Where Energy Flows

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.

“What is beauty, anyway? It’s more than something pleasant looking.
If it doesn’t stop us in our tracks and make us unable to move for a moment, unable to put into words what’s closing off the breath in our throats, then maybe it’s pretty, but it probably isn’t beauty.”  - Alan Alda

In a recent article about the upcoming World Science Festival, Alan Alda discusses the concept of beauty and he writes about how beauty is perceived differently by artists and by scientists.

Of course, what he wrote had me thinking about what I find beautiful. As an artist and photographer I am a keen observer, always looking for things that evoke a sense of beauty. But, as Alan asks… what is beauty anyway?

Last week, I found beauty in a field of wildflowers, bathed in the golden light of sunset. Yesterday I found beauty in a pair of turkey vultures, perched on a branch on a dark, foggy morning drying their feathers. Interesting, as vultures are not often thought of as beautiful.

When I consider beauty, it comes down to what touches my soul. It arises from the eternal nature within all things. Beauty is that which inspires. Beauty reaches my heart in some inexpressible way. It does not have to be physical beauty. And, it doesn’t have to be something I see with my eyes.

Wayne Dyer says “your natural state is beauty”. I think the natural state of the world is beauty. We can see beauty in all things when we are living in a way that is closely aligned with the Divine source; that essential energy that enlivens and vibrates in all things. When we connect with this energy all things have beauty.

Explore beauty. Cultivate it. Be receptive to it. Be willing to be surprised by what you find beautiful. And bring beauty into your surroundings - not what the world or a designer or an art expert says has beauty, but what YOU find has beauty.

Be open to beauty and beauty will be reflected in your life.

Copyright 2008, Deb Swingholm. 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.

On an early Saturday morning, I sit in a quiet place with a warm cup of tea.  As I sit comfortably and relaxed with an uncharacteristic quiet mind, I hear the tingling of wind chimes which hang outside my door.  The sound is so special and reminds me of healing through Sacred Sound.

In Interior Alignment™, practitioners are taught that Sacred Sound affects people and all things both emotionally and physically. Using Sacred Sound in Space Clearing is one way to remove stuck and stagnant energies in a space.  Sound creates form even those sounds that are not audible to the human ear.  As the sound moves out from the source of the sound, the sound travels through the space and even through what we tend to believe are solid objects.  Science now tells us that nothing is completely solid as there is space between the molecules that make up the “solid” object.  Sacred Sound moves through all things with in a space.

Space Clearing with Sacred Sound can take many forms: Bells, chimes, gongs, singing bowls, tuning forks, ting shas, Drums, rattles, prayer wheels, clapping and voice (such as toning or chanting). Each space clearing tool is unique to the practitioner using the tool as the tool is an extension of the practitioner and the practitioner is an extension of Spirit.We have written about the importance of Intention many times within our blog articles.  This article is no different. Intention is the most important tool in space clearing.  The practitioner holds the client’s intention for the space clearing as well as the intention that the Sacred Sound will break up the stuck and stagnant energies, dispersing them and releasing them to Spirit. When I teach this part to students, I use the analogy that learning how to consciously space clear is like learning how to drive a stick shift car.  As you first learn how to drive a stick shift car, you wonder how you are going to remember to do so much at one time.  Driving the stick shift car you are shifting the gear shift, using the clutch and the break at the same time, using the turn signal, listening to the radio and turning the wheel.  This is all at the same time.  At first driving the stick shift car feels difficult and at times over whelming, but with practice you become very adept at the new skill.  After some time driving the stick shift car you become relaxed and enjoy the experience.

I love space clearing.  I love to space clear using my drum.  I use a 15 inch Elk skin hand drum that I made in my Advanced Interior Alignment™ practitioner course in 2002.  As I begin to clear space, I feel the connection between the drum and me, a partnership.  The connection is palpable.  We are allies. I listen for a change in the sound of the drum as we space clear.  The speed of the drumming will also change as we move through denser energy and the denser energy begins to break up and move out of the space.  I will go back over the same space with my Eagle feather to smooth out the space after it has been shaken up.

As I stand in the center of the space, I sense or feel the space.  I can feel the change, but more importantly my client can sense and see the change as well.  Colors look brighter, and it is easier to breath.  The room looks crisp, clean and feels fresh.  The feeling of a Sacred Space.

There is an old saying, which I believe is Tibetan, “when a bell rings, its sound travels throughout the Universe and back to the bell”.  I like this belief as it can be attributed to all Sacred Sound.  This is a true blessing.

All Rights Reserved.  Copyright, Yvette Neshi Lokotz, March 2008.

Staying in a hotel when on vacation or business trip can be uncomfortable from a feng shui and space clearing perspective.  I just returned from a trip to New Mexico.  I traveled with my friend and fellow teacher, Deb Swingholm. 

Deb and I shared a room while attending a shamanic course in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  When we entered our shared room we both had the same feeling, “get a different room”.   Deb did inquire but there was not another space as nice! We knew that we had to do some Feng Shui and Space Clearing in order to feel comfortable in the room.

As we went out to our rented car, I turned to Deb and said, “we are moving the bed from the extra room into the larger space”.  The extra room was next to the bathroom and felt isolated.  So, that is exactly what we did.  We dismantled the single bed and it moved between the fire place and a large walk in closet which was in the main room.  We also moved the small club chairs.  One chair was moved to a corner we had designated for reading and the other chair next to the fire place.  The second bed was in an windowed alcove that opened into the main room.

After we finished moving the furniture around, I placed one of my shawls over the full length mirror that hung on the walk in closet door.  We stood back and assessed our work by tuning into the energy of the room.  The room felt so much better as the Energy flowed with balance and harmony.  We used the room off the bathroom as a dressing room and storage for luggage.  This worked out so well as the extra room also had a door that we could close.  I also placed a sheet over the bureau mirror at night which comes from my Native American culture.  This transformed the main room as the room felt like a safe haven in the evening.

When we were finished arranging furniture, we set up a small altar.  Deb and I set our intention for the space and began a space clearing Ceremony.  We used our Drums and a [tag[bell[/tag] to space clear the rooms.  This is the first time Deb and I have worked together as a space clearing team.  I have to admit it was so much fun.

The bell is one of Deb’s primary space clearing tools and watching them work together was magical.  We transformed a space that began as a confined with stale energy to one of beauty and easy to take full deep breaths in.  And, we did all of this in less than an hour. 

We all know that keeping a sense of humor is vital. Well, Deb and I wondered what it would have been like to video tape this feng shui and space clearing to show on YouTube. We would have entitled the video, “What do Two Feng Shui Teachers Do on Vacation?!”

On the last morning that we stayed at the Inn, we had breakfast with a few of the other course attendees.  I asked them how they liked their rooms.  Their response was their room was fine and loved the view of the mountains. Deb and I told them that we were Interior Alignment™ Master Teachers and that we incorporated feng shui into our room by changing the furniture around and doing a space clearing ceremony. Their reply was, “I wish you could have done my room too I could have slept better!”

I believe the important thing to remember is that if you have a basic feng shui knowledge you can create a comfortable place for your soul and physical body anywhere you go.  If you add a space clearing ceremony to that same space, you create an intentional sacred space. 

All Rights Reserved. Copyright, Neshi Lokotz, April 2008.

At this moment, I am in Santa Fe New Mexico and traveling with me is my friend and fellow Interior Alignment™ Teacher, Neshi Lokotz.  It has been a sacred and fascinating journey…  and it has reinforced the way we both view travel as a mystical adventure! 

As Interior Alignment™  feng shui teachers, we have been attuned to the spirits of the land and observing the way the energy changes dramatically from place to place.  We have also taken time to visit the sacred sites along the way. 
 
We spent one day at the Petroglyph National Park and another full day at Chaco Canyon. These two sites are sacred ground and as we entered, Neshi performed a traditional tobacco giving ceremony, asking permission from the ancestors and the spirts of the land to enter. 

It was wonderful to experience the energy of the land and connect with those ancient people who were here before us.  We could sense the ceremonies that had been performed there and felt the presence of the Ancient Ones on many occassions.  A few time we even heard the sound of drums or heard the Ancient Ones laughing or singing. 

From the designs of the petroglyphs and the alignments of the ancient ceremonial kivas, it was clear that the ancient people had a deep awareness of their environment and watched the movements of the heavens. 

Visiting the petroglyphs and the kivas brings the ancient knowledge that we all carry to a more conscious level - we know it is here and available to us, when we listen.
 
We are still on the road, but wanted to share with you just a tiny bit of our journey so far.. Visit my photo gallery here. 

© Deb Swingholm 2008. All rights reserved.  

Did you ever think about how much easier getting up in the morning and preparing to go to work would be if it was done with Sacred Intention? Life in the fast lane can be…well, fast, but it can also be Sacred and Blessed - both for you and all those you come in contact with in a day.

Waking up with a smile on your face is step one. Let your first few waking minutes reflect on the wonderous pieces of your life about which you are in Gratitude. Take a few moments to reflect on the Passions you hold in your Heart. Give Thanks for all the Loving People you meet each day. Yum. Don’t you feel better already? Aren’t you ready to roll out of bed and prepare for the Sacred Work you do each day? Haven’t you set a more positive Intention? Watch how the day sails by…walk in the Beauty of your Blessed Sacred Work, filled with Powerful Intention.

 Be Peace.

© Roberta Binder, 2008. All rights reserved.