 Welcome to The Creative Life, the collaborative production between Think Tech Hawaii and the American Creativity Association. I'm your host, Darlene Boyd, and our guest for today is certified Feng Shui master, Rosita Brennan, coming to us from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Rosita often speaks as a featured speaker at national and international Feng Shui forums and has her own weekly live stream program titled Feng Shui Fridays, which coincidentally airs weekly on Fridays. Today, our focus is on positively charged workspaces that enhance the flow of creativity. Rosita, welcome to The Creative Life. Thank you, Darlene. It's so nice to be here with you. Our pleasure. The last time you and I talked about talking about on the show, you mentioned that you like to start off with a story and you shared a very meaningful story that I do believe will help our audience understand the direction that we're going to take today. So would you mind sharing that story? Absolutely. With our audience. So imagine having a space that nurtures creativity, a space in which you feel good and want to be and can make all the difference in the world. So the story I'm gonna tell you today is the one about Nancy. Just to be clear, anytime I do tell a story, the client has given me permission to share it with everyone and anyone. So I met Nancy at a networking event and I was one of 30 women who gave their 30-second commercial. So after the meeting, Nancy came right up to me and said, I think I need you. And I responded and I know you do. She told me how she never ever sits in her office to work and she explained that she usually went in, grabbed her laptop from her office and desk and then just went right into another room. And she asked if I could help her. And when I showed up at her home, so we scheduled an appointment, I showed up at her home and I asked her to show me to the rooms, show me the rooms where she gravitated. And I showed her with a pendulum how the energy was moving in those spaces, especially her kitchen, which is the room she went to. And it was also where she was constantly interrupted with her family, by her family. So we then moved into the other spaces and then ultimately into her office. And again, with the pendulum, I showed her that the energy in her office was moving counterclockwise, the opposite of the kitchen and the other spaces that she enjoyed sitting in. So I started creating her remedy list, but Nancy was so excited and started removing and moving everything that I was writing day out. So we then did a couple of other things and found her power seat. I do that by having, I had her stand in multiple places, testing and comparing how the energy felt. So standing where she was seated and then moving her to other places and incrementally improving where she stood so she could actually feel the difference. And that evening, when I was home, I got a text from her that said, I'm in my office and I'm not running out, thank you. So the best part of the story is that she's a health coach and her business had flatlined. And after the console, she got a call from the owner of one of the largest fitness centers in her area. They were creating a new position and were looking for someone to offer to all of their clients coaching around nutrition. So therefore she would have access to the entire database of their entire database. A month later, another opportunity also came to her in conjunction with the health center. And within a few months, I'd say, her business absolutely exploded. She used her office all the time and her creativity in that office to develop her new products and serve her client base. So that's my fabulous, me fabulous story about Nancy. I suspect many of us can relate to Nancy's story. So I thank you for sharing that and starting off. But before we leave her story, Rosie, tell me a little bit about this energy thing because you said she felt energy. I'm not sure what you mean. I've heard other people, and of course we know people that do feel energy, but I myself, I'm not sure I feel energy even aside from Feng Shui. So tell me about what you're referring to. Sure. Did she be able to move from one place to another, feel energy in one place and not the other? Absolutely. So two words that you will consistently hear from me when people or from others, when we talk about Feng Shui is harmony and balance. So that's what we wanna create in a space. We wanna create harmony and balance. So if a space is positively charged like the before and after of Nancy's space. So before it was like, it was the energy was moving in a negative fashion. She didn't even feel comfortable standing in the office, right? To the point afterwards where she said, I like being in here. You can, you actually, there's three things that I'm gonna share. Three, like you like being in your space. So if it's positively charged, you actually don't mind, it's more than not mind, but you like being in the space. The second thing is you actually feel comfortable there. You feel comfortable in some rooms I could tell you lots of stories about how, and I'm sure you, Darlene and others have experienced it where you kind of don't even feel comfortable in a room and you wanna like actually leave the room. And the third is you actually feel safe. When you feel that you like being there, you feel comfortable there and you feel safe in there. For me, that means that it's positively energetically charged. And when I was talking about her being in different spots, it was like you feel better sitting in certain places too. Like you'll know that certain people say, put my men, put my chair in that particular spot and that they're comfortable in that spot. So for them, it probably is a good place for them to be. That they feel energetically charged. Does that answer your question? Yeah, that helps me and I certainly can relate to feeling more comfortable in one space or another in an office, but I never thought about it as being related to energy. I just thought perhaps I preferred the view or the natural air coming through or something like that. So I was curious about that. And I suppose I still wanna fool around with it a little bit. You mentioned some benefits in your last remarks. So what are the benefits of having these benefits? Okay, so we'll talk there, but... Yeah, no, but it's leveling up. So it's not only the benefits, but also the guests, the leveling up, the benefit of the benefits. So if you like being in the space, then what's happening is you're not doing what Nancy did. You're not getting up, you're not walking out, you're not eager to leave. You feel that positive energy around you and even the items around you that feed you. So that's a plus, right? If you feel comfortable, so the second thing I mentioned was being comfortable. What happens if you're comfortable, your body relaxes and you get into flow easier? Again, making you more able to get those creative juices flowing. And thirdly, what I said was you feel safe. Something happens to you physically and mentally when you feel safe in an environment. Your mood shifts and it's not just your body relaxing, but your brain gets into another state of, I don't want to use the word send, but you know what I'm talking about, Darlene, right? So it's the combination of those different things that happen in your space. In other words, the clients have used to describe their spaces aside from comfortable is cozy, inviting, peaceful, rejuvenating, inspiring, pleasant, you know, they feel productive and healthy and relaxed and happy in their spaces. So feeling like this in your space will help you because again, everything is connected, right? Right? Makes sense. We know that we have many people watching us from Southeast Asia and they're probably quite familiar with the art of Feng Shui since it is an ancient art. What's your perspective, Rosita? Okay, so today I want to give you some tips of what you can do in your office, but I wanted to, before we do that, I wanted to remind everybody about what I call layering. So to me, Feng Shui is like a cake. It's one of those gourmet Swiss delectable delights. The bottom is like an inch of chocolate cake, then you have a layer of raspberry, maybe a layer of vanilla cream, you've got some hazelnut, you know, another layer of cake, some white chocolate, maybe some nuts on there, but you get the picture. So it's all these different layers. So you start with every room being positively energized, which is that bottom chocolate solid layer, right? And you build upon that solid foundation. We start with every room being positively charged, energetically comfortable, and we start adding things. You build with what you have and you see around you. So we add furniture, we add the art, we add the pictures, the pillows, the drapes, the rugs, the personal trinkets and color, and these items are all the decadent layers. So that's how I see Feng Shui. And the most important part of Feng Shui is what you don't see, which is what we're talking about, which is that energy in this inner space. So the things that we don't see then, what are some of the next level specifics that we could apply right now to enhance our workplace and thereby boost our creativity? Okay, so if we make a few strategic changes to your environment, we could actually maximize your creativity. So let's look at the foundation and adding these layers, okay? So first of all, we need to use a solid Feng Shui layer. So we wanna make sure there's good furniture flow in the space. And by that, I mean that people have a tendency, and I'm sure you know this story, to push furniture up against walls, right? So one of the things in Feng Shui, we wanna make sure that not everything is just jammed up against the walls, okay? We wanna create a nice flow. Feng Shui actually means, literally means wind and water. So we wanna create that nice flow through a space where people feel comfortable walking into a room and are sort of embraced by the space, okay? And back to what we were talking about with Nancy, we wanna make sure that you're seated in the best possible location for you and supported in every way, especially behind you. If you don't already know where to place your chair, you can contact me directly and I'll help you figure that out. But the bottom line is we can do that virtually if you need to, but right now, you need to make sure that you can see the door. So wherever you're sitting, you want to make sure that you can see the door. So that would be the first thing that I would say, even if you're not gonna be moving a lot of things around, make sure you can see the door, okay? Secondly, and this is where the messy desk versus clean desk debate comes in. It always comes up here. So critical to the process is removing clutter, which is the second most important step in Feng Shui. It's about removing excess. So I don't want you to take out the things that make you smile or that you love. It's more about the excess. So Feng Shui stickers will talk about family pictures here that they don't belong in an office. But here's my mindset. Use your, I call it your inner now or use your intuition. So you don't need to pick up every object and ask it if it brings you joy. I don't believe. I mean, some people love doing that, but I think that if you glance around your space and say, okay, what is no longer serving me or better yet, does this support my current endeavors and my intentions? Intention is the number one most important thing to Feng Shui. So look around and be a little discerning. So even if you pick up a couple of little things, just start removing the excess. Tell us a little bit more about what you mean about intentions. We need more for us. Okay, so let me just finish this thought. If you're broken or either fix it or throw it away. So that is part of cluck. I want you to make sure that if it's broken, get rid of it or fix it. You don't want anything broken because everything is, I always point to the back of my head. It's not what we see, it's what we don't see. It's because everything's a metaphor and we see things differently. We don't really, we embrace them. I'm trying to think of the right word to say, but it's not about everything's a metaphor. Okay, so. Tell me again what you asked me. I asked you to amplify intentions, but before you leave the broken, I think broken would bother me. I'd have to hide it. And I mean that in all seriousness or I understand what you're saying, remove it. I think that would make me be uncomfortable. It would go on my to-do list that something that's broken would have to be fixed possibly. But I was asking you if you could expand a little bit more on the intentions. Oh, sure. So, before I, people usually come to me and say, oh, I want, I want a boyfriend. Okay, that's, the three biggies are relationship, money and health. Those are the three biggies that people come to me for. So let's change that. I have a better example. They come to me and they say, like Nancy did, my business isn't doing well. And say it's a massage therapist, right? And I'll say to her, she'll say, I want more money. And so what I start with is, okay, so that is her intention is I want to make more money. Or another one would be, I want to sell my house. So it's this umbrella statement that that's what we work with when I come into functional, your space. Is that different than a wish list? For me, it's kind of a combination of wishes, hopes, dreams, you know, they say that you have to write it down, it becomes a goal. Well, it's all of these pieces together that kind of fall under this, you know, like when, you know, when I talk about for me, I said to someone, you know, I didn't go into my first Feng Shui consult for my home. For me, I went in for my children. You know, I wanted certain things for my children. That was my intention. Clearly it wasn't about me. But what she did do was say, okay, what we have to do is this, this and this. That's why I wanted to use the example of a massage therapist. You know, what they do is they are, so the life areas, you know, three of the life areas that I'm going to refer to now are helping people, relationships and abundance. So abundance is the money, right? That's what they initially come to me for. And then I say to them, okay, in order to get the money, first you need to work on, you know, let's work on the helping people area because that's what you do. So that's, let's focus our energy there because, you know, if we enhance that for your intention, which is money, but you know, you really, I need to work on this. And we need to work on relationships because with relationships come referrals and then your business will grow and the money will come. So it's a combination, darling. It's sort of, I don't know if that was clear about explaining what intention is. You know, for me, it's this really, it's something heartfelt, you know? Like, what is it? I ask people, what do you want, but then really find out what they need? And now you're going to hear the choo-choo train come and pass my apartment here, I apologize. So does that answer the question? No, that's helpful, that's okay. Okay, good. So the third step I wanted to talk about, you know, the enhancing your environment for creativity tip is one of the exercises in my women's circle, I have, there's nine of them, but exercise six is all about having inspiring visuals around you. So everything around us is metaphor. I mentioned that earlier. So the third tip I'm going to give you is to introduce unusual, eclectic, thought-provoking objects into your space. You want to add inspirational prints, invigorating photographs, motivational quotes, your mind maps, your vision boards, all those wonderful things. I also used to keep toys in my top drawer of my desk. And maybe if you want to put some fun things on your desk, so I used to have a giraffe that a VP from a tech company gave me to remind me to look above and over. So when you have something different and out of the ordinary to look at, it may trigger fresh ideas in next-level thinking. And like the instructors did with the toys at my children's Montessori school, switch them out too. Okay, that's like a fun thing to do. So the fourth step, or the fourth tip is make sure you have good lighting. So if the light is actually too bright, even sometimes fabulous daylight, which we love having in our offices, right? I want you to figure out a way to diffuse it because we do work better in light that's less intense. If there's not enough light, bring in some soft lighting. You can use lamps instead of the harsh overhead lighting. And then... I always used a lamp and the offices came with the switch and the daylight above me in the ceiling. I would always bring in a lamp and felt much better. Absolutely, absolutely. Because we don't want the bright, that bright isn't good for... I don't think it's good for anything. I don't think it's good for our eyes. And I know it's not really conducive to like me being creative. I like this, yeah, softer. Softer seems, you know, more embracing. So... What about color? What about color, Rosy? So let me talk about one more thing first before we go to color. I want to talk about metal because one of the things that I talked about when we talked about layers is... We want to make sure that all five elements are also balanced in our spaces, okay? So for creativity, it's metal. So we want to have a little bit of wood, a little bit of water, you know, earth. But we definitely want to make sure we have metal. All right? So, yeah, color. The last three that I've got here, three or four, are going to be focusing specifically on that, darling. So research shows that blue stimulates creativity, okay? In Feng Shui, blue is the color for knowledge. So, yeah, you could add blue. It's not gonna be... There's no bad. There's, you know, red might be a little bad because it'll get you a little, you know, revved up, right? So the Feng Shui colors for creativity are white and green. And number seven, a great way to add the color green is to add plants, which also oxygenate the air so you get a two-fer here. Plants, absolutely, I love plants. They make me smile. And there's a lot of symbolism in plants. Just remember they need to be taken care of and we don't want any sickly or dead plants in our space, okay? If you're not gonna take care of the plant, don't bring it into your space. We want flourishing, healthy specimens, right? Number eight is interior wool colors. You know, some people may be ambitious. If they wanna paint or have your walls painted, there are specific colors for different industries and businesses. If you wanna know what they are, contact me directly. I can tell you the best color for your type of business. So I mean, there's a whole list of like, you know, what goes with what. So definitely let me know if that's something that you're interested in, okay? So with it, when you mentioned the colors in a commercial place, would the subtle use of color, I find myself more or I was more comfortable having a subtle use than one that just jumps out of color even if it is blue or even if it is something that's going to be calming. It's not calming if it's dark or jumping out at me. I agree. Yes, and that's actually my tip number nine, my nice tip that I wanted to give you. The best generic color is white. So I suggest this to many creative individuals too. It seems boring, but it's actually conducive for clarity. For me, a little bit of color stimulates thoughts and ideas and creativity. One of my clients, a photographer, wanted to relocate her production office and her walls were white and I said, leave them alone, just leave them white. And then we added pops of color around the room which correspond to the Bagua. So, you know, we added. Look at that, Rosita. This is my look. Can you see that? So we added the purple and the red and the green, you know, in different areas of the room to correspond to this. Oh, I see. All right, yeah. And I think if the walls are white, probably the benefit of plants then really would be better appreciative than just a happier place. So we're down to just a few minutes and this is the creative life. So would you be willing? We often ask our guests, what's your creative process and progress personally? Okay, so basically it's part creative process and part innate ability. Remember what I said in response to Nancy in my story? I said, you know, she said, I think I need you when I said I know. So I actually feel spaces. One of my mentors actually called me an energy diagnostician. Cause she said, you know, you feel that, you know, energy and you say to people, put that, you know, put that there. So I can tell when people are comfortable or uncomfortable in the spaces. I can feel, you know, spaces and I could tell that Nancy's space was, you know, not comfortable for her. So when we meet, I basically just talk to you. We talk about you. I'm everything. I like that, yes. Yeah, everything is confidential. You know, it's like no, nothing gets told to anybody else. Again, like I said at the beginning, unless you say, yeah, you can, you know, share this. I do ask very specific questions about all the different life areas. So about your relationships, about, you know, information, projects that you're working on, you know, what is it that you do want? So people come to me for something that they want. And then when I ask them these questions, what is revealed is what they really need. So when I feng shui your home, your office and your spaces, I actually give you both. I give you what you want and what you need. Well, Rosita, we're down to the wire, as they say, for our conversation today. And I do think you've given us a nice start. I think most of us are aware and we've seen little doses of what feng shui can do in the door. But you've really helped us, I think, to amplify some of that knowledge. So look forward to hearing more from you. And I would refer people you've offered to us that if they have any questions to go to your website, you could, they can see how to contact you. And maybe just for the start, and then in their locality, they could proceed and move on. So these are seemingly some nice handy dandy hints to get started right away. So Rosita, I truly appreciate you taking the time to be with us today. And for my pleasure. If you have been watching The Creative Life with our guest feng shui master, Rosita Brennan, we hope we have provided you with several tips for improving your workspace to become a space that will enable your creativity to flourish. Join us in two weeks for the next edition of The Creative Life. Until then, aloha.