Chapter Seven: Harmonise Environment
What If The Thing Isn't Really The Thing?
Chapter Seven: Harmonise Environment
What If The Thing Isn't Really The Thing?
Look around the room you're sitting in.
Really look.
There's probably quite a lot there that you barely notice anymore.
The picture you've walked past a thousand times.
The chair you always sit in.
The ornament somebody gave you.
The cupboard containing things you haven't used for years.
The thing you absolutely love.
And perhaps the thing you keep thinking you really should get rid of.
We tend to think of our environment as the backdrop to our lives.
But during Chapter Seven of the Energy Wisdom Pathway, we explored another possibility.
What if we have an energy relationship with the world around us?
Because things aren't always just things to us.
A photograph can make our heart lift.
A piece of jewellery can reconnect us instantly with somebody we love.
An old dress can take us back to the person we were when we wore it.
An inherited object can seem almost impossible to part with.
And something we desperately want can represent far more than the object itself.
So Chapter Seven invited us to become curious.
Not:
What does this object mean?
But:
What happens in my energy when I meet it?
And goodness, did that take us to some interesting places.
The Thing Isn't Always The Thing
One of the exercises involved choosing something we desired.
It could be anything.
A possession.
Something for our home.
Something we would love to create.
And then instead of focusing on how we were going to get it, we explored its energy.
One participant chose a swimming pool.
Sounds straightforward enough.
I'd like a swimming pool.
Except as she explored it, she realised something.
She didn't actually want to own a swimming pool.
The maintenance.
The cleaning.
All the responsibility that comes with it.
What she wanted was...
to swim.
Someone else wanted real grass in her garden.
But as she explored the energy beneath it, the grass became something much bigger.
Nature.
Freshness.
Grounding.
Birds.
Butterflies.
Green.
Connection with the natural world.
Another participant wanted a bigger house and garden.
Yet after flowing the energy around the desire, something changed.
She still liked the idea.
Maybe one day.
But the urgency had gone.
And my own desired courtyard, which I'd somehow turned into an enormous project requiring lots of money, suddenly became:
I don't need grand. I want pretty.
Well, that's considerably easier!
A few plants.
Something beautiful.
A little corner that makes me smile.
The energy I was seeking didn't necessarily require the enormous solution I'd attached to it.
Which gave us a wonderful question:
What is the energy of the thing I think I want?
What Is My Desire Trying To Tell Me?
This became even more interesting when I chose something much less material.
Grandchildren.
I've imagined having grandchildren for years.
But when I worked with the energy of that desire, the urgency began to soften.
My family as it is now felt good.
So I became curious.
What was I actually seeking through the idea of grandchildren?
There was something about having somebody young and small to love and nurture.
And then another layer appeared.
Something I really hadn't been expecting.
A feeling of doing a better job second time around.
Ah.
Now we weren't really talking about grandchildren anymore.
We had arrived somewhere in my own relationship with being a mother.
And this is one of the things I love about working with energy.
You don't necessarily know where you're going when you begin.
Sometimes we think the healing is there, but as we channel down into the flow state...
we find the nub.
The desire had become information.
Not:
You must have this thing.
Not:
You shouldn't want this thing.
Simply:
There's something here. Become curious.
Which has left me with another question I think I'll be using for a long time:
What is my desire trying to tell me?
Who Chose The World You're Living In?
Chapter Seven followed directly after our work with aspects.
And suddenly we began looking at possessions differently.
Who bought that?
Who chose this?
Who created that room?
Who filled that wardrobe?
Because, of course, the answer is:
I did.
But which version of me?
The woman raising young children may have created a very different home from the woman whose children have grown.
The person in one relationship may have surrounded herself with different things from the person she becomes afterwards.
Our finances change.
Our work changes.
Our families change.
Our tastes change.
We change.
One participant looked at a sofa that had been exactly right for an earlier stage of family life.
Children.
Animals.
Practicality.
It had done its job beautifully.
But that wasn't the life she was creating now.
She found herself imagining something softer.
More luxurious.
More comfortable.
And I think there's an important distinction here.
We don't have to make the old choice wrong in order to choose differently now.
That sofa supported an earlier aspect.
Those clothes belonged to an earlier aspect.
That room may have been created by an earlier aspect.
So perhaps the question isn't:
Why on earth did I choose this?
Perhaps it's:
Who chose this - and does it still support who I am becoming?
We Don't Have To Reject Who We Were
This became very real for me with some dresses.
There were dresses connected with aspects of me who had actually worn them.
And dresses bought by aspects who never did.
Rather than simply deciding:
Right. These have to go.
I found myself meeting the women connected with them.
The woman who bought the dress.
The woman she imagined she might be when she wore it.
The woman who actually wore another one.
The life she was living.
And something softened.
I could love those aspects.
Thank them.
Understand them.
And then decide whether their clothes still belonged in my life now.
That feels very different from rejecting them.
And perhaps that's something we can carry far beyond our wardrobes:
We don't have to reject who we were in order to make space for who we're becoming.
Sometimes The Box Stays
Now, at this point, you might be thinking Chapter Seven became an energetic decluttering session.
It didn't.
Because then there was Jayne's Grandma's bedding box.
Jayne had this old box.
And she rather hoped that working with its energy might finally help her get rid of it.
Excellent.
Energy flow.
Release the past.
Off to the charity shop we go.
Except...
that isn't what happened.
As Jayne worked with the energy, her relationship with the box became warmer.
More loving.
She realised she actually wanted it.
And so, in one of my favourite outcomes from the entire chapter:
The box stays.
I love this because it stops us turning Energy Wisdom into another set of rules.
Keeping something isn't automatically attachment.
Getting rid of something isn't automatically freedom.
Sometimes flow helps us release.
Sometimes flow helps us change something.
And sometimes flow reveals:
Actually, I love this. It belongs with me.
The wisdom isn't in whether the object stays or goes.
The wisdom is in the relationship.
The Object Can Go. The Love Doesn't Have To.
This connected beautifully with a story from the original EMO teaching about an elderly woman moving into a nursing home.
She had a treasured collection of books but couldn't take them all with her.
At first, letting them go felt impossible.
But as she held each book and allowed the energy to move, she began to separate the physical object from what it had given her.
The paper and binding could leave.
The stories were already part of her.
And I think there is something very beautiful in that.
Sometimes we hold onto something because somewhere inside us it feels as though:
If I lose this, I lose what it represents.
The person.
The memory.
The experience.
The love.
But perhaps the object and the relationship are not the same thing.
Sometimes the object can leave.
And the love doesn't have to go with it.
Your environment doesn't just show where you've been.
It can support who you're becoming.
What Have You Stopped Noticing?
Another part of Chapter Seven involved our homes themselves.
And I think this is fascinating because we become incredibly good at not seeing what we see every day.
Walk into somebody else's home and you notice everything.
Walk into your own and your brain says:
Yep.
Same old house.
Nothing to report.
But what happens if we walk through it with energy awareness?
Not looking for mess.
Not mentally redecorating.
Not making a list of jobs.
Simply noticing.
Where does my energy lift?
Where do I soften?
What do I love?
Is there somewhere I seem to avoid?
Is there an object I walk past every day that creates a response I've stopped consciously noticing?
This isn't about deciding that clutter means something psychologically significant.
Or that everyone should live in a minimalist beige house containing three tasteful cushions and a strategically positioned plant.
Please no.
It's much simpler.
What happens in my energy here?
Because perhaps our environment affects our energy...
and perhaps our environment can also reveal something about it.
Sometimes The Change Doesn't Need To Be Grand
This brought me back to my courtyard.
Because once I'd discovered I wanted pretty rather than grand, the possibilities changed completely.
Perhaps we do this in many areas of life.
We imagine the finished transformation.
The money.
The time.
The work.
The enormous distance between where we are and where we'd like to be.
And then we don't begin.
But what if we asked:
What is the smallest change I could make that would create the greatest positive energy difference?
Move the chair.
Clear the corner.
Buy the flowers.
Open the curtains.
Change the picture.
Bring something beautiful in.
Take something draining out.
Sometimes we don't need to transform an entire environment.
Sometimes one small change alters our experience of it.
And sometimes the Energy Mind is wonderfully practical.
One participant explored the energy around a rather lovely Burberry raincoat.
The resulting wisdom?
Go to Knightsbridge and try it on first.
Not every energy exploration needs to reveal the meaning of life.
Sometimes more flow simply gives us better information.
Let The World Catch Up With You
This is where Chapter Seven began to feel like something much bigger than a chapter about objects.
Because for six chapters we had largely been travelling inward.
Awareness.
Flow.
Perception.
Nourishment.
Events.
Aspects.
Then suddenly we opened our eyes.
And there was the physical world around us.
A world created by all those previous versions of ourselves.
Full of choices.
Memories.
Relationships.
Needs.
Dreams.
Things we once loved.
Things we still love.
Things we've outgrown.
Things we're longing to create.
Perhaps sometimes we change internally before the physical world catches up.
And perhaps there comes a moment when we can begin to ask:
Does the world around me support the energy of the person I am becoming?
Not:
Is my house perfect?
Not:
Have I finally got rid of all my clutter?
Not:
Does my home look like somebody else's idea of a beautiful life?
But:
Does it support me?
That's a very different question.
Seven Chapters
Something else has been quietly emerging as we've travelled through the Energy Wisdom Pathway.
Each chapter seems to give us a new capability.
Chapter One invited us to notice.
Chapter Two taught us to allow.
Chapter Three helped us see differently.
Chapter Four opened our capacity to receive.
Chapter Five showed us we can create.
Chapter Six helped us understand.
And Chapter Seven?
I think Chapter Seven gives us:
Choice.
Because once we create flow and have more information...
we can choose.
Keep the box.
Release the dress.
Change the room.
Leave it exactly as it is.
Buy the thing.
Discover we don't need the thing.
Swim without owning the pool.
Make the courtyard pretty instead of grand.
Change the house without believing we are erasing the person who once lived there.
Notice → Allow → See → Receive → Create → Understand → Choose.
We're moving beyond simply knowing how to work with energy.
We're beginning to use that energy and information to participate more consciously in the life we're creating.
What I've Learned as a Teacher
Every chapter seems to reveal a much deeper understanding.
I thought Chapter 7 would be about objects and environments.
It was.
But underneath that, I think it was really about relationship and choice.
The relationship between an object and the person who owns it.
Between a home and the person living there.
Between a possession and the aspect who chose it.
Between a desire and the energy beneath it.
Between the physical world we've already created...
and the person we're still becoming.
And perhaps most importantly, we discovered that we cannot know the answer before we explore the energy.
We can't decide that keeping means attachment.
We can't decide that releasing means freedom.
We can't decide that wanting something means we need to manifest it.
We can't decide that an old object should stay because it carries memories.
Or go because it belongs to the past.
We have to become curious.
Notice what happens.
Soften.
Flow.
And then discover what we know.
Sometimes the wisdom is profound.
Sometimes the wisdom is practical.
Sometimes the dress goes.
Sometimes the house changes.
Sometimes you don't need the swimming pool.
And sometimes...
the box stays.
Perhaps Harmonise Environment isn't really about creating the perfect world around ourselves.
Perhaps it's about creating a more conscious relationship with the world that's already there.
Honouring where we've been.
Noticing where we are.
And increasingly allowing our physical lives to support where we're going.
See beyond what surrounds you.
Discover what it holds.
Create what comes next.
♡
Let your world support who you're becoming.
The Twelve Chapters
Awaken
Flow
Transform
Nourish
Heal Events
Integrate Aspects
Harmonise Environment
Evolve Relationships
Reunite with the Body
Create
Align Heart, Mind & Soul
Step into Love & Light
Each chapter builds upon the last, creating a pathway that supports both personal growth and practitioner development.
A Gentle Invitation
If you've enjoyed following the journey of our founding Energy Wisdom Pathway community, you might also like my reflections on Chapters 1-6:
https://www.successwith.kim/awakening-begins-with-awareness/
https://www.successwith.kim/chapter-two-flow-energy-wisdom-pathway/
https://www.successwith.kim/chapter-three-transform-energy-wisdom-pathway/
https://www.successwith.kim/chapter-four-nourish-energy-wisdom-pathway/
https://www.successwith.kim/chapter-five-heal-events-energy-wisdom-pathway/
https://www.successwith.kim/chapter-six-integrate-aspects-energy-wisdom-pathway/
To read why I created the Energy Wisdom Pathway click here:
https://www.successwith.kim/why-i-created-the-energy-wisdom-pathway/
And if you're curious about joining a future Energy Wisdom Pathway group, you can discover more about the Pathway and upcoming cohorts here.
Kim Bradley
Intuitive Wellness Guide
Founder of the Energy Wisdom Pathway
Tel: 07970 584851