Mind, Body, Home: Transform Your Life One Room at a Time (30 page)

For resale purposes, it is not coincidental that the kitchen is often

considered the most important room of the house. Most real estate

agents will tell you that putting money into renovating your kitchen is the best investment you can make in improving your home. Whether

renovating or making small changes to your kitchen, you are nourish-

ing yourself in the process. It is the space most directly related to our overall health and wellbeing. If you are suffering from an illness, then pay particular importance to the state of your kitchen. It is a reflection of your health and how you are taking care of yourself. If you are not well enough, then have a loved one or someone else clean the kitchen,

keep fresh foods on hand, and even add fresh flowers.

In feng shui, the most powerful component of the home is the stove.

The
stove
is representative of your personal energy or power. It is a strong fire element and related to your own inner flame that burns brightly

within you. Be conscious to use all burners on your stove equally. We all have our favorite ones that we gravitate toward, but in doing so you are underutilizing all of your power. And, most important—whether you

have the Viking or the Hotpoint—is to keep your stove clean. Also fix

any burners that are not working properly to have all of your personal

power accessible.

C h a p t e r 1 1

Mechanicals:

The Functioning

Organ Systems

Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun.

—frank lloyd wright



• Plumbing

• Electricity

• Internet/Telephone

• Heating and Air Systems

The mechanicals of a home are those amenities that keep the house

running. It is the utilities that provide us fresh water, cool air, electricity, and hot water. When one of the mechanicals isn’t working properly, it

can wreak havoc on the occupants. Suddenly, there is no light. No hot

water for bathing. And no pilot light for cooking. It is those modern

amenities that we so take for granted; that is, until we don’t have them.

The mechanicals pump the blood, keep the air flowing, and help

regulate our emotions. They are akin to the functioning organ systems

in our body. They keep everything operating and running smoothly.

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Because mechanicals are operational in nature, similar to electronics,

they are quite responsive to the energy of their occupants. All mechanicals go through normal wear and tear or degradation with time. How-

ever, it is when components unexpectedly or unexplainably break that

one should take a closer look at the messages that lie therein. Let’s look at the most common mechanicals in spaces and their correlating meanings.

Plumbing

Plumbing sources clean water into the home and sends gray or toxic

water out of the home. It is the component that deals with all things

water-related. Any sort of water or fluid—whether it is in the body as a tear, in your dream as a lake, or in the house as plumbing—is symbolic

of emotions. With regard to plumbing specifically, water pertains to the release of emotions.

Some homes seem plagued with water problems, while other

homes never have any water-related issues. One home I lived in con-

stantly had plumbing problems. When I least expected it (usually on a

Sunday), a leak would spring from one of the pipes. Not coincidentally, I lived in this house during a transitional time of life when I was learning to better connect with my emotions. By fixing plumbing leaks, an

energetic opening takes place that allows you to simultaneous process

the stuck emotions. As you make changes to your home, you are trans-

forming some aspect of yourself as well.

Plumbing pipes specifically deal with how we direct and control the

flow of our emotions. The most common example is a
clogged pipe.

In such a case, you are most likely experiencing a clog of emotions that are not properly flowing. Also consider in which room the clog is for a more detailed interpretation. For example, a clog in the bathroom can

mean a problem releasing toxic emotions, whereas a clog in the kitchen

may mean you are not sharing with others those emotions closest to

your heart or letting others know your needs for nurturing.

A
clogged toilet
is another common plumbing clog. It signifies that you are holding on to something(s) that you no longer need but can’t

seem to let go of. Not surprisingly, this is often associated with kidney
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problems, lower intestinal issues, diarrhea, and constipation. A toilet flushes away toxins and waste that your body no longer needs. If it is clogged, then you are holding on to emotions, memories, relationships,

or thought patterns no longer serving you.

What happens when the toilet becomes clogged for too long? An

imbalance. The toilet begins overflowing. This correlates with when

emotions get carried away and out of control due to being pent up for

too long. The emotions have reached the point where they can no lon-

ger be ignored. The proper channel that the water or emotions should

take is being misdirected and ends up on the floor. Now it must be dealt with once and for all.

A broken plumbing line is a much dreaded occurrence that can hap-

pen as a result of either the pipe being brittle with age, wear and tear of joints, or stress from being frozen. Any of these are the result of emotions being stored and built up to the point they have nowhere else

to go. The difference between this incident and the clog is that the broken pipe is usually buried deep in the ground and therefore involves a

more difficult fix. Just getting to the pipe often involves digging up the ground, thereby exposing things that were buried long ago. Emotions

that you really didn’t want to ever look at and maybe even forgot about may resurface for healing.

One of the broken plumbing lines I experienced was underneath

my aggregate concrete driveway. The water was seeping up through

the cracks to let me know there was a problem below the surface. As

the plumber’s excavating crew was making a slice into the concrete, I

knew it was a message for me. Sure enough, it was just a few days later I learned that I would need to have my own surgery to remove a polyp.

The nature of the plumbing leak itself was also a clue as the nature of the polyp, which relates to holding back emotions.

Have you ever felt numb or emotionally frozen? Depending on the

season and one’s geography, this can sometimes manifest into
frozen

pipes
. In the South where I have grown up, it is not uncommon to drip the faucets when temperatures get into the teens and single digits. Even while being conscious of the potential problem and taking precautions,

I have had several occasions when pipes have frozen. It is never the

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actual freezing that causes damage, but the thawing process. In other

words, it is when the emotions begin moving again that the burst oc-

curs. It is the abnormal expansion and contraction that causes stress on the pipes. It is indicative of an emotional imbalance. Winter is a difficult time for many people as the trees are stripped of leaves and the ground is barren of life. It is a time in which we are forced to look at our life without distraction. It can be a challenging time to deal with emotions.

A friend of mine had an interesting experience with her pipes freez-

ing. She was just coming out of a transitional period, temporarily living with friends. The pipes froze at the house she was housesitting and then again a week later at another house where she was staying. It is not

coincidental that she was just transitioning out of a period of feeling

‘stuck’ in her life into a new vibrant stage of her life. Although she was going through an emotionally freezing and thawing time of her life, she was conscious of her emotional state throughout and luckily neither

pipe actually burst.

A lot of us have experienced water leaks that are not from bad

plumbing, but from Mother Nature. Water leaks and floods occur most

commonly in roofs, walls, and floors, and really just about anywhere.

Throughout my entire childhood, we had a leak that came in around

the chimney and down the fireplace. Like plumbing, it is a message

about your emotions. To fully understand the meaning you have to

consider where the leak is.

Pinpoint the location of the leak and consider the meaning of the

correlating room or floor. For example, if the leak is in the ceiling of your bedroom, consider your emotional state surrounding your current

romantic relationship, or lack thereof. Are you upset about a relation-

ship or in denial? Also, refer to the Bagua Map to see what that particular room represents. For example, it may be the Career corner. Did you

recently get turned down for a promotion and try to blow it off as if it didn’t bother you?

When you come across the correct interpretation for you, it will

resonate with you. Also, the meaning may be specific to you. For ex-

ample, the leak around the fireplace where I grew up may mean emo-

tional issues relating to a lack of warmth, tradition, and family. But that
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fireplace has a more specific meaning to my family. My parents, sister

,and I (at age 4) hauled the stone to build the two-story fireplace from an abandoned, broken stone wall for what seemed like months during

the hot summer. The hauling was a very grueling task that I can still

remember that literally took blood, sweat, and what should have been

tears. Also, there is no telling what those stones had endured over time and therefore what energy they were holding.

The
hot water heater
is a specific component of plumbing that usually requires replacing every 8–10 years. Because the hot water heater is usually located out of sight, out of mind, often we don’t notice when it starts leaking and needs replacing. This can often wreak havoc in a

basement or storage area where it is located. I have heard many stories where the water flooded important storage items or areas in the home.

Energetically, this is similar to repressed emotions, but with more fire behind it. Being a unit that creates hot water means that the repressed emotion is based in anger.

Mind Body Home Connection:
Plumbing

• Have you been storing up emotions?

• Do you need to have a good cry?

• What do you need to let go of ?

• What are you in denial about?

• Are you experiencing issues with kidneys, liver, lower intestinal

issues, diarrhea, and/or constipation.

Electricity

Electricity is power. It is the closest indicator of your life force or energy level. How powerful are you feeling in your life? Is your energy level

low, feeling dim, or even dark? Or do you have so much energy and

power built up that you “blow a fuse”? Perhaps you get really worked

up over something at work, let it build up, and then one day just blow

up at someone. Light bulbs are often the most likely outward manifes-

tation of our energy. You’ve most likely had one of those days when

194 Mechanicals

you flip on a light and the bulb blows. You don’t think anything of it until a little later when the same thing happens in another room with

another fixture.

Instead of making electrical repairs, sometimes an entire upgrade is

necessary. This was the case when I purchased a home that was on the

original fuse box system. In older homes, an upgrade to a 200-amp system may be necessary to keep up with today’s technology. By upgrading

your home’s electrical system, you too will get an energy upgrade. It

may be felt on the physical or emotional levels or it may be an indica-

tion of an increase in spiritual power, awareness, or even vibrational frequency.

The actual
electrical wiring
within the overall electrical system is an indicator of how one channels their energy. Do you live in a home

with old, outdated wiring that could run more efficiently if updated?

Has your energy been low? Do you have issues with being short-tem-

pered? If not properly wired, energy can be misdirected, causing a

short. We run out of steam. Just like our electrical system, how we run our energy can energize or exhaust us. If our priorities are misaligned, then we become exhausted. The same is true in situations where we

give our power away and walk away feeling depleted. On the physical

level of the body, this correlates with the nervous system. When our

wires get crossed, so to speak, we may feel dizzy, cloudy, or unclear.

Other health related issues with the electrical system are blood circulation, chronic fatigue syndrome, and depression.

We control the electricity in our homes via light switches.
Light

switches
symbolize the ability to control our power or energy. You can choose to turn the energy on or off. Even better, add dimmers to your

switches in order to control your energy with more precision. Dim-

mer switches allow you to find the perfect balance between the light

(yang) and dark (yin), depending on what is necessary in the moment.

As such, your energy level will respond accordingly. Dimmer switches

are extremely energy efficient since you do not use any more energy

than is necessary. The energy is more controlled and lasts much longer, similar to that of a marathon runner as opposed to a quick sprinter. The
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