Feng Shui for Neurodivergent Minds

Hey guys welcome to the Learn Feng Shui podcast where you'll Learn Feng Shui from a classical point of view taking out the myth and Superstition so if you're interested in learning fun Chinese astrology all things Chinese metaphysics as well as the superstitions and myths that connect it all you'll enjoy learning funu with me hey guys today we're going to talk about Funway for neurod Divergent people hey guys welcome to today's episode I'm Candice Berlanga certified funu practitioner and red RI and professional with International Funway Guild and of course your host to the Learn Feng Shui podcast in this episode we're actually going to uncover how to adapt Funway principles to create environments that support and nurture neurod Divergent needs so what is neurode Divergence neurod divergent or neurod Divergence is a term used to describe people whose neurological development and functioning is different than people that are cons considered typical or what are sometimes called neurotypical neurod Divergence usually includes different diagnosis and conditions like autism ADHD dyslexia different cognitive function neurod Divergent people may experience process and interact with the world in different ways that can affect their learning communication and behavior especially at home you know as a kid I have ADHD I was never diagnosed I grew up in the 80s and when the teacher told my mom that she thought I had ADHD my mom no fault of her own didn't believe her because she had seen uh kids I guess that were super hyperactive and she just thought no you know Candace isn't super hyperactive so can't have ADHD so I've I was never diagnosed but as an adult I understand that I definitely do have ADHD and I am neurod Divergent I learn cognitively different and you know this has impacted my not just my learning in school but it does impact our lives at our home sometimes we have to figure out what is is working for us within our home and how our house can support us remember our house doesn't always have to be this beautiful Zing Garden to have good funu our house one has to be receiving good energy when we talk about that with the flow and the Clutter and all the things but two it needs to support us and by your home supporting you I mean that it needs to be functional for the way you live so let's look at tip number one and it is about organization like I just mentioned organization really is key to people that are neurod Divergent bins buckets and any sort of organizing system is useful when we talk about organization we want to talk more about organization systems that create predictability and less about like the aesthetic view of organizing I recently saw a video of a woman saying that she had just had a baby and kind of as a gift to themselves as this new parents these people hired a professional organizer to come and she felt like all they did was tell her to just buy some bins I saw like a kind of a followup video to that where a professional organizer kind of replied and said that you know there's two different kinds of professional organizers there's one that may come in and they may tell you uh what you need right they'll give you a product list of like things you can buy to help yourself organize versus a person that will come in they'll help you weed down your stuff and they'll help you organize and work with what you're already kind of have on hand and this is the style I kind of like to adapt for myself don't go out and buy aund organizing bins you don't want to go out and buy stuff you're trying to organize your stuff you don't want to add more to your home if that makes sense and when we're looking at organization especially with children I'm going to kind of focus on children here for just a second it really really helps you have organizational systems in place and this can include things like looking at um hanging up hooks or putting storage and Drop Zones right by your door so backpack storage or place a stash it a place that they always put their shoes the place where they always put their jackets that way when they go to the house in the morning one there's not a fight about shoes two there's not this confusion of like I don't know where anything is I know my child is now in high school my youngest and one of the things that works for her is she would always forget her ID badge you know you have to have these ID badges for school or you have to either buy one or sit in detention she got tired of spending money she learned very quickly and she hung it right on her door knob and so she just puts it in the exact same spot every day and grabs it every day and so kind of that predictability also is here on my list predictability ility about where things are is going to help a lot with neurode Divergence and another thing that has helped her tremendously when she was little was that I would organize five days worth of clothing for her we started doing like a Sunday we would do laundry and then we would go through the week and kind of I would have her give me some input on the outfit she wanted to wear that week and I would typically pick more than five just so she would have an extra option if like we got to the end of the week and there was only a dress option left maybe she didn't want to wear it that day she could just picked the other outfit that was already kind of matched up this helped really well for kind of having her just get ready very quickly in the morning she's not a morning person and so just having her get up grab her little outfit in the morning and put it on as well as just grab her shoes and backpack going out the door it was the perfect solution for us so you know kind of get creative on the way you organize your kids things but typically predictability is a really good thing with children whether they're neurod divergent or not so that brings me to my next Point make sure you can see the items when my daughter was younger I would go clean her room up I would do a deep clean I would clean everything and so that involved moving everything off of the surfaces and when I would do that she would always tell me I can't find my stuff when you clean my room mom even though I would try and organize it in a space where was all together it wasn't one the predictability for her and twoo she couldn't see it and so don't hide your items you know there's nothing wrong with having organization bins or stuff like that out on a table where they can be seen because honestly you don't want to hide your stuff from yourself uh because then you won't be able to use it you know you want to be accessible and so when you're setting up these systems do make sure that they're accessible and you're not hiding stuff from yourself when we're talking about like bathroom habits and stuff like that you want your kids to be able to see their toothbrushes see their toothpaste you know see their socks their undergarments their clothes and you know I do suggest just looking up some organizational systems on YouTube on Tik Tok wherever you watch videos because those professional organizers can be very helpful in kind of showing you these systems that will work for you but again just implementing some systems and seeing what actually works for you with organization can be super super helpful so the next thing I want to look at is lighting and so when we look at lighting again I know I've done a whole show on it I've talked about it before and we'll talk about color in just a minute and color lighting but let's just kind of talk about low lighting versus high bright lighting you know we want to make sure that it's not too overstimulating for you if you feel overwhelmed and don't like the bright lighting and it's not too UND stimulating for you what a too Yin or too quiet of an environment and there's no sunlight coming into your home I know there's definitely times of the day in the evening I like it to be dark in my room like as soon as the Sun starts going down I will close all the blinds because I don't like the heat from the sunset inside my house you know it really does get quite a hot my bedroom is actually on on the west side of our home and so I get a lot of the evening heat and so I have room darkening climate controlling type panels that will help absorb some of that heat and light in the evening and so I I definitely get that you know and so again this is more of the uh low versus high or bright lighting and so things like taking out overhead lighting can be helpful you know task lighting where you just have like a desk lamp when you're doing a more kind of low energy activity or you don't need as much brightness can be very helpful and I've know talked about this before also reducing glare and shadows in the room can also be helpful for reducing distractions um and feeling uncomfortable and so I know of course if the sun's just beaming in your face you're going to want to be able to control the lighting in the space and just again doing things like room darkening panels um and uh reducing shadows and stuff like that in the room can be effective also for concentration so you want to make sure you're able to concentrate and the lighting is not distracting another thing we can consider with lighting is bring it in color tones with that lighting when we're looking at lighting you can also think of different color tones that can help either stimulate or reduce the stimulation and different color lighting you know those lighting strips we have nowadays different color bulbs can definitely be adjusted to that which is very nice so blue lighting is supposed to stimulate in the morning and so of course we hear that blue light you don't want to have a lot of blue light at night which is LED lighting on our TVs and electronics so even turning down that brightness on our TVs and electronics at night can be helpful maybe set a timer for that but healthy levels of blue light are best done during the day you know when you're getting ready to go to sleep you want your melatonin levels to be higher so you want to make sure that you don't have the blue light that actually decreases the Melatonin levels blue is also known as the bringer of peace and blue can actually be used to lower blood pressure and calm people down and it can be used for light therapy for people who have those Cadian Rhythm disorders so um it can be used for light therapy if you have trouble sleeping green color is known as a strength provider and Green's the color of nature green light therapy can stimulate the creation and growth of hormones and strength the muscles bones and other tissues and it can help boost your immune system orange is supposed to stimulate creativity and the thought process and help people come up with new ideas purple lights can help reduce emotional and mental stress yellow can be beneficial for depression and red could help with melatonin production color lighting and different color schemes can also help people with Autism so I know there's different color therapies and stuff like that different color bulbs and all that that they actually use to you know stimulate or kind of bring that stimulation down if somebody feels overwhelmed so colored lighting can be greatly beneficial and of course colors can be brought in in different ways you can use it on your textiles in the wall color in your artwork you know paint stuff like that you don't have to just do lighting for the color to be beneficial but you know I feel like lighting is probably the cheapest thing because would you rather repaint your entire room a certain color or would you rather just put a bulb that can do different color changes or color changing LED strip in your room just try and be practical when it comes to looking at color therapy you don't have to change your entire color scheme to get the benefits just change your lab bulb so the next thing I kind of want to address is sound our home supposed to be a sanctuary right I think this kind of goes with when you pick a home you want to make sure that you spend enough time in a home before you purchase it that there's not something wrong with it that really bothers you you know you might not be aware of something certain noises that are happening at certain times of the night or during the day or whatever maybe construction starts and you didn't expect that there's some factors you need to consider also uh before even purchasing a home when it comes to things like Lighting and Sound you know those are things we can't really necessarily control um the lighting more so than the sound but I'm definitely one that's over stimulated with sound and noise and I feel like when that happens it'll be a time where I just like I can't deal with it you know I'll just have to like get away and so having a space within your home that is a quiet space that you can go and you can like decompress can be very Val honestly my master closet in my bedroom it's the quietest spot it's kind of like the center of the home and so it really is the quietest spot in the house it's it doesn't have anything around it and so it typically will be more quiet um also doing things like noise reducing headphones um I know typically you'll see children that are over you know if they're over stimulated by sound or they're reactive to sound especially with autism and of course they'll have those headphones that will you know they're noise cancelling even things like noise cancelling headphones or earplugs can be helpful if you're overs stimulated by sound and it does also help when I'm working sometimes I'll just put on like a rainforest noise or like a white noise to really cancel out anything else that's kind of going on around me so I can concentrate and so uh that's just kind of what helps me but yeah having an area in your home where you can decompress can be very helpful especially if you're over stimulate it not just by noise but even visually stuff like that a area where you can you can decompress will be very helpful to you I promise that brings me to my next point is sensory sensitivity the over stimulation versus the Under stimulation with people who are in Divergent especially autistic I know that there's kind of this spectrum of like some children are very overstimulated and they get very overwhelmed by their environment and some children are very under stimulated and kind of seek that sensory attention you know before I started doing funu I was actually substitute teaching for a little while and a lot of times they would put put me in the special needs classroom to fill in one of the things they would do is for visual stimulation is to have snow globes in it would make them just out of water bottles but put things like glitter or things that move because the kids would like shake them and look at them was it's just visual stimulation for the children and so a visual stimulation can help too I know there's programs on TV that can help with that uh fidgeting toys you know I know when I'm working I usually have a squishy toy and I'll you know fidget with that things like sensory chairs can be very effective I know like chairs that don't tip over but you can like rock in them can be very helpful a rebounder or trampoline uh just small things you can put inside your home can be very helpful and not necessarily having to do with stimulation but more of spatial awareness is like outlining doors and walkways with very visible markers this could be like a line of tape or something like that or even painting as something on the ground that has a visual marker that shows the person either where to go where things stop you know um and I have a friend that she has her spatial awareness is off because of a a brain injury she has to be careful with like stairs and bumps and stuff like that and so she doesn't really see them and it could create a fall Hazard so just some things like that that could help with spatial awareness uh can be very helpful also but that might be a whole separate episode because I could say a lot about that one all right guys after looking at the inside you know there's things we can do on our external environment too of course and this is actually coming from the book designing for autism spectrum disorders um it's really an amazing book for not just autism but for all sorts of neurod Divergence kind of where the idea from this podcast came from also last week I did teach a little bit about biophilic design and say I was going to talk about it some more and so here in the book it does say that uh fostering satisfying contact between people and nature in a built environment is called a positive environmental impact and it supports a biophilic design approach and it does include forms shapes lines colors patterns and textures found in natural material like plants and trees and when it's used in buildings and landscape design they can directly or indirectly or symbolically elicit people's attention and tap into their inherent affinity for the natural environment and this effect can be achieved through the natural lighting ventilation and materials the presence of water and vegetation and decoration or ornamentation that mimics natural design forms and process so ways to implement this are actually going to be like our daylight View and so this is actually just a view we have from our windows I know uh again I'm an avag Gardener but having things like window boxes you know plants flowers stuff like that A View from our window some kind of natural view maybe you have a view of the mountains maybe you have a view of some water maybe have a water feature in your yard you know that's really nice um I think one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen was when we went to Santa Fe and we stayed in this little Adobe in the mountains and it faced the west and every evening we were watching that Sunset and it was just the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen it was it was just beautiful and all that to say that the view you know really really can impact how you feel you know so outside of my back door is one View and outside of my front window actually have a really pretty view of my front yard with trees and so the trees kind of line where the windows go and it makes me feel like I'm in a little you know pretty foresty area right and so the view really does matter and it can kind of help connect you to Nature opening your windows of course you know getting the sounds from the outside the smells from the outside it it can just create a really nice feeling of being outside without having to go outside um especially when there's a nice little breeze um things like a sensory garden can be really nice I know that I've uh put in herbs in my yard and so I have like Rosemary and mint and um of course I do grow uh vegetables my sister's kids really love coming over and seeing what I'm growing so you know and then they can of course pick the mint and eat it and you know pick the Rosemary and smell it so we can use our five senses in the garden seaing areas outside of course you know we want to be able to seat ourselves out there enjoy our view I know I have my chairs where it gets shade most of the time cuz I don't want to sit in the sun of course water features with a little quiet bubbling water can be really nice we don't want it to be too too loud and overwhelming kind of going back to the sensory needs the splash pads and pools can be really nice for kids that want to experience that even things like doing a little sandbox can help with that kind of physical or like touch experience and even if something as simple as adding a swing can actually be very helpful here just kind of talk about putting a swing in for vestibular movement and so vestibular system is actually house in our inner ear I had to look this up and it's responsible for as sending messages to our brain about position and movement of our head so the vestibular system is activated any T our head is tilted upside down or inverted if we spin or go too fast and this actually is common in some people who kind of crave that movement kind of like the sensory Seeker but that is sometimes what we're craving in that movement whether you want to swing or a spin on the marry go around or just spin around I we see that a lot in kids so it is like a movement seeking inside my house I actually do the aerial hammock with one of my forms of exercise so it helps me stretch my body out and it really kind of helps with that calming down and it's almost like a sensory deprivation because when you go fully inside the hammock and lay down all you see is the color of the hammock around you you don't really see what's outside of you and so it really helps with the visual stimulation it helps to calm you down it kind of cocoons you and it does provide a little bit of that vestibular movement and just kind of a sway all right guys let's take a little mid-show break we're going to go to 18 Omens of Good Fortune from World def fun.com thought that'd be a fun one just quick midow plug for Laur funu be sure to go to the website next week will be the energy update and it does have a companion newsletter so you don't want to miss that and remember if you have any questions and you listen on Spotify um you have the option to use the Spotify Q&A and I usually ask like what did you think of the show just ask your fun short question in there you list on Spotify let's go ahead and go to 18 Omens of Good Fortune all right guys so I just thought this would be a fun one from World ofun 18 Omens of Good Fortune believe in lucky and unlucky Omens has always been a universal part of our psyche and like it or not many of us believe in signs of good fortune and impending Misfortune so the greatest leaders of the world believe in it and philosophers think seriously about it while actresses gamblers and celebrities are hopelessly obsessive about it Ordinary People also engage in rituals and wear an infinite variety of charms to attract good luck and we believe in lucky and unlucky days and and even have good luck amulets our belief in unlucky and lucky signs is almost subconscious so much so that we constantly interpret the most commonplace things that happen to us as suggesting either good or bad luck a broken mirror walking under a ladder or getting stung by a bee or dreaming of white tigers each time something remotely out of the ordinary happens to us instantly we wonder if it will bring good or bad luck so here's 18 common events in everyday life that are believed to be powerful indications of Good Fortune now number one when bats nest in your home so this is a powerful indication that the family is about to become seriously wealthy the Chinese regard bats as a symbol of abundant wealth and a circular pattern of five bats is very popular design feature found on furniture paintings and Ceramics the Chinese believe that bats Nest only in auspicious places and they have highly developed sensory parts that are able to smell out places with auspicious Chi the next time bats come in to nest in the eaves of your home Rejoice because it's herold's good fortune and I would argue to say that the bats actually entering your home is bad luck because then you have to get Raby shots so outside is good inside's not so good when someone gives you money on a lucky day it's the shest sign you will enjoy a significant increase in money luck and a lucky day is usually a new moon a full moon day or it can be a day of your animal sign you can also consult the Chinese Almanac to do include lucky dates in my newsletter although I didn't include them for May because I didn't have time so I'll include those for June money can be given to you in many ways and it could be someone repaying a debt o to you or someone giving you an expected tip for some favor performed this is the belief behind their tradition of giving Lucky Money on 15 days of the Lunar New Year these 15 days of the year's first new moon are looked on as days of Miracles so money received on these days are usually regarded as Lucky Money number three when bird dropping land on your head many people believe this to be a major sign of wealth coming from Heaven although it's usually really yucky and a major in convenience when something like this happens you take comfort in the fact that this is described as good luck just being around the corner in fact most things associated with birds tend to spill good fortune and when birds fly to your home and start making nests around your house uh while the bats bring abundance Birds bring good news and opportunity so the next time a flock of ravens pigeons or mag pieses come to your home feed them with bird seed birds are also said to be powerful protectors and Guardians even crows are said to be messengers of God so welcome them with open arms number four finding your initials on a spider web this seems pretty cool all Charlotte's Web but it is said it's to be indication that you will have good luck forever and all your plans will develop to fruition and whatever obstacles may be blocking your projects will be dissolved like the spider you will attract food and money without even trying and this actually happens more commonly than you realize I'm going to start checking spider webs for initials that sounds pretty cool next one meeting up with a snake another sign of Good Fortune it means something or someone coming into your life don't try to kill or harm the snake when confront it and the more poisonous the snake the better the fortune is it does say here the king cobra is described as a snake of extreme good fortune and whatever you do never kill a snake as they are also associated with spiritual presence they usually Slither away themselves as a sense a human presence honestly if I saw a poisonous snake in my home I would freak out I don't think that would be good for me next when your hands tingle it's a sure sign that money either is coming your way or leaving you so General consensus is that when your left hand tingles that means money is coming to you possibly in the lottery win when the right hand tingles it means money is leaving the same interpretation is also placed on hands that suddenly start to itch so if your left palm itches mercilessly rejoice it means you're about to receive your windfall and I've actually heard the opposite I heard that left is leaving and right is receiving so not sure but I've heard that before next when you see a shooting star immediately make a wish whatever you wish for will manifest Within 30 days if you are sick you'll get better if your Luck's been bad it'll turn upside down and if you had a coral you will make up if you lost something you're going to regain it so your luck will turn around so close your eyes and wish when your date of birth adds up to eight so as any remainder so you'll be lucky through the period of eight which already ended it says so too bad for you those with The Gua eight will enjoy Good Fortune through the period of eight so that's over I'm just kidding I'm actually a GU eight I hope it's not over but yeah eight of course is said to be a lucky number when your ears start to itch so many people believe this means someone's talking about you if it's your left ear that means whoever's talking about you is saying nice things but if it's your right ear then whoever's talking about you is saying bad things so next time your ear starts to itch just know you're being gossiped about when butterflies fly into your home this is commonly interpreted to mean that you're about to receive some important guess if the butterfly has bright colors it means a visitor will bring good news and if the butterfly is dark or black the visitor will be bringing good news related to business or career never chase a fluttering butterfly out of your house they almost always bring Good Tidings so don't catch it and inadvertently killing a butterfly will cause your good luck to change into bad so another interesting thing about butterflies it is said to also symbolize a relative that is passed on coming to visit you so next is when a cat comes into your home usually means some kind of bad luck usually black cats signify Treacher and betrayal while white cats signify death golden cats are said to be good luck hidden in bad luck so I'm not sure that I agree with this but it does say in the olden days cats were often associated with witchcraft and bad Omens more Superstition I think so if you put your clothes on the wrong way around on accident it's said to be a sign of extreme Good Fortune it doesn't count if you do it on purpose like back in the '90s do yall remember that crisscross group they put their clothes on backwards okay I tried to explain to my kids while back and they really didn't understand it but I digress this does say it's particularly a good omen for those who have been suffering a spat of bad luck and it suggests your luck is about to change for the better next finding a symbol of good luck like an acorn for Le Clover horseshoe or coin spell good luck coming your way don't throw away the symbol but it does say it's believed if you bury it in a metal box in your garden the good luck will multiply so meeting up with a cow is also said to be good luck it does suggest Fortune is coming your way when a dog comes to stay so when someone brings you a dog as a gift or if it's a stray puppy and it decides to adopt you welcome it into your home a dog entering your home is a very favorable sign and it means you'll have a faithful and sincere friend to come into your life and it will help you overcome obstacles golden dogs are said to bring prosperity and happiness will white dogs bring love and romance hanging a flag so it does say here and when you hang a flag you should make sure it's hung securely and even with daily wind and Sun causing it to flutter the wind the sun caus it to flutter I don't know it says it should not fall so when the flag you hang up falls from the staff it implies dangers coming a flag coming down also means a car accident or a tragic accident but on the other hand when the flag flies proudly and flutters in the wind it brings good fortune and usually Flying Flags indicate Victory number 17 here garden creatures that bring Good Fortune includes insects like grasshoppers lady bugs so if grasshoppers were to hop at your house it means a distinguished person's about to visit you and it could also mean you're about to receive a great honor while ladybugs suggest visitors frogs coming into your home may suggest monies coming to you and then last number 18 when it rains and the sun is shining so obviously creating a rainbow you know the simultaneous appearance of the Sun and rain is a very good sign indeed and this is when you're most likely to see rainbows in the sky indeed when the sun is shining brightly and there's also a rain shower it means that everything you're working on will be successful and you receive the support of somebody important if a son or daughter is born on this day it is a wonderful sign of a great life and if you happen to be getting married on this day it means you will enjoy a very auspicious life all right guys well thanks for joining me on this episode I hope you enjoyed the discussion on Funway for neurodivergent people and I hope this helps kind of provide you some valuable Insight maybe some practical tips helps you create a supportive and harmonious living environment for yourself so do remember that the principles of Funway can always be adapted to meet unique needs of every person and it does help to enhance the Comfort focus and well-being and that really is the goal of fun so anyway you guys have an amazing weekend and you know I'll catch you guys next week for energy update for a free energy mapping of your floor plan please check the link in the show notes to 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