Sharing my secret Spirit of Joy

If my “Spirit of Joy” wrote a personal ad, it would read like this… “Practical & Beautiful Spirit seeks new homes to bless”

 

After a month of soul-searching, asking the same compelling question, and time spent actively looking and inwardly begging for the answer, she arrived in my life. As if there was no other answer; as if she had been there all along, just waiting patiently to become one of the most important parts of my day.

 

Immediately she led me to corners of the internet, library and my own bookshelf I hadn’t known were there. Every morning I’d wake up after her arrival, the room seemed different, looked different. And the buildings on the street; the homes and offices I went into had the same spell-binding, magical effect. I was seeing the world through her eyes.

 

Time for more exotic adventures. We went to Chinatown, where she introduced me to exotic animals I would get on super-friendly terms with over the next years; dragon, phoenix and pi-yao, the dragon-headed tortoise. We took a trip to Malaysia and studied, learning formulas and reading architectural plans. And then we came home and she gently reminded that now our work truly began. Right there.

 

So it did. She guides me every day, still, in the many different places I call “home” now, with the same first baby steps she taught me to live her way. Her way is the way of happiness and peace; a clean slate upon which Joy happily brings its chalky fingers to make beautiful pictures. (Just as lust bubbles up from within, I’ve found, so does Joy. Unexpected, unstoppable, but we can prepare ourselves for Joy as we would lust…). Here are the first baby-steps she helped me take. They can be yours, too…

 

1. She demands our space be clean- not spotless, but hygienic. She believes rubbish, dirt, or clutter tangles the energy of our intentions, creates stress, worry and stagnation- the feeling of frustration where we are rooted to the spot, unable to move forward. Every environment she blesses, which in turn blesses its inhabitants, is fresh, and organised well.
2. She guides that each direction has a meaning, and an energy. When each area’s energy is in balance, our life too flows more smoothly; we are more able to manifest our desires, or in her words, live our heaven-life. As a baby-step, she reminds daily that all elements are necessary in an environment for there to be harmony- fire, water, wood, metal, and earth. When I travel I carry incense or a candle; mineral water, bring a local flower or plant into my room, and in my personal possessions, have jewellery and crystals with me always, a wonderful portable array of these five elements.
3. She reminds to open our eyes to the world outside the windows and see if it is a place her harmony naturally blesses. Some of the dearest and fortuitous places I have found in my life; San Francisco, Sydney, the south of France, Hong Kong… meet her standards, with hills (or strategically placed tall buildings) for protection, wide spaces for freedom, a degree of busy-ness or rush for ambition and beautiful green parks or countryside for health and energy. In places not blessed by her standards over a large area, she shows that these four requirements can be found on this block of land on the street or not another (so choose the first) or they can be created, so it becomes a place she, and other Spirits of Joy, will give themselves to over time.

It’s been over 13 years since she arrived in my life and her presence guides me daily. It is true that she is not always easy or convenient to stay true to. When she guides me to change tables at a restaurant or press on the roadtrip because a town doesn’t have the right feel to stay in for the night, her constant company can seem truly inconvenient. But the rewards of respecting her grow as time passes. My intuition is stronger, my eyes sharper, the feelings of environments deeper, the awareness of out-of-balance people, too, more acute, and what may be missing from their life knowing her could straighten out.

 

I share this with you, my Joy sisters, as she would love to create a clean slate for your own Joy, too. She is my Spirit of Joy, my daily practise and cornerstone of my professional life and business. She is Feng Shui. May her presence in your life bless and protect you and your family.

 

(my feng shui website is here: Feng Shui By The Sea)