Litter Box Feng Shui – Updated!

There’s this thing that no one is talking about. I’m not sure if they just don’t obsess about such things as I do or if they just don’t have cats, but either way, I’m about to give up all my Feng Shui litter box, art of placement secrets right here and now. Unless you are lucky enough to have a fenced in backyard with a cat door, and cats that will happily poo in your garden, you have had to deal with the eternal question of where to put your cat’s litter box. Since I have grown up with cats my entire life, and I have been studying and teaching Feng Shui for over 20 years, I feel like a genuine expert on this topic.

When I was in college, I moved into an off-campus apartment with two girls. One of them got a cat and then left it every weekend to go to her boyfriend’s house in another city. This wouldn’t have been a big deal except that she refused to clean out the cat box. Clumping cat litter was just becoming popular back then and she seemed to believe that because it was so expensive, it would last indefinitely. After several weeks, her cat’s box was becoming intolerable and since she was out of town again, I cleaned it. All I remember about this event afterward is that she was pissed when she came home and insisted that I replace the litter. I have no idea if I did, but knowing me, I didn’t!

I was not aware of Feng Shui at the time, but I do remember the layout of the apartment and I have since Feng Schway’ed it from memory. It does not surprise me one bit to discover that her cat’s filthy litter box was in the Relationship or #2 gua of our apartment. Looking back, it makes perfect sense that we completely lost touch. I am not saying that our friendship ended because of the placement of her cat’s litter box. I am saying that the litter box, in this scenario, accurately reflected the status of our friendship.

In a lot of ways, Feng Shui has some psychology to it. In fact, it is this piece to the Feng Shui puzzle that keeps me so intrigued. Everything in our home or workplace is a reflection of something else in our life. Everything is placed either by accident or on purpose to create or reflect something seen or unseen. We can become aware of subconscious and unconscious patterns and habits when we use Feng Shui on purpose. In fact, that is what makes it so fun.

This brings us back to my original query of where to put the cat box. In order to decide this, we need only look at the primary element of a cat box, sans the pee & poo. Litter represents earth so once we determine which part of the room either creates or supports the earth element, we will have our answer. Conversely, we can approach it from the specific life area within the bagua that seems the most logical.

To keep things on the easy side, I am going with the logical explanation. Since the act of cleaning out a cat box on the daily is indeed an “act of service”, it fits nicely with the #6 gua of the bagua which is the Helpful People, Service and Travel section of the nine gua bagua. (See the bagua example below). When standing at the door to any room, aka the mouth of chi, the #6 gua of the bagua is in the far, front right corner.

Now, let’s face it. Even with the cat box in a Feng Shui appropriate place, it is still an unattractive piece of decor. With this in mind, I have a few suggestions for making it less obnoxious. If you are limited to where you can place the cat box, I recommend hiding it inside a piece of furniture and placing small, round beveled mirrors facing out on all sides of the cat box so that it effectively “disappears.” Even if you don’t have it hidden inside a piece of furniture, placing small mirrors on the outside will then reflect all the things that are around it and it will appear to disappear.

1.) You can put something over it to disguise it.

2.) You can place a small mirrors facing out, around the box so that the box itself appears to “disappear”.

3.) You can go to your local thrift store and find an end table that can be transformed into a perfect kitty box hideaway.

4.) You can order fancy cover from Chewy or some other online source.

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Meditation & Feng Shui ~ The Ultimate Soulmates

It’s a funny thing that learning to mentally “do nothing” through meditation, can actively improve your home’s energy and thus your life in the process. In order to explain this apparent dichotomy, I need to first explain another life law that may be new to you. It’s one that I’d be willing to bet you’ve heard at some point or time in your life, but didn’t realize its power at the time. It begins with our thoughts and is usually shared, to our disbelief, with the simple phrase that ‘our thoughts create our reality.’ Or more simply as, ‘thoughts are creative.’ Or my personal favorite, ‘what we think about we CREATE.’

Any of this sound familiar? Knowing this changes everything and it is also somewhat unsettling to admit if you’ve been operating on the assumption that you are a victim of your upbringing, surroundings or some other unfortunate injustice. Those things do exist, I’m not discounting them in the least, but our thoughts are the gasoline that propel our physical vehicle so it’s important to use the good stuff.

“You are responsible for your happiness. In fact, you create it. You attract it. You manifest it. You are the architect of your reality. You choose your thoughts, your perceptions and your reaction to external forces. You possess all of the tools needed to expand your awareness to orchestrate the evolution of your consciousness, to choose happiness, to choose love. You are that powerful. Create the life you deserve. Vibrate love.” ~ Creig Crippen

Using the inner stillness of meditation really gets powerful when it is added to the practice of Feng Shui. When you start to understand your life by seeing your home as a reflection of your inner self, or as your shadow self, Feng Shui becomes a whole lot more fun and more interesting. I’ve floated this idea before but it doesn’t often get a lot of traction. We know that people often show up in our lives and reflect back to us the things we like, love and hate about our selves. So doesn’t it stand to reason that the same would be true of our home? The inconvenient truth is that our homes are actually like a wise guide, patiently waiting for us to notice the obvious invisible that is all around us.

Now that we have that out of the way, let me get to the heart of this discussion. One of the key components of Feng Shui is the use of something called the Three Secrets Reinforcements. Essentially, this involves a mind, body and speech secret. Using the word ‘secret’ is not exactly accurate since I’m telling your about it, but here goes. The mind secret is your thought about a desired outcome and being able to visualize it in your mind. The body secret is a mudra called the “ousting mudra”. Mudras are basically yoga poses that you do with your hands. The ousting mudra looks like the hand gesture used by avid Texas Longhorns fans and the speech secret is a mantra called the Six True Words aka Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum. When they are used all together, we call it the Three Secrets. It is a lot easier to use this tool when you know how to visualize and visualizing desired outcomes is easier when you know how to meditate. See what I did there?

When we learn to quite our mind, and truly this is no small feat because that little bugger is always on, we are able to imprint our thoughts with our desires. It’s like whatever is already playing on the hard drive in our brain has a chance to be wiped and rewritten. Even if you aren’t interested in using meditation as a tool to take control of your thoughts, leaning this skill is will make you more aware of the thoughts that you have and maybe even give you the chance to pause and decide if they are worth thinking.

A few months ago, I decided to reestablish a regular practice of carving out some time in my day to meditate. When I began, I was like, ok, 4 minutes sounds doable. That was literally all I could commit to doing. At this writing, I’ve done this for 112 days in a row. Some days, it’s only 4 minutes of pranayama and some days it turns into 30 minutes of breathing, chanting mantras and clearing the spaces around me with guided meditations. When I think about skipping a day, I know I will regret it, so I don’t.

The point is, now that I have found a way to make this a part of each day, I can’t bear the thought of missing it. Why? It wipes my slate clean. It primes me for a day of God knows what. I’m less reactive and I don’t let my buttons get pushed. The best discovery of all is that I can truly “see” in my mind, the life that I want for myself. I’m the director. I’m the creator, and so are you. It is the hardest easiest thing to learn, and it is the most beneficial tool in my toolkit. Meditation will help you with your Feng Shui cures, and it will help with every single thing in your life. It’s been said that praying is when you talk to God, but meditation is when you listen. Are you ready to listen?

I’m offering a FREE zoom class covering the basics of mediation on Monday night, Jan. 18. If you want to join me, click here to get your free ticket with Eventbrite.

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Traveling with Feng Shui

For Christmas, my son and I took a little trip to visit the sites in Moab, UT at Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. We had a hotel room for two nights and brought all our gear to campout for a third night which didn’t end up happening thanks to the snow and bad weather that rolled into town. Since I’ve already written about proper camping Feng Shui, I’d like to talk this time about hotel Feng Shui. The layout and design of the spaces we stay while on vacation are just as important as the spaces we inhabit day to day, so I am going to share some of the things that this hotel did right and the things that they did wrong.

As soon as we walked into our hotel room, I started to see the room with my Feng Shui eyes. The first task is always to just do a mental inventory of what is seen. Since most hotel rooms are going to have the basics of a bed, tv and bathroom, this process takes mere seconds. Right away, I noticed that there was a very inviting armchair with its own lamp overhead in the right hand corner of the room. I couldn’t wait to get cozy in the chair and catch up on some reading with one of the books I packed.

Such a nice place to sit and read at the end of the day. Too bad that lamp is just there for looks!

In case you are new to Feng Shui, the right hand corner of any room falls into the Relationship gua of the bagua as it relates to the entry door. This was a fine for a trip with my son, but if I had been with a romantic partner, a small couch or a space for two people to enjoy would have been better. A single chair in this area of a room does not promote togetherness. If there is only one chair, there is only room for one person.

It looks like an ordinary outlet, but it is winking at me!

Once we got unpacked and settled in though, I found an intriguing problem with this area of the hotel room. Upon further inspection, I discovered that the overhead light was unplugged and that the only outlet within reach had the most bizarre outlet plug that I had ever seen. It was literally impossible to plug anything into it! At first I thought it was just that I wasn’t plugging it in correctly, but then I got down on my hands and knees and saw that the outlet could only accept one appliance, and the much-needed heater was already using it.

From a design perspective, this is literally the dumbest thing a hotel could do. Why add anything at all if adding it is just for looks and isn’t functional? Suddenly, the chair lost all its appeal and I ended up using it to pile hiking gear instead. Strike 1.

In the left hand corner of the room was a desk. This area relates to our money, abundance and prosperity. The placement of the desk was not in command position because it was not facing the entry. It invited the user to sit and stare at the wall, it was very cramped and crowded and also not very functional. Strike 2.

The nice thing about this room was that it came with a microwave, a hidden mini-fridge and a very large flat-screen tv with cable. Free wifi was also part of the package here. When you are like me and you don’t have a typical tv setup at home, it can be fun to chill out in bed and watch tv. Once again though, if a couple had been on a romantic getaway to this location, having an exposed television in the “bedroom” is not ideal. This goes for at home as well. I am a firm believer that tv, laptops and computers should all be banned from our bedrooms.

The two queen beds were placed in a command position with a solid wall behind and a view of the front door. This is very good bed placement because it is a perfect example of the command position rule which creates a feeling of safety and security.

“Our living spaces display an external reflection of our internal lives. Using Feng Shui as a tool to discover that which is hidden within us is the great gift that this ancient wisdom provides.”

~ Logynn B. Northrhip

The bathroom was perfectly placed in the front right-hand section of the room which aligns with the travel and helpful people area of the bagua. The element for this area is metal and since bathrooms are known for all the water and draining they produce, having a metal element room is one of the best because it “holds” the water element. When a bathroom is improperly placed, say in the money area, the water can represent a potential for flushing away of income.

As I completed my brief analysis of the space we would inhabit for the next two days, I could see that it was going to provide us with the precise energy that we needed. In other words, it was an energetic match from a conscious and a subconscious perspective. Since our plan was to be out and exploring and hiking, a simple room was all we needed.

One of the more curious aspects of Feng Shui is that we are always attracting the design of any space we inhabit to provide us with the exact experience that we need. If there is deep emotional healing needed, we will fall in love with the house that can provide that healing. However, that same house can be a nightmare if we do not know how use our spaces to create the life that we are seeking. When we know how to work with the ancient concepts of Feng Shui, we can intentionally create better and better experiences for ourselves.

It is fun to practice all that you know and are continuing to learn about Feng Shui when you travel and stay in hotels. If you end up at a hotel that has bad furniture placement, go ahead and move the bed. I won’t tell!

Camping and the Art of Tent Placement

This weekend, I went on my very first solo-camping trip up to Red Feather Lakes, CO.  I found a dispersed camp site in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest, parked my car and proceeded to scout out the best location for my tent and hammock.  This site was fairly large, so I had my choice of areas.  One of the many definitions for Feng Shui is the art of placement, so I feel that the art of tent placement fits in here nicely.

As I walked all over the site, I found the area with the best view of the mountains, but it was also very exposed and didn’t have any trees large enough for my hammock.  I walked to the back of the site and found an area that felt magical with baby Aspen trees waving their silver dollar leaves, and curious chipmunks zipping everywhere.  It also had a lot of human trash including used toilet paper, plastic grocery bags and a half full plastic bottle of what I can only hope was apple juice, so I eliminated that spot from my options. The number one rule of camping is to leave no trace, and to leave a place better than you receive it.  If you wouldn’t leave a pile of used toilet paper in the corner of your living room, then don’t do it in Mother Nature’s living room.  (steps off soapbox, and kicks it under the table.)

Once I found two trees for my hammock, I set about the task of tent placement.  Placing a tent using Feng Shui is not any different than placing your bed or desk in the proper place.  In fact, your tent is essentially your bed anyway so it makes perfect sense. Luckily, I had internet access, though I’m still not sure how I managed that one, and I was able to look up my best directions.

When dealing with placement in Feng Shui, it is ideal to know your most favorable directions.  This can easily be determined by using one of my favorite Feng Shui websites: http://www.wofs.com.  Select the option for “Feng Shui Tools” and scroll down to the “Kua Number Calculator”.   Plug in your month, day and year of birth, and you will receive your kua number, your four best and your four worst compass directions, so be sure to avoid those!

Since I am still new to this whole outdoorsy life, I cheat and use the compass option on my iPhone.  Don’t judge.  The area that provided me with some support at my back and a view of the driveway entrance to the site was South/Southeast.  My kua numbers for that area relate to success and health.  Score!  How not to die in your tent? Choose the health and success direction.

As I watched the sun set on one side and the almost full moon rise on the other, I could feel a little fear rising up my spine.   I wasn’t afraid of the potential visits from wild animals as much as I was simply very aware of the fact that I was a single woman, camping alone in the woods.  Also, I had spent the entire day listing to someone playing with their guns by shooting untold amounts of ammunition at nothing in particular, so I was a little on edge.  I could also hear my Mom’s always worried voice in my head, reciting all the worst case scenarios of my situation.

In spite of all this,  I am happy to report that I did more than survive, I had a major breakthrough.  I stood my ground and I did it with a certain amount of defiance.   These are the type of experiences that change us and define us, and when we do them with the intention of creating a safe space, we win.

While I now know that I am totally capable of camping alone, I can say with confidence that it is not something I plan to do regularly.  Being that alone with no distractions, was a type of shadow work that gets to the heart of our deepest fears.  Once we shine the light on these shadows, they lose their power over us.  I use Feng Shui to create safe spaces everywhere I go, and I welcome you to learn how to do the same.

I was inspired to create a little video of my tent placement experiences, so follow me on Instagram @logynnbnorthrhip or @fengshuidesignconcepts to watch them in my stories.  I might even share some of my outtakes!

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall …

Right, so we’ve all heard the much-quoted phrase from Disney’s Snow White, but what happens when the mirror is not on the wall? What if the mirror is sitting on the floor and leaning on the wall; or worse, what if it is hanging so low that no one can actually see themselves in it?  Did the evil Queen stoop down to look at herself and ask the mirror who was the fairest in all the land?  Hell no!

The reason that I felt the need to make this the topic of this month’s Feng Shui blog is because about a year ago, I saw this Feng Shui aberration at a local business. Since they did not hire me to do a Feng Shui analysis of their business, I couldn’t give them my unsolicited advice, but it has really been bugging me!  The mirror in question was located in the ladies room and it was just leaning up against the wall, showing me my headless body (see photo above).  My first reaction was, did they just move in? No, they had actually been in business for several years.  Did they just run out of wall hangers?  Doubtful.  Was this intentional?  Were they just being lazy?  I will never know, because as it turns out, they are no longer in business here in Boulder. So, before this happens to anyone else here, I am finally sharing my unsolicited two cents on this topic.

There are only two times when it is ok to have a mirror leaning up against the wall rather than hanging on it.  The first, is that you just moved in and haven’t had a chance to hang it.  This excuse has an expiration date of no more than one week, truly.  The second is that you just ran out of wall hangers.  That’s it.  Those are the only two legit reasons.  Wait, I just thought of a third reason.  If you happen to have one of those giant mirrors that is not made to be hung up on a wall, then yes, that is fine, but make sure that you can see your entire self in the damn thing, okay?

Mirrors are the workaholics of the Feng Shui world.  When used correctly, they offer a plethora of benefits. Mirrors can be used to open up a space, to deflect something negative, they can double the number of stove burners that are visible (which can benefit finances) and they can let you know that your boss is standing behind you while you should be working, but are actually looking up shit on Facebook, Pinterest, Amazon, etc.

Mirrors are the heavy lifters in Feng Shui.  They are so important, and can alleviate so much dysfunction and confusion in a home or business, everyone should hire them.  If you would like your home’s mirror prescription filled with specific recommendations, I’d love to help.  Schedule your personal Feng Shui consultation by none other than yours truly.  I have appointments available during the day, the week and on weekends, so let me give your mirrors a job that will make them proud to be of service!  Call today to make 2020 your best year yet!  512-496-9232 or email me at logynnbnorthrhip@gmail.com.

 

 

 

The Feng Shui of Moving

Some people hate to move.  I love it, well, that’s not entirely true. I love the opportunity for a fresh start that comes with moving. I love getting to know a new space, figuring out how to connect with it and learn from it. Looking back through my old address book, you know, the kind made out of paper, I can see every address that I have had since I moved away to go to college.

Including the move that I just made, I will have moved 18 times in 31 years, or on an average of every 1.7 years.  I guess you could say I have gypsy roots; either that or I just like using my home to heal. Either way, I definitely have this down to an art form, and I have learned a few things along the way. I could talk here about all the benefits of moving a lot, including the inability to become a hoarder, but I’d rather talk about using the spaces we live in to heal the broken parts within us.

Consider for a moment the possibility that every home has a purpose beyond the obvious. What if our homes were lined up to meet us, waiting for the chance to get to know us like a potential new relationship partner? What would they want to tell us? What would they want to know about us? What if every single house has a language that until now, we have been deaf to hear? What if I told you that Feng Shui is the language of our homes? Would you be willing to learn that language so that you could communicate and learn from it?

Feng Shui has been called a lot of things over the years, but until now, I don’t think that anyone has taken the time to get to know its true self. There is so much more to Feng Shui than the definition it has been given, and I am here to explore its gifts and its true purpose for showing up for me, for you and for the world.

When we move to a new place, we are confronted by a lot of changes all at once. It can be very chaotic and full of anxiety, but it can also be exciting and mysterious.  Most of the time, it is actually all of the above!  I started my deep dive into Feng Shui shortly after I got married and we decided to buy a house.  Since then, I have been utterly fascinated with everything that my homes have stepped up to teach me, and I want to share this gift with the world.

The number one thing that I have discovered is that there is nothing truly random about the homes that we choose.  There is also nothing random about being attracted to a house with rooms in one place or another.  Why are we attracted to this house more than that one?  If you take away the external factors like cost and location, one house may seem just as good as another.   Usually, we react to a home because of something within us. When we operate on a wholly intuitive level, we fall in love with a home because it reminds of something, someone or some history within us.

Every thing in our home, every room placement, every seemingly randomly piece of furniture or artwork, has a subconscious source.  It isn’t until you work with a consultant  (worth every penny) or chose to dive in on your own (much more difficult), that you learn to see the messages hidden in plain sight.  The truth is literally staring right back at you.  The challenge is to learn to stare back, and see the gift it is there to give.

Let me give a real life example.  One of the things that I no longer attract are homes with doors that fight.  This is a very common design in apartments and houses where space is at a premium.  For some reason, architects frequently create homes plans with a front door that bangs into the closet door behind it.  I am SURE that if they knew that this was a Feng Shui no-no, they would stop doing it, right?!

When I think back to the homes I’ve had that provided the most yelling, arguing and fighting, they all had two doors that either banged into each other or had the potential to bang into each other.  For a very long time, I always seemed to find those places and move into them.  However, since moving to Boulder 18 months ago, I have stopped attracting those type of homes.  It just isn’t an issue anymore.  That is what Feng Shui can do when you use it for healing and self-awareness.

I’ve been using my homes to test out my own blocks, the blocks that I discovered because of the journey that I live daily with Feng Shui awareness and tools.  I can’t NOT do Feng Shui.  It is woven into my DNA after studying it, helping others learn from it and applying it to every aspect of my life for over 20 years.  That is when you know that you are doing the thing that you soul wants you to be doing.  It becomes the thing that you can’t imagine not doing.

My goal is to help others heal their lives using this beautiful and sacred tool.  If you are ready to dive in and explore your inner world with Feng Shui, call me today at 512-496-9232 or email me at logynnbnorthrhip@gmail.com or fungschwaygirl@yahoo.com.  I’m here to help.  Are you ready to wake up and create the life that was meant for you?

The Relationship between San Pasqual & The Oriental Cranes

There is a phenomenon in Feng Shui that occurs when we are too close to a thing to see it clearly.  We become blind to the things that we notice in our daily surroundings and that is one of the benefits of hiring a professional to analyze a space.  A Feng Shui consultant is able to see the items that have become invisible to our clients.  We are not attached so these things pop out at us.  I know all this and yet, I recently noticed something in my own home that I had never noticed before.  As is usually the case, now that I have made the connection, I have made a swift and non-negotiable decision to let them go.

It occurred to me recently that I have been taking the same artwork along with me to every single place that I have lived since my divorce way back in 2002.  One of my favorites was of two Japanese cranes hand-painted on silk.  In East Asia, cranes are symbols of love, happiness, marital fidelity and longevity that mate for life.

Each time I moved, I made sure to hang the cranes in one of the many relationship areas that can be found in a home, and I have always loved it.  I felt like it was a beautiful symbol of what I should want, a permanent mate for life.  I say it is something that I feel like I should want because this is the message that society teaches and preaches.  We should want to get married, have a family and grow old together.  Coming from parents who divorced when I was five, and then getting divorced myself, this idea of relationships has often felt just out of reach for me.

One day, I was standing near the kitchen and for the first time, I noticed the stark dichotomy of the art on my walls.  On the wall opposite the cranes was a framed poster of a whimsical drawing of the Patron Saint of the Kitchen, also known as San Pasqual.  This piece has been in my kitchen as a faithful companion almost as long as the cranes.  However, for the first time, I actually looked at the scene with fresh eyes.  I don’t know a lot about monks, but I do know that they do not typically get married or have intimate partnerships.

In the print, the monk is standing in the doorway of the kitchen, looking outward away from the viewer with a halo of sorts around his head. The kitchen behind him is full of pies, fresh loaves of bread and cats.   The cranes and the monk do not go together.  They are sending mixed messages about this area of my life.  It was truly a holy shit kind of moment!  It’s times like these that I just really get goosebumps about the power of Feng Shui.  It reflects the subconscious like no other healing system I know.

Within moments, I had taken San Pasqual off the wall.   As much as I like my alone time, I am not interested in being the poster child of pious solitude.  It has been a few weeks since San Pasqual left.  I can already feel the shift.  At first, the walls looked forlorn and empty.  Now, they are like a clean slate where anything is possible.  The beauty of life is that we are the creators of it.  We are not at the mercy of the unfortunate events that have led up to this moment in our personal evolution.  Feng Shui is powerful medicine when you are ready to shine a light on your shadow self.  Are you ready?

 

The Feng Shui Yoga Connection

I’ve been consulting in Feng Shui for almost 20 years and I’ve been a registered and actively teaching yoga instructor for over 11 years, so when I say that Feng Shui and Yoga are yin and yang to one another, it might be worth considering.  Let’s break it down.  Feng Shui tracks the energy and flow of chi or life-force energy within and without a space.  Yoga guides and promotes the flow of prana in the body.  Prana is basically, just another word for chi.  So, Feng Shui is like yoga for your home, and yoga is like Feng Shui for your body.  See what I did there.

I’ve been afraid to write about yoga for years because I know there are so many people out there who are way more knowledgeable about it than I.  However, the one thing I know for sure is that yoga, just like Feng Shui, is something that we all need.  I can’t imagine what my life would look and feel like if I hadn’t found both of these healing tools and used them to create a grace and flow in my life that wasn’t present before.  It is my desire to find a way to combine both of these paths to flow and balance and share them with the world.

If you are already a fan of yoga, then you don’t need me to tell you how much better your body feels after an hour of sending prana and intention into the tight areas between your shoulders or into your hips and getting rooted and grounded in your body.  Doesn’t it stand to reason that a home that has had its chi adjusted would feel just as good?  Of course it does.  It’s the only logical conclusion.

If you are already a fan of Feng Shui, you know how good it feels when you walk into a home or business that uses this practical tool to ignite change.  Trust me, if your house could do yoga, it totally would!  Maybe when it is in balance, that is exactly what it is doing.

Feng Shui is a balance of logic and emotion.  Yoga is a balance of breath and flow.  They are like cosmic twins separated at birth and they belong together.  They are mirrors of one another, and we all deserve to know them, understand them and invite them into our lives.

How To Remove a Toxic Roommate

If you are living in Boulder, CO, you are all too aware of the fact that living in this beautiful city comes with a hefty price tag.  For that reason, it is almost common place to discover that a vast majority of people here have at least one, if not four roommates.  I’d like to tell you that this is because they are CU or Naropa students, but this is not the case.

When my son moved back to Texas, I suddenly found myself with the enviable opportunity of a spare bedroom and bathroom.  When I found a roommate a few months ago, I naively allowed him and his energetic, un-neutered Alaskan Husky to move in with my nine year old, zen-like Golden Retriever and two cats.  He had assured me that his dog was a virtual angel and would be peacefully content in his kennel while he was at work.  He failed to mention that he worked 10-12 hour days and frequently went out of town without making care arrangements for his dog.

During his first weekend in my home, he went to Denver on Friday night to party with friends and did not return until Sunday afternoon.  He was unreachable via text or phone and I had not thought to get emergency contact information.  I truly thought that he might be dead in a ditch somewhere, so when he finally returned late Sunday afternoon, his unapologetic and entitled demeanor did not bode well with me.  I am a true animal lover and it pains me to see any animal being treated poorly, much less under my own roof, so naturally, I fed, walked and entertained his dog while he was away.  Although it was the only humane option, it just enabled and emboldened my new roommate to do it again the following weekend.

Long story short, he and his dog are moving out at the end of the month, and I am using this as a teachable experience to share with my readers. It is my sincerest hope that you never find yourself in the position of needing to remove a toxic person/roommate from under your roof, or your life, but if you do, here is a Feng Shui and Space Clearing Checklist to kick them and their negative energy to the curb:

1.  Is your roommate’s room behind the center line of the home?  If it is, it may be a bit more difficult to dislodge them because any person/room that is behind the center line of the house is in what we call a “commanding position”.  They will try to take over and become the master of the house, even if you are also in a room that is commanding.
2. Start to sage the shit out of your home – like every single day.  In a prior issue, I spoke at length about the correct way to do this, so feel free to scan though my old blogs and apprise yourself of the details of this process. I wrote about the proper way to sage a space in my blog from November 2018.
3. In addition, using the Violet Flame technique that I wrote about in October 2018 is a deeply powerful technique.  You may wish to do it daily or many times throughout the day.
4. In my use of Feng Shui, I am not content to do just one solution when there are so many.  Employing the use of sound is another way to clear a space of negative energy.  If you have a Tibetan Prayer Bowl or some other chime or bell, empower it to create a sound frequency that heals the space in all directions of time and space; past, present and future.   Intention is everything, so using it with love is preferable.
5. And finally, Chinese firecrackers have many uses in Feng Shui.  I got mine years ago during a trip to Professor Lin Yun’s temple in Berkeley, CA and I always have them over my front door frame for extra protection.  Placing them above your roommate’s door frame with the proper intention of helping them to relocate to a home that is a better match for their energy could also be an effective option.

Now, let’s loop back to the possibility that your spare bedroom (aka roommate) is in a room behind the center line of your home and is being a bit stubborn about leaving.  You may have heard that mirrors are the “aspirin” of Feng Shui and this is very true in this example.  Listen up because this is a freebie!  Ideally, you will place a mirror on the wall directly opposite the room in question with the intention of pulling that room to the front of the center line of the house.  Use the 3 secrets reinforcement here for maximum success.

Any bedroom that is in front of the home’s center line, will create an energy that draws its inhabitants out of the house.  This often shows up as a job that involves a lot of travel or will cause them to meet someone so that they are often sleeping elsewhere.  By using a mirror to “energetically” move stubborn roommate energy out of a commanding area to a less commanding position, aka, in front of the center line of the house, will get you the results you want.

Once you get them out, I highly recommend using the epsom salt and isopropyl alcohol solution that I have written about in a prior blog as well.  (Scroll back to June 2016 for this blog). Sometimes, solutions require an unpublished or site-specific solution, so if you try all of this and are still struggling with a disrespectful roommate or can still feel their toxic energy lingering in your space well after they have left, it might be time to cut some etheric cords or something even more extreme.  Energy is real even when it is invisible, so just know that how you feel when you come home will be noticeable better when any toxic roommate energy is removed completely.

Finally, I’d like to address any concerns you may have about getting a person’s permission to do this type of this work.  As I said earlier, intention is always important, and you do not need their permission to clear your space of their toxic energy.  When a roommate situation goes south, it’s likely that both parties are mutually desiring the same outcome.  However, it is not always easy to find a new place to move at a moment’s notice so until the lease ends or they find a new person to annoy with their presence, keep your energy clean and detached and let them go with love.  Do all of the above as often as necessary until they are gone and you have the opportunity to draw in a roommate that is more suitable.

A personalized consultation of your home is always more powerful than just attempting a cure you read about in a book or a blog.  I have 20 years experience doing this, and I can tell you much more about your space in person. Let me help you.

 

The Light is Green so Go!

Last week, I was sitting at a red light, glancing at my watch every few seconds, silently willing the light to hurry up and turn green so I could go.  According to my calculations, I would still be on time to my yoga class as long as the light turned green in the next few minutes.  Just as it was my lane’s turn for a green turn signal, the unthinkable happened.  It skipped us.  After another four agonizing minutes, it was our turn again, and . . .  it skipped us again.  By now, I was about to lose my mind and started shouting profanities at no one in particular.  Worse still, there were two other vehicles in front of me and a long line of cars behind me.  I was trapped.

Apparently,  I wasn’t the only who had noticed that we had been unfairly singled out and skipped by the red light gods because the first person in line gunned it and ran the light.  This was good because it meant that there was only one person in front of me.  It happened to be a giant pickup truck, but I was undeterred.  I was ready when it was our turn again.  There was just no way we would be skipped 3 times in a row.  I was so wrong.  Needless to say, I eventually ran that bitch and barely made it to my class.  I was so flustered though, that I forgot the key code and was a complete stress ball of anxiety.  Great way to start a yoga class don’t ya think?

When things like this happen to me, I think to myself, why did that just happen?  It can’t have been a completely random occurrence, right?  Red lights don’t just stay red three times in a row.  Of course, for all I know, it happened even more than that, but I didn’t stick around to find out.  One thing is for sure, it got my attention!

Here are the facts.  I was at a red light waiting for it to turn green.  I was waiting on something outside of myself to give me permission to go.  Doh!  Being the analytical seeker that I am, this got me thinking.  Is there any other aspect of my life that feels like this light?  In other words, is there anything that I am allowing to keep me stuck?  Well as a matter of fact, the answer is yes.  And that is why I got stuck at that fucking light!  It’s the only logical explanation.  I don’t know why all the other people in line had to suffer so that I could learn this lesson.  Sorry y’all! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Now, I am not advocating running red lights here.  I am only suggesting that when a red light refuses to turn green when it’s supposed to, maybe it means something else.

This is one of the ways that I use Feng Shui in my private consultations.  It is not enough to notice that there are doors that fight and missing areas and broken things scattered around our home.  Where are they?  What does it mean?  Why did you or I move into a home with this type of design?  Is there more to it?  Is your home trying to wake you up and get your attention?  I know the answer.  Do you?

If you want to know more about your house and what it is trying to tell you, call me today and let’s analyze it together.  I am certain I can tell you something that will inspire you to get unstuck or that will give you the permission you don’t need so that you can  start moving toward your destiny.