Being Present November 2002	Click Here to See Karen's Current Column
	by Karen Deborah Farris

Each month, Karen offers her spiritual insights for "being present" in all aspects of life, by calling upon the techniques of her four guiding principles, MESHE, HESHE, MISON & ORBIT.

Getting into MESHE with Your Home Through Minor Adjustments

MESHE Charting™ is a process that delivers us to a more soulful life. It is an artistic expression of what we want and need for ourselves, while at the same time a path that uncovers qualities of our wholeness. With MESHE Charting we raise our awareness of being in MESHE so that a soulful life can unfold naturally. As our MESHE develops there comes into play a poetic law of life that says, "the reality of subtle adjustments has a profound, outreaching effect on our world."

Nowhere have I found this poetic rule to be more evident than in the house and home we make for ourselves. Regardless of our economic circumstances or where we live, there is always some small movement or change we can make where the ripple effect moves positively, raising our consciousness and effecting subtle and beneficial change.

Have you ever tripped over the same piece of rug for weeks on end, never stopping to bend down and fix it? We are often stumbling over ourselves, be it with action, emotion or thought, not realizing we have the power to stop and create effective change. What a difference it makes the day we finally stop, go to the torn piece of rug, and tape the corner to the floor! Such a choice to act is what I call a Minor Adjustment.

In our homes, frayed towel edges, stained pillow cases, and too many useless utensils in the kitchen drawer, create similar energy obstacles. Some by making us feel bad about ourselves, some by sparking anger or disappointment, and others because they are literally in our way. The best way I know to take stock and see what we are tripping over with our bodies, minds, and hearts, is to get into MESHE with our home. And I like to do that with a walk-through.

I realized one day that my inability to move forward on projects was directly related to the fact that I had no comfortable seating arrangements in my home. I could stand up. I could lay down. But I could not sit. I couldn’t sit up to eat my dinner, watch TV, or work on the computer without getting a headache, a backache or a stomachache. In fact, I had been dealing for years with a long standing neck injury and when I realized the only way I could be comfortable in my house was by lying down, it was like a bell went off in my head. Not being able to sit comfortably in my own home was not only limiting my effectiveness, but was aggravating my injury and having serious consequences on my health. I realized that if I had been missing something so obvious, I could be missing a whole lot more, and that’s how I discovered the walk-through. A good walk-through from time to time can be worth its weight in gold.

Put simply, a walk-through is a process of taking the time to review an area with new and conscious eyes. A kind of inventory. Area reviews are done by breaking large sections into smaller ones. As you’ll see in our exercise today, we’ll be taking the larger issue of home, and breaking it down into smaller individual areas. And the smaller you break things down, the more awareness you’ll have for it.

Setting the parameter of your walk-through is done easily by asking yourself what kind of problems you are having and what results you are looking for. The purpose of the walk-through today will be to create a more soulful living experience, and to attain that goal through Minor Adjustments. You’ll be noticing things from the small to the large that you’ll want to change, but for this exercise I’ll ask you to note and commit to those changes where you can make just the minimal adjustments and still experience an effect. We’ll be Charting the material you uncover with a Mini MESHE Chart, so let’s get you set up for that first.

Follow along and I’ll lay out the process for you.

To make a Mini MESHE Chart, you’ll need pen or pencil, tape and scissors, and three pieces of unlined paper - a large, unlined journal is good, or some computer paper will do. If you have colored pencils or colored fine-tip markers they would be better than a pencil or pen. Putting a little color into things enhances a sense of play. And play is always good when doing MESHE Charts.

On the first sheet of paper, make a circle in the center of the page and then draw five evenly sized flower-like petals around it. Make the circle and each petal big enough to hold one to four written words.

After the initial petals are drawn in, draw a vertical row of circles down the left-hand side of the page. Draw them close together, but not touching. Leave space for a final circle on the bottom, but don’t draw it. These are called Open Circles.

Across the bottom of this same page, make a row of connecting boxes. Again, the size of the boxes need only hold one to four words. Leaving the area under the row of Open Circles empty, draw a row of connected boxes - from left to right - all the way across the page.

Finally, returning to the MESHE Flower in the center of the page, create additional rows of petals, continuously, until you have mostly filled the page.

The Flower shape you’ve been drawing is called a MESHE Flower. On a Mini MESHE Chart it need only be of this small size and it will usually fill up with words only. With a full MESHE Chart, the petals, circles and squares are bigger and filled with colorful drawings and images - very few words are used.

On the remaining two pieces of paper, draw rows of small circles, large enough to hold one to four words each. Make vertical, even rows with a little room between them. It’s important that they are not touching. If you think you’ll have a lot of things to alter in your house, fill both pages.

Returning to the Mini MESHE Chart, write into the center of the MESHE Flower the words, Soulful Home (or any other words that might be right for you). This Mini MESHE Chart will be the tool that you use to note what you want to change and to determine when and how you’ll make the changes.

Squares

On this Mini Chart, squares represent Overall Vision. In order to get a focus for the walk-through, you can first think about your what your overall vision is for your home at this time. As an exercise, think about it in terms of Minor Adjustments. What minor shift would you like to create in your home that would give you great benefits? Pick as many as you like, there are plenty of empty squares for making notes. Here are some ideas I have used myself, or seen others use in the past: Peaceful, Easy for Meditation, Clean, Organized, Warm, Pretty, Safe, Cooking, Family Oriented, Playful, Sexy, Romantic, Dance Theater, Productive, Restful, Healing Space.

Let’s begin the walk-through. Start by entering your home as you would any day of the week. When you walk in, how does it feel? When you enter, is something there to greet you that you absolutely adore? Write into a petal everything wonderful that meets your eye, lifts your spirit, adds a smile to you face, or in some way feels special for you. Starting from the center petals and working your way out. Give each item its own petal.

When you go into a room, perhaps something seems out of balance to you? Or feels awkward, annoying or in some way unpleasant. If this is the case and it is something that you could easily change, write it into a circle on the page of Open Circles. You have two pages of Open Circles to work with, so be generous in filling them up.

Maybe you discover that you’d like to bring in something that you adore to greet you. If this is the case, think of what you could do easily that would shift the vibration positively and write it into an Open Circle. This is the time for you to note those things that you keep telling yourself you want to do; the time to find that annoying flap of carpet and tape it to the floor!

It’s important not to forget the tucked away places, too. Open the closets, look under the sink and check out the kitchen cabinets and drawers. We can forget all the places we have things and stuff that we bump into, that we want to throw out, that we need to repair - and more importantly that we could easily effect if we just stopped for a few minutes and made the change.

Continue through the house entering each room with awareness. Don’t rush and remember to breathe. If you want to break the process into a few sessions, then by all means, do so. Take your time, plan it well so that you can linger in the doorways, surveying your abode with the curious intent of one looking for easily placed change. One of my students did a home walk-through as a three month project. She meditated in each room, asking the room itself for insight. She went well beyond Minor Adjustments, though, and by the time she finished had completely transformed her house from years of dark, painful memories, to a home that supported her vibrant new life. With patience and perseverance, we can all turn where we live into a soulful home experience.

Recap

So, what you like or love-- what lifts your spirit--goes into a petal on the MESHE Flower. And what Minor Adjustments can be done to clear the space, lift the vibration, and effect a positive change, is written into the page of Open Circles.

When you’ve completed the walk-through, get out your scissors and tape, and to cut out all the Open Circles that you filled in. Do this while you are peaceful; sitting under a tree, watching commercials waiting for your favorite show to come back on, or tucked up in bed at night. Do it peacefully and it will be enjoyable.

After you have cut out the circles, put them in a pile. Next, review your squares. Fill yourself with the intentions you chose at the start of this process, then look to the pile and pick out as many Open Circles as you have corresponding empty circles drawn on the Mini Chart. With just a hint of tape, fix the ones to the Chart you have chosen to do first. The less tape you use, the easier it will be remove them. For every Minor Adjustment you make, remove its representation from the Open Circle area, write the finished result into a petal on the MESHE Flower, and replace the Open Circle with another from the pile. Watch what happens as the MESHE of your Soulful Home develops, and the reality of these subtle adjustments creates its outreaching effect on your world.

© Copyright 2002 Karen Deborah Farris. All Rights Reserved.

Karen Deborah Farris is a successful counselor, healer, and bodyworker. For more than fifteen years she has taught extensive workshops based on MESHE, HESHE, MISON & ORBIT as well as many other self-discovery topics.

Farris began developing her integrated bodywork and counseling techniques in 1984 under the tutelage of many prominent doctors and healers throughout the United States.

Her education into the spiritual and physical aspects of the human experience served as the foundation for her own private practice and the development of a new philosophy. She combined her techniques into four guiding principles, which she shares in her book, MESHE, HESHE, MISON & ORBIT: What My Grandmother Taught Me About the Universe. She is currently touring with a companion workshop series, where she creates an interactive environment demonstrating the material from her book with tangible, life altering effects. In these workshops, individuals discover a deepening of their relationship to self, others and the world around them.

Through individual counseling and group workshops, she has taught her results-oriented programs to many different types of people including those confined to mental institutions, substance and food abusers, and generally, people in life transitions, struggling with intimate relationships, or who lack direction in their lives. Karen lives happily with her husband in Southern California. Visit www.MESHE.com.

For more information, contact Karen at: info@MESHE.com

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