I have to tell you what just happened to me because it felt like the most dramatic real life Feng Shui lesson in Yin and Yang, and honestly I didn’t even realize it was happening until I landed back in Paris.
I left NYC on one of the very first flights out after the blizzard, literally squeezing through this tiny sliver of time before the city realized what was happening. And when I say tiny, I mean that the very morning I landed in Paris, my sister texted me a picture a snowy photo to say it started snowing again in NYC!
What astounded me was that in the span of one week, I went from corporate presentations, Closet Style & Alignment sessions, Lunar New Year celebrations, seeing family, dodging slush, navigating urgency and speed and all the classic New York hustle, to landing in Paris where the weather was gorgeous (close to 70 degrees – don’t hate me), the vibe was calm and the entire city felt like one long exhale.
Wow.
Even I have to remind myself in those moments that I am the same person with the same goals for the Year of the Horse, but with a completely different internal state.
Nothing about me changed on that flight but everything about how I felt did, which is exactly why I keep saying that your environment is not neutral. NYC was very Yang for me – full of movement, speed, work opportunity, visibility, social energy and constant interaction, while Paris is deeply Yin – with soft sunlight, slow mornings, space to think and unexpected moments of silence in public spaces.
Different, but both beautiful and very necessary for this Generator (a nod to my Human Design).
The different environments required a different response from me which is why I say that your environment and your internal state are one. They cannot be separated. Logically they can I suppose, which would be called compartmentalization, but in my world, I like to keep things flowing 🙂
And as we move deeper into this Fire Horse year, which is already amplifying movement, speed and visibility for many of us, understanding the yin and yang of your own environments becomes even more important, because the Horse will bring yang whether you invite it or not, which means the real question becomes:
Where is your YIN coming from?
Is there a room in your home that allows you to slow down, a chair where you actually rest instead of scroll, a routine that creates space within you, or are you living in environments that keep you in constant motion even when your body is asking for something slower?
Feng Shui is not about creating a perfectly balanced home that looks a certain way, it’s about making sure that when life gets very yang, very fast and very loud, you have somewhere to land that reminds your system how to relax again.
Thank you NYC for your charming YANG energy that invigorates me. Merci Paris for your quiet YIN elegance that regulates me.
Now go seek out your Yin and let the Horse run, while you integrate your inner world.
