The Shui of Life
Last week I talked about the wind — the feng of feng shui. The wind is the energy we can’t see, yet we know it’s always there — in our environment, in our person, always with us.
The shui of feng shui is the water — representing all of the physical things we see in our space. Consciously or not, all of the objects in our space are always speaking to us.
Imagine walking in the door as you come home every day. There are lots of conversations happening all around you. Things you’ve decided you just won’t notice — even though you don’t like them, or they annoy you — are speaking pretty loud. Very often we attribute our feelings to things we expected to affect us throughout the day, when actually we’re walking into a babble of information from all the stuff surrounding us.
Sometimes it’s not so obvious. It may even be things in the closets or the drawers — stuff hidden away in storage, things we haven’t seen in years. Did you know that the location where we store our “stuff” has a relationship to the times in our life? The attics, upper floors, and upper shelves represent our future. The midway shelves and mid-floors represent our present. Basements and lower shelves represent our past. Think about how you organize a bookshelf: what you use every day is easily accessible, usually on the midlevel. When you complete something, you might file it away or put it on the lower shelves. The top shelves are for what is to come later.
When I learned about this concept, I took a look at what I had on the very top shelf in my office: a box of leftover wedding invitations, response cards, and menus from my wedding in 1982. I actually had my past in my future. At the time it made sense — my husband Ray had only passed a few years earlier, so I wasn’t ready to let go of the past. Recognizing the metaphor, I kept just one invitation and one menu from our 1982 wedding, placed them in our wedding album, which I had in a storage box in the family room (almost the lowest level), and made a clear path for my future.
Energy is everywhere, in everything. The truth is, we have the ability to create the environment that gives us the energy to feel the way we choose to feel.
We are getting messages all the time, and we are the writers of these stories. Are these stories serving you well? Are you getting the messages that you want to feel? Do you want to change the stories? Begin by changing your space. This doesn’t mean a complete overhaul — start by creating what I call “fabulous firsts.” The first thing you see when you wake up in the morning, sitting in your favorite chair, and especially when you come into your home. Does what you see give you the feelings you want to feel? This is a good starting point — the rest will follow.
I would love to hear about your experiences. And one more tip: when you are feeling distracted, not able to concentrate, check out your silverware drawer in the kitchen. Take a few minutes to straighten it out, clear out the crumbs — it will do wonders for you!
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