Energy is the movement and vibration between molecules and atoms. It is the stimulation between people. It is the way that a particular piece of music fills a room but also the response it triggers in your brain and emotions as you pick up on the melody or tune in to receive the specific lyrics. You might choose the music when you have a meal with a friend. You would certainly be conscious of the music in your chosen playlist when you have friends around to celebrate a birthday or a special event. You are selecting the energy for the occasion.
Cherish your Special Things
In the same way you are bringing energy into your house with the possessions you bring in, with the art you place on the wall, with the fabrics that adorn your furniture. You think you feel good about a box of letters on a shelf in your study that were written to you by a grandparent or a best friend. You occasionally take out an school report that was written about you by a favourite teacher when you were a happy seven year old child and saw the whole world ahead of you. When you pull up a blanket on a chilly autumnal day and take comfort from knowing it has been made of pieces of fabrics that were once a childhood eiderdown, a grandmother's scarf and a service uniform belonging to a parent, this is good energy. When you look at old photos of a relative you never really liked, but which you feel awkward throwing out, whether for guilt or misguided loyalty, this is low energy that you don't need to hang on to. The colours, the textures and the emotions you attach to the things within every room of your home, all of this, either contributes to or takes away from the energy of your home.
Check your Digital Energy
If we ever doubted our connection to the world around us, or thought we were separate from the world and living in a bubble, then the great technology advances we have at out fingertips serves to prove the truth of this connectivity. Digital energy is a vast aspect of the energy in our homes. The movement of data, of the pulsing of electrons in and through our home space. We are constantly connected to the external world through our laptops and cell phones. That fast moving, invisible activity consists of data all around us.
The advantages are massive and such technology can help us live more positive lives, provide us with home delivery of millions of items (not so good when you are looking to let go of clutter!), make contact with friends who lives hundreds of miles away or across the globe, to bring access to jobs where we can find what will suit us, allow us to find a partner through dating apps, give us the edge for investment tips and know-how, or simply allow us to plan a holiday or a trip without the need to go into a travel shop for such information. All of these and a hundred other advantageous uses of technology and connectedness are good for us. But we have to guard against overload on ourselves. You must take care of the potential drain on your personal energy that such digital activities can have.
Why do you feel tired after an hour online just browsing and following digital connections through adverts or social networks, articles or video clips that entertain? Partly because of the huge variety of visual images you see in that hour, but also you feel tired because the energy is moving so fast through and around you. You can be too open to the draining impact of this frenzy. Give yourself times when you are not online, when you are not connected digitally. You can switch of wifi while you sleep. You can choose to leave your handset in another room when you are spending time with loved ones. You can switch off sound based notifications and limit the time you spend engaged with or sucked in to social media. They are forms of high speed energy and you need to choose whether they contribute to or take from your own levels of energy and aliveness.
Ask yourself some simple questions about how you use the spaces in your home and why :
Which area of the home do you feel happiest in?
Where is the emotional heart of the building?
When you have guests to visit do they move naturally to stand and chat in and around the kitchen or an open living area? Do they want to sit outside on the deck with you or gather around a sofa and comfy chairs?
Are there pictures on the walls of your home that you don't like, but have never let go of? Can you understand the emotions that are triggered or blocked when you consider these images?
When you are following a painting or drawing or collecting hobby at home, where do you notice yourself sitting?