What Your Cluttered Desk Says About Your Career

featured this week on Over the Moon 

I like to say that feng shui is original green design because it seeks to examine space and how humans impact nature and the environment around us. Feng shui looks at how physical spaces affect us on a spiritual and energetic level. Through feng shui principles, we observe how the earth influences us; how does earth affect us and how do we affect it?

A powerful place to start is to look at the feng shui of your desk. Your desk, whether it resides in your home or outside, represents your career and path in life. What you do and the direction in which you walk in this life.

So lets take a look at where your clutter happens on your desk.

If it’s in the top left corner, your money and wealth might be stuck or tied up. If you have a pile of papers on the furthest right corner, the “Relationship” corner, you might need to cultivate your relationships more. Clutter isn’t a bad thing, as long as it doesn't interfere with your life or cause guilt and distress.

Next, look at where you need to add some support in your life. On my desk, I have a status of Kuan Yin, the Buddhist goddess of compassion. The statue represents weight and stability. I placed the statue in the relationship area of my desk to provide support and cultivate compassion in my business and life relationships.

For some time I also had a beautiful orchid on my desk in the top middle of my desk in the recognition position. Recognition represents fame, and how you’re seen in the world. It also represents the fire element. The orchid is a living plant, which is the wood element. Wood feeds fire, so this orchid provided fuel to the fire of fame that I wanted to cultivate in my career. Finally in my top left corner is the wealth and abundance area. Here I have a beautiful piece of citrine. Citrine is a natural crystal that attracts prosperity and does not require cleansing.

I encourage you to look at these areas of your desk and select one or two that need the most attention in terms of your career and life direction. Stimulate some growth and change by clearing up the clutter and examining the feng shui.  

by Anjie Cho

If you’d like to learn more about feng shui, check out Mindful Design Feng Shui School at: www.mindfuldesignschool.com

Getting Organized: Insights from Janine Sarna-Jones

Today is Organize Your Home Day! In honor of this day, I have an interview with Janine Sarna-Jones, a talented professional organizer. And since many New Year's resolutions are about organization and de-cluttering, I interviewed her on this topic to help all the readers and learn about organization from a non-feng shui perspective.

AC: When you see a disorganized home or office, how does it hold people back?

JS: I do not judge a space by what I see. I can only determine that a home or office is disorganized by how the person feels about their space. Disorganized spaces hold people back in thousands of ways, both logistically and emotionally. Sometimes it is as simple as not being able to find stuff; in other cases the individual feels deep shame and incapable of inviting people into their space.

 What is the biggest benefit you've seen after organizing someone's home or office?

It’s hard to pick just one benefit, but one of the biggest is the realization of an organizational system that is in tune with the way that individual thinks and operates.

What are areas that are often overlooked?

The key to getting organized is to start in the places you actually use. In my experience, rather than overlooking areas that need to be organized, people tend to focus their efforts on the least important areas. For example, begin organizing their attic rather than the desk they sit at every day.

How have you created a holistic space for yourself in your home or office?

For me, this is a work in progress. Living with my family, as I do in a New York City 2 bedroom apartment, creating a holistic space involves creating homes for everything and jettisoning things that are no longer useful.

What are three simple tips that you can offer readers in beginning to organize their homes or offices to create a holistic space?

1. Stop thinking about organizing as a task you put on your To Do list and block off a Saturday to accomplish. Start working on small organizing projects, for example, one drawer. Daily!

2. Evaluate what you are keeping in your “prime real estate” areas. For example, do you have clothing you consider memorabilia (and you would never consider wearing again) hanging in your closet? Then put it in a container and move it to a less accessible place. 

3. Let go of items that have outlived their purpose and/or no longer serve your needs.

by Anjie Cho

Janine Sarna-Jones is founder and president of Organize Me Inc. She is a Certified Professional Organizer® and an Evernote Certified Business Consultant and has been helping people get organized at work and at home since 1992. Janine has achieved the distinction of being a member of the Inaugural group of Certified Professional Organizers® (2007) and attained a CD Specialist Certificate from the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD). As a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) since 2001, Janine has contributed her expertise in a variety of leadership roles. In 2007, she was elected to a three-year term to NAPO’s Board of Directors and served two terms as President of the NAPO-New York Chapter from 2005 to 2007.

Declutter Your Way to Feng Shui

featured this month on PublicStorage.com

Incorporating aspects of the Chinese feng shui philosophy at home has become increasingly popular in the West to help us relax and feel more in control of our busy lives. While the practice of channeling energy flows may seem like hocus pocus to some, the more practical benefits of minimizing clutter to reduce stress and negativity is something everyone could use, especially during the busy holiday season!

We turned to feng shui specialist, architect and interior designer Anjie Cho of Holistic Spaces for a quick introductory guide to help you get started with incorporating some basic ideas into your living space. Even the photos of her feng shui home featured here are relaxing!

Anjie said a simple way to start with feng shui is to declutter, because feng shui is all about allowing positive energy to flow through a space. “If you have so much clutter and 'stuff' in your environment, it can begin to hold you back and also create a sense of stress,” Anjie says. “Although not everyone is consciously aware of it, it does affect you. Like a stone that has water dripping on it lightly for years, clutter begins to wear you down." 

...read full article

by Anjie Cho