Here’s a simple experiment to help you get in touch with the energy in your home and understand how it is affecting you:

• First, choose two rooms in your home … one that is messy or cluttered and one that is clean & attractive.
• Next, get calm and centered by closing your eyes and taking a few deep breaths.
• Then, when your head is clear and you feel relaxed, walk into the messy, perhaps cluttered room … maybe it is your garage … and sense how you feel. What thoughts come to mind, are your spirits lifted or do you feel down and stressed by what you see?
• Again, get calm and centered by closing your eyes and taking a few deep breaths.
• Then, walk into the attractive room that is free of clutter. Again, sense how your mind and body feel … are you tense or relaxed, happy or stressed and sad? What do you want to do in this room … sit & read, relax, create, draw, talk?

Can you feel the difference between the energy in these two spaces? How do they change your mood and thinking in a positive and/or negative way?

We are all affected by the energy in the spaces around us. The good news … we have the ability to control the energy in our environment. We can create the surroundings we need and desire to live, work & play in a balanced, positive, supportive home.

So if you’re feeling stumped and are curious to try new ways to feel, work and play better try these tips:

• Cluttered spaces usually make us irritable, stressed, depressed, sluggish and confused. So clear your clutter!
• Open spaces, with good lighting help us relax, feel comfortable, calm our nerves and help us think clearly helping us be creative and productive.

Check back for more tips soon…..

For me the workshop was a great example of life as an energy connection. Simply stated:

1. begin with a LIFE premise: an issue from our past we want to learn from and handle better in the future
2. add ENERGY: fresh outlook plus a variety of new ideas creating a new perspective
3. outcome: gain deeper understanding and CONNECTION to our core values, learn more options, and gain confidence to express our clear intentions

While this exercise was draining at times when I finished I felt exhilarated, buoyant, creative and energized. My soul seemed free from the ’stuff’ I carried around for months or longer with these issues.

We all, at times, find it difficult to be focused, speak our truth and live our truth too. Why is this important? If we can’t focus we can find it difficult to get even simple things done much less succeed at complex tasks…. like getting a degree from college or creating a business to name a few. When we don’t follow our intuition and identify what is important to us we often feel lost, unconnected, make bad choices, feel alone and unappreciated. Yuck!

The ability to see, understand and influence the energy in our life is fascinating and a valuable skill. It’s like viewing the world through new glasses… colors are brighter and things are sharper… life is good. Once you catch on to understanding energy…you’ll be changed and rewarded for life.

What’s energy, what does it do anyway, you ask? A short explanation is: energy is everywhere, of everything and in everything. Scientists recognize energy exists in many forms. Energy can at times be called the ’stuff’ in our life, such as:

• physical things (too many books, clothes) or not the right things (you really don’t like the painting or shoes)
• mental things (too many thoughts – the chatter you can’t shut off in your head) or multiple goals you want to achieve – all right now!
• emotional things (heartache over the one that got away or excitement over too many heartthrobs) or regrets
• the space (too much, too cramped), air (fresh or stale) and objects that surround us (attractive or not)

It’s no wonder we find it challenging to achieve the ‘quality’ of life we long for. So what to do?

I’m passionate about understanding energy and using this knowledge to enhance my life. So many wonderful changes have already happened to me…I’m never looking back. The workshop helped me clear my energy block around writing by helping me create a fresh outlook on the situation and adding new ideas from my group, resulting in my commitment (this is what I was lacking) to write a weekly blog. I’ve aptly named it: “LIFE – ENERGY – CONNECTION“. I will show you how to:

• create balance in your life (no more working all weekend) and why that’s important
• live with more energy and less stress each day (have some fun & smile!)
• make a stronger connection with yourself, the people, relationships and the things that are important in your life (the who and what you would take to that island paradise if you HAD to move today and live forever)
• live surrounded by and connected to what you love (not just a lot of ’stuff’)

Of course I’ve made it easy (no stress=good energy) to sign up for ‘LIFE – ENERGY – CONNECTION‘ weekly. Just click on the RSS Feed (orange box) near the top right of this page and choose your preferred delivery option.

Here’s to your LIFE ….. let’s fine-tune your ENERGY and strengthen your CONNECTIONS!

To your happiness, Samantha

Inviting, restful?

Does this make you feel relaxed?

Start with your bedroom, the most important place in your home in Feng Shui. First, answer these questions about your bedroom and … say them out loud…just for fun.
Do you like your bedroom?
Do you like your bed?
Do you sleep well?
Have you actually decorated your bedroom so you love it?
Is your bedroom your second office?
Is it your second/third TV room?

OK, now you know what you really think of your bedroom and how you use it. So, first things first…your bedroom is meant for two things…sleeping and intimacy! If your bedroom serves any other function…..you’re robbing yourself of true relaxation, warm intimate relations and rejuvenating your body. These are three things you need to fulfill your desires for a long life filled with happiness, good health and doing everything else on your bucket list.

How your bedroom looks, feels, and how you use and care for it is vitally important. Your bedroom reflects how you treat yourself, your partner and your intimate relations. I know you’re thinking I’m pushing it a bit, but stay with me. Are you saying: “but I don’t have a partner”…well, this will help clear your head and start to attract the right one. I’ll start with one easy change in your bedroom. And I’ll bet only 15% of my readers already do this.

This easy change is: make your bed every day!

Sound silly? Sound dumb? How can that help me? How does my life improve if I make my bed you ask? Well listen up! Your bed reflects the condition of your head. If it’s jumbled and unmade, so’s your head and subsequently your life. You are helping yourself in 3 ways when you make your bed: you show attention, care and respect for yourself. And what’s not good about that?

1. Attention: You pay attention to the most important piece of furniture in the most important room in your home – your bedroom where you spend 6-8 hours renewing your body & spirit daily. The bed that helps you relax your muscles and supports you as you sleep.

2. Respect: You respect yourself by spending a few quiet moments arranging your bed and at the same time organizing your thoughts to start your day in a positive, clear frame of mind.

3. Care: You show gratitude towards what you appreciate… and you prepare your room for the upcoming night’s restful sleep and in turn care for yourself. Would you rather walk into a bedroom with a neat bed or one that looks like it’s been slept in while you were at work? The messy bed feels cluttered and that’s too much energy for a relaxing night’s sleep. Besides it puts you in a down mood….”what this mess again?”

So please, start here… make your bed every day for just one week. You can stick with anything for a week. See how you feel. I predict you’ll benefit, feeling more relaxed, more in control, less stressed, think more clearly, and you will have a wonderful week. After all, if you are rested, relaxed and confident you will glow.

I’d love to know how you do….drop me a note. Stop back next week too as I explore another aspect of the master bedroom to help bring sweet dreams and delicious relationships.

Have you noticed there are so many people talking about FOCUS? Actually people are talking about how they lack the ability to focus. More people are noticing that we no longer feel in control of our multitasking lives. Is that how you feel? Were you able to begin using any suggestions I gave you in my last post? Were they useful or were you too busy doing 10 things at once?

I noticed something recently myself and I want to share my experience – I had a problem with my internet provider setup so Tech Support helped me get everything fixed. The provider has up graded their site and when I got everything fixed I looked at my new sign in page. I could hardly tell where to sign in as there were so many ads, options and toolbars I was getting blinded by all the flashing, scrolling, multiple options on one screen.

I searched my new screen to write some emails but the email function was certainly secondary (or more correctly probably #9 out of 10) to all the ads and options I had available. How many of these options do I actually use? Almost 70% of them are unnecessary clutter and I can’t turn most of them off. The snarly guy sneering at me to re-finance, and the flashing diet miracle make me squeeze my email message between them to write. While trying to write they are like a circus flashing at me enticing me to ‘CLICK HERE”. And we wonder why we can’t focus? Duh!

It takes effort to stay focused these days! And the benefits of being mindful of what we are doing at the present moment are HUGE!

Here’s some easy examples – there are so many more:

1. You actually appreciate the food you are eating, the book you are reading, the relaxing bath you are taking

2. Your can calm & clear your mind to think in depth about a situation that requires your attention – and find the right solution.

3. You can finish projects you started last month, week, year

4. You can relax and really listen to your children, spouse, partner, friend

5. You can pay attention to (or discover) what’s really important in your life…

Can you clear out some of the clutter in your life and be mindful today? Let me know how you’re doing…..

I have lots of paper in my office. I haven’t learned to read everything on line so I print articles to read later. I make notes on post its and I collect articles in print to save. There’s just so many interesting things going on in the world, I don’t want to miss a thing. Does this sound familiar?

Well, I got fed up this week and decided to convert my desk from a “mess” desk to a “success” desk. This meant dealing with the last vestiges of clutter in my life…my papers. It has taken several attempts to clean everything up, but I am happy to report….I won! I created files for my articles, completed the tasks on my my old post it notes, created a ‘read later’ file on line, and finally my desk is my own to arrange as I like. Of course, I am following some special Feng Shui ideas to give me added power, insight, and effectiveness.

The adjustments I used on my desktop are based on the Bagua Map used in Feng Shui. It is the guide to all energy movement in life. I’ll tell you more about the Bagua Map in the future…but for now…just have a little trust. The Bagua square or rectangle is divided into 9 equal areas, three across and three down. The color for each area is shown below. Draw one for yourself, and place the grid parallel with your seat facing your desk. For most desks the career area will be closest to your chair. Use this as your guide to arrange your desktop.

It should look something like this:

Desk Chair will be to this side

Desktop Arrangement

We’ll start along the back row on the far left…

• Abundance & Wealth: place something expensive, gold, or a small fountain
• Fame & Reputation: to brighten your fame, place your business cards in the center back of your desk or a red candle (it works even if you don’t light it)
• Relationships: place a picture of yourself with your partner, an uplifting quote, flowers or names of current business contacts
• Health & Family: In the middle left choose between a photo of your family or a healthy plant.
• Wisdom: And just in front of Health on the left, keep a reference book, or anything that reminds you of wisdom to help in making good decisions.
• Career: Across the front in the center is Career…and the actual center of your desk (just behind Career) are for your computer when in use and writing an organizing projects.
• Helpful People: To the far right in front keep your phone, blackberry, iPod your communication too to reach all the helpful people in your life
• Creativity: on the right in the middle is the creativity area, a good place for current project files.

I hope this has inspired you to take a second look at your desk and make some helpful changes. Understand that you do not have to implement all of these cures. Personally, I like a more open, cleaner desk (even though as I said it has taken me while to get this done)…it feels expansive, lighter, more inspiring and I look forward to sitting down and getting to work.

Try something new, experience the SHIFT and do what feels right for you. That’s good Feng Shui.