My approach to life, the universe and everything changed when I started doing your Clearing plans. I didn't really expect to get anything out of it as I have joined declutter groups before, and assumed that you would be doing the same kind of thing. I was curious about your group 3, which said it was more about decluttering your life than just your home, so I decided to give it a go for a week or two.

The bit about friendship really woke me up. I always seemed to be picking up the telephone to people having one crisis after another and it meant that I didn't have any time taking care of me and my own family properly. The children would come home from school to tell me what happened that day, and I was talking to someone over coffee, telling them to go out to play while I finish off. When they came back in, they didn't want to talk anymore, but I didn't notice because I was already sorting out the dinner and had my mind on that.

As soon as I saw what the cause of the trouble was, it was like a weight lifted from my shoulders. Thank you for your help in this. I now spend a lot more time with, and thinking about, the people who live in these four walls with me. They are not lodgers at a guest house, they are my family. We've spent time talking about things that matter to us, and we've made a rule that people outside the house are not allowed to interfere with our plans unless we all agree it's OK. Thinking about the family like this has changed the way I think about everything and I really have taken to heart what you said in your e-mail about achieving balance in my life - for every thing that causes me stress, I need something that will lift my spirits.

I wake in the morning to the sound of the alarm clock, so I take a moment to do a breathing exercise to centre myself. I used to do yoga in the late 80's so it was useful to have all the good things I learned coming back into my life. I say a prayer about what I want to achieve for myself and others during the day, and also for the world to be healed. I believe very strongly in the power of prayer, but I had stopped doing it because I was too busy to remember.

While the children are at school, I clean up the house and spend a few hours doing some work (I'm a feltmaker and produce different garments according to what people ask for). My designs are more spiritual than they used to be... Lots of suns, stars, ideas from nature, etc. Actually, when I look at my old designs, they seem very chaotic... The ones I do now are still not completely neat and ordered(!!!), but more 'me' than they were before.

In the afternoon, I practise yoga and meditate for at least an hour. I never realised I could make time to do this, but it has brought about the most wondrous change of all. Various things about my beliefs have dawned on me. I realise that, if I add up my beliefs and look at the whole, I am not the Christian I was brought up to be, but quite pagan. I don't believe in a goddess or anything in particular that would align me with a pagan 'denomination' (if that is the correct term?), but I feel most at peace when I am watching the sun rise and the changing seasons affect me a great deal. I believe I will go to some kind of heaven when I die, but one where we have a single consciousness and all our thoughts combine to find the answers we couldn't when we were on earth. I feel that there are angels and other spirits around me, and I see my children in so many different ways now, from the babies that came from my body, to spirits that do so much good in the world. They've been bringing their friends home with them a lot and I'm getting a reputation as a caring person to talk to, so I still help people out, but not in the way that drained me before. I think I just needed to find my way in life, so thank you for helping me find it.