Often we dream of big things. Our consumption-driven society teaches us to dream about big-ticket items: cars, homes, extravagant parties. The Hollywood machine has taught us to dream about particular lifestyles, certain fashions, ideal body types, relationships, behaviors, even love. We often forget to slow down and ask "what do I want," to feel into "what do I want to to feel like right now, today." Self-acceptance and self-love is the greatest support that I try to give myself and my clients. That said, I often notice self-acceptance and self-love are difficult for my clients (and myself) to drop into. Which is why I want to share with you a practice that works. This applies to Feng Shui because, while the spaces we spend time in are an excellent catalyst for creating change and balance, they are also an invitation to settle in and feel safe to explore internal work. When we bring ease to our spaces, I believe it brings ease internally. All right, step one: knowing what we want.
Asking what someone wants is the most intense part of the Nested Feng Shui practice. I am still amazed at how hard it is for people to verbalize their wants and needs--especially with regards to their homes. I tell my clients they can ask to call in love, money, better business relationships, and other specific things, and most clients still say something like "I want it to be better" or "more peaceful." Those are beautiful goals and YES! Feng Shui can and will help bring a home back into balance to feel more clear and harmonious, but what I see time and time again as being more exciting and fulfilling is asking for support with something specific (more money, ease in the morning, more/better sleep) and hearing about how little the conscious/intuitive changes we make in their home allows for a deeper sense of support. Understanding and optimizing our spaces so they support what we want seems so straightforward, but to begin we must feel into what it is we want, before we can begin to see how the space around us can support all of our goals.
In finance, they use the phrase "make your money work for you." The Nested Feng Shui approach is to cultivate a space that serves us. The easiest way to understand where to start this practice is to know where we want to go. The easiest way I have found to be clear on where we want to go is meditation.
Meditation makes everything easier. Often at the start, meditation can feel intense, daunting, even impossible, but with each breath and moment of mindfulness, we begin to build a sense of ease and an ability to zoom out.
With myself and my clients, I have taken to employing a specific type of guided visualization. When I am nervous I use this for myself. With clients, I use it at the beginning of our consultations or when they are hesitant about a shift that will set them up for success. The overall goal is to feel how good it is on the other side of a situation. To go deep into the underbelly of potential and really understand how something can go well and what about it feels good. Here are the exact steps. Super simple, super magical.
1. Take a moment to close the eyes and drop in.
A system that works well for me is inhaling deeply through my nose, holding it in for a moment, closing my eyes, setting my hand to my sides, pulling all my fingers in to meet the thumbs (like a flower closing back into a bud or a chef kissing their fingers), and exhale slowly through my mouth.
2. Dropped in, project the self into the foreseeable future--a day from now, a week from now. Feel what it will feel like in the future moments.
This is doable, we know what it feels like to walk to the bathroom each morning and turn on the sink, often, in many ways, with out evening knowing we know, in this case we know how to project ourselves into our day to day life and sensations to come.
3. Take stock of what’s around, what is touching the body, what is the temperature, what does the body feel like, what impulses are their, any food craving, the level of light. Their are a million little daily details each day, go deeper into them, make them real, allow them to dance from this place of feeling the future as if it were the present ask WHAT DO I WANT?
This will be difficult! What I notice for myself and my clients is often a complete silence. This can be because there are few time we are given permission to peak int our own futures and shape ourselves from that perspective. The freedom and responsibility can be daunting. Maybe their is regret: "I have not done enough," "I wish I had," etc. it is a project, you can! Ask what you want as your future self so you can come back and support you in the present.
4. Breathe through the difficult moments. There will be difficult moments. Remember, this is a projection of yourself, you are in control, when you encourage resistance say hello to it, inhale “let” exhale “go”
5. Now, projected firmly in the future with the eyes closed, having confronted any blockages, excuses, ways to avoid, gently ask “WHAT DO I WANT.” Your answer is there, invite it to land with you.
Personally, at this, future Tracy loves to kinda zone out. Much of my previous life was getting from thing to another thing mindlessly, panicked, just trying to stay afloat, basking in the being busy. Now, when I invest in this mindful meditation of projecting myself forward, imaging myself moments, days, weeks, months ahead of myself and kindly ask "WHAT DO I WANT" I learn about how to take care of myself in the now. Even better, I have the foresight to make the things I need to do fun.
For example: showers often make me uncomfortable, transitions like that sometimes spook me. SO, when I take the time post work out to project myself ten minutes into my future shower I have to time feel what I want that shower to be like. Usually, I realize I want it to be fun and now I have time and space to recognize that adding music with a portable speaker to the bathroom will make the experience more enjoyable, and than I am able to act on that little ease addition with ease when I get home.
We want to raise our vibration as often as we can, Feng Shui allows us to brings things into balance so we can maintain that high vibe. Feng Shui is also common sense. To be happy, ask yourself what you want. The disconnect I observe in my practice is an epidemic of people not knowing what they want. This mindful meditation of projecting into the future self helps explore what it feels like in our future's, to make space to gently and with loving kindness ask what we want, in order to come back to the present a support building a better more supported what is to come.
Thank you Nina Hersher for the words of wisdom that helped shape this practice, to work with her check out nourishinghabits.com