Making Flexibility Effortless

Related: Listen to my podcast episode entitled, “Making Flexibility Effortless”

(Please read disclaimer at the end stating that this post is only based on my own personal mold avoidance journey and experience, and I am NOT an expert or authority, I am just one person sharing my journey).

One problem I’m seeing come up quite frequently with new folks who I chat with is that they get too invested in their particular style of mold avoidance, too early. This is what causes stress and financial loss.

The number 1 goal in early mold avoidance is to STAY FLEXIBLE. There are MANY reasons for this.

1. It takes a LONG time to build up the skills needed to be a “good picker” of locations and houses. You don’t want to lock in too early.
2. Your OWN detox can self-contaminate places for quite a long time, even years, so you don’t want to be locked into any one spot.
3. Even in LATER avoidance, places can still go bad, so flexibility is still needed.

One of my mentors got this flexibility down to a science, traveling in tents or hotels with belongings that all fit inside “two grocery bags.”

It might seem kind of crazy to travel that light, but when you become experienced and see the anguish caused by “locking in too heavy, too soon,” you see that the opposite is true: this is actually the most peaceful and serene approach.

Traveling this light and flexible ALSO allows one to easily experiment and learn lessons WITHOUT too much fear. I even remember in the “good old days,” a lot of us would use rental cars to go in and out of bad locations under the guidance of a mentor to experience what various toxins felt like. I did this personally.

When you only own $100 of Walmart clothing and you are in a rental car, you aren’t risking anything. Any hit you get can be washed down the drain of a hotel shower.

Yes, this approach IS a bit “extreme.” But here’s the thing – for a lot of us, this EXTREME approach is what allowed us to be LESS extreme later on! It’s “putting in your time” to gain the skills. This also allows you to NOT waste all your money and resources on the front end.

Here’s the other thing – this doesn’t have to be stressful! Just frame it in a different light and it will make sense. Picture a college athlete on a trip to compete somewhere. They do this! They travel with one backpack and stay in a hotel.

We aren’t exactly talking about a military battle between Israel and Gaza here. No one is dying or starving or being bombed.

We are talking about some camping and hoteling with minimal belongings. It’s not that big of a deal so stop fussing so much and get over it!

Bonus points if you also ENJOY the process, we did TONS of fun stuff along the way including water parks, cave tours, Disneyland, and much much more. All are one-off events and activities that you can easily bail from and aren’t that expensive.

See, back when I was doing avoidance, this was PAR FOR THE COURSE. This kind of advice was just standard from many of my mentors.

i.e., the idea of making mold avoidance a JOURNEY NOT A DESTINATION. This allows for stopping and having some fun along the way, and also making the allowance that probably you aren’t even ready for a “destination” anyway based on the reasons above.

This also requires a MENTAL SHIFT – or “paradigm shift” if you will – that you are more like a traveling college athlete with a backpack, NOT a “materially established” adult with tons of belongings and stuff.

Honestly, when I made this paradigm shift, life got a lot less stressful! You know why? Because MONEY was my primary stress, as it is with most of you, and when you travel light and flexible, and you DONT have a house payment, we actually didn’t spend much more money than “normal life.” Now I get it, not everyone can travel. They need to work, stay in the same location. That’s fine. This advice isn’t for everyone. I’m just stating what I did.

But I felt like I needed to bring this up again because this IMPORTANT ideology seems to have gotten very lost in recent days, I’m not sure why.

If people DO want to get more “locked in” to larger purchases, more location dependence, leases, home purchases, etc., that’s OK with me. I’m not your boss. But I might just humbly point out that doing so may be a lot more stressful and financially painful. That’s all.

OK, and now the new disclaimer that I guess I need to start adding: I am NOT saying that this kind of traveling / flexible mold avoidance is “right for everyone.” Some may due just fine in rental houses and with less travel. That’s fine too! This is just the approach that was taught to me personally and which I used with healing and financial success, so it is what I am passionate about sharing. I am not saying it needs to be true for everyone, and as you all know, there are PLENTY of mold groups, so if the advice in my group doesn’t resonate with you, that’s totally fine! I have never once said that my experience should be thought of as exclusive or dominant. On the contrary, in ALL my materials I’ve said that any mold avoidance approach should be tailored to one’s own situation. I’ve even talked about a couple I know who did mold avoidance via remodeling and flipping houses, and MADE money during the process. They are friends of mine now. Have I ever once called them up and said I thought they did it wrong? NO!!!!! In fact, if anything I’ve called them MULTIPLE TIMES as a STUDENT seeking their guidance and input on my own situation. I’ve had at least a half dozen mentors who I have humbly asked for input, and who I’ve taken bits and pieces of advice and applied to my own situation.

So no one please come at me and say I am claiming to have some exclusive idea on mold avoidance. I don’t! I am not an expert. I didn’t discover any mold avoidance knowledge. I simply reached out in desperation when I was very sick, found a lot of good information, and applied it as best I could, as an imperfect human, in order to formulate a plan that seemed to fit my own intuition, personality, and situation.

And you know what!? I think it worked!