Feng Shui Your Mind

I want to share with all of you how excited Maureen and I are about the adventure we’re on as authors of Feng Shui Your Mind.  Today I realized that, for the past couple of months, we’ve been consistently hearing stories about people loving our book and naturally inspiring their friends to read it.  People have told me along the way, ”a book has a life of its own.” Now I know what they are talking about — it’s all about energy.  In fact, everything is energy, especially the thoughts you allow to live in your mind!!  When Maureen and I were writing our book, I was constantly engaging her in a little envisioning about our book…”let’s envision that people get as pumped about our book and find it as life changing as we do.”  Maureen, being the sweet, go with the flow kinda gal that she is, would always join in.  Together we infused our little book with our intention that it be carried by the Universe to people who want to create a much better life through ease and effortlessness.   And so it is!  My heart is filled with appreciation.  And a ton of awe.  Yes, it’s true…everything is energy.  When we declutter what does not serve us and envision what we are ready to experience, the Universe answers our call.  We love hearing from all of our readers.  We love you!!  Please feel welcome to share your stories with us so that we can share them to inspire others.  The ripple effect in action.  Life, with a Feng Shuied Mind is magical!!

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!

What if there were a way that you could experience more joy, love, peace, fun and prosperity in your life through less energy and effort on your part? I have noticed that the more I align my energy with universal energy, the expansion that I co-create with the Divine shows up with increasingly greater ease and effortlessness on my part. What am I talking about? In our book, Feng Shui Your Mind, we say that “when you discover how to harmonize your energy with universal energy, the results are amazing–doors open, opportunities arise, and life feels truly magical!” This morning I was thinking about how magical my life has become. And I was thinking, what has shifted within me? I realized that I have been practicing the age-old principle, let go, let God, more consistently than ever before! How does this work in a practical sense? Let me tell you. Once I declutter my mind that has me convinced that things have to happen according to my mental idea of what should be happening–I choose to let go. I turn it over to God, knowing that I have already tried my best to make things happen. That choice allows me to go through my day using less energy. This feels great because I have created the space for the Creator of the universe to take over. This simple but incredibly powerful daily practice has resulted in the bennies that the principle promises to deliver. Doors have opened. I have been blown away by the support that has shown up in the form of incredible people and opportunities who are excited about helping me live my purpose–to uplift and inspire others. In the past, there was a part of me, Maureen and I call the cluttered mind, that felt the need to push and kick the doors down which appeared impenetrable. That takes tons of energy to do and also doesn’t work! I invite you to join me in this amazing practice. Just let go and turn things over to God. Believe me, the rewards are so delicious, you won’t want to go back to the old, energy-draining ways of the past!

This week has been a great week for me. It actually started a little rocky with interpersonal disagreements between me and two people in my life. If you know me, this wasn’t so easy for me. I’m a pretty agreeable person and I really strive for peace in my relationships. So when I wasn’t getting that, it was throwing me a little. My energy was way off.. But then… in a most serendipitous way, I ran into this quote —

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~ Melodie Beattie

And boy did that ring true for me. As soon as I looked at these conflicts as opportunities to expand my consciousness, I felt my mind shift. Gratitude really is the most amazing tool we have. It can totally Feng Shui Your Mind in an instant. No one puts it better than Eckhart Tolle, who said,

“Gratefulness for what is there is one of the most powerful tools for creating what is not yet there. What does gratefulness mean? It means you appreciate what is. You value, you give attention to, you honor whatever is at this moment.”

So I invite you to use gratitude right now as a tool to declutter your mind. Feel grateful for everything in your life — even the challenges you struggle the most with–

So we asked you last week to pay attention to your thoughts and specifically to those thoughts that bum you out.  And even if you didn’t get a chance to do this, there’s no time like the present!  Start right now! The more mindful you are about these thoughts, the more masterful you become at transforming them to reclaim your energy.  Think of this process as your Feng Shui Your Mind “muscle”.  The more you do it, the faster and easier it will be to get out of any funk.  And anytime we ask you to do something, we like to do it ourselves!  So the past week, we both took time to see if anything was getting in our way.

Maureen noticed that for the first time in over four years her practice was slower than its usual pumping pace.  It had been quite some time that she hadn’t had to think about growing her practice – so with this new lull, she noticed old feelings of doubt arising.  After about a week of letting her cluttered mind get the best of her, she decided to transform the lull into a new, exciting space where she would attract different types of patients.  Her husband is an ex-professional tennis player and he has always encouraged her promote her business to tennis players.  While this was interesting to her, she didn’t really have any connection or ideas about how to do this.  Funny enough, as she moved from fear to faith around attracting enough patients, three new patients with tennis elbow called her out of the blue because of a recent newspaper article about the success of acupuncture with tennis elbow.  That’s what we’re talking about!!

At the beginning of the summer, Jill was feeling anxious and frustrated, knowing fully the power of our book, Feng Shui Your Mind, to uplift and guide people to live their dreams — yet feeling stuck about our next marketing steps.  Maureen suggested marketing via the internet, however, we didn’t have the time or knowledge to make it happen.  So instead of freaking out, Jill decluttered her mind as soon as she noticed her energy being compromised and then envisioned the perfect “angel” to help us out.  Within a day, she was referred to Joanne Sposito –an internet marketing guru who happened to be the ideal person for us!  A few days later, Jill was also asked to be a guest on two different blog talk radio shows.  In reflecting about what’s been happening, Jill’s realizing that the more relaxed she is about manifesting her dreams, the more she lives in the flow of universal energy.  In other words, the more opportunities arise through total ease.  Decluttering creates the space for them to show up!

So take a close look at what’s bugging you and practice embodying deep unwavering faith that you can manifest what you want.  Imagine that your desire has already manifested and allow yourself to feel in your body what that fulfilled desire would feel like.  With the energy you reclaim (from decluttering your thoughts), you are free to practice your power to envision and embody your true desire which is key in attracting it to you!

Jill Lebeau and I (Maureen Raytis) have had several juicy conversations lately about expanding our experience of love and how to amp up that magical, magnetic energy in our lives.  Both of us agree that love is not just a sentiment but a powerful practice.  A practice that creates an amazing energetic tone from which we can live our lives.   The more we attune ourselves to being in that place of love through our thoughts and emotions, we emanate the highest vibration therefore attract the highest vibration in return.  In Feng Shui terms, this connection to love is fueled by the Fire element.  In nature, the Fire element warms our body and relaxes our mind.  Not only does it help us attract deep satisfying relationships, it also encourages us to expand our consciousness.  And how do you feel on a warm summer day?  Open, spontaneous, ready to have fun?  Yep, that’s it.  When you think about the spirit of Fire energy, think joy and warmth.  Think laughter and lightness. Think la joie de vivre.  Oo la la!

Oh yes, your Fire energy inspires you to live as a free spirit. Rather than live according to someone else’s design, you live by your own truth.  And here’s an interesting little factoid:  Chinese medicine associates the health of the heart with living your truth.  So the more you march to the beat of your own drum, the more your healthy heart opens naturally, just like a rose in full bloom.  Like the beautiful rose, your energy is equally alluring.  And people are inextricably drawn to you.

We were talking about the powerful practices that we each use to tap into this energy.  Jill loves her sacred walks around the bay–her heart is instantly filled with gratitude as she enjoys the majestic display of nature.  To this sacred practice, she adds listening to inspirational music or words from her favorite spiritual teachers.  It is so effortless and at the same time so rewarding for her to walk in nature and sing along with her favorite songs, reminding her to “release and let go”–and don’t we need daily reminders to do just that?!   Maureen takes her young children to the most magical meadow where she can relax in the sun while she hears her children laugh and play.

When you know how to connect with the love that is always within and use the Fire element connection within each one of us, you have a very potent way to raise your vibration which protects you from the “doom and gloom” way of thinking that is so prevalent today, and it is our job to shift that perception through Feng Shuiing Our Mind.  Remember, when the mind is free of clutter, it is easy to open to higher states of consciousness.  And Maureen and I are all about EASE!!

Welcome to our new blog where we plan to guide you on a quest to Feng Shui Your Mind!

As your guides, (Jill Lebeau and Maureen Raytis) we are thrilled to show you how to become the master of your life. The first step to Feng Shui Your Mind is to understand how your thoughts affect your energy. Energy, or chi, in Feng Shui terms, needs space to move freely, especially in your mind. As we said, when you step into a cluttered environment, you’re bound to feel uncomfortable and on-edge. The same principle applies to the mind. If your mind is cluttered, you simply won’t be able to operate at maximum capacity. And when the house is cluttered, you can’t see the cute end-table or find the phone when it starts to ring. In the same vein, focusing on big, ugly, fear-based thoughts blocks your mental chi and keeps you from living the life you want to be living.

It’s obvious that, when redecorating a house, the first step is to clear the old stuff out. If you want to redecorate your mind so that you can attract vitality, wealth, and love with ease, the first step is to declutter the thoughts that are using up your valuable energy.

What do we mean by mental clutter? Basically, it’s all of the thoughts that have us convinced that we are deficient in some way and that life is scary and must be hard. According to the cluttered mind, in order to be successful, a lot of stress, hard work and struggle are required. You know what we mean…it’s the crack that whip or no pain, no gain philosophy. So when you feel that pressure, just know that you are under the spell of mental clutter. If you remain unaware, you will continue to suffer, feeling confused and hopeless. When you get caught up in the if only syndrome – if only I had more money, a new car, better job or more loving relationships, etc. – you are drowning in mental clutter. It’s like the cat chasing its tail. Whenever you look outside yourself to feel complete, you get trapped in the viewpoint of scarcity. In that case, you feel powerless to change anything about your life. Your power, after all, lies within you – not out there, somewhere. If you allow the clutter in your mind to run wild, your precious energy will be drained.

Jill and I were just talking together and agreeing that the more we practice living this way, the less stressed and easier our lives get.  So do you want easy?  The first step is just observing what thoughts are in your way!  We’re so excited to be sharing these techniques with all of you because we are committed to showing you how to use the least amount of energy to generate maximum success.  Sound good?  So over the next week, really think about what mental clutter you’d like to release and what you would like to create in it’s place.