Mind, Body, Home: Transform Your Life One Room at a Time (24 page)

might also see a gap between the home and front porch or a gap be-

tween the bathtub and tile splash around it.

The front section of this particular house had settled quicker than

the rest of the home. Previous owners had remedied the problem by

putting extra supports under this portion. Nevertheless, the front door frame remained slightly off, causing a structural and energetic mismatch around this area. Not coincidentally, one of the areas of personal
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growth for me while living in this house was the importance of build-

ing a strong foundation in personal relationships, which carried over

into other areas of my life as well.

Just like ourselves, no home is perfect and many homes have or have

had foundation problems. The important point is to be conscious of

your home’s foundation. Because the foundation of your home affects

the entire home, it is structurally the most important part of the house.

An unstable foundation in your home can lead to uncertainty or insta-

bility in other areas of your life.

If you knowingly buy a house, perhaps a fixer-upper with a founda-

tion issue, then know that this is your opportunity for transformation.

Avoid purchasing a home with foundation problems without the intent

of remedying the problem. Ideally, select a house with a strong founda-

tion. This will carry through into your life. It is always easier to walk on smooth pavement than gravel. This is the same with the foundation of

a home. A home with a strong foundation will help you build strong

foundations in every area of your life.

Mind Body Home Connection:
Foundation

• What is the topography of the land? Is it sloped or flat?

• What is the ground composition, i.e. sand, dirt, clay, etc.

• How deeply rooted into the Earth is the foundation of your

home?

• How well do you handle the “storms” in your life?

• Do you feel like you have a strong foundation or support system

in your life?

• Do you feel supported?

• Do you feel grounded or do you feel like you’re walking on un-

steady or shaky ground?

• How well do you handle stressful situations or events?

• Are you anxious for no reason or over small things?

• Have you undergone or are undergoing a major breakdown or

foundational shake-up in your life?

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• Has your home been remedied of foundation problems prior to

you living there?

Basement

A basement is generally defined as that part of the house that is below or at least partially below ground. Basements are, generally speaking,

either built out to be living spaces, concreted in, or left as the natural earth. Unless a house is built on a slab or has a crawl space, then the basement directly connects to the ground. The basement is usually accessible from the main living floor, but not a frequently trafficked area of the home. It is the metaphorical action of walking down stairs to access the basement that makes it energetically unique to all other floors in the house.

The subterranean basement
represents our subconscious mind and

suppressed emotions. It is most closely related to the 2nd chakra, which is also the area in the body where we store suppressed emotions. On

the mental level, our subconscious mind is a vast space where we store

lots of information, memories, and emotions. Although we can access

our subconscious mind, we often are not aware of what is down there.

Perhaps this is similar to your basement.

While our subconscious mind processes an impressive amount of

data 24/7, it also happens to be where we store our perceived faults

and shortcomings. These are often referred to as our subconscious

minefields, blocks, or saboteurs. These subconscious blocks are usu-

ally based in negative beliefs about ourselves that stem from childhood.

Common beliefs often include not being good enough, pretty enough,

smart enough, athletic enough, or any other “not good enough” nega-

tive message picked up or perceived over time.

The more aware or conscious we are about our subconscious be-

liefs, the more aligned we will ultimately be with the life we want. For example, if you consciously want a certain job, but subconsciously

don’t think you are good enough for the position, then you most likely

won’t get the job. Right in the middle of the interview, your subcon-

scious minefield will trigger and you will say something that sabotages
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the interview. Or maybe you simply come into the interview without

adequate self-confidence, which gets picked up by the interviewer.

Our subconscious mind can also save us at times as it also holds our

positive truths as well. Perhaps you think you want the job, but sub-

consciously you really don’t or maybe it’s simply not in your best interest. Your subconscious mind will try to get your attention in some way.

What appears to be self-sabotage, for example, showing up late or not

sending in the application at all, may really be your subconscious sending you messages.

What’s Really Down There?

So you may be wondering what this has to do with your basement?

Whatever you are storing in your basement has a direct correlation

to what you are storing in your subconscious mind. We usually store

things in our basement that we do not need to access frequently, or perhaps ever at all. We often store things in the basement that we don’t

want to deal with at the time. And then there are those functional items that we only need occasionally. But for the most part, we put stuff in the basement that we either don’t have space for in other parts of the home or want out of our visual sight. Nonetheless, all of the stuff in your basement is stored in your subconscious mind and energetically in

your body on some energetic level.

If you want to know what you are storing in your subconscious,

take a look around your basement. First notice the overall quantity and arrangement of stuff in your basement. Is it neat and organized? Or, is it so messy you don’t even know what’s down there anymore? Notice

the type of items you store in your basement. Do they tend to be mem-

orabilia, pragmatic tools, or remnants of old hobbies? Do you store old photo albums or yearbooks? Or are you storing things that you no longer even need? Is the basement where you store items that are difficult to let go?

The basement is a common place to store items that relate to an old

identity. An identity that no longer relates to our current life can be energetically held and prevent us from moving forward in life. The energy
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around an identity can be stuck by simply holding on to items relating

to that time of life. For example, an old varsity jacket may remind you of an era in which you were youthful, popular, or an athlete. A photo

album full of pictures could represent unresolved feelings and identity around being a wife, grandchild, basketball star, or a girlfriend. Or your grandmother’s old piano may remind you of when you were a child.

Whether you need to get rid of items in your basement depends on

you. Do you dread going down into the basement? If so, acknowledge

why. Acknowledge what feelings are associated with items that you are

holding onto. Be as objective as possible as to whether that item is holding you back, anchoring you to the past, or if it simply doesn’t make

you feel good. Be conscious of why you are keeping an item. If it is still serving you in some way, then continue storing in the basement. Otherwise, it may be time to let it go.

What if your home has no basement, or just a crawl space? You,

of course, still have a subconscious mind, but you may not be storing

as much stuff as those with a basement. In other words, everything is

forced to come to the surface to deal with in present time. My client,

Terry, was renting a guesthouse with no basement or storage space.

The entire year she lived there, she was purging her past by clearing out items she once stored away out of sight. She was forced to face her past as there was no place to hide it any longer. By the end of the year, she had completely purged all that she needed to release.

You, Me, and Dupree

The basement can often become a place of refuge for other people’s

stuff, such as items left by previous owners, inherited items, your children’s stored items, or god forbid your neighbor’s junk or ex’s left-

overs. Unless a clear boundary is drawn stipulating how long and why

someone is storing items in your home, then it can represent a lack of

boundaries altogether. By storing other people’s stuff, you are allowing other people to take your energy.

I was guilty of this myself when I naively purchased my second

home. It had a dirt basement that came with multiple previous own-

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ers’ leftover junk. As much as I loved the house, I dreaded going into

the basement and always felt unsettled with what I was living on top

of what lied beneath. During the five years I lived there, I never really knew what was down there besides the few square feet I had taken up

just at the bottom of the stairs with paint supplies. Having other people’s stuff in my basement was representative of how I allowed other

people to impose or influence me without setting adequate boundaries.

I was allowing people to take up my space (my energy) with their stuff

(their energy).

This became clear to me when I was getting ready to sell the house

and had to clean out the basement. For two days, I worked under-

ground in this basement to clear out decades of emotions that had been

stored in this home. Although most of the stuff wasn’t even mine, it

was as if I had cleared my own subconscious mind of anything old,

decrepit, musty, and unused. It was truly a dirty job and I emerged out of the dark basement into the light as a different person. The house felt amazing and I wished I had done it much sooner. From then on, I was

much better about setting boundaries, taking up my own energy, and

making sure my future homes were clear of the previous owner’s stuff

before taking possession.

The lines get a little more blurred when it involves family mem-

bers. We want to be generous and considerate of our family members’

things. But it can come to the point to where enough is enough. I see

this often with clients who are storing things for their children in case they want items later in life. At the same time, they are storing inherited items from their parents for themselves or siblings. Before they know

it, they feel like the walls are coming in on them. So while you want to be considerate of family members—dead or alive—you must also be

aware of what is in your best interest as well. Don’t become your fam-

ily’s dumping ground for guilt-ridden items.

Basements and Flooding

On the weekend of May 1, 2010, Nashville experienced massive flood-

ing that, according to records, happens once every thousand years. I

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lived in Nashville at the time and saw first-hand the devastation. For the week following the flood, Nashville ominously had the sunniest, driest

week that blessed Nashville with the ability to dry and clean out. Thousands of people were forced to come face-to-face with the contents of

their basement. The yards and streets looked as if houses had purged

all of their belongings as the contents were either lying out to dry or stacked for trash pickup. It was appalling to see just how much stuff we as a society have accumulated and how needless it really is at the end

of the day. This was a startling lesson for so many people as we drove along the streets simply grateful to be alive.

As a result of the flood, there was a massive clearing of old subcon-

scious beliefs across the mid-South. Nature forced thousands of peo-

ple to declutter their basements and to face their shadow sides lurking within their subconscious. This was the case with the city of Nashville itself as so many of its landmark buildings were cleared out after the flood.

Even those who didn’t sustain damage were inspired to clean out

their basements as well. In the months and years following the flood, I spoke with many people who expressed how much better they felt after

they were forced to clean out their basement. For some, they said it was the best thing that could have happened as they feel so much better as a result of the clearing. The more recent flooding on the East Coast as a result of Hurricane Sandy most likely had similar effects for those areas that underwent extensive flooding.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

Another possibility is that you have found other creative locations to

store items that you would otherwise store in your basement. If your

home doesn’t have a basement, then consider where else you might be

storing items that could hold the key to unlocking your subconscious.

Is it in the closets, garage, or storage shed? If so, read on to see what section of the house those areas signify. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not affecting you. In fact, the more you try to hide it, the more in denial or out of touch you are with your emotions. Storing

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items in off-site storage, a friend’s home, or your ex-husband’s home is detaching from an aspect of yourself and giving your power away.

There are of course transition times in our life when storing off-