It appears on Christmas cards, in the writings of therapists and coaches, in spiritual and religious sermons but I can’t remember the last time I heard the word spoken in everyday conversation. We say things are great, we’re happy or even cool. But we don’t often say we feel joy.

It makes me wonder- can joy be secular as well as sacred?

My little neighbor came home from school fuming over something her best friend did to her. She told me she would never talk to her again but the next day found them together playing in her backyard. Later I asked her what happened. She told me, with quite a serious look on her face, that being angry at her friend just hurt too much.

Holding onto anger is holding onto another piece of clutter, of past energies, of feelings that no longer serve. When we are angry we actually relinquish our power because the focus moves quickly beyond the issue to the holding on of emotions that do not make us feel good. Nothing takes us further away from being in the moment than the holding on of anger.

Feeling anger is natural. It is an emotion, a feeling, a barometer that helps us stay true to ethical and moral convictions. Anger is a message that something is not right. We need anger but we do not need to stay in anger. Anger is not foreign to love. We are only truly angry when we feel we are not being heard, when communication is being blocked. Staying in anger fuels these blockages.

Righteous anger can be used for the positive. Seeing an injustice and choosing to do something about it can be healing and life affirming. But holding the anger inside and not having the ability to create movement with or beyond it, is self-destructive. The anger becomes the issue rather than the act that caused the anger. The person we are angry with may feel the effects of our anger but never as strongly as we do!

The words are by Pierre Pradervand from his book “The Gentle Art of Blessing”

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Happiness flows. It finds space inside of us and runs up and down the channels and meridian systems and smoothes out all the jagged edges. When we are happy, our bodies feel relaxed, flexible, and we experience an ease of movement. We feel alive and spacious. Understandable then that the Sanskrit word for happiness, Sukha, is also translated as unobstructed space. And this suggests that perhaps happiness is an energy that is felt when it is allowed to move freely.

Being happy creates space. It creates space for the energy of happiness, joy and love to flow. It allows movement, creativity and expansion. Happiness is infectious and we know that smiles and laughter brighten the hearts of those who give, receive and even observe these gestures of happiness.

Feng Shui is based on the bagua, which is a designation of energy areas oriented from the entrance to a building or room. The space is divided into eight areas, Wealth, Health and Family, Knowledge, Fame/Reputation, Relationships, Children/Creativity, Career, and Helpful people. Using a clock as a reference, Fame/Reputation is at 12, Marriage/Relationship is between 1 to 2, Children/Creativity is at 3, Helpful people is between 4 to 5, Career is at 6, Knowledge is between 7 to 8, Health and Family is 9 and Wealth/Prosperity is between 10 to 11. The bagua is superimposed on the floor plan of the house or room and the area between 4 to 8 is at the entrance. The entrance to a room is usually in the Career area (6 o’clock).

When a room is filled with clutter, chi (energy) is unable to flow freely. Look at the bagua and determine which area is related to the clutter. For example if the clutter is in the Wealth/Prosperity (10 to 11), think of how you are doing financially. Perhaps the raise you were expecting did not materialize, or you were not offered the higher paying job you recently interviewed for.

The individual constantly surrounded by many things, especially things that are no longer useful or in disarray, will usually feel suffocated or sluggish, slow to make decisions and may have physical aches and pains.

Take a look at each room of the house and find where you tend to accumulate clutter. Relate this to the bagua and see what happens in your life when you clear the clutter. Work on one area at a time, perhaps do all the Wealth/Prosperity areas of each room in the house or if you are looking at the floor plan for the whole house, clear the room in the Wealth/Prosperity area of the house. You may be surprised as to how fast results happen. From my experience, it takes 2 to 3 weeks for situations to change.

Clearing the clutter can be very therapeutic; it is a way to let go some of the emotions that have been stagnating inside you. It also allows you to see what is important to you. So take some time off your busy schedule and clear, clear, clear.

Author: Jen Martinez-Bentley ND, Feng Shui Consultant and Naturopathic Doctor practicing in Washington DC and Northern Virginia, Hampton roads. Reiki Master, Acupressure/Reflexology practitioner.

The Black Sect Tantric Buddhist School of Feng Shui aka Black Hat Feng Shui has an official Theory of Relative Positioning. It states that the closer a part of the environment is to you, the more impact it has on your chi. Since nothing is closer to you than your body and mind, the first step is the understanding that you can change your inner thoughts and belief patterns to those that create a positive, receptive, harmonious energetic flow. This is the art and skill of using your emotions, thoughts, words, intention and attention to strengthen and give power to a positive view of your immediate inner and outer environment and give less attention to those vibrations that weaken your or bring you down. By doing this we create the environment which can attract the kind of love we want.

It is difficult to continually monitor one’s thoughts but with practice it is very do-able. And it is of course easier when everywhere you look in your home you are surrounded by things that uplift your heart and soul. We have often spoken about the need to surround yourself with things you love in order to bring you constant reminders of joy when you look around your home.

Feel the love and beauty that is around you. And one powerful Feng Shui tip to aid you in your quest– pay attention to where your mirrors are positioned and what they are reflecting. Mirrors that face the outside and bring in images of traffic going by or dark corners of the house just bring in more of that energy. Love what is being reflected and your life will become a reflection of love.

So, during this Lunar New Year time continue to work on heightening your thoughts, energy and vibrations. This will only attract more vibrations of love to you.

Continuing the ranking of those environmental areas that affect you and your personal chi are: bed, bedroom, home, yard, neighborhood, city, county, world and the universe.

There is something very primal about sitting before a fire. It can be romantic, yes, but it goes way beyond that. We are transfixed by fireplaces. We stare at the flames and wander off on internal journeys, often not remembering where the fire has taken us.

Fire keeps us warm; it keeps the wolves away from the door and helps deliver us from the dark. We cook over fire. Flames are guides, beacons, symbolic of a shining hope, of honor and eternal light.

That night we lit candles of all kinds throughout the house- tapers, tea-lights, pillars, short, squat, colored, white, spiraled and circular. The house was illuminated brighter than it ever was with electric power. It got me thinking about our need and desire for light on physical and energetic levels.
We need light. Without it our mental and physical bodies suffer. In northern countries where the nights seem to last most of the day a large number of the population suffer from SAD – the acronym is certainly suggestive of the mood. Without sunlight our bodies cannot make vitamin D. This can impair the metabolism of calcium affecting our bones and nervous system. Thus, our very structure, suffers. In countries and states where there is more rain than sun, more cases of depression are reported.

The need for light is in our vernacular. We want to “shed some light on the situation” and hope for enlightenment. We want to brighten things up, cast some light on the issue, maybe illuminate the subject and chase away the shadows. We want to lighten up, make light of the matter. Lovers can see the love light in their partner’s eye and the smile and thoughts of a love one lighten up our days. Kind acts make our hearts feel lighter.
And just as much as we need light, we need the darkness. We need to go deep within ourselves to find those areas we need to illuminate. In Feng Shui we look at this as the balance of yin and yang. Yin takes us inwards, to the dark places of inner exploration. Once there, we begin the journey back to the yang, to the more active, outward expressions of what we found internally.

Winter is dark, the most yin time of the year. We instinctively go inwards and deeper into our selves and, like the trees we anchor in and put down roots. We are more contemplative, introspective, we slow down, we plan and we acknowledge the depths of our being. There is truly nothing more powerful than to take the time to examine what we hold within, what we hold dear and what we fear.

The Feng Shui Bagua is a wonderful, practical and inclusive tool to help us on our inner journey. It is a guide. The eight essential life desires are laid out in a grid around the center point of unity. Both a physical and inner journey around our home, around the bagua, will bring an awareness of the aspects of our lives that need the energy of light. Ask yourself some questions. Go within and examine your inner feelings and knowingness. Where are you cluttering, what areas of the house are you avoiding or feeling uncomfortable being in? Are there areas where you feel a strong loving energy or perhaps is there a room where the family squabbles seem to always take place?

Asking these questions and listening to the answers gives clarity to the aspects of our lives that we need to examine to become lighter, balanced and yes, happier and more fulfilled. Where is the light and where is the dark? What parts of our lives are we avoiding? Perhaps conscious awareness of this is akin to shining the light on those dark areas. This is where we need the most illumination.

Moving from the darkness to the light is an incredibly powerful and transformative experience. Whenever I feel blocked, stuck or not as light as I want to be I take this inner journey through my outer space of my home. I feel as if my inner fire is stoked and the wolves will stay away from my door.

Feng Shui may be all about balance and harmony and the gentle flow of chi, but, let’s face it, the holidays aren’t.  And some of us wouldn’t have it any other way.  This is the time of year when we truly welcome the surprises, the hustle and bustle, the last minute rush and the chaotic comings and goings. 

Our social life picks up at a dizzying speed, we take on more than we thought we could and we handle the stresses more gracefully than before.  At least, we usually do. 
We may vow that this year the holidays will be easier, simpler, close to the heart. This is the year we celebrate the true meaning of the holidays and we finally let go of things and traditions that don’t matter anymore.   At least, we are getting closer.

But we are not getting closer to controlling the rushing around of people all around us.   There will be lines in the stores, the banks and the post offices.  Traffic will be heavier than usual.  People will be kinder, people will be greedier. People will get to us.  At least, they will some of the time.

And the first thing that we tend to do over the holidays is to neglect ourselves and the ones closest to us. There is no fault in this, no blame.  But it comes with the territory of being too busy, stressed, and overloaded, even if it is a wonderful overload.

What we can do, everyday, is create a space for ourselves where we touch the inner calmness, the stillness that brings inner peace.  Take time for yoga or exercise class, practice deep breathing, find a moment alone where you can relax in a hot bubble bath.  Find a nook where all is quiet and you can drink herbal tea or hot chocolate in peace.  Take time to stare into a roaring fire or walk along the beach.  It doesn’t matter- just take time to do nothing, to just be, to connect with that inner stillness. And the reality is, the more we are able to do this the more we are able to sail through the craziness that is happening all around us.

Be still.

It feels incredibly wonderful to be abundant. Abundance is a gift, a blessing, and a joy. It is the ultimate expression of the yin energy, the female energy, the energy of receiving. This energy is so powerful that the ancient Feng Shui practitioners simply called it “Fortunate Blessings.”

So, since women are the embodiment of yin energy, abundance theoretically should flow easily to all women. But it just doesn’t always seem to. Sometimes this lack can be an illusion – abundance is all around but if we are not mindfully aware we may not see the abundance and the beauty around us. Sometimes it is not an illusion – on a financial level we may not be seeing the money flow in as easily as we had hoped. And then we wonder, do we really have to struggle so much? No, we don’t. We can let go and let things flow.

There is an area, a gua, in our homes that attract and hold the energy of abundance. We can activate this area to bring in the chi, the energy of abundance, with colors, symbols, shapes and intention. But more important, there is a part of us that can hold and attract abundance if we are open to it.

Typically, women have mastered the art of giving. Women give their hearts, their bodies and souls, their time, energy, smiles, comfort and love with little regard to boundaries. Most women do not need more practice in giving, but so many women do need to learn to receive and allow others to give to them. Start small. Instead of brushing off a compliment, or denigrating yourself when one is offered, smile gracefully and own it. Accepting the compliments, the gifts, the goodies and acknowledgements from others will do a lot to allow the energy of giving to turn into the energy of receiving. Become observant of this internal challenge and know that receiving turns into abundance which again turns into the giving. There is nobility, pride, and strength to the art of receiving. It is a gift to you, the female, for all the giving you have done by just being.

In ancient times, the emperors, nobility, royals and spiritual leaders were experts at receiving. It was understood- it was their due. Everyone got the order of things; that abundance belonged to higher mortals and all things flowed naturally and easily to them. Collective beliefs made it so. It was no mistake that the representative colors of abundance were worn solely by the higher classes. In fact, it was against the law for anyone but the emperor to wear the beautiful golden color that universally represents wealth and abundance. The color purple was also reserved for the nobles and those with loftier spiritual pursuits than the common man or woman. Today we intellectually know that none of us are disqualified from receiving the gifts of the universe. We only need to be open to the receiving.

The understanding of abundance is evolutionary thought. The pendulum swings from excess to less is more. Too much leads to clutter; not enough leads to unfulfilled desires. Too much food leads to obesity, while too little food leads to malnutrition and starvation. Too many choices lead to indecision; too little leads to lack of freedom, creativity and expression. There is a difference between wanting to have and knowing if you need it, it will be there.

In Feng Shui we open our homes to the energy of abundance by enhancing our southwest corner with personal symbols of abundance. We add beautiful shades of purples and golds that suggest richer energies. We keep this area clean and clutter free to allow the chi of abundance unrestricted flow. Internally, we open our hearts to receiving the gifts of the universe. And we live with the understanding that true abundance comes from knowing that we do have a choice to receive the opportunities of abundance that flow all around us.