
We’re all striving for more balance in our lives, as the alternative leads to stress, anxiety, and disease. An unbalanced life is an unhealthy life. Whether you’re a recent grad or a seasoned professional, maintaining equilibrium between your working life and personal time is critical to maintaining balance.
Unlike our grandparents, who sought a certain financial security above all else, the concept of work-life balance is the new mantra after the pandemic.
Everyone seems to be asking: How can I be happy in my career? How can I be sure that my relationship with my family is an enduring source of happiness? How can I live my life with integrity?
The conventional style of effort is masculine in nature and relies only on hard work and exertion to obtain a goal. This blood-sweat-and-tears approach dominated the old corporate American work paradigm and served the workforce well in the Industrial Age, but today’s high-tech, high-touch climate calls for a new plan.
In order to maximize the potential at work, we must approach our jobs with sharper and smarter mindsets. By eliciting intellect, wisdom, experience, and confidence we cut through old work habits and perform at the top of our games. We begin to recognize the value of the inspiration we receive that resides in the present moment. This path will cultivate our efficiency to live and work in balance.

Feng Shui is all about balance and harmony and we achieve this balance by utilizing the five elements. Here are some suggestions to bring this balance into any space:
- Earth – Stones, and plants to enhance the grounding balance of the earth element. Colors representing earth include brown or yellow.
- Wood – Wooden planting boxes, or decorative wooden pieces such as a carving, bench, or bamboo pieces. The color representing wood is green.
- Metal – Wind chimes, planters, or copper decorative pieces. Colors representing metal are white, gold or silver.
- Water – Still or slow flowing water such as an indoor fountain, bird bath, pond, or pooled water from a stream. Colors representing water are black or blue.
- Fire – Candles, lanterns, fireplaces, or an outdoor fire pit. The color red represents fire.
Applying a few changes to your workspace, home, and overall lifestyle choices will naturally promote more work-life balance and uplift your energy and well-being.
Have any Feng Shui questions? Feel free to contact me at michelle@michellecromer.com and sign up for your Power Color or visit me on Facebook at Michelle Cromer Feng Shui.

During

I wrote this blog 7 years ago, a month before I found out I had cancer in my face, and before all the reconstructive surgeries that followed. I am convinced this practice helped me heal and it is now a part of my spiritual and healing discipline. I encourage all of you to simply take your shoes off and walk barefoot on grass, dirt, a beach, and Mother Earth.
Our shoes distort our bodies’ feelings and function and also disconnect us from the earth. We don’t think about this, working in our offices behind non-opening windows, perched high above the earth on steel encased in concrete. We sleep and move in climate-controlled homes and vehicles where we have to look at an instrument to know the temperature outside. Our lifestyle is more like life in submarines or spaceships than on Mother Nature, it seems. Conversely, there’s something primal, damp, sensual, and connective about walking on the earth. Something of mystery. This is the thing I love about it: it redirects my abstract concerns. It plugs my attention into something much greater and more live-giving than the ridiculous flock of worries my mind generates.
Daily Visualization and Meditation – personal power is metaphysical so getting your power back will require internal work. Take a few minutes each morning to visualize your power returning.