[LISA LEWIS] The Am I Ok? Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Faith Fringes, the Holistic Counseling Podcast, and Beta Male Revolution, go to the website, www.practiceofthepractice.com/network. Welcome to the Am I Ok? Podcast, where you will discover that being highly sensitive is something to embrace and it’s actually a gift you bring to the world. We will learn together how to take ownership of your high sensitivity, so you can make positive changes in your life, in the lives of others, and it’s totally okay to feel this way. I’m your host, Lisa Lewis. I’m so glad you’re here for the journey. Welcome to today’s episode of the Am I Ok? Podcast. I’m your host, Lisa Lewis. Thank you so much for tuning in. I would like to remind my listeners that I offer a free eight-week email course titled Highly Sensitive People. My email course provides weekly tools that help you feel more whole in a world isn’t exactly made for us and I show you how your sensitivity can be seen as a unique gift and how many others are just like you. To find out more about my email course, please go to my website, amiokpodcast.com. So we are in a new month already, the month of June. June is about summer. It’s about being outdoors, spending time with friends and family, travel and relaxation. Summer is also a time that many families decide to move to a new location, a new home, whether it’s in the same city or same state, or perhaps a new state across the country, or even moving to a new country. So whether or not you are moving or staying put summer is a good time to fix, repair or clean your home, or office. [LISA] Today’s guest is walk us through her approach to creating a home with balance and wellbeing by using a holistic approach, especially geared for highly sensitive people. My guest on show is Megan Montero. Megan is a Feng Shui consultant and traditional healer who specializes on the needs of highly sensitive people to de-stress, renew energies and create peace in their homes. Megan integrates a holistic approach to achieve wellbeing in the body, mind, spirit, life, and home. Her approach includes coaching clients to declutter and organized toward a balance that Feng Shui provides. Megan has 18 years’ experience as a Feng Shui consultant and works with clients in person and virtually. Welcome to the podcast, Megan. [MEGAN MONTERO] Thank you, Lisa. I’m so happy to be here. [LISA] I’m so happy to have you here too. So I wanted to ask you, as I ask all my guests on the show, do you consider yourself a highly sensitive person or not? If so, would you mind sharing a little story about that? [MEGAN] Yes, I’d be happy to. I definitely consider myself a highly sensitive person and I guess discovering or learning about the highly sensitive person trait happened over the years. It didn’t, I pretty much, from the beginning, since I was a kid, I knew I was highly sensitive, but I didn’t know about the trait. I guess I didn’t really know that was something that was normal. So I was always told that I was too sensitive so I got the impression that there was something wrong with me but then over the years I realized that that’s just how I was and that there were gifts associated with being highly sensitive. I learned to work with those gifts and also learned how to take good care of myself and take time out to not get over stimulated and stuff but I didn’t still didn’t realize that it was I guess, a trait that something other people had. Then I had a friend who was also highly sensitive who told me about the book, The Empath Survival Guide by Juda Orloff. That was really helpful for me. For some reason, it didn’t totally and ended up losing track of it. A few years later I was feeling overwhelmed about my sensitivity to crowds. I was noticing a pattern that in Santa Cruz, a tourist town, a pattern that on weekends when a lot of people would come to town that I could actually feel just the overwhelming amount of people in the area and I would get overwhelmed and just didn’t even want to leave the house. So I was feeling confused and frustrated about that. Then I remembered that book,The Empath Survival Guide, and I thought, okay, I need to go back to that book and maybe remind myself that I’m not crazy. So I did a Google search for highly sensitive people and Dr. Elaine Aaron’s website, The Highly Sensitive Person came up. So I read the website, I watched all her YouTubes and her documentaries, and it was just such a huge sense of relief to learn about the tree and to realize that it was a tree and it just helped me so much to then go back, reframe my whole life in a new way. [LISA] Oh, wow. I love that story. I can relate to it so much, especially being a little kid and being told, oh, you’re too sensitive and then feeling like, oh, wait a minute. What does that mean? There must be something wrong with me. Then really learning to hide that part of me until I was adult, a much older adult and then really appreciating my sensitivity. I can’t tell you how many people have been on this show and it’s Dr. Elaine’s work and her book, The Highly Sensitive Person that it seems like everyone who identifies with the trait somehow finds that book and finds her work and their life just shifts so much for the best after reading her material. [MEGAN] It is such a gift. I wish I found it so many years earlier. [LISA] Me too. [MEGAN] I love that you’re doing this and spreading the word because it’s really wonderful. [LISA] Yes. So how did your sensitivity lead you to Feng Shui, Megan? [MEGAN] Well, being a Feng Shui practitioner is a great fit for being a highly sensitive person. So I was interested in Chingong and Tai Chi and in the year 2000, my Tai Chi teacher who seemed to know me pretty well, he handed me a flyer for a Feng Shui workshop and said, “Meg, you’ve really got to check this out.” I had never heard about Feng Shui, but I was already really interested in the Chinese system of Chi through my study of Chingong. Also I’ve been training as an herbalist and learning about Chinese herbs. So learning about Feng Shui was like an aha moment for me. All my whole growing up, I would rearrange my furniture and my little room trying to create order and balance in my life. So all of that just started to make sense and I immediately knew that being a Feng Shui practitioner was my dream job. I had already identified that helping people was something that I wanted to do. I was training to be an herbalist, but actually taking the plunge to train, to be a Feng Shui practitioner sounded pretty far out of reach, because I didn’t know anybody except for that teacher who did it. So it took me a little time to get to that place. But then it was really my sensitivity to space that gave me that courage to take the plunge because I had moved a lot of times. I was learning over and over again how sensitive I was to space and that motivated me to finally call the teacher who would eventually become my teacher that I can train to learn how to be a Feng Shui practitioner and help people in that way with their homes. So Feng Shui is all about being a good listener, being an observer of the space and listening to the space, listening to the people who live there and bringing the balance between the two. So being a highly sensitive person and that’s, I guess, one of my sensitivities is just being a good listener and observing places. I’m very sensitive to space and to places so I can get to put that good use. [LISA] Have you noticed just being a highly sensitive person and maybe working with other HSPs, do you find that most of them automatically like organized and find it unorganized places or a lot of clutter chaotic? [MEGAN] I find that highly sensitive clients that I work with are more sensitive to their space and they can feel it more and how it affects them. I would say though that I have worked with a lot of people who are highly sensitive, who are really great at organization, but maybe they have some areas of their life that are cluttered, that are difficult for them because they can feel the stuff so much. But then there’s other people, it is not like it’s all one-size-fits-all because then I have some other people that work with who are highly sensitive clutter and disorder things as well. [LISA] Okay, and how can Feng Shui help highly sensitive people? [MEGAN] Well Feng Shui, I back up and say a little bit more about what Feng Shui is. Yes, so it’s the ancient Chinese practice of working with our living space in a way that will promote harmony and balance. So it’s a very intricate system of aligning the space with the divine natural order and flow of the universe. If you’re familiar with Chinese medicine Feng Shui is like a branch. It is a branch of Chinese medicine and it’s like acupuncture for your home but with the understanding then the knowing that your home affects all aspects of your life, so the Chinese sages, they’re profound observers of nature and of humans and we’re of course part of nature and they observe that we adapt. Our lives adapt to the places where we live, particular to any space, but the spaces that we spend the most time our homes, we start to our lives, adapt to them. So it’s a system of creating balance between the energy, the Chi of the people who live there and the space and bringing that balance in harmony. So it’s all about Chi is the life force energy that’s inside of us and all around us in nature and Feng Shui is all about balancing that Chi flow so that the place can support health, vitality, prosperity. So for highly sensitive people, of course, I think anyone can benefit from Feng Shui, but highly sensitive people are more sensitive, I believe to space and also that overstimulation with the outside world, it’s like, when you’re this, then you come home to this space, there’s a lot of things about our living spaces that can be very stressful and uncomfortable. Creating a space that’s Feng Shui removes a lot of that and creates a space that’s deeply nourishing and more nourishing, like a place that will truly recharge us. That’s how, I guess that’s part of why I’m so crazy about it because it gave, it helped me so much to feel good in my space and I’m, like I said, highly sensitive to space and to the Chi, the energy and my belongings. So having that space that really recharges me and then I can go back out and do my work and be out in the world in a better way. So yes, I find that highly sensitive people are just more sensitive to space and so they can often, and that’s probably why a lot of people who call me already have that sensitivity. They know that there’s something, when there’s something off in their home, they know it and they can see the connection between how the home is affecting something in our life. So really, our home is a mirror of our life and Feng Shui is a way of you working with that mirror to produce transformation and balance. [LISA] Wow, that sounds fascinating. I’m curious when you go into a home, can you tell right away, when they unbalance, do you pick on that right away? [MEGAN] Yes. I mean, there’s many things that I look at as a Feng Shui practitioner. So certainly, I can see a lot of those things right away. But what I like to do is if I’m working in person, then I get a tour and I like to really look at the whole space together. Or if I’m working virtually, then I use videos and I look at a floor plan. So there’s some things that you can, that it’s more of a visual and some things that’s more of a feeling. Then some of it is listening to the person and what’s going on in their life and finding out what their goals are. Usually, people ask for help because they’ve got something in their life that they’re wanting to change or they wanting help with and maybe a challenge. So usually, you can find that pattern in the space, so yes, there’s a lot that you can see right away. [LISA] Can you give us an example of what would be like a challenge or an example of maybe a former client or someone come to you, what they want to change in their life that they notice that has to do with their home or? [MEGAN] Yes, sure. Well, one of my favorite stories to tell is this client of mine, she was an elementary school teacher and she was having terrible stress at work. She had some parents who were writing her nitpicky emails and making her life really challenging. She was an excellent teacher. She loved being a teacher. She said she always gave her 110%, but everything she was trying to do to help the situation wasn’t working. So she was seriously considering leaving her job even though she loved being a teacher. So she had me come to her house, not to her classroom, but to her house, in that openness of, okay, I don’t know if there’s something that we can do to help with the work situation or whether I should leave. She was very open, like what should I do? She lived in a pretty small two-bedroom condo with her husband and her two sons and gave me a chore and I gave her my recommendations. I give, it’s like giving a house diagnosis and then giving a prescription but then I work with the clients to see, okay, well, what are, here’s the recommended remedies but then we work together to find the ones that are really lighten them up and so that they actually do them and they’ll fit their taste and everything. She went right to it and got everything done and she said that the issue with the parents at work completely stopped and that they did like a 180 and they started to compliment her now about the progress their children were making. There was no more complaining. She decided to keep her job because now it was wonderful. There was no, it completely removed the issue at work. Then the other benefit was her house. She was originally feeling like, okay, it’s really small place for a family with two boys but it just felt really comfortable now to be there. It didn’t bother her that it was small. Then the other result was that her husband had been trying to get this building permit for his work for two years and it was just not happening. It was totally blocked and he got the building permit. So I love that story because it shows how Feng Shui is working with the Chi. So we make these changes in the space and then it’s like moving this wheel and it flows out into many different directions affecting different areas of life, not just one. So oftentimes people will say I experience positive changes in many areas of my life because it’s like, when you move, get that sheet of flow in a harmonious direction, it spills out and touches different areas. [LISA] Oh, wow, that’s an incredible story. I love that story. Is like changing the space or changing the Chi, does that mean you’re changing furniture, you’re just rearranging furniture or you’re adding furniture, getting rid of furniture, moving paintings on the wall or painting different colors on the wall? [MEGAN] That’s a great question. It could be any of the above. So there’s certainly, there’s one aspect of Feng Shui, well, actually, Feng Shui is another way of, another name for it is the art of placement. There’s lots of different layers of placement. One is there’s definitely a system of ideal furniture placement, to put things like the most important pieces of furniture and the bed and the desk. We have, so we’re working with the furniture placement so sometimes there’s just some, there might be a lot of furniture rearranging. Sometimes it might just be really subtle movement of furniture. Sometimes it might be using color, whether that’s paint, if somebody wants to paint. I don’t usually recommend painting unless somebody’s like, yes, I want to paint. Or you can bring color in another ways. Sometimes we use mirrors to move the Chi. Sometimes we use things that are hidden, like a mirror that’s hidden, or a small wind chime to move the Chi. We’re also looking at areas, so there’s this map in Feng Shui called the Bagwa that will show where in the house it’s related to relationships, where in the house does your wealth and prosperity live, where is health? The Bagwa map, it connects all the different energies of the universe to all the different aspects of our life and then it shows where all of that lives in the house. So it’s this beautiful tool that we use. Working with the Bagwa to balance, that is a huge part of Feng Shui, so like you could have, if a house was say in irregular shape as opposed to a square, then the house might be missing the wealth and prosperity area and that might be affecting the person’s prosperity. Or it could be missing the relationship and marriage area, which might be causing relationship challenges for that person. So balancing the Bagwa is a huge thing that I look for. So when I go to a space, I’m looking, what are the blocks? What are the most extreme things that should be corrected, whether it’s a leak, whether it’s an obstacle. Then there’s always layers of enhancement, well, what can we do to add some things to strengthen? We use, and then there’s also the unseen energy where we do things like space clearing and blessing so there can be a space, who lived there before, that predecessor energy can have a big impact on the lives of the people who live there now. Like I worked with one person who told me that herself included and every person who lived in that house, many people back had all been divorced. So when there’s something like that, like a divorce or something very challenging like a bankruptcy or an illness, those things have an energy and if they’re not cleared and worked with they can affect the lives of the people who come next. Then there’s usually, though, also something about the structure of the house that also will show one of those patterns. So then the Feng Shui, like we’re not recommending remodeling to correct these, we’re working with subtle things that we can do, small changes that move the Chi in a way that’ll have a big result. Then it could be bringing in plants. It could be certainly moving clutter. Decluttering is the first step to good Feng Shui. It sort of depends like, well, what does the house need? What is the person, what’s their situation? Then coming up with the right remedies. [LISA] Oh, well, I found that, I’m just fascinated by what you just said, all of that you just said, and I’m going through each area in my home and wondering is there blocks there? What’s going on? So it’s fascinating. Wow. [MEGAN] It’s really cool. [LISA] Megan, what is your recommendation for decluttering for highly sensitive people? [MEGAN] My recommendation is to know that clutter has a huge impact on all of our lives, anyone’s life, but certainly for highly sensitive people, we will have a tendency to feel that effect even stronger. So clutter blocks the flow of Chi and that affects all aspects of our life. We’re connected energetically to all of our things so even the things that are hiding in the closet, even the things that are in storage, even the things we never use. And that’s for everybody, but for highly sensitive people, we’re just going to be more sensitive to that and it’s going to pull on our energy and we need to, I mean, I know for myself as a highly sensitive person, I need to reduce those things pulling on my energy so that I can recharge. So my recommendation is just to take that time to declutter and to know that it’s going to, it’s like a profound act of self-care to know that that’s really going to help you in your life. Oftentimes, people, I guess the one obstacle, one of the common obstacles for decluttering is like, I don’t have enough time. It takes so much time and of course our lives get busier and busier. It gets harder and harder to take that time to declutter, but clutter actually, eats up our time. It takes a lot of time out of our lives. So taking the time now to do some good decluttering, I call it deep decluttering where you’re really taking the time to make a conscious decision about what to keep, and that will help inform you about what to let go of and really surrounding yourself with things that you truly love, truly value, feel useful. That goes back to that and so then we can have more vitality. So taking the time out to clutter is really, really helpful. [LISA] That’s so interesting. I know just my own experience when I declutter or clean out a room, especially my office seems to gather a lot of stuff like books and papers. Then my mind feels cluttered. If I can periodically clean it out, then my mind feels much more expansive and feels better inside my body. [MEGAN] Beautiful. Yes, it has a huge effect on our mind and we can gain so much clarity and insight just by whether it’s the desk, whether it’s the closet. It can contribute, clutter can contribute to feeling scattered and getting indecisive and yes, it’s so helpful for that peace and calm in our mind to declutter. [LISA] I’m wondering, as a Feng Shui consultant and expert, I’ve found, I don’t know if this has to do with highly sensitive persons, but once I get going then, like, I want to get rid of everything. I don’t want to keep anything. I’m like, wow, what does that mean? I just want to clear everything out. So I don’t know, what would you say about that? [MEGAN] Yes, I mean, well, that’s the Chi. It’s like the clutter once you start, it’s like step by step, you do a little bit and it starts to return that energy, you get energy from it and then it’s easier to keep going. Like it gives you that motivation, inspiration to lighten your load. I think it’s just easier. It’s like you’re already moving the Chi once you start getting rid of things that then I think we can then see clear. But yes, sometimes people say I’m worried that if I start to declutter like that will happen, that then they’ll want to get rid of everything, but then they won’t have anything. What I find is that when we really declutter then we can really appreciate. It actually feels like we have more, even though we have less. It’s like the value and appreciation for what we have increases. I don’t know if that answered your question. [LISA] It does. It does answer my question. Thank you for answering it too. What is your online program Simplified to Thrive? [MEGAN] It’s about just that. It’s about teaching people, how step by step to declutter and organize, but coming from this Feng Shui perspective, about how to work with the Chi and really how clutter has such a profound effect on our lives; but then exploring the emotional side of clutter where there’s often a lot of emotions tied up in the energy of our things and sometimes why it makes it what makes it difficult for people to declutter. But it’s a lot of Feng Shui and just how the space and the clutter affects our lives and then how to work with it in a good way. So it’s an online live course that I’m really excited about and it’s about simplifying and we go into, getting really connected to what are those, what’s the vision for your life? Then that can help be that guiding light through the clutter. [LISA] Oh, wow. That sounds wonderful. I was thinking when you’re working with a person, or do you work with families? And I can see that this would, this was coming up in my mind, like, oh, if you’re working with a family and their family is working on decluttering the home, and then people start arguing about, I don’t want to get rid of that. No, I want you to get rid of that. I don’t like that thing. There can be some arguing going on. [MEGAN] Yes, it’s definitely, I have worked with couples and then I work with one half of the couple and a lot can come up for sure. I guess what I teach people specifically about decluttering, and you go into this in my course, is that you you’ve always got to start with your own stuff. Like, always start with your own personal stuff and work on your own clutter first. Definitely when there’s one person who has maybe a clutter issue and then another person doesn’t there can be a lot of things that can come up. So it’s good to always have that respect. I guess I feel like decluttering is an opportunity to look at those things in relationship and try to come from a place like how can we do together to create a peaceful home, something together, but to always start with your own stuff before telling somebody else what they need to do or let go of, or try to come from. That working together on the communal stuff. It really helps when people just start with their own personal stuff first because then that gets the team moving too. So sometimes the other people in the house will feel that and get more inspired. Like I said, there’s this dynamic where one person wants the other person to look at it from a place of respect and boundaries like respecting the other person’s stuff, but then also asking them to respect your space if their stuff is impacting you or the communal spaces. So it’s a dance, it’s a delicate dance. [LISA] It sure is. It sounds just like working with clients in therapy that focus on yourself, we can’t change other people. We can hope or wish that they would change, but yes, really have to focus on yourself. Usually it has a domino effect and other people in your life change too. [MEGAN] Beautiful. Yes, definitely. [LISA] So what would you like listeners to take away from our conversation today, Megan? [MEGAN] A couple things; for highly sensitive people I would just really encourage you to trust your intuition about your space. Oftentimes, I work with people and I make some recommendations or like, oh that always bothered me there but I didn’t move it or I didn’t change it or something, so to give yourself that that gift of trusting your intuition and if there’s something about your space that want to change and to take the time out to take care of your space and to know that it will recharge you .it has that potential to. So trusting intuition and also to, one thing about Feng Shui is it’s about working with nature and aligning with nature and bringing nature inside the steep level. But we also want to take time to go outside and create those outside spaces. If you don’t have a personal outside space making sure to take time to be outside in nature because we all really need that. We spend, we want, from the Feng Shui perspective, we want the spaces inside to be healthy and nourishing, but we also need to really know and get that our ancestors spent a lot more time outside than we do. We can help ourselves so much if we get outside, whether it’s to go on a walk, whether it’s to just bring your meal or if you’ve got to work on the computer, if you can bring it outside. If you have room at your place to create an outdoor living space that’s cozy go for it. [LISA] That sounds wonderful, a cozy, outdoor living space. And do you have a free gift for our listeners today? [MEGAN] I do. I have my free Feng Shui guide, How to Get Started with Feng Shui: Nine Easy Steps to Bring Balance and Harmony. [LISA] Great. Thank you so much for offering that and giving that to listeners. Where can listeners get in touch with you? [MEGAN] You can go to my website, monterohealingarts.com and all my information is up there, email or phone, learn more about my work. And I have a blog on the website. [LISA] Oh, great. All right. All that information will be in the show notes. Megan, thank you so much for coming on the show today and sharing all of your knowledge and expertise on Feng Shui and really how a highly sensitive person can benefit from having Feng Shui in their life. [MEGAN] Thank you, Lisa. It was really fun to talk to you. I really appreciate the opportunity to share and thank you so much for this beautiful podcast. [LISA] Thank you for tuning in today. Everyone please let me know what you thought of the episode. Send me an email to lisa@amiokpodcast.com. Remember to subscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. To find out more about highly sensitive persons, please visit my website at amiokpodcast.com and subscribe to my free eight-week email course to help you navigate your own sensitivities and to show you that it’s okay not to take on everyone else’s problems. This is Lisa Lewis reminding each and every one of you that you are okay. Until next time be well. Thank you for listening today at Am I Ok? Podcast. If you are loving the show, please rate, review and subscribe to it on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you’d like to learn how to manage situations as a highly sensitive person, discover your unique gift as a highly sensitive person, and learn how to be comfortable in your own skin, I offer a free eight-week email course called Highly Sensitive People. Just go to amiokpodcast.com to sign up. In addition, I love hearing from my listeners, drop me an email to let me know what is on your mind. You can reach me at lisa@amiokpodcast.com. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want to professional, you should find one.