Home for me has become wherever my backpack lands. Five years ago I started using travel as a way to heal, focus and begin a new path. Travel allowed me to get out of my head and into nature, where I am always able to think more clearly. I've always loved being on the go, seeing and experiencing new and favorite locations.
One of the interesting traits, (and I'll even go so far as to call it a talent,) is that I have a propensity to create organization, flow and comfort in whatever spaces I occupy. Like hair color, and eye color, I was born with this, I didn't ask for it. {Just for the record, if I could ask for a talent I would have picked something totally different!)
In fact, this talent is so very........well, easy, that I had completely dismissed it. It was just something that I did and it required very little effort or work on my part. I had to go way back in my experiences and thinking to remember when I first became aware of the tendency to put things in order. I recall spending a lot of time in my childhood cleaning and organizing and arranging my room. That is what I did for fun! I genuinely enjoyed this. I'm not saying I was/am a neat freak. I have slobbish--"flung schway" tendencies. I used to have really bad habits of allowing clutter and clothing to pile up. I didn't have a routine/system/procedure for directing incoming items. I stacked and stashed until I couldn't stand it any longer. I would spend downtime, weekends and vacation days rectifying the disaster...only to have it become a cluttered mess again. Eventually, I switched organizing my items and started getting rid of unnecessary items. That has made a huge difference. I'm nowhere near mastery, but continual practice and vigilance has helped me get off of the clean up-make a mess-clean up cycle.
What I wanted to glean here was recognizing a somewhat hidden talent for bringing order to a chaotic environment. No matter if it was my own, or a friend, or a family member, I have the ability to walk into a space and clean it up, transform it and help it function in a much more efficient way. Chaotic environments were/are a disruption to my senses. When I was younger I had no way of articulating this. I was compelled to change the space, to put it in order, if I could, but I never knew why I had this..."thing."
I remember going over to a friend's house to play. As I walked into her space, I was shocked. The place was an absolute disaster! I had never seen anything like it. I could barely speak. I had a difficult time processing how anyone could live in such an environment. There were five people in the house. I cared for my friend and without judging her, I offered to help clean and organize her room. She refused. I was surprised. I would have gladly done ALL the work, I just needed to know where she wanted things to do. I kept after her a bit and then she said, "Why clean it, it will just go back to being messy." She refused to even try! I was sad for her and I couldn't understand why someone would live in those conditions, and even worse, accept them. In all of my 5th grade wisdom. Looking back, I can understand the mindset and I've seen it in others. For her it was perfectly normal.
As an adult, this tendency to clean up, organize and align spaces has served me well. In college, I didn't go out and buy new items, nor did I follow any trends when it came to decorating my dorm room. I often heard, "this is so..... homey" or "I don't know what it is about your room, but I like it in here!" That always made me smile, I didn't know what it was either :)
Perhaps that ability, talent or whatever you want to call it is what guided me to study elemental placement and design. The first time I took a feng shui class, it was like I had found a second language and I could speak it fluently. I became a professionally certified consultant and continued to study and practice. I've been in some really gorgeous locations and I've been in places where I was absolutely overwhelmed because of clutter. Clutter and chaos are two different things. Clutter is a result of low output, not executing a plan to release items after they have served their time/usage. Chaos is the state and environment falls into when it is left unattended. Although I am still very sensitive to to both, I have come to appreciate chaos. Chaos is the byproduct of creation. Things get messy, disorganized and out of alignment, especially if we are on the move. Chaos is necessary as it breaks up the status quo, which is essential for change. I have shared this with life coaching clients continually: honor the chaos and the challenges because they are direct signs that situations and relationships are changing, which is what we are usually asking for!
Being able to discern chaos from clutter has allowed me to stay in my version of "balance" I know there are aspects, situations and events that are out of my control and these create chaos. Clutter is what is created when I am not vigilant about items that come in to my space. It is all connected. To create the lives we truly want, we have to be willing to welcome and work with both chaos and clutter, work with them and find our way through the space.
I've come to honor my quirky tendencies and see them as gifts. I am the person who used to burn candles in the living quarters a horse trailer and bring in wild flowers to brighten up a camper. When I can't get the real thing, I've been known to add artificial flowers to even make my car feel more comfy. Is that weird?!
I share these thoughts not from a place of ego, "HEY! Look what I can do...." I share them from a place of self-reflection and recognition. I used to look at myself and see all the things I couldn't do or that I've tried and failed at. I tend to look at the traits I don't have rather than recognize and honor the ones I do have, even if they are strange, subtle and really may not matter to anyone else. I think we all have these kinds of talents and abilities, we may need to look under the surface and do a little excavating. It seems there is a tendency in our society to look around, recognize what other people have and can do and then we compare ourselves to that. I'd like to give you a simple reminder and a bit of encouragement to look to what you already have, maybe what you've had your entire life and just never took the time to realize that it was a cool thing. What quirky talents and traits do you have? How might you recognize, honor and even bring them out to play and share with others?!?
One of the other quirks I have is that before I sit down to do any creative work/writing/crafting, etc I tend to clean, tidy and arrange the space. I’ve had this habit since elementary school. It became strengthened during graduate school. Bring the environment into order and alignment certainly helps organize and align my thoughts.
One of the interesting traits, (and I'll even go so far as to call it a talent,) is that I have a propensity to create organization, flow and comfort in whatever spaces I occupy. Like hair color, and eye color, I was born with this, I didn't ask for it. {Just for the record, if I could ask for a talent I would have picked something totally different!)
In fact, this talent is so very........well, easy, that I had completely dismissed it. It was just something that I did and it required very little effort or work on my part. I had to go way back in my experiences and thinking to remember when I first became aware of the tendency to put things in order. I recall spending a lot of time in my childhood cleaning and organizing and arranging my room. That is what I did for fun! I genuinely enjoyed this. I'm not saying I was/am a neat freak. I have slobbish--"flung schway" tendencies. I used to have really bad habits of allowing clutter and clothing to pile up. I didn't have a routine/system/procedure for directing incoming items. I stacked and stashed until I couldn't stand it any longer. I would spend downtime, weekends and vacation days rectifying the disaster...only to have it become a cluttered mess again. Eventually, I switched organizing my items and started getting rid of unnecessary items. That has made a huge difference. I'm nowhere near mastery, but continual practice and vigilance has helped me get off of the clean up-make a mess-clean up cycle.
What I wanted to glean here was recognizing a somewhat hidden talent for bringing order to a chaotic environment. No matter if it was my own, or a friend, or a family member, I have the ability to walk into a space and clean it up, transform it and help it function in a much more efficient way. Chaotic environments were/are a disruption to my senses. When I was younger I had no way of articulating this. I was compelled to change the space, to put it in order, if I could, but I never knew why I had this..."thing."
I remember going over to a friend's house to play. As I walked into her space, I was shocked. The place was an absolute disaster! I had never seen anything like it. I could barely speak. I had a difficult time processing how anyone could live in such an environment. There were five people in the house. I cared for my friend and without judging her, I offered to help clean and organize her room. She refused. I was surprised. I would have gladly done ALL the work, I just needed to know where she wanted things to do. I kept after her a bit and then she said, "Why clean it, it will just go back to being messy." She refused to even try! I was sad for her and I couldn't understand why someone would live in those conditions, and even worse, accept them. In all of my 5th grade wisdom. Looking back, I can understand the mindset and I've seen it in others. For her it was perfectly normal.
As an adult, this tendency to clean up, organize and align spaces has served me well. In college, I didn't go out and buy new items, nor did I follow any trends when it came to decorating my dorm room. I often heard, "this is so..... homey" or "I don't know what it is about your room, but I like it in here!" That always made me smile, I didn't know what it was either :)
Perhaps that ability, talent or whatever you want to call it is what guided me to study elemental placement and design. The first time I took a feng shui class, it was like I had found a second language and I could speak it fluently. I became a professionally certified consultant and continued to study and practice. I've been in some really gorgeous locations and I've been in places where I was absolutely overwhelmed because of clutter. Clutter and chaos are two different things. Clutter is a result of low output, not executing a plan to release items after they have served their time/usage. Chaos is the state and environment falls into when it is left unattended. Although I am still very sensitive to to both, I have come to appreciate chaos. Chaos is the byproduct of creation. Things get messy, disorganized and out of alignment, especially if we are on the move. Chaos is necessary as it breaks up the status quo, which is essential for change. I have shared this with life coaching clients continually: honor the chaos and the challenges because they are direct signs that situations and relationships are changing, which is what we are usually asking for!
Being able to discern chaos from clutter has allowed me to stay in my version of "balance" I know there are aspects, situations and events that are out of my control and these create chaos. Clutter is what is created when I am not vigilant about items that come in to my space. It is all connected. To create the lives we truly want, we have to be willing to welcome and work with both chaos and clutter, work with them and find our way through the space.
I've come to honor my quirky tendencies and see them as gifts. I am the person who used to burn candles in the living quarters a horse trailer and bring in wild flowers to brighten up a camper. When I can't get the real thing, I've been known to add artificial flowers to even make my car feel more comfy. Is that weird?!
I share these thoughts not from a place of ego, "HEY! Look what I can do...." I share them from a place of self-reflection and recognition. I used to look at myself and see all the things I couldn't do or that I've tried and failed at. I tend to look at the traits I don't have rather than recognize and honor the ones I do have, even if they are strange, subtle and really may not matter to anyone else. I think we all have these kinds of talents and abilities, we may need to look under the surface and do a little excavating. It seems there is a tendency in our society to look around, recognize what other people have and can do and then we compare ourselves to that. I'd like to give you a simple reminder and a bit of encouragement to look to what you already have, maybe what you've had your entire life and just never took the time to realize that it was a cool thing. What quirky talents and traits do you have? How might you recognize, honor and even bring them out to play and share with others?!?
One of the other quirks I have is that before I sit down to do any creative work/writing/crafting, etc I tend to clean, tidy and arrange the space. I’ve had this habit since elementary school. It became strengthened during graduate school. Bring the environment into order and alignment certainly helps organize and align my thoughts.
I travel light, but I also travel with essential items that I know will help me focus and feel grounded. Wherever I am at, I address clutter (that piles up even in small spaces). I do this before I ever sit down at my desk to write/think/work. Addressing clutter and chaos in my main environments (physical and mental) have contributed greatly to my desire of travel and exploration. I'm not going as far and as often as I would like right now, but I am going! I have learned how to downsize quickly, how to live with far fewer items and how to get really creative with what I have on hand to work with. Just because I am on the go, I still have obligations and responsibilities. Thanks to technology, I don't have to be tied to one location---which is FANTASTIC!!!
Here is view of my feng shui designed, portable work station. Each of the elements have been intentionally placed in the corresponding bagua location. In the next post, I'll share a brief descriptions and overviews of the items and their location.
If you've ever been curious about Feng Shui and how it operates, it is definitely worth your time to study, explore and experiment. FS certainly helped me understand that my strange tendency to organize and tidy environments was not all that weird. And really, if we go deeper than that, if we are willing to let go of judgement/self-judgment, we often find that those quirky things about us, really have to the potential to be wonderfully unique, quality talents that can greatly contribute to our lives and the lives of those around us. What might your weird quicks be and how can you start shifting to see those through a different perception?!
Here is view of my feng shui designed, portable work station. Each of the elements have been intentionally placed in the corresponding bagua location. In the next post, I'll share a brief descriptions and overviews of the items and their location.
If you've ever been curious about Feng Shui and how it operates, it is definitely worth your time to study, explore and experiment. FS certainly helped me understand that my strange tendency to organize and tidy environments was not all that weird. And really, if we go deeper than that, if we are willing to let go of judgement/self-judgment, we often find that those quirky things about us, really have to the potential to be wonderfully unique, quality talents that can greatly contribute to our lives and the lives of those around us. What might your weird quicks be and how can you start shifting to see those through a different perception?!
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