Linda Varone | Nurturing Spaces Feng Shui

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Create Your Own Feng Shui Cures to Enhance Your Chi

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Feng Shui is about Chi energy: universal Chi and personal Chi. Feng Shui seeks to balance the Chi of your home or office with your own Chi (5 Element Feng Shui).

When I work with Feng Shui clients I encourage them to display meaningful personal treasures and mementos to lift their personal Chi and enhance the Chi of the space. Personal is the keyword here and nothing is more personal than hand-made art either by a local artist or a loved one (or even yourself). Manufactured items that are not emotionally connected to a beloved person, place or event have no soul and no Chi.

The best way to bring soul and Chi into your home is with hand-made or hand-crafted items. I have a needlepoint pillow on my sofa. I originally made it as a gift for my mother. Every time I look at it I see its flaws (missed stitches and a twist in the decorative binding), but more important it also has a soft handworked feel to the tapestry and I remember how it had pride of place on my mother’s sofa.

If you don’t have the time or inclination for a needlepoint pillow then how about a quick craft project?

sand art mandalas, personalized feng shui cures
Sand Art party mandalas. Creative fun becomes personalized feng shui cures

Last week I had the pleasure of being part of a sand art party at ArtBeat.  We gathered around a table and in an hour (including brief instructions) we had created beautiful designs with colored sand and adhesive cards. We sprinkled and patted and etched our way to bliss.  As we were working on our projects, we were “in the zone.” Time stood still, we were relaxed and totally focused. And we could have kept going a lot longer on our projects if we had the time.

Not only did we create something lovely, but we experienced the joy of un-pressured creativity. It was a peak-flow experience that stayed with us for the rest of the evening.

Check out your local craft store/craft studio for projects for your kids, for your family or for yourself.  I am very lucky ArtBeat is nearby. If looking for crafts find those things that fill the creative zone between a blank canvas (which can be intimidating) and connect-the-dots (which allows for little originality and is boring).  Also avoid things with media character connections – they are limiting, people simply reproduce what they have already seen.

Take a little time to tap into your creativity. It will expand your mind, relax you and bring good Chi to you and to your home.

My next project? A decoupage folding screen/vision board [link], inspired by ArtBeat, to decorate my home and hide my home office desk.  I am amazed how quickly I get into “the zone” when I am sitting on my sofa and cutting out the pictures for my screen. Lots of enjoyable quick little steps toward the bigger result.

Powerful Feng Shui Intentions: Three Secrets

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I read an article in Oprah magazine by Martha Beck on how to create a vision board. She wrote about her new awareness of what makes a vision board work. This got me thinking about intentions and how to take them to a deeper and more powerful level.

Rather than a vision board with photos of thousand dollar bills, a hot sweetie and sunsets on the beach, find images that speak to and reflect your deepest self. Use your imagination and intuition. You may be drawn to something that doesn’t make sense in the present, but will reveal itself in the future. Martha Beck writes, “The board itself doesn’t impact reality; what changes your life is the process of creating the images-combinations of objects and events that will stick in your subconscious mind and steer your choices toward making the vision real.”

vision board
Vision board

I encourage you to choose images that reflect the feelings and experiences you want to have – the settings and specific people may be different than you imagine today.

Whether creating a vision board or doing an intention to go with your Feng Shui cures there are three things to keep in mind:

  1. Look for unfamiliar images that speak powerfully to your inner self. Why images? Because they impact your subconscious without your analytical conscious mind getting in the way. The best images will give you a visceral response – you will feel it in your heart, chest, or belly, or they will take your breath away. I love photos, paintings and sketches of flowers. I don’t know why they take my breath away. I don’t have a garden or even a green thumb. Someday I will learn what this attraction means and I’ll let you know.
  2. Let Go of the Outcome. Once you have created your vision board or done your intention – let it go. Give it up to God/the Universe/the Laws of Physics. Chasing something or grasping after it will repel what you seek to draw into your life. Rick Segel, fellow-member of NSA and nationally respected expert on retail marketing, wrote about how he, a skeptic, was convinced. He cut out a picture of his dream car. Then he forgot about it until a couple of years later when he found the photo behind his desk a week after he ordered the exact same automobile!  Now Rick did not wait for his dream car to passively appear in his life, he works hard at what he does and loves. Which leads us to…
  3. Work and Openness to Opportunity Rather than sitting back and waiting to receive, its time to work.  Start working to create the life/the world you want, while being open to unexpected opportunities and help.

This is a delicately balanced process:

  1. Focus on the essence of what you want and being open to leadings in the form of unfamiliar images and symbols
  2. Let it go and trust that what you need will come in the right way at the right time.
  3. Work to make it happen and bring opportunities and help into your life.

If you want to read Martha Beck’s full article click here.

photo by Julie Jordan Scott