🎙️82. Feng Shui for Your (Home) Office with Steve Kodad

podcast

Aug 13

Written By Lyndsee Nielson

the spiritual 9-5 podcast transcript

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Episode Published on August 13, 2024

Transcript

Intro music 🎶

I believe that working can be one of the most spiritual paths that we walk. Whether that work is turning your passion into a business, or sitting behind a desk for 8 hours a day, or anywhere beyond and in between. And yet we often take the way in which we show up to work for granted, even though it's where we spend the majority of our time.

Here on The Spiritual 9–5 podcast, we talk about that. We talk about entrepreneurship. We talk about the 9-to-5. We talk about what it's like to be multi-passionate and talented and inspired and also utterly demotivated. We are here to support you in your work, whether your work is sacred to you or just something that you do to get by. We are here to help you see and know yourself a little bit deeper, and to inspire you to show up no matter what it is that you find.

I'm your host, Marie Groover, and like you, I am as multi-passionate as they come. I'm the founder of two businesses that are here to bring the soul back into the office. I, too, work a 9-to-5 in corporate tech. I'm a surfer, a writer, a philosopher-artist, if you will, and I'm so excited to bring you this episode today.

If you haven't, please leave the show a 5-star rating, and if this episode resonates, consider saving it and sharing it with someone you think it would resonate with, too.

Intro music fades 🎶

Marie Groover: Hello, Steve.

Steve Kodad: Hello, Marie. How are you doing?

MG: I'm doing well. Thank you. Thank you for joining me.

SK: It's my pleasure.

MG: Amazing. So I have one question that I didn't send to you that I wanna start with. It's a big question, but this is also a warm up question. So there's no pressure in how you answer or respond. But I just thought of it right before we joined. And the question is, how can Feng Shui liberate us?

SK: Actually, I think I have a pretty good answer for that. To me, Feng Shui really makes life easier. And that's one of the things that I love about it. It sort of makes you a lot more organized. And your eyes are just wider open, I guess. And it's to me, it just makes an awful lot of sense to do what makes your life more comfortable and easier. So that's one thing that it's always done for me. It has kept me moving forward in a in a very positive way, and, that's probably one of the reasons why I really love it, Marie.

MG: Oh, I love this so much. Yeah. Why would we not do what makes our lives easier? What do you mean that it makes our eyes wider open

SK: You know, one of the things that happens with my students is that they they actually just notice a lot more things, you know, when they're entering into a brand new environment, even when they enter into a neighbor's house. You know? Not that I want them to trash what the the neighbor's house looks like, [laughs] but I, I do want them to notice that. And so that is a very important aspect of things to me is that you really just sort of notice what's going on a lot more. So, I've noticed that for people in real estate when they're trying to buy a house, they notice a little bit more. But even a visitor, you know, they'll, they'll just feel a little bit different. I think it's a really great way to, to work your life, to be more registering what's going on around you and how it impacts you.

MG: Oh, I love this response so much, this answer. I recently read a Mary Oliver poem that begins with the statement, “My work is loving the world.” And I meditated on that statement for quite a while when I really thought about it. And I thought about what does this mean? My response is, and I wrote this down earlier today, “My work is to notice the world.” And our work actually, as we love the world or love what is around us or practice loving ourselves, it really begins with noticing. It begins with awareness. So what a beautiful response.

SK: Yeah. It really is. I mean, I think a lot of people are very unaware of what's going on in a lot of cases. They're stuck in their, their own heads. And they're not noticing other people sometimes, which disappoints me. One of the things that I have as a pet peeve is people walking by me looking at their phone and not, you know, just sort of ignoring me or ignoring other people. And that is a sad way to live, to me. I think when, I when I pass anybody, I always wave. I always say hello, good morning, whatever. You know? And some folks, you could just tell they don't wanna do that, but you're missing an awful lot when you're not really participating in a particular way. So that's a beautiful poem. I like it.

MG: I love this, too! It is, it's funny because I think the basic human tendency or maybe, like, desire or need is connection. And I do think when we're not paying attention, we lose that. Right? Even if we're just, you know, sitting at home, like I'm looking out the window right now and looking around, noticing the wind blowing, noticing the sun out, or noticing how things feel. All of these things help us to connect with ourselves, but also other people.

SK: I tell my son all the time, who is a policeman in Charlotte, North Carolina, who, who at times gets upset. [laughs] And I woulda get…I can imagine in that kind of occupation, it does happen once and on. But, you know, I I tell them what what I do. You know, some when somebody cuts me off on the road or whatever, I try I try to let it go. When I stop, I try to look at the trees. That that's one of the things I told him. Look at the landscaping. Look at the sky. You know? See how beautiful it is. You know? And then, you know, things will simmer down a little bit for you.

So, you know, I I think being able to get outside is a tremendously important thing. I know you feel the same way. It's something that I love doing. I love hiking, for example. And one of the things I miss is being in the Blue Ridge and hiking. But you gotta notice the world. You gotta notice it in a lot of different ways.

MG: Yeah. Oh, man. Okay. So tell us about you. Who are you? What's your story? How did you come into Feng Shui?

SK: Well, it's sort, sort of a long story. I was born in Boston. My father was in the navy. We moved all over the darn place. [laughs] His last, place was Norfolk, Virginia after 21 years. We moved to central Pennsylvania, which is the middle of nowhere, basically. Beautiful area, but, you know, not an awful lot to do, I guess, you might say. I then went to college there, in Pennsylvania. I got a degree in mathematics, went to teach for 17 years or something like that, and I I did coach for probably 12 to 13 of those years. I coached basketball as a varsity basketball coach in New Jersey.

I then moved to, Charlotte, North Carolina. And thank goodness I met my wife on a blind date set up by my sister. And we've been together now for 37 years. And so it's, it seemed to have taken. [laughs] And so it worked out real well. We moved down to Florida, you know, the Sarasota area about 13 years ago. My wife is from the Tampa area, and she had always wanted to come down here. And so I gave in. [laughs]

And I had already left real estate, and I was doing Feng Shui full time. I've been doing Feng Shui now for about 20 years.

MG: I love this. Okay. So you've been doing Feng Shui for 20 years. What brought you to Feng Shui? How did you find it?

SK: Well, it was because I was in real estate. I was a fairly successful realtor and I was always looking for ways to sell my houses quick. And somebody had sent me some emails about this from, actually, from the state of California. Started to look into it, ordered the tapes, listened to the tapes. I don't even think we have tapes anymore. And it, it just intrigued me a lot because I've always sort of believed in a lot of things, including how to use intention and stuff like that. So it really, really sort of, resonated with me.

So I, I got the information. I got a home. I had a listing just given to me because they had had difficulty in the neighborhood, and they had moved out. So it was a vacant home, so I was able to move some stuff in from my house. My wife wasn't really happy about that part of it, [laughs] but we got it. And that weekend, I had an open house and got an offer. And that's, that's after they had been through two real estate agents and weren't getting anywhere, so they were all of a sudden, I was a hero at that point. So I started using it for my listings, and I found it really worked really nicely. Everybody, not everybody, most people got became very intrigued and enthusiastic about it.

And so one thing led to another. I just decided to go get fully certified with a couple out of California. Few years later, I went to my partner. We were both co owners of a 34 Agent Real Estate Company in Charlotte and said, David, I wanna sell. I'm getting out. I'm doing nothing but Feng Shui. And everybody, of course, told me that I was a nut. I was making a big mistake.

But luckily, that that wife of mine that I was lucky to find was very supportive. And so anyway, that's how I got into Feng Shui. I had already even while I was in real estate, Marie, I was actually running all over South, South and North Carolina speaking for nothing on the merits of Feng Shui. And so I knew this was something that just really turned me on. But again, I was a teacher at one time. I was in real estate. Now I found something that was involved with environments and in real estate that really turned me on. So that's how I got into it.

MG: Oh, that's amazing. Okay. You said something that I wanna hit on a little bit. But first, you said you've been doing Feng Shui. So say more about that. What does that mean you've been doing Feng Shui? I know that you, you know, teach workshops, but how did you begin? Did you work with people one on one? Did you just go right into workshops? Did you consult? What did that look like, and how has that grown?

SK: Sure. Well, certainly, you know, I did an awful lot of evaluations to start with. At the same time, I was speaking at the local library or, or wherever or at a food truck. Just kidding. [both laugh] So basically, that's how it got going. The successes kept building and building. And even while I was in real estate, I wrote my first book on Feng Shui and and for the real estate agent in 2006, I think it was. And, again, it just really intrigued me, and I I love to watch the people people's reaction to the whole thing.

So, again, I was, I've always been somewhat creative and, just totally jumped in with both feet at that point. And the Feng Shui, you know, just changes the feelings of an environment really nicely if you follow the steps and see what to look for. And, that's how it happened.

MG: Oh, I love this. Okay. So you hit on something a couple of minutes ago. You said that you've always been intrigued and that this has resonated with you, specifically on how to use intention. Can you say more about this? What does that mean, “using intention?”

SK: Sure. Well, I'm a big proponent of visualization. [laughs] Always have. The situation…to sort of go back just a little bit, when I was coaching basketball in New Jersey at this point, I even had my players visualize making free throws before they shot. This was in the seventies. [laughs] And I'm sure they went home, they said, “You know, that wacko coach of mine? Some new age guy.” So anyway, I, I've always thought that it worked that you can visualize your success to start with. Your mind really sort of accepts it that it did happen. So I, I've always been into that kind of thing.

And then with Feng Shui, one of the things when we do a cure, and there's a lot of different cures, in in the school that we teach, we also teach what's called the 3 Secrets of Reinforcement behind it. So you do the physical cure, and then you come back and you do the 3 Secrets of Reinforcement which has got a body component, a mind component, and a voice component to it. Often, my client would possibly participate with me, but not always, and that's fine. But the, the body component in our society is mostly this. But there's an awful lot of other ways of doing that, but most people are very accepted of that as the body component. The voice component is something that they can be involved with tremendously. They can come up with an affirmation that says this is what's going to happen, and you're supposed to say it 9 times. Some people decide to just do the Lord's prayer. That's fine too. And there's a lot of mantras out there that you can use and that we we also teach in our classes. But most people are fine with doing the Lord's prayer 9 times, you know?

And then the visualization is just that it's happening, that it's happening while you're doing this. So, you know, you can go to the front door and do the 3 Secrets of Reinforcement afterwards, intending for this to work. I'm sending it out to the world. I'm sending it out to the Universe to give us some help. I've always always found it very powerful.

MG: Wow. That is really powerful. I love this so much because I think a lot of times in spirituality, we talk about intention as, so I've taught yoga for maybe 12 years now and at the beginning of class, we'll set an intention and, you know, it's kind of a mind thing. It's a visualization thing, but it's really just kind of like you're saying something to yourself in your mind. And then the practice, I think, works together with it. But what I love about this, you know, the 3 Secrets of Reinforcement are that they're active. So you're intending something, but you're also saying something and you're reinforcing those things. So it really takes intention to a whole new level. I love this.

SK: Yeah. Yeah. It really does. I mean, the voice component certainly could be done silent if you want to do that, but probably has a little more power if you're actually gonna say it out there. So, it's just maybe reinforced a little bit, I guess.

MG: Yeah. I love that. So ove clarifying question, a cure, that is like a solve for something, right?

SK: Not all cures work perfectly. I mean, that you gotta understand that. And some take time, which is something that some people have a problem with. [laughs] But patience is always a a really great trait to have. Yeah. A cure is a solution to a situation. You know, there could be an imbalance. There can be something that's physically a problem, mentally a problem, health problem. All those things can be looked at, and you can come up with a cure.

Now there are certain things that I promise you you can't really do. It's just a Band Aid. And I try to be very upfront with folks that, “Okay, I know this is your favorite choice of a home that you wanna buy, but I do wanna let you know that it's got certain things that are possibly gonna hurt you in the long run.” And let's face it. People don't wanna make that statement. And often, even when I was working for realtors, a lot, not all of them wanted me to do that, but I wanted to be truthful with them.

For example, I mean, I, I don't know where you're at with respect to this situation, but in Charlotte, once in a while, we had houses that were below street level. Okay? So you had to go down to the house. And that is a real, real problem in Feng Shui because the energy really has trouble finding the front door which is where it's supposed to find. So it just sort of goes over top the house somewhat. There's just no way to really cure that perfectly. There are some cures, but they're not perfect at all.

And I, I tell folks all the time, I said, think about this for a second. You get up in the morning, you get in your car in this situation. To go up the hill, to go to a job that you maybe don't even like, you have to gun it, like right? And you're not really looking forward to this day anyway, but you have to really push it to get up that hill. Okay? So that's just another way to look at it, that it's not really something that you're probably gonna wanna do every day, is it?

MG: Mhmm. Wow. That's interesting. It's akin to almost like climbing a mountain,

SK: Yeah.

MG: At the beginning of your day every day.

SK: That's right.

MG: Oh.

SK: That's right. And then and then even coming home, it's not that pleasant either. [laughs]

MG: Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Oh, wow. This is so fascinating. So, okay, let's talk a little bit about let's, let's keep going on this path. Let's talk a little bit about our environments then, any environment, our home, our office space, you know, wherever we occupy, the places we occupy in our lives, how does our environment affect us or impact us?

SK: I'm sure, you know, when you were growing up, as I, that our parents would say, you know, who you hang out with is gonna have an effect. And you might wanna stay away from George or you might want, whatever. So that is, you might say, part of the environment. You stay away from negative people. You stay away from negative situations as much as you can. So an environment can be negative in some ways. And, again, some of the cures are are really strong, and they'll take care of the situation, but not always. So the environment is is really, really pivotal for your happiness, for your comfort, for how you feel secure inside your productivity and everything.

So if, if your environment is not really up to snuff and not doing what you need it to do, you probably should move. I mean, that's, that's the truth. And think of your environment like a vision board in a lot of ways. You know, you're walking through this, and if you've got, I don't know, posters on the wall that are advocating somebody's slitting somebody's throat, [laughs] which you sometimes see in, in some teenagers' rooms or a a movie, whatever, that can't help that person. That can't help permeate to some degree. I'm not saying that they're gonna become a an assassin or anything like that. They're, they have these negative thoughts a little bit too much. So you try to make sure that the thoughts and what you see room to room comes off as as positive as possible.

Again, there are physical problems too, that needs to be taken care of, which we can, we can talk about also, but the mental aspect is maybe more important than the physical aspect. And if you don't take care of that and you don't keep your mind safe, you know, it's certainly going to come back and bite you a little bit.

MG: Oh, man. This is good. Protecting your mind and cultivating a space that's safe for your mind. And that will also cultivate positivity and happiness and the things that we desire. I've never heard anyone say this before, but your environment is like a vision board. So your home then becomes like a vision board and where we spend the majority of our time also can be a vision board. Something that I was just talking to a friend about yesterday was, you know, how often so we spend most of us spend at least 40 hours a week working. And that's a huge chunk of change. It's a big amount of time where we spend, maybe in someone else's space or maybe in front of our laptops.

And, you know, I always like to say that work is one of the most spiritual paths that we can walk because we spend so much time doing it. Why not use that as an opportunity to grow ourselves? You know, like, a lot of us, you know, we'll do yoga for, like, one hour a week and, like, that's our meditation practice. But what if we could use work as a way of, you know, self awakening, or meditating, or being the person that we wanna be or practicing our philosophies?

You know, I love this this quote of in your environment is like a vision board. You know, immediately think about work and I'm like, what are the visions that we're seeing when we're working? How are we feeling when we're working? How are we protecting our mind? How are we cultivating the type of person that we wanna become? How are we cultivating the quality of life that we seek in terms of maybe happiness or fulfillment or productivity? So what a beautiful just thank you for that.

SK: Oh, you're you're very welcome. Your your mind is a terrible thing to waste. There's no doubt about that, as nobody has said. You know? And it is so easy for that to happen. And you, you talk about offices and businesses. Sometimes they don't even think about those things. You know, certainly, I like working with businesses and their office and all that kind of stuff.

And, you know, you can walk by one person's cubicle, for example, and they've got it all dolled up, and they've got all these positive sayings and beautiful pictures, and then you walk by somebody else and it's all cluttery mess, I can tell you which one goes home happier just by looking at their cubicles, you know?

It's the same with the office, of course, too. I mean, we're talking about the boss, the CEO, or whatever. They can actually get off on the wrong foot too, by looking at certain things over and over and over. Let's say they have a lot of, I don't know, boxes from the past job in the corner of that office, and all it does is remind them of that bad situation possibly.

So a lot of things can bring back memories that you don't don't really want sometimes, and so you always gotta keep your mind protected as much as you can. The workspace is a, a really important one. And, of of course, we've really changed a great deal since COVID. And, you know, I've always liked, loved working on home offices, but they're now even more important.

And I know you had mentioned in your notes about hybrid. You know, there's a lot of people that are doing that right now and, going to the office maybe once or twice a week, and the rest of the time they're spending at home. So both situations need to be worked on, you know, so that you're as productive and as happy as you possibly can be.

But, you know, it's so easy to get turned off about, I don't know, an irritating boss, [laughs] or maybe a coworker that is very negative or whatever. And I understand that and I can't tell you that I'm perfect about this thing. But I, I constantly work on it, and I'm sure you do too, Marie.

MG: Yeah. Oh, this is so good. So actually speaking about home offices and hybrid offices. So let's, let's actually start with just the home, because what I think is missing since we've shifted into more remote and hybrid work since the start of COVID, is when you go to work every day, there is an element of environment that is controlled by wherever it is that you work.

SK: Right.

MG: To an extent, when we work from home, there is no guidance or little guidance for how we might set ourselves up for success. And so I'm curious, when you're looking at a home office, are there any general principles that you would advise for folks?

SK: Sure, I mean, and sure, you know, you've worked with a lot of people in your life, and I've had a lot of people in my life, too. And some of them have good habits. Some of them have bad habits. And it, it's sorta hard to get through to the ones that have some poor habits. But the first thing I would say with, with respect to the home office is that you wanna think about the 5 senses totally. You know, you wanna make sure that it's got a pleasant if you're playing music, you play something soft and not with, I don't know, drums and bugles [both laugh] and not…you want something soft in the background that's very subtle.

Subtle is a very important aspect of what I try to do even with the aroma. The aroma in an off home office needs to be somewhat what I would call yang or yang instead of yin. Yin is more inward, more quiet. So if you're in there to be productive, you don't wanna have it to be sleepy. You want it to be more up, and active.

And so the smells that I, that I would consider would be things like orange and other types of citrus and, and if you really wanna go crazy, peppermint. But I always used cinnamon a lot when I was trying to sell houses. Whereas with the the yin environments in a house, which is primarily the bedrooms and and maybe the bathrooms, you know, I'd be using something more like a lavender, or something like that, so that it definitely impacts you when you walk through into that new, that different room. So that's one thing, the aroma.

Definitely, you wanna make sure that you feel organized, then you can put your hands on certain things quickly. So back to the organizational part of things. Clearing your desk off every day is not such a bad idea at all. You know, you, you wanna stay on top of things. And so being organized is a, is a very, very pivotal thing. The temperature in the room should be probably a little cooler. You wanna be comfortable as much as possible. You know, I would take into account the 5 senses as much as I could.

Now the desk should be actually positioned in a particular type of way too. You can actually lose focus if you're looking out the window. I try not to let them do that. Sometimes the room is so small that, you know, you really don't have many choices. So if that's the case, then you probably wanna maybe shut your blinds when you're working, but then open them up, you know, when you take a break, during lunch, definitely during the evening, and in the morning. But the rest of the time, if, if that's what you have to face is the, what's outside, it can be very distracting. Okay? So I, I would rather have the person behind a desk with their back to a solid wall being able to see the front door I mean, not the front door, but the entrance into the office. So they feel like they're in control of the whole office. And that way, which is called “the classic armchair” in Feng Shui, you feel protected, you feel secure, and you're gonna be a little more productive.

So now that's harder to do in a cubicle. So what I jokingly tell people because I, I was housed in a cubicle for a while. I worked for AT&T in the corporate world for 5 years and I, I really couldn't handle it. I didn't care for it. So I went back into teaching.

But what I tell people in a cubicle is, okay, your boss might be behind you [both laugh] and they might be seeing that you're dozing off or whatever. So you have to put a, like, a mirror that reflects the entrance into the cubicle so that you know what's going on behind you. That'll give you a little more confidence, and you'll have a little more control of the environment.

But in a sea of cubicles, it's hard to get that sometimes. But you, you'll feel a little bit more in control if you know what's behind you. So the reflective surface can be very, very helpful and productive and make the boss a little happier because you can then fake it that you're working at the work.

MG: [laughs] I love that. That's so good. These are amazing tips. And so what this tells me, by the way, and what I would love to emphasize with our listeners is that the Feng Shui is so much more than just about design elements. Although, I guess, we could argue that the senses are incorporated into that. But the things that you talk about, the sound, the way something smells, what it is that we're hearing, how organized we are, how our body temperature is, like the temperature and the environment–all of these things are culminating into an experience.

SK: Yeah. Yeah. We're not always in a productive cycle. You know, we're at times have a down cycle and it's a different situation. It's a different thing. Parts of your house are really set up for something different. The master bedroom, for example, should be set up for restoration and romance and nothing else, but most people in our society really, they'll bring their taxes in there and do them. [laughs]

Of course, a lot of people watch TV in there, too. And that that is something that I, you know, I would I guess I'd prefer that wasn't happening because, again, I think it's for getting away from the bad news on the TV or, or violence or whatever. Yeah. It's a, it's a real important thing to to understand where you are in the house and what you're trying to accomplish.

So a sanctuary certainly should be carved out somewhere in your house, in your apartment, in your, even in your office, I suppose. But, you know, you need to have a sanctuary. You need to be able to restore yourself for the next day. If you don't, you're gonna go crazy. You really need to have that downtime to bring yourself back, and it's, it's so, so pivotal.

You know? So I don't really look at the home office as more of that, although it could be used as a, a sanctuary for some folks, you know, especially in a smaller place where you might have a, a nice little soft easy chair in the corner and over there and read once in a while. That's, that's fine, But you do need a place to restore yourself. It's it's it's very important.

MG: Mmmm I love this dedicated place for restoration. I wanna be clear. This is separate from our bedroom. Right? So the sanctuary is not the same thing as our, our sleeping space.

SK: It really could be the bedroom. In some cases, it is the bedroom. And, you know, I mean, let's face it. Some teenagers just can't wait to get into their room and shut the door. [laughs] But even folks that are adults or grown up, I mean, certainly, they will use their bedroom that way, too. And that that's okay. You need some place. But if, if that is not appropriate or whatever, you know, I try to keep the, the sanctuary behind the midpoint of the house.

I want it in the back of the house, away from the street, away from noise, away from all that extra activity that's going on. So, you know the, if the master bedroom is up there close to the street, you've got a little bit of a problem. So when you're buying a house, it's to your benefit to try to get that master bedroom in the back. And very, very pivotal to everybody in the family that you as, I hate to use the word boss, but the breadwinner or whatever, that you get a great night sleep and you stay healthy. Because if you don't stay healthy, you know, the whole family structure could have a problem.

So it's important that whoever that might be, or if it's a couple, you know, they need to get their rest really well. They need, they need the sanctuary. So, yeah, the sanctuary could be some other room, Marie, but I, I usually want it in the back of the house. I don't want an awful lot of activity around it. And so when, when a house is on a corner lot, for example, it's a little bit more difficult because you have activity, you have noise on both sides. So try as I try to folks not to buy corner houses, for some folks, that's what they're looking for, you know? But if that's the case, then you wanna get it again as far away from the streets as you can in that one corner, if you can. Set up a nice little setup, you know, that makes you feel comfortable, good place to read, get away from maybe even the kids. [laugh] [And, you know, it's to sort of just unwind a little bit. But the sanctuary can't definitely be the master bedroom or the kids' bedroom.

MG: Mmmm. Okay. This is great. I love this. Let's come back to the office for just a second.

SK: Sure.

MG: I'm curious as we maybe work in hybrid environments, are there ways to create cohesion between home office and hybrid? And I asked this question because a lot of us, I think, have preference. You know, some people work better from home. Some people work better in office. Sometimes there's the option. Sometimes there's not an option. It's dictated by the employer. And so I'm curious, how might we, you know, optimize maybe both spaces if we have access to both? And how might we create, you know, consistency in our work across differing spaces?

SK: Okay. Well, you know, in in a sense, I, I feel like the home office, you probably have a pretty good idea how I feel about that part of it. You know, even the paint colors and everything are important. You know, you don't want them to be too jazzy and all that kind of stuff. There are certain colors that are more productive for folks and all that kind of stuff. It is very hard to do this, but, you know, one of the things that I, I find that people have a real problem with when they have to then go to the office is they're having trouble getting up a little bit, getting themselves together. So again, it comes back to being organized as much as possible.

It's to your benefit to lay out what you're gonna wear the, the night before. It's to your benefit to have everything ready. You know, when, when I have a phone on the road and I'm doing a speaking engagement, I've got everything laid out, and I mean it. Everything's laid out, so I don't have to go looking for it. So get organized. So get up at a decent time, probably earlier than you even want to, and make sure, you know, that you have everything ready. So you get yourself dressed, you know, without having to even think about the darn thing.

I get people all the time that, you know, one of the biggest problems that folks have is that, they're they get up late, and they're rushing around rushing around. They're, luckily, if they get anything for breakfast. You know? So they they throw something on. They run out to the car. They have just noticed that they have two different shoes on now, [both laugh]

But it's too late to go back into the house at this point. They run, jump into the car. They speed out of the neighborhood, now behind time and feeling in a very stressful situation. They're now using sign language with folks that are driving by them. [both laugh] They get to work in a hurry. They're not in a good mood. And then they go in and they wonder why they don't get the promotion. People see them as being upset, being negative, and being disorganized, and it, it just hurts the situation.

So getting up earlier, getting organized, and possibly making sure that your cubicle or your office has some very positive photos and pictures that encourage you. You know, maybe even a picture of your house, a picture of your family. And I know we haven't brought up the the Bagua. Are you familiar with the Bagua a little bit?

MG: I am familiar with the Bagua, but let's talk about it for our listeners, for anyone who might not know what the Bagua is.

SK: Oh, sure. The Bagua is sort of an energy map or template that you lay over an area. You know, most people think of it as laying it over a floor plan or a room, but you can lay it over a car. You can lay it over your desk. That's where I'm going with this. So on your desk at work, you can have it organized using the Bagua. And I can very quickly tell you the, the life situations on there, but it's broken up into 9 quadrants. At the front, center is career.

And if you go in a counterclockwise direction, we have helpful people to the right, then we have children and creativity. In the far right hand corner is relationships, so the marriage corner. Then we have the fame area, our reputation back center. We have the wealth corner over there in the far left. Back to the family, then upfront we have spirituality and that situation, and then in the center's health. So every one of them can be actually represented by things, by photos, by where you put your phone, where you put your laptop, where you put your address book. You know, all those kind of things are where you have your to do list. And so once people sort of think of it that way, it sort of, again, organizes them a little bit.

So for example, in my reputation area, I might have my business cards or a plaque or something that I was awarded or whatever, something that reminds me that I am pretty darn good at something. Okay?

And then in the left hand side with the wealth area, the dominant element over there is wood. So I like to put a vertical growing green plant, which represents my wealth actually growing. But in the right hand side top back, you can imagine what I'm gonna put in family. I mean, I could put photos there, those kind of things. So, you know, you can be creative as you want to in this whole thing.

So I like to use the Bogwell on desks, and that's a great way to use your cubicle, you know, which you, you can certainly spread out a little bit. But you want reminders of what's important to you.

So, in a hybrid situation, sometimes it's easy to forget when you're on the road and you're 10 minutes late. What's important to you? Well, try not to be late. I mean, I'm, I'm serious about that. It's a…a pet peeve of mine. I probably have upset some people in my life just because I'm always early. I can't stand being late. And a lot of people don't care and they don't care about your time, which to me is a, is disrespectful. So I always try to get to play early, knock on the door, you know, a few minutes early and probably shock the heck out of them.

But, but I would rather do that than come in 15, 20 minutes late and disrespect them. So organization and being my time can be very helpful to make the hybrid situation a little bit more doable, I guess.

MG: You know what I love about this and where my mind goes as we talk about being organized–it's so funny because more and more as I listen to you speak, I realized that Feng Shui is not just about interior design, but it's about a way of being or a way of living. And I think about how, you know, we as human beings are contributing energy to our environment. So not only are we receiving our environment all the time and receiving energy from our environment all the time, but we are contributing energy to the environment. And so when we walk into, say, an office with a lot of frenetic energy, we will disrupt the actual space. And, yeah, I think this is interesting. So remembering that we contribute to the energy around us and we contribute to the environment and to the space, which then makes me think about other human beings. So when we share a home or when we share an office or a working environment with someone, how important is this then to maybe neutralize or be in the right energies with the right people?

SK: Yeah. I mean, the way I think of it, Marie, is it's a lifestyle. That's how the, we try to teach it in my school. It's a lifestyle that is gonna then grow in your children, grow in your significant other, grow in your friends. You know? The way, the way you react, the way you handle things has to rub off to some degree, maybe quite a large degree. So, yeah, you're right. There there are people in our lives that we would probably rather not see too much, but you certainly can't hide yourself. You can't totally devolve yourself from that situation.

But if you have that kind of mindset and you constantly think that way, it makes it a little easier. And back to what I said earlier, I want, it's all about making life easier to me, and uh, it made my life a lot easier and less frantic. And, one of the reasons why I, I got out of real estate is that I wanted a lifestyle that was more attuned to what I really was interested in. So I hope that answers your question to some degree.

MG: Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Okay. So leaving real estate, I wanna talk a little bit about your work and the workshops that you lead, and you also have a school. Before we go into that too deeply, I'm curious from your perspective, have you found that companies, organizations, businesses are open to or how open have you found them to be to this type of work?

SK: Well, it's sort of a mixed bag. You know, certainly, depends on an awful lot of leadership and all that kind of stuff. Definitely, there is interest in certain situations, certain occupations, and all that kind of stuff. You know, when I, when I speak to real estate agents, you know, I have, I have continuing education (CE), 3-hour CE classes that I give in for. And when I do one on Feng Shui, we're one of the few states that I was able to possibly get that through. I have large crowds. There's an awful lot of interest. So I'm, I'm used to walking into a place and there's 2 or 300 folks in there, and, so I'm, I'm used to that.

There is interest, and, you know, some of them are still gonna probably be, “I don't know about that.” But that's okay. I mean, there's a lot of common sense here that if you just use the common sense part of it, it'll make things easier, too.

Now, again, certainly some bosses or or whatever are old school and, they're not willing to think that way. I think over the last 20 years, it's changed. So and I, I like to think that I've had something to do with that, too. But, yeah, I mean, it really depends. I mean, I walk into some houses, for example, and, and the wife is really, really into it, and the gentleman is not as much into it. Okay? It's usually not the other way around. [both laugh]

And, I have to sort of, in some ways, change his mind a little bit. Again, talking in more common sense terms. And once I do that, because I've had to get very good at that, you know, I think that they really find out that, you know, it's really, does make an awful lot of sense.

You know, for example, I use this example all the time that if I walk into a restaurant and they ask me to sit wherever you want to, it makes sense to me that everybody is gonna pick a booth. They're gonna pick, get to the outsides. They're not going to pick the table in the middle. I don't know. And maybe there's a few people that are really gonna do that, but most people pick the outside. They've got their backs protected. They can see who's coming through the door. They have more control of the room. They feel safe. When you bring things up like that, and and I can even cite studies and research that some of these things are true, that, you know, they start to, “Okay. Yeah. Alright.” I can see that now a lot more, and they're more open minded at that point. But, you know, sometimes some people won't go along with it.

MG: Mhmm. Yeah. And that's okay. Oh, I love this. Okay. So I have a very random question. I think you already know the question. But since you're talking about where we naturally gravitate, you know, when we walk into a restaurant and we maybe are drawn to the booths or drawn to the outer edges of the restaurant. Are there areas that we are more drawn to or more likely to be in versus areas that we're not? And why is that? Is it that we're constantly sensing the environment, or is it that we're constantly sensing safety? You know, like, what is it that draws us to certain places more so than others?

SK: Well, both those things that you just mentioned are definitely happening every time you walk into an environment, whether it's an environment you've been in before and especially a new environment. When we're walking into a new environment, we're wired like we were thousands of years ago, and we can't really change that. You know, we, we're looking for possible conflict or possible problems. Am I feeling okay in here? Do I feel safe? Do I have to leave right away, kind of thing. And in most cases, you know, you know, we are okay, or at least we're gonna give it a try.

Now, again, I hate to go back to the real estate part, but if you walk in and, and right away it hits you that I'm not sure, you're not gonna stay very long. But we've all walked into environments that have felt this way that we didn't quite feel safe there, and we didn't know why. There or something was off. So it's very, very pivotal to get that correct. And so that's one of the things that, you know, I try to, I feel like I do pretty well is that I, I make sure that the environment comes off as feeling comfortable and safe.

As I am fond of saying, you know, in Feng Shui, if it's done right, your subconscious is gonna feel better about the situation. And once it does, then you become comfortable. And if you're comfortable, you're capable of a lot of really great things. You can write the next great American novel. You can do your taxes correctly. You know, you can study for your exams or whatever. But if you're not secure first and then becoming comfortable, it is gonna be very, very difficult for you to accomplish what you wanna do.

MG: Oh, this is so good. The comfortability equates to capability. I feel okay. So I'm gonna come back to the corporate space, and then I then I wanna talk more about your work, but I think this is so important, you know, when we're thinking about working and how we show up at work, because oftentimes, you know, we'll talk about how corporate America maybe doesn't always feel super safe or super psychologically safe.

SK: Yeah.

MG: And so it just, it makes me…there's an emphasis that I feel on the importance of doing everything that we possibly can to create that sense of comfort and to create that sense of safety so that we can show up in the best way possible. Because I think, you know, there's a limit to what maybe efforting or, like, mindset can do for us when what's around us is emanating ‘not safe’ or ‘not comfortable’ or ‘not good.’

SK: Right. You can change the lighting, for example, in an environment and get a different effect. Lighting is a very, very powerful thing that we don't even think about sometimes. You know, we've both been in classrooms where we're have this terrible lighting above our heads and, you know, so it's one thing that I always try to make sure that people understand that you can change that out.

But there's a lot of things that play into that whole kind of thing. And, you know, one of the things that a Feng Shui practitioner will always look for, and I actually look for them almost immediately, is what we call “poison arrows.” And poison arrows are, are very sharp edges or, off of furniture or corners of a room or whatever, and you try to take them away as best as you can.

I use the word ‘softening’ all the time. I probably coined that word for this, but I, I try to soften the corners. I try to soften the furniture. If the furniture needs to be moved somewhat because the back edge of that points right out where I'm gonna be sitting and watching television for 3 hours, I'm gonna move that piece of furniture. Okay? So sometimes you, you can use things like plants, fabric, or whatever to soften something.

So for example, on a dining room table, you know, a lot of people have rectangle tables, and they have sharp edges on on all 4 corners. That seems like a very small thing. But when I'm trying to get something sold, for example, I, I would rather if that's what they have as a table, that they soften the edges. They take away that mental aspect that there's something there that's sharp. And so they use a, you know, a tablecloth of some sort, you know, something to, to soften it.

So when I say soften, quite with a corner that I, I really worry about, I'll, I'll get a potted plant or whatever, and I'll put it right there on the corner to take away that poison arrow mentally and, makes makes energy go around it somewhat, and therefore, it's not gonna be directly affecting me.

You see it a lot in master bedrooms, for example, Marie, where the dresser might have a sharp corner that points right at where you've laid your head, and there you are for 8 hours with a poison arrow pointing at you. I know this, this sounds a little out there, but this has been proven research-wise, study-wise. And I even quote a a research study on 90 degree angles and how they affect us. So we take away things like that. We take away things like straight lines as much as we can because it rushes the energy.

So we're always worrying about how the energy comes in, how it flows, and we're worrying about poison arrows. So, yeah, it's a lot more than where the couch goes or where the bed goes, but all those things are in play, too. So, and there's an awful lot to it when you do an evaluation. And I, I know probably most people think, he's gonna ask me to paint this room, and he's gonna ask me to move this, this bed. But it's not so much more than that. Is it, is I try to tell people the most simplistic definition of Feng Shui is the art of placement. And you'll see that in some books, the art of placement, you know? And like I said, to me, that that really I don't know, sort of irritates me to even use that as a definition. It's so simplistic.

MG: Mmmm, you know, what I love about what you said in softening is when we soften that which is around us, it allows us to also soften. Like, we only soften when we're comfortable. Right? We only soften. We only relax when we feel safe. So I just I'm gonna take that away with me. Thank you.

SK: Sure.

MG: Yeah. Okay. So let's talk about your work. I'm curious. What are your current offerings? How can people find you if they wanna work with you?

SK: Well, I have two schools. One of them is a real estate school. The website is www.thefengshuicure.com. So if you're interested in trying to help yourself sell or even buy a home or build a home, that was where I would go if I were you.

But if you wanna become a, a totally certified professional consultant and use it for your family, use it for your loved ones, and maybe even make it a career if you want to, or supplement your your career, you go to this website with my partner Lisa Alban, and it's www.intrinsicschooloffengshui.com. And so, you know, we've been in cahoots now for 5 years. I met Lisa, she was having some difficulty selling a home about 8 years ago and, Googled Feng Shui in that part of the world, found me at the top and contacted me.

And at that point, believe it or not, Lisa was an executive in the Home Shopping Network. She had her second child. She decided she wanted to get out of corporate after 20 years and called me up, and we met at McDonald's and decided we wanted to work together. [laughs] So fully certified, she's a Feng Shui master also, and, you can find her beautiful face on the intrinsic school of Feng Shui.

MG: Oh my goodness. Amazing. Thank you so much, Steve. It has been just such a treat to talk to you. I feel like I have so many more questions, so I feel like this just opened up even more. But I just so appreciate you taking the time and for sharing your wisdom. Thank you. Thank you.

SK: Oh, you're very, very welcome. I loved talking to you. I love, I love your questions, and I really appreciate the opportunity. It was excellent. Thank you.

MG: Yeah. Thank you so much.

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Thank you so much for listening to The Spiritual 9-5 Podcast. I'm your host, Marie Groover, and I am beyond honored that you are here.

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Until next time, big love.

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Shownotes

How much does your environment impact your well-being?

In this episode, Marie is joined by Steve Kodad to explore why intentionally designing our space is so important for success and comfort at work.

Steve Kodad is a national real estate trainer and author who specializes in incorporating the 4000-year-old “environmental science” of Feng Shui for home buyers and sellers. After 17 years as a teacher and 10 spent co-owning a 34-agent real estate company, he has now been teaching workshops, writing books, and consulting on Feng Shui for over twenty years.

The episode offers wisdom for Feng Shui beginners and advanced practitioners. If you enjoy it, learn more about Steve at the Feng Shui Cure and the Intrinsic School of Feng Shui.

Chapters:

8:00 What brought Steve to Feng Shui

18:00 Why your environment is like a vision board

23:00 Feng Shui for your home, your office, and your hybrid office

35:00 Organizing your desk with the Bagua

45:00 What makes a comfortable environment

References: