Articles of Interest

Choices, Consequences, Stress, and Feng Shui
Written by Lynne Ashdown

The circumstances of my life today are tumultuous. I am a Feng Shui practitioner. We’re not supposed to be in tumultuous circumstances. But we are human, too. Dr. David Hawkins (“Power vs. Force” and others), one of the most advanced researchers of consciousness in our time, writes that there are only choices and consequences. No blame, no ranting, no retribution for past sins, no wrath of God - only choices and consequences. Had to have the stupid Mercedes instead of the Honda and the last repair bill was $2500? Well hey, Poor Baby. Sometimes down the line, our consequences surface from choices made long ago, causing us to fall out of “the right stream of the universe,” the state that the practice of Feng Shui seeks to help you create - connected in your home to the auspicious chi energy streams of heaven and earth. This is the state where life flows, and nothing impedes you. Right paths and helpful people appear and doors open to your goals. You are in the right place doing the right thing at the right time. You know when you’re in it - and when you’re not.

I am not sitting in that stream right now. My story is no better or worse, harder or easier, more or less interesting than yours. No one gets through life without making a few wrong choices somewhere along the line.

So?

Consider. Somewhere you made a mistake. The consequences came later - usually at the very worst possible time. Well congratulations, you are a flawed human being, often unable to see the big picture, just like everybody else. Who’s breathing down your neck today - The Franchise Tax Board? A partner? Your bottom line? Old Man Time? Worse?

It’s not your fault. You made choices. There are consequences. That’s it. So let’s look at what we can peel away from our vision about ourselves? Blame, self-loathing. Judgement. Regrets. Wishing you were different - smarter, maybe. Younger, faster, stronger. Try to imagine if you could strip all this away. What would you have?

Yourself. Alone. Maybe you have a partner, but over the course of your lifetime you really have only you and your life, for as long as it lasts. As long as you are alive, everything else can change in a second. Just think how it would help your stress level if, no matter what happened, you could be in it with no blame, judgement, guilt, or regrets toward yourself. Would letting go of these ideas impede your ability to move forward from where you stand? No! Doors would open and paths would appear. Giving up these destructive self-attributions would ease your way back into “the right stream of the universe.” Making this effort would be practicing the best personal (the only kind there is) Feng Shui.

Allow me to tell you my story. I have done and been many things in my life. Although I am irrevocably committed to the study of Feng Shui and its practice, this is only my most recent incarnation in this life. I have been a carefree independent child, a young bride and then young divorced mother who raised her two sons alone. I’ve been an athlete, a singer, a Persian rug salesman and an adventurer. I’ve cycled across continents, been scared to death in Libya and in Montana on a gale-torn plain, jubilant on a mountaintop, lost and alone in southern Italy. I have loved and been loved, won and lost this game. I’ve been a leader, seldom a follower, sometimes a pain in the ass. I’ve lived a life of privilege, rich in money and family all my life, but my choice in men have been mixed. I’ve been an intellectual, but too unconscious in my bubble of elitism to file my taxes. I’m blessed with good health but have more sports injuries than most football players. I have an indomitable spirit and sense of optimism, but the other side of this coin is blinders to reality. Scarlett and I will think about it tomorrow. I’m generous and love people, but I can also be a judgmental elitist. Never saw a woman or a room I couldn’t dress better in my mind’s eye.

Being a former poor little rich girl is a bitch. Never met a book or a good handbag I felt I didn’t deserve. I’ve got a handle on the handbag thing, but a book? It’s only twenty bucks for God’s sake, and I need to know this stuff. Every time I move I give away several cartons of books, but the volume of my books always stays the same.

Which brings me to the present. I am moving again. The San Francisco Bay Area has priced me out of the market. For a few years I bought, fixed up and sold - but with each move the numbers kept getting bigger. I decided to stay here anyway, trading the big townhouse I can no longer afford for a smaller place, and expanding my ideas about how to earn a living. This will be a great challenge, and I know I’m up to it. Like my mother used to say, “It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.” This transition from PLRG to Regular Person has been hard - it’s so much easier to go the other way. Aw-w-w-w, you say. Well I cheerfully tell you to put it where the sun don’t shine. Fortunately, I’ve lived long enough not to care what you say. Boy does that feel good! Think about it. What if you didn’t care anymore what people thought or said? What a relief! Now I only have to be myself, the bare soul me! God I could dance naked on a beach in the moonlight! I could take a fresh look at the past as only a series of choices I made - I could put consequences in tomorrow - I could put joy into today! You know, even if you think your consequences are happening today, did they happen this morning? Will they tonight? What about right now? I sit in my favorite San Francisco coffee house, watching all the other solitary folks here engrossed in their computers and books but, like me, here for the company - I savor my latte, loving the warm feel of the milk in my mouth mixed with the sensual taste of the espresso. Soft jazz is playing and I love it here. The joy of now puts me in “the right stream of the universe,” in perfect Feng Shui. You can create it for yourself this instant.

Lynne Ashdown is a Feng Shui practitioner in San Rafael, Calif.
Find her at: www.AuspiciousPathsFengShui.com
Email: Lynne@AuspiciousPaths.com