If there is one gift I would love to give to everyone I see it is a lighter, brighter life. When things are heavy, even simple things take a ton of effort.  In darkness, hope is hard to find and inspiration is out of reach.  In the darkest and heaviest hours, even a moment where something is just funny, charming or just totally mindlessly entertaining for no good reason is a breakthrough.  Challenges are best when solved creatively. Great times are greater when you are in a more luminous frame of mind. Adding more lightness and brightness to life is extremely simple and fun, so it may be disarming to learn how powerful it is when you try it for yourself!  Here are some of my favorite feng shui ways to keep things lighter and brighter. 

10 of my favorite feng shui ways to lighten and brighten your life:

1. Take out the trash.  Trash, clutter, junk: it’s all physical weight in your space that you do not need.  Dumping the trash will make you feel so much more mentally lighter. It can even help you drop extra pounds.  While I take out the trash I often catch myself thinking ” what else can I dump right now from my life that is weighing me down?”  Lot’s of cool ideas have come from taking out the trash.

2. Get back to basics.  I am a “simple complicated” person and in my worldview, we all are “simple complicated” people. It takes so little to make us happy, but we find so many other things to stir into the mix of life. During the darkest and most alone time of my own life, walking my dog around the block, making enlightened little breakfasts, lunches and dinners and sleeping every day were my major activities. Go to bed earlier, drink more water, exercise a little every day, eat good food.  This mundane life became so enchanting.  Simple things put solid ground under your feet.  If you do nothing more, even if you live in a tornado of chaos,  these basics will renovate your life force, helping you get and stay grounded.

3. Color is fun.  While we can specifically talk about the feng shui’d best colors for your life, your goals and your psychology, ultimately, color is fun.  If you wear more color, you will feel yourself radiating a new quality of energy. If you decorate with more color, you will have a more full array of stimulus in your environment.  Flowers are a great way to improvise and experiment with color for a week at a time and see what strikes you as the best colors for you right now.

4. Sunshine makes things look better. If you can’t actually sit in the sunshine, add more sunshine to your space with full-spectrum light bulbs and enough light fixtures in your house to actually raise your energy when you turn them on.  Turn on all of your lights. Do you feel the difference in your energy when they are all lit?  Do you still feel tired, lazy or crummy? Try some more light. Get a new lamp. Open windows. Get up earlier. Spend more time outside. There’s almost nothing that can phase me after a tea in my backyard as the sun rises.  Everything- including your mood- looks better in the sunshine.

5. Anything can be improved.  You have a crappy apartment? It can be better if you even take the time to clean it. Hiring a pro to clean your place deeply just once will transform the space. My friend hated her bathroom. A deep cleaning, a bunch of  white tulips from the local mart and some lovely things displayed turned the room into a jewelry box of charm and personality.  Anything can be improved in general. Jobs, communication, friendships, finances, artwork, health… there’s always a way. Start with that premise and you will find your own way.

6. We all need alone time.  Solitary space to recharge is where it’s at.  In my place, my Buddhist altar is my alone time no matter who is around or what is happening. I plop down and plug in. Whether it’s a meditation pillow on your floor or a room of your own to write, paint or read,  a favorite chair by a window or the porch you sit on to zone out: we all need and deserve alone time to indulge in the things that feed our minds and our souls.  My puppy Bob needs alone time, too. He has his crate plus his favorite terrycloth pillow bed as his personal retreats.  You just can’t mess with him when he wants to be on his own. Time alone is not frivolous; let yourself take that time.

7. Art elevates space. Starting at age 14, I would hop on the bus from Secaucus, NJ to Port Authority in New York and walk up 5th Avenue to the Metropolitan Museum Of Art on a Saturday to feel alive.  It was in front of the Cezanne still lives of peaches and in the pavilion packed with Rodin sculptures that I learned for myself that art brought out the absolute best in me as a being.  No matter who you are, art can make your life better. Don’t settle. Don’t put stuff that “you think” you should have as art on the walls of your home or office.  Line your walls with objects and idiom, imagery and crafty goodies that heighten your experience of life.  If you don’t know what that art could possibly be, take yourself to a museum or an art gallery or sit down and paint or doodle for a while.  You will find your artistic bliss. Blow up family photos. Take pictures with your smartphone and frame them. Look at life through new lenses.

8. Think balance. Fire and Water are the elements in feng shui that make things move faster because they are the catalysts of nature.  Some people think that adding lots of fire colors to their home will bring dreams to light faster.  Giant horse trough fountains full of moving water are thought to make change happen faster.  That’s not always needed, and it is usually not a good thing.  Too much of anything is no good! Balance is what we all need.  Instead of chasing quick results, move toward balance.  Adding more nature to your life is a way to keep more balance in your space.

9. Find holistic ways to know yourself better.  Long walks, journals, homeopathic remedies, vacations in nature, unplugging the TV and phone and internet… Acupuncture, meditation, yoga, stretching… Every so often, try a new way to open up the flow of your own energy.  Some will work, some may not resonate.  Every so often I do a new thing: flower remedies? polarity treatments? I don’t experiment with these things to change who I am, I do it to learn more about who I am through fresh perspective.  It’s refreshing to both  know yourself…and like yourself!

10. Let your heart win.  Forget about how things are “supposed to be.” Don’t worry about how you are “supposed to live” and certainly ditch the goals other people have set for you and you will be instantly levitating from the freedom to just be. If anything feels wrong, it probably is wrong. If it feels right, let it be right. The more present you can be in your space and your every day, the more you can allow yourself to follow that sometimes elusive bliss we all seek. You know more than I do about your own feng shui, but I’m happy to guide you until you take the reins.  Everyone knows more about themselves than their therapist knows about them. Trust what you know. Allow yourself to be lighter.

No judgement, no race, no competition, no urgency… lightness and and brightness are all about space, flow and peace.

Enjoy!

xoxo Dana

P.S.: The Feng Shui BREAKTHROUGH CAMP is HERE! It’s Feng Shui to make a breakthrough — aligning your home, aligning your energy, aligning your life— and it’s thrilling to share this transformational adventure with you!!! Learn more and join us HERE!
xoxo!!!

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And, if you want to dive in to your own personalized feng shui in a modern, practical way, Say hello to Feng Shui 101.  Its the guide I made for you to create your own personalized feng shui at home, in the office, wherever you may be… in 8 weeks.  It’s not filled with strict rules or what you “must” do.  Its filled with information, questions, exercises and even videos and classes to help you confidently create amazing spaces with killer feng shui and live with more flow.   Learn more about the 8-week feng shui adventure & grab your copy to get started right HERE…   And, as always, please let me know what happens!  xoxo Dana