Year Blue
Posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Depressed About The Economy or Possibly The End Of Year Blues
Question: I have been hit by this recession and, while I know I’m not the only one, I’d like some of your advice as to how to deal with the sadness of it all. It saddens me to think that I’ve worked so hard to “get a life” and now it seems that I’ve really gotten nowhere. It saddens me to know that I’m not really in charge of my life – and that I’m held captive by bankers and bosses out there. I just can’t get over that pit-in-the-stomach feeling that I’ve got. Is this depression?
Answer: I’d really like to know how long this has been going on before I come to the conclusion that it is really about the economy, and not just seasonal affective disorder, or holiday or end of year blues, or true clinical depression, but I’ll assume you indeed have a temporary depressed outlook and make my answer fit that issue. There’s not a lot to go on here, but luckily for me, the feng shui system has everything – even emotions – built into it somewhere! So, here’s one feng shui place to look at emotions —inside the five elements. Let me first review the five elements and their positive and negative emotions and then work out from there.
The five elements are Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. Here’s an example of how they are associated with emotions – both positive (when the elements are in balance) and negative (when there is some sort of imbalance):
The Positive Emotion for Water is good insights and playfulness. The Negative emotion is fear.
The Positive Emotion for Wood is sense of humor. The Negative Emotions are anger and irritability.
The Positive Emotion for Fire is joy and cheerfulness. The Negative Emotion is sadness.
The Positive Emotion for Earth is empathy and compassion. The negative emotions are blame, guilt and worry.
The Positive Emotion for Metal is a positive outlook. The Negative emotion is a depressed outlook.
As you can see, sadness is a weakness of the fire element, and “depressed,” (as in your depressed outlook with regard to bosses, banks, and your life) is a weakness in metal. So, with this very little to go on, I would take a wild stab at questioning the balance of metal and fire elements in your living spaces (and I’d love to do the same with your diet, but that’s another conversation for another day!)
Perhaps you have an overabundance of cold, white color or actual metal furnishings, or perhaps nothing fiery at all – thus keeping you from joy and cheerfulness. I’m showing you what might be going on in my head in hopes that you can take this and run with it in order to balance your spaces. I hope this helps you and anyone else who is stuck inside some emotional mindset.
I might also apply the yin and yang principles to this situation. With a depressed outlook, you might be slightly to abundantly “over yinned.” Yin is darker, cooler, more moist, more feminine, softer, cushier, smaller, curvier, slower, quieter, more textured, more mental in relations to what is around it. Yang is lighter, hotter, dryer, harder, smoother, straighter, larger, more masculine, faster, bolder, more physical that other surroundings. (in other words, everything is relative.) After reviewing these descriptions, can you (or better yet – invite a friend who does not live there to help) review your spaces and add items to make them feel more yang? You might be surprised at the emotionally-changing outcome.
I’d also suggest retraining your brain to focus your attention on positive states and behaviors and strategies that can turn your thinking around. Perhaps starting a gratitude journal might be a good way to start to retrain your brain towards the positive. I find that getting in TOUCH with nature helps too. If you don’t already, I’d suggest meditating (start with a book or simple guided visualization CD.) You might also want to consider getting some coaching with regard to disengaging from the sadness and depression “hamster wheel” that you appear to be on. There are many ways to coach your way out of this – from scrambling the strategy that you are currently running to destroying the unresourceful decisions that you currently believe you must live by.
So, in a nutshell, start with working your feng shui and journaling items first, and if you need coaching with the mindset shifts, give me a ring.
About the Author
Karen Rauch Carter is a professional feng shui educator,consultant, and the best- selling author of Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life. She coaches, trains, and empowers people to use simple and advanced feng shui techniques to enrich and improve all areas of their lives. Learn fundamental feng shui concepts and read the first chapter of her book by clicking:
http://www.karenrauchcarter.com
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