Common Ground
The theme for this magazine is common ground. I wondered what to write about this very powerful yet unassuming word, furthermore, writing from a feng shui perspective gave me some challenges. Here’s the thing, in our everyday life finding the common ground helps us humans realise we are all generally the same no matter what our backgrounds. We love our family, we want to do right by them, we value our health, and we keep the money coming in to support all of the above.
In classical feng shui we are all sharing the qi map of the home and workspace and the common ground or common shared places are important to help with the basics of harmony in our surroundings. At home we want to set up our lounges and dining room or anywhere we join with the family such as the back patio, as a place that has something for everyone, so we all feel at home in the common ground.
Look at your lounge is it set up to watch TV only (i.e. the chairs don’t look at each other)? Or is the TV there but it is set up to look at each other and you get a stiff neck to watch the tv? What is the purpose of the room? If there are small children in the house is their toy basket in the lounge area so they can play whilst adults chat. If we have the toys far away the adults can’t relax having to go check on the children all the time or the children keep coming and interrupting the conversation. How about the dining area or where you have your meals, is the table small enough that you can have a conversation easily or is it a huge table with the family scattered away from each other making conversation just too hard? This is a simplistic but powerful way to look at your home and see if it is set up for the family life you want.
The office is the same, is there a communal table to sit and chat over lunch or is everyone encouraged to go back to their desk, the only place that has a chair, with their food and not talk to each other. Having the connection with others at work makes us all enjoy our day much better. Look around and see what you can move around to help bring some more common use of space into your environment.
Any complex needs to have a common area to join people together for the feeling of inclusivity and harmony such as a bbq area– we always need something to draw us all together. The Councils are good at this providing parks and recreation areas to be used by all when coming together.
When I look into the unseen energy layers the earth element is always the common ground for each season of analysis. Just as we return to earth when we die the qi returns to earth in between the cycles too. Is it a coincidence that ‘ground’ from common ground also relates to earth? Maybe we need to always remember to put our hands and feet on and/ in the ground, enjoy our gardening and just be one in nature the biggest common ground we all share.
Jan Leese, The Qi Consultant, Accredited Classical Feng Shui Master.
Ph: 0405 188 064