Photo by kk+

Even if you don’t know a lot about Feng Shui, there is something you can do to make a huge impact on the energy in your home.

That is: get rid of clutter!

Clutter and Feng Shui

Clutter is very bad Feng Shui. If you think about it and stop to really experience what you feel when you are surrounded by clutter, I think you will agree that clutter is depressing and really lowers your energy levels.

In Feng Shui, we say that the chi (energy) gets stuck in clutter. The chi can’t flow like it should, with clutter around. It just gets sucked in to the pile of clutter and stays there, stagnating.

I used to have a huge problem with clutter before I started studying Feng Shui. I really didn’t notice much of how my environment was affecting me. It was only when I read Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen Kingston that I really realized just how my clutter was affecting me. This is a small book and a quick read. It contains a lot of good information, and I highly recommend it.

Clearing Clutter

Now that I know how clutter affects me, I don’t let it get so bad. I still have a tendency to let my desk get messy, for example. But I soon feel myself getting irritated with my work, and I realize that it needs to be cleaned up. It is amazing to me how much different I feel as soon as the clutter is cleaned up.

As far as the rest of the house goes, I have learned over the years to clean up as I go along. I don’t let clutter pile up. If I am in a room and I notice something out of place, I put it where it belongs. This way, it’s not a huge job to clean up all at once.

For a former clutter-holic, this is really saying something. I believe that you do things that you feel are important. Once you realize how clutter impacts your life, you will gladly do what it takes to keep from getting overwhelmed by it.

Photo by Arquiteta Móvel

The Power of Nine

If you have a clutter problem in your house, don’t be overwhelmed. Just start small. Feng Shui has a few tricks that can help you with this. One tip is to do a small amount every day. In Chinese culture, the number nine is very important and signifies completion. So use the number nine in your decluttering. Every day, work at decluttering for 9 minutes. Or, pick 9 things a day to clean up.

Soon decluttering will become a habit, and you will see progress. Those 9-minute segments will add up. Remember, it takes 21 days to create a new habit, so keep at it every day until it becomes automatic.

- Pat Doyle

Chaco Canyon: Photo by Andrew Eick

Have you ever been to Chaco Canyon? I haven’t actually been there, but I recently watched “The Mystery of Chaco Canyon” on DVD, narrated by Robert Redford.

From the description at SouthWestIndian.com:

Located in New Mexico, Chaco Canyon is one of the most extensive prehistoric ruins in America. For years archaeologists have assumed that Chaco was primarily an ancient trading center. Now, this nationally broadcast film (narrated by Robert Redford and first aired on PBS,) shows that Chaco was instead a complex ceremonial center, harmonized by extraordinary astronomical alignments of buildings and roads, and elegant light and shadow markings. Aerial and time lapse footage, computer modeling, and interviews with scholars show how the Chacoan culture oriented and located its major buildings in relation to the sun and moon.

It was thrilling to watch this documentary, especially with knowledge of Feng Shui principles.

When Feng Shui was developed in China, people were trying to locate their buildings and gravesites in spots that would be auspicious, given the natural surroundings. Today, we use Feng Shui to improve our lives by bringing our homes into balance. We might not realize it when we are adjusting our interior space, but a familiarity with nature and the directions of the compass are still there in the background of Feng Shui.

So it was amazing to me how the ancient Chacoans set up their worship centers in alignment with the travels of the sun and the moon. Some of the buildings are lined up over huge distances. The documentary spoke of a certain road that went “nowhere”, but it actually followed the path laid out by the celestial bodies.

It reminded me of the bagua that we use to overlay a house, a lot, a room, or even a table or desk, except that this was on a much grander scale. This was a giant cosmic map that was overlaid on the structures built by the Chacoans.

They worshiped their deity not only in prayer but in the actual layout of their buildings in relation to the surroundings.

If you get a chance to watch this documentary, I highly recommend it.

- Pat Doyle

It is amazing how I keep finding parallels to Feng Shui wherever I go.

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I went to hear a talk by Philip Chard about being healed by nature. The theme of the talk was that, today, people are alienated from nature. Some people hardly ever get to spend any time in nature.

Philip stated that it is very healing just to get back to nature and spend some time there. There is a different energy in nature than in man-made things. This energy is very healing.

To me, this sounded a lot like the teaching of Feng Shui. Our environment has a great effect on us. It really makes a difference what kind of energy we surround ourselves with.

The energy we surround ourselves with can be healing or it can be destructive to our well-being. I think if we just attune ourselves to how we feel in different environments, we can sense when an environment is good for us.

The trouble is that usually, we are too preoccupied to really notice what is going on around us and how it is affecting us.

If we can just learn to surround ourselves with a more serene and healthy environment, we will be a lot better off. The right environment can truly be healing for us.

And if you can’t always get outside into nature, it does help to bring nature inside. This can be in the form of plants, natural materials such as seashells or rocks, pets, artwork depicting nature, water fountains, and many other ways.

Remember that the human race used to spend a lot of time in nature. It is only recently in our history that we have become so cut off from nature. When we don’t feel that nature energy, we miss it, even though we don’t always consciously realize it.

Think about ways that you can bring nature into your life, whether by going out and doing things in nature or by bringing some of it into your home.

- Pat Doyle

Usually Feng Shui is a lot more subtle than what happened to me this Monday…

Two important principles in Feng Shui are:

1. Keep the path to your front door clear.

Good chi, or good energy, enters your house by the front door. It is not good to have anything blocking the path of this good chi. The front door is one of the most important parts of your house for this reason. The path to the door should be attractive and easy to traverse.

2. Fix anything that is broken.

Broken things are bad Feng Shui. The unfortunate energy from broken things can have consequences throughout your house. It is discouraging for you to see broken things, so it lowers your own mood. And on subtler levels, the broken things have a bad effect on the general chi (energy) of your house.

I Want My Laptop!

Even though I know the above principles very well, I was not prepared for how literally they played out on Monday.

We had quite a bit of snow over the weekend, and the people who were supposed to clear my walks never showed up. So the path to my front door was completely blocked by snow.

I was sitting in my home office when I saw a Fed Ex truck in the driveway. My laptop! I was expecting a new laptop that I had ordered from HP. My first laptop ever, so I was really excited. I quickly put my shoes on and ran out, but the Fed Ex guy was already on his way. He didn’t see me waving from the porch.

On the back door, I found a Fed Ex tag. Oh no! I forgot that my back doorbell was broken! Of course, the Fed Ex guy didn’t use the front door, because the path to it was full of snow.

I would have to wait until another day to get my new laptop…

I learned my lesson, though. I went right out and shoveled the walk from the front door to the street.

Well, as I said, usually you don’t see the effects of bad Feng Shui so clearly. Usually you just notice that things are not going quite as well as they should. You realize that you need to do some Feng Shui work in your house. (At least, if you are a Feng Shui consultant, you realize it .)

If you keep reading this blog, you will realize it too! I hope to give you lots of Feng Shui tips and ideas. Whether you are a beginner or already know a lot about Feng Shui, I hope to have something of interest to you.

Till next time…

- Pat Doyle

Welcome to Barton Pond Feng Shui!

I am Pat Doyle, a Feng Shui consultant living in West Bend, Wisconsin, USA.

I will be writing my thoughts about Feng Shui in this blog. I hope you enjoy it and come back to visit often.

I would love it if you would leave comments! I am eager to hear from you.