Q: Dear Terah,

I have had your book "Room by Room" for years but have not (until now) had the drive to get serious about Feng Shui. Or maybe I should say "get playful" about it!  I'm already way to serious! I have a question about using Essential Feng Shui to help me with a chronic health problem.

I am in the entertainment business, so my energy and appearance are vital to my ability to make money and survive. I have been suffering from chronic constipation for about 6 months and have run from pillar to post trying to find a solution, but nothing works long term. Now I eat way less than I used to and have lost 11 lbs. That may not seem like a lot, but I was already a skinny guy!  I need to turn this around pronto, because it is making me miserable physically + psychologically.

My Health quadrant is partly in my kitchen and also in my home office where I spend alot of time. 

Please give me a few suggestions as to how I can increase the positive energy in my home and move the stagnation that I feel in my body.

Thank you,

C.

Q: Terah, My teenage son’s bedroom is a complete disaster! It is also located in the Wealth area of the house. He doesn’t want to comply with my decorating requests (he is 16 and very strong minded). Is there anything that I can do to enhance this area of my home and open the way for more prosperity? Thanks, K.S. – via e-mail

A: This is a great question, and the answer can benefit everyone. Whether you are living with children, a partner, or sharing an office with a colleague, it's best to define your own private space within that area. When this basic need of personal space isn’t honored, turf wars, from subtle skirmishes to full-blown battles, can take place.

Teenagers usually insist on their own turf as they catapult into adulthood. Their private space is often chaotic, controversial, and in constant change. I have found that most teens take a keen personal interest in the Bagua Map of their room, sensing that it can help them manifest their goals, from getting better grades to attracting more pet-or-babysitting jobs. They "Do the Grid" as it's often called in teen-speak, a subject I cover on page 192 in The Western Guide to Feng Shui, Room by Room. Click here for a complimentary copy of The Bagua Map and more info on our Online Bagua Map Course.

Consider the following suggestions to enhance the flow of prosperity in your life:

1.    Although your son’s room is in the Wealth and Prosperity area of your home, each room has its own Wealth and Prosperity area. Pay special attention to these areas, making each one very attractive in its own way.

2.    Welcome auspicious people, experiences, and opportunities into your life by making your front entrance “entrancing." Embellish it with pleasant lighting, flowers, statuary, seating, and other enhancements that say welcome."

3.    Simplify and organize your storage areas. Let go of the old to make room for the new.

4.    Remove obstacles that keep any door in your home from having a full range of motion. As easy as it sounds, clearing items from behind a door has proven to be one of the simplest ways to increase the flow of prosperity in life.

5.    Avoid keeping broken items that simply take up space as they diminish the vital energy surrounding you. And, because every inch counts in Essential Feng Shui, there’s hiding place for them. Decide whether to repair them or let them go – and do it asap! This activates the Ch’i and initiates the process of positive change.

6.    You probably already have lovely things that can improve Ch'i flow tucked away in closets, etc. Look around for things you love and and already own before buying new stuff.

7.    Write your own affirmations to hold your goals and wishes in place.

8.    Cultivate an attitude of gratitude by making a list of the people, places, and things that you are grateful for. Notice how rich and prosperous you are now! Keep your list active by reading it and adding to it each day… and be sure to share it with your teenager.

Focus on what you can personally change in your environment at any moment, and work with that. The ripple-effect will inspire and delight you!

Spring is a time of renewal, rebirth and moving forward. This is a perfect time to revitalize your home environment by decluttering the stagnant energy.

Feng Shui, which has been practiced for over 3,000 years in China, is the enhancement of health, prosperity, and happiness. It is a dance between empowerment and environment. Essential Feng Shui® observes that your vitality, resources, and loving connections flourish and grow best in harmonious, uncluttered environments that intentionally meet your unique needs and express your personal preferences…

http://www.beniciamagazine.com/Blogs/Style/April-2011/Feng-Shui-Decluttering-Turning-Your-Home-from-Chaos-City-to-a-Personal-Paradise/

If a neighborhood is kept clean and orderly, its inhabitants will erspect one another’s property and the law. But if the streets are full of graffiti, litter, and vandalized stores and buildings, residents become contemptuous of social norms and crime will rise. So goes the "broken windows" theory, a controversial notion of law and order taught in police academies, and sometimes cited as a drving force behind the reduction of crime in New York City in the 1990′s.  Now. a Dutch study is proving that the concept is truer than most social scientists had believed. Behavioral Scientist Kees Keizer tested the borken windows theory in a half-dozen kinds of public places, and foudn that had a major effect on people’s behavior in every one. If a sidewalk is kept clean, for example, only 33 percent of people will toss an unwatned flier onto the ground; if there’s lots of trash and litter, 69 percent will choose to add to it. Just 13 percent of passers-by will steal money from an envelope sticking out of a clean mailbox, but 27 percent will steal if the box in covered in graffiti. "It is quite shocking that the mere presence of litter resulted in a doubling of the number of people stealing," Keizer tells the Los Angeles Times. 

When we understand that our homes really do serve a purpose and to inhabit the space with reverence and respect…all will thrive. Sometimes shifting the perspective to the "homes’" point of view allows a new awareness for our clients.

If a home could speak, what would it say?

Let me breathe!

You are overwhelming me with more STUFF!

Why do you abuse me this way? I want to bring you comfort and joy, supporting you within my walls…but you smother me with CLUTTER!

You were attracted to me in my “nakedness”.
Empty, yet full of potential.
You saw so many ways to dress me up to make me your own.

What happened?

What about your dreams?
Why have you abandoned me, stuffing me with things that I do not need?

I have no room to grow. I cannot breathe!

I will withdraw my life force, leaving you with no room to grow.

Move on and leave me to someone more appreciative of my inner beauty and quiet spaces.

I was built to sustain life, to provide comfort and shelter to those in need.

I had such hopes for you within my walls….but you do not see that as you cram things in around me, a clot forms…..stopping all life force and then we all die inside.

Be on your way now, so that I can breathe again.

Janeen Wynn, RN
Certified Feng Shui Practitoner
Clutter Clearing Coach
Janeen Wynn enjoys an active life with her husband and son in Mills River, NC. One of her many passions include creating sensual homes that feel great to return to.

So, I hired a heavy duty cleaning service to come in and clean the house. She also had a garage sale to get rid of lots of “stuff.” That managed to stir things up for awhile and she did beautifully on the chemo.

In April 2008, she was rushed to the hospital with a severe case of pneumonia, sepsis, and dementia/delusion. While she was in ICU, I started to clear out her house (I needed something to do since I was only allowed in her room for one hour a day). The doctors said she wouldn’t survive the pneumonia so I got her house ready for sale. I cleared the house out entirely, got new carpet and painted the walls…

Do I have to tell you the end of this story? She managed to get out of ICU and a few weeks later the dementia/delusional state suddenly cleared and she was back to normal (except for the lung cancer). Oh! and I was left with the job of telling my mother she had no house to go back to!

It all worked out in the end – I moved her to a nearby assisted living home that I’ve been volunteering at for the past 7 years and she is happy there.

So the moral of the story here – people just don’t realize how much clutter can affect them!

WSFS Alumni Graduate Practitioner, Jill K.