Amber Blandford: feeling grateful to be featured on Shondaland!
In Shondaland’s Joy Makers series, we spotlight creative curators who operate behind the scenes to inspire moments of elation. Their handiwork illuminates pathways to delightfulness, and their one-of-a-kind insights help us find happiness in our own lives. In this month’s installment, we explore the joy of organization.
Joyful Spaces owner Amber Blandford is not your average professional organizer. She helps clients release what is no longer serving them through her holistic business. “It’s way beyond making sure your pantry is all orderly,” the Indiana native says. “It’s so much deeper than that.” Blandford realized early on in her career there was something essential missing from the process of decluttering: connection.
“Growing up, I was around death a lot,” Blandford says, “and I was comfortable with that.” Blandford’s grandmother lived with her family at the end of her life and passed away when Amber was 2 years old. In the following years, many of Blandford’s family members became sick, and she found herself visiting the hospital often to cheer them up. In 2019, her mother, father, and brother died within four months of each another. “Death,” she reflects, “wasn’t hidden from me.”
Blandford decided to put her gift for making people feel at ease to work. She became a certified chaplain to help patients transition and also support families and staff through loss and through grief. She was excited to work with a variety of people each day. “It’s like there’s a surprise behind every door,” Blandford says. “Who are they? What are they going through? How can I meet their needs?”
After seven years as a chaplain and bereavement coordinator in hospital and hospice settings, and around the time of her own divorce and the death of her family members, she had a pivotal realization. “The last six months of life, people get tons of support and care,” she says, “but this could be the same for the living.” The chaplain decided she wanted to make an impact with people who are struggling to part ways with whatever they are holding on to day to day. “I wanted to help the living actually live.”
As a young girl, Blandford yearned to constantly assist her mother, an artist and collector, organize her work at home. While on the precipice of changing her career, Blandford discovered that her next-door neighbor was a professional organizer for a living. She asked if she could join a few projects. Blandford trained intensively for two months through classes and reading. She decided that she wanted to transition from helping people let go of their lives to assisting people let go of their belongings and founded Joyful Spaces.
“For me, it’s all connected,” Blandford says about organizing and spiritual work. The professional organizer, who is also a registered yoga teacher and intuitive guide, believes that what she does is the same as her work as a chaplain. The only difference is that she works with people in their homes rather than in hospitals. “For me, it starts with the chaplaincy of journeying with people,” she says. “The main theme is letting go.”
(Continue reading the article here.)
#joyfulspaces #holistic #intuitiveguide
