Feng shui lessons from a puppy.
If you’ve ever been in one of my classes, you know I always bring up my puppy girl, Princess Baby Charlotte. We adopted Char last summer when she was 8 months old. I still cannot comprehend how someone could give her away. Their loss.
When we first got Charlotte, I noticed right away that she had trauma. She’d been dumped with a large, aggressive dog who didn’t even let her eat. Who knows how long she was out on the streets. As a puppy! She had to grow up fast to survive. Girl, I feel you. Char and I had a lot in common, and the inability to play was one of them. We were survivors. We didn’t have time for play. Or at least we thought we didn’t.
I knew adopting Charlotte would heal me, as cheesy and on-trend as that sounds. But it’s true. We were going to learn how to play and be at ease together.
What I didn’t expect were the Feng Shui lessons hidden in this fluffy pupper.
1. Stagnant Chi = Dog Hair Tumbleweeds
Stagnant chi is energy that doesn’t move. It’s low vibration, makes you feel sad, tired, and drained. Over time it compounds into depression and a lackluster life.
Dog hair tumbleweed rolling across the floor? That’s stagnant chi. Time to sweep it up and get the energy flowing again.
2. Rushing Chi = Puppy Zoomies
If your pup skids down the hallway chasing a ball and nearly flies through a glass door, you have rushing chi.
Rushing chi feels like opportunities that speed into your life and then right back out again. Think runaway runway.
Solution: toss down a rug, slow it down, and keep the good stuff from slipping away.
3. Blocks = Broken Plants and Wobbly Furniture
When your dog crashes into a plant, knocks furniture around, or gets dangerously close to breaking something, you’re looking at blocks.
Bulky furniture crowding walkways, plants in the middle of paths, or fragile heirlooms stressing you out every day—it all creates subconscious warfare. Blocks cut off the life force of your home and fry your nervous system with cortisol. Move the breakables out of the danger zone. Your home (and your sanity) will thank you.
4. Play = Medicine
Char didn’t know how to play, and truthfully, neither did I. I was never a get-on-the-floor-and-play mom. Joy for the sake of joy wasn’t on my list of daily priorities. But when we adopted Char, that had to change. Play became our medicine. Silly was in style. Belly rubs made the walls come down.
Our personal chi matters as much as the energy in our home. If we’re negative, our home holds that vibration. Energy is sticky.
Treat yourself well—joyful movement, eating well, speaking with love, paying attention to what you consume—and you prime your home’s energy to work even better. Otherwise, we’re just cleaning up messes while letting the same old patterns roll back in.
5. Redirect = Reduce Frustrations
Training a pup means redirecting them. My trainer said, “Make sure she knows what no means, otherwise you’re just creating little frustrations that build into reactivity.” Same thing in your house.
Think about the pile of shoes you step over, the sink full of dishes that greets you in the morning, the closet light bulb that’s been out for 3 months. These little frustrations add up and turn into big irritations at work or with family. They wreck your nervous system and create reactivity.
Pick up a little each day. Do the dishes before bed. And for goodness’ sake, take a weekend to knock out the burnt-out bulbs and nagging repairs. You’ll thank yourself later when your life feels lighter tenfold.
Princess Charlotte
