Archive for the Clutter
This weekend I was reading the new In Style magazine and I came across this heading and subheading –
Life, etc.
Because style isn’t just about what you wear
And it got me thinking. For me, style is about living a life that embraces who I am and what’s important to me. A life that reflects my authenticity and personality – with panache and aplomb! Style is a way of living; it isn’t just about what we choose to wear or how we choose to decorate our homes. What we choose to wear and how we decorate our homes should be a reflection of our personal style, not the other way around.
Take a look around your home and in your closet. Does what you see bring you a sense of comfort and satisfaction? Do you like what you see? For many of us, the items in our homes are items we’ve accumulated over the course of our lives – and while this might be a good thing, it might also mean we’re surrounded with a jumble of furnishings and accessories that don’t bring us a sense of joy, things that we have just because they’re here not because we love them.
The same might be said about the items we have hanging in our closets. If you have clothes that don’t make you feel comfortable and attractive it’s time to release a few things and make room for something new!
When your surroundings, whether furnishings or clothes, don’t nurture and comfort you or reflect who you are, they are devoid of vibrant energy, they are devoid of style. And the energy in our surroundings is what inspires and motivates us, so it’s important that it be positive and uplifting. Not depleting and depressing.
The beginning of the year is the perfect time to really evaluate your belongings. Consider each item, determine if you love and need what you have and if some of your things aren’t things you love or you find you aren’t quite sure, consider releasing them.
Releasing items that no longer serve us creates space for change, space for opportunity, space for new things. And if the new things we select are things we absolutely love, they will also be things that reflect our personal sense of style, they’ll be just right!
When you surround yourself with things you love, you feel good about where you are and you feel good about who you are. Feeling good about who you are, empowers and enriches your life experiences and it all starts with the things you choose to live with.
Click for past article on clutter
For more info on clutter visit Lifestyle Feng Shui
© 2012 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
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Can you lose weight with Feng Shui?
Yes and no.
We all want to lose weight, some of us do it the old fashioned way by exercising more and watching what we eat, others want a quicker easier way to lose weight or at least something that can help them achieve greater weight loss success.
While there is no quick, effortless way to lose weight, feng shui can support your efforts at weight loss.
How to lose weight with feng shui-
- Clear clutter. When we have clutter our space is literally blocked, energy or chi cannot move freely. This is a similar dynamic to excess weight. When we carry excess weight our energy is limited, we can’t move as easily, our bodies ability to function optimally is blocked. Our inner world is mirrored and reflected in our outer world, making the connection is where Feng Shui comes into play.
- Reposition the furnishings in your rooms to create ease of movement and flow. This step is about removing excess in your living environment.
- Release anything that’s broken, anything that you don’t use or anything that you don’t love. Keeping things around that aren’t useful or beautiful takes up space and drains your energy. (Think of it as symbolic fat – it doesn’t have a purpose and it takes up space.)
- Organize, organize, organize. Start with your bedroom closet and organize your clothing, shoes and accessories so everything is easy to find and has its own space. As you complete a space, move onto to another. Do this is phases, perhaps over several months so you don’t get overwhelmed or discouraged. When our things are organized, we can find things easier and that saves us time, saves us money and makes our life easier.
- Take care of your health, change your eating habits and eliminate foods that are highly processed, high in sugars and high in saturated fats.
- Start a simple exercise routine. Even a short, 5 minute daily walk will make a bit difference in how you feel both physically and mentally. Give yourself permission to start wherever you’re at.
- Get plenty of sleep. Your body needs downtime to rejuvenate and restore itself. A good nights rest is important.
- Picture yourself, as you’d like to be, in both your minds eye and in the way you speak about yourself…. act as if the weight is already gone. Imagine it as if it is already so. This is a powerful way to shift your perception of yourself. And let’s face it, our perception of our self either supports what we desire or it doesn’t. You can’t achieve something you don’t believe it. So begin to see yourself as you’d like to be and before you know it, that’s exactly what your reality will become!
Losing weight requires changes in our life patterns and in our living patterns. One is not separate from the other. If losing weight is one of your goals, start the process today and tomorrow will be easier!
© 2011 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
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Clutter. It can slow you down, cause confusion, cost money and literally block your path. But clutter can also bring us to a place of greater understanding and self- awareness.
Did you know that by using the Bagua map to determine which area your clutter is located in you can learn more about why that or those particular life areas present challenge to you?
For instance, clutter in Career might result in an inability to get ahead, a tendency to work hard but make little progress. When you place the Bagua map over your home or room, pay attention to what you see and then reflect honestly on the quality of your life experience in relation to that Bagua area, I bet you’ll find a connection!
Releasing clutter opens up the space it’s in and it opens up the energy of the Bagua area it’s impacting. It’s like opening a window to let the air in. You’ll feel relieved, lighter and clearer.
Energy needs space to move, without space energy stagnates and becomes stuck. If you’re feeling stuck, indecisive, drained or tend to procrastinate a lot, take a look around your home, chances are clutter is culprit!
Click here for more clutter tips and how-tos.
© 2011 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
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This has been an extremely busy few weeks. After my blog post about preparing our home to sell, I started doing everything I suggested…and I’m still at it! (I really thought that I was ahead of it!)
I managed to clean our front entry, closets and kitchen cupboards. Rearrange our living room, family room and kitchen eating area and that’s as far as I’ve gotten!
As I was clearing clutter and rearranging, I had an interesting experience. I found that many of the things I had no longer had a real purpose. Things I had thought I needed weren’t needed at all! Sometimes, even when we think we don’t have clutter we actually have items that have fallen out of usefulness … and that makes them clutter. 
I emptied my longstanding mismatched casual china from my kitchen cupboards and replaced it with the casual white china I use whenever we have lots of company. I took out all the extra wine glasses (how often do you really need 18 wine glasses?), and kept only 8. I put all the champagne flutes on the ‘release these things’ table. And I cleaned out the pantry while I was at it.
I was so motivated I even went through all my cookware – those of you who love cooking will understand why this was unusual. I either packed what I don’t need regularly or released those items that have never really been needed….like those 12 miniature tart pans, or that orange juice squeezer way at the back of the cupboard!
After I finished, I opened all the cupboards and felt a sense of accomplishment and great satisfaction; it was as though the home and I were not only preparing for the next phase of our lives, but we were ready to transition.
Now both of the closets in my front entry are neat and organized. Everything that remains has a purpose and a reason for being there. With the closets clear, the front entry actually feels bigger! (Neat trick when the closets are behind doors…it’s about making space, and space creates the opportunity for energy to move, and movement creates a sense of space.)
I discovered that no matter how organized or detail oriented you are, things are going to take longer than you think they will. And that’s OK. Letting life unfold as it’s intended is truly going with the flow and living a Feng Shui Lifestyle™. When we try to force life around us into our time frame, we can find ourselves frustrated and bogged down.
Going with the flow is more than just a catch-phrase, it’s about doing what you can and then accepting that what you got done is what was intended. Things really do have a magical way of working out when we stop trying to force it.
The next part of my ‘get your home ready to sell’ process will be to clean all the trim and doors in my home and to touch up the paint on the trim throughout the house. (I’ve decided to make my to-list into several smaller lists – this way it won’t take as long to complete each list!)
And I thought my home was almost ready to list! Looks like I have several more weeks before I get there!
© 2011 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
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We are profoundly influenced by the spaces we inhabit. Our homes have an enormous impact on our state of mind. They can be places that uplift us and bring us a sense of joy. And they can be places that drain our energy and create a sense of unease.
We’ve all had the experience of walking into a room after an argument and the room felt uncomfortable. The energy in the room felt thick and heavy – the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
And we’ve also experienced spaces that felt warm, comforting and inviting. Space clearing raises the vibration, the energy within a space literally liberating old stagnant energy and imprints and replacing them with fresh, vibrant, nurturing energy.
Space clearing is a way to instantly shift and transform the subtle, energy or the feeling in your home or workspace.
Space clearing is a term first used by Denise Linn in the early 90’s. It is an integral branch of Interior Alignment®.
In Interior Alignment® we believe our homes aren’t simply four inanimate walls. We believe our homes mirror and reflect our consciousness, our inner state of being, and the act of clearing or re-aligning the energy in our living spaces shifts our energy and our experience of the energy within our homes.
As Denise Linn states in her book Sacred Space, “Homes as well as people are nourished by how we hold them in our hearts. They have a living spirit that is sustained through the reverence and love that we hold for them. Without that care they become inanimate and lifeless; the spirit recedes and they become merely physical structures that can neither sustain or nurture us.”
Space clearing can help you:
- Release old emotions
- After an illness
- After a move or life change
- After an argument
- After remodeling
- Release recurring patterns of behavior
- Increase vitality
- Enhance the quality of your life and living environment
There are four basic steps to Space Clearing.
- Preparation
- Purification
- Invocation
- Preservation
Preparation. It is important to take time before the clearing process to establish your intention - what it is you’d like to achieve or change by clearing your space. Your intention is your most powerful ally and the most powerful tool you can use to re-align your living spaces. Without intention, all actions are hollow and meaningless – like going through the motions.
With intention your actions have purpose, clarity and direction. There is meaning and power in everything you do.
This is also the place to incorporate a bit of clutter clearing. I know, you’re thinking, “Oh no, not clutter again!” Clearing clutter is an on-going process and one that is particularly helpful prior to space clearing. It’s good to release items that are no longer useful, needed or desired. This way we have made space for the change we desire and our space clearing actions will be more effective. (For more information about the clutter clearing process, click here.)
Purification. This is the actual clearing or re-alignment process. There are many different methods and techniques you can use to clear a space.
Some are:
- Incense
- Smudge or sage
- Sound instruments (drums, bells, etc.)
- Water
- Crystals
- Salt
My personal favorites are sound instruments. I love how the resonance of instruments expands and fills a space as the energy is re-aligned. You can actually hear the difference!
The actual tool you use is less important than establishing your intention – any tool will work. Choose a tool that aligns with you, one that feels comfortable and natural for you to use.
Before beginning, stand in silence with your eyes closed. Breathe in and out slowly; focus your thoughts on your intention and the energy of the room. With each breath, feel your energy expanding and becoming more powerful. When you feel ready, begin to move through each room in a clockwise manner, releasing stagnant energy as you move through the room.
Invocation. After you’ve cleared the stagnant energy from a room, return to the doorway of the room and once again close your eyes and focus your thoughts and breath on filling the space with positive, uplifting energy. Put your intention into the space. You can do this with the use of an affirmation, a house blessing or dedication or simply by giving thanks for all this is good in your life.
Preservation. This is the Feng Shui step! To maintain the energy and clarity of the clearing it’s good to create a physical affirmation. This can be many things, just about anything, as long as the item has meaning for you and represents your intention for your home.
Objects hold the energy you give them, positive or negative. It is the power of your association with things that empowers them. So, the actual object chosen is less significant than your association with it.
Choose objects that resonate with you, objects that fit seamlessly into your personal sense of style and your spaces. If I can look around your home and see ‘Feng Shui cures’, you haven’t selected the right items. The best Feng Shui is the Feng Shui you feel, not the Feng Shui you see. And the only way for Feng Shui adjustments to feel right is when they fit into the space in which they are used and they look like they belong there!
Some things you can use are:
- A crystal
- A written affirmation put into a place of honor.
- Placing a written affirmation in the soil of a plant – then every time you water the plant envision that you are nourishing or energizing your intention.
- A beautiful lamp
- New positioning of your furnishings to reenergize and realign your space with your intention
- An accessory that you LOVE that supports the energy of your intention
- A picture or piece of art symbolizing your intention
- A beautiful, lush plant
- A home altar
- Any object that symbolizes your intention
The energy of a place is created in part by the people who have been there, past events, past emotions and the energy patterns inherent in our style of building.
Energy doesn’t flow with ease in corners, which is why these areas tend to create pockets of stagnation or dull energy. There simply isn’t any movement.
10 Simple ways to uplift the energy in your home
- Clean and vacuum
- Clear clutter
- Clean the windows
- Replace old, burned out light bulbs
- Open the windows; let fresh air flow into your home
- Spritz your rooms with essential oils (lemon, lavender, eucalyptus and pine are wonderful for this)
- Burn incense or use an essential oil diffuser
- Light a candle
- Add fresh flowers or a beautiful plant
- Play inspiring music
Space clearing re-aligns the energy in our spaces, creating movement and vitality in place of stuck, stagnant energy.
When the spaces around us are nurturing and supportive our quality of life improves.
And that’s a good thing!
© 2010 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
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What is prosperity to you?
While it’s true that money does make many aspects of life easier, it is also true that money doesn’t bring happiness. True prosperity is the awareness of abundance in all areas of your life. To gain a balance and appreciation of abundance in all areas of your life, make space for abundance and opportunity. How? Clear clutter!
2. Clear all clutter.
It’s difficult to have a clear mind when the space around you isn’t clear. And if you don’t have a clear mind, it’s hard to focus your energy and if you can’t focus your energy it will be almost impossible to attract prosperity and opportunities to you. It is important that you create the space for the opportunity you desire. A crowded space doesn’t allow anything else in.
Clutter is anything unused, unfinished, unresolved, tolerated or disorganized. Not sure? Ask yourself these 3 questions. Do I love it? Is it useful? Do I need it? If you answered ‘yes’ keep it, it isn’t clutter. If you answered ‘no’, release it. Sound simple? It can be, if you are honest with your answers..
Remove or replace anything you don’t absolutely love.
There are lots of things in your environment that don’t qualify as clutter, but are these things you absolutely love? Do they embrace you with fond memories? Stir your heart’s passion? Surround you with beauty? In Feng Shui, it is vital that the things around us nurture and support us. Take time to review your belongings. If they don’t embrace you with comfort and create a sense of welcome, release them.
Do it now!
The habit of putting off routine household chores or paperwork eventually results in a backlog of undone tasks. Once you’re behind in your work, it becomes more difficult to find the time and motivation to get caught up again. If you’re feeling overburdened by a long list of things to do, set aside some time to work through it. Take small steps; don’t try to do it all at once, start with one project or one area. Keep at it until you have things back where you’d like them to be.
Start slowly so you don’t become overwhelmed. You’ll be amazed at how your energy changes as things are cleared. Create the space for change to happen and opportunity will flow to you!
To learn more Feng Shui tips for prosperity, listen to Laurie’s podcast here.
© 2010 Harmony Life, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and the following information:
Feng Shui Teacher, Designer and Entrepreneur Laurie Bornstein, is the author and creator of ‘Feng Shui Lifestyle’, her FREE monthly ezine filled with Feng Shui and Lifestyle Marketing articles and tips, empowering and inspiring you to live and work in comfort, balance and harmony.
Visit www.harmonylifedesign.com to learn more.
The last of the moon cycles is the waning moon, which is similar in energy to fall. This is where energy begins to recede. It’s a natural time to release what isn’t needed. This is the perfect time for clutter clearing!
What is clutter? Clutter consists of those items in our surroundings that have no home of their own. Clutter creates stagnation, a lack of energy in our spaces and in our minds. It encourages a sense of procrastination, a putting off for tomorrow what we can do today.
Clutter is anything unused, unfinished, unresolved, tolerated or disorganized. Not sure? Ask yourself these 3 questions.
- Do I love it?
- Is it useful?
- Do I need it?
If you answered ‘yes’ keep it, it isn’t clutter. If you answered ‘no’, release it. Sound simple? It can be, if you are honest with your answers. Start slowly so you don’t become overwhelmed. You’ll be amazed at how your energy changes as things are cleared.
Moon cycles and you. You don’t need years of training to create a ritual. A ritual is a symbolic event, marking a place in time. The best ones come from the heart. Moon rituals are a series of actions that you do to bring about the change you desire in alignment with the energy of the moon and it’s phases.
For more clutter tips go to: http://www.harmonylifedesign.com/simplefengshuitips.shtml
© 2010 Harmony Life, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and the following information:
Feng Shui Teacher, Designer and Entrepreneur Laurie Bornstein, is the author and creator of ‘Feng Shui Lifestyle’, her FREE monthly ezine filled with Feng Shui and Lifestyle Marketing articles and tips, empowering and inspiring you to live and work in comfort, balance and harmony.
Visit http://www.harmonylifedesign.com to learn more.
Here is something I get asked about from time to time:
What if you have teenaged children that live in your home and their room is a disaster – perhaps there are clothes all over the place, or the room is cluttered and generally in a messy state. If you are trying to clear clutter in the rest of your home, what do you do about your teenager’s room?
The answer may be difficult to hear, but it’s important!
Teenagers are hormonally going through great change. They are also going through a lot of growth and development.
I have read that going through the teen years is the same level and intensity as a two year old. The difference with teenagers is that you add the hormones to the list, and things can become very erratic. Often it’s chaos inside theem, and as we know, the outer world mirrors their inner world, and so it makes sense then that their outer world, their room, is going to reflect their inner turmoil.
I have two teenage daughters and one teenage son. I know this room! In that instance, it is important to recognize that they need their space to move through their own development. Try not to focus too much on it when it’s a teenager.
Of course, it’s still your home, but my advice is to treat that space as a separate apartment in your home. Close the door to that space and focus on your main living area; where you spend your time.
It sounds unusual, but in the case of a teenager, it’s the best way to handle it. The good news is they will come out of it ... the light will come on and the child you knew will pop back into their body. As odd as that sounds, it really is just that way.
Remember also that we all move at our own pace. This teenaged phase may go from early teens to late twenties. If it goes further than that, then perhaps there is a block that you need to help them identify.
When they are changing so fast, it’s not that easy for them to keep up with themselves. Their outer world, their room, their environment, will probably reflect this. It’s their space where they are trying to define themselves.
To learn more about how to use Feng Shui principles to manage your relationships, listen to my podcast here.
© 2009 Harmony Life, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and the following information:
Feng Shui Teacher, Designer and Entrepreneur Laurie Bornstein, is the author and creator of ‘Feng Shui Lifestyle’, her FREE monthly ezine filled with Feng Shui and Lifestyle Marketing articles and tips, empowering and inspiring you to live and work in comfort, balance and harmony.
Visit http://www.harmonylifedesign.com to learn more.
Clutter can appear in many of our environments, but if you store things that you don’t use in a basement or other storage area, because you think one day you will use it, you could actually be a hoarder.
Hoarding is caused by having a fear that there will not be enough. Not all clutter collectors are hoarders, but hoarding can be a difficult cycle to break.
Give yourself permission to take small steps. I once worked with a woman who had six copies of the same book because she always wanted to be sure that she could find a copy of it when she needed. We took a small step and put some of the books in a clearly labelled box so that she could find them anytime she wanted, and we left only one copy on her bookshelf. Once you take a small step like that, it becomes easier to eventually get rid of something that you realize you don’t need.
Another way to work through this is to be generous to others. Give others what you are afraid of losing. If you feel that you have an abundance of something and are able to give it to those who do not have it, it can help you create a different dynamic for that item. Start with something small; it will invigorate you to do more!
If you feel tremendous fear attached to letting go of something, you need to enable your fear and empower it. Follow the flow and it really will work out just fine. Your mind is a very powerful thing. Clutter can create a protective barrier. We need to remove it in order to let the energy flow freely.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Why am I afraid to let go of this?
- What am I afraid is going to happen to me if I let go?
Be honest with yourself. Don’t be afraid. That’s where the permission to let go is. Now, use that focus to reverse the thoughts and create what you want.
Beware of the devil you know – the single greatest fear is the fear of success. Sometimes we can feel that if things stay the same, at least we know what to expect. If we don’t know how things will be if there is change, it can be frightening.
Remember that the barrier you create may keep things you don’t want OUT, but it will also impede what you let IN. Clear the path and you will be able to see the unimpeded path forward.
To learn more about using Feng Shui principles to manage transitions in your life, click here to listen to my Transitions podcast.
© 2009 Harmony Life, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and the following information:
Feng Shui Teacher, Designer and Entrepreneur Laurie Bornstein, is the author and creator of ‘Feng Shui Lifestyle’, her FREE monthly ezine filled with Feng Shui and Lifestyle Marketing articles and tips, empowering and inspiring you to live and work in comfort, balance and harmony.
Visit http://www.harmonylifedesign.com to learn more.
Do you ever notice that when you clear the clutter from deskspace, that more opportunity suddenly presents itself to you?
Why is that?
The first thing that happens is that you instantly feel better in the space when it is tidy and organized. Your desk is the heart of your office. It cannot flow if it’s clogged. Clutter stops you from being as effective as you can be. When you clear clutter, new opportunity has an opportunity to pop in, and you recognize it and welcome it.
Take the opportunity to clear the way for new opportunities. If you have a lot of clutter to clear, start small. Clear one thing at a time – maybe it’s just one drawer or one shelf.
Surround yourself only with things that you love. Once you are, that’s perfect Feng Shui. Energy flows freely through spaces that are filled with things that you love.
Look at each item you have on your desk, in your office space. Do you love it? If you’re not sure, then the answer is no! If you get a negative vibe from an object, remember that it’s not the object itself that’s negative – it’s the feeling you associate with it. You should give it away or get rid of it in order to help the energy flow of your office.
We are profoundly affected by the spaces we inhabit. If you want to create an environment that embraces a sense of comfort, inspiration and style, sign up for my free e-course, Simple Feng Shui for Abundant Living.
© 2009 Harmony Life, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and the following information:
Feng Shui Teacher, Designer and Entrepreneur Laurie Bornstein, is the author and creator of ‘Feng Shui Lifestyle’, her FREE monthly ezine filled with Feng Shui and Lifestyle Marketing articles and tips, empowering and inspiring you to live and work in comfort, balance and harmony.
Visit http://www.harmonylifedesign.com to learn more.
