I walked into a high school classroom to assess the energy before I began to formulate a plan to feng shui it. The classroom had a lot of visuals on the walls. Being a foreign language class, that would be both typical and necessary to create the atmosphere needed to keep students in the language. There were posters of historical sites, cute images of animals speaking French, and of course the classroom phrases that all students need to know like “puis-je aller aux toilettes?” I also noted French vocab labels on everything from stapler to map. All the décor showed me this teacher was thorough in his coursework and the uplifting expressions demonstrated he cared about his students. How did I feel energetically in the space? Heavy.
The challenge with so many things all over the walls is that people get so used to it, it becomes invisible. What once was an opportunity to educate, now becomes a design choice similar to using wallpaper. The first order of business was to take down everything! The walls were a sea of blue dots as that was his adhesive of choice. A little goo gone and elbow grease et voila…clean slate. Next would come space clearing to clear the heaviness and a new arrangement that would foster connection and communication.
As I was contemplating all of these things in an educational context, I realized that we all decorate our homes in this way. We hang pictures, place furnishings and décor and then pretty much leave it there unless a holiday season calls for a little extra. Much like in the classroom, we stop seeing our artwork and special knickknacks over time. Our home becomes heavy with things that once brought a smile to our faces. That is what happens to things that are no longer cherished on a daily basis. Our belongings collect energy and stagnate a space. That energy not only affects the room in which it resides but now creates an imbalance in the overall home as it seeks equilibrium by taking the energy of another room. In Feng Shui we refer to this as opposite guas affecting each other and we quickly look for ways to relieve the stress this places on certain rooms.
What’s the solution you might be wondering? Shake it up a bit! Move things around. Get the blood, I mean the energy, flowing in your home again. Change out artwork and accessories. Try your bed on a different wall. Pay attention to traffic patterns and see if you might need to interrupt that flow and redirect the energy. Occasionally the path to the kitchen might be through the family room and in front of the television. Can the furniture grouping be shifted to create less disturbance for those watching tv? Changing rooms around all the time can be addictive and disruptive for some people. If you live with older people be mindful that when their eyesight gets worse they count on tables and chairs being in certain places. Also, some children have sensitivies to change and might experience more anxiety when things are moved around. You can still shift the energy but do it slowly and in minor ways such as having conversations around limiting the zoo of stuffed animals they own to three on the bed at a time. I would explain this to my children when they were little by saying that all the animals liked to have a special turn with their owner.
Changing the energy up is good for everyone in a space. When we move things around we clean up the dust and dirt under and on furniture and clean the glass on the pictures of our loved ones so we can connect with those sweet faces once more. We get our minds moving in a creative way and show those living with us that change is positive and inspiring. It freshens a space by lifting the energy. Look around your home and see it as a student peeking into a new world and learning something new about who they are. What is your space teaching you about you? Is that message congruent with who you are today, and does it reflect the aspirations you now hold? Removing your old energy held on by sticky blue dots is not just a practice that can benefit teachers.
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