Feng Shui Homework: Grudges, Begone!

Someone may have done something to you, and then your immediate internal response was, “Oh yeah! I can’t believe he/she did this to me. I’ll show them. I won’t ever talk to them again. I will ignore them!” And that mental chatter would continue as we walk around all day long. It gets even better if there is an item in your space that is connected to that person. So, every time you look at that item, there goes that mental chatter again. I'm sure we all have experienced this at least once in our life, and probably much more often, but we probably won’t admit it.

We may not realize how much holding onto this negative energy, and letting it fester, affects our physical being. To mention just a few end results, continuing to harbor negative thoughts can cause you sleepless, will get you irrigated quite quickly, and will give you cause to lose your patience. Then it can lead to headaches and other pains within the body, and even the occasional twitching. Our days become more tiring, less energetic, and less productive.  And I can continue, but I think you get the idea. In essence, the “I’ll show them” syndrome becomes the “Look what I'm doing to myself” illness.  Yes, grudges can be very expensive as they take their toll on our lives.

Now, I'm not saying that if someone does something unjust or unfair to you that you should just accept it. But you need to decide how much and for how long after the fact will you allow this person’s actions to continue doing the unjust or unfair thing to you. How many times will you let that awful argument replay itself? How many times will you repeatedly play out getting fired? And on and on.

Feng Shui Homework

For March you may want to think about if there are any grudges for which you're footing the bill. These tips may help:

• Take a walk around your space and look at the items around you. Do you resonate with any of them negatively, and does it remind you of someone?
• Based on feng shui prinicples, our hallways represent communication. Check them out to see if they are cluttered or blocked. Cleaning up and making way can help you communicate better with others and with yourself, hence helping clean up any miscommunications you may be dealing with in your life.
• On the flip-side, are your hallways too bare and seem unloved? Is there a place to hang a beautiful picture or affirmation statement? Not tending to our hallways could be a metaphor for us not addressing communication in our lives.

Remember, holding a grudge will only hurt you more, and most of the time the person you have the grudge with doesn't even know it.

Franca is one of the Feng Shui Instructors at Sheffield School, where she is also a Student Advisor; visit her website for more information. If you're interested in learning more about feng shui and interior design, then we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

• Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.
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Feng Shui Homework - Free Your Closets, Free Your Mind

Franca Giuliani - For the record, please note that this is not a “clutter clearing” article. It's a Closet Clearing Summons. There's a difference.

We use closets as a place for storage, unless you have a huge walk-in closet like the one in the top photo (I call that more of a "clothes showroom"). I believe this to be a very noble thing, because we're humans and humans need stuff, and we have to store that stuff. However, many people use closets as the immediate solution to get things out of sight. Don’t know what to do with something? Well, put it in the closet! Where does this go? Don’t know. Well, put it in the closet!

Eventually we've created a plethora of items hidden away in closets, some items needed and some items completely useless.

In feng shui, closets represent our subconscious mind. Depending where the closets are, they can give us a lot of information as to what we don’t want to deal with in our lives, or better yet what we should deal with.

So let me suggest to you that by sorting out your closets, it may help you sort out your mind.

Once, I had a client who had a box of legal papers in her bedroom closet. These papers had something to do with an incident that happened many years ago, before her teenage daughter was born. My client was so afraid that her daughter would find the box.

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6 Feng Shui Tips to Make Your Bedroom Better

Franca Giuliani - Happy Chinese New Year! On January 23, 2012, we started the Year of the Water Dragon- a time that brings spirituality and prosperity. I feel this will be a powerful year for all of us. And, we all need our rest. Hence, now is great time to take a look at our bedrooms. Here are the 6 Top Ways You Can Improve Your Bedroom with Feng Shui.
 

1. Get an overall impression.

How do you feel when you walk into your bedroom? Are you happy with what you see, or do your eyes start rolling and is your mind whispering, “Gosh, I have to do something about this!” Our bedroom is a very important part of our life - and not just the bed. Bedrooms are our sanctuary from the world. They are the places where we retreat to, rest, and rejuvenate.
 

2. Start to be more mindful of your bedroom.

Do you thank your bedroom? Or do you use every furniture top as a place to house a week-long pile of laundry, the past three days accumulation of worn outfits, and stacks of unopened mail. You need to treat your bedroom with respect so it can nourish you.

3. You need a new mattress.

Make sure you have a comfortable mattress and make sure that it's one that is new to you … meaning it wasn’t someone else’s first. Mattresses absorb Chi, the universal life force. So sleeping on someone else’s old mattress may not make you feel so new and rejuvenated. Yes, getting a new mattress may be a financial investment, but in the longrun, it's well worth it. We have to proclaim we are “well worth it” by investing in something for us.

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