As a new year begins, it’s time to embrace 2014 with positive energy and proactive steps. By taking self inventory and preparing your home, you will be ready for what’s next
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Another new year is upon us. I’d love to get some tips from you and some direction for 2014. What can you share about what 2014 brings? How can I best prepare?
Happy New Year, dear readers! I’m so happy to be back with you for yet another inspiring year of sharing insight for your home and your life. It’s hard to believe that this column is almost 3 years old, and we have more than 100 articles in the archives! Thank you for all your support, kind words, and feedback each week. I love hearing from you and answering questions that are important to you.
For those of you who have followed me for awhile, you know that while the bulk of the information I share is on feng shui and the home, I also share, as is appropriate, information on how to maximize living a heart-centered life. As our foundation, our home is critical to our energetic success, but I also know that it’s vital that we do more than just set it up right. Equally important is being conscious, setting our attitudes, minds and intents to live with greater ease and purpose.
Where people seem to be
In my life guidance business and at my school, Happiness U, I see many people each month and have my finger on the pulse of a vast array of people’s lives and personal situations. Through the sessions I have conducted, classes I have taught and conversations I have had, I see that more people are feeling the “polarity of life” — awesome things happening in one area of their lives and “super challenges” in others. How about you?
The rhythm of life these days
As an astrologer, I study life cycles and the rhythm of life based on planetary cycles — and the current tension we feel in our lives perfectly mirrors the tension of the planets in the sky. This tension has been building most noticeably since the summer of 2013.
It will continue through the summer of 2014, with a pattern in the sky called the “Cardinal Grand Cross” (where four planets almost perfectly line up perpendicular to each other), causing tension in our lives in the areas where growth, change and movement are necessary.
As a result, you may be feeling some of the following challenges:
• You have so much you want/need/have to do and just don’t know how you can get it all done
• You feel tension with others or within yourself that causes more “stress” than usual
• Issues crop up that you can no longer ignore and need to take care of
• You feel as if you need to end certain chapters in your life (or you have done so already)
• Situations have arisen where you have to choose a new path (health, job, home, relationships)
On the other hand, you also experience some of these great things:
• Some areas of your life are going extremely well
• You have experienced unexpected synchronicities and delightful events
• You have had positive connections with others
• Deep down you feel that everything will be all right (even though at times you are not certain)
• You feel blessed and appreciative even though things are tough
My advice 1. No matter what is happening in your life, trust beyond a shadow of a doubt that even though it is uncomfortable, it is helping you to break free from limiting attitudes and false beliefs you have outgrown.
2. If you are at a crossroads, know that a solution will appear when you are ready, and not a moment before.
3. Awareness is the key starting point to navigating this year. If you are feeling anything I’ve described, stay present in each moment, and look at all the things in your life that are going well.
Set your home up right
To prepare for this year, get rid of anything in your home that keeps you subconsciously in the past or does not represent or support who you are today. Nostalgic items that have “good memories” are fine, but let go of items such as clothes you will never wear again, images from a different time in your life when you were a “different” person, food that has expired, dead plants or miscellaneous articles that have no present purpose. You get the idea.
Making your home present so that you have all the energy you need to manage whatever might come up for you in 2014 will make the new year a lot easier to handle. Remember, in numerological terms, 2014 is a year of transition, and transition is much easier when we are prepared.
Everything will be all right
For those who have a bit of fear about what the future may bring, know that everything will be all right. We are all in this together. Don’t worry about what is to come, and do your best to live your life in the present.
Let’s continue down this path of life together, looking toward having a fantastic year and embracing that which we most appreciate in our lives. Let’s help each other, love each other, and live in our hearts more than ever.
Alice Inoue is the founder and Chief Happiness Officer at Happiness U, a friendly and warm educational establishment at Gentry Pacific Center on Nimitz Highway. At Happiness U, one can learn how to be happy, a subject you won’t find in a traditional school. Happiness U offers classes such as feng shui 101, clutter clearing plan 101, positive mindset 101, happiness 101 and more. Visit www.YourHappinessU.com.