleaning experience and I highly recommend people find you on YouTube. It is such a, such a gift. Thank you so much, Dana. It is been such a joy and I’m just so grateful for your being and for the school and for your community as well.
I am forever changed after being in your world. And thank you so much, Dana. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for sitting with us today. It has been an absolute joy. If you’d like to work with me or connect with any one of our beautiful guests, you can find everything at perimoon.com.au. And until next time, may you find yourself all the way alive.
