EP 194 WTH?!?: Decluttering Spaces for Harmony with Alejandra G. Brady

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Welcome back everybody. Dr. Greg Eckle. This is what the health today's topic is. Longevity through fun and your environment. My guest, Alejandra G. Brady, who is an award winning book she which bears a title that prepares you for what is to come. I. I just can't make this up is. I love the title of that.

Thank you.

This very successful interior designer, suffering from cervical compression and feeling something was missing in her life, took a pause and launched into a spiritual journey chronicled in the book. Her transformation began when she hired a Feng Shui master to do a consultation on her home as she prepared for the cervical fusion. It was during that consultation that the woman told her instantly that Alejandra would soon follow in her footsteps. Even though Alejandra was in disbelief when she began applying Feng Shui principles to her home, which she's going to share some of those with you today. Massive transformations occurred for her health, her relationship with her husband and her financial outcomes. But much more was to come allowing her to accept these spiritual gifts that began when she first saw someone at her bedside who had just passed over. As she opened her spiritual exploration, amazing synchronicities, astonishing experiences and spiritual ahas just kept showing up. Today, Alejandra is globally sought after Feng Shui consultant. Combining the eastern art of home energy enhancement, her design skills and her intuitive knowing about the clients and the felt energy in their home. She's here to offer her amazing story and some thoughts on how you, you might open up for your own spiritual gifts and the abundant life that awaits you feeling the energy. Welcome aboard.

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

You're very welcome. I, I think this concept of Feng shui, we, we may have heard it colloquially in the, in the vernacular, but what in the world you, as an interior designer, how did you even venture into Feng shui?

I think it was divine intervention. So as I was getting ready for my cervical fusion. So Feng shui is kind of like what I like to call my gateway drug into all spirituality. It's kind of the way it happened for me. So yes, I, I have been practicing interior design for over 20 years at this point over 15. Around 15 at the time that all this started happening. So I'm going to be 57 in September. I was 50 when all of this kind of went down and you know, just really happened very quickly. I had just recovered from a lower lumbar fusion that I had at 47 when I got hit with the news that I had to have cervical fusion. So I've got a nice Plate, it was anterior. So I've got a big plate, titanium plate, with six screws and, you know, cadaver bones and everything else holding me up together. And I was quite shaken. And I was in the middle of doing a house for a client of mine who was way more into energy and spirituality than I was at the time, certainly consciously. Right. And she's the one that. That said it's all her fault. I blame her completely for all of this. She's the one that said, I'm hiring a feng shui consultant to come to my house. And she said she will not charge us travel time because the consultant was coming in from Naples. If she did a second project, you know, would you like a consultation? And I didn't know what it was myself either, but something in me said to say yes. So I said yes. She came to my house, as you mentioned in the intro, within 10 minutes, she looked at me and she goes, you know, you're going to be doing this. And I remember clearly saying, TikTok, lady, you know, let's just tell me what I need to do to get ready for this fusion. I had complete tunnel vision at this point. So she did, and she. When we come into a home, which is what she did with my home, when we come in, we kind of give you a master overview, and then you can go at whatever pace works for you. I actually prefer myself, now that I'm the one doing it, for my clients, to go slowly so that you don't shake up the energy too much and you give whatever it is that you intentionally did a chance to kind of settle and work for you and see how that feels before attempting everything else. So. So I just focused on my bedroom because I was going to be spending an awful lot of time in our master bedroom for after the recovery. Your doctor, you know what I'm talking about. I was in a neck brace, you know, for about six or eight weeks. I can't even remember anymore. At this point, you can't do much. So I wasn't going to be out driving or reading or anything. I was going to be laying in our bedroom watching tv. And I just wanted the room to. To be as energetically aligned with me as possible so that my recovery could go as well as possible. So that was my intention. And when I finished that work, I went into surgery. I had a great recovery while I was recuperating, because, you know, it takes quite a long time. It took me a year and a half to actually have everything fused. So it was a while. I'D shut down my design business, but I started working on other parts of the house and other parts of the plan that she had for me. And as we started shifting the energy, both my husband and I were like, wow, it just feels so incredibly different in our home. And it helped our relationship. The energy just seemed lighter. And we've been married 34 years now, so maybe 27ish at the time, and just felt clear, lighter, brighter, just better all around. So at some point he said, you know, she was right. And I'm like, she was right. I'm gonna have to do this, you know, And I wanted to bring it in to my clients as a modality so that I'm not only coming in and creating a beautiful space because, you know, I can do that. Of course I'm trained to do that. But why not also make it energetically aligned and help you live longer, happier, healthier, as productive as you can be, as prosperous as you can be. Like, why wouldn't you want that, right? So I reached back out to her, and she took me on as a student. So I stayed with my design business closed until I graduated and certified and got certified in feng shui. And now I do it, you know, in combination with the interior design. I also just recently got certified in biophilic design, so I'm adding that modality now, too. Wow, that can be a whole nother podcast indeed.

Well, it.

The.

Okay, well, we'll. We'll. We'll come back to that second part. On the first part on the feng shui, tell us about this practice. Like, where does it come from? What does it mean? What is it?

It is a very ancient practice that comes from China. It is where it originated, and there are several schools of feng shui. I do want to make sure that people understand this, because one of the most common questions I get is, well, I did X, Y, and Z, and then I read over here, and it's, you know, they conflict. And there are at least three or four main schools. So what I would suggest to everybody is find some practitioners that you like what they're saying, especially, like, on social media, and then figure out what kind of certification they have and then follow that kind of certification, because otherwise you can get conflicting information based on the different schools of feng shui. I am certified in BTB feng shui, which is the more westernized approach, because the. Even though I do consultations around the world, the majority of the homes have Western layouts. So that is what I am used to working with, and that is what I'm most comfortable working with. So I just want to make that clear so people understand. But it originated when the emperors wanted to find the most auspicious place for their burial sites, for their temples, for their homes. And they sent out people to kind of look at the landscape and see, well, where are things growing, where are things thriving, you know, what. What is working here and why? And so maybe that is where we'll build something. So a super easy way to understand it is if you see a mountain and you can have one of three spaces to build your house, your temple, your whatever. The very top, the middle, or at the bottom alongside the riverbed. Well, it seems everybody would go, oh, at the top, right of the view. Like you always think of that. You know, you go to Colorado, you, we just came back from Aspen, you're in Park City, you know, oh, at the top, so you can see everything. It's like. Well, yes. However, unseen forces like gale winds can take your house down. If you do it at the very bottom, right next to the riverbed, seen forces like water can rise up and wash your house away. So the answer is actually that sweet spot in the middle where you are protected by the mountain and still have access to the water, but it's not going to take your house away. So fung means wind, which translates to energy and unseen energy. Wind is unseen. Right. We don't see the wind, but we feel it. And shui is water, so it's more seen and you can physically see the water and the flow. So we're trying to find that sweet spot. No matter what the space is that I am working on, whether it's an office building, your desk, your home, whatever, your bedroom, we're trying to find that sweet spot of what do we need to play with in here to get the energy aligned so that it is most beneficial to the people living in that house. And everyone's space is different. What works in one house will not work in another. And so the individual consultations are where you're able to find out what's going on with the people in the home and then work on that.

Got it. And you see appreciable change. One, you can feel the energy, and then two, there's outward changes that happen for people in their lives. Will you share some stories around that? Of what?

Sure, I'll. I'll share a really quick one. Actually, I'll share two. One is about me. My recovery was seamless. Everything went really well. Suddenly, stuff that felt stagnant stopped feeling stagnant in our home. And it kind of led me to be curious about other spiritual modalities because this was just doing wonders for us. So I started meditating. And then it was during the meditation, very early on, one of my very first meditations, that I said, okay, so what. What is my purpose now? You know, how am I going to combine all of this? And I got told I was going to write the book. So because I feng shui my house and I align the energy of my house, the messages came through to me, and now the book exists. I don't think it would have ever existed had I not done that. I also, in all honesty, I just got told. I did another interview a few days ago, and the practitioner, the person interviewing me, said, there is no way that you're 57. And I'm like, I swear I think I'm aging backwards. Since I've worked on all this energy. I don't know what's going on. But I look at photos of me from 10 years ago, and I'll look at photos from now, and I actually do seem to look a little brighter and lighter and younger. And I don't know. I don't know what it is, but people say it to me all the time. And the other one is a quick story about an older gentleman. I. I don't normally get called by people in their late 70s. That's really not my demographic. But, you know, they called me. I went to their home. They were local in Clearwater, so I went to their home, and I always sit down for about a half an hour at the beginning of a consultation, whether it's online or in person, and just say, you know, what's going on? Why did you call me? And it's usually for health, wealth, or relationships. Those are the three biggies. Sometimes it bears. But those. Those are the big ones, whether it's for themselves or a family member, somebody in the house. And this was about the gentleman. So particularly, he had an oxygen tank. He was attached to it. And he said, I feel like I'm drowning all the time, and I feel like I'm underwater and I can't breathe. And his wife said, you know, I had to move out of our bedroom because I can't. I can't sleep. That machine is going all night long. And he's coughing and choking and, you know, literally choking and drowning. That's what he sounds like. So I said, may I see where you're sleeping, please? We went into his room, and again, because he's older and he's also in Poor health. He slept a lot. So it was more than just seven or eight hours. He was in that room a lot. Let's say 10, 11 hours. And right above his bed was this beautiful oil painting of a canal in Venice with a gondola. So I asked, tell me about this. Oh, we love it so much. It was an amazing trip. It was very expensive. I'm like, okay, I'm hearing all that. However, where can a human being not breathe, need oxygen, and feel like they're drowning underwater? What are you sleeping under underwater? You know, so they're like, well, no, we can't get rid of them. Like, let's not get rid of it. Let's move it to an area where water may be more auspicious, which is towards the front of the house by the front door. That is the career area. And we can get into that and we can do a walk around, you know, the bagua map, if you want to. Um, but I just said, let's just move it and let's just give it two weeks. That's literally the only thing I moved in their entire house. I said, give it two weeks. You've got extra time with me. Because I wasn't there for the full two hours of consultation. I'm like, I just want to do this one thing and see what happens. And I am happy to come back. You know, you can always call me. And so two weeks later, I was doing another consultation in the area, and I asked if I could stop by, and I stopped by, and he's playing outside in the front yard with his granddaughter. No oxygen in sight.

Wow.

And it was that fast. And I love to use that example, because, one, I was like, wow, this really worked. And this really worked fast. So that was pretty amazing. But two, because that is how literally close you and your environment are to each other. You know, we are linked. We are a reflection of our home, and our home is a reflection of us. That's just the way it works. I was on Instagram a few minutes ago, and I just want to share this with you because it's really funny. And I'm like, this is exactly it. Somebody posted online. I love feng shui, because sometimes when I'm having a bad day, it's nice to know it's the credenza's fault. You know, it's like you are connected. The way that your house is showing up is how you're showing up, and vice versa. So I'm like, oh, that just made me laugh. So I'm always working like a Little detective to see what's going on in your home. Like, what is your home trying to say to me? That's my superpower. I can talk to your home, and I can see what's going on. And the bagua is associated with body parts. It's associated with elements, it's associated with colors. So we can use this tool in so many ways to see kind of what's going on in someone's home.

It's, you know, it's super fascinating because I'm a Chinese medicine practitioner, and I've said, you know, in the. In the tenants is you are in the universe. The universe is in you, or you are the universe, the universe is you. And this concept of a fractal nature of what's represented, you know, what's internal is external. What's external is internal. And how environment influences our health. This is such a massive connection. And it might be a reach for some of our listeners and viewers to say, come on, is this real? But it is an ancient art and science, maybe. You know what? Speak to me about just clutter, because I think a lot of folks tend to not think about this and living in a cluttered environment. As I look at my bookshelf over my shoulder, I'm like, oh, I've got some clutter on my shelves. How does that play a role in feng shui?

So first of all, what I'll say about your bookshelf is that at least it's orderly. I mean, if you see behind me, this is my office too. I'm not a minimalist. I'm not saying get rid of everything right now. I like my stuff. I do. And I think it's fine for people to have stuff. It just has to be super intentional. You can point at anything in here, and I can tell you why I have it, you know, and there's a purpose for it. It's not just, oh, it was pretty. Oh, I needed filler. It's like, this is from Sedona. This was a gift from my husband. You know, I mean, everything is super intentional. And it should reflect something positive, too, because, you know, keeping stuff that brings up bad memories also is unhealthy. Right? But I'll try because we could literally have this conversation for about six hours. I could teach, you know, just a whole weekend on clutter. But clutter can be broken down into different categories, right? First and foremost, anything can be clutter. Too many beautiful of anything can be clutter. People think, oh, it's just junk. No, too many plants can be clutter. If you can't take care of your plants and they're dying and they're not watered and now they're becoming more of a headache than appreciating their beauty, it's now clutter.

Yeah.

You know, collections. Oh, my goodness. Collections can get so out of hand and become clutter. Anything that is not. How can I put this? Anything that's an unmade decision can also become clutter. Right. So a pile of bills that you just haven't addressed, piles of magazines that, oh, you're going to get to at some point and read the newspapers. Anything can be clutter. So with that said, clutter can affect you in all sorts of different ways. Clutter. I like to break it down housewise. So let's just say clutter in the attic. And if you don't have an attic, this would be clutter above your eye level, because not everybody has that. Right. So that affects your mind. Mental clutter. So if you are constantly walking on around your home and you're feeling very spacey and just out of it, and you don't feel like you've got clarity, look at what's going on either in your attic, above your garage, you know, above the cars, or on the upper shelves of either your kitchen, your closet, anywhere close to you that you use on a consistent basis and take a look and see what's there, because you may find something there that you're like, oh, this is why I'm feeling like this. Clutter at eye level, meaning countertops, your bathroom countertops, your kitchen countertops, you know, credenzas, you know, as we're just laughing about a minute ago, anything at eye level blocks opportunities coming your way. And it's everyday opportunities. It's not like the big ones. It's just all the different opportunities and can also be seen as obstacles to your everyday life. So that pile of unpaid bills that's sitting on your kitchen counter, you know, that creates an obstacle, maybe not consciously, but subconsciously. Then you get to clutter below eye level and on the floor and attic or not attic, basement. So that's all clutter in your subconscious mind. So those may be unresolved emotions and feelings that you just don't want to deal with and can't deal with. You know, when you go down to people's basements, you probably have a basement, right? In Utah, we don't. We don't have them in Florida.

No, not so much for. A lot of them do. They're livable. People live in the basement here with daylight Basements. Current house that I'm in now.

No. When I go to people with people's homes with basements, it is just amazing what's been down there, I mean, decades. You know, if you've been in a house for a long time and they have no clue what's down there and it's just subconsciously a. It's stagnant. Right. Because it's not being touched or moved or you don't even know what it is. But it's going back to those unresolved feelings and emotions that maybe you can't pinpoint why you're feeling a certain way. And then there's another one I really like to point out. The pile of shoes by the door. Either front or back door. I don't care which one, whichever one you use the most, and certainly the front door. But, you know, when I walk into someone's house and I can't open that front door fully because there's that pile of shoes. So anything that blocks doors from opening fully also is creating obstacles in your life that you have to overcome. Clutter out in the garden, weeds. All of that is choking growth and clutter in your garage. And how many garages do you go up to where you can't even pull the car in? Right. That's also keeping opportunities, especially business ones, from coming into your life. So it's really interesting how clutter can affect people.

Yeah, it's a biggie. It's a biggie.

It's huge.

We deal a lot with neurodegeneration and our patient base and our listeners, viewers. And so really like looking at your environment and seeing it kind of is an outer representation of what's going on in the body and in the mind. So that's really a great outer representation of it. What do you have? You had a map there. You also have developed a deck of cards, I believe. Yeah.

We'll talk about the map first. And just one more last thought on clutter before we move on. Visual clutter, as you were saying, you know, visual clutter can exhaust you and you don't even know why you're tired. But think about a space that you've walked into, whether it's someone's home or a space out and about that makes you feel really good. And look around and see things are probably orderly, you know, and it's well lit and it feels good and there's fresh greenery and there's, you know, just. It just feels good. And then think about a space that has a lot of stuff all over the place, and it's just too much of everything. And if you think about how you're feeling when you're in that space, you're going to feel tired because it just. It's exhausting whether it's your space or not, you know, to be surrounded by that much stuff that doesn't have a home and doesn't have a purpose. So I just like, you know, for people to understand that visual clutter is a real. A real thing and can have real repercussions. So, yes, the type of feng shui that I was trained in, the BTB style of feng shui, we work with a bagua map. And if you go to my website, you can get a free one that you can download so you can start working on it yourself. You don't have to buy anything. So the way that we work with this is we stand at your front door. And by front door, I do mean front door, whether it's the front door to your home or the front door to your apartment, not the apartment building, but to your unit, your townhome, whatever your space that you're in charge of. If you are someone that lives in a home and all you can control is your room, then it's the door to your room, you know. And then we divide the entire space into nine different areas, and these are the nine main energetic areas of your life. So career usually lines up with the front door right around there. And then which way am I going to go? Because I feel like I always go backwards. If I'm coming to my. What's this? For you? What are you seeing? This way.

That's our left.

That's your left. Okay, so to your left, we're going to have skills and knowledge, and then we're going to have family. The biggie, wealth. You know, a lot of people call us for wealth, then fame and reputation. And what this one especially means is how you are seen by the outside world. Not necessarily being famous unless that's what you want, but it's how you're seen. And in business especially. And same with wealth. Wealth just doesn't mean massive quantities of. Of money. It can mean whatever wealth means to you. To me, wealth means I can travel the world whenever I want and do it really well. We just got back from Egypt, so that's wealth to me. To somebody else, that may mean a boat. To somebody else, it may mean a gorgeous piece of jewelry. You know, so wealth means something different to each person. Love and relationships is back here, and that is intimate relationships and family. Relationships and friendships too, then children and creativity. And that can also mean like if you're, if you're like me, obviously I'm not having children anymore, but I gave birth to a book. So it's creativity, it's birthing something new. It's also a great place to work on if you're feeling lack of focus, if you're trying to start a project or can't finish something. Look at this area of your home, desk, bed, whatever it is that you're working on and see what's going on because that helps you focus. And then we finish off here with travel and helpful people. And then in the center of everything, of course, is health. Because if we don't have health and well being, then you know you're not going to get very far everywhere else. And so what I like to tell people, especially when they come to me for wealth, is they're like, just tell me what to do back here. And I go, but it's connected, it's all connected. Yes, you can do something up here to enhance the wealth area and you want to make sure that nothing is broken because broken things in this area equal broke, right? The energy of broke. We don't want that. However, in order to gain wealth, you need skills and knowledge, you need clients, right? So you need helpful people, whatever it is that you're doing. You need people to help you gain wealth, you need health to make you, to help you gain well. And the same goes, you know, all the way around. It all works together with everything else. So I, I want people to understand that so they don't feel like, oh, I'm just going to go put something purple or paint this area of my house purple and everything's going to be fixed. You really have to look at your space as a whole and kind of take into account what's going on in all of these areas. And so that's what I do either with the card deck, because the card deck is basically like me showing up. If you're not ready for me to show up or I can't get to you or whatever the case may be. There are 77 cards in the card deck and by the time you go through all of them, you feng shui your whole house. You've done it. So if you have the discipline to do that, then I think that's a great way to start. And then if you're stuck and you know, can't move forward on something, then certainly reach out to me for a consultation. But it's just a great way to dip your toe in the water and start playing. And a lot of my clients come back and tell me their kids love it and so they'll play a game. Everybody in the house pulls a card and then they give each other a certain amount of time to complete the task and see who finishes first. I'm like, well, that's fun, you know, awesome.

That's cool. Well, wow, th. This has been really fun. I'm wondering if you have any last parting words. I think you were going to maybe pull a card for our listeners and viewers.

Why don't we, why don't we pull a card so we leave you with an actionable step? And my. Other than that, my parting words would say, start at your front door. Always, always, always look at that front door. Because your front door is the mouth of chi. And just like we take nutrients in through our body, our home takes energy in through the front door. So if you are very overwhelmed by everything that we talked about, you're like, where do I start? Start at the front door. Make sure you've got a clean doormat. Make sure that the hardware is working correctly. Make sure that it's in good shape. There's some fresh plants or flowers or something out there that your lights are not burned out because that leads to a feeling of burnout for the people in the home. So those are some very actionable, very low cost steps that you can take to help start the journey. All right, let's pull a card. This is the one calling me. Oh, interesting. We didn't cover this, but this is so true. Do a digital declutter. Remove old contacts, photos, expired subscriptions and emails from your phone and laptop. And then burn a little Palo Santo when you are done to remove any heavy or stagnant energy your devices have collected. Isn't that funny? Out of 77 cards, we pull a declutter. I love it.

That's awesome.

But that's so true. You know, that also is just a whole nother level of clutter. All the digital clutter, right?

Massive, massive.

So just as important to do a digital decluttering. You know, pictures of old boyfriends and girlfriends and anybody that's no longer in your life. Purge. Purge. You don't need that to come up in a Facebook memory or anything else when you know you've moved on.

Indeed. Well, we're going to put all of your contact information in the show notes, everybody. If you love today's show, give us a thumbs up a like a comment, get out there, give us a five star review. And what you're going to do, you're going to take us up on this, decluttering your technology. I. I think that you should, because that was the card for us today. Alejandra, thank you so much for coming on. What? The health.

You're so welcome. This was fun. Thank you.