I remember when I was 18 my mother told me about a workshop she’d attended on “consciousness raising.” She explained the exercises they went through and one that was particularly illuminating for her. She said the group leader asked them all a question she was going to ask me. I had been half listening (I know, I know, that was rude, but in my defense, I was 18 and probably thinking about graduation or my boyfriend or what I was going to wear to Saturday’s cookout). In short, I didn’t know how serious this conversation was going to become. So I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Sure.” She sat up in her chair and leaned in toward me and asked, “Who are you?”

I swallowed. She had my full attention now. This was a question I had been dancing around because I was at a jumping-off point in my life. Finishing high school, on my way to college, deciding if I was going to break up or do the long-distance thing with my then boyfriend, generally feeling petrified and thrilled and anxious about everything. I couldn’t speak. Instead, I burst into tears. I had no idea how to answer her question.

Today — if I could be the wise age I am now but in the body of my 18-year-old self — I would have said to my mother, “Let’s head to my bedroom and take a look at my stuff to find out who I am.” What would we have seen? A madras bedspread. Posters of Paris and Cary Grant. Books on Calculus and Marcus Aurelius. A Joni Mitchell album. Embroidered jeans. A bulletin board covered with photos of my friends. My stuff knew exactly who I was: a romantic bohemian and wannabe Francophile who loved math, folk music, philosophy, and her friends. That pretty much nails it.

We surround ourselves with what is important to us, and we do it instinctually. One of the tenets of feng shui is that our environment mirrors our consciousness. In other words, if we want to know who we are, all we have to do is look around and see what we’ve surrounded ourselves with. Our things reflect “who we are” at this moment in time. Stop for a minute to look at your space and everything in it. Is your stuff telling your story? Is it a story you’re happy with? If you want to change who you are, start by changing your environment.

I practice and study and share feng shui to help my clients understand the power of their stuff — and the power of changing and moving their stuff to create a new story for themselves, if a new story is the goal. Changing and moving your stuff with intention is a powerful way to begin changing your life.

My poor mother was astonished that she’d made me cry. She leapt from her chair to hug me and apologize. We clung to each other for a sweet moment. Life was changing, as it does and is supposed to. My bedroom changed, too. My parents first turned it into a guest room, then an office, and then an art studio. Each transformation expressed the new life they were living in their house without me.

Who are you and who do you want to become? Your house, your office, your bedroom — your space — is expressing the answer now, and it can help you create a new future.

As you’re cleaning your home for family visits and putting up holiday decorations, I invite you to cull old magazines, maps, calendars, travel brochures, postcards, and picture books and save them. Why? So you can go through them later to select images for creating a personal 2016 Vision Board.

A Vision Board is a collection of images that represent your hopes, goals, dreams, and thoughts for a period of time—usually created in preparation for the New Year. The images are mounted on a poster board or corkboard and hung in a place where you can see them every day. Vision Boards are proactive, intentional, and fun. A Vision Board is a powerful communication tool that you can use to speak to your subconscious. Why do you want to do this? Because the subconscious is where your beliefs, feelings, and thoughts reside and ruminate. And, it runs the show!

Who makes Vision Boards? Anyone who wants to plan their year. Anyone who isn’t sure about their path and wants clarity. Anyone who wants to dream big. Anyone who is brave enough to ask for what they want.

Why make Vision Boards? To co-create the life you want in the coming year (yes, you are co-creating your life with your subconscious). Oh, and because they work!

How do you make a Vision Board? Read on.

When you’re ready, go through the collected materials you’ve been saving and remove the pages that have photos of people, places and things that strike your fancy for your future. Give yourself several hours/days to do this when you’re feeling positive. Keep your images together in a folder until you’re ready to mount them.

Then use Feng Shui organizing principles – the Bagua, Five Elements and Yin/Yang balance — to design your Board. Feng Shui uses the seen world—our environment—to help us connect with, understand, and change the unseen world—our thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Vision Boards and Feng Shui go hand in hand using images (the seen) to help us create a vision of the future (the unseen.) With Feng Shui guiding you, you can make sure to balance your vision board for 2016 with work, rest and play.

Come to my workshop, Create Your 2016 Vision Board Using Feng Shui, on Saturday, January 9, 2016 from 1:30 PM–4 PM at the Schlessman Family Branch of the Denver Public Library in the upstairs Community Room. I’ll explain the Feng Shui organizing principles and together we’ll make our Vision Boards. Bring your images in a file folder and I’ll supply the rest of our creation tools: poster boards, scissors, glue sticks and additional publications for perusing for photos.

The workshop fee is $25. Upon registering, each attendee will receive a how-to-get-started list, an outline for the workshop, and a personal phone call to answer any questions about the activity.

If you’re interested in participating, email me at lwgrillo@thrivingspaces.com today!