There are generally 3 key steps in an Environmental Alchemy (EnA) consultation. Recently, a client was quite frustrated about her tendency to emotionally eat as a result of feeling overwhelmed and out of control after a recent divorce.  This, of course, was metaphorically reflected in her home–enter Environmental Alchemy: 

Step 1: Assessment

The first step in EnA consultation is the Assessment Phase .  The point is to identify the primary underlying stressor in the individual’s life.  This main stressor is often unconscious to the client at the beginning of the consult. Next, we seek to find the appropriate correlating “stressor spot” in the living or work environment as it relates to this dominant life stressor. It is rare for a client to understand how their space and emotions correlate, hence the value of an EnA consultation. Often times, clients will not have a conscious emotional or behavioral complaint when we start working together.  It is most common that they have the simple awareness that their life, or living/working space is not meeting their needs and they are looking to transform it in order to function more effectively.  

It is my job to assess the energetic wisdom of their life and determine if EnA is an effective therapeutic option or not.  If so, in the assessment phase I read the story as the space presents it.  A person’s space tells the story of their life.  When I enter that space and read the story, I am not writing it or making it up; I am simply reading it for what it is.  Also, most often, it is important to recognize the individual is not consciously aware of the story being displayed before them.  The EnA consult reveals this.  Become conscious about your stress and move into a new level of life. 

In case of my emotionally eating client, she came to me seeking assistance for this specifically.  She lives 1500 miles away. I was looking to empower her with as many economical, tangible and transformative therapeutic opportunities as possible.  I had heard her describe her house as a stressor several times in the past and decided to do an analysis as part of her phone consultation.  It worked out very well as part of her overall treatment plan. 

In this case, the correlating stressor in her home was the dining room.  Makes perfect sense doesn’t it? Her emotional, legal and logistical changes over recent months caused a pile up of emotional energy that became unmanageable. Metaphorically the dining room table was one of the key spaces in her life that was reflecting this unresolved stress.  This space intended for connection, family and nourishment manifest as a tangled, disorganized jumble of un-filed papers and clutter.  The way the unresolved stress expressed itself in her life was through emotional eating.

Step 2: Ahh-ha!

The second step in the EnA process the “Ahhha!” phase.  The place where the different aspects in a person’s life line up and a bigger revelation reveal’s itself.  This the example, the fact that my clients stress over the divorce and life changes were indeed affecting her in a cumulative way; causing chaos for her and fueling her need to emotionally eat. The “Ahhha! Phase” is designed to ensure the client understands the message the space/life is reflecting back to them.  As I said, the metaphors are amazing when one recognizes how obvious the metaphor really is. “Ahhha… this is where my unresolved stress is manifesting in my external environment and why.”

The transformation deepens when healing the space becomes a practice for changing the habit or healing the unresolved stress associated with it.  As my client de-cluttered the dining room she also gained the necessary momentum to clarify her food choices while making larger life changes to deal with the deeper recent emotional upheaval.  In this sense, the dining room clutter and the emotional eating are simply symptoms of a deeper stress.  EnA offers a very supportive way to access this information and a very experiential way of resolving the deeper stress. Infact, EnA becomes a form of active prayer or meditation for those whom are willing to embrace it as such. I believe this is when the work reaches it’s most profound level of transformation.

Internalizing the truth (having the Ahhha! Moment) of how the energetic wisdom and their space counsels them creates the necessary emotional investment and motivation to embrace the momentum for the third phase of EnA.

Internalizing it, “Oh I get it! This totally makes sense, I can see the correlation and big picture, time for a change.”  The third phase is Utilizing the awareness as an agent for change to create a simple, straightforward to-do list and time line.   In the example, my client and I created an agreement that she would do the clean up process herself, over a series of days, for a defined period of time until the job of clearing the dining room table was complete.  Here is what she could have said, “I have four days off this weekend. I am going to spend two hours each morning after breakfast clearing 25% of this stress mess from my dining room table.  Then I will take the rest of the day to do what I want.  When I am done with the clutter I will bring in some other elements into the space that I love.  This will encourage my children and I to slow down and enjoy healthy meals together.  I am also going to make the agreement with myself that I do not eat more than 5 small healthy meals per day, at this table when possible, and I will not eat after 6:00 pm”. 

Professional organizers often say that it is common for clients that clean out a closet to lose weight.  Just like going out for a walk and returning to feel better.  EnA leaves you feeling more clear, focused, energized and able to function.  These are the benefits of moving stuck energy! 

Stuck stagnant energy is repelling to our body, minds, spirits and emotions, so what do we do?  We AVOID it.  How?  Generally by doing nothing or more of the same.  Therefore the piles become small mountains on the dining room table and eventually we simply avoid the room altogether.

Why?  All too often its because we are stuck and in a negative spiral of behavior or avoidance of painful feelings.  When energy stagnates in our lives perspective becomes unclear.  At this point we are unable to make a new healthy, conscious choice to replace what is not working because we cannot clearly decipher what the core of the stress really is.  EnA really empowers clear perspective. 

Moving stagnant energy isn’t about will-power, it’s about replacing what does not serve with something that does.  The clients body/being knows exactly what is required to make a lasting change at a pace that is doable and inspiring in alignment with their life priorities. 

The point is to move energy consciously in an effective way that reflects the true values of your life. This is never about a professional coming in and re-doing things for you.  That rarely works. Clearing out the stressors with EnA is a very personal and hand’s on experience.  It needs to be an internal process that is supported by someone that will hold you accountable and yet not take over.

Reducing the stress in your space be it:  clutter, electrical stress, poor use of space, too much or too little, or holding on to that which no longer serves you; allows one to focus, while feeling energized and lighter almost instantly.  In doing this, the deeper, underlying core stressors can be identified and dealt with in an appropriate and effective way.

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