Feng Shui and the Authentic Life
by Lynne Ashdown

           The end goal of Feng Shui is to connect the person in their house to heaven and earth. What does this mean? It means to come into a state of integrated harmony, in sync with, in resonance with, energetically connected to everything around you; your house, the land under your feet, the heavens above, and extending to all aspects of your life, including your paths to your goals.

            From all Feng Shui traditions, there are many ways to harmonize the house, to work with placement and remove clutter and other negative aspects, to clear the energy in the space, to raise the chi of the house to optimal levels. This clears the energetic pathways of the house, allowing the person who resides there to move forward, unimpeded, toward their life’s goals.

            Ah, but it’s not so simple. The person himself has impediments to moving forward. For this, more than a transcendental or elemental remedy or space clearing is required.  But the end goal remains the same, for the person to become connected to heaven and earth, to come to and remain in what I call the right stream of the universe; that state where one is suddenly aware of being in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. That is being connected to heaven and earth, more than just metaphorically. In that state you are in resonance with, energetically connected to the right pathways to your goals, your present life purpose. You are living the perfect Feng Shui, the most perfect possible harmony of your life.

            I became aware of that state long ago one evening on my way to work as a singer. I loved what I did, and I was doing it. I was raising my children, and had a loving person to look after them while I was at work. I had a wonderful home. The kids were in a caring neighborhood school, growing and thriving. I had friends, and threw parties that included all the people I liked and loved. I suddenly knew all was well and as it should be in my world, and a feeling of well-being suffused me, knowing at that moment I was in the right place doing the right thing at the right time - in the right stream of the universe.

            I’ve also been in the opposite situation, a feeling of being out of the stream, in the wrong work, living in the wrong place, heading in the wrong direction, not being true to myself or on my right path. It’s not always easy to see at the time. You make the best choices you can at any given moment in life, and sometimes they are wrong. Most of the time you don’t realize it until after you’ve made the choice. Still, when the choice was wrong, at some point you know it. How can you change course and re-connect?

            For this really is the issue: re-connecting. First you must get beyond beating yourself up about wrong choices, which has no constructive value and serves only to re-enforce a negative self-image. Once beyond that, life can become further obscured by ‘shoulds’. You might have said to yourself, “I spent all these years learning the law so I should always be an attorney, regardless of how alien I feel to that world. “I have half a lifetime invested in this marriage, to I should persevere with it regardless of how incompatible we are or how trapped I feel. “This job has good benefits, so what if I don’t like the work? “The people I look up to in my work have questionable ethics, but they make good money so I’ll overlook their ethics. “My family has certain expectations of me, so I should fulfill them whether I like it or not; I don’t have a choice in the matter.”

            In situations like these, you are not living an authentic life. You cannot put yourself in the right stream of the universe unless you are leading an authentic life. First of all, you must find and follow your true self. Each person is born with propensities toward certain things; talents, abilities, or callings. If you don’t’ already know what your propensities are, look for them, for this is your true self, where you can find your true path, your best, optimum path. Sometimes these paths don’t translate into salaries, but once found they can be a focused avocation, like a tile-setter I know, happy to be spending all of his off-time pursuing his photography, in which he is a true artist. Sometimes these propensities don’t surface until later in life, sometimes they change in different periods of a life, sometimes there is a common thread all through one’s life.  But look for it, put this search into your consciousness, for this will lead you to your authentic life.

            When I was in my twenties, newly divorced with young children, I remember doing the things I needed to do, but feeling profoundly lost. Why do I feel this way, I wondered. Then one day I read a book called “The Art of Selfishness,” by David Seabury. Overlooking the poor title, the book stated that true happiness does not come merely from relationship. The people who are truly happy are the ones that have their right work, or are on their right path, that no one can ever take away from them; the farmer who takes deep satisfaction from the products of the soil, the chemist who has her work, the artist who has his painting, the musician who has her music….of course, the musician! That resonated with me like nothing ever had, instantly setting me on one of my right paths. All my life I’d wanted to be a singer, had spent hours in front of the hi-fi as a child singing gustily along with my parent’s records. I knew in my gut right then that this was it. I bought a guitar (this being 1969) and learned to play it, found a singing teacher, and became a coffee house folk singer, then a professional, for seven wonderful years. This period passed, and I went back to college and graduated. This too, was a right path; I could feel it. Later I went for a teaching degree. Not a quitter, I agonized, and finally left it behind because my feeling was so visceral that this was not my path.

            Right paths pass, too, and your vigilance will feel this. Then you must look for your next right path; every life is different, and your life and its hours are all you really own, all that are truly yours, your own to direct.

            So your right paths are part of an authentic life, but there is more. Who do you associate with by choice, outside of business, and why? Are your motives authentic, or is that person merely useful to you? You can make the authentic choice. How much do other people’s opinions influence your decisions? It can be hard to separate others expectations from your own, but authentically, you would say, “No one makes my final choices but me.”  Of course, you seek advice to gather information to come to a decision; but you are asking for advice, not asking someone to tell you what to do.  If this story does nothing more than to make you think about it, you are being authentic.     

            Consider: you cannot be connected unless you are authentic. You cannot be connected, or be open to finding and following your right paths unless you are striving to lead an authentic life. Do you know anyone with a manufactured persona? This is a person who has decided from the expectations of society or others how they will mold themselves, regardless of personal choice or propensity, and does so. A person with a manufactured persona cannot connect with truth about themselves, or their own true path; it is obscured by their manufactured self. These are the people who follow the money, not seeing that the money is but a tool to open more possibilities to lead an authentic life.

            Being authentic is a conscious choice. It is also a courageous choice; risks must be taken, you may fail at times, others will judge you and object. But you can do it. Close your eyes and imagine stripping away all that is not authentic about your life; your fashion sense, your opinions, the power that your money brings, your things, the faded glory of past accomplishments, the importance of your failures, your status and prestige, your illustrious family, your personality, your ego. What’s left? The authentic today you, the very best part, the only important part. And you are important, and wonderful. Just find it, know it, be it, and your next most auspicious paths will open before you, inviting you forward to life’s next adventure. What could be better Feng Shui than that?