Where Energy Flows

For the next month or so, I am spending time in Ohio, where I grew up.  This area of Northwest Ohio is called the “Oak Openings Region” and it is one of the Midwest’s rarest ecosystems, with oak woodlands and savannas, dunes, prairies and floodplain forest.

One of the few remaining Oak Savannas in the world is found here in the Oak Openings Preserve.  The savanna is comprised of Black and White Oaks that live side by side with a mixture of grasses, sedges, wildflowers, ferns and shrubs. Some very specialized animals are also part of the area, including the rare Lark Sparrow and several species of butterflies such as the Frosted Elfin, Persius Dusky Wing and the federally endangered Karner Blue butterfly.

I cherish the Oak Openings Preserve.  It is a place that truly feeds my soul and brings all my senses back into balance. 

I spend as much time as I can out walking the trails and taking photos.  For the last two weeks I have been out nearly every day photographing the wild Blue Lupine, which is incredibly abundant this year.  These tall, graceful stalks loaded with deep purple-blue blossoms are simply beautiful.  As I stand surrounded by these flowers, I feel my whole body respond.  I breathe deeply and slowly.  All tension melts away and the most wonderful sense of lightness and joy fills my whole being (there are photos of the wild lupine on my website photo gallery).  It’s just a perfect way to  start the morning!

The preserve has been expanding in recent years.  And, as people become more aware of the importance of the unique Oak Openings ecosystem, many property owners near the park are dedicating some or even all of their land to restoring rare and native plant species.  Conservancy groups are partnering with local residents to reestablish the region’s natural vegetation.  Even some local businesses are setting aside small areas for native gardens. 

This practice of landscaping with native plants is sometimes referred to as naturescaping or xeriscaping.  Interior Alignment advocates healthy, “green” practices such as this.  We believe in caring for the well-being of our Earth and our work includes harmonizing the land and connecting with nature in ways that nurture body and soul.  Wherever you live, I would highly recommend that you consider planting native to at least some degree.  Some of the benefits of naturescaping are:

• Low Maintenance - Native plants evolved to grow in local conditions. They do not require watering, chemical pesticides and fertilizers or frequent cutting.
• Water conservation - native plants need less water, so you can conserve water resources.
• Health - Traditional landscaping can use large amounts of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, some of which are suspected carcinogens. During rains, these chemicals often run off into public water supplies, lakes and rivers. 
• Land Health - Many typical landscaping plants are not part of the original ecosystem and therefore contribute little to it and in some cases actually cause damage and displace native plants.  Naturescaping contributes to the overall health of the land.
• Savings - The cost of maintaining a naturescape can be less than that of a traditional landscape because a naturescape essentially takes care of itself.
• Song Birds - song bird populations have dropped steadily for the last several decades and much of the decline is due to habitat loss.  Naturescaping is beneficial to native and migrating birds.  Other native animals benefit as well
• Enhancing Life - An ecologically healthy landscape offers so much beauty, color, sound and wonder to all of us. It is cleaner, healthier and it can bring enormous joy and a sense of being in harmony with the natural world.  And, this is what Interior Alignment is all about!

Copyright Deb Swingholm, 2008.  All rights reserved.

I’ve written on the Helpful People area of the bagua  a fair bit, since it is one of my favourites. It is interesting because while most of the bagua trigrams are a mixture of yin and yang energy, Helpful People is all yang, which means it is very strong, action-oriented , male energy. 

It is a big force in our lives. Some people think the Law of Attraction is the same as the Helpful People area. I believe Helpful People is one aspect of the Law of Attraction — the creative part, what some call synchronicity, when the desires we put out in the universe begin to be answered.  The trigram for Helpful People means Creative Heaven. Help often comes in creative ways such as:  

• that meaningful dream you had
• those times when you just ‘know’ what is going to happen
• when signs show up in your life (the appearance of animals or objects that have special meaning to you)

Help (or signs) can also in the shape of other people who become heavenly helpers when they show up at precisely the right time in your life offering help or guidance, or put you in touch with the right people at the right time. Some believe this is an angel, or an angel acting through a person.

Synchronicity is also part of the Helpful People area. Syn is the Greek word for together and Chronos means time. Synchronicity is when seemingly random and unrelated events occur together in a way that has special significance to you. Synchronicity can happen at the everyday mundane level or through amazing and spectacular ‘coincidences’. We could fill a post just on spectacular coincidences. My personal favourite was the hawk that showed up in my garden the morning of a vision quest. Hawk is big medicine for me, being one of my totem animals. 

It is important to note that many people are not comfortable with the idea of being guided by an intelligent force outside themselves — a force whose job is to provide help, because the ‘help’ often cannot be explained rationally, and feeling in control is much more comfortable and familiar. But are we ever really in control? Think of often plans turn out differently than we thought they would.

Helpful People area also shows that we can let go of the need to micro-manage all parts of our lives and instead have faith that all is unfolding as it is meant to. The real gift of Helpful People, as I see it, is the opportunity for inner growth as we open the door to the flow of creativity in our lives.   

Ideas for Cultivating more Helpful People energy in your Life.

• Record your dreams. Sometimes dreams come from mental processing of the days’ events, but sometimes they have deeper meanings. Recording your dreams is an effective way to tap into inner messages, but you need to be prepared by having a notebook and pen close to your bed. Write down the dream as soon as you wake up.
• Experiment in dreamtime. Write a question you would like clarity on in your dream notebook before going to sleep and the next morning record the answers that come to you while you are sleeping.
• Create an altar. An altar is a place set aside in your home or office dedicated to receiving guidance and giving thanks. An altar does not have to be religious, nor need it be a shrine. It can simply be a collection of objects that help you focus your attention in a special way. For more ideas, see my post “How To Create a Home Altar“.
• To invite more guidance and synchronicity in your life, locate the Helpful People area of your home and choose some of these feng shui enhancements in the Helpful People and Travel area. You can also use these enhancements for an altar in the Helpful People area of any room in your home.· Colours for the area are black, grey and white· Candles· Scent: incense, lavender or juniper essential oil (or your favourite essential oil), resins – I like frankincense and copal – or herbs such as sweet grass

  · Objects of nature: stones, crystals, flowers, plants, seeds, nuts acorns, pine cones, shells, feathers, salt, corn, wine, water, wood

  · Your written prayers, affirmations or blessings

  · Religious objects depicting the image of Buddha, Jesus Mary, Angels or Goddesses

  · Other objects that have a spiritual or sacred meaning to you

  · Photographs of yourself and/or other people in your life.

   

© Deborah Redfern, 2008. All rights reserved.

Our inner world is reflected in our outer world. What we think and feel (conscious or not) and what we see and do becomes our reality. And we create our reality in our spaces and in our lives through these experiences whether we are aware or not.

I was reminded of this concept during a recent feng shui consultation. A client was very concerned about a personal family situation and wondered if feng shui would help this other person. In asking some very probing questions, I came to NO feng shui would not assist this other person. The external changes in the physical environment would definitely raise the vibration of that space, however, without a willing participant to make changes on the personal level, the higher vibration due to feng shui changes would likely be “pulled” back down.

Here’s another example. I know of an individual who has serious hoarding issues. Her very concerned friends decided among themselves to treat this individual to a spa day and clean up her house. The individual I’ll call Marianne, accepted the invitation for the spa day and reluctantly allowed her friends to clean up her house. The project took on a life of its own and after two dumpsters and thousands of dollars later; Marianne had a clean, beautiful home due to the efforts and generosity of her friends.

Well time passed, Marianne’s friendships dissolved and her home returned to its hoarded, blighted state. All the feng shui in the world wouldn’t be able to assist Marianne because she didn’t want to change. For Marianne, the higher vibration of her “new” home wasn’t incentive enough to make the kinds of changes that required her to live in this new way. In other words, her inner and outer feng shui weren’t harmonious and something had to give.

For the best feng shui results, cultivating inner chi is essential and paying attention to all parts of ourselves is key. Cultivating and nurturing our spiritual, mental, emotional and physical selves becomes important components to consider. In addition, living in balance with work, play, self-care, being of service to others, relaxing, learning, growing, etc. are key ingredients of success.

So consider addressing your personal feng shui when doing feng shui in your physical space. You will likely find the results impressive!

© Catherine Hilker, All Rights Reserved.

As a youngster, I collected rocks. That love has never diminished. Today, although I can often come home from a wander in the woods with more that one rock in my pocket, I continue to expand my collection with glorious crystals of all sources, shapes, colors and properties. Many of my clients ask about crystals and love to incorporate them into their home to enhance balance and harmony. Crystals are frequently the gift I give to clients.

In looking at the Feng Shui bagua, suggestions for locations for crystals include:

Gua                                                                               Stones

Helpful people/Travel                                                  Moonstone
Career                                                                          Black tourmaline
Knowledge                                                                   Lapis lazuli
Relationships                                                                Rose quartz
Fame/Reputation                                                          Garnet
Creativity/Children                                                        Clear quartz
Family/Past                                                                   Green jade
Abundance/Prosperity                                                  Amethyst
Health                                                                          Citrine

To attract abundance into your home, you could put a piece of citrine near your computer – especially if this is how you make your income. For communications, add a clear-quartz cluster in the family’s main gathering room and watch harmony replace disagreements. Watch your creativity spark when you carry a carnelian touchstone and invite relationship with rose quartz (this would be a great stone to tuck in your pocket as you attend the next networking gathering).

I place a moonstone on the ledge above all the outside doors in a house. This is said to keep out negative influences. Green calcite is another favorite protector from negative energy.

Do you ever find heart rocks designed by nature? These often show up on the banks of your favorite stream. They hold powerful energies of Peace and Love and can be placed anywhere. 

My preference is generally rough cut stones. However, others state that tumbled (smooth) crystals hold the same core energy properties.

A favorite book on Crystals and their properties is: “Love is in the Earth” by Melody. Her book has long been a classic on the topic.
 
Enjoy exploring and learning more about Earth Mothers percious gifts!

© Roberta Binder, 2008. All rights reserved. 

In Feng Shui one of the nine areas of the bagua is called Creativity and Children. Although all areas are equally important and interdependent for me personally this is probably my favorite area of life for I’m all about creativity. More and more as I look around these days it seems to me that the biggest thing that ails us silly humans is that we have become so disconnected from our essential creative natures.A great way to link back up with your creativity and energize this part of your life is by spending some time making a collage. Gather up some old magazines, a pair of scissors, paper and some glue. I like rubber cement. For paper you can use card stock, poster board, mat board or even plain copy paper.

With all your materials in front of you set an intention for what you would like to create. It can be a general intention such as, “I’d like to make a collage that represents creativity to me.” Some other great topics to collage on include going in search of lost parts of your soul and help from your Spirit Guides. There are infinite topics to collage and I’ll be discussing new ones here each time I blog to give you ideas.

Once your intention is set you can dive into the magazines. I like to flip through them quickly and rip out any images that say, “Yum!” to me. I do this quite fast so that my left brain doesn’t have time to analyze why I like certain images. I work by feeling with my eyes, not by thinking with my mind. To me my collage time is a sacred feast for my eyes and imagination. Collage is like a party for your right brain.

After I’ve gathered a small stack of 5-10 different images I then take a look to see if there are any themes emerging. Often the theme is a color. There will be several images either all the same color or complementary colors that are just crying out to be together in a collage.

Next I begin trimming away any excess around the image that I don’t want to be included in my collage such as words from advertisements. Then I place them on my paper surface and begin sliding them around to see where they might want to live. Often I start with a larger background scene and then layer smaller images on top of it.

It’s always fascinating to me with each collage I make that the more I can surrender to the wisdom of the images I choose, the more they guide me. They come together in mysterious ways like pieces of a puzzle to form a soul snapshot that I somehow misplaced. The more you can understand yourself on a soul level, the more balance you can bring into your home and life. Try it and see for yourself!

By far the most challenging clutter area for me is clothing. Although my goal is to ‘live light’ I find the clothing area is difficult to manage because while I’m not trying to keep up with the latest fashions by any means (I don’t care for most of them), neither do I wish to look indifferent. My goal is simply to feel good, comfortable and relaxed and I have learned that what I am wearing greatly influences how I feel.  

Style is most annoying. For example, I have several jackets (blazers, coats) that are perfectly good but just do not look appropriate because the cut, colour, length and fabric looks dated. I believe your outerwear (blazer, coat) is important because it is the first thing people see (especially in the colder months), and as a people we make our minds up about others in a matter of seconds. So first impressions are worth paying attention to. But neither do I want to have a lot of clothes. I developed that habit from my year of living in an RV with a tiny closet space. It was those years when I developed a strong appreciation for reversible clothes! 

So my goal is to find that perfect, take-me-anywhere garment that fits like a dream. They are difficult to find (at least I find it a challenge) and there are more ‘misses’ than hits — when you think you’ve found ‘it’ but after wearing it a few times, the fit isn’t quite right or it is not as versatile as you thought it would be. Or you have found the perfect outfit, but sadly and eventually, it succombs to wear and tear and is not so much ’all occassion’. Perhaps it has become just a little too worn to go to more formal events. So then quest begins to replace the perfect garment.

But what do you do with the old, almost great piece that you adore? Keep them? Let them go? I hang on to mine until I find something to replace it with, but that doesn’t mean it is the best decision because it does lead to accumulation and clutter. And combine that with the other reasons why we hold on to things and the cluttered closet is born:  

• it was expensive
• it is for a very dressy or special occassion
• you haven’t worn it much
• it doesn’t fit right now but it will when you you lose or gain a few pounds.
• everything is great but the style looks dated.
• they don’t make them like that anymore.
• it is a classic!
• it is a status symbol.
• it is a colour you just had to have (vibrationally speaking) but no longer feel a need for.

But what do you do with garments that look ‘wrong’? Personally I let them go through a couple of seasons and then if I am still not wearing them, I give them away or sell on consignment. If something sits in your closet year after year and you can no longer find anything…then it is clutter and making life more complicated than it needs to be. I promise myself I will clear out the ‘mistakes’ and pare down once and for all. But I know in my heart I am always on the look-out for the next go-everywhere, perfect outfit.

© Copyright Deborah Redfern, 2008. All rights reserved.

Moving into a new home can be unsettling. There is the confusion of unplaced furniture and boxes to be unpacked, and trying to work out how things work. You can feel like a guest or interloper.

To feel more settled you can perform a blessing ceremony for grounding. This will help you put down roots and firmly establish your intention for your new home. Your intention is the quality you wish to have in your life while you live in this house, such as feeling at peace, feeling focused while studying or revitalizing relationships.

To perform the ceremony, have the people living in the house write down their intentions on a small piece of paper. Place the pieces of paper in a heat-proof vessel, such as a stone bowl. Take the vessel outside and burn the paper to ashes. Tongs are helpful here. Take care if you live in an area with fire risk.

Allow your intentions to take root by scattering the ashes in the four corners of the garden. The ashes will be washed into the soil by rain, adding nourishment. Alternatively, scatter the ashes around a tree. Imagine the ashes nourishing the tree’s roots, and the roots growing deeper into the earth.

You can also call upon the tree to act as a mentor for your intentions. Spend time sitting under the tree in deep contemplation. Ask the tree the next step on the path towards your intended outcome. Notice any colors, sounds, feelings or images that come to you. You may also notice a sign, such as an animal totem, or someone mentioning something later in the day.

People without gardens may like to watch out for my future blog on grounding with crystals.

Copyright Helen Harvey, 2008. All rights reserved