I was like a girl with amnesia.

I had been on the road for a long time and now I was standing in the middle of my living room…and I wasn’t recognizing anything being mine.  I wasn’t connected to anything.

Our couch was this big brown ugly fold out thing that was left behind by the previous tenant.

13 years ago.

Two gigantic dark and towering bookshelves hovered over me. Every time I walked into that room, I felt like 50 people were jammed into that room with me.

Our chairs were street scores, the gifts of garbage night.

And after being away for awhile, I looked around and realized that none of the things in my space reflected me or reflected Burke. They were easy conveniences and handed down things that just kind of showed up.

I didn’t want to live in broken, easy conveniences anymore.

Thankfully, Burke is cool and always game for an adventure, so we dragged all of our furniture in the living room out onto the street and I set up a “Curb Alert” on Craigslist.

We had a blank slate.

A new story to tell.

Our own.

I have collected turn of the century fortune telling books and vintage hand mirrors for years and they were collecting dust, hidden in a drawer. Burke took these hidden treasures of mine and together we hung them up all over the walls like art.

We went to the fabric district and got yards of colorful fabric – rich golds, oranges and reds and the two of us draped them over ceiling – turning the ugly drop ceiling into a whimsical circus tent. I picked up a pretty purple rug on sale from Ikea. Then Burke and I found a Victorian couch that was the steal of a lifetime at a local second hand shop that was going out of business.

I made an altar in the old fireplace that used to house a old television.

We printed out a picture that was taken of us at Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade and hung it in a gold frame.

The room was ours. Finally. It reflected us.

And something crazy started to happen. After years of writing on occasion, my journal spotted with 3 entries a month…I would be drawn to that Victorian couch and that beautiful room to write. I started giving tarot readings in that room because it was reminiscent of a fortune teller’s caravan in a traveling circus.

And I realized that there is magic in things that we surround ourselves in, when I finally made my space my own…my dreams came true faster, and I started to do the things I wanted to do more – because I was reminded of them in my environment.

When I was chosen to be a life coach on MTV’s MADE, I was lucky enough to get paired with an amazing human being known as Andrea Martin. Andrea is a extremely talented artist and a wildly creative person. We met at her school first, and we had extensive interviews together on-camera where we got to know one another. When I went to her bedroom, I was shocked. It was her childhood bedroom, and it had some really cool memorabilia from her past, but a lot of stuff she had just accumulated and it didn’t reflect her at all. She wasn’t attached to it either…it was just a bunch of stuff.

The thing that stuck out to me most – was here was this amazing artist, with not one piece of her own art on her walls.

Walking into her room, I was introduced to the ghost of Andrea’s past. The Andrea of the present didn’t exist there, and neither did the dreams of Andrea’s future.

Once we cleared it out, and got her beautiful art into frames and onto her walls, she was inspired more to live her dreams. She became more confident in this space where she was constantly surrounded by the beauty she created.

There is psychological magic in what we surround ourselves with. Trust me on this one.

Want to take this further?

It’s like palm reading but a “room readings”.

If you and I had never met, and I walked into your space while you weren’t there…. would I be able to really know the person you are just by looking around at your personal space? Are objects of your dreams out and about? Are creations you made on the walls or shelves?

Have a friend come over and do room readings for each other. He or she might see something in you and your personality that they might not find in your space.

If I’m ever feeling stuck in my life….on a project, on my writing, on performances…I move 9 things in my space. It tricks your brain into getting a new perspective.

Does your room reflect you?

Attach a picture of your space in the comments and tell me if you think your space reflects you or if that’s something you need to work on. If more than 40 people put their room pictures up, one picture will be selected by random and I will do a “room reading” on it, then do a 10 minute brainstorm Skype call with you to see if we can come up with cool ways to boost it even more to be a space of your own!

C’mon. Invite me to your place! I wanna see your pictures…..