A style statement is a two word phrase that is meant to be a guide to help bring your life together. It is meant to be freeing not limiting. A style statement should apply to all areas of your life. It helps you answer questions from "What was I thinking when I bought this shirt?" to "Why do I get upset when my partner behaves in a particular way?" to "How should I shape my career path?".

The first word of the style statement is the foundation word. This describes your inner essence. Your foundation may not be very externally prominent, but it represents your roots. When you wander too far from your foundation word, you feel uncomfortable and disoriented, but too much can make you inflexible. Your foundation word can apply to your deeply held principles as well as your essential clothing pieces or choice of couch.

The second word of you style statement is your creative edge. Your edge word often controls the impression you give (or would like to give) to others. If your foundation word is your roots, your edge word is your wings. Too little creative edge leaves you feeling empty and flat, but too much can be overwhelming and lead to burn out. Your creative edge may guide your hobbies as well as your choice of clothing accessories.

The bulk of the book consists of a series of exercises to help you explore your preferences intermixed with sample style profiles. The exercises are broken into sections based on 8 focus areas: home stuff, fashion sensuality, spirit learning, service wealth, relationships communication, creativity celebration, body wellness, and nature rest & relaxation.

If you are willing to take the time to do the exercises and really think about your answers, it is a revealing experience. Answering individual questions is sometimes revealing and sometimes a statement of the obvious (e.g., I know what my dream house would be like, but I have never thought about what parts of my culture I feel most connected to).

The real insights come when you do the filter and interpret exercises to find themes across each section and then start to see the themes that span the different focus areas. For example, I started to see themes of simplicity, precision, inquiry, energy, and optimism, among others.

Once you have gone through all the inquiries, the book leads you through some exercises to discover the overarching themes. After that comes the most exciting and difficult part: boiling all of these themes, some of which may seem contradictory, into a two word statement that captures your essence. The authors provide some guidance for choosing those words, but for the most part, the process consists of reading lots of definitions, finding candidate words (they provide a starting list, but it is just a start), and trying different combinations until you find the one that feels right.

And what is my style statement? Refined Elemental. I knew "elemental" would be one of my words as soon as I read the definition in the style vocabulary. Finding "refined" was difficult. I initially passed over the word because it seemed snooty and standoffish. When I read the definition after completing my inquiry, I realized that "refined" actually captures a lot of the qualities that had come up as persistent themes. I am particularly fond of the combination Refined Elemental because both words have connections to rocks and minerals, something I have always loved but was not really thinking about during my inquiry. ( )

Excellent resource Had a good time searching for my style statement Highly recommended ( )