Empowerment is a huge theme in my work and my life. My examples of the empowered include: living with compassion, as a part of a whole, while cultivating personal talents, gifts and genius to share with the world. Empowered people have healthy boundaries, take good care of themselves and help others as a part of their lives, not despite their best interests. The empowered know how to say yes to things that enhance well-being and walk away from things that are soul-crushing, head-spinning or limiting in ways that make us feel small and at the effect of life as a victim.
Today, I want to talk a bit about beliefs and empowerment. My goal is for you to know that you can make absolutely any outcome a reality for any part of your life.
I am honored to hear from you often and in passionate letters and intimate notes.
Feng shui is a part of what I do with people to empower their homes and lives. That said, I do feng shui in my own way. There is a big reason for this.
Many of you have heard some strange and unfortunate things. Thing s like:the place where your bed is, the position of your door, the numbers that compose your address and many more features of human beings living in homes in the modern world actually mean you are doomed to perhaps a year or even a lifetime of limitation. “Help!” is a very common word in these letters- hundreds of them over the years- that express the voices of the earnest who ran into some feng shui knowledge (or a consultant) and learned that they were in a place deemed “unlucky” in some way.
I can not wait for the day when not another one of these letters arrives. I can’t wait for the day when people hear this stuff and think “I am not going to believe that a door has the potential to ruin my life!”
Here’s the thing: when an expert tells you something, those words have impact on many. I do understand that. You are not weak or stupid for believing.
Bruce Lipton’s groundbreaking work – carried forth by many other awesome doctors and thinkers- has make a compelling case for the placebo and nocebo effect. Many of us know what the placebo effect is: we are told that a sugar pill is a medication by a medical expert and the pill may just work like the medication because we believe it will. Placebo effect is essentially the power of our mind to create a positive solution.
The NOCEBO effect is far more troubling.
This article in Body & Soul Reconnection explains a bit behind this NOCEBO effect:
“In the 1970′s a man was diagnosed with end-stage liver cancer and given just months to live. Though the patient died in the predicted time, an autopsy showed the doctors had been mistaken. There was a tiny tumor, but it had not spread. Therefore, this man did not die of cancer but from the “belief” that he was going to die of cancer. It was surmised that if everyone treats you as if you are dying, you buy into that perception and it becomes you reality.”
And there are zillions of stories just like this.
When an expert- a “Master”, etc- tells you about the potential you have for your life based on the placement of your front door, your kitchen, or any other totally bananas proposition like this, or the amount you can accomplish in a year based on your birthday, or anything else, you may just believe it because they are masters and experts.
The nocebo effect kicks in.
Suddenly, you lose your power.
I am emphatic about this because suddenly you are reliant upon someone to re-jigger your home maybe even seasonally or more- in order to protect you from bad vibes and bad luck.And the more you do this, the less you connect to your space. Carry on with this shifting of your destiny into expert hands and soon the less your voice, your power and your cause over life means. These nocebo “damnation” situations make you the effect of life in strange ways.
The only reason feng shui is important to me in my way is that it acknowledges the power of PLACE in your life. Space is a mirror of your life. Space is not a predictive element.You can always change space. You can always change anything about life. You should do it in ways that feel good to you.
I don’t tell my clients what to do. I teach them how to find their connection. I don’t enforce what “must be done” but I lead people to a world of possibility. I share lots of tradition, science, design ideas and whatever else will create a space that supports dreams, wellness and creatively self-actualized lives.
My old psychic (yes, you see, I was once the Queen of the Land of the Disempowered so I know what I am talking about here!) told me 5 years ago that I had made mistakes that threw me off course in fulfilling my destiny.
“No, ” I told her, ” I like where I am now so nothing was a mistake.”
That was my last “reading.”
If you have encountered some superstition about your home or your life, remember that you are the one holding that superstition or limitation in place. You are not doomed, you are not unlucky and you are not wrong. You ran into some “expert” knowledge that was disempowering. You can let it go.
You have a ton of gifts to bring to a waiting world. Do what feels right. Design your dream life!
xoxo Dana
P.S.: The Love Camp is coming (!!!) to transform life with so much more love! It’s the ultimate in Feng Shui to multiply your manifesting magic.
The FREE 3-Video series kicks things off right HERE!!! It’s packed with Feng Shui to help you create even more openness, magnetism and more LOVE in awesome, tangible ways!
This hour of Feng Shui videos for love starts soon and it’s only up for 21 days a year…so if you’re ready for a lighter, brighter, more love-filled life, you won’t want to miss it! 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!
Haha, love this! “Queen of the Land of the Disempowered”. I too have sat (“ruled”???) on this sad throne. Amazing how someone else’s dogma or teachings meant to ‘help’ can be very painful. Had my own shift in a dream analysis class that was putting forth the idea that we ‘chose’ our lives, pre-birth. So if you had abusive parents, you chose them to learn a lesson in life. If you have had illness, you chose it, in order to learn a lesson this go round. Eff. That. (Says I. I suppose for some folk, this is the stuff of empowerment???) Lots of astro/Louis Hay has preached that. I say: we do not choose our families or how much of our childhood plays out, but we choose our adulthood experience and our lives here on out. Thanks for your great, often times humorous, always galvanizing words.
Thank you for addressing this, Dana, it’s a subject that is near and dear to my heart as well. Having fallen into this trap myself and sometimes still catching myself placing my own knowing below someone else’s so called expertise I am also passionate about busting these myths and empowering people to trust their own inner wisdom and cultivate a mindset of possibility and a willingness to experiment and discover what works and what doesn’t. I find that this changes over time as well. What was once true for me 10 years, or even 1 year ago, is not necessarily true now. And Feng Shui is such a wonderful tool to work with and practice this, especially if we are willing to take responsibility and not just delegate the outcome to a concept.
I’m so glad this hits home for you, Romy. Evolution- personal, cosmic, all of it- is a beautiful thing!
I know from personal experience that a positive and hopeful attitude can help to deal with and sometimes overcome serious illness.
I also tend to say that I believe in good luck b
but not bad luck. IfI find a four leaf clover -fantastic! If I break a mirror orwalk under a ladder, so what? -I just ignore that….
Thanks for your wise words as always…..