Ken Donaldson and a Feng Shui Moment
This is going to go the long way around to the point, so please bear with me for a moment.
I’d like to have a Feng Shui conversation with you.
What’s Feng Shui, you ask?
Our friends at Wikipedia describe Feng Shui (pronounced fuhng shwey) as: An ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to use the laws of both Heaven (astronomy) and Earth (geography) to help one improve life by receiving positive qi (chee). The term Feng Shui literally translates as “wind-water” in English. The following Chinese passage may help explain: Qi rides the wind and scatters, but is retained when encountering water.
Historically, Feng Shui was widely used to orient buildings—often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, but also dwellings and other structures—in an auspicious manner. Depending on the particular style of Feng Shui being used, an auspicious site could be determined by reference to local features such as bodies of water, stars, or a compass.
Dictionary.com has a much simpler and to the point definition: The Chinese art or practice of creating harmonious surroundings that enhance the balance of yin and yang, as in arranging furniture or determining the sitting of a house.
In other words, it’s how you create and balance your surroundings and environments to maximize the flow of energy which, in turn, is really all about generating less stress and more ease in your life.
Anyone interested in that?
How about everyone?!!
Okay…back to the point of all this.
About six years ago, when I decided to get serious about writing, I knew that I had to set up my surroundings to be conducive for that.
In other words, I needed to make my home office “user friendly” for writing.
I knew I would be spending more time here and I would want to take regular breaks.
Not really knowing anything about Feng Shui, I looked into it a little bit, but mostly went with my own intuition.
I sit in front of a window when I’m on my computer, so outside the window, in my front yard, I planted some flowering plants.
Not just any flowering plants, but those that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
I got so into it, that I ended up turning my whole front yard into a butterfly/hummingbird garden.
Now, when I want to take a short break, I simply push away from my computer and peer out my window. There is always plenty of activity going on.
If I want to take a longer break, I walk through the front yard (I made a stone walkway) and simply take note of the flowers and the various critters.
AND, sometimes I even take my camera out and do some photo magic. Actually, I don’t do much of the magic; I merely try to capture it with my camera.
What I see is often quite amazing.
Now I will tell you that I don’t have perfect Feng Shui in my home.
I know there is way too much clutter (Feng Shui rule number one: Reduce/eliminate clutter), the colors aren’t correct (plan to paint later this year) and the flow isn’t maximized (plan to rearrange later this year).
But this all brings up a question (or two) for you: How are your surroundings? What do you do to maximize your energy flow?
Take note this week and see what you discover. Then put an action plan into effect and block the energy drains and insert more energizers.
And think of Feng Shui as being both internal and external, meaning that when you change your internal environment (thoughts, beliefs, emotions) you’ll have a profound impact on your energy flow, just like you do when you change your outer environment.
Also, monitor the places, people, things and events that you engage in and with. Do they energize you as they should, or do they leave you feeling drained?
Make good Feng Shui decisions…It’ll make you happier, healthier and more harmonious in all that you do!
Below is a little slide show from my front yard that I captured over the last couple weeks. It goes slow, as it should, so sit back and relax and enjoy the show.