Recently, Sharon’s world has been turned upside down. Her responsibilities at work have escalated and the time she used to have for herself has been depleted. She recently wrote in her journal, “It’s just another rotten day – small stuff keeps building up. A few medical issues have flared up again, there’s lots of stress related to my current clients and on top of it all, I’m not sleeping well. All small stuff – but I’m trying to work through it.”
If this sounds similar to your situation, know you can do something about dealing with “stuff” and getting back on track. Feng Shui is all about creating balance in your life or the life of your organization by using its principles to focus positive energy on areas that need improvement.
Finding the Problem - Creating the Solution
Sometimes improvement can be found easily by stepping away from your keyboard or telephone, and taking several long slow deep breaths. Even activities like doing a two-minute meditation in your chair, or mental escape at your desk, or going for a leisurely walk can help. When that does not do it or your “stuff” just keeps re-occurring, it is time to look deeper.
Use the RIGHT formula to discover what’s going on behind the scenes. You can’t reenergize and restore yourself unless you know what is causing all this “stuff” to constantly repeat itself in your life. Look at the following areas of your life to see what is causing your energy depletion, disengagement and discouragement. Check out each area of the RIGHT formula to find the areas in your life that need reenergizing and restoring.
R - Review your physical health status regularly. Is your body performing on a half empty energy tank? The physical body requires daily nourishment and exercise. Evaluate how you care for your physical body to see if there is something missing. Are you eating too much junk food? Should you take nutritional supplements? Do you exercise daily by walking or going to the gym? How long has it been since your last physical check-up? If you are overlooking something regarding the care and health of your physical body, take steps to correct it – that may be your missing link.
I - Inventory your mental activities. Are you stuck in the right or the left side of your brain? Mental variety and activity is essential to a balanced, energized lifestyle. Is all of your work on the logical left side of the brain? Do you work with numbers, quotas, computers and technical things all day? Find balance by doing something on the right side of the brain, such as creative writing, painting, sewing, sculpting and dancing, just to name a few. If your work primarily uses the creative right side of the brain, balance it with things like left-brained activities like mind games (Sudoku, crosswords and word find puzzles) and even physical activities such as tennis, golf, etc.
G - Get a life! Social activities cannot be overlooked for their important role in your well-being. While everyone needs varying amounts of social interaction, if it is absent or in limited amounts in your life, it will cause great imbalance. Deliberately add social events to your calendar, especially those with uplifting people, until you find the right formula for re-energizing and restoring your productivity and outlook on life. If you are a party animal, bring more balance to your life by limiting your number of social events. If you have too many of the wrong type of social events on your calendar, participate only in those that encourage you and uplift your spirits.
H - Hanging onto negative thoughts and events from the past drains your emotions and leads to discouragement, distraction and pessimistic thinking. Emotions are very important in the re-energizing and restoring process. If your emotional well is dry, it is very easy for “stuff” to happen and constantly re-occur. First, place something in the northeast corner of your desk or office (after you’ve uncluttered that space) that reminds you of a very joy-filled, encouraging and inspiring time in your life. It could be a picture of you graduating, receiving an award or even a toy from childhood. Second, take one hour of your day to read something inspirational or motivational. It can be an old favorite like The Power of Positive Thinking, the Bible, or a book on uplifting quotes. It can be new favorites like The Secret or Your Best Life Now. You need to fill your emotional well to overflowing so you can get past the re-occurring “stuff” and restore your energy.
T - Teach your mind that your heart and soul also need nurturing and nourishing. Spiritual emptiness often accompanies a dry emotional well. Take 15 minutes every night before going to bed to quiet your heart and mind; dim the lights and light a candle in a safe container. Place the candle in the eastern area of the room to shed light onto and energize new beginnings. Spend the next 15 minutes reflecting on an inspirational or motivational message in the morning. This will nurture and re-energize your spiritual side. You can also meditate and visualize successfully balancing all five aspects of the RIGHT formula coming into alignment so they will be reenergized and restored to complete balance.
Having a life that goes your way 90 percent of the time without stress is all about being balanced physically, mentally, socially, emotionally and spiritually. When your life is out of balance things go wrong and “stuff” happens. The more balanced your life is, the less “stuff” happens. And when it does happen, it will be much less stressful.
Treat yourself as you are and you will stay as you are. Treat yourself as you want to be and you will become what you want to be.
About The Author
Pat Heydlauff is president of Energy Design, a company that uses proven Feng Shui design principles to improve the bottom line. As a consultant and speaker, Pat helps organizations and businesses of all sizes remove stress and clutter, while increasing creativity, employee retention and productivity. Her forthcoming book, "Feng Shui: So Easy a Child Can Do It” outlines the small changes that can lead to a big improvement in one's personal and professional success. For information, visit:
www.Energy-by-Design.com or call: 561-799-3443.
