JOURNEY in HARMONY

I had the pleasure recently of participating in a tele-seminar with Dr. Alice Vlietstra a psychologist at Life Tree Solutions and anthropologist, Dr. Jane Granskog. Our topic was about creating environments of harmony and dealing with all the ’stuff’ we seem to accumulate in our life. We see articles about clutter all the time and how to deal with it. And in many cases it always seems to mysteriously and magically return to our lives.

We each shared our insights on how our belongings affect our thinking, behavior, stress level and our culture. This was fascinating to learn that this has not been a problem for all time in our western culture, AND, not all cultures emulate western behavior.

There’s fascinating insights for everyone who has clutter or has ever experienced stress caused by “too much stuff!”

http://www.lifetreesolutions.com/seminars/conference-calls

Share your comments below…..

I had an enjoyable learning experience recently at a workshop called “Finding Your Voice – Speaking Your Truth”  facilitated by a talented coach Mary D’Amato in St. Louis, MO. It was fascinating working with other professional women digging deep into our psyches. Our goal was to identify an issue we would like to re-play from our past and script a new response that better honors our values and ourselves in the future. Think of it as re-writing the heroine’s future in a movie’s ending. Quite a positive and worthwhile experience! You can check out the program here…http://www.rxmgt.com/home/womans-retreats. I highly recommend it.

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

When it comes to clutter there’s no where to hide. What does this mean? Well, you can put something out of sight, as in another room, or down in the basement, but ‘that stuff’ still lingers in the back of your mind even though you can’t literally see it. Sort of like that bad dream you can’t shake.

Clutter is things you don’t love, use or need that exist in three areas of your life:

• physical….the stuff you can literally see & feel
• mental…the background chatter that goes on in your head
• emotional…those lingering feelings of despair, loss, anger, resentment that remain in your heart long after the incident is passed

Listening to a ‘no texting while driving’ message today it occurred to me that we so overload our life with activities, requiring multitasking to get it all done, I wonder if we realize we are cluttering up our minds with more than we really can or should handle all at once. What effect is all this ‘busy-ness’ having on us?

All our ‘busy-ness’ is creating more mental clutter by the minute because we’re trying to keep it all straight! This is resulting in a growing in-ability to focus on anything for more than 10 seconds. This seems like the wrong road to take in life. Do you want your spouse, date, children, parents to spend just 10 seconds actually listening to you?

Wow, that thought makes me crazy! How about you?

Feng Shui is about finding balance in life, not the ‘all work & no play’ philosophy. So here’s a quick idea to get you started using some basic Feng Shui wisdom and make your life happier and more satisfying. Start today with this easy step to de-clutter your brain and become more mindful about who and what is important to you:

Force yourself, yes, I know it will be necessary to force yourself to sit quietly for 10 minutes without interruption, close your eyes and just breathe. I know it’s hard, I’ve been there… but oh, it’s so worth your time and sanity to do it.  Then, after you know how good it feels and how much you need it, force yourself to do it once a day. Aren’t you worth it? Don’t you deserve 10 minutes of  ‘free-me’ time?

That’s it! Start there, and don’t let me know how you’re doing… (not because I don’t want to know how you are doing) but because I don’t want to give you anything more to do….you’re busy enough already.

Then, when you feel like it, and your mind and life is less cluttered and more enjoyable, check back with me and find more easy ways to release the burden of clutter from your mind, space and life.  Have fun!

How are you doing? … Can you FOCUS?

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…..

Managing your desk clutter =  managing your time

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.