Attract the Job You Want: Mind Over Matter
The 60 Minutes segment Trapped in Unemployment emphasizes the importance of changing your mindset as a means of returning to the workforce, particularly if you are one of the long term unemployed. Changing your mindset helps you to shift your energy and bring you into alignment with what you really want. It’s a very effective “deliberate creation” and Law of Attraction technique. Simply stated, we empower and strengthen whatever we give attention to. I highly recommend that being EMPLOYED become part of the new mindset vs. hanging onto the story of being unemployed. As difficult as the situation is, the longer you keep your unemployment story alive, the harder it will be to get back to work. All other issues aside, this is a situation of mind over matter. You have to align your energy with what you want, in order for it to happen. Align your energy with being EMPLOYED.
It also helps to bring the energy of your space into alignment with your new mindset. According the the principles of feng shui, there is a specific area in your home and every room in your home that correlates with career and opportunities. This area is the front center of your home or office when you divide it into a grid of nine sectors, similar to a tic-tac-toe board. This is the Career sector in the feng shui bagua and it is the area to energize a new job. You can place a symbol that represents what you’d like to be doing. You can also write an affirmation about having a job and place it in an envelope somewhere in this area. Or just create flow by adding a feature that introduces movement (such as a water feature) or an object that shifts the energy (chi). If your front door falls in this sector, make sure it is in great shape and everything is working, including the doorbell and outdoor lights.
Vision Boards are another effective deliberate creation tool. Get a poster board and place pictures or images of the companies you’d love to work at or any of the jobs you’d love to have. Fill in additional details that relate to money, location, ease of commute … anything and everything you can think of.
I have summarized these tips and added a few more below to help you shift your energy and attract the job you want:
1. Visualize and energize being EMPLOYED rather than unemployed.
2. Create a vision and a Vision Board that represents the work you’d love to be doing.
3. Clear, clean and refresh the front center area of your home and the front center area of every room in your home. Pay particular attention to overstuffed closets and piles that have been sitting around for a while. Fix or remove anything that is broken. Eliminate all clutter.
4. Re-energize your front door. Remove all debris and correct any maintenance problems. Perhaps give it a fresh coat of paint.
5. Place an image or a symbol about being employed or doing work you love in the center front of your home and/or office.
6. Clutter-clear your office and computer files. Overstuffed bookcases and file drawers snuff out new opportunities. The same goes for excess computer files and email. Release everything that you no longer need to create space for the new.
7. Express thanks in advance for your new job. This is a technique that really works! Use positive, present tense language, just as if you have the job now. Visualize it. Be grateful for it. Write statements of gratitude and appreciation every day until your job arrives.
8. Believe in yourself and you ability to easily rejoin the workforce. Go for it!
A special thank you to Bea Fields for bringing the 60 Minutes segment to my attention!
Related articles
- 60 Minutes: This Successful Jobs Program Focuses On Finding The Right Jobs (crooksandliars.com)
- Office Feng Shui – 9 Tips to Reduce Stress and Increase Profit (fengshuiconnections.com)
- What Is A Vision Board? (blissreturned.wordpress.com)
Posted in Articles, Bagua, Career, Clutter Clearing, Feng Shui, Law of Attraction, Work | Tagged law of attraction | Leave a comment
Bring Natural Light into Your Space
Natural Light of Japanese Gardens © Jack Donahue
I love this time of year. Each morning arrives a little earlier and the day ends a little later … all the way to the Summer Solstice on June 20th. Natural light fills my bedroom each morning and is accessible throughout my home and office. I’m eager to get begin each day! I also realize that if your home lacks natural light, you may feel entirely different.
Recently two homes I was in reminded me how important light is to our well-being. One was a newly built, south facing, “green home” that is primarily solar powered and designed to take advantage of natural daylight. The second was a townhouse that faces North/NW with some window exposure to the East and SE. An adjacent unit had the prime light coming in from the South and West, blocking this exposure within the unit I was visiting.
The first home was designed not to need interior lights on sunny days. It was a pleasure to spend time there. The second home requires artificial lights throughout the day just to function. It was a gorgeous, sunny day outside. Inside, this home was dark and dimly lit. Part of the problem lay with the design: inadequate light coming in. The rest of the problem lay with the homeowner. Some of the light bulbs were burnt out and others simply weren’t bright enough. An example of a pattern repeating itself. Unlike the first home, as I went inside, I felt my energy contracting. There was no wonder why depression was part of the picture here.
We need natural light to thrive mentally, physically and emotionally. Natural light lifts our moods, assists our thinking process, produces Vitamin D which aids in the absorption of vitamins and minerals and strengthens overall health. The absence of natural light is associated with depression, seasonal affective disorder, nervousness, anxiety disorders and more.
Working with what you have, bring as much natural light into your living and work spaces as you can. Next, supplement with full spectrum or LED lighting. Avoid CFL bulbs in areas where you spend a lot of time. Although they consume less electricity, compact florescent bulbs are simply not healthy for us. If you use them, place them in areas where you don’t spend a lot of time such as storage areas, the garage, the basement and attic, and as outside lights. If you have inadequate light, increase the quality and quantity of your light sources. Go for natural light first and supplementation, second. Consider window treatments that allow more light to enter your space. Also, replace all burnt out bulbs. They contribute to low chi.
I’ll write more about light sources in a subsequent post.
Related articles
- Natural Lighting at your home (sarasphotographyri.wordpress.com)
- VELUX Sun Tunnel by Lovegrove: A Solar Powered Chandelier (apartmenttherapy.com)
- Nature Bright Light Therapy (texaskitchen.wordpress.com)
Posted in Articles, Feng Shui, Health, Light, Well-Being | Tagged Light | Leave a comment
What Patterns Are You Ready to Change?
Wikipedia Mirror Image
An important principle of feng shui is that spaces reflect our inner selves and that our patterns are encoded in places where we spend a lot of time. When you want a shift in your life to occur, you have to change the patterns. It helps to be aware of the pattern. I realize that this is something that is easy to say and can be an ongoing challenge to implement. After all, if we were aware of what needed to change, we’d take action. Correct?
A few days ago my Feng Shui Connections Tip of the Day on Facebook generated a bit of discussion. My tip was: “Observe patterns in your space. Pay attention when things show up multiple times.”
A reader asked what I meant by this. I responded that when I am working with clients, I often find evidence of what they would like to change showing up in more than one place. The magic number is often “three.” For instance, if someone wants a new job, I might find blockages in the Career area of the house bagua (which is often the front door), as well as blockages in the Career sectors of several rooms throughout the house and/or the career sector of the land or lot. Blockages at the front door may manifest as a broken doorbell, a burnt-out light bulb, a door that squeaks or doesn’t open, lots of cobwebs, wood rot and general disrepair. Blockages in the rooms could be clutter, problems with plumbing or electric, pictures or images that are not in alignment with intentions, furniture arrangements that block the flow of energy, etc. The patterns do not have to be identical. By multiple patterns I mean different blockages, energy, or adverse messages clustered around the same issue.
Another reader responded and indicated that her front door was actually covered with plastic to keep out the wind and that she feels disconnected. She later reflected that she doesn’t use the door and that this has been the pattern in 4 houses in which she’s lived. These are patterns clustered around the same issue.
I’m in the process of changing patterns in my home. After I was diagnosed with a rare cataract a few months ago, I immediately began looking for patterns to dislodge. As I was meditating the next day I looked up at our sliding door and immediately saw a mirror image of my eyes. The door on the left was cloudy while the one on the right was clear. A chill went through my body. I had been looking at this for months, yet didn’t “see” it. The door is going to be replaced soon along with a few worn windows. From a feng shui perspective, glass and windows are about vision. Cloudy windows yield cloudy vision! I also found a pattern of excess Wood energy, which relates to the Chinese Five Element system. The Wood element correlates to the liver, which in turn relates to the eyes.
This winter I’m busy making inner and outer changes. In December I rearranged some furniture, to remove the pattern of excess Wood. In January I did a cleanse and changed my diet, omitting foods that deplete my body. In February I added a series of supplements and in March we’ll begin upgrading the doors and windows.
Applying feng shui concepts is a process. Changes on the outside often lead to shifts on the inside. Identifying the patterns and consciously working with them can be instrumental to changing your life. Doing so can remove blockages, helping yo to reach your goals. Sometimes we get there intuitively and other times the universe assists us along the way.
If you are trying to shift something in your life and you’d like some help identifying or interpreting the patterns in your home or business, contact me. I would be delighted to help.
Related articles
- Winter: A Time for Introspection and Reflection (fengshuiconnections.com)
- Office Feng Shui – 9 Tips to Reduce Stress and Increase Profit (fengshuiconnections.com)
- Ending Illness: An Exciting Approach to Health! (fengshuiconnections.com)
Posted in Articles, Bagua, Feng Shui, Well-Being | Tagged Bagua, Facebook, feng shui | Leave a comment
Podcast: Introduction to Feng Shui
Listen to this podcast if you’d like a short introduction to feng shui. The words means wind and water. They reflect the quality of energy that flows through our spaces and our lives. Feng shui is very practical and can also have a mystical side. It impacts you whether you work with the principles or not. Feng shui simply IS. Applying the concepts removes blockages and brings more ease and flow to your life.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Posted in Articles, Feng Shui, Podcasts | Tagged feng shui | Leave a comment
Beauty Is Essential to Everyday Life
John O'Donohue was a masterful poet and philosopher.
Beauty plays an important role in each of our lives. It stirs our souls at a very deep level and helps us to connect to our authentic selves. It can also lighten your mood, help you to feel a bit happier and perhaps more peaceful, cultivate joy and reduce day to stresses.
Beauty surrounds us every day. You may overlook it though if your life is on autopilot or you are feeling overloaded with responsibilities and activities.
Look to nature for inspiration. Watch as it unfolds before you in a variety of colors, sizes, shapes and life forms. Observe the quality of light at different times of day and night. Listen, really listen, to the many sounds. Touch some different textures. Smell the air and notice how it varies from location to location. The sky, trees, plants, animals, people, the landscape, the seasons … everything offers elements of beauty. Sometimes it is a matter of seeing the beauty within chaos. The yin within the yang and visa versa.
The late Irish poet John O’Donohue, author of Anam Cara, wrote about the inner landscape of beauty and the role it plays in our lives. In this interview with Krista Tippett before he passed away in 2008, he tells us how the visible and invisible intertwine in our human experience. He does a masterful job describing the role of ancient mystical wisdom, the invisible world and how the divine is manifest everywhere, in everything. If you are feeling particularly harried and stressed, this interview will help ground your energy and connect you with what is really important: your authentic self.
Once you discover beauty in your life, consciously bring it into your environment as a daily reminder of what’s really important.
This interview was replayed on American Public Media on January 26, 2012. It is well worth your time.
Posted in Articles, Authenticity, Consciousness, Feng Shui, Happiness, Health, Joy, Well-Being | Tagged American Public Media, Anam Cara, Anam Cara: Wisdom from the Celtic World, Beauty, health, Irish poetry, John O'Donohue, Krista Tippett | Leave a comment
Embrace Your Authentic Self: Do Meaningful Work
Laura Schlafly
Laura Schlafly’s recent post about Jane Pauley and Encore Careers provides valuable insight into what it means to truly embrace your authentic self. As Baby Boomers move into the second half of their life, more people are looking for work that adds passion, meaning, and purpose to their lives.
Many of us will live longer than our parents and we may be working longer as well. Some out of necessity and many by choice. Working longer does not mean working harder. When you love what you do, life is so much richer. Your days are filled with more synchronicity, ease and flow. This in turns leads to less stress and improved health. Outcomes with many benefits.
Regardless of your stage of life, the time to embrace your authenticity is now. Empower yourself to do work that brings passion, meaning and purpose to your life, rather than wait until you feel that you have the time to be more selective about what you do.
Begin by being clear about who you are what you want. Believe in yourself and your ability to do what you truly love. I’ll talk more about ways you can approach this in a future post.
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- Challenged by Nietzsche
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Posted in Articles, Integrity, Transformation, Transitions, Work | Tagged AARP, Baby boomer, Generations and Age Groups, Jane Pauley | Leave a comment
Smart Meters: A Wake Up Call
Smart Meter Retrofit
The growing installation of smart meters in communities around the country is a wake-up call for each of us to take personal responsibility and positive action to avoid unintended consequences later on.
A friend of mine recently shared her experience related to a “smart meter” being installed on her home. This is a type of meter that the power company can read remotely rather than send “meter readers” around. Within hours my friend felt nauseous and very dizzy. She thought she was coming down with the flu. Her brain felt fuzzy and she didn’t sleep well. Rather than sitting and working at her computer for 2 to 3 hours at a time, she could only sit for 2 to 3 minutes, even though her computer was located on the opposite side of the house, far away from the meter. At the same time she noticed a burning sensation in her ears and cheeks and her hands felt arthritic.
Requiring persistence, she worked with her power company and the meter was removed. Her adverse symptoms also went away. This example of electromagnetic sensitivity is becoming more common. As more and more smart meters are placed on homes, people sensitive to this type of energy will feel the effects. If you happen to be one of them, speak up. No company has the right to make you sick. It is a matter of communicating the situation to the right person and having it rectified. My friend’s husband, by the way, is not sensitive to these energies. He did not notice any adverse effect when the meter was installed. Once it was removed, however, he noticed that the house felt different, that it felt better. Each of us reads and reacts to subtle energy in different ways. Tune in and pay attention to how you feel. Two influencing factors that you can manage are the foods you eat and your living environment.
Learn more about this technology and decide for yourself. Smart Meters, Dumb Idea? is well-written article about this topic in Four Corners Magazine. If smart meters are here to stay, let’s be smart and figure out a way to avoid the unintended health-related consequences, creating a win-win situation for all involved.
Related articles
- The recently released NRG Expert Utility Metering Deployment and Smart Grid Report & Database reveals steady smart meter installations worldwide, growth to remain steady (prweb.com)
- PG&E Customers Can Say No to Smart Meters, But at a Price (treehugger.com)
Posted in Articles, Business and Ethics, EMFs, Green Home, Health, Smart Meters, Social Responsibility, Well-Being | Tagged Energy, Meters and Metering, Smart meter, Utilities | 2 Comments
Happiness Is An Inside Job
In this TED Talk, Shawn Achor explains why retraining your brain to be more positive can make a fundamental difference in your life. Achor says the current systems is backwards and broken. We have it wrong when we work to seek happiness. Being happy first improves your health, boosts your creativity, opens you to new possibilities and much more. Companies with happy employees are more productive, have higher sales and better outcomes.
Studies tell us that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. Follow Achor’s recommendation and notice the difference it makes in your life and the lives of those around you.
Related articles
- Imagining Happiness (livingenergyworks.com)
- The Happiness Advantage: An Interview with Shawn Achor (psychcentral.com)
Posted in Articles, Happiness, Well-Being, Work | Tagged Happiness, Harvard University, TED (conference), TED Talk | Leave a comment
The Benefit of Going With The Flow
Photo ©Jack Donahue
For the past decade I have had the good fortune of living my life the way I want, which includes going with the flow of each season. This has served me very well in business as well as providing life balance. I have found the periods from New Year’s to Memorial Day and Labor Day to Thanksgiving to be highly productive work cycles. Memorial Day to Labor Day and Thanksgiving to New Year’s have a different quality of energy where people are gearing up for summer and later, the year-end holidays.
There are also natural rhythms in motion that our bodies tune into intuitively: that of energy and light. The days grow longer beginning with the Winter Solstice on December 22, peaking at the Summer Solstice six months later. Thus, we have more and more light each day. The increase in daylight improves people’s moods, strengthens our immune systems, and improves our ability to think and perform.
People’s lives have long been linked to natural cycles. February 4th traditionally marks the beginning of Spring in the Chinese Ten Thousand Year Book or calendar. Thus in the Chinese Four Pillars of Destiny system, February is the first month of the year. Today I could really understand why. A seasonal shift is underway. I have been noticing more light each morning and later each day for weeks. Early this morning I heard birds chirping outside my window, as they often do on spring mornings. This was coupled with an unusually warm and sunny day that felt more like March or April 1 than Feb 1.
Another interesting cycle is also underway from an astrological perspective: Mars Retrograde. In simple terms, January 23 though April 13, 2012 is the best period for strategic planning for the next two years. Take advantage of it. You’ll be happy you did. Set aside new product introductions and promotions for now, regardless of how much pressure you might be under. If it were up to me, I would stall them somehow and schedule them for April and later. You’ll save money and have more success.
This year improve your performance by adopting a new habit of going with the flow. Practice aligning your energy and that of your business, with the seasons and natural cycles. As you do, notice how obstacles resolve themselves without manual intervention and life becomes a little easier. If these concepts are new to you, suspend your disbelief long enough to give it a try.
Related articles
- A winter solstice labyrinth walk! (fortiesandcounting.wordpress.com)
- Winter Solstice 2011 (bonniecehovet.wordpress.com)
Posted in Articles, Astrology, Happiness, Health, Intuition, Synchronicity, Well-Being, Work | Tagged consciousness, feng shui, health, intuition, Synchronicity, well-being | Leave a comment
The Art of Conscious Language
Madeline Gerwick and I teach a program called The Art of Conscious Language. In simple terms, the words we use drive what happens in our lives. This includes our stories and conversations, the self talk running rampant inside our heads, comments and requests we make, responses to others, our body language, etc. When we communicate about something we empower the situation. The dilemma is that people typically empower situations and circumstances that they DON’T want. The public arena offers great examples. Our families, friends and workplaces do too. Many people have a habit of explaining what they want through dialogue about what is not working. Ironically, by doing this we reinforce the things and circumstances we don’t want.
Madeline used the song Wherever You Are by the Military Wives Choir (UK) as an excellent example of conscious language in a recent class and gave me permission to pass her comments along.
“You may have already listened to this beautiful and phenomenal song. If so, I encourage you to consider the energy that this song is putting out to the Earth. In December this song outsold the combined sales of the top twelve songs in the UK, over 550,000 copies. This group also sang this song at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the Festival of Remembrance in November last year. The song is now being played on many of the radio stations in England and on i-tunes. It’s being heard by many hundreds of thousands of people every day.
The words of this song are phenomenal. The words originally came from letters that the military wives were sending to their deployed husbands. The composer used their words to synthesize them into this song. If you listen closely, you’ll find at least 12 references to the words “light, star, or shining”. There are another 6 or more references to “love and heart(s)”. There’s another 3 references to “safe”. Having just taught the class, The Art of Conscious Language, I am so impressed with the words. They’re very high vibrational.
In addition, this song is aimed toward the military. Wow! Imagine being a deployed soldier and hearing your wife sing, “Light up the darkness, my prince of peace!” What a reframe that is! There is so much light being sent to the military with this song that it’s amazing. Literally these women are singing their husbands home to safety with this song. Even more important though, is that the energy of this song is very likely to shift the military worldwide. Perhaps those princes of peace will now have fewer skirmishes, fewer losses, and fewer deployments. It’s actually possible due to the energy of this song.
Lastly, this song comes from the hearts of all the women singing it, their leader (Gareth Malone) and the composer. This is why people cry when they hear it, because they can feel the heart energy in it. Heart energy is also the energy we need for the 5th dimension ascension. This is what excites me the most about it. This song is spreading heart energy around the Earth, just when it’s needed the most. It’s incredible what this song is doing. We’ve all heard that something very unexpected happens this year and that things are changing as we get closer and closer to our December date. Well this is one of those unexpected things that is MUCH bigger than most of us can grasp. With so many people hearing this beautiful, heart song, it’s helping us to ascend the Earth.
I encourage you to pass this song to as many people as possible and of course, to enjoy it yourself. This is a song for our times. Who could have guessed that it would happen in this way? These people showed up for their part in this ascension, big time. Let’s support their efforts. Many blessings always.” Madeline C Gerwick
Play with the Art of Conscious language. Communicate with others using positive words that focus on what you want and watch what happens.
Posted in Articles, Consciousness, Happiness, Health, Joy, Law of Attraction, Social Responsibility, Well-Being, Work | Tagged Christmas, England, Gareth Malone, London, Military Wives Choir, Royal Albert Hall, Royal British Legion, Seattle | 2 Comments
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I write about a variety of topics that interest me. Particularly about self empowerment and how you can change your life by adjusting your environment. Click the ABOUT tab in the banner above to learn more. Share any information posted here that interests you.
