When I teach Feng Shui classes or workshops I use a technique to help participants connect with each other and with their own emotions. This technique first asks a question for people to answer to themselves -- write it down if they wish, then share it with the person sitting next to them. Each person talks for a couple of minutes while the other one listens. When every person in each pair has had a chance to confide, then those who choose to get to share their answers with the group.
One time, back in Iowa, I was teaching a class on the Nine Life Areas in Feng Shui and we were discussing life area #1: Career, Life Mission and Individuality.
To help participants connect with their own inner sense of their life mission, I asked them to ponder this question: "If many years from now you were lying on your death bed, and had the chance to look back at your life, what would be the thing that would hurt the most to know that you didn't do, learn, or accomplish?"
It is a very powerful question. I present this question to you now. Take a few minutes to think about it, if you wish to, write down your answers. Then seek a person whom you trust and know that seeks your highest good, and tell them your answer. If they are open to it, have them do the same exercise.
One of the most interesting answers I heard during that class came from a woman who worked at a bank and was at the time pursuing certification as a Feng Shui consultant. Her answer was that it would hurt tremendously to look back at her life and find out that she didn't dance enough. The reason I find her answer so ineresting is in part that this is something I did not know or expect about her, but also that shortly after she enrolled in ballroom dancing, and later on became a teacher, as well as a Feng Shui consultant. I'd like to think that something shifted inside her that evening as a consequence of pondering this question.
Something else happened that evening. Someone in the class threw the question back at me. I was not prepared for this -- actually I had been avoiding this question for myself. I had to come up with an answer on the spot, and this is what came to me: "I would feel like a failure if I reached the end of my life and was never able to get a handle on my weight, eating and physical strength."
My own answered surprised me because I would have expected that it would include something about Feng Shui or space arrangement, for which I have great passion. It also surprised me because when I was in my twenties I had already been in control of my weight, my food and my strength. I was living in Quito, Ecuador, almost 10,000 ft above sea level, in the middle of the Andes mountains. Most of my exercise was provided by vigorous walking up and down the hilly streets in my city, the reduced oxygen due to the height added to the demand on my lungs and heart. I ate at the Macrobiotics center The Art of Living, where I met with most of my friends for lunch. We shared some of the most amazing natural foods, prepared in the best ways. Sometimes our lunch meetings lasted up to three hours of animated conversation and laughter. The macrobiotics diet, one if its secrets being that there is never a sugar spike, is designed so that there are no sudden insulin dumps in the bloodstream. It is insulin that gives the signal to the body to convert excess sugar into fat.
When I moved to the United States, I lost my community and my challenging walks. I was also exposed to lots of food and non-food ingredients that I had not come across before. For example, I did not know about "cheese products," I only knew real cheese. I would get a sinus infection after every single party I attended the first year. I joked with my husband that I must be allergic to parties. We later found out that I had a sensitivity to the yellow coloring used for yellow cheese. I did not know about high fructose corn syrup and the hidden sugars in most crackers and bread. I did not know that eight ounces of bottled fruit juice (one cup) bought in the United States had four times more grams of sugar than the home made juices I was used to drinking back home.
In short, I gained a lot of weight. For the first time in my life I had to make time for workouts, which I did not enjoy. I found out that even though I had had a handle over weight, food and exercise in my native Ecuador, I had not clue on how to be fit in the United States.
It took over a decade for me to figure out the ins and outs of nutrition in the US. I learned to do "defensive grocery shopping," I started making my own bread and my own juices. It took me a lot longer to find exercise that I actually liked. What I found, also helped me reconnect with the roots of my original culture and helped reduce home-sickness. If you didn't already guess, I am talking about Zumba®. Now I teach Zumba® and the love for exercise only grows.
It was through asking and answering this question though, that I discovered that every aspect of this life area: Career - Life Mission - Individuality could stand alone. Until then I had believed that all three aspects had to be connected for someone to be truly happy. Through my experience of becoming a Zumba® instructor while continuing to grow my Feng Shui business, and since the financial crisis of 2008, I have also seen in my clients the value of having a job, even if it is not their dream job, or even if it is not aligned with their life mission -- indeed, career and life mission can be separate.
In my next blog post I will share with you more about life area #1: Career, Life Mission and Individuality and the role each of its aspects has in our lives.
In the meantime, you can check these resources in the free learning sections of my site:
http://www.fengshuiforus.com/Pages/LifeArea1Career.html
http://www.fengshuiforus.com/Pages/LifeArea1Prints.html
http://www.fengshuiforus.com/feng-shui-money.html
Love and Blessings,
Moni
© 2012 Monica P. Castaneda
www.fengshuiforus.com
www.monilife.com
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