How to access more joy and creativity

This month, we focus on the Creativity, Joy, Productivity & Children area of your home and life.

I love this area of life. I probably say that about all 9 of the Guas (they all have so much power in their own rite), but this area, at it’s most aligned feels playful, joy-filled, focused, productive. It doesn’t get any better than that.

At it’s least aligned, this area of life can feel stuck, blocked, resistant, slow, frustrating. But that is true of any area of life that is not functioning at its full capacity.

A client (and mother of 2) once asked me, “I wonder why productivity is grouped in with children?” It’s a good question. Having children in your life can certainly make you feel a lot less productive at work!

Here’s my take:

Children are the ultimate form of productivity (and joy and creativity). This miracle of life, of beings that develop with incredible powers of intellect and intuition, compassion and creativity--they are the most productive thing we can possibly create. What is more productive in this lifetime than helping a fellow being develop into a more compassionate, understanding, creative thinker and feeler who can go on to do great things? When I think about it that way, it makes so much sense that Joy, Creativity, Productivity and Children would be grouped together in this ancient tradition of Feng Shui.  

For some of us, our powers of creativity and joy and productivity are funneled towards our own physical children. Most of us have other areas of passion, of creativity, that we feed and nurture just like a child. Whatever your passion ‘child’ is, that is what this area of your home and your life is about.

It takes creativity and joy to be productive.

Equally, you are most productive when you work from a place of alignment with your own creativity, your own joy. Without that, work is simply one monotonous task after another--no matter what your job is.

So let’s get clear. What joy do you want to feel in abundance? How do you want to spend your creative powers? What do you want to feel like when it comes to your children, your productivity? Write down what comes up for you (really, right now).

For me the word PLAYFUL comes up a lot, as well as focused and energized.

Now take a look at that area of your home. (Not sure where this area of your home is? Take a look at my blog post all about how & why to align the Bagua Map in your own home.)

Does this area of your home represent the feeling you want to have in the Creativity & Children area of your life? Is it playful? Is it energized? There are always opportunities to align the feeling you want to have in your life, with the feeling your space evokes.

In my home, this is a tricky area. It’s primarily a rather steep staircase down to the basement (which represents the past). In Feng Shui, staircases are technically missing areas.

Here is an image of the side door and staircase when we bought the home. We've since opened this area up to the rest of our home by taking the walls down to half and integrating the kitchen with the common areas of the home in a more open floorplan. 

In my own practice--thanks to some staircases in key areas of homes--I do my utmost to take advantage of the design possibilities a staircase presents, which are ample.

The children and creativity area is one where I have felt challenged at different points in my life. A few years back I was feeling a huge lack of creativity around my children and around parenting. It felt hard, not playful; stuck, not energized; dispersed, not focused.

So I looked to the Children & Creativity area of my home and I must say, I wasn’t all that surprised by what I found. The steep dark staircase from our side door funneled any energy DOWN. It’s hard to maintain energy in that area of your life when this is the case. I hadn’t really utilized the areas around the staircase that fall into this Gua to their fullest potential either.

The first thing I did was get really clear on what I want in that area of life. Playfulness, ease, joy, fun, lightheartedness.

And so I created a few “sculptural pieces” to hang in my staircase, to draw that energy up and to represent that playful lightheartedness.

These tissue paper balls are ones I’d been wanting to make for years--but hadn’t ever gotten around to it. They make me smile, my infant daughter loved them, they were easy to make--everything about them represented how creative I wanted to feel with my children.

I also hung some photos of my children: separate and together enjoying each other’s company. I cleaned out and organized the desk and small utility closet that serves MANY purposes that happens to fall in that area.

I can’t identify an exact moment when the shift occurred, but now my mantra has changed. ‘Parenting is fun’ is a much more prevalent thought. I recognize the ways in which that part of my life makes me see the world with fresh eyes, makes me young at heart, playful, makes me prioritize fun over achievement (fun is an achievement :)).

Every time I look at those tissue paper balls that hang in my staircase, I think about the playfulness I can create in my life, of the ease I can allow into everything I do, including parenting.

What opportunities do you have in this area of your home? Do you have a closet that is packed full? A junk drawer? A packed bookshelf? A bedroom that is housing too much stuff? Do you have some weighty items hanging out that you haven’t been able to let go of?

Are you ready now? What do you want your joy, your productivity, your children, your creativity, to look like, to feel like? Let me know what actions this inspires for you in your home.

Here’s to supportive spaces that reflect the playfulness, the ease, the joy you want to see in your own life,

:) Tenaya

P.S. Stay tuned for this month’s Tip Sheet for the Creativity and Joy area of your home and life!