Where Energy Flows

If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, as I am, maybe you will recognize this passage from The Return of the King:

Then taking two leaves, [Aragorn] laid them on his hands and breathed on them, and then he crushed them, and straightaway a living freshness filled the room, as if the air itself awoke and tingled, sparkling with joy. And then he cast the leaves into the bowls of steaming water that were brought to him, and at once all hearts were lightened. For the fragrance that came to each was like a memory of dewy mornings of unshadowed sun in some land of which the fair world in Spring is itself but a fleeting memory. — J.R.R. Tolkien.

As an English Major, I can remember the days when I would have so much fun interpreting this, and other passages from the book. It is an important symbol: it is a sign of accepting one’s gifts, of stepping into leadership and service. Only the true King was said to have healing powers such as this, of taking a medicinal herb, combining it with inner resources to make something greater than the two separately.

This has great significance for using essential oils in Space Clearing. Is there a difference between getting a bottle of an essential oil, let’s take lavender, for example, and using it to scent the house, and using that same bottle of lavender for space clearing? Yes. The difference is Intent.

When I did Interior Alignment training with Denise Linn, we were learning about Holy Water – the kind used in church and religious ceremonies. Denise asked if we knew where Holy Water came from. We pondered. Did it come from sacred wells, or was it water with special healing properties? The answer – well it might be, be but generally speaking water is Holy because someone has blessed it. There again, it is intention.

There is a difference in using essential oils when they are used with Intent. Used with Intent they become sacred tools.

Imagine for a moment the life of a flower. Imagine a rose. Although the plant in which it grows may live for years, the flower, once fully open, lives but a few days or weeks. And in those few weeks they are true healing agents. The fragrance lightens hearts, the colours strengthen the energy field.

When you reflect, isn’t it something or a miracle that the essence of those flowers can be contained at all though distillation? Think of the fragility of a flower, the fleeting nature of the scent – and then the ordeal of being distilled at very high temperatures … I find it incredible. Through using essential oils with respect and awe, they become sacred tools.

Combined with our inner resources — our Intent, a synergy between practitioner and tool is created. This is where we step into our own majesty, into a role of leadership and service that Tolkien talks about because in Space Clearing, it is not the tool that does the work: it is the synergy of tool and practitioner, how the two combine to create healing energy.

I sit at my desk, working at my computer, typing another draft letter for my supervisors to edit before final signatures.  My office space is a small cubicle on the third floor of a government building.  The building is grey cement with large windows on the exterior.  The interior of the third floor is grey blue.  All you hear in the office is the clicking of keyboards and some low voices in discussion.  The room is very quiet as people diligently work.

This is short description of my past workspace.  My cubicle was unlike most others as I had color in mine from well placed pictures and flowers.  My favorite place in my cubicle was just to the right of my computer screen.  I had a “special” place arranged with a picture of my husband and our dog, a small fairy figurine, a stone that I found on a walk, a special amethyst crystal and a small vase of flowers.  While most of my colleagues listened to music through headphones, I played my flute music CD’s at a very low volume. 

I had a fair amount of visitors to my cube.  If there was a short discussion on a project, informally, we met in my cubicle.  Friends would stop by on their break and spend a few minutes with me.  They always said that they felt so good in my space.  My cubicle was my Sacred Space.

Since I worked for a state government there were specific rules about religion.  So my “special” desk arrangement was not called an altar, but it was a work place altar and I knew what each item represented and the specific placement on my desk.  I knew the Feng Shui of my desk.  This was the Helpful People area of my desk according to the bagua.  My helpful people were my family, my canine spirit helpers, stones and crystals, the fairy and to honor all of them…flowers.

Most people have a way of placing items on their desk, such as family pictures, mementos, and “lucky” items.  I believe that arranging these types of items is natural and we do this arrangement by instinct or intuition.  When we begin to understand that every item we place has a special energetic meaning, then we step into the world of Spirit and we then consciously select those items and their placement. 

I am very grateful for my education through Interior Alignment as creating altars is integral in Space Clearing.  But even more important is that when we consciously create our own altars, our own “special” arrangements, we invite Spirit consciously into our lives.

© Yvette Neshi Lokotz, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

 

The things surrounding you in your home serve as subliminal reminders of who you are.  They will continue to direct you towards old patterns of behaviour.  Subconscious beliefs are generally so deep-seated that one is not aware of them.

Denise Linn, Feng Shui for the Soul

When I downsized my belongings five years ago, I gave away or disposed of nearly all of my Christmas decorations, keeping only those I truly loved.

I didn’t have a lot to start out with, but I did have a collection that spanned a few decades…what is it about holiday decorations that brings out the sentiment?

As we grow and change, our decorating tastes change to match. Often our homes reflect that growth, but holiday decorations tend to stay the same.

Each year there are beautiful new items in the stores we ‘must’ have — as well as any you might receive as gifts — and before you know it, the holiday ornament and decorating box is a large, complicated collection which takes a lot of space to store, a lot of time to put up, and confusion as you sort it all out each year.

This holiday season is a perfect time to de-clutter your holiday decorations and make life simpler.

How To:

1. As you open each box of decorations or take out each item, ask yourself if you really love it and it if reflects who you are now. 
2. Consider photographing any decorations that are no longer ‘you’ but are difficult to let go of because of the memories they evoke. Let them go and treasure the photographs instead.
3. Re-evaluate your recycling plans. Wrapping paper, ribbons and Christmas cards to be re-used? Re-using and recycling is a great idea, however I recommend you decide how much you keep each year, and give yourself a time limit for using them.
4. How about those broken decorations or strings of lights with burnt out light bulbs you’ve been meaning to repair? For things that need repair or cleaning, give yourself a time limit to complete that task — resist the urge to put it back in the box to deal with next year!
5. Package up the decorations that are still in good shape (please resist the urge to pass along the de-cluttering to someone else, especially a family member!) and make arrangements for its removal from the house.

Celebrate your success!

Wishing you love and joy during the holiday season and in the year ahead.

© Copyright Deborah Redfern, 2007. All rights reserved.

I love reading books on style and fashion found one with all sorts of interesting ‘feng shui’ tidbits at the library this weekend.  For example:

Closets are where we hide things: skeletons, forbidden loves, terrible birthday gifts we couldn’t return. It is for this reason that deciding what to wear while staring into those murky depths can be not just daunting, but emotionally exhausting as well.

- Tim Gunn, A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style

I find it both interesting and validating to find the feng shui princicples I have learned in Interior Alignment™ show up in ‘mainstream’ books. It is interesting to see these views widely accepted and adopted.

© copyright 2007 Deborah Redfern. All rights reserved.

 

Nature nourishes the soul.  Our homes will either separate us from nature or connect us to it.

Denise Linn, Feng Shui for the Soul

Your bedroom — it is the first room you see every morning, the last one you see at night.  It sets the energy for a peaceful, rejuvenating slumber and then sets the tone for the day.

So the first question is, do you sleep well in your bedroom? (Some people sleep well, but only after they get up and move to another room.)  If there are sleeping difficulties, do you lie awake trying to get to sleep or do you fall asleep easily but wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep?

What is your mood in the morning? Does your bedroom help you easily start your day or does it immediately set up roadblocks and obstacles, (e.g. you trip over objects on the floor, can’t put together an outfit, and then discover something isn’t clean or needs to be ironed, you discover a run in your last pair of hose and your shoes need polishing.) But hopefully not all of these on the same morning…

Where a professional organizer or clutter clearer would help you with organization, a feng shui consultant’s role is much broader. As a feng shui consultant, my job is to educate and suggest solutions on a wide area of topics, and also to work with your agenda — what you have called me in to help you with. While generally (in the Interior Alignment™ school of feng shui anyway) we won’t poke around in your closets to see if you are neat, if closet organization is on your agenda we will. But we will also look at the colours in your bedroom, the layout of furniture, artwork, symbols and how you use your bedroom - for example is it also a home office?

And while it depends on what your agenda is — what you want to work on — there is a universal ‘good feng shui’ bedroom formula. It goes like this (in no particular order):

1. Restful colours.

2. No TVs, computers, or exercise equipmement.

3. Matching or equal-sized bedside tables and lamps.

4. Artwork that is uplifting and symbols that support your goals and dreams.

5. A room layout that creates a feeling of safety and support.

6. A room that reflects who you are at this time in your life.

Copyright Deborah Redfern 2007. All rights reserved.