Should You Feng Shui Your Garage?
One of the things I love about living in a historical neighborhood is that no one has garages, or at least attached garages. For the most part, everyone parks on the street or in a short driveway and walks in their front door. You wave to your neighbors sitting on the front porch or walking by with their dog and/or child in tote. There is a sense of connection (albeit sometimes too much connection!). In the suburbs, people disappear through their battery-powered garage doors never to be seen again until they zip off the next morning.
From a feng shui perspective, garages can be a real problem area. First of all, they take up a valuable part of the Bagua Map – usually one of the four corners. (To see where your garage falls on the Bagua Map, download my iphone App or sign up on my Newsletter list on the sidebar to receive a Free Bagua Map.)
It is best if the garage is placed at the back of the house instead of overshadowing the front entrance. But even then, you end up with your Love or Wealth corner in your garage. This wouldn’t be the end of the world but for the fact that our garages usually end up being huge clutter magnets.
Ideally, your garage should be treated with as much love and care as any room in the house. And, yes, the garage is included in the Bagua Map – anything that is connected to the house and has a roof. I inevitably get this question every workshop when someone realizes their Love corner is buried somewhere in the corner of their garage or their Wealth is stashed away behind the inherited furniture collecting dust in the garage.
The garage is just important as any room in the house. After all it is an aspect of yourself as are all parts of your home. Unfortunately, however, the garage ends up being a giant catch-all closet for clutter.
When I tell people that their garage should be feng shui-ed as well, I often get looks as if I am crazy. So when I came across this client’s feng shui-ed garage, I was overjoyed. While these art pieces may not be her favorite in the house, she at least drives in to a welcoming space. And that’s exactly why feng shui-ing your garage is so important – it is your welcome home. It is your subconscious mind’s first impression of your home and the state of your life. Make it a good one!
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Tisha Morris is a certified life coach, feng shui consultant, energy healer, yoga instructor, and author of 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home (Turner Publishing). For more information, visit www.mindbodyom.com.
Why the Word “Selfish” Should Be Abolished?
What if there was no such thing as “being selfish”?
I recently started really thinking about the word “selfish” after watching a discussion between entrepreneur guru Danielle LaPorte and Dyana Valentine in Danielle’s brilliant virtual video/book entrepreneurial rock-star experience, The Fire Starter Sessions. The two were discussing “when do you feel selfish” and “should you feel selfish” in regards to business and family. This got me thinking…
After all, I have had my own internal battle with selfishness. When you go from being a people pleaser for the first 29 years of your life and suddenly start living life for yourself, you get labeled “selfish.” By whom? Those people who benefited from your pleasing, of course. But, doesn’t that make them selfish for calling me selfish? (Oh wait, I’m not going to use that label anymore.)
How did the word “selfish” gain so much power? In the English language, this word has really become a big deal and gets a bad rap. What is so bad about focusing on yourself? In our society, it is a really bad thing to be selfish. It breeds the word “should” (which according to Louise Hay, should be abolished). And the worst part is that it turns into the most powerful and damaging emotion in our current psyche: guilt.
Down here in the Bible belt, guilt is an emotion that is second nature. I thought I had worked through all of my guilt issues until the recent flood in Nashville. For those of us who were not victimized by the flood, we were instead left sitting in a big pool of guilt. There were so many people in need of emotional and physical support.
Finding a balance between helping folks and keeping my own life in check was difficult. I would feel guilty when I would sit down at a computer to do some work. But then again, I knew the best thing that I could offer was that which I do best – and it’s not pulling out insulation and mold. After about two weeks of this, I finally found some peace by finding a balance of doing light physical labor and deep energy healing for the city.
So what if the word “selfish” simply didn’t exist in our language?
Would we turn into a self-centered society never reaching out and helping our friends, family, neighbors, and strangers? Do we need to judge ourselves or others as being selfish to wake us up to the plight of others. Of course not! Instead, we could just be ourself. That’s right, we could just be our Self! Wouldn’t that be nice. And when we are our Self (with a capital “S”) we naturally do what’s right for ourself and the rest of the world. The word “selfish” implies that we are not good enough. And I just don’t believe that.
There are of course extreme cases in which people are just plain rude acting out of the plight of their suffering ego. But that is a mental illness and there is a word for that: Narcissism. In fact, according to Websters, Narcissism is defined as “the personality trait of egotism denoting vanity, conceit, or simple selfishness.” So from now on I am abolishing the word “selfish” from my vocabulary. And I hope you will join me. After all, at the end of the day, we are all just trying to get through the day the best we can, making the best decisions we can, and being the best we can be.
This reminds me of my favorite quote by Ghandi of course, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” This implies if we take care of ourself and be the best person we can be, that is the best thing we can do for our World.
Now go be Selfish… the World needs you!
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Tisha Morris is a certified life coach, feng shui consultant, energy healer, yoga instructor, and author of 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home (Turner Publishing). For more information, visit www.mindbodyom.com.
Protected: Feng Shui Your Life Bagua Map
Review of The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte
I have been a fan of www.whitehottruth.com a.k.a. Danielle LaPorte for about a year. Her perfect mix of fire power, business acumen, and divine femininity captured my attention. I often think of Danielle LaPorte as my shadow side (that side of me that I’m trying to get in touch with). Lol! So when she released THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS my interest was piqued. It was time to tap into my inner soul!
That being said, I kept putting it off until I had hit my creative rock bottom, also referred to as burnout. In other words, instead of taking preventive care of myself I waited until I needed to go the emergency room (not literally), which admittedly is against everything I believe in as a holistic practitioner. So I ordered the Fire Starter Sessions searching for anything that would, well, light my fire.
The best way I can describe what transcribed over the next 24 hours is by analogy. In the way that just holding The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle brings about awareness or reading about Reconnective Healing makes my hands warm and tingly, just starting THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS by Danielle LaPorte will spark your creative juices. The energy of ‘lighting your fire’ is simply embedded within the essence of the material. And so before I had even finished the first chapter or session, I had a journal-page full of ideas.
I really can’t explain how or why. As there was no one question or statement that sparked me. It did remind me or help me remember why I do what I do. And to me that is everything. From there, ideas, inspiration, motivation, and energy can flow freely.
So what exactly is the THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS ? I call it a life coach/business advisor in a box. But it’s actually an e-book meets video transmission. It includes worksheets that help you draw conclusions, quick videos with motivational punch, connections to current thinkers, practical smarts, and frank wisdom.
Danielle has worked with 462+ entrepreneurs in her 1-on-1 Fire Starter consults (which are $500 and booked six weeks in advance.) For CEOs, coaches, artists, retailers, bestselling authors — from site design to big dreams — Danielle’s strategies combine passion with pragmatism to get to fulfillment and cash. Each chapter is it’s own “Fire Starter Session” that includes: e-book components, video inspiration or interviews, and worksheets.
Some of the sessions are: True Strengths & The Metrics of Ease; Branding: Clarifying the Diamond of You; Products & Services: Making Stuff That Feels Good to Make; Money: More is More, Enough is Plenty; Web Design & SEO: Your Virtual Real-Estate…and dozens of tips and motivating perspectives.
In addition to getting Danielle’s deep and detailed knowledge, THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS brings you contributions from some A-league marketing strategists, pro-bloggers, branding experts, and creativity coaches. Whether you’re in the early idea phase or a well-established rut, Danielle’s thorough, witty, and experience-based advice will most certainly light a fire under your…aspirations.
5 Things to Feng Shui in the Digital Age
I love being paperless. Not only does it save trees, time, and space, it keeps my visual environment clear of clutter. Overall, being paperless lends itself to a better feng shui-ed space.
Or does it?
We still have the same amount of ‘information’ (arguably much more than ever before) filed and stored as before our Digital Age. It’s just floating around instead of stacked in file folders, cabinets, closets, desks, and so on. Information – which is really just energy – has essentially become less dense, but nevertheless it’s still energy. Instead of manila file folders in a filing cabinet, we can store the same information in a digital file folder on a computer and perhaps even on our smart phone. And so is the case with photos, addresses, phone numbers, tax returns, money, and virtually any piece of information you can think of.
In fact, the Digital Age is even turning physical objects into etherical energy. After all, my iPhone can morph into an alarm clock, a zen garden, a newspaper, a camera, a voice recorder, a board game, a Bagua Map, a flashlight and much more. Amazing! Before long, it might just become my nightstand.
As we have become less dense with this digital revolution, we still have to be mindful of the energy that floats around us. While we may have less physical objects around us, we are still overwhelmed with information. And so we must be conscious of what ‘information energy’ we have hanging around us that might in fact be clutter. (Clutter being anything that is no longer in our highest and best interest to keep.) Here are five places where digital clutter may be lurking in the ethers near you:
- Phone contacts – When was the last time you updated your phone contacts? Chances are, there are people in your contacts that you no longer socialize with, do business with, or want to talk to. Clear them out. Although your phone may be able to hold a 1000 more contacts, you still need to make space for new people to come into your life. This is a great way to bring new people into your life – business, friends, or romance.
- Computer file folders – If your computer file folders were in a filing cabinet, would it be bulging over by now? Probably so. Clean them out. Better yet, organize them while you’re cleaning them out if you haven’t already. And still while you’re at it, take the time to back up your important documents. Store any documents that you would be lost without if your computer crashed on a zip drive, or email them to yourself, or upload to Google docs so that they are stored somewhere else besides your hard drive.
- Photos – Staying on top of photos seems just as difficult digitally as it was back when we had negatives. They at least don’t take up as much space, but that’s because we never get them printed! Are your digital photos strewn all around your computer, along with various online companies depending on who has the best deal? If so, take the time to store them all in one place on your computer in labeled folders. Commit to one online photo company so that all of your photos to be printed are in one place. And then have the ones you want to keep printed. The photo book option that most companies have is great for those of who don’t do scapbooking as a hobby.
- Desktop icons/Phone apps – Is your computer desktop full of icons that you rarely, if ever, use? These can cause some serious visual clutter that can lead to a cluttered mind. Sift through your icons to see if there are some you can remove. Removing the icon doesn’t remove the software, so you can still access the Program if later desired. Of course, this isn’t the case with phone apps. Periodically, go through your phone apps and delete the ones that didn’t live up to their hype or that you’ve lost interest in. It will just highlight the ones that you do use and love.
- Bookmarks – Has your list of bookmarks become so lengthy that you feel like you are surfing the entire web trying to find something. Go through your bookmarks and delete the ones that are no longer of interest to you. For bookmarks you want to keep but don’t use that often, categorize them into folders, such as Recipes, Travel, and Good Ideas. In doing so, you may come across some great bookmark sites you’ve forgotten about. This is what clutter does – it hides the good stuff.
Where else do you have digital clutter?
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Tisha Morris is a certified life coach, feng shui consultant, energy healer, yoga instructor, and author of 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home (Turner Publishing). For more information, visit www.mindbodyom.com.
Feng Shui Your Life Workshop
Feng Shui Your Life in 27 Days
**Combine the power of your mind with the energy in your home to change your life**
We will be incorporating life coaching, feng shui, and energy techniques to help you bring about desired changes in your life.
In Feng Shui Your Life, you will:
-Identify specific areas of your life you want to change.
-Identify the areas of your home that correlate with the changes you want to make.
-Use the power of the Bagua Map to bring about change in your life.
-Implement the mystic Red Envelope Ritual used in Feng Shui to manifest your desires.
-Identify your mental blocks and unlock the correlating physical blocks in your home.
-Leave with a ridiculously simple 27-day Plan to implement change.
Feng Shui Your Life Will Benefit Anyone Who Wants To:
-Become aware of their mental blocks.
-Prioritize their life.
-Make conscious and well-intentioned change in their life.
-Bring about balance in your home and life.
-Use Feng Shui in their home to bring about balance and harmony in all areas of their life.
“I want to thank you for everything you taught us in your workshop. There is a new sense of clarity. I am becoming more conscious, able to detach, and stay present. I am using my attention/intentions to shape my life and receiving guidance during stillness and feeling the entirety of my being. I have always thought that peace was possible, and you’ve helped me to find it. I feel so blessed. Thanks again.”
BRING: pen and paper
When: Wednesday, June 16th 6:00pm-8:30pm
Location: 1601B Douglas Ave, Nashville 37206
Registration:
$25 by June 14th; $35 at door
To register, click below to pay by credit card or mail a check to me at the address above. Feel free to contact me at Tisha@mindbodyom.com or 615.519.9995 for any questions.
Feng Shui for the Workplace
Feng Shui in the workplace is gaining more and more attention as employees and employers are striving to do just about anything to survive the current economy. Although Feng Shui should be applied as a first resort instead of a last resort, it is at least getting some well-deserved consideration nonetheless.
The most important consideration for any office is desk placement. When sitting at your desk, you should be in “Command Position”. Simply put, this is the position that makes you most ‘in command.’
The Command Position emerges from our instinctive need to have visible control of our environment. We humans are most comfortable when no one can sneak up on us or surprise us. The most obvious example of this is choosing a seat in a restaurant. Most people prefer sitting where they can see the door. This is the case in your office as well.
Being in the Command Position allows you to see the entry to your office so that you are sitting in the best location to deal with whatever comes through the door. While we are hardly fighting off tigers and bears as perhaps our old brain thinks, it nonetheless provides an important energetic message for yourself and to others that you are in control of your world.
The ideal Command Position would be a direct or peripheral view of the door from your chair, a view out a window, and a solid wall behind you. This may mean moving your desk into the room away from the wall. If this is absolutely not possible, then place a mirror to where you can see the entrance in the mirror.
Properly placing your desk in the Command Position is the simplest, quickest, and most powerful way to shift energy in your job. Notice the offices of successful people in your building. You will notice that their desk will always be facing the door. Move your desk and take command of your job.
And, yes, desk placement is just as important for home offices. Even if you don’t have co-workers, bosses, or employees come by your office, it’s just as important to feel ‘in command.’ It is a state of mind and therefore what you project out to the world and to yourself.
For more articles on Feng Shui in the workplace, check out:
A Writer’s Guide to Feng Shui Your Desk
AND my iPhone App… Feng Shui Bagua Map!
Clearing Out Your Basement: Nashville style
You don’t have to drive very far in Nashville to see just how much STUFF we have. Like a mile-long yard sale, thousands of Nashville yards have been displaying the trash and treasures that have been stored away mostly in our basements. As a result of last week’s flood, the innards of Nashville basements have been thrown up as if the entire city just went through a bad detox.
And, in fact, the city and its inhabitants are going through a massive clearing.
In my book, 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home, Number 4 is “Clean Out Your Basement. I mention that the basement is symbolic of our subconscious mind, specifically those things that we have suppressed. If you want to know what you’re storing in your subconscious mind, then take a look at your basement. Or, in the case with Nashvillians, take a look at your yard. As I drive around and see the remnants of what people are throwing out, I notice a lot of people are getting rid of junk. Not good stuff that was flood-damaged (although there is plenty of that as well), but junk and clutter that had been stored in the basement for years, perhaps even from previous owners.
Nashvillians are cleaning out their basements, involuntarily and voluntarily. This is allowing for each of us to clear out the sludge, the trauma, the repressed emotions, and stagnant energy that has been stored in our basements and in our subconscious mind and body. This is also true for the city of Nashville as everything is connected. What the Planet experiences, so do countries, states, cities, neighborhoods and individuals on some level. And so as each Nashvillian clears their stuff, it is also benefitting the city, state, country and Planet.
Even many in Nashville who did not sustain flood damage are becoming inspired to clear out their STUFF. I have heard so many people, as they see the amount of stuff laid out, realize how little we really need and how so much stuff can just be a burden. The awareness of the weight (literally and figuratively) is at an all time high in Nashville and as the pictures float around the internet, it is affecting and inspiring people all over to clear out stuff.
Ultimately, it’s all about balance. Each of our homes, like our body, needs to maintain a healthy energetic balance. When our body is unbalanced we undergo illness or disease. This is similar to the Planet undergoing natural disasters to find balance. And when our home becomes stagnant with stuff, we must purge it. In my article The Art of Detaching From Our Stuff, I mention how our addiction to stuff began and how to get past it.
You can also read more and implement your own plan to clear out stuff in my book, 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home, where I talk about the first step to feng shu-ing your home is to clear out clutter.
The benefits of each individual who has had to clear out their stuff from the flood will reap the benefits in the years ahead as if undergoing a major detox program. And the city of Nashville as I have mentioned in previous articles will certainly rise from this flood to new heights and be an example for all cities in the future to come.
The Day Nashville Cried… My Heart Opened
I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I know that there is a greater plan in place than we can’t wrap our small minds around. But we can wrap our heart around it.
When I hear of families suddenly without homes, small businesses washed away, and see pictures of the Grand Ole Opry submerged in water, my heart weeps. And then I see neighbors reaching out to one another, families put in situations that bring them closer, and even inmates working to their last breath to sandbag the water treatment plant, my heart opens.
As I mentioned in my previous article, Nashville is a healing city and will be a beacon of light on our Planet. And in fact the city is healing each and every one of us right now. Including myself. An immense clearing is taking place leaving all of us with our hearts wide open.
Over the last 48 hours, every hour or so, my heart will just well up. I have never felt so raw and open from my heart center than I do now. I realize just how connected I am with this land and community. Tears will suddenly emerge. The heart does not communicate in dualities and so the tears are not sad or happy, but simply those of love and oneness. And I know that so many of you are experiencing this as well.
We are all experiencing a massive heart opening.
Regardless of your role in this tragedy – as a flood victim, a relief worker, a sandbagger, a rescuer, a prayer, a healer, or just shedding a tear while watching the news – you are part of this profound heart opening that is raising the vibration of each one of us, our city, our nation, and our Planet at such an important time.
And this is the reason for it all.
Reflections on Nashville Flood of 2010
According to the Army Corps of Engineer, a flood of this magnitude statistically happens 1 in 1000 years in Nashville.
I am saddened to say that Nashville (and the surrounding counties) has received its share of the natural disasters that seem so widespread these days. This one has struck near and dear to my heart as I see the town I grew up in and currently live in submerged in water.
And I’ve never felt more proud to live here than I do now.
Like any city during a disaster, the people of Nashville have opened their hearts to their neighbors, friends, and strangers. And but for the scores of volunteers, so many more lives would have perished. Once again, the Volunteer State has lived up to its name.
Nashville has always been a city for healing. Situated in a bowl of limestone rock, Nashville is very grounding which provides a great bed, so to speak, for healing. It’s no coincidence that Nashville is a hub for major hospital corporations. Underneath, it also has a very strong and vibrant alternative health and lightworker community that many are not aware of.
Being a sister city of Athens, Greece, Nashville has many parallels, such as the only exact replica of the Parthenon, along with many other architectural similarities throughout the city. It is theorized by many that Nashville will be (or is) a major player in our new world or post-2012 era. This brings me back to the flood.
All natural disasters are a result and for the purpose of bringing our Planet into balance. And all natural disasters cleanse and renew the areas in which they strike. It seems not coincidental that this flood has taken place while the most disastrous oil spill in history is taking place. Earth must maintain a balance if we are to maintain residency here.
A smaller example is that of East Nashville that was hit in 1998 by a tornado. This once-thriving area in the early 1900’s had since been overtaken with crime and poverty. Beautiful Victorian-built homes had fallen prey to decay and neglect. After the tornado came through leaving destruction in its path, the neighborhood spurred by insurance money rebuilt itself to better than ever. It is now considered one of the best neighborhoods to live in in Nashville.
While none of this makes it any easier to see the current devastation of homes, lives, and businesses in shambles, I do know that Nashville will rise from this disaster and be better than ever. It will heal and be healed. And it will be that beacon of light that will help bring our precious planet back into balance.
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Please spread the word, in case folks don’t grasp the severity of what’s going on. Temporary shelters are at capacity, missing people are unaccounted for, many homes are under water, we’re in a water conservation emergency, much of Nashville’s economic base is threatened by flood damage, etc.
Text ‘REDCROSS’ to 90999 to donate $10 to disaster relief.
27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home
27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home
ISBN: 9781596525672
Price: $9.99
Description:
“If you want to change your life, move 27 things in your home.” This ancient Chinese proverb speaks of the powerful connection our homes have with our lives. In 27 Things To Feng Shui Your Home, Tisha Morris shows in creative, basic steps how to use the art of feng shui to create an inviting, personal atmosphere in your home that will renovate your life.
Discover how to:
- Manageably clear clutter to optimize space
- Use lighting, color, and simple objects to create good energy flow
- Space clear to promote good health
- Integrate the Five Elements into your home to create harmony
“27 Things provides readers with an easy-to-follow, knowledgeable guide to applying Feng Shui principles to your home. This guide is great for every homeowner, even if you’re a Feng Shui skeptic.” ~ At Home Tennessee
“[A] new resource for people who want the energy in their home to work for them, not against them, but perhaps feel intimidated by feng shui, or the art of space planning to promote health and prosperity.” ~ Denver Post
About the Author:
Tisha Morris is a certified life coach, energy healer, feng shui consultant, and yoga instructor. After practicing law for five years, Tisha obtained a Fine Arts degree in Interior Design. She founded Mind Body Om in 2008 to help others align with their life purpose by transforming the mind, body, and home. Tisha resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
PRE-ORDER NOW! Available April 28th at:
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