 Kitchens are gathering, especially in autumn, places to create, nourish and feed ourselves, our families, and friends but especially with Fall in full swing, the kitchen shifts willingly to the work horse of the season. The Feng Shui symbology of the kitchen is very unique and multi-layered and revolves around increasing positive energy in the kitchen to generate household prosperity, happiness and good health! Food brings people together for nourishment, celebration and connection. Creating a bright and well lit, welcoming, clean kitchen and that loving vibrational will enhance the meals you create there and amplify the healthy and happy results you want. The Kitchen is associated with the FIRE element because the hearth of the home Or stove is located here. Because the kitchen and in particular, the stove, help create nourishment that allows us to have energy to work and prosper, the kitchen and stove relate directly to the home’s finances. Good stove Feng Shui includes maintaining and repairing any broken burners, cleaning your stove cooktop daily and keeping it spotless, using all of the burners and rotating them daily. The stove, ideally, should be placed in the “Commanding” position, in the middle of a center island, if there is room, to promote being in control of one’s own finances. KITCHEN Feng Shui TIPS Make sure you actually use your kitchen to prepare meals to show how much you want to nourish your loved ones; For the same reason, avoid having dirty dishes on counters or sink overnight; Clean and sort thoroughly inside cabinets, the counters, floors and make the kitchen sparkle; Assess what you really use in your kitchen and remove or store appliances from counter that are just getting in the way of an organized working space; Kitchens should be well lit, well ventilated, and clutter free; The placement of the kitchen should, if possible, be towards the back of the home; Kitchens placed in the center of the home should be avoided; Repair any and all leaking faucets, drains, refrigerators etc. and creaky doors; Do not place knives on the countertops, their “sharp” negative energy weakens the Fire energy associated with the kitchen area; Make sure the sink or refrigerator is not directly next to the stove (Water puts out Fire) if you desire financial abundance; The stove should be in good working order at all times and spotless to draw more wealth and positive energy into your life; If possible the stove placement should be in an island configuration or in the “Commanding Position” to be in control of one’s wealth/finances; Microwaves should not be placed over the stove, blocking the stove’s Positive energy; Balance out the kitchen with all Five Elements, usually Four Elements of Fire, Water, Metal & Earth are already present so add a small plant or fresh flowers for the Wood element to encourage positive and balanced energy flow in the kitchen; Choose a color that corresponds to the placement that your kitchen occupies in your home and if in doubt, white shows off the vibrancy of our food best! Choose artwork that reinforces health, abundance, happiness and vitality. What a reputation the bathroom has earned in Feng Shui circles but can we mindfully balance the draining chi or energy most often associated with our bathrooms in delightful and modern ways! Bathrooms always have challenging Feng Shui but if we are aware of how to overcome the difficulties, we can easily mitigate much of the draining energy in practical ways. Bathrooms do leak energy and accumulate lower vibrations. Bathrooms are closely associated with the water element. The ancient Chinese never created bathrooms inside their homes because they were impossible to keep clean, and with all of the draining energy also associated with the physical drains in a bathroom, including the toilet, sink, shower and bath, bath placement inside a home was considered “bad” Feng Shui. However, we live in the modern 21st century and the many modern designs include state of the art plumbing, lighting, ventilation, fragrance, and colors that all conspire to create a spa-like luxury that has changed the way we spend time in our bathrooms. So while bathrooms still present challenging energy we can mitigate much of the difficulties by applying a bit of elbow grease and modern design. Many modern day bathrooms often resemble a spa – like, purification and elimination environment, allowing for our most intimate personal care moments to be supported and nourished in wholesome and luxurious surroundings. Bathrooms may still represent draining energy but the energetic challenges of any bathroom can be easily overcome. Remember, each home is unique and the family that lives there is too. So while general tips abound, there is no substitute for receiving specific and personalized Feng Shui advice for the difficult chi of bathroom are placement within your home. These tips for creating spa-like, intimate, nourishing and supportive bathroom Feng Shui are a good start and include: Keep your bathroom beautiful, spotlessly clean and clutter free Hold the intention that your bath is a sacred place to purify mind, body, and spirit Choose a color that will activate the element that rules the area of the Bagua or watery blues or woody agave greens Keep the toilet seat down, the bathroom door closed, and drains closed when not in use Bathrooms need ventilation, open windows or get a small fan Place live plants to purify air and bring in vital continual upward growth energy or a silk plant will do Upgrade your bathroom lighting and also include candles and sconces and low lights for lingering in the bath tub Invest in lavender essential oils, bath salts, Epsom salts and get grounded with a rejuvenating soak in the tub Dress up your bathroom windows with easy care and privacy wielding plantation shutters or blinds Place images that represent purification and relaxation like the ocean, rivers, flowers, nature, and trees. Take a look at your bathrooms and make even a few of these small enhancements that certainly can transform in big ways, and remember to slow down and enjoy your bath like a five star resort. It’s all up to you my dear readers!   Many westerners don't realize that Feng Shui is actually one of the 8 Limbs of Chinese Medicine. First what are the 8 Limbs or Branches of Chinese Medicine?
1) Meditation 2)Exercise Internal (Qi Gong) External (kung fu) 3) Diet & Nutrition 4) Astrology 5) Feng Shui 6) Massage & Body work 7) Herbal Therapy 8) Acupuncture/Moxibustion The eight limbs of traditional Chinese Medicine are methodologies for enhancing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, beginning with the most gentle approaches moving to more intense therapies. The list is an ideal hierarchy that should be practiced regularly for ideal personal well being. Creating SPACE AS MEDICINE engages the 5 Elements Theory (water, wood, fire, earth, & metal) so your environment is infused with a the same life force chi we find in nature! How do you feel after a hike deep into the woods or along the coast next to the ocean? Refreshed, renewed, restored? Your home and office environment should allow you to feel exactly the same as you do in nature. Creating a nourishing, nurturing environment creates well being, peace, and an ability to rejuvenate and restore in our dwellings. This is the heart of my work. Reconnecting you to your environment so home or your office supports your health, wellness, relationships, abundance and dreams.  Why is the front entrance so, well, front and center in Feng Shui?
Here are some clues to divining the mystery of this all important area to critically review, enhance, and improve for vibrant and nourishing Feng Shui to be attracted to your home. Our external world is full of uncertainty and Feng Shui continues to offer an elegant, nature –infused, time- tested design approach for enhancing what we do have control over, our personal environments. The front entrance of our homes establish first impressions and the first subliminal messages about you, your home, and the quality of life lived at that home. The repetitive subliminal messages of our front entrances reinforce either an uplifting or draining energy. The design system of Feng Shui stems from the ancient philosophy of the TAO meaning everything is inter-connected, so that naturally, our living spaces especially influence us far more than westerners may realize. As you preview your elegant front yard gazing upon the front entrance, here’s a checklist to help you prioritize and purge the negative to attract auspiciousness to your home and own the front entrance energy flowing towards your home. Start with bagging up and disposing any debris in yard Place toys & other items in garage (organize garage for needed additional storage) Trim back plants that block pathways to door Remove all cactuses Fresh coat of red, black or dark green (best FS entrance colors) paint for front door WB40 joints of creaking doors Repair/replace rusting door jambs Update with fresh house numbers that are clearly visible to all Flank front entrance door with sized-to-scale potted Nandina evergreens or red flowers Working and clean front entrance lighting Place a colorful, cheery silk or real seasonal round wreath on your front door Broom cobwebs away from entranceway Fresh new stylish welcome mat Bubbling, to-scale water fountain to right of front door Place a grounding statute for stability in the home Soften straight walkways to front door with colorful potted plants that ease rushing chi Actually use front door daily to continually bring healthy chi into home Try to tackle a few things on this list each day or each week and be mindful to put a ‘love my home’ intention into your tasks so what’s created is a positive thread you can from that day forward, weave into the layers of what home means to you. Welcome spring with a refreshed spruced up front entrance and see what come to your door!  Mandala Feng Shui SPACE AS MEDICINE
Year of FIRE Rooster Overview Part 1 The Chinese Calendar is magnificent in its festive Lunar start to the New Year of the Female (Yin) FIRE Rooster on January 28, 2017 and the important detail of the Solar start on February 3, 2017, which is the basis for the start for those born in this 2017 year of Yin FIRE Rooster sign. For a significant part of the globe, this annual celebration is observed in places as remote as Tibet and cosmopolitan as Tokyo, for many Asian cultures have their own versions of what is largely associated with the Chinese culture but which includes many other Asian cultural variations too. New Years Day is the absolutely the most important day of the year in ,any Asian cultures. Top of the New Years “to do” list is deep cleaning the house, annual ceremonial home space clearings & blessings, annual astrology timing analysis to plan timing, decisions & important occasions, painting the front door, paying off debts, buy new red & gold clothes which are the traditional colors of happiness & prosperity, wearing new clothes on New Years day, presenting crisp new money in Red Envelopes to all the children in the household, and preparing sweet & savory dishes for a New Years feast are just a sampling. So while most people did not escape 2016’s Male (Yang) FIRE Monkey’s surprisingly raucous business pace and with so many of the twists, turns & surprises that came quite literally, out of the blue, business chi/energy will continue to bring strong benefit in the upcoming 2017 Female (Yin) FIRE Rooster. A Chinese Proverb says, 'First Avoid the Negative… then Enhance the Positive'. It is important to know that we all have a say in how we handle the fortunes of every year, and applying the timeless wisdom of Feng Shui is a proven tool for navigating greater success in the ever changing landscape of time. So even if it’s challenging “out there” we have time tested tools to help us, in any year, to reap wealth, health & harmonious relationships. Rooster promises to be equally as hard working as 2016 but perhaps a more highly prosperous year for many IF we mind our business or hold our beaks! In a Rooster Year, all of the twelve (12) Chinese animals can reap great rewards by tapping into the more auspicious Rooster traits. Loyalty, passion, commitment, hard work, family values, the excellence in money management, and top-notch appearances are just a few of the Rooster energetic signatures or characteristics that will be rewarded this 2017 year. Feng Shui practices teach us keen awareness of going with the flow (The TAO) and deft application of the wisdom based and time tested tools for changing times (I CHING). In FIRE years it’s wise to make sure we activate some water in our environments, especially for Career/Life Path/Money protective flow but also carefully indulging in personal care, conservation minded rejuvenating water spa activities, or hiking a beach is also a very healthful balance to this yearly heat signature. Adapting now integrated wellness strategies that will allow us to be truly living balance by the summer (ruled also by FIRE element) will help ensure greater personal wellness into the fall and into next winter. Keep in mind, that the less auspicious Rooster traits will also be energetically present in 2017 and so avoiding them at all costs paves the way for greater success for us all. 2017 FIRE Rooster will bring many lessons in focused motivation and multi-talents in the workplace, and for many people, their careers and relationships will hold many new opportunities as Roosters are very fertile and hardworking creatures. In 2017 humble, conservative, joyful, careful, and consistent hard work reaps the harvest as does holding back one’s criticisms, not judging others hastily, letting go of the impulse to control others and always needing to be in the right. Equanimity and diplomacy rule supreme. |
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