Money, Marketing and Soul for Massagepreneurs
Posts tagged Clutter
Get rid of the junk
Dec 28th
As a Feng Shui practitioner (not practicing anymore), I hate clutter. Clutter creates confusion. We have clutter in all areas of our life from people, stuff we donʼt use any more, emails that are piled up in our inbox, to newsletters that donʼt serve us anymore.
1. Emails. Cyber clutter is just as bad as physical clutter. I cleared out all of the emails that I no longer need or that I have already read and answered.
Do you keep all of your emails? If you havenʼt read them by now, chances are youʼre not going to. My recommendation: file them only if you think they are important (hopefully past emails of this newsletter make the list ;0) and let go of the rest. Hit the delete button. If you delete something from someone who needed a response, chances are they will be back in touch.
2. Newsletter Lists. I unsubscribed to several email newsletters that no longer serve me. Either I just wanted to have their free report or they are sending me too many emails. I think once a week is usually plenty and perhaps the odd extra email with time sensitive material or a holiday message or something that is of a time-sentitive nature.
3. Belongings. Although Iʼm in Costa Rica for almost 3 months, I have still managed to collect a little bit of clutter (i.e. papers). However, when I get home, I will go through my closets and get rid of clothing that I not longer wear or doesnʼt fit, as well as anything else that I no longer use or love.
4. Social Media. I had to unfriend/unfollow a few people on Facebook and Twitter because I donʼt want to be subject to the kind of posts and negativity. You are as successful as the people you hang around.
Clearing this confusion will brings clarity as well as good things into you life. Now take some time to create space, but first get rid of the junk.
Emails, Voicemails, Text Messages oh my!
Jul 23rd
In the cyber world we live in today, we are bombarded with a multitude of text messages, emails and voices mails. These do serve a purpose of keeping in touch, but has a dark side as well. This cyber clutter has the same negative impact as the physical clutter that can build up around the house or office! Since we’re halfway through the year it would behoove you to institute a little ‘summer cleaning’ by clearing out your old voicemail, email and text messages. File what you might need in the future and let go of the rest. This sort of ‘new media’ clutter can create chaos and stagnation while adding a subtle sense of procrastination to all of your pending projects.
Clearing this confusion will bring the same fulfilling sense of empowerment you get whenever you clear out some of the real deal. Speaking of which, set aside a half hour each week to address those spaces inside your place that scream to be cleaned. You won’t believe the amount of positive energies you put back into your place once you begin to make it a sacred space again.
Clutter
May 7th
I became certified Feng Shui Practitioner at the same time I was going through massage school in 1999. So when I set up my massage practice, I did it with Feng Shui principles in mind. I think that incorporating these principles helped make my massage practice a success. I’m not saying that I wasn’t an excellent (highly skilled if I do say so myself) massage therapist, I was. But how many excellent, highly skilled massage therapists do you know that aren’t doing well financially? According to the Bureau of Labor Satistics the median salary of a massage therapist is $46,213 – which means if $46K is the average, there are a whole lot of therapists making under that. So why not get some extra help.
Feng Shui (pronounced Fung Shway) literally means wind and water. These are the only two elements that our body can’t live without. There are different schools of Feng Shui. I am schooled in both the Compass and Black Hat Sect (BHS). I will be discussing strategies from the BHS because it is more user-friendly for the average person.
Feng Shui says that whatever is happening in your internal world is also happening in your external world and vice versa. So if your personal life is in chaos, so will your business life. Usually if we have chaos in our life it is from some form of clutter. Clutter can be described as (1) anything that stops you from your purpose, (2) possessions that you don’t use any more or no longer love, (3) things that are untidy or disorganized, (4) too many things in too small a space (5) anything unfinished.
Clutter affects you in many different ways. On a personal level, it can make you feel lethargic, keep you in the past, congest your body, affect your body weight. When it comes to business, clutter can affect the way people treat you, make you procrastinate, depress you as well as cost you financially.
People keep clutter for a variety of reasons:
1. Keeping things “just in case” we need them at some unknown point in the future.
2. Identity – feel that possessions become a part of who you are.
3. Status – We need our cars, boats, and “stuff” so we can keep up with the Joneses.
4. Security — Advertising plays on our insecurities – “If you don’t have one of these you will be a lesser human being.”
5. Inherited Clutteritis. If parents were clutterbugs, it usually gets passed down through the genes.
6. A belief that more is better.
7. “Scroogeness” — refusing to let go of junk until they feel they have really got their money’s worth.
8. Using clutter to suppress emotions. When you have so many possession, you are often distracted which keeps you from thinking or feeling.
9. Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
Feng Shui is about harmony and energy flowing through your surroundings. It is very difficult for the energy to flow if there is stuff everywhere and drawers and closets are filled to the brim. I will give you an example, a massage therapist friend of mine wasn’t getting any new business and her existing business was starting to diminish. She asked me if I could come and take a look. She had her filing cabinets in the Wealth section of her office. A good start, but they were so full that you couldn’t fit one more piece of paper in any of the drawers. She was keeping client files of clients who hadn’t been in several years. I suggested that she go through the client files and box up all of the files for the clients who hadn’t been for an appointment in the last two years. Then move those boxes into storage. No sooner than she did this did her business start to pick up. Because these files were so full, she wasn’t able to attract any more business. If you want to work on wealth and prosperity, you must first work on clearing the clutter first.
If you are like most of us, we all have clutter. Our lives are dynamic and if we don’t keep up with it, clutter can quickly take over. Sometimes clutter can be a little overwhelming, I suggest you tackle it slowly. You may even want to enlist the aid of a friend or hire a professional.
If you would like my free report on simple steps to clear the clutter, please email me at linda@massagetherapisttraininginstitute.com.
Did you find this topic of Feng Shui interesting? Would you like to see future blog posts to be on different areas of Feng Shui and how it can help massage therapists grow their business? Either email me directly or leave a comment here.
