the health department...

i don't remember how i came upon my interest in feng shui, but it's definitely been one of my "things"...in feng shui, the center of house is considered the health area...there are 8 other sections too, relationships, prosperity, knowledge, career, creativity, fame, family, helpful people and travel... as you might have guessed, i've been most concerned with the health area, or health department, as i call it...

there are tools you can use (called remedies) that can help each area.  when we first moved in, i wanted things to go well...i spent lots of energy trying to put all the right stuff in the right place...like our washer dryer, which sits in the prosperity area. that might mean that our money situation goes through the ringer...but since there was no other place for it, remedies are, well,  the remedy...if anyone looked behind my washer or dryer they'd find some very weird things...red ribbons, 9 dollar bills in a gold envelope...they'd wonder what kind of a nut lives here...and that would be me... in those days, if mitchell and i had an argument, i'd change something in the relationship section...he'd say, "why don't you try changing something in yourself instead", but i was on the feng shui road, and i wasn't turning back....

sometimes i'd wake up in the middle of the night to rearrange something, especially in the health department, especially if i wasn't feeling well. mitchell didn't need any more evidence of my insanity, but that's not to say that he didn't learn a few feng shui things along the way...especially about the health department. i always have a plate of fruit and other symbols of vibrancy and life sitting on our wooden sideboard in the center of the house.  in an ideal situation, there'd be no wood at all in that section, but there's nowhere else to put that thing. it was once more than a sideboard, it was once a tall wooden china cabinet.  i finally persuaded mitchell to saw off the top and sand it down, so that there'd be less wood in that area...anything to help my health challenge...(i mean anything on the outside - i'm not giving up sugar or anything like that - come on)...

a lot of the remedies came from the book, "move your stuff, change your life"...i was studying that thing like crazy...we lived here for awhile before lynne was visiting and enlightened me to the fact that i had the sections all wrong. i thought the relationship corner was where the prosperity corner was, and oh my gosh, is that why mitchell and i weren't getting along and i had no money...every section was wrong...except the health department, always in the middle...nothing can change that....i had to rethink and redo. luckily, lynne was here and willing to run around town with me searching for the right remedies...(a true feng shui friend - apparently my "helpful people" section was intact)...

in my usual obsessive way, i contacted the woman who wrote the book. it just so happened that she was coming up from los angeles, so i hired her to consult with me (and you wonder why i have no money)...but it was fascinating and she made some good points...after all, she did write the book...we moved stuff around, rang some bells, set some intentions...we tried taking the television out of the power position in the living room but that's where mitchell drew the line.

i look back at my intensity and laugh (but not that much)...i'm far less adamant about feng shui these days...i do pay a little attention here and there, but not like i used to...and still, no matter what i did or what i do, i never seem to get that health department right...

Comments

[lynnie]

Yesterday I went through my rock collection and now have a big ol' pile of purple rocks in my prosperity corner. At least it looks pretty!

I'm laughing at the memory of when we discovered that you had your bagua mixed up....and I still have my copy of the book sitting right here where I can easily access it.

[lynnie]

Also, that cracks me up about waking up in the middle of the night to rearrange. In 2003, I was waking up in the middle of the night with intense hand pain. In the middle of the night I got up and pushed my bed around so the corner of the closet wasn't facing me. Turns out I had carpal tunnel.