Feng Shui Your Mind

by Maureen

I’ll never forget the day that I learned about the “cure” for worry.  It was more than 10 years ago.  One day at acupuncture school, I was sitting in my five elements class and our lovely teacher Mary Huse was talking about the ill effects of worrying too much.  Funny thing is, I was probably worrying about something or other while she was telling us because basically, that’s all my mind knew how to do back then.  But then she said, there’s a cure for it all.  What?  That caught my attention…  Yes.  It’s TRUST.  Yes, trust is the cure to combat worry.  It cancels out all of the spiritual, mental and physical ill effects that worry places on our bodies.  That resonated with me so deeply in that moment that I started to laugh.  Why the heck didn’t anyone tell me that before!  As soon as I started to realize how much lack of trust I had that things were going to work out, I had somewhere to go and something to do to help myself.  I just started doing little exercises to get trust back into my life.  And the effects on my wellbeing were fantastic!  So here are some of the tricks I learned along the way to build trust.  In Feng Shui Your Mind, we have also have a lovely little Feng Shui Fix that can help if you are in the worry zone!

1.  Anytime you are in a worry rut, the fastest way out is to make a gratitude list.  Write this list down and read it everyday.

2.  Surround yourself with people who truly get you you are.  Use these relationships to practice asking for what you want and need.  The more you feel comfortable asking for what you need, the more trust in yourself you cultivate.

3.  Take risks.  Take a good look at what makes you afraid.  If you are putting something off out of fear, take the leap and do it anyway.  Every time you confront your fear, you build self-confidence and diminish worry.

4.  Cultivate integrity by following through with your plans.  Being reliable enhances your self-confidence.

5  Celebrate all of your accomplishments and take time to honor each success fully.  Don’t let them slip by unnoticed or diminish their worth by minimizing them.

This is a great way to develop trust in yourself to get the job done!

As we begin to feel the season of fall coming on, it’s a great time to contemplate the energy of the Metal element, one of the five elements in Feng Shui. In fact, this is Jill’s favorite element and she’s been wanting to write about it ever since we started blogging. What does she love about it? She loves that the Metal energy is all about cultivating deep unwavering faith through releasing everything that doesn’t serve us. When we talk about the Metal element in our book, we refer to the energy as Metal Magic where you cultivate your ability to “spin straw into gold”. Yes, it’s about stepping into our power as the alchemist of our life!
And here’s why…

(passage below is excerpted from Feng Shui Your Mind)
Are you familiar with how monkeys are trapped? The deal is that monkeys are captured by placing a tasty banana into a coconut shell with a small hole. The hole is just big enough for the monkey’s hand to reach in and grab hold of the banana. With the banana in hand, the monkey can not withdraw from the coconut shell because his fist is too big. If he only knew that letting go of the banana would set him free!

And we’re no different. We are so conditioned to think we need to control everything, we get really nervous about the idea of letting go. That’s typical Metal energy out of whack. We assume that if we actually let go, we’ll turn into couch potatoes, too lazy to get anything done. Or, that if we let go, nobody else will do the job properly like we can. And of course, you know, everything has to go perfectly, according to our plan. Before we know it, we’re trapped, thinking we need to keep holding on to that banana for dear life. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Letting go and living in faith is at the heart of Metal energy. That’s what freedom is all about. Look at it this way. When our energy is not consumed by the stress of trying to control everything, we are free to enjoy life. Trusting that we are being guided by God’s loving energy, we can choose to live in faith. Letting go – essential for healthy Metal energy – is such a powerful practice. The benefits are so great. Instead of being run by stress and perfectionism, you reclaim your freedom when you let go.

Speaking of freedom, we are being supported by the universe right now to experience, not only our freedom, but the highest, most powerful part of ourselves–our awakened Self. Most people know that there is a great shift in consciousness going on. It’s as if everything — old cluttered thoughts and outdated beliefs — is being squeezed up and out of us. Just like the monkeys — when we Feng Shui Our Minds and really release all of the clutter, we position ourselves to manifest our dreams more quickly than ever before. Here’s the bottom line. We can either go kicking and screaming in resistance about the challenges that arise in our lives, or gracefully move forward by learning how to let go. It’s really all up to us!