Archive for November, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving. Today’s post is a fun, light post to send you into the holiday weekend. I wish you a happy holiday, full of joy, good cheer, good food and most of all, good company! Good food, family and friends what could be better? (Be sure to click on the blue links to hear the music that inspires me.) Enjoy! 
I love music. Music has the power to touch me deeply and to magically transport me back in time. Every song seems to have a story and a memory connected to it.
Music can be a powerful Feng Shui tool. There is meaning in the message, beauty and inspiration in the melody and harmony and balance in the song itself. It is truly a multi-sensory experience. And it can be used to clear stagnant energy from a room.
Music can be used to instill a sense of joy and whimsy into a space. And it can be used to inspire and motivate us and there are lots of songs and different types of music that can do this for me.
Here are a few of my all time favorites. Des’ree, Bon Jovi, Idina Mendzel, Seal. All remarkably different and yet all make me snap my fingers and dance while they touch my heart in their own way.
When I teach Instinctive Feng Shui, I find that the power of music reaches across age, socio-economic experience and even preference - the power of music connects us all in the moment, in the magic, in the message of the music itself.
Close your eyes the next time you hear your favorite song and let the music uplift your spirit and send you soaring into a place of connection, introspection and harmony. A perfect Feng Shui moment!
© 2010 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
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Many people today are interested in having a healthy, harmonious home.
Feng Shui is about enhancing well-being, the quality of your life, through placement of your furnishings, the way you use and decorate your rooms and the application of specific techniques designed to align and optimize the energy of your home.
Much of Feng Shui like sensible design is based on common sense. An uncluttered room, for instance, not only looks different than a cluttered one – but it feels different.
When we think about Green living and sustainability, it often seems like so much needs to be done and that nothing we do will make a difference. We feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.
The good news – we can make a difference. In fact, we can make a BIG difference by making a few simple changes in our lives. I’m going to share 15 changes you can make right now to turn your house into a healthy home.
- Remove toxic, poisonous substances from your home (and dispose of at a proper location – not the garbage.)
- Store sharp knives in a cutting block designed to be placed in a drawer. This is much safer than having your knives on the counter or on the wall. (And it makes your kitchen feel much friendlier too!)
- All windows should open easily.
- Avoid sharp cornered furniture.
- Furniture should sit firmly on the floor – no wobbling.
- Keep area behind all doors, hallways and at the entrance to the home clean and free of clutter.
- Good lighting – indoor and outdoors. Entrances, paths and stair should all be clean and well lit.
- Maintain electrical equipment. Keep loose cords contained in a cord catcher, organizer or in cupboards. And keep electrical equipment turned off when not in use. A fantastic way to do this is to use a smart power strip- they look like surge protectors and while they do offer surge protection, they also allow you to shut down the power to all attached components. (Did you know that appliances and electronics draw power even when they’re off?)
- All doors should open and close easily. No stuck doors, squeaky doors, loose doorknobs or damaged doors.
- Change your HVAC filters once a month. These catch all sorts of airborne irritants, from dust to allergens.
- Use natural pest repellants instead of pesticides.
- Remove your shoes when entering your home. There is a significant amount of toxic pollutants on the soles of our shoes any given day, from petro-chemicals to pesticides. Taking your shoes off keeps it outside.
- Change to green cleaning products. (This is super easy to do, simply go to the grocery store and choose only those products that are environmentally safe and non-toxic.)
- Choose and use only low or no VOC paints for all your paint projects.
- Bring nature indoors. Plants are Feng Shui powerhouses; they benefit us on many levels and instill our homes with vibrant, positive energy. Plants are a fantastic and natural way to clean and refresh the air.
A Feng Shui healthy home is safe and environmentally friendly. Choose a few or all of the changes above and the feeling in your home will change. Your home will feel better, smell better and be safer for you, your family and pets. It doesn’t take a lot to create change, all you have to do is start, make one change and the rest will follow.
© 2010 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and link above.
We are profoundly influenced by the spaces we inhabit. Our homes have an enormous impact on our state of mind. They can be places that uplift us and bring us a sense of joy. And they can be places that drain our energy and create a sense of unease.
We’ve all had the experience of walking into a room after an argument and the room felt uncomfortable. The energy in the room felt thick and heavy – the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
And we’ve also experienced spaces that felt warm, comforting and inviting. Space clearing raises the vibration, the energy within a space literally liberating old stagnant energy and imprints and replacing them with fresh, vibrant, nurturing energy.
Space clearing is a way to instantly shift and transform the subtle, energy or the feeling in your home or workspace.
Space clearing is a term first used by Denise Linn in the early 90’s. It is an integral branch of Interior Alignment®.
In Interior Alignment® we believe our homes aren’t simply four inanimate walls. We believe our homes mirror and reflect our consciousness, our inner state of being, and the act of clearing or re-aligning the energy in our living spaces shifts our energy and our experience of the energy within our homes.
As Denise Linn states in her book Sacred Space, “Homes as well as people are nourished by how we hold them in our hearts. They have a living spirit that is sustained through the reverence and love that we hold for them. Without that care they become inanimate and lifeless; the spirit recedes and they become merely physical structures that can neither sustain or nurture us.”
Space clearing can help you:
- Release old emotions
- After an illness
- After a move or life change
- After an argument
- After remodeling
- Release recurring patterns of behavior
- Increase vitality
- Enhance the quality of your life and living environment
There are four basic steps to Space Clearing.
- Preparation
- Purification
- Invocation
- Preservation
Preparation. It is important to take time before the clearing process to establish your intention - what it is you’d like to achieve or change by clearing your space. Your intention is your most powerful ally and the most powerful tool you can use to re-align your living spaces. Without intention, all actions are hollow and meaningless – like going through the motions.
With intention your actions have purpose, clarity and direction. There is meaning and power in everything you do.
This is also the place to incorporate a bit of clutter clearing. I know, you’re thinking, “Oh no, not clutter again!” Clearing clutter is an on-going process and one that is particularly helpful prior to space clearing. It’s good to release items that are no longer useful, needed or desired. This way we have made space for the change we desire and our space clearing actions will be more effective. (For more information about the clutter clearing process, click here.)
Purification. This is the actual clearing or re-alignment process. There are many different methods and techniques you can use to clear a space.
Some are:
- Incense
- Smudge or sage
- Sound instruments (drums, bells, etc.)
- Water
- Crystals
- Salt
My personal favorites are sound instruments. I love how the resonance of instruments expands and fills a space as the energy is re-aligned. You can actually hear the difference!
The actual tool you use is less important than establishing your intention – any tool will work. Choose a tool that aligns with you, one that feels comfortable and natural for you to use.
Before beginning, stand in silence with your eyes closed. Breathe in and out slowly; focus your thoughts on your intention and the energy of the room. With each breath, feel your energy expanding and becoming more powerful. When you feel ready, begin to move through each room in a clockwise manner, releasing stagnant energy as you move through the room.
Invocation. After you’ve cleared the stagnant energy from a room, return to the doorway of the room and once again close your eyes and focus your thoughts and breath on filling the space with positive, uplifting energy. Put your intention into the space. You can do this with the use of an affirmation, a house blessing or dedication or simply by giving thanks for all this is good in your life.
Preservation. This is the Feng Shui step! To maintain the energy and clarity of the clearing it’s good to create a physical affirmation. This can be many things, just about anything, as long as the item has meaning for you and represents your intention for your home.
Objects hold the energy you give them, positive or negative. It is the power of your association with things that empowers them. So, the actual object chosen is less significant than your association with it.
Choose objects that resonate with you, objects that fit seamlessly into your personal sense of style and your spaces. If I can look around your home and see ‘Feng Shui cures’, you haven’t selected the right items. The best Feng Shui is the Feng Shui you feel, not the Feng Shui you see. And the only way for Feng Shui adjustments to feel right is when they fit into the space in which they are used and they look like they belong there!
Some things you can use are:
- A crystal
- A written affirmation put into a place of honor.
- Placing a written affirmation in the soil of a plant – then every time you water the plant envision that you are nourishing or energizing your intention.
- A beautiful lamp
- New positioning of your furnishings to reenergize and realign your space with your intention
- An accessory that you LOVE that supports the energy of your intention
- A picture or piece of art symbolizing your intention
- A beautiful, lush plant
- A home altar
- Any object that symbolizes your intention
The energy of a place is created in part by the people who have been there, past events, past emotions and the energy patterns inherent in our style of building.
Energy doesn’t flow with ease in corners, which is why these areas tend to create pockets of stagnation or dull energy. There simply isn’t any movement.
10 Simple ways to uplift the energy in your home
- Clean and vacuum
- Clear clutter
- Clean the windows
- Replace old, burned out light bulbs
- Open the windows; let fresh air flow into your home
- Spritz your rooms with essential oils (lemon, lavender, eucalyptus and pine are wonderful for this)
- Burn incense or use an essential oil diffuser
- Light a candle
- Add fresh flowers or a beautiful plant
- Play inspiring music
Space clearing re-aligns the energy in our spaces, creating movement and vitality in place of stuck, stagnant energy.
When the spaces around us are nurturing and supportive our quality of life improves.
And that’s a good thing!
© 2010 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and link above.
Are you out of balance? Do you deny your personal limits? A Feng Shui Lifestyle is about honoring who you are and what’s important to you. It’s also about trusting your limits to guide you to the path of least resistance … your personal life journey path.
I know that I am a much better person when I make time for myself. I function better when I exercise regularly, and when I give myself time to nurture myself. In the past, my tendency would be to work long hours during the week with little to no breaks and perhaps to work a bit on the weekend.
In the process, I neglected myself and my needs. So for me, the limit I was pushing against was my need for balance. Now I do my best to make sure that I end each day early enough to take my dogs for a walk, reconnect to nature, clear out the mental clutter, and make a pleasant leisurely dinner (if I want to). This early break in my day makes a huge difference in the quality of my life – mentally and physically.
When I take time to take care of myself I am not only happier, I attract clients to me that respect and support my need for a life in balance. As author Jennifer Louden says, “The only basis for creating your life, or at least the only way it’s going to come to any kind of fruition, is to learn your limits and create within them.”
Many of us either judge ourselves harshly for having limits or we refuse to acknowledge the limits we do have. How do we do this? By forcing ourselves into lives we think we should have or things we think we should do. We push ourselves out of our own sense of balance and into a frenetic life of busy-ness. Instead, recognize your limits and create your life within them.
When you think of yourself, are you satisfied with your ability? Or do you constantly compare yourself to someone else and feel that they are better than you are? Do you judge yourself by what you don’t have? Does that thought make you feel that you have to do better, be better, be different than you are now? Does it also make you a little bit jealous of the other person? I’d like you to consider that you aren’t better or worse than anyone else. In fact, you are simply different.
In your difference lies the key to your success, the key to your specialty. I believe that we all have limits; boundaries to our abilities and these limits help us become the best we can be. I believe that it is often our limits that help point us in a new direction, a direction different than the one we think we should be in.
Stop focusing on what you don’t have. Focus instead on what you can do that brings you great satisfaction and joy. Develop that and you’ll create a life in alignment with your path, a life that truly supports your souls desires. As Jennifer Louden says, “…look at your limits not as shortcomings, but as guideposts to aim between. You abandon your path when you focus on someone else’s…joy and satisfaction are the hallmarks of following your path, not money or esteem in other people’s eyes.”
Feng Shui Lifestyle Tips
- Are you inspired by your surroundings? Take a look at the art you have around you. Is it inspiring? Compelling? If not, remove it and replace it with art that inspires and supports you. Art that you absolutely love.
- Make space for the change you desire In Feng Shui we believe that true change can only come when there is room for it in our lives. If you find that there are aspects of your life you’d like to change, see if you have hidden pockets of resistance. Are your thoughts sabotaging your progress? If you’ve done everything you can to create a supportive environment, it’s time to take a look at your thoughts and beliefs. Chances are your thoughts are holding you back, keeping you from achieving your desires.
- Release any obligations that drain you of energy. What changes can you make in your life to make space for a better quality of life, a life in balance? Release any chores, obligations or errands that drain you of energy then leave that space, that time open, don’t fill it with anything. Give yourself time to relax, time to explore, time for balance.
I encourage you to embrace your limits, then them guide you to what makes you unique. Follow your bliss, follow what brings you joy and satisfaction and you will find your own version of success. You will find success that nurtures your soul.
Embrace your Feng Shui Lifestyle!
© 2010 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and link above.
