Where Energy Flows

How do you manifest your dreams and desires? Do you have a clear idea of where you are going in life? Is your life satisfying and fulfilling most of the time? If you answered ‘huh’ (laugh) to any of these questions and you’d like to change that for yourself, read on.

People often ask me why do feng shui. For me, feng shui is an important component and often-neglected aspect of holistic living. I say, “It’s like staying in your one room apartment when your family has grown to 4.” If your environment does not match your current life situation, the healthy practices you employ may not be as effective and can inhibit you from being your personal best.

Another reason to employ feng shui is that it assists you in manifesting your dreams and desires. By creating an environment that visually and energetically matches who you are and where you are going, the likelihood of sustaining or creating your vision increases substantially. In this post, we will explore just one way to use feng shui to support your goals.

What do you want to create in your life?

The first and most important aspect is identifying what you’d like to manifest. Really take the time to delve into this area. Find a place that allows for a short time of quiet and introspection and take notes. For example, is it your desire to be in a relationship, find a new job, start a family, or take better care of yourself? Not knowing where you are going in life is like driving a car in unfamiliar territory without a map. You’ll get to your destination a lot faster with a mapped out route.

Incorporate physical representations of your desires.

Once you’ve identified a dream or desire, create a physical symbol of it. One way to do this is to make a personal collage depicting words, ideas, photos, symbols, colors and attributes of your intention. (See posts by Donna Thompson collages) This process takes you from the idea stage to the concrete stage of moving toward your objective. It is not important how big or elaborate your collage may be, but rather how accurate is it. In this situation, size does not matter (laugh)!

Energize your goals in a specific location in your environment.

Find a ‘power’ spot or use the bagua in your environment to create a manifestation ‘altar.’  (Check out previous posts on altars ) Gather meaningful objects, spiritual symbols, photos, candles, etc., together with your collage for your altar. For example, if your desire is to take good physical care of yourself, you may create a collage that physically represents this vision. A health ‘altar’ may also hold a healthy plant, some natural beeswax candles, a bowl of fresh fruits and vegetables and be arranged on a beautiful natural textile and perhaps the power spot is the kitchen table. After you have done all this now what do you do?

Imagine your desires as if you’ve already created them.

Using the example of a ‘health’ altar on your kitchen table, sit at your altar each day and spend a few moments imagining yourself manifesting your dreams. Light the candles, relax, and see or sense your future self enjoying your ‘new’ life. Imagine how vibrant you feel and how easy it is to follow healthy routines and practices. ‘See’ your interaction with others, and include as much detail as possible in your visualization practice. Offer prayers of thanksgiving as if you’ve already created your desires and are experiencing your new future. Then…

Let it all go

You may wish to do this practice for a few days or even a few weeks. At some point you will sense it is time to stop and let ‘nature’ take its course. Surrender to your higher source of power and trust the perfect solution will take shape. Detach from the actual outcome and be open to many possibilities. This step is critical because trying too hard can actually repel from you that which you are trying to manifest. This step requires trust, patience and openness to accept results that you may not have been expected. It requires acceptance that whatever happens is perfect and for your highest good.

In summary, you may choose to use feng shui and your environment to consciously create what you deserve in life. Be clear and spend quality time with yourself to identify the goal. Once you are clear about your intention, create a physical representation of your desire. Use your intuition or the bagua to find a ‘power spot’ to showcase your objectives. Spend a few minutes each day at your ‘power spot’ and imagine the intended outcome with feelings, images, sensations and any other practice that works for you. When the time is right, let it all go.

Enjoy the process and experience the magic in manifesting your dreams and desires!

©Catherine Hilker, All Rights Reserved.

When filling your vehicle with petroleum, gasoline, means paying substantially more than this time last year, we have to wonder how can we approach these times of recession in a more positive way. As Interior Alignment™ practitioners and teachers we have the ability and tools to assist our clients with supportive feng shui and space clearing techniques to achieve this goal.

How can feng shui and space clearing help me pay for my full tank of gasoline?  Well it starts well before filling the gas tank. Now more than ever we need to be clear about our thoughts and intentions. Having a clear intention about what kind of life do we want to live and what is important to us in this life is the foundation for creating that life we wish for.  It is times such as these that help really identify what is important to us, such as being financially secure or having a fulfilling peaceful life. Once we are clear about our intentions, then it is our emotions behind thoughts that support or rather fuel the intentions to bring them into the physical world.  This is also the basis of the Law of Attraction. When we have this clear intention, emotions and thoughts then we turn to feng shui to help turn our homes and work spaces into areas that can support these intentions.

First we ensure life force energy is invited and welcomed into our home-mouth of chi which is our front door. Second, that life force energy can flow through each of the rooms of our home and energize critical areas that hold our intentions and spend more time and energy there (abundance altars). Third, we ensure that the natural elements (fire, air, wood, earth, metal) energy is balanced to be in harmony with nature. Fourth, that yin and yang energies are balanced so that those opposing energies in nature are balanced in our home. When we have these items in balance, then our home is ready and able to help us to create what we desire.

Space Clearing is the otherside of the Interior Alignment™ coin. Once the feng shui is in place, then a space clearing to remove unwanted energies that are no longer useful to us can be released. The template is set through the clear intention, the feng shui supports the intention, space clearing clears blocks to energy flowing to that intention. Space clearing brings all the aspects of the Universe to help support your intention through prayer and ceremony. Your home becomes a sacred space that supports the life you intend to live as you and your home are in balance with all of nature and Universe.

What is your intentions for your life and are what are you emotions around your intentions? Its time to seriously know what you want from life.

© Yvette Neshi Lokotz, August 2008. All Rights Reserved.

As a feng shui practitioner, one of the things I love is that it can be presented to people according to their comfort level and belief systems. I use 3 levels, or intensities of feng shui, which are: 

1. cures and enhancements
2. home as a metaphor
3. Intent

 Cures and Enhancements
The first level is the initial feng shui set-up and arrangement of your home. This is the stage where you will deal with all the big items such as missing areas of the bagua map, arrangement of furniture, and the flow of chi. Cures and enhancements are often ‘one-time” something that is set up and finished. Other enhancements may be seasonal. 

Home as a Metaphor
In the second level of feng shui  I look at is the metaphors in your home. Every object in your home has an energy and ‘story’. Some of the stories are wonderful, others clearly are not optimal and still others are in a grey area. There is just something about it that ‘isn’t right.’

When there are mixed emotions about an object it is especially important to look closer. It might be an object that is beautiful to look at, but the circumstances under which you got it were less than ideal. Or there is a less than ideal history with people who are involved. Although you may not consciously think of the associations every time you look at the item, you may be aware that something is not quite right and it will affect the overall energy of the room and your energy.

Intention
In the third level, we bring your intentions into the equation. For example if your Intention is to find a romantic relationship, we will be looking at the metaphors in your home that either support, or do not support that intention. It is not uncommon for example to see that someone has put items in their home that sabotage your efforts to meet someone. Metaphors can also take the form of clutter or neglect.

I encourage my clients to remove those items that are not supportive and replace them with things that reflect your intentions. For example it might be images of healthy happy relationships in the relationship areas. Some people will choose to have traditional feng shui enhancements (pairs of things in the relationship area) but it can really be any symbol that supports your goals and dreams in life.

Some people may not choose to beyond the first level of feng shui - and this is neither right or wrong, but a personal preference. They may choose at a later date to go deeper in to the energy patterns of their home and I consider myself fortunate to be a guide in this process.

© Deborah Redfern, 2008. All rights reserved.

Collage is one of the most powerful Space Clearing tools in my Interior Alignment^TM toolkit. I’m so passionate about it that I hardly know where to begin, how to narrow my focus enough to share with you just one aspect of what I see as this multi-faceted, multi-dimensional gem that is collage. So for my premier post here on the IA Blog, I’d like to talk a little about how you can work with collage to create clarity wherever there is confusion.

It recently dawned on me that I use collage as a way to practice meditation. I was having lunch the other day with a friend who is a yoga teacher and I was describing my ongoing collage group workshops to her:

”Its basically a form of meditation because you relax and switch off the thinking part of your brain. As you relax and breath, you focus on the images of paper in front of you and you allow them to guide you. They have a consciousness all their own if you can surrender your personal agenda and simply listen.”

“Wow! This sounds fascinating!” said my friend. And I echoed her with, “Yah, wow! I never described it like that before.”

There are many different methods of meditation from sitting and focusing on breathing to walking and chanting. Some people garden, golf or fish as forms of meditation. Me, I collage. Meditation is all about getting as still as you can- relaxing the body, breath and mind and releasing our running “To Do Lists.” When we meditate we tap into Being, where there are no lists, only vast amounts of space. Space Clearing is really a form of meditation. To clear any space we perform rituals that allow us to tap into the Beingness of that place. We start with basic cleaning and clutter clearing of the home, office or property. This is Step number one.

For the past four years or so I have been doing a lot of collage work. Initially I was drawn to collage as a manifestation tool. I got into it because I needed money to take my very first Interior Alignment^TM training with Denise Linn and I heard that making a Vision Seed Map was a powerful way to manifest things. Like cash. Long story short is that it worked and I became fascinated by this new world of collage. These days I’m most interested in teaching people to use collage as a way to create sacred space with themselves. For me collage is like Space Clearing for the Soul. It has helped me release stuck chi from my life and find clarity about who I am, what I love and how I can serve the greater good. I look forward to sharing my stories here with you along with tips for how you can begin using collage as a multi-dimensional tool for Interior Alignment^TM.

Copyright Donna Thompson, 2008. All rights reserved.

A common desire when working with clients in their homes or through life coaching often focuses on increasing prosperity, abundance and wealth.  Who doesn’t want to live the good life without feeling overwhelmed and stressed?  In our culture, instant satisfaction and results are the desired norm for many.  In some cases, instant results are possible; however, the most stable things in life come through persistence, consistency and commitment.  In other words, reaching our desires is a process.

The trigram for the wealth, abundance, and prosperity area of the bagua is “persistent wind.”  As one of my teachers put it, “the slow, steady accumulation of precious resources and priceless blessings.”  To feel truly abundant requires a consistent practice of being grateful.  A consistent awareness of being thankful for all the Abundance represented in our lives.  Like the abundance of friends, family, time, pleasure, creativity, soul searching, knowledge, being of service, and of course, financial resources. 

Gratitude is a natural state of prosperity consciousness.  It is very difficult, if not impossible, to experience lack or limitation while being grateful. When we are appreciating all that we have in our lives, we are a magnet for even more!  So, if you are like me, you’ll probably benefit by toning up the gratitude muscle through a consistent, ritualized practice.  Here are some suggestions:

At the end of the day, record all the things that you’re grateful for in a special journal.  And enter your dream state from this expanded place.

• Regularly offer smiles or other friendly gestures to those you encounter during your day, whether you know them or not.
• Give of yourself and precious objects without attachment.
• Focus your awareness on the upside of situations.
• Be generous with your time, your special talents, your positive encouragement, and your creativity.
• Most important, feel deserving of all the good things that you desire.

May you have all you desire, readily, easily and joyfully!

© Catherine Hilker, 2008. All rights reserved.

Feng shui can be used on a personal level to instigate change in our lives. Working with the bagua is an excellent way to instigate change. Enhancements placed with regard to the bagua work in two ways. On a vibrational level they are in harmony with the element and quality of the gua. For example a lamp placed in the fame area is of the fire element, and gets you noticed. Enhancements also work because of the power of intention that we invest when we place them, and every time we see them.

Affirmations are a powerful way to bring about what we want. Instead of just hoping for something we clearly state out loud our intention. Affirmations can be used when placing objects, and also when we walk past them and notice them. When placing the lamp in the fame area you could say “I am placing this lamp to enhance my reputation”. When walking past the lamp area you could say “I am well known and well regarded”. Surprisingly, you don’t have to believe in affirmations for them to work, they do anyway.

Affirmations usually start with the words “I am”. For whichever gua you want to work with there are many possible affirmations. Just make one up that best fits your desires. It is probably easiest to work with one or two affirmations at a time, so you remember to repeat them. By using affirmations you’ll move out of a state of wanting, into a state of having.

Copyright Helen Harvey, 2008. All rights reserved

The bagua is a map of universal energy. It is a useful tool as a focal point for our personal intentions. Having visual reminders of our intentions around us helps attract what we desire. Inspiring words as art, affirmation posters and vision boards are good examples.

Combining the power of intention with the energy of the bagua is a powerful way to make life changes.

Many of us want to attract a significant other to share time with, or to spice up an existing relationship. The relationships area of the bagua can be used to focus our intentions. In this part of the home display happy pictures of yourself with your partner. If your don’t have any use images of other people. Affirmations about self love work well here.

It is important to love yourself so that the power of intention can work in other parts of your life. If you don’t love yourself you are giving out the message that you don’t deserve good.  

Making a vision board of relevant images that speak to you is an excellent way to attract love and romance. Look for pictures of couples doing things that appeal to you, such as relaxing on a romantic tropical holiday. Displaying your vision board in the relationship area adds power.

All rights reserved, Helen Harvey, copyright 2007