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April 7, 2010

As we know, all good things must come to an end, so today marks our fourth and final newsletter of the Feng Shui for Spring Series with Master and Life Coach Ariel Joseph Towne If you've missed any part of this series, go here to change your financial life, here to improve your overall health, and here to revamp your love life. Last but not least, here Ariel presents his generous wisdom on how to find what we're all looking for - and that's personal happiness - through Feng Shui, of course.

For readers who are suffering from depression, is there a way to help by changing up their space?

Surround yourself so full of positivity, peace, joy and love that nothing else may enter. More specifically, there are ways to change our environments by working inside out (changing our thoughts, nutrition, internal energy) and then there are ways to work outside in (the things we see, touch and feel in our living and working environments).

Depression, from an energetic perspective means that energy is being blocked from flowing. One thing that people say is that emotions can be likened to "energy in motion." So depression can be viewed as a need for energy to move.

Since feng shui is about bringing environments into energetic balance, then the "cure" for depression is going to follow the same principles of bringing our selves (both inner and outer) into balance. Slow moving energy is typically associated with things being more yin, so see if you can do some things to increase the yang energy in your environments.

SHAKE THINGS UP
Start simple. If you simply take everything off the shelves, out of drawers and out from under things, wiped them down and then put everything back, you would have performed a powerful feng shui cure. The life force energy (chi) that flows through our space starts to move by simply eliminating dirt and broken things. Declutter, declutter, declutter. Find out what isn't serving you anymore. If something is broken, either fix it, set an intention to fix it in the near future or let it go. Make space for life.

ELIMINATE DARKNESS
If the room is too dark, brighten it. Add new lighting with full spectrum bulbs. Get rid of heavy dark curtains. Use mirrors to reflect natural light from outdoors. If all of the furniture seems to be hulking above you and making you feel small, perhaps it is time to rethink your design. If your artwork contains sad, lonely people or dark bleak landscapes perhaps you need to overhaul the things you are placing in front of your eyes on a daily basis. Notice how your things make you feel.

GET A NEW PERSPECTIVE
If you want to go deeper, then try moving your furniture around. Give yourself a new perspective by rising and sleeping facing something new. Change the artwork. Paint the walls a new color. Brighter colors may stimulate your brain and senses. This is also true for your sheets, bedding, curtains and clothes. Whatever is closest to you has the most impact on you so take care with what you hold near.
It may also be an invitation to move to a new space. Go inside and ask what it is that you need.

ROOT OUT IRRITANTS
If something continually bothers you about your space, do something about it. Fix the nail you keep tripping over, drown out noise pollution from neighbors or traffic with white noise or soft music. If something is irritating you then it is creating an inner environment which you are fighting regardless of what you do in your outside environment. Usually there is a connection between the two.

BEAUTIFICATION
If there are no photos of yourself in your space (only others) then you might be too selfless. This can also have an effect on your confidence. It is important to see yourself in your space. Place images of you doing things you love. And bring in live plants. In an office, bring in a water feature. One traditional feng shui cure would be to hang a set of chimes in your space. Not only do they symbolize harmony and gratitude, but when you ring them you are performing a balancing effect on the energy of your space. A second cure would be to hang a round, spherical crystal from a window or near where you spend the most time in a room. This is intended to uplift the energy of a room. Give it a try and see for yourself. It may not be just one large action, but a series of little actions that make a difference.

How can adjusting your space truly lift your mood for longterm change?

You cannot affect your space without also affecting your inner environment. And if you shift your inner perspective then you will view the outside world with new eyes. I think that it is hard to put moods and long term into the same sentence. We are moving, growing, alive people. Do you know anyone who is always in the same mood every second of every day? Moods are like clouds. They storm up and blow over. Different people might have different emotional constitutions but still there is an ebb and a flow to life and therefore to our feelings. The key is to recognize patterns and see if there is a cause and effect.

If you change your external environment and still notice some recurring depression then perhaps it is time for an inner makeover. The same principles would apply. If things are feeling stuck then perhaps there can be a commitment to movement.

YOUR MORNING IS THE SEED OF YOUR DAY
Whether you find yourself waking up on the wrong side of the bed or just waking up feeling tired, sluggish or emotionally low, there are things that you can do to start your day off from a place of feeling energized, balanced and good. Most people opt for coffee or rigorous exercises to get things moving. This certainly does increase the flow of energy…for a while.

Consider a few other things to get your energy flowing in the morning: Drinking a glass of water with a squeeze of lemon first thing after you get up wakes up the digestive system. Yogic breathing exercises or Pranayama can help you to flood your body with Prana (which the yogic name for life force energy) and help you feel more focused and alert naturally. Lastly, there are many systems for increasing energy flow in your body from Reiki, to QiGong to Tai Chi Chu'an, which can help the subtle systems of energy start to wake up, therefore rebalancing the and eliminating the effects of depression.

ADD NEGATIVE IONS
Negative ions are found in nature (where ocean meets rock, wind blows through trees and after a rainstorm). We have a natural source of them in our homes (the shower), but you can also add live plants or Himalayan rock salt lamps until you can get back out into nature.

Negative ions have been referred to as "Vitamins Of The Air." Researchers have found they reduce neurosis and anxiety, heighten appetite and thirst and stimulate sexual behavior. In school they sharpen mental functioning and reduce error rates.

[From WebMD: Negative ions are believed to produce biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy.]

Add negative ions to your immediate surroundings and see what impact it has on your long term moods.

LET GO OF THE TUG OF WAR
Sometimes we fight within ourselves and don't know which direction to choose. We fear that we will make a wrong choice. From a place of fear we reach indecision, and then inaction. And then in that place of immobility and tension, we start to experience symptoms of depression.

Energy has to move! So face whatever it is that is standing in the way of making a choice—face your fears so that they will lose power over you. Shift your perspective to see if regret and remorse are worthwhile bedfellows or if looking at your life story with new eyes might allow you to feel good about where you are today. Trust yourself. Trust your process.

Is there a way to set up the bedroom so we sleep better and want to get up in the morning?

Sleeping better is about eliminating factors that prevent you from getting to sleep, counterbalancing things that disrupt your sleep throughout the night and the way you emerge from sleep in the morning. Some people need to reduce the chaos of their environments (get rid of electronics near the bed or in the bedroom, clean up and organize your space and get rid of clutter from under or on the bed, in drawers and in nearby furniture and closets.) The bedroom is for two purposes only so eliminate anything that doesn't serve those purposes and your sleep will be better. Sometimes the chaos of our environment resides within our minds. Journaling or making lists for the next day before bed can help the worry wheel from jarring us from our sleep. Taking baths, getting massage or shutting down the digestive system several hours before bed can all help us rest more deeply.

As far as staying asleep, I would start with shutting off the phone, eliminating noise from traffic, neighbors or housemates by using some sort of gentle white noise machine. The more restful your sleep the better you will feel the next day. Some people also say that the position of your bed can affect your sleep. Ideally, I would suggest moving your bed so that your head is against a solid wall and making sure it isn't in the path of the doorway. If there is a bathroom, elevator or garbage chute behind the wall you are sleeping on these can also affect how you rest. I would move the bed to another wall, or else use some feng shui cures (reflect them with mirrors, or hang a crystal up above) to counterbalance their effects.

Lastly, see if you can wake up gently (naturally is best) or with an alarm or process that allows you to come back to consciousness somewhat slowly. Doing this can help you emerge from your sleep patterns in a way that doesn't feel interrupted and can set your day off on the right foot.

Having a strong desire to get up in the morning is strengthened by having a clear purpose about what you are doing with your life. If you are doing what you love to do, it will be easier to battle whatever clutches your bedsheets have on you. Unless the bedsheets have company in which case perhaps you don't want to get out of bed so quickly after all.

What if you are so sad you can't bring yourself to like anything about your space?

I think that it is difficult to spend time in a space if you are simply tolerating it or worse yet cursing it on a regular basis. The only way to live in harmony with such a space is to change your perspective.

I would start with finding one thing you can appreciate about your space and build on it from there. Even if the one thing is that you are safe from harm, gratitude plays a huge part in our ability to enjoy where we live.

If you cannot find one thing, I think that this is a reflection of something deeper at play. Perhaps it is time to move. Perhaps you are still upset about something else that is blocking your ability to see clearly. You may need to vent to someone, have a good cry, or go for a long walk before you begin.

Clean up your space. Open the windows. Light some incense or an aromatherapy candle. Move your stuff around. Place things on purpose and with purpose and eliminate anything that doesn't seem to have a clear purpose. See if you can use some of the tips and tools above to help transform your space from something sad into something that feels exciting, filled with possibility and hope.

Are there any other factors for people that are struggling with happiness in their space that we should consider?

This concept might be a little more out there for some people. There is an idea in feng shui called "Residual Chi" or "Inheritors Chi." It comes from the idea that there are layers of energy within a space that we can feel based on what happened in that environment before today.

Each of us has a response to a place when we first walk in. It is very much like an inner traffic signal (green, yellow or red).

An example of a green light is when you feel someplace is "like home." It could feel cozy, or warm or happy. It could remind you of your grandma's house, the place you grew up in or someplace safe in the world. A green light is when you want to spend more time within a space.

A yellow light is neutral. You don't feel much either way. It is what it is. You could take it or leave it. This could mean your particular chemistry with a space hasn't been defined yet or it could mean that you aren't able to sense what it is without spending some more time there. The mojo in this space is either super subtle or non-existent. Either way you feel indifferent to the space and that allows you to make changes to personalize it, warm it up or make it feel better to YOU.

A red light would be someplace that makes you uncomfortable. It could make you want to leave. It could make you feel emotion (sadness, rage, terror, grief) or it could make you physically ill. The cause of this impulse is likely due to some invisible environmental factors. These factors could be anything from black mold or toxins (gas, paint, or other environmental hazards) or they could be from EMF's from nearby electronics. If they aren't from one of those more tangible factors they could be from actions and activities that took place in this space at a previous time. Someone could have died in this space, there could have been lots of fighting, a company could have gone out of business or someone could have been in a prolonged emotional state, which could have left a layer of residue over the space. This residue exists somewhere and you are now picking up on it.

In all of these cases you would want to create a clean slate for yourself when taking over a space. Take what you like from the energy and leave the rest. Whether the old energy or stuck energy or "bad" energy is as a result of your old relationships, thoughts and beliefs of those of someone else…if you can cleanse the space energetically, you can always always always reclaim a space and make it your own.

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