Are You an Action Taker?

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Karen Wallace, the creator of an on-line magazine you’ve heard me mention before, The Calm Space. I wanted to talk to Karen because I love what she has created. There are many on-line magazines out there that offer something similar, but somehow I feel this one stands out, and I wanted to understand why by finding out more about Karen.

Having created a magazine with the name ‘Calm Space’, you might expect that Karen is someone who loves to sit and meditate and who is very calm herself. Yet that’s not the case. Karen admits that she finds it very difficult to sit still and calm her thoughts. She gives some great tips on how to do ‘active meditations’ for those of you who do find it difficult to meditate and be still. The good news is – you don’t have to be still to meditate!

After talking with Karen I think what makes her site unique is that she doesn’t just provide information – she encourages and helps people to take action. I knew right away that’s why I was drawn to her and to the Calm Space. You might think that the key to your life becoming less chaotic, to you having everything figured out and feeling peaceful inside is to just become calm, but that’s not it at all. As Karen says “nothing happens if nothing happens.” In other words, you have to take action if you want things to change. You’ll never become calm if you don’t take action to get there.

And what does being calm mean anyway? It simply means to quiet the mind. It doesn’t mean to do nothing. Calmness and peace come when the mind stops working overtime. We create our own stress by constantly thinking and worrying and analyzing a situation. With our constant ‘what if…?’ questions.

All the information in the World will not help you if you are not willing to act upon it. So often people complain about the way things are, they say they want things to change and yet, when provided with the information or action steps that can help them, they do nothing. Sometimes it’s easier to say this is the way things are and there’s nothing I can do about it, which is victim thinking, rather than admitting that the responsibility to change things is yours.

The only way you can change your life situation is to first change yourself. Admittedly, that’s not always easy to do, and it’s certainly not comfortable to do, but it is necessary if you want anything in your life to change.

People often turn to Feng Shui because they want things in their life to change, and they see it as a potentially easy solution. “If I just hang a wind chime in my wealth area more money will come.” Yet what they don’t realize is that their home is simply a reflection of them. The reason Feng Shui is so powerful is because it helps you change what’s going on internally. But you don’t have one without the other. The reason Feng Shui works is because it helps you change yourself.

I think that probably the reason many people resist taking action to change themselves is fear. They’re afraid of what they’ll find, or afraid of the pain that will be uncovered. And it’s true, as you work on yourself to change your beliefs and unhealthy emotions you may well uncover things about yourself that you don’t like, and some of the old emotions may be painful to let go of. But what I do know for certain is that if you try to ignore them and keep them buried, they will not only continue to affect you and everything that you do, but your life situations will get progressively worse and your mind will feel more chaotic until you do deal with them.

So if you’re hesitant to take action it’s important to know as you do this work that support is out there. People like Karen are creating support systems where you can learn the information you need to help you change and grow, and learn from others who have been through what you’re going through. When you share what you’re feeling and going through, you help others who are going through the same thing, and you allow others to be able to reach out and support you.

I thank Karen for taking time to talk with me, despite just getting over the flu and having a nasty cough – but then she’s an action-taker, she wouldn’t let a little thing like the flu keep her down!

Tags: Feng Shui, Feng Shui Balance, Feng Shui Home, Feng Shui Life, Feng Shui Success, Life Balance