7-point strategy for manifesting a sea-change
A client commented recently how in no time at all, we’d not only begun looking for somewhere to live by the sea but we’d packed up, left North Oxfordshire and settled into East Devon. In fact, it was eight weeks from start to finish.
Certainly it was an intense time but when you’re at the centre of it, you do what you need to do. It’s only later on reflection I realised what we had done in advance to contribute to the speed of the move.
Here is my 7-point strategy for manifesting a sea-change, which I’m sharing with you now to help you prepare for your own sea-change
1. Align with Feng Shui
While the cow barn conversion where we’d been living in the heart of England was cute and cosy, I always knew it wasn’t forever. Some of you will understand this curious admittance – the soil did not feel like my soil. While the ironstone villages surrounding us were very pretty, similar to the Cotswolds, I didn’t connect with the land. Neither did Sam.
Besides, there were Feng Shui challenges with the property that even a Feng Shui practitioner like myself was powerless to address more than I could.
For instance, the approach to the front door (corresponding to Career and Life Path in terms of the Bagua) was uneven and dishevelled with broken slabs while the land drained away from under our feet responding to the lure of the underground water and well 20 metres away.
We had ‘anchored’ this disappearing Ch’i energy along the front of the house as best we could with potted plants, a wooden bench and a large garden box. However, the responsibility for this road surface, which affected two other neighbours too, lay with our landlords who lived in the large farmhouse adjacent. Since they were not directly affected by the rutted approach they turned a blind eye, passing it off as what you’d expect living on a farm. This didn’t progress into a hostile relationship but we failed to enter into a collaborative partnership that a homestead like this required.
I share this with you as an example of when it’s appropriate to stay and when it’s appropriate to move on. It was time for us to move on.
2. Live the dream
Many people have the desire to live beside the sea but desire alone is not enough. You have to embody that desire and when the opportunity arises, you must act on it.
I recall clients and friends visiting us in the barn and commenting on the amount of coastal imagery for a home that was land-locked and about as far from the coast in any direction as you could drive. We lived surrounded by shells, yachts of varying sizes, sea creature imagery and seascapes.
Before moving to the Barn I’d spent the previous year living in Padstow, Cornwall (and Sam in Bournemouth, Dorset) and were sad to leave our coastal hotspots. Like many we needed to follow the work opportunities as the pandemic subsided but as a memento we brought elements of the seaside with us to remind us of what we’d left behind.
In addition, I’d made various Feng Shui placements in the barn to activate a house move.
In the zone of ‘Travel & Helpful people’, I’d placed a model camper van Sam had made – a symbol to us of freedom and the ability to get-going. A wicker basket from Cuba, filled with Ordinance Survey maps of various coastal sections of Devon, Cornwall & Dorset, sat in this zone too. We were living the dream even while living in the country.
3. Make known your desires
While I didn’t consciously declare our coastal move as an intention and create a vision board to reflect this, which I wilfully tuned into every day until it became a reality, I adopted a softer approach.
For reasons I cannot remember, I discovered a list in my Morning Pages (my morning writing ritual) of four things I still wanted to achieve in my life. Top of the list was: ‘To live with Sam beside the sea’. I’d written this in September 2023, three months before we began the machinations to move.
Day-dreaming aloud to Sam (the equivalent of sending the request out to the Universe) I’d also expressed the desire to live in a small town where
- you were able to reach the basic amenities on foot. We are so fortunate now to have Aldi, a Tesco Superstore, a post office, a grocery, the library, the health shop and an actual bank within 3-7 minutes walking distance of home – let alone the sea and the promenade right across the road and two doctors’ and dental surgeries close by.
- there was a resident population. In Padstow it saddened me to see so many cottages lay fallow and forlorn for months, waiting for the holiday season to begin. Such a waste. As winter descends, it’s still nice to see people moving around, keeping the heartbeat of the town alive.
- we could participate easily in the local community – from yoga, book clubs, Blue Tits (cold water swimming) to sailing, we’ve also discovered a busy theatre/cinema in Seaton. It’s an active town. There’s a Fun Run every Saturday on the sea front and it hosts the annual Grizzly Run for serious runners. We’re already involved in preparations for the Seaton Summer Festival.
- we felt like we were a part of a town that people cared about and looked after its people, acknowledging each other with a friendly ‘hello’.
- my skills were required locally as I continued to serve my previous patch in the South East of England.
Having expressed my dream in one short sentence – to live by the sea – and shared my desires for this place with Sam, I let go of it and got on with life. I’d turned the project over to spiritual guidance to point us in the right direction as and when the time was right.
I believe this is a much less effortful way to work with manifesting energy. To give up the need to be in control of every step of the process or to pin down the specifics of what is acceptable so that only one or two options provide the solution. I trust the Universe has far greater intelligence than I to sort this out rather than rely on my thinking alone.
4. Let guidance steer a pathway with the Intuitive Vision Board
Late November 2023 (now six weeks before we made a move) I was drawn to make my next Intuitive Vision Board. While only eight months had elapsed since the previous, the timing felt right to work with the creative energy again.
I mentioned some of the detail of this vision board in a previous newsletter/blog, which featured a very determined lady with her bag slung over her, ready to go, with the power and protection of a giant moose (symbol of abundance) covering her back. I hadn’t consciously associated her with an imminent move but my intuition obviously had.
NB There is no sign of the sea on this vision board whereas my recent boards had seen plenty of it. I put this down to there being no need for it. I’d already got the message and was living the dream.
5. When the door opens, GO!
Three weeks later events transpired to open an unexpected door when Sam’s contract came to an end. Here was an opportunity between jobs to attempt our move. We had in mind (NB the word ‘mind’) to head for Christchurch, Dorset. But after two long day treks from Banbury to Bournemouth to view properties that left us uninspired, Sam hit on another idea for our flailing spirits. Why don’t we widen the net to include my home county of Devon.
You may be thinking: ‘Why didn’t they think of that before?” But something inside me had resisted up until now. But when Sam said it this time, I felt an awakening and lightness inside me, as opposed to tightening and contraction, which I read as a positive endorsement from my intuition. However, rather than return to the South West where I spent the first 18 years of my life, I suggested we try East Devon because it was closer to my South East connections.
6. Stay flexible
On our first visit to East Devon we were most impressed with what we saw but the towns were unfamiliar. It became obvious that the most efficient way to make progress was to let go of the Barn, store our belongings, and base ourselves down south while we looked and researched. And so we did.
I sourced a self-contained, one-room loft space to die for with delightful owners, in the first instance. Nestled in the beautiful, understated countryside of the East Devon Area of Natural Beauty, it felt like we were on honeymoon all over again. It was an adventure to explore the local area and wasn’t long before we’d fallen in love with it. If we could feel this way in February, we’d certainly be delighted with the warmer seasons ahead.
7. Let go of logic
The penthouse apartment we are now living in is a godsend but it makes no logical sense that we should have found it.
- It has uninterrupted views of the sea and the beach is just across the road. In theory we should never have afforded such a prime location.
- It’s in a town we both knew nothing about. Having passed through Seaton a couple of times, it looked shabby in parts and as though not much was happening. It’s East Devon’s best kept secret.
- The apartment is furnished when we were looking for unfurnished. However, the unforeseen benefit of this has been to allow us to situate ourselves immediately and take our time to decide (minimum a year) where to base ourselves in the longer term.
The next surprise was to discover the apartment is owned and refurbished by a reputable, environmentally-friendly builder and his wife who is an Interior designer. You can tell – and music to the ears of a Feng Shui practitioner. Even so I found reason to repurpose two rooms and rearrange the furniture to our liking. We would never have discovered this apartment if we’d relied on the logical, practical steps I was taking to find it. I’d been looking on various ‘right move like’ sites each day for properties released in the previous 24 hours. Eureka! It was only a hunch that led me to the Seaton Agents’ websites directly where I discovered this apartment, which had been posted two months previous. No queues, no short list. It was ours if we wanted it – to move in right away.
The moral of this story is don’t rely on a systematic approach that leaves no wriggle room or adapting to circumstance. If so, we wouldn’t be here. Stay soft and open to intuitive guidance and be curious about the unexpected.
Above all, have the courage to act in a timely fashion because without action nothing happens and opportunities are lost.