Welcome to our video where we will explore today the realms of health organization and maybe even a little personal growth. Today we have a true powerhouse joining us, the incredible Brenda Stone, the founder of Cornerstone Life. Get ready to. Be amazed as we unravel the secrets to healthier and more organized lives.
Imagine for a second having a clutter-free home or a workspace that ignites your creativity and a schedule that allows you to savor life’s precious moments. Today we have the—privilege of diving deeply into the transformative magic of organizational health with Brenda Stone of Cornerstone Health.
Thank you Thank you. I’m sorry I said cornerstone health. I meant cornerstone life. Thank you Brenda for joining us. Welcome. Thank
you. Appreciate it.
Can you just tell us, I don’t know a little bit about yourself and maybe your background in how you got into doing what you’re doing now?
Usually organization comes either naturally or it does not come naturally.
So for me it, just comes naturally and I have just always done it without really knowing what I was doing. I had a friend back in the Way back in the year, in the day that every time I would go visit her ride would go for a couple weeks at a time. She was up in the mountains and we had little kids and we’re like best friends.
So it was okay for me to say this, but I, went crazy with her pantry. It drove me nuts every time I was there cuz I could never find anything. So every time I visited I said, can I organize your pantry for you please? And thankfully she still loved me. And it was a help to both of us for me to function in her space while I was there.
But it definitely affects your just your wellbeing, how you feel having clutter and chaos around you is something that internalizes and can create that whole flight or flight feeling within you. So when your spaces are clear, Then that really helps you to be able to think clearer, get more done, be motivated.
So I just, it’s something that I’ve always enjoyed doing and has come naturally to me and it’s a lot of fun.
That’s awesome. And you’re right about, for some people, they’re more. The organization just comes naturally and for others, the organization really doesn’t. And unfortunately for me, I know organization does not always or really ever come very naturally to me.
And so the only way that it works is if I’m making an active effort or if I’m getting help. So you’ve done a lot for me, and so I really thank you. I really thank you for that. And because it doesn’t come naturally for me, sometimes I don’t. Appreciate how organization or a lack of organization can affect others.
I remember having a conversation with my wife and she had said one day that when she walks into a room and that room is really cluttered in an organized, she literally will step in and feel increased. Anxiety. Anxiety, and tension until that space, Feels better and is more organized.
And I would’ve been and, still, I would’ve been completely oblivious to something like that. If, she if, she hadn’t, told me. So now what, how did you from this, natural organizational habits that you have and just your way of thinking to being the world’s best friend ever by visiting and organizing their pantry?
You can come, visit me any day. How, did what, what made you decide to turn this into a business? A way to serve the community?
I’ve always enjoyed being self-employed. I was self-employed in a business for 26 years that ended and so I. I’ve always worked.
So I al was just looking for an ideas and I had one person just fall in my lap that I started helping, and so it made my wheels start turning. As I’ve helped a lot of people just as friends over the years, but maybe this would be something that or I could take to the next level and on, a greater scale, try to help more people.
I love just watching. The I call it joy, just people’s countenance change as their spaces become clean and clutter free and organized. They’re just so happy and amazed usually that it took such a short amount of time. I think when you’re looking at your own space and, all of the things that are everywhere and you don’t know what to do, you can feel like it’s just overwhelming.
It’s gonna take way too long. To attack this and you can do amazing things in 15 minutes or two hours or full day. It just depends what you have. And you can start one drawer at a time for 15 minutes a day, or it really is. Or we can do a whole room or we can do a whole house.
Yeah, it really is amazing what you’re able to accomplish in a really short amount of time, if that amount of time is, really is really, focused.
Would you say that if you were thinking about just general organizational tips, would you say that your focus is. Is really on the space, making sure that the space is organized or do you do any work with even like, organizing the day or organizing just your, life in general.
What does that look like for you?
So space is definitely a. One component, but there are also, I have taught some workshops on time management on meal planning, which comes back to your calendar on planning your day. I’ve done some business organization coaching, just that’s showing people how to organize their calendar and focus on what needs to be done first.
In those ways. So there’s systems, pretty much organizational systems for every area of your life. Yeah. It just depends what you are looking for and you know where you find that you get stuck. That’s how you can decide what you need.
If you were, that’s really cool. If you were to give a tip, like one, one simple tip or maybe a couple on how to have a, or how to organize your calendar what would that look like?
Again, it’s not always the same for everyone, but I have people definitely need a month at a view calendar, and then you need daily section as well. And once a week. Usually for me it’s Sunday night, but once a week I go through and I plan my entire week. I, plug in the things that I have. That I already know, appointments, I have clients, those types of things, commitments that I have.
And then go back through and look at my long to-do list and see where the best place is to add those things to have them happen at the same time as other things that it makes sense. So I’m not like running out every single day to, to go do something, but I’m grouping things together to make take better advantage of my time.
That’s fantastic. How if we change gears and maybe look at our homes what would be, if you were to give one or two tips to begin this process of just decluttering our homes, where should we even begin?
That’s always the big one and it’s the least fun one because it means purging. It means going through everything, but the steps are pretty much the same.
If you’re looking at doing a single drawer, you’re doing a home office, you’re doing a closet, a pantry, you know the entire house. You have to start with discarding things you want. You need to get rid of as many things as you can. Really have to be ruthless. You gotta. You gotta ask yourself, do I love it?
Do I use it and would I buy it again? Needs to pass those three questions. Not necessarily all three of ’em, but at least one of those three. And you find that you usually have way more than what you need. So that’s this. The beginning is going through touching everything, and if you’re working on a specific space, pulling everything out of that space.
Once you have it all out, you’ve gone through it. Then you’ve gotta sort it, put it together in like type things. Whether you’re using just space on the floor or you’ve got bins just go ahead and group everything together. Then you can see how much space you have, when everything is out of it, and how much space you need for specific types of, items so that you can figure out what kind of containers that you need to put them back into.
And again, that’s different for everyone too. It depends whether you’re a visual person or a hidden person. Do you want everything behind closed doors or do you need things out in the open so that you won’t forget what you have and, then you’ve got label. You’ve gotta label everything so that you know how to get back to it.
Find things.
That’s great. And that was something that, that we were working on in here, just even knowing the things that we have so we know where to put it and the kinds of containers to put it in so that it’s most effective, that it actually moves through the cycle of what we do here in our office.
And that was really, good for us. So you mentioned that organization can have an effect on our, health. What ways can, being organized affect our health?
It motivates you to move more. One the, art or the practice of decluttering is getting you moving. So you’re I did a six hour job yesterday and I was exhausted at the end of the day because I was on my feet and moving and taking everything out.
But then the whole reward of seeing what you’ve accomplished. So again, it’s that whole mind body experience of, moving your body, creating progress in an area that has been frustrating to you. And it not only, as you mentioned earlier, it not only affects you, it affects those who are living with you or who are around you.
And even can make you feel more comfortable with inviting people into your space. And that’s, very good for your health to have relationships. And so if you feel comfortable having your neighbors over or holding a Bible study or whatever it is because you’re not embarrassed about your space, then that’s gonna help your overall health as well.
Thank you very much. Before as we finish up here, do you have any additional tips or advice that you feel like that we need to let people know before we finish up here today?
I think the main thing I would say is, Just do it, schedule it, make it a priority because if you, I can almost guarantee anyone who is looking at a space that needs to be decluttered and organized.
They’ve been thinking about it for a while. It’s not just out of the blue and now what do I do? But it’s been something that they’ve either dealt with their entire lives or. They have dealt with since a move or some kind of life change has happened, maybe they moved into a smaller space.
But trying to keep all of the same things that you have. So my advice would be to sit down with your planner and mark out some time, even if it’s just 15 minutes a day and you start on one drawer and you go through and you get rid of all the extra. Can openers and spatulas and melon ballers and those kind of things that you don’t need, you don’t use whatever the thing is.
And we all, as Americans, we all have too much stuff, so we, need to learn to let it go.
Yeah you’re right about that. And one thing that you, mentioned, and these are all really good tips and really good pieces of advice, and there’s a percentage of us that can take those, tips and pieces of advice and then step out and, make it happen on our own without any help and guidance from, anyone else.
However, there’s a certain percentage of us that you can tell us all day, and I might be one of them. You can tell me all day the positive things that I could do, but I may actually need someone to, walk me through this process. And I know that there are people that are going to be watching this video that.
Also need someone to walk with them through this process. How would someone engage with you to be able to do that?
I have a Facebook page and a website and what I usually do first of all, for those who feel like, okay, I just need some guidance and then I can take off and do it on my own, I do hold a monthly workshop.
On these different types of topics at my home. And then I also am available for virtual counseling. Just guide you on which direction to go and what step to take next. But if you need the hands on, then just reach out to me and we just start with a 20 minute phone chat. And we can either do video or you can send me pictures of your space and we can talk through what you’re, what you need and figure out what would work best for both of us on how to, make your space into something that you feel really good about.
My Facebook page is a cornerstone life.
It’s my website is Cornerstone life.blog.
Excellent. I’ll make sure that I have the links to those here on the video, or you’ll see them in the sub, in the description because it’s, really important to be able to take that next step if you think if, you even think that you might need to be.
More organized, or if you think you need to declutter, it’s time. It was probably time a long time ago. I encourage you to take that time to, to look up Brenda at a cornerstone life and we’ll make sure that her Facebook page and that website is listed in the links here so that. So that you can get in contact with her.
Brenda, this was wonderful. Thank you so much for this today. It’s so important, I think, to, in our office, we take care of people all day, helping them to learn ways while helping them to feel better for one, get healthier. But learn ways to do things on their own, to improve their lives and their health.
And this is going to be one of those ways to do that. And organized life is going to be a healthier life. So I thank you so much for your time today. And are there any parting words you wanna leave with our group?
I just wanna ask you a question. Yes. So can you share just to how you felt about your space and your calendar and the, plans that, when we came up with, how did that affect you physically, health wise?
One of the things that, boy, that’s a good question. One of the things that I, consistently struggle with is, knowing where things go. And then, because I don’t, in my mind know where certain things belong, they tend to just pile up and pile up and then when there’s something that needs to be done, then I have to dig around underneath the pile to figure out where it is.
And. And that creates a lot of issues. It it creates stress because if I, tell myself I’m the person who knows exactly where things are even in the pile, but I don’t always, so it can create stress because I’m constantly looking for that really important thing that I need to do. Or it makes me less efficient because I’m spending all this time looking through the pile instead of just doing the thing that I need to do.
Or if I’ve accomplished something and then need to have that document to go to someone else. Without that without the system of knowing where things go after I’ve done the project, then the person that might need that may never get it. So I might as well not have done it in the first place. At least that’s the, that’s the end result if that person doesn’t get it.
So it really is a major issue with, Inefficiency with taking too much time for things and increasing my stress because of that, lack of organization. So when you came in to our space and you helped me one you, already mentioned it. The first thing we did was purge. We got rid of a bunch of stuff and we were starting to make some value judgements.
Is this important or is this. Not important. Is it something that you need to see here on your desk every day, or does it serve no purpose at all? If so, get rid of it. And then think about the steps that you’re going through in the day and, what you need to do, whether it’s writing reports for patients or researching some new or better treatment or.
Or something like that, or creating videos like these, there are systems to that, and you help me to create the systems to help me organize and manage that better. And so because of that, it’s had a really positive effect on me, positive effect on my stress level, and a positive effect on our office. And I really appreciate that.
Yay.
That makes me so happy to hear. Yeah, so thank you. And that’s what I hear from people regularly. So well, I
am, thank you. I’m very thankful for you and I think for anyone that chooses to work with you, we’ll also be very thankful for you. If you feel like your life needs to be more organized, if you’re starting to feel the stress as a result of that clutter, if if you feel like you need some help cornerstone Life and Brenda Stone, you need to contact them.
She is wonderful. She’ll take good care of you. I’m thankful for her and you will be too. Brenda, thanks for joining us today.
