The Goldilocks Paradox of Feng Shui: Too Little Space or Too Much Space

Posted by Tisha Morris on September 29, 2011

Before my recent trip to New York, I had back-to-back clients in Nashville that had the same problem: too much space. I thought this was ironic as I was preparing my workshop materials or New Yorkers who most often suffer from the opposite problem: too little space. Either issue can be stressful.  Let’s take a look.

TOO MUCH SPACE

With my recent clients with too much space, they were both bachelors who didn’t know what to fill the extra rooms with.  But I’ve also come across this issue with many clients – single, married, and even families.  It may seem crazy, but having too much space can be stressful.  No one likes to waste space.  And if your budget happens to be tight, it can also be expensive to furnish too much space.

It is important to use all the space in your house. By underutilizing rooms in your house, you are underutilizing aspects of yourself. Energetically, it is important to ‘fill’ all the rooms of your home. I recently heard a story of a woman who closed off one of the bedrooms after her significant other left. The room was going unused and receiving no energy.  She had cut off a part of herself.

This is not to say that you should go and dump a bunch of junk in a room to fill up the space. Instead, designate a function for the room. For one of my bachelors, we decided to designate an empty room as a study/music room.  He had bookshelves and music equipment in his bedroom that was disrupting his sleep and a misplaced desk in the living room.  We created a new space leaving his bedroom with a more defined purpose: sleep.

It doesn’t take much to fill a space. It could just be a meditation cushion and your ipod.  But it has a function, and most importantly, your energy.

When someone is not taking up all their space in their home, they are not living up to their full potential in their life.

TOO LITTLE SPACE

Having too little space is the more common problem.  When we have too little space, we are allowing other things to take our energy. If you live in a small space, then you are at a time of your life where you must be extremely efficient with what you allow in your space.  You are forced to be a minimalist.  Otherwise, you will be feeling claustrophobic with the walls of life coming in on you.  You might be feeling stagnant with no movement in your life, feeling like there’s no way out, or feeling like you can’t move.  Choose minimalism instead.

Here’s where to start…

It is essential to weed out anything you no longer love or use.  This is the definition of clutter.  To break it down even further, you must get rid of anything that no longer serves your highest and best interest.  This could be anything from old papers to furniture. There is no price tag on furniture.  When you allow clutter into your space it is the same as allowing other people’s unwanted energy into your energy field. It is a boundary issue.  This includes storage units! (One exception is if you are traveling or in transition.)

Unlike the person with too much space who is not utilizing all his energy, the person with too little space is giving his/her energy away to others for the taking. Either one will show up somewhere else in your life.

Like Goldilocks it is important to find the amount of space that is just right for you. Some people prefer vast space and others prefer more cozy spaces.  Find what works for you and fill the space with your energy consciously and deliberately.