Feng Shui, Good Design, Sacred Information

Today is computer work day. I am working on the content for the website, planning my images, their sizing, etc and defining my business as it is and how I want it to develop. It is at a transition stage. Having just finished reading the book Midas Touch by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki, I am excited to DESIGN my business.  The book looks at entrepreneur skills, focus, branding, relationships and the little things. After reading the book, I see exactly where I am at and why AND I am starting to formulate where and how to get to the next place. I am a designer, I have achieved mastery of the design elements and principles, it is now time to create a structure to enable me to do what I love, with the people I love to work with, make a comfortable living and further explore my creative expression. 

I am particularly interested in how to develop intellectual property and protect my proprietary information. I sell ideas, I sell the creative process, I sell experience. It is all intangible. (Yup, a future post will define my method of "sales". It's not what you think!)

Early in my career as an independent designer, I studied Feng Shui, the chinese art of placement. It is a cultural system and tradition of how energy or "chi" moves through a space. (Much like the composition of a painting determines how our eye travels the surface, observing the content and its placement; to express an idea, an emotion or some other intention) It soon became apparent to me the way I wanted to practice Feng Shui was really just good design. However, I did learn valuable information about energy, intention and follow through during this brief study. I have incorporated this knowledge into how I design and communicate. 

In Feng Shui, when a consultant is engaged, there is an even exchange of energy, every time, if not, the 'cure' or prescribed solution will not work. If the recipient of the service has doubt or doesn't agree to the value the 'cure' or solution may have in their life, they will not be satisfied with the results. They will have the experience something is missing, always wondering what it is. The 'what is missing' to make the experience complete, is their commitment. The consultant will never meet the expectation of the client, as the consultant can not provide the client's commitment. With the exchange of money (or something of equal value) and commitment to that exchange, the client is saying to the consultant, "I trust the value that you place on your  commitment to my 'project', your work, and the experience that I will have by engaging with you."

In my design practice, this is essential for me to do what I do best, it is how I currently practice my life's work, to create and design. By using my design experience and knowledge to create a balanced, functional and aesthetically pleasing result, I have acquired certain standards that over time have become natural to me. I am continually expanding my awareness of details to increase the number of those 'standards'.  I want to produce the best I am capable of, always. This is true whether it be for my clients or myself.  I experience the creative process, that is what is in it for me, for my clients, they get to experience the benefits of what I have created, the beauty and the function. 

Another practice is of gratitude, in some sects of Feng Shui, it is the exchange of the red envelope. In this practice, the recipient of the service gives the consultant something of value to them,  sealed in the red envelope. This illustrates a conscious acknowledgement of the gifts to come in providing the 'cure' for whatever is 'missing' or being channeled elsewhere in the space. The cure provides an adjustment to the flow of energy necessary for that change to be reflected in the life and prosperity of the individual or group of people that inhabit that environment.

Following these principles and practices, has provided a life that I love and one that keeps me expanding my experience of self.

I am passionate about design, understanding it and applying it to all areas of my life. It is a way for me to experience who I am. When I was a child, in sunday school, I was taught, when you go to heaven, you can do whatever you want. I thought to myself, "ooh, what would I want to do? What do I like to do here? I like to create. When I get to heaven I am going to create all I want, anything and everything"... in years of spiritual soul reflection, a book I read, suggested something about reality. What if.... "this is heaven, and part of the illusion is to remember that and do what you really want to do"?

Well, that sent chills through my body. People sometimes say that life here on earth really is hell.. I have had moments when I believed that, but not for long! I would rather believe, what if the opposite were true? What if it is what we say it is? It was then I  decided, for the time I am here, I am going to do what I can to make it my heaven, CREATE,  the next place then, will be even better!