Feng Shui

Copyright © 2013 by Dana Shui LLC & Dana Claudat Cover design by Shatterboxx Book design by Dana Claudat All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. Printed in the United States of America First E Published: April 2013

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DISCLAIMER Please note that Dana Claudat is not a doctor of any sort, that all references to healing are anecdotal, no claims are made to diagnose, treat or cure diseases or anything of the like. Anything suggested to try on in this book is merely suggested for educational and inspirational purposes.  If you chose to undertake a project, diet regime, home alteration or any other suggestion found on these pages, you will be doing so at your own risk and your own responsibility. Dana Claudat & Dana Shui LLC will not be responsible for errors or omissions, although this data is fantastically well vetted for its accuracy and we have all intention of giving you the best information possible. In addition, Dana is not a magician and will not and does not promise you money, fame, power, marriage, good heath or anything else; she can only guarantee to provide you with feng shui principles as well as empowerment tools and other exercises and ideas to enhance spaces and help them to feel and look better.  The rest is icing on the cake! All of the images in this book are property of Dana Claudat and Dana Shui, LLC and should be attributed to The Tao of Dana, linked to http://www.fengshuidana.com, if they are used by you for any personal purposes in blogs, newsletters or the like. You do not have permission to use these materials for any commercial purposes. Feel free to send a request if you wish to use photography In addition, because my approach to feng shui & a feng shui’d lifestyle is unique in many senses, if I inspire you to write on a topic, please credit the ideas appropriately.  Dana attribute every unique idea that was learned from another in this book. We all have unique contributions to make in our fields- lets honor all of our accomplishments as our own, and give credit where it is due.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION WEEK 1: get in touch. work on your relationship with space. Brainstorm: Home Exercises for Week 1 Creativity: Your Life As Art Work Of Art! WEEK 2: a world of energy. how you flow in life & space. Brainstorm: Magic Exercises for Week 2 Cleaning Up: Green Home Goodies WEEK 3: getting present. bring more of you to every day. Brainstorm: Best Moments Exercises for Week 3 Home Karma: The History Of Your Space WEEK 4: focus. get ultra-clear on what you want. Brainstorm: Dream Job Exercises for Week 4 Stability: The Goal-Setting Class WEEK 5: the bagua. understand how space affects life. Brainstorm: Gratitude Exercises for Week 5 Scent: The Sweet Smell Of Being Present! WEEK 6: the five elements. basic five element theory in practice. Brainstorm: Natural Inclination Exercises for Week 6 Color : The Basics Of Color Power WEEK 7: owning it. personal connection is power. Brainstorm: Rainbows Exercises for Week 7 Sleep: & A Bedroom Feng Shui Basics Tune Up WEEK 8: designing dreams. tune up your home and life. Brainstorm: The Arts Exercises for Week 8 And.... end notes ;)

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FENG SHUI 101 Your dream life design is autobiographical, intuitive & deeply connected to who you are!

Introduction By Dana Claudat

What exactly does feng shui mean? Lets’s turn to an entry in the dictionary: Feng Shui- n. the Chinese art of determining the most propitious design and placement of a grave, building, room, etc., so that the maximum harmony is achieved between the flow of chi of the environment and that of the user, believed to bring good fortune [from Chinese feng wind + shui water] ~Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers Now, for our purposes here, we might as well start at the beginning- my beginning, that isso I can paint you a better picture of what feng shui is all about and how it can change your experience of life.

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I grew up in a house that, for all intents and purposes, could have been the set for the film Boogie Nights. The 1970’s were alive and well straight through to the year 2000 in my house in Secaucus, New Jersey. My grandmother lived downstairs, with her blue and green “stippled” carpeting and popcorn panel ceilings, crunchy plastic on the sofas and “her chair” of ochre velvet that was her chair exclusively. She faced directly toward the kitchen where we ate at exactly 5:00pm every day in her chair as she watched game shows, soap operas and golf in turns. Upstairs was where my sister, my mother and I had our bedrooms. This second floor featured goldenrod wall-to-wall carpet throughout, except for both my room carpeted in putrid lime and my sister’s den-turned-bedroom that sported burnt orange shag. To this day I will never voluntarily choose carpet of any kind in my home. Our upstairs kitchen had a groovy wooden deck that was accessible through the door beside the rarely used Kenmore dishwasher. Half of my lifetime in that house saw the deck in some state of dry rot despite the fact that it was rebuilt several times. There were no real extreme conditions to warrant this chronic breakdown, yet the deck was generally hazardous. My sister and I would tempt fate and sneak out there when we could, especially to smoke cigarettes when we were younger and very daring….until one of my sister’s friends got her leg stuck between splintering planks while running over a loose board. Why that deck always degenerated was a mystery to me, until I came to understand in my presentday awareness that it was located in the area of our house that correlated in feng shui with self-esteem and money. Neither was stable or easy to come by in that home, as cool and colorful as it was. The house just echoed our lives in its structure, potentially even making things much worse at times. An interior designer fashioned the rest of 166 Meadow Lane in the mod hippie heyday of 1974 to be quite the showcase of all things groovy and theatrical. A custom fountain full of plastic plants and faux birds of paradise encompassed a full corner of the lofty open-plan living room. The problem? The fountain could be easily turned on with a switch but

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it never had any water in it. One fateful day I realized I could fill it with water myself, Dixie cup after Dixie cup, and the fountain would actually move water- as a fountain should when I hit the switch. I made that discovery at nine years of age while orchestrating a safarithemed photo shoot with my Polaroid and my Cabbage Patch Kids. My mother was breathlessly horrified. The water could ruin something! The fountain could break! Promptly the fountain was left to dry out, never to see a drop of water again for decades. My mother didn’t understand that an empty fountain was already broken. My favorite wall of the house- the biggest living room wall- featured C. Jere golden metal disk sculptures, giant wooden keys, funny faux-planters and an illuminated oil painting of flowers. I thought this wall had style and daring. In a sense this wall became the template for the type of art and display I prefer- personal, strong, eccentric yet unified. Everything in that house on Meadow Lane was kept in pristine condition. My mother preserved the place better than a pickle with not the slightest change made for 25 years. Our furniture bore holes in the rugs beneath their legs. Even as young children, my sister and I would try to move things around, build forts and tear up our unbearably stale colored carpets all in an effort to set ourselves free. My dad was gone when I was eight. My mom turned the home into a mausoleum of “the golden years” in her life, and froze herself in the wildly bad color scheme of the past. Yes, there’s that dark side. For all of the yang (bright and active) there is the yin (quiet and dark). Our house was always uneasy on its foundation, as were our lives. My mother decided that stopping time was the sensible way to deal with the disaster. Hence, our happy home in suburbia was the very exotic Mid-century Modern disco version of our personal prison. When I look back at that house, I see that it was a reflection of a life that looked so enviable on the surface- my beautiful mother, her boastful Jersey home, her seemingly lovely and happy children and her adoring matriarch of a mother…. all frozen in time. As the years went by, nothing ever changed and no one got past the trauma and the drama

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until we all left that house. While I didn’t set out to be a feng shui lifestyle curator that I suppose I’ve become, I do understand that my childhood home and its affect on my life are indescribably powerful. That is why we are here-- so lets get started!!!

GET YOURSELF: ★ a dollar-store journal or a fancy journal or a Trapper Keeper booklike situation with lots of blank pages ★ some pens or pencils or crayons or, yes, an iPad or computer, but I prefer if you write by hand if you can ★ your cell phone or camera to snap pictures and a tape measure for later!

Back Home! This is 166 Meadow Lane, inside...and dancing school recital fever!

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WEEK ONE Our lives used to be far more connected to each other & to space; now we need to get back in touch!

GET IN TOUCH work on your relationship with space Space is intimate. There is a field of research and approach to design called “Image Diagnostics® pioneered by Beverly Payeff Masey; it has been integrated into the canon of Pyramid School Feng Shui. While I will not get into the specifics of the techniques deeply here, I will give you a sketch so you can understand why we all need our own specific types of environments. In essence, if we can identify the images that correlate to the architecture and structural details of spaces we experienced as “safe” versus “unsafe” when we were infants and very young children,

then we can understand the types of spaces we are best suited to live in as grown-ups. These “imprints” came about somewhat instinctually and they explain, in part, why you may have lived in fabulous homes that felt “wrong” even when perfectly designed, and also sheds some light on why some of us never feel comfortable in certain types of spaces no matter how many times they are renovated or redecorated. As a child, my safest spaces were in old apartment buildings with marble floors (my godmothers apartment) and in 60’s craftsman houses (her house at the shore). Is it any wonder that I live in a building just

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like that marble-floored piece of history in Jersey City, New Jersey? Is surprising that today my neighborhood is full of craftsman houses that I walk and drive past in an idyllic manner, feeling quite at home? Neither is coincidental. As you read through this book, you will uncover more of what “home” means to you, how “home” feels specifically in your life, and how well you are creating “home” for yourself now!

Habits & Your Home. When I enter people’s homes, I often like to watch where they sit, how they walk through their space, and what they tend to focus their eyes upon while I am there. Some people have a favorite chair or spot on the sofa where they spend most of their time at home. One man I know who works at home takes copious showers to “wash off” one part of the day and start the next. One friend of mine watches TV in bed for an hour in the morning and another can’t get the day started without a bath. Some people avoid whole rooms of their home, like my friend who had a real live ghost (it pulled on me!!!!) in the spare bedroom that she never entered. In the weeks to come we will take a closer look at the possible significance of areas in your home that you are avoiding or that you deeply dislike, but for now, it is work taking a look at the fact that those places might exist for you. Is there a closet that you never want to enter? A room? A certain chair? How do you avoid these areas? How do you process the fact that they irk you? Do you look at the crack in the wall and say “ one day I will fix that…”

sighing deeply because it is such a bummer to behold yet you are not motivated to fix it? Moreover, how does your energy change when you are in the rooms or spots you like the least?

Communication. Communication is an art form that is well worth mastering. The words you speak have a major impact on your life in every way possible. How you walk through every day- even your posture and your stridecommunicate to the world. Your life on social media is a powerfully public form of communication, even if it is one step (or many steps) removed from personal connection. You also communicate with space, especially when you are really present. Communication is the product of every medium that an artist can work with. Legendary artwork holds a timeless power to speak to humanity. All art borne in truth has that indelible power to send a message into space, even if it has never left the wall of your bedroom. In the wake of Contemporary art in the early 20th Century, ideas behind artwork became as important as the visual work itself. Some art has since become valued purely in its idea-form even if it was never created by the hand of the artist. What has never fallen away from art or its history is the importance of clear and well-constructed expression. Some say that your thoughts communicate to others without even voicing them, as though you can hear the thoughts around you in a telepathic “sixth sense” sort of way. I’m sure you have had a thought of someone and then they called you or you

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ran into them during the day. You might have mass (weight) and they have energy think of a song and then find it on the radio (waves) that are definitely bouncing around when you turn it on. You may feel someone in space. is about to say something before they say it, What does this philosophy have to do and then they do. Whether you call it with your home and your life? Everything! telepathy, intuition, synchronicity or just To explain, lets talk about space itself. If plain coincidence, these incidents give some you believe that as a human being you are credence to the notion that even our comprised of a mind, a body and perhaps a thoughts are actually “audible” without soul, you still need a space for all these parts words and that subtle waves in the air might to communicate with one another and with just be detectable if we tune into them and an environment in order to function. At the pay attention. risk of getting too metaphysical, if I am fairly sure you have all you didn’t have a space within read or heard of “The which to function you Secret” or the “Law of would cease to exist as “Go and do the Attraction” which you know yourself promote the notion that right now! Your things you can't. if you can think and country, your state, feel and imagine neighborhood, home, That is how you get something clearly, you office, mode of to do them.” will see it “manifest” in transportation and your life. There are even your life on the - Picasso thousands of examples of Internet are spaces within how this “Law of Attraction” which you function. works in life, with mega-stars Space tends to mirror the inner proclaiming its greatness. I absolutely can workings of your thoughts and mind. say that the ability to see a goal clearly and The Japanese concept of esho funi explains experience life as if that desired objective the “oneness of man and environment.” If has arrived definitely has moved me closer your environment is out of whack, your to my objectives, but there are a few missing thoughts and well-being are also likely to be ingredients not covered often in these books askew. (like working with intensity and smarts, There is an inexplicable line of having an aptitude for what you want, and communication between ourselves and our having goals that are actually vested with spaces. If you walked into a home of a purpose, amongst other things these books prospective business partner and saw a pile don’t always cover!), the core of this thought of dishes in the sink, scuffs on the walls and philosophy is about how one’s clear the lighting was dim, you might immediately thoughts can communicate to produce feel like this will not be a successful venture. results in the physical universe. That idea This person is communicating their has been proven somewhat scientifically potential lack of follow-through, vigor and following Einstein’s theories- your thoughts initiative through their environment.

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This person would not need to say a word: you would see it and feel it all immediately. Often with clients I will educate them on red flags to look for in potential romantic partners, things that a home will communicate clearly that a person will not often say in words. Of course, in light of what I just said, you are probably scanning your mind to see if you have any big problems in your home that are communicating issues that are messing with your life that you don’t talk about...and that’s the beauty of this process! We will kick things off by focusing on simple ways that you can get more present in your home and your life so that you can and will see what is out of whack in your space and, week by week, slowly but surely, create a clear and clean space full of dynamic energy. That clarity will influence your thoughts, decisions, emotions and actions.

This week there are lots of exercises. Approach them with an open mind and a spirit of play. It is very easy when you start to look around and get overwhelmed, depressed, stressed or totally discouraged. You need to stay on the path. Cleaning up your life & redesigning it is no small task! This is the process of do-it-yourself feng shui that will empower you tremendously as you move through the steps. In this first week of action we will start with the seemingly fluffy or apparently unrelated stuff that will later prove invaluable to making your home and life click as never before. Please note: you might want to skip ahead. Instead, dig deeper into the work for the week you are in. Right about now would be a great time to grab that journal, or paper or a sketch pad and something you like to write with…. We are ready to get into action!

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BRAINSTORM HOME Bust out that journal and think about the things that remind you of home. If you have pictures of your first home, see if you can drag them out. If you still live there.... what about it makes you feel safe, comfortable and supported. Write down colors, scents, different times of day, different views out the window, perhaps a piece of furniture... what triggers home. If the home you grew up in was not the place that made you feel at home, where did you feel most at home? A friend’s house? A park? A playground? Classroom? One of the greatest spaces of my childhood was the art room at Huber Street School in Secaucus, New Jersey. I remember every inch of it, even where the tempera paint was stored in crusty squeeze bottles and crumbly paste was piled on a shelf that tasted like a combination of starch and waxed paper. The CorningWare dishes my grandma had in her kitchen stenciled in ochre flowers make me feel like home. I can’t wait to take them out of storage. While you do this free-write, don’t think too much. Don’t edit yourself. It may be some very obscure things that remind you of home. It may be extremely clear and specific. Really write and write until you have captured that feeling as best as you can. That is the essence of home. If it has colors, scents, tastes, styles or views, that will all come to light.

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WORKSHEET Exercises For Week 1 Go For A Walk (or a drive) In Your Neighborhood The key word here is NEIGHBORHOOD. I happen to be a “neighborhood-y” person. I know everyone in my building, I know my neighbors, and I know the locals. I have a dog and we know all of our doggie friends. Not everyone is hard-wired this way. If you are considering a move, or especially a home purchase, I suggest you try this exercise for at least 30 minutes to an hour. I like to do this, if possible, by walking a few blocks out in one direction and making a circle around my home base, weaving in and out of blocks. If you are driving around, pay close attention. Your neighborhood can influence your life, so its worth paying attention. Take it all in as you walk or drive around. Are there plenty of street lights? Do your neighbors walk the streets? What does the sidewalk look like? Do you like the signs hanging around your house or building? Do cars speed past your home? Do you live on a dead end street? Are there schools or public shopping centers nearby? Do you feel safe? Do you feel at home? Once you are home from this little walk, write down anything you noticed or remember, negative or positive. There is usually a redeeming area within walking distance of almost any home, even if the immediate neighborhood is not that great. Or, at times, like in Downtown Los Angeles, you can live in a phenomenal building with absolute industrial desolation surrounding you on all sides for as far as your feet can carry you. While I would wither in such a place, others might find it to be a paradise. If you are not pleased with your trip around your neighborhood, do not dismay. We will make changes inside your home later to compensate for what you may be lacking outside.

Your Own Interior Design Tour When I am doing feng shui consultations online, it is my client’s job to photograph their home for me. By saying this I do not mean that I want them to detail and polish and style their home with professional lighting and take photos with giant cameras. I ask my clients to be honest and thorough, photographing their home from every angle as it is experienced daily without props or artifice. The best way to photograph your home in order to see it objectively: shoot your photos at an hour that you are usually home where there may still be a glimmer of outdoor light but we can still see in pictures how your interior lights/lamps are functioning to illuminate.

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Turn on all the lights you have that you regularly use. That’s it. Nothing more. Yes, you are about to see how you actually live. Now, snap away with your camera or smartphone, starting from OUTSIDE of the front door, then head through the entrance front door and working around each room and hallway, snapping every wall. Capture important detailsfrom your favorite crystal doorknobs to the crack spanning the length of your hallway wall. Everything. I don’t care if you use a disposable drugstore camera, your phone, a vintage Polaroid or a great big SLR, just take the time to do a great walk-through in photos. Develop, download or stash them for now.

Tip: If you noticed how dark or overly bright your home is while taking your photos, make a note in your book. You may not realize that you are “dimming” active areas of your life (and house) by keeping the wattage low, or never using certain lights. You may be flooding your home with too much hot light, to the point where you are over-stimulated and maybe even have trouble sleeping at night or difficulty finding “quiet time.” You can make a little adjustment now. Any burnt out lights get added to your to-do list to be replaced--- right away! Light bulbs are relatively inexpensive and very important.

A “Touching Tour” I know, I sent you walking the streets and running around your house with your camera phone and now I am asking you to start touching random objects around you… but that’s what you need to do! Start by touching whatever is closest to you. Look at it, feel it (is it cold, soft, damp, scratchy?) Lift it if its something small like a coaster. Now, do the next object. Walk around and randomly touch things. The floor or carpet, too! The walls. You don’t need to do this for long, just long enough to get a material sense of yourself interacting with your stuff. How will you know when you are done? You’ll know. If you don’t know, stop whenever you want to.

“This Room Makes Me Feel…..” This part of our “getting to know our homes” week is easy. Or it’s not easy. The good news: it is just a few words per room. Stand in each room and ask yourself how each room makes you feel. Look at what is in front of you and listen to any negative or positive thoughts or

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associations that come up as you look around. Looking and listening will start to wake you up to the many ways in which your home helps you or possibly holds you back. This stuff is well worth writing down. It will be the basis for many of the changes you will make in weeks to come.

What and Where Do You Avoid? I am not a big fan of the mailbox. Don’t ask me why. Some people check their mail daily and I would aim for monthly if it were possible. I never had this problem before, until the trashcans were taken from my lobby and a table was put out beside the mail area that collects junk mail in an ugly manner. Now, I tend to avoid that very large space in my lobby completely. Also, for about a year I avoided my very groovy dining room. The walls were plain and the table was sparse. I did an elaborate peony colored wall treatment to the main wall and added a mini-money tree and fabulous crystals to the center of the table and now its my favorite space in my house. So…. What and where do you avoid? Write it down. Now, think of what makes you feel weird about it? You need to use and feel whole in all the space you have. By doing even minor “facelift” action to just one totally avoided area of your house, we are opening up more of life as well as more space. Now… Creatively brainstorm a way to make that avoided spot feel better. There is no right or wrong. This also does not have to be a major event, but if you are very inspired it very well could be a revolution. Make a plan this week to polish your place of avoidance.

Check In With Your Online Neighborhood For the rest of the week, if you have time left, all I ask is that you look at how your “online environment” is flowing. Not that long ago I woke up to realize I had a three year old phone, a six year old operating system on my desktop and no way to work outside of my office at home (no iPad, no laptop). My social media wasn’t really flowing together and my ability to store and synch data was zilch. Given the fact that I have half of my career tied to the Internet, it was a shocking state of affairs! And… it just crept up on me and caught me totally unaware! It was a very small investment to upgrade my entire online life with new technology. How does your life online flow? Are you synching calendars, data and contacts? Do you know how to use your technology well? Are you socially linked in as much as you want to be… or are you too linked in?

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CREATIVITY We are starting with creativity because its the fundamental energy behind everything in life. From microscopic cells to whole nations - its all founded on creativity! There are a few key concepts about creativity that are motivating and thought-provoking at the outset of our 8 weeks together. I’ve linked my free creativity class HERE (pre-recorded so you can watch at your leisure), so that it can inspire you & give you even more ideas! There are two important parts of the class that I want to go over now, even before you watch it! Create : to bring into existence 2 a : to invest with a new form, office, or rank b : to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior 3: cause, occasion 4 a : to produce through imaginative skill b : design *Merriam Webster Dictionary

1. The dictionary definition of “create” does not involve judgement. Being a masterful painter or a crappy painter are the same as far as creating is concerned. If you judge how creative you are be based on the quality of your work at the moment, you will not only prevent yourself from improving, you will also create a great big self-esteem issue for yourself rife with self-invalidation. 2. Create a safe space within which you can be creative. This is one of my mostfrequently-called-upon exercises from Julia Cameron’s genius creativity book, The Artists Way. Put a circle on a piece of paper. Inside the circle list the people who you can wholeheartedly trust to support your artists endeavors for better or worse without judgement. Outside the circle list the people who you love but who might not fully understand or support your work. If you are vigilant about not sharing your creative development with those outside the circle... no matter who they are...you will have a safer space to create these gains. This is really super-helpful and you can avoid a lot of drama if you stick to your guns.

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WEEK TWO Energy. Its such a buzz word because the world moves faster & faster! Get into your own energy groove!

A WORLD OF ENERGY how you flow in life & space Quantum gorgeous.

I remember in second grade we learned the basic structure of atoms. Protons, neutrons, electrons, all buzzing around, make up the basic structure of every single thing on this planet. Then we learned basic chemistry, all about how every element in the periodic table had a unique structure of atoms bound together somehow magnetically. Nevertheless, they were still buzzing little atoms. My chair, I thought, was going to melt apart as I sat on it, listening to this elementary lecture. I raised my hand and asked, “But, doesn’t that mean that everything is kind of alive?”

Of course, my somewhat perplexed science teacher told me that I was wrong. Later I came to understand that this very simple assumption was totally right. Every single thing in the universe is energy, no matter what form it takes. Masaru Emoto’s studies of water crystals documented in many books like The Hidden Messages In Water have been deemed quackery by many scientists, but I can’t help believe there is more than a “crystal” of truth in his findings. Emoto used a microscope to examine frozen water crystals after the water samples were subjected to various stimuli.

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For example, a sample of water was sounds convoluted, but chi is what you prayed to, and this water froze to be energetically pick up from life. For our gorgeous crystals under a microscope, yet a intents and purposes, chi is purely sample of water that was “yelled at” experiential. Chi is something akin to life disparagingly might not even freeze into force, or that essence that infuses life with solid ice crystal at all. Given the fact that we “life.” So, if a chair or a table is held are a large percentage of water as human together by magnetic bonds or atoms and beings, these studies, if factual, have their moving particles, chi is what we feel as enormous impact upon the way that various a result of experiencing these qualities of the stimuli affect our bodies as well as everything chair through our sense- vision, scent, touch, on this planet. I suggest you take the time to hearing, temperature and taste. look at Emoto’s photos and writings- they When chi is positive, you feel fabulous. are fascinating if only When chi is blocked or absent or philosophical. negative, you feel like crap. In Buddhism, it is Chi is the life force energy taught that that also circulates “The universe EVERYTHING is through your body. capable of attaining Acupuncture and exists because we enlightenment. That Traditional Chinese are aware of it.” is a somewhat thrilling Medicine harness and concept: if everything balance chi and help it is held together by to flow to create - Martin Rees specific magnetic bonds optimal health. Feng and energy is running Shui, in a sense, is like through everything, why can’t acupuncture for your EVERYTHING be capable of environment. When you have chi attaining its most ideal form? flowing and optimized at home or work, Exactly. It is quite cool to think about. chances are that you will feel fantastic. You can dive deep and study this concept The energy of your home is something and all of quantum and particle physics in that you experience as chi. Our goal is to depth and I am sure it can be time well amp up the positive flow of chi and spent. For our purposes, lets just start with eliminate imbalances in your environment. this idea: things are not just what they seem Your experience of your space is highly on the surface. Everything is energy and personal, and after last week, I bet you have everything is capable of undergoing a better sense of where things may fall flat or transformation. feel stagnant around you. This week you Now, you may have heard the concept can make a few small adjustments that of “chi” or “qi” when reading about feng hopefully will breathe momentum into the shui or Chinese philosophy. Chi is not a weeks to come. thing. Chi is what is experienced through the Before we get to moving things around, senses. I know at first that this concept lets talk about your physical energy. Do you

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sleep well, eat well, have mental focus and get enough exercise? I know, that is one massive loaded sentence full of questions, but they are all worth a look. The “chi” you have as a human being is something undeniably powerful. My acupuncturist always says, “Follow your energy” but if you don’t have much energy, you have nothing to follow! Fake energy is a problem lots of us grapple with. Caffeine, cigarettes, sugar, “energy drinks”… all designed to give us a lift. Invariably that lift ends on a low note. Even if you don’t eliminate any of these things right now, get conscious of them. Unconsciously I used to drink 2 giant blended coffee drinks a day and drink Cokes with lunch, smoking about a pack of cigarettes a day. Once I became aware that my fake energy had gotten the best of me and I was dragging myself around, a nutritionist asked me to log what I was putting in my body. It’s a good exercise if you are a fan of fake energy like I have

been. Just seeing that list turned me off of coffee and Coke and sugar and chainsmoking for about 6 years now. Once my real energy was replenished with sleep, food and actual exercise I could never go back to living on the brink of collapse in the world of strung-out, faux fuel.

Tip: A holistic healer once taught me that the worst thing I could do for people was to worry about them, as that worry sends confusing and negative energy toward a person while is solves no real issues. Next time you find yourself worrying about someone, find an action to do or sit and think good thoughts about that person and let go of the worry. Scientific or not, it really frees up a lot of energy that gets needlessly wasted in ruminating.

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BRAINSTORM MAGIC

Have you experienced magic? I’ve had some wildly transcendent experiences and have seen lots of kooky stuff. I’ve also pulled off what seem like impossible feats every now and then. We all have. That said, I’ve also had periods where I felt like the world was flat and so was my energy. Have you experienced magic? Have you felt your own personal magic? Whether in synchronicity (you think of someone and run into them on the street), awesome events that feel like miracles, wild happenings, a moment of major realization or the like have you experienced magic? Write, list, collage, paint, draw, sing or dance what magic feels like. Try to put into tangible expression the unspeakably amazing essence of all that is you. We all have magic. Sometimes we see glimmers and sometimes magnificent waves...but its there! Dig in. Write it out. Blog it. Do a spoken word performance of it. Have fun with this. This is not a test. This is not an exercise to make you wish you had something you don’t.... this is about affirming all that is you. While no one may understand you magic yet but you- (no one understands mine!)- its important for you to acknowledge and remind yourself....so indulge!!!

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WORKSHEET Exercises For Week 2 Check Your Passageways How is the energy moving in your hallways inside your place? How is the walk from room to room? Is the hallway that leads to your place in your building kinda funky? If your hallways are dark, think about adding more wattage or a bigger light fixture, or even painting them in a brighter color, even a brighter shade of white. If your hallways are spare, contemplate a little décor on the walls. If the energy is depressed, a plug-in aromatherapy scent will lift the area. There are many non-toxic and even therapeutic home scent options at your local Target or Walmart, or check online for fancier aromatherapy! I have been known to plug scented aromatherapy into public hallways in apartment buildings I’ve lived in, and the neighbors have been nothing short of ecstatic.

“Poison Arrows” Basically, if you are threatened in any way- symbolically or actually- by any décor or structure in your home, you have got yourself a poison arrow. While we may not find every one of them right now, we are going to find the major ones. A starter list of poison arrows to look for: • Unstable light fixtures or chandeliers with giant points swinging overhead, especially over the center of a bed or a foyer. • Coffee tables with sharp edges that have corners that point toward people seated at the table, and the same for sharp-edged nightstands. • Any scary or precarious architectural stuff that is menacing (sharp fences, nails in the flooring or walls that should not be exposed but stick out, etc) • Branches of trees blocking doorways or pointing directly into windows • Super-narrow hallways that are obstructed • Ceiling fans overhead while you are sleeping (especially when turned on) • Dangerous or ominous sculpture with severe edges These are a few basics to give you a pretty good idea of bad energy. Throw a tablecloth or a throw blanket over sharp, confronting corners. Move or remove any potentially dangerous stuff you have been apt to avoid. I know that this may seem like common sense, but you will be shocked to see what happens when you do something as simple as softening a few pointy edges. I worked with a woman who has such a gorgeous home with fabulous art on the walls.

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This fabulous art was sculptural and hung in dramatic and gorgeous ways. What she didn’t realize was that in her living room this delightful art was ready to sever someone’s head if they sat on her sofa! It was easier to show her than tell her. She said she was open to entertaining but it just didn’t happen often enough. “Ok,” I said, “ let me sit down like I would at a party and...” She started laughing as my hair became one with a sculpture suspended behind me as I sat down, realizing that she has unconsciously created a space that looked great but didn’t accommodate others. Eliminating the poison arrows opened up the space tremendously to a new flow of people and events.

Creating Welcome Inside Let’s look now at how welcoming your home is on a basic level. What is the first thing you see when you walk into your home? How about when you enter your living room/ living space? You should be greeted by welcoming images or views as you enter a home or office and as you enter each room you should be again greeted by places to sit and comfortable space for guests. Even if you are currently not planning to entertain, having room and seats for others creates positive chi. If you do not entertain guests because you are not a fan of your home, remember: that is why you are reading and doing this process! Look at each seating area in your home. Are there ample spaces to sit? Is it comfortable? Is there a center of gravity (a coffee table, maybe with something on it like magazines or a great orchid or books?) in every gathering space you have? Gravity creates focus and makes us feel comfortable in a room. Can you easily have conversations with others seated in the home? There are many feng shui meanings to seating arrangements and shapes and sizes, but for our purposes, lets get things comfy and flowing and clear.

Tip: You don’t need to have a welcome mat outside your door to have a welcoming entranceway. You can add a little note of welcome on your door in custom vinyl that peels off (on Etsy you can find someone to do this easily), you can paint your door a fiery color, you can put a luscious plant beside your door, you can re-paint or polish your door number to be more enticing….Really, the possibilities are endless so don’t be dismayed if you feel you can’t create a “traditional” welcome outside your house or apartment.

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Fake Energy List Go ahead and make your list in your fabulous journal for the week. Coffee, tea, soda, sugar, energy drinks….Missed meals, cigarettes, alcohol… Log everything you eat, even for a day. A week will blow your mind. Sometimes you don’t know how healthy or unhealthy your habits are until you shine a light on them. No criticism here- just awareness. If you are so compelled, maybe you pass on a few cookies or grab a water in lieu of an extra large coke? Up to you. I just want you to see for yourself how balanced your energy is or isn’t--and food is energy, too!

“Faking It” Energy List If you have to pretend to make it through a day, chance are you are either a) a professional actor or b) expending way to much energy being someone that you are not. While I wholeheartedly subscribe to the fact that sometimes you have to bite your tongue a bit for the sake of maintaining peace, ultimately...you can’t walk through life tongue-biting. Now is a good time to look and see how much you are “acting” with people and in circumstances in your life. There’s a good chance if you are “acting” for lots of people that you are also undercutting your own integrity along the way, “to keep the peace.” Agreeing to things you don’t agree with, making choices to gain acceptance, doing things you are not OK with to “get ahead.” Can you get real with your life and ditch this facade? Or... can you find a way to maintain your integrity while being polite and kind? For those of you who struggle with this faking it issue, realize that the more real you can become the more effective you will be not just in our feng shui’d lifestyle journey but in your whole entire life!

Tip: Eating with the seasons is the best way to stay in tune with nature and have the best nutrition for the time of year. In fall and winter, focus on roasted or braised or baked foods, lots of warm herbs like ginger, cayenne and turmeric. Summer and spring can be more raw and cooler, mints and fruits and grilled foods that are less savory. A local farmers market can be the perfect introduction to seasonal eating, and also a great way to live closer to the ethos of nature if you are a city-dweller.

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CLEANING UP! Here is a cheat sheet of home cleaning goodies I use: CARPET FRESHENER: Very simple. Baking soda. I shake 5-10 drops of my favorite pet-friendly essential oils (usually lavender, but sometimes I mix it up) into the box and shake it up. I let it sit for a bit to “blend” in the box, then sprinkle on the carpet before vacuuming. Let it sit on the carpet for a while. Hoover it up & your whole home will smell fresh! TOILET CLEANER: One cup of white vinegar goes in the toilet. Leave it there to sit for a good long while. Grab half a cup of baking soda and sprinkle & scrub, sprinkle and scrub until everything is clean. Then flush! Done!!! HOMEMADE SOFT SCRUB: Mix up a bit of water, a cup of baking soda and about 10 drops of sweet orange essential oil to make a little paste. Alternatively you can skip the water and make a crumbly mix of orange oil in the baking soda and use a damp sponge to pick it up to scrub. Instant soft scrub! Its not only extremely effective; the orange is divine! Unlike commercial cleaners, if residue remains you can bathe in it without fear. FLOOR CLEANER: A little castile soap in a bucket of water with 10-20 drops of lavender or orange oil = mopping perfection! (I’ve used this on wood, too! Do so by testing it in a small spot first to be sure the soap is OK for your wood finish!) WINDOW CLEANER: White vinegar and water, half and half, in a spray bottle is my basic recipe for a streak-free window cleaner. To be truly eco-friendly, use your old newspaper to clean the windows. It actually works brilliantly and creates a streak-free finish! You can add 15 drops of lemon or orange essential oils to the mix for a room freshening cleaning experience that will life your mood, too. REFRIGERATOR CLEANER: Warm water and baking soda mixed up with a little castile soap will squeaky-clean your refrigerator. I’ve used just a bit castile soap in warm water with success, but the baking soda somehow makes it work better. I finish the job with a water wipe-down using a clean sponge. Of course, pop an open box of baking soda in your fridge and freezer when you are done, and replace them as often as you can remember!

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WEEK THREE The past and the future are both great, but when you get present, there is so much more joy and potential!

GETTING PRESENT bring more of you to every day Congratulations! Today we start working on getting more present in your home or office. Welcome to TODAY. Today is something lots of us (myself included) never truly feel because we are so caught up in the future or the past. Our more “New Age society” prizes the notions of “visualization” and “manifestation” and the game of seeing the future as though it were today in an attempt to make your dreams real today. Thousands of people say that they do this and they get what they want. I certainly have done this: visualized so intensely that I made things appear “magically.” But, in the period of waiting for

those things to appear I tended to miss out on the life happening around me in this present day. I have found that it is valuable to stay present during the day and set aside specific time for daydreaming, visualization & meditative activity in the morning and night. Too much visualization and too little action is fantasy-land. Also, I found myself so caught up in a semi-fantasy that I lost the power to really handle reality in a meaningful way. Do you know what I mean? Dreaming is great, visualization is awesome, but it’s not for every moment of every day: you must live!!! Psychotherapy, pop psychology and our

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culture at large likes to focus attention strongly on the past, to link everything in our lives to childhood and to our parents (or lack of them), and to things that happened when we were kids. While it is immensely valuable to see how people and events and decisions have shaped who you are and where you are, it is not the full picture. If you dwell only in the past, looking for answers to “why”, how can you handle today? How can you do things today to make for a better tomorrow? There is something to be said for showing up to the day with full attention on the matters at hand. Diving into the past and swimming out into the future are both valid and worthwhile, but we are going to talk about and work with this very moment called NOW. We are not going to deal with the psychological or the spiritual, but we are going to get very crafty and tuned-in to space and how it is affecting your wellbeing. In your self-styled feng shui makeover we will certainly look at your past ideas of “home” and also your future vision for your life. Most of the time, though, we will get very rooted in the present. In Week 1 we started the process of getting more “oriented” in your home and neighborhood. In Week 2 we got rid of some of the impediments to smooth energy flow by rooting out big areas of “bad-vibey stuff “ or sha chi” or and creating more welcome. Now, we are going to take it to the next level and add some sights, sounds, scents and projects to get you moving with greater presence and grounded power as a person. This is the stuff I just love! Whatever you discover in the exercises below can become little tricks in your back

pocket to whip out when you are feeling spacey, checked-out or just plain ineffectual.

Paying Attention I recently read a fabulous article by Heidi Grant Halvorson, PhD in Psychology Today that explored the most effective way to break habits based on study and research. She explained the three major ways to handle bad habits- 1. Distract yourself so you don’t engage in the habit, 2. Avoid the areas that trigger the habit and 3. Vigilant monitoring. As it turns out, only “vigilant monitoring” reaped solid results. In essence, to break a bad habit you need to really be awake and aware and stop yourself before you indulge in whatever negative behavior you want to shake. Breaking habits effectively requires ATTENTION. Your own routines, habits and psyche are the basis upon which you built your home, decorated it and currently maintain its condition. Your habits, how you flow with your energy, the routines you have created to avoid certain things and certain places: all are fundamental to the home you have now. For example: if you moved into your home during a divorce or a break up and find yourself single many years later, you may have created a space to protect yourself and maintain your safety, unconsciously designing blocks to intimacy in your home. It’s a crazy thing to see what happens when you really pay attention: you become accountable for your actions. Suddenly you realize that you have that leaky faucet because you neglected to have the plumber come when it was recommended, and its actually not your crazy landlord’s fault. The

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fine you got for not recycling properly in your city is actually your fault, too! You never paid attention to the directions, after all. Sometimes I feel that it’s a deep desire to skirt accountability that keeps many people “fuzzy” headed, stoned, drugged with sleeping pills and mind-altering medicines; if you are in a fog, after all, things “just happen” and its easy to make the excuse that its not because of anything you did, you know? When you check out into a hazy dreamland, you avoid responsibility, When you check in to the present moment, you take responsibility. By the end of this journey you will have a handful of new habits enacted and/or mapped out for yourself... brilliantly!

room. “Oh, those are just my divorce papers.” Super-Bad Clutter. Needless to say, the papers went out and new lovers came in.

Scents & Presence

Here is our first minor foray into the vast science and art of aromatherapy. I am going to keep it very basic. I encourage you to read the warnings for every essential oil you try, as some are not good for pregnant women or people with certain heath issues. Overall, I tend to stick to basic essential oils that are very tried and true. Safety first: I still test a drop of two on my wrist and sniff it from the bottle for a few days before I start diffusing, spraying, sprinkling or making lotions and potions. Also, only use Clutter therapeutic-grade essential oils. The rest To get present, we must remove, have been processed to the point where they repurpose or polish up things from the past lose their usefulness and good vibrations, that we have stuffed away in corners of our become nothing more than diluted perfume. lives- or our minds- that are doing nothing Peppermint oil diffused in your air for a but taking up space. We talked a bit about few minutes a morning for up to a week (no the energy invested in objects. Think about longer than that, its too stimulating) will all those broken objects collected in your wake up your mind’s eye. Make sure to do closets that do nothing but highlight this early in the day if you try peppermint dysfunction. What about gifts from an old oil, as it can affect your ability to sleep. lover, a friend who betrayed you..? Do (Yes, it’s that powerful!) these things make you “feel” a certain way Rosemary is another essential oil that I that is either longing for the past or resenting love for its ability to heighten alertness. I it in some way? put a few drops in a bath with a few drops (I I had a fabulous client who de-cluttered use 10 or so) of lavender oil to stay both her home prior to our consultation. She grounded and awake when I am at a loss for told me that there was nothing left to dump, focus. You can mix a few drops into any oil that everything was totally clean and clear. (even olive oil) or sprinkle some onto a She was ready for a new relationship and spoonful of baking soda or a cup of Epsom ready for big changes. After talking some salt or even milk to make the bath  a   time, I asked her what was in a cabinet in complete experience. her bedroom in the prosperity area of the Clary Sage is truly divine and inspiring

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and creatively engaging. A couple of drops on an unglazed piece of pottery (usually the Tip: Aromatherapy can be mixed bottom of a flower pot) can sit by your office into beauty products with a little computer relatively unnoticed by anyone experimentation. I mix a few drops else, yet the perimeter of the fragrance (the of lavender into my conditioner at distance the scent will travel) will envelope times. I mix a few drops of lavender you in your seat. and rosemary into a scoop of Lavender is my go-to oil for most things. I coconut oil to make the best scalpmix a teaspoon in a small spray bottle of stimulating deep conditioner on dry mainly water with a little vodka to create hair. After massaging it in and letting aromatherapy room spray. I sprinkle it on it sit for a bit, I shampoo and rinse my pillows when I am very wound-up. I put with 1 part cider vinegar and 9 parts a drop on my wrists when I am stressed and water after shampooing. Brilliant. a little spacey. We will touch upon more aromatherapy later, but for the ultimate learning experience, check out Valerie Wormwood’s 27 Things books. I happen to adore her book, The Fragrant Mind. If you feel spaced-out or stuck anywhere, move 27 things around your room. I know Music & Your Mind it sounds strange and arbitrary, but it works to get a new flow going. Think back to week Chopin, Bach, Vivaldi…There is a good one and how you felt when you started to chance one reminds you of vodka and the touch and feel your space physically. others sound like stereo systems, but these are just a few of the names to plug into your Consider this a mini-version of that exercise iTunes and download. Classical music has with motion added to the mix. The number 27 is a multiple of 9, which is an auspicious an intrinsic structure that mimics “artistic number in traditional feng shui. To me , 27 mathematics” and listening to this music is an arbitrary number, though large enough while studying can improve your memory. Studies have shown that classical music can to make an impact on your space. Your 27 lift your mood, enhance your sense of well- things can be as small as a paper clip or as big as a sofa. Just move’em! being and even boost your IQ! See what happens when you trade Top 40 or your favorite music from an eclectic collection for Classical when you are feeling unhinged.

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BRAINSTORM BEST MOMENTS What do you remember most about the last year? Two years ago? Five years ago? See if you can pull up a list of the most vivid memories from the last week. What about the month? What stands out? This doesn’t have to be deep and soul-crushing. Just some funny, awesome, amazing moments. Three years ago my sister showed my mother this fake prank call website and my mother found it so hilarious to hear Dr. Phil fake-prank calling people asking about their sex lives that she was literally on the floor laughing for hours with my sister. Hours. Definitely a best moment. What stands out for you? Those memories are so clear because you were engaged on so many levels with life at these times. See if you can remember in these shining moments what things felt like, smelled like or sounded like. What were you wearing? What did you eat? What were you touching? All of this sensory information that comes flooding back to you when you think of triumphant times comes from being present. Its really fun to celebrate even the small, great moments. Those are generally the best.

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WORKSHEET Exercises For Week 3 Clutter Busting Clutter-Junk-Trash- Stuff--- this is a big one. I am not going to load you down with a big todo this this week because this is a big to-do list!!! You are going to actually attack your clutter and make a decided difference in de-cluttering your life. Clutter: It creeps up on all of us. Clutter is where energy is stuck. Cluttered files can tremendously affect your finances. A cluttered kitchen can put a dent in your energy and momentum. Bathrooms full of clutter will leave you feeling less pampered, less attractive. This week you may not be able to fully clear the clutter but I would love for you to start with ten to fifteen minutes a day of attacking piles and clearing clutter that has been hard to confront. It’s really not a chore if you do just a bit a day. You may get a burst of momentum and tare through a room in hours, but ten or fifteen minutes a day is all you need to make a major impact. Those minutes add up quickly!

What Lingers , Unfinished? The unfinished projects in your life function similar to clutter, robbing energy, vivacity and future potential from your world. When a great opportunity arises to learn something new, experience something cool or even meet someone fabulous, you can’t really be there 100% with a plate full of…BAGGAGE. Sit down and make a list of the unfinished things around you. (Everything from changing light-bulbs to repairing a broken clock to a month’s worth of laundry to that DIY project that has left your kitchen cabinets in disarray; classes you have abandoned, letters unwritten, problems left un-confronted….) Now, run through your list and write down ONE THING you can do on each to move them even a millisecond closer to completion. Some things can be done right away- like laundry or dropping off a bag of donation clothes to the Salvation Army. Some will take time to see through to the end. Some (maybe a screenplay that wasn’t working for you? a painting class you didn’t like that much…?) may be able to get tossed off the list because you just truly do not need them in your life. That’s fine too. Just get this list running! Frequently check back to it and chip away at it until you are 100% clear of those unfinished cycles. Even the smallest step will do wonders for your confidence. Prioritize the bigger, more daunting tasks. This does not have to be drudgery. Imagine what your life will feel like when you are actually taking care of stuff rather than letting it pile up slowly and artfully into a haze of unrealized potential.

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HOME KARMA Karma is created an accumulation of cause and effect. In essence, karma is an effect of causes made along an infinite line of time and existence. You don’t need to alter your spiritual beliefs to know that what you do will have an effect. What has happened in a home prior to you and while you’ve lived there is what I call “home karma.” Looking at the pattern of life in a space helps to reveal what perhaps unseen or non-obvious things are happening in and around the immediate environment. One of the first things that I usually ask my clients is what has happened in their lives since they’ve lived in their home. The next is why the former tenants or owners moved out. Ask yourself both questions. Ask around if you don’t know who lived there before you; chances are someone will know who lived there and will tell you. Neighbors know things! My friends discovered their multimillion dollar home used to be a meth lab. Both of them were getting sick living there; when they discovered who was there before they up and left. I got mail for the woman who lived in my place prior to me. I didn’t think twice about it until my friend saw the envelope. “Oh my gosh...that chick, what are you doing with her mail?!” she screamed. I realized that this woman was the phantom we used to get mail for at the art gallery my friend and I worked at: she quit before we were hired. We shared a stop on our career train, as well as an address, at different times! Another friend discovered that the couple who lived in her place got divorced before she moved in. Given that information, it became much more clear how & why the space contributed to the tensions of a union once we knew the “house karma” of it all. We could “fix” the issue now that it was brought to light! This week, see if you can discover what the history of your space is, and see if it relates to your life right now. This detective little exercise will bring you closer to the nuances and unseen forces of energy in and around your home. Tune in now. You’ll be creating new causes and experiencing new effects as we move along, but its nice to really understand this concept as a kick-off point! THIS video tells a little parable and dives deeper into the not so subtle effects of our environment upon our lives. You might dig it.

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WEEK FOUR With greater focus, you become more of a dazzling laser beam, which means more free play time, too!

FOCUS get ultra-clear on what you want I know that it may seem a bit weird to wait until our fourth week to start defining goals for this process, but I find its easier to be clear on big things like “life purpose” when you are in a more clear and grounded place.

make them happy one day, and feel its tolerable and noble to be miserable in the process. “Object lust” -or “retail therapy” as it is also delightfully called- is not terrible in and of itself. In fact, fashion and art and beauty are indispensable to a full life, whether you A Life Of Purpose actually purchase or strictly window-shop. The world is blanketed over with want, Most of us know that “things”- however want, want. Everyone wants something. awesome they may be- do not amount to Some want what they “can’t have”, or always real fulfillment. want the person, place or thing completely Fulfillment is both intensely personal contrary to their present life where the grass and tricky to define. What will make your seems greener. Others spend their lives in life complete is totally different from what pursuit of things that they are certain will will make your mother or sister or best

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friend feel the same. What seems to be turned out, she had a deeply rooted feeling constant is that living a creative life with that she was not worthy of nice things, so we purpose- (even if the purpose is as simple as could mess with the “money corner” forever “to take pride in what I do” whatever it may and she wouldn’t really “get” what she was be)- generally leads to more lasting not able to accept. Instead, we looked at her happiness. sense of creativity and personal investment At the start of my feng shui practice, I in her space. She pulled out all of her more used to have my clients tell me their “three special home accessories- from silver wishes” which I would make “come true” in candleholders to fancy sheets to “good their feng shui re-design. Now I stay away China” - that were all stocked in storage. from the word “wishes” because it seems This helped remind her than she was that what I’m doing is magic. worthy. Her sense of personal You are the magic. I just power- the “fame provide a clear path but area” (more on this to you add the magic, so its come later!) of her “That’s been one not really “wish home- needed a good granting”. Now I ask, deal of perking up as of my mantras“What do you need? well. As a result, not focus and What do you want?” only did she have a ton and that’s how we of money flow into her simplicity.” focus. life, she also started What is fascinating taking classes and Steve Jobs about the “wish granting” renovating her sense of self days of the past is this: Two and purpose in the world. She major “wishes” prevailed over the is currently buying her first house, years across the boards: MONEY & LOVE. and realizes that she, indeed, deserves it! Very few people ask me to help create Love is the trickiest of all things to “balance” or “creativity” or “closer “manifest” if we are still talking in the friendships” or “self-esteem” or “a healthy language of “wish-granting”. There are a home,” yet usually any one of these things is billion and one reasons why a person has more necessary to help someone thrive than not found the love of their life, or cannot the very big words MONEY and LOVE. keep love in their life. What is most curious It’s a lot easier to wish for things or a person is when I suggest that people start working to complete the picture of life rather than to on their present relationships (friends, dive deeper and discover what would really family, colleagues) if they are not in a make your life more harmonious. romantic relationship they look at me like I To create a home that encourages am from Mars. “I have great friends and a financial prosperity for an unemployed perfect family, I’m fine with everything with creative woman would seem easy enough, my friends!” one woman told me, right? You just do “feng shui money” things indignantly, as if I were accusing her of to the “money corner”, right? Well, as it murder. As it turned out, she didn’t have

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such stellar family relations, her friends were more than a bit untrustworthy, and she absolutely refused to make any of the changes I suggested for her home. “ I do things my way, “ she said. Our process ended. I think that’s just fine, its just very odd to reach out to me to feng shui your place if everything is perfect, though, isn’t it? In both of the above examples, words like “money” and “love” are exposed for what they are- complicated and oversimplified wants. If you are willing to expand the field a bit, you may find what you are craving is something very different and far more gratifying than an elusive person or financial payday, though both may figure nicely into the picture, too!

Simon’s background is in marketing, and his examples were excellent. Apple Computers doesn’t sell computers; it sells a lifestyle of innovation and individuality. Companies with amazing MP3 technology were around far before the iPod, and they did their best to flood the market… but they didn’t have the “WHY” to infuse their product with purpose. The iPod made all other MP3’s basically obsolete. Who can compete with the promise of an actualized dream? There are so many fascinating case studies, far too many to list here, so I highly recommend that everyone- especially those of you who run your own business or dream of it- check out Simon’s book, Start With Why. The wildest part of Simon’s Your DREAM vs. Your CAREER presentation, the part that left a lasting imprint on my mind, was this fact: our vs. What You Do All Day! brains have a nearly impossible time on a The work that you do for money may mechanical level translating our own WHY have absolutely nothing to do with your our life purpose- into words. So, if you are purpose, or it can be the totality of your doing some soul-searching and feel stuck, mission in life. Some of you may be the answer may be biological- your brain unemployed, full-time students, housewives can’t physically tell you what your purpose or husbands, or independently wealthy: you is! So, how do you ever get to your WHY all still need Purpose. and live by your true purpose if you can’t About three years ago, I hit the Los express your purpose in words? The answer Angeles random-evening-event lottery- I was was astonishing and simple: “Ask your invited to see Simon Sinek talk at friends,“ he said. “If you ask your closest Causecast’s offices in Santa Monica. I could friends what they like about you, and press barely sleep for days after his electrifying them to go beyond the generalities like presentation, high on the sheer potential of ‘you’re are a good guy’ or ‘you are a great purpose. His message was simple yet so hostess’… really press them… you will come elusive: when you start with WHY you do up with the core words that are a key to your what you do and allow the WHY to inform WHY.” your decisions and actions you are ultimately I decided to badger my friends to tell me infusing your life with purpose and have a what they liked about me. After much greater potential to both succeed and create belabored “Um….um….um….” I got some good in the world. key words which I will share with a big dose

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key words which I will share with a big dose of humility: consistent, unique problem solver, generous, listener, and incurable optimist. All these words were resonant with what I do. I passionately believe that every space, and every life, can be improved, no matter how bleak things may seem. In essence, this book is a major piece of my WHY: I intrinsically believe in the massive potential we all have to make our lives more creative, healthy and prosperous. So, would you dare to ask your friends WHY they like you? I will admit, I was terrified at what I might hear. Imagine there was dead silence?! Believe me, there were long pauses, even from some of my oldest friends. It’s worth the effort- especially if you are at a loss for words- to give this a try. It shook up the foundation of my priorities, decision-making and even the way I walk through every day.

time for six months trying to figure out what to do next. I had no idea where to focus and although I was definitely excited by the prospect of all that I could do, I was really spending most of my day walking my dog and thinking about how great it would all be one day. I was getting much less done than I had when I worked for someone else for 16 hours a day! When I woke up with a realization that if I kept going this way I would not only be penniless, I would also have wasted years of my life that should be a dream (I fantasized about this time, after all! ) I started to do for myself what I did for clients- I feng shui’d myself! I had to take control of my time and distill my dreams into a set of projects that I could tackle with focused energy. Things started to get done.

This chapter of the book is a turning point for this reason: time is probably not what you need more of, STRUCTURE and BALANCE are likely what you need. With What are you actually doing all structure and balance you can have a crazy day? job and fit in the yoga classes or personal trainer or romantic dates or art classes or When I first started approaching the idea of anything that you need to work on in your doing what I loved in a serious way, I had life. When you work a bit toward another job. In fact, I had a major job that something, it grows. It may not be overnight consumed most of my time. I snuck in time transformation, but momentum builds faster to write a little, study, work with a few than you realize if you are willing to allow clients, blog a bit... but mainly my life was all yourself to have the time. When you are about something else that was very more balanced, it becomes easier to do 12 important and full of high-stakes pressure. hours of works more quickly, or, at the very All I could dream about was having the time least, more pleasantly. Often it seems its all to exclusively do what I wanted to do and or nothing. Life isn’t black or white- you live my dreams. don’t need to dive head-first into a new endeavor and drop everything else in your Eventually, I found myself with a landscape life, or, conversely, stick your dreams on a of totally free time. What was my dream shelf while you wait for a “better time.” was now confusing, and I spent most of my Balance is possible.

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Structure & Balance

BALANCE is a giant word. You know when you are balanced. In fact, if you are First lets talk STRUCTURE. While I know used to being either very under-active or we are not in the military, there is extremely over-active, when you reach a something to be said for waking up at a set state of relative balance you might feel so time, or at the very least, at a time YOU calm/ happy/ open to life that it scares you SET every day, and a lot to be said for at first! I used to think balance was a word having a day planned out that allows for the designed for people with no ambition; all time you need for various things you want to my hyper-active massive-achieving left me do. In your house, structure is key. burnt out and sick. Balance is a word that is Structure involves how solid the walls are, the true epitome of success. It doesn’t how good the plumbing and electrical imply achieving less...it implies more overall systems are, how your doors operate, how well-being and pleasure in the process of solid your furniture is and how well things doing what you do. are put together around you.

YIN: Quiet, Cold, Dark Curved, Horizontal, Feminine, Cool, Still, Minimalist, Watery

YANG: Loud, Hot, Bright, Straight, Abstract, Vertical, Masculine, Hot, Active, Fiery

Whole tomes of hundreds of pages have been written about yin & yang, so I am well aware that I am simplifying in my explanation of the balance of two characteristics of energy. You need both yin & yang in your life. Every home needs yin & yang. If you only have one energy, things are either too mellow or so stressful that its sickening.   In your home, balance is YIN(quiet) and YANG(loud) blended to suit your needs. Rule of thumb: If you have a very YANG job (crazy, stressful, action packed) your home can be a bit more YIN (peaceful, dim, soothing) and it will help to balance you. If you have a very YIN job (like writing, where you are solitary for long periods, or academic careers that are very mentally focused, a more YANG environment can invigorate you.

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BRAINSTORM If you could do anything in the world, what would it be??? & HERE’s a little video that’s very fitting for right about now.

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WORKSHEET Exercises For Week 4 Some Yin & Yang In Action. What does yin & yang mean to you? If you are feeling very bored at home, you may need some vertical lines (maybe a tall lamp?) or some bright color. If you are always anxious, you might want to turn down the lights a bit, perhaps get a fountain. Think about your disposition and your lifestyle. Which one dominates: yin or yang? Add a bit more of the opposite energy to your home.

Where Does Your Time Go? This is easy and not mathematical. What do you do all day? If you wondering why you aren’t living your dreams, look at where you time is actually going. Don’t be general: exactly where is your time going? Clock your time for an average day. I bet you’ll find tons of time that could be “differently” spent! Even if you only have a few hours a week to devote to socializing, creating art, exercising or whatever it is your heart desires... those few consistent hours will make a major difference. Once the momentum grows you are likely to find more time for what you want to do.

Stability & Your Space How solid is your furniture? The rickety table you love needs to be either repaired or donated. The sofa with springs popping out is ready for the repair man or the trash man. How solid is your bed frame? If you don’t have a headboard or a bed frame, now is the time to make an investment. You can DIY yourself a headboard in a few hours with a piece of plywood, some stuffing, fabric and a staple gun if you are the crafty type ( a quick Google search will reap you a ton of techniques). Is your tall furniture stable? Tall bookcases, wall units, sculptures, etc, all need to be stable. Anything higher than your waist should be fastened securely to a wall. Walk through your house and get a good sense of what is stable and what is precarious. make the necessary changes, or make plans to do so as you move along. If you are not ready to make big investments, know that there is always an inexpensive solution to a problem if you are resourceful enough to find it...and I know you are!

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Clearly Draw or Write Out A Sketch of Your Ideal Life This is not a revolutionary concept. Its a Goal Setting classic. The only difference here is that you have created lots more clear space in your life and hopefully have gained a bit more perspective on yourself and your creative power and personal energy. This higher life condition is a great place from which to sketch your ideal scene of what your world functions like at its best! If your ideal life is living in a suburban house with lovely kids, working from home and earning enough money to be comfortable and not concerned about cash, thats cool. If you dream of having a life that involves a private chef and house staff, that’s cool too. Just really get into WHAT you want to be doing all day, WHO you is there with you and HOW YOU FEEL as you live this ideal life. This isn’t an exercise focused on the STUFF you want to have, its about the LIFESTYLE you are building. As you write, write in the present tense, as though this all is happening now. “I will go to pilates every week,” becomes “ I go to pilates every Monday.” I know, you know this already, but it bears repeating. Instead of focusing on STUFF, focus on LIVING WELL. Stuff is great, too, and add in all the “stuffs” you want but lifestyle is truly where it’s at. This is a foundation that will allow you to build a solid future filled with whatever stuff and people you choose.

Create A Lifestyle Change In Your Home or Office If you need to exercise more, can your living room convert into a yoga room and allow you to practice at home? If you are trying to eat better, can you grab stuff for fresh breakfast smoothies and keep if freshly stocked next to a shiny new blender (or Vitamix if you dare! so luxe!) in a dedicated space on your counter? If you have to drink more water, can you get a water filter, or a filtered pitcher, to provide you with a constant supply? If you need to sleep more, can you get yourself a great sleep mask and put it on your pillow to greet you? Are you following me here? One lifestyle change this week installed in your house or office space that you will test out is the idea here. If your first idea doesn’t fit, try another. You will find your perfect lifestyle change to install in your environment if you persist. Keep it simple and keep it up. Small changes create BIG results!!! What is your lifestyle change? Keep it up for the weeks ahead. Do it daily if that is your wish. If you don’t like this lifestyle tweak that much once you get into it (it happens, not everyone loves the things they “think” they will), change it or pick something new! Just don’t abandon your daring to step outside of what is usual and comfortable because it isn’t perfect. And, if you need a reminder to keep up your new decision until it becomes a habit, plug it in as a daily reminder in your computer or phone calendar!

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STABILITY Stability is not boring... in fact, it is glamorous and exciting! Welcome to Albert Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs Pyramid: This pyramid pretty clearly details why lots of people get “crushed” on the road to living their dream lives: they omit the basics at the bottom of the pyramid!!! We all want excitement, adventure and elation: stability is the key to having that without the stress. Stability is not boring, it is essential! HERE is another free class on my feng shui’d goal setting technique that will not only dive into some of the depths of your life and desires, it will also relate it all fully to your home. I strongly encourage you to watch this class before jumping into Week 5. It will give you great insight into the dynamic nature of the bagua as well as how much your home and your life goals are interrelated.

Lots of “Ah ha’s!” in this one: its something I hope you enjoy!

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WEEK FIVE Your house is not your destiny, but its present condition reflects where you are at right now in your life!

THE BAGUA understand how space affects life Thousands of years ago in ancient China, people found that their chances of survival were greater when they arranged their homes in certain ways. This theory and practice traveled, and, in essence, has become somewhat biologically “imprinted” in us over generations. This map of how to optimize survival in a space is called the bagua map. I used to doubt the bagua- it seemed kind of superstitious- but years of working with it has proven, time and again, that it is a simple and fairly accurate tool. While I use the bagua mainly to diagnose problems, when its appropriate I use it for much more than that! Today you

will see “what is where” in your home and there will be a big shift when you realize how your home design directly impact certain energies in your life in a more specific way. In Pyramid School Feng Shui, the bagua map is used mainly as a diagnostic tool. When I apply the bagua to a home I can easily see many issues that people are experiencing “mapped out” in their home. That said, I don’t what you to get very literal about what you have in every section of every room of your house. That is not going to be productive. What I do want you to do is to understand the basis of the bagua and then use it to understand how your space

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and your life are specifically connected.

MAKING YOUR FLOOR PLAN If you actually own a technical blueprint of your space that came with your rental or the purchase or construction of your home, that is wonderful. I would usually say skip this exercise, but right now I want you to, at the very least, pull out that floor plan if you have it and walk though your home actually seeing what is around you. Notice the windows, the doors, the bathrooms, all of it. If you have a giant blueprint, still do the following exercise so you can easily create a smaller, more manageable map for our purposes. Here is the first time I want you to be technical if you dare. Grab yourself a tape measure and a piece of paper and start measuring your rooms. The easiest way to do this is to do a rough sketch that will probably be a bit wonky. Note the measurements of each wall and doorway on this sketch. Then, make a new sketch, scaling down the measurements. If this is too technically intense for you, try to make a sketch that comes as you can to the home’s configuration. Note the directions the

doors swing, and where the windows, toilets, showers and sinks are as well. When I first found my present home, I was not sure I wanted it because it seemed like the center of the house could fall in a place I wasn’t thrilled about- the bathroom. You want to avoid getting a home with a bathroom in the center of the space because a bathroom is one big pile of draining pipes and thats not the energy you want to represent the HEALTH of your home (*more on this coming in a few minutes!). When I did an actual floor plan of my space I realized that the center of my home was nowhere near the bathroom, and I was shocked! What you perceive about a space often greatly differs from the actual layout of the space, so a little time taking -measurements can make a big difference. So, your sketch is really important. Take some time to get that together. If you live in a multi-story home, sketch the ground floor to start. Upstairs, sketch each room separately: you can have greater success with less complication if you use the bagua map on each room of upper levels. Finish your sketch and we are ready to dive in!

TIP: If you want to make it easier on yourself, you can use an online floor plan mapping software like floorplanner.com. There are lots of user-friendly sites that help you make a pretty excellent floor plan with almost no skill! Even still, I prefer if you draw it by hand- the mechanical process is really creative and connected!

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USING THE BAGUA MAP Lets do it!!! Take your floor plan and divide it into nine equal sections, like a big grid. If you happen to live in a rectangular or square space, this is easy. If you find you have areas of your home that are “missing” in the grid, or jut out past the grid- (in other words, your home isn’t a perfect square or rectangle) not to worry. How do you know if an area is missing or extended in an irregularly shaped floor plan? Its a matter of proportion. If just a small part of the floor plan sticks out from the plan, its an extended area. If most of the space falls inside the bagua grid and there’s just a chunk absent, its “missing”. Anything missing from the perfect rectangle will be absorbed by the space beside it that does exist. Anything extended will point to the idea that you have an abundance of a certain energy in your life. Does this make sense? I will admit, its simple but conceptually tricky. Again, don’t get too bent out of shape over this. I had fights with teachers over this topic: its very frustrating because the bagua rules seemed to be broken all over the place! Once you have your grid, start filling in the names of the sections of the bagua gridjust as they appear on the diagram abovedirectly onto your floor plan. Now make a big X through the floor plan from corner to corner. The center of that X is the overall health of your home so make sure you don’t keep trash there!!! Check out this fun fact: The corners of the bagua interact with one another along a diagonal. For example, the Relationship area of the bagua correlates with the Wisdom area diagonally across from it.

(I.e., the more you know about yourself the better your relationships will be, and vice versa. ) The Wealth/ Self-Empowerment & Helpful People/Compassion areas work in a similar way. The more your clients or your boss or other people if your sphere feel positively about you, the more wealth you will accumulate. Do you see how this works? SPECIAL NOTE: If your floor plan is really unusual, try applying the bagua to just one room of your home at a time. Line up the map in the same way, with the bottom “row” of the map aligned with the wall that contains the entrance door to a room. We actually experience space just one room at a time, so this method is extremely effective!

Activating the bagua. Dressing up each area of the bagua for your specific needs and wants is a personal endeavor. Start simple. For example, in the creativity area, do you have blank walls? Can you add some photos you took or art you bought or crafts you make to this area? You can look at space in this light & easy manner for now (we have a few lessons left!) and in our last week- Week 8- we will address specific circumstances where you will make adjustments for certain things you want to create in your life. (yes: MONEY, LOVE, HEALTH, POWER & CREATIVITY !) While you can read in books that “x” object should be in “x” place in the bagua, I don’t feel that is 100% true. Mindfully arranging a home based on what speaks to you personally helps to create a totally (not “corner-by-corner”) integrated and balanced space.

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BRAINSTORM COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS Wow! Am I being the biggest cliche in the New Age universe, asking you to write out the things you are grateful for? Well, we are looking at a lot of stuff in your home and life that is, perhaps, not perfect... so yes, yes, I am asking you to write out the things you are grateful for right now. Its worth reminding you that if you have the luxury of being able to make changes like this in your life that you are extremely fortunate. Write your list. Write until you could hug the stars and kiss the moon. That feeling of tremendous openness to the world is the perfect end product of these “list-making” tasks! HERE is a little video I made on pride that will, perhaps, keep you going with this.

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WORKSHEET Exercises For Week 5 Address The Bagua In Your Life The shining moment has arrived: analyze your own bagua areas on your floor plan! Do you store clutter and junk in your love & relationships gua? Do you have a broken door in your career gua? What is happening in each area of the bagua as it relates to your home? I know that you want to know what is best to put in each area of the bagua for best feng shui, right? You each have very specific needs and wants, so there is no way for me to tell you all to do the same thing. You will trust yourself to personalize your choices as we go! Here are the big bullet points of the bagua I want you to keep in mind as you look at how your house is structured. • If your bathroom IS in the center of your house, keep the door shut, consider putting a mirror on the OUTSIDE of the door to sort of camouflage the bathroom, and add lots of earthy colors and even plants if you can to the bathroom. This will help lessen the effects of all that draining water in the center of you home! • If you have something “missing” from your bagua map, make sure to pay special attention to the area directly beside it on either side of the “missing” space that does exist in your place. Can you add art to the walls, light to the area or more freshness here? • If you have anything still broken or messy in your home, now is the time to finish what needs to be done!!! • Can you see what areas of your home need attention and how they might be mirrored in your life? I wanted to present you this exercise a bit later in the weeks so that you had some time to clear space before we took a look. Can you think back to what things looked like when we started? Have you noticed any changes in your life based on the changes you have made so far???

Break out that journal and see how you are doing! Now that you have a bit more of an awareness of how the bagua map actually interacts with your life, how do you feel? Do you feel compelled to make changes to other areas that you don’t particularly like in your home now that you see how it is mirroring your life? Do you want to add things, take things away... or not? Write it all out, a sentence, paragraph or even many many pages. It is important to acknowledge how far you have come. Confronting all this moving energy is not an easy task and you have been taking it in stride!

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Tie Up Loose Ends (and stray wires! and trash bags!) Anything you need to do that you have been meaning to do since we started, now is the time to do it! The de-cluttering, the last tasks you have to get done, the donations you’ve been meaning to drive to the Goodwill= now is the time!!! If there are loose wires floating around behind your furniture, hide them in an organized fashion. If you have cracks in your walls, repair them! I know I am asking a lot from you, but you ask a lot from your life and you have to be willing to tow the line and maintain a standard if you expect that standard in your world. I’ve given you a significant amount of work to do up until now, and there’s much more to come, so really dive into your running to-do list for the rest of the week and take the time to catch up and complete things before you move forward. If you need an extra week for a big declutter or anything else, take it...but make sure you are really working on the process. Its tempting to slack off right about now, but you don’t want to lose momentum right now. Slow & steady & consistent progress is our way through to the end!

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SCENT Scent is a sense that helps us to taste, it triggers emotions, stimulates physical reactions and even helps us to fall in love. We have scent memories of spaces and people that flood back when something similar wafts by, catching us unaware. Scent is also a topic loaded with controversy , as our overly-scented beauty products, perfumed soaps and even cleaning products are filling the air - and our bodies, through our skin- with phlalates (THAY-lates) being mixed into fragranced (and even unscented) beauty products, perfumes, air fresheners and even in plastic of some kids toys! Phalates are known hormone interruptors. They have been linked to various cancers and birth defects, though the FDA’s official stance is that there is nothing conclusive to this claim. Phalates and other chemicals are rife in fragranced products. In essence, you are making your home smell good with potential poison. While you can read much more about Phalatesas well as other toxic cosmetic ingredients right HERE I want to give you some natural alternatives! 1. Bake & cook to create scents of “home” at home! Baked cookies smell divine. Boil a pot of ginger to warm up the air. Make a pot of freshly spiced apple sauce and the spiced apple scent will stimulate your imagination in the process. 2. Try some perfumed essential oils in place of your typical perfume. While some blends are a bit too profound for me, I love red rose essential oil on my wrists (smells like my favorite Byredo perfume), and I’ve found that mixing a drop of jasmine or rose oil into my body oil is perfection in terms of subtle fragrance. Experiment. Start simple with some natural oils you can easily obtain. 3. Spray your hair with some rosewater from the grocery store, use orange flower water as an aftershave “splash” for sensitive skin and trade in your deodorant for a natural one that really works! (There are many! My favorite beauty expert Chantal Moore recommends the enormously effective Lavanila) 4. Make your own room freshener: boil your favorite herbs (mine is rosemary) along with some citrus and let that simmer for a while to fill the air with freshness. As you slowly (or rapidly!) shift from scented to unscented, from chemical to truly natural, you will feel the energy of your home change. Your mood might improve. Allergies may dissipate. Your immune system may feel stronger. You won’t realize how much scent affects you until it is gone. Also, a fun fact: perfume can mask our natural pheromones (attraction hormones) which prevent us from sending out clear love signals to attract and build and maintain the sexy and strong relationships of our dreams. Interesting, no?! I thought that might push you over the edge to start purging perfumes.

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WEEK SIX Plants, stones, oceans, gems, shells, fire, steel: you are about to become enchanted by elements!

THE FIVE ELEMENTS basic five element theory in practice WHAT ARE THE FIVE ELEMENTS?

Some people naturally express more of one of two elements strongly as part of their personality. If not balanced with their diet In Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, all and environment, their natural temperament living things are comprised of five elements: could be overwhelming to themselves and to Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. others. For example, a film director who is These five elements affect our personality, driven by passion and the desire to challenge the way we process information, the way we the societal norms with his ferocious eat, the state of our health, our ability to individuality is likely running ferociously prosper and just about every other facet of high in fire (heat, catalyst) and wood our lives. You see, when the elements are in (creative, dynamic) elemental energy. Now, balance- or nearing balance- we are in if he were to eat lots of hot, spicy food, have balance. The five elements are expressed in tons of sex and live in a wood-paneled or materials, colors, sounds, art, food and even Spanish style terra cotta mansion in a desert emotions. filled with fireplaces and red he would

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likely 1. burn out, 2. express the most unhealthy aspects of himself & 3. start experiencing extreme difficulties getting things done. Why? He is already so filled with wood & fire in his personality that when you pile on the extremes of fire in diet, behavior and environmental design you start to see the negative aspect of fire in the excess of that element. You see, fire provides passion, fuel and energy to life to turn raw material into active heat, but if you have too much fire in life you experience massive anxiety, cardiovascular problems, and wired energy that it can not be contained. The goal is to create elemental balance in your environment, but what balances YOU might not balance ME, you see? That film director above would have fared well in a white and metal dominated modern home on an oceanside with some abstract art, loads of horizontal lines and few colors. Not everyone would feel comfortable in this space, but the calming water (water) , the visual excitement of the art (fire) and the white home with loads of exposed metal (metal) with a sandy beach just feet away (earth) combine in their own quantities to create a sense of active calm that will help this particular artist thrive. To create a life with feng shui’d flow, we are going to start with basics of how to make elements work in your home. First I am going to explain all of the elements briefly & next explain how you can create a decor scheme that has intuitive “balance.” I promise to write a book dedicated to the elements and your own specific personal nature, but this is such a huge study that is extremely complex (after all, acupuncture is based on this theory, and that is a medical

science) so to plop it here and say that its easy and a no-brainer would not do it justice! That said, understanding the basics of the five elements and a bit of how you can adjust them in your home can be enormously empowering. One funny thing I see often: people can crave environments that “display” their elemental nature and tend to overstimulate themselves with their “favorite” colors and things. Too much of any good thing will become extreme and imbalanced in your life. By adding things perhaps unfamiliarcolor, texture, shape, design- you may find that life become expansive and more calm. When your elements shift in your environment, your life can follow suit. This is a beautiful study!

The Element Cycle The elements create, limit, or destroy one another in nature, and they work the same in every aspect of life. Let’s talk about how the elements create one another to start. WATER is where the cycle begins. Water flows and as it flows it nourishes seeds to grow into WOOD. Wood grows and when there is enough wood amassed in an area the sun will heat it and FIRE will be created. Fire burns the wood present and in its wake it leaves ash which becomes EARTH. Earth, over time, will compress in layers to create METAL. As the air cools on metal it collects as WATER... and the cycle begins anew. So, Water-> Wood-> Fire -> Earth -> Metal is the basic creative cycle of the elements. Then we are back to Water again and the cycle renews itself.

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Creative Cycle Of The Five Elements Water creates Wood Wood creates Fire Fire creates Earth Earth creates Metal Metal creates Water Now, lets look at how nature can limit or destroy an element. Its a very simple concept: the element that is borne of the one before it in the cycle will “drain” energy from its parent. For example, Wood creates Fire in the element cycle, so if you add MORE fire to the equation you burn off some of the wood as you add fire. Water creates Wood in the element cycle, but if you add a lot of wood to an area that wood “feeds on” the water in the space and will drain some of that water away. In this way, the elements can “limit” each other and reduce one another in turns. You would want to limit an element if it is abundant but necessary, for example, you would not want to “destroy” the creative power of wood in an office, but if there is an abundance of wood, you can use fire to “control” or “limit” the energy of wood in a natural manner.

Limiting Cycle Of The Five Elements Water limits Metal (it will rust metal in nature in abundance) Wood limits Water (just like plants drain the soil of water to grow) Fire limits Wood (burning excess wood as its fuel) Earth limits Fire (ever seen people shovel dirt to put out a small fire?) Metal limits Earth (metal packs earth tightly) Now, to “destruction”. When we say that elements can “destroy” one another it means that they more aggressively and selectively “cut down” the power of other elements. For example, Wood “destroys” Earth because it will suck all of the goodness out of Earth as it grows, depleting the soil. In your home or your life, there are a few instances where reduction in a more powerful sense can be beneficial. For example, if your living room has wood floors, sage green walls and a ton of bookshelves, that is an extraordinary amount of wood energy in one room. If you add lots of clean white, a gold & glass coffee table and/or a round goldframed mirror- all strong METAL energy- you will “destroy” the abundance of wood far more effectively, say, than adding red and orange tones and other fire. Visually can you see the difference if you picture the room in wood and green with white and gold accents vs. wood and green with red and orange accents? The white “feels” better, doesn’t it? Destruction is a more radical way to create balance in extreme situations.

Destructive Cycle Of The Five Elements Water destroys Fire (truly, it puts out fire) Wood destroys Earth (as plants grow they deplete the soil) Fire destroys Metal (fire melts metal) Earth destroys Water (like a dam holds water in one place, arresting its flow) Metal destroys Wood (metal acts like a axe, tearing wood down)

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Every facet of interior design, power of wood) and just drown your home architecture and even food and activity in it, hoping to increase the power of that correlates with certain elements. Lets say element in your life. If you try to do this, that you live in a home that is extremely not only will you experience the negative bright with a pitched roof, loads of chevron, effect of the excess of a single element, red, abstract art and fireplaces. This space every other element will be pulled out of holds a tremendous amount of fire. Too whack(*more on this ahead). Extremes are much fire element can lead to anxiety or an the OPPOSITE of what we are doing here. intense amount of projects started in a flurry While we are raised to believe “You can’t then abandoned. If your life is looking like have too much of a good thing,” nature a mess of fear, panic and frenetic action yet proves that a very false notion. no completed cycles of action, it is time Because this book is something for you to reduce or destroy some of to use and apply, and so as to that fire. You can add more not spin you into a flurry of EARTH to limit the fire confusion, I am going to or WATER to put out “Adopt the pace give you a very effective & destroy the fire. In guideline to working of nature: her this case, a great big with the elements to fountain could both create a greater degree secret is put out the fire and of balance in your drive progress in its home that you patience.” flowing motion. positively CAN DO. So, you see, the idea When you are first using Emerson in balancing your own the elements, I suggest you elements is to understand read the attributes starting on where you are at for yourself, then the next page several times and really look at your home and see what its let them soak in. Draw pictures. Use elemental make-up looks like. If you start to crayons and color. This is a very physicaladjust the elements in your home, you will work concept so its hard to grasp it without create a more balanced environment based “real-world” mass to use as examples as you on what you need. This is not simple, and learn and play round with it. its taken me years to properly implement In fact, before we go any further, see if with any degree of exactitude. That said, I you can grab a glass of water (water!), a included all of the above so that you have stone (earth), matches or something red more of a comprehensive understanding of (fire) , a few coins (metal) and a pencil or a the way that each element affects the other. stick (wood) and do little demos for yourself of the cycles of the elements. (**use any objects that resonate with you!) This is a Extremes Are Bad News great way to have a Eureka! moment. When It is important to see how you can’t you see and feel the cycles in action you will focus in on one element (like the creative become one with the theory as fact.

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USING THE FIVE ELEMENTS IN DESIGN From theory to practice, here are how the five elements are represented in your home and your life: METAL

Metal

Metal is represented by WHITE, GREY, GOLD, circles, metal objects, wires (which are also FIRE), electricity, and metallic fragrances, electronic music, industrial sounds….Metal is minimalist and spare in its sensory nature. If you have too much metal element in your personal life (or space) you can be too analytical at the expense of your emotions, you can be too cold, there can be perfectionism to the point of headaches and a lack of “spaciousness” in thought. Skin inflammation and even colon inflammation is linked to excesses in the metal element. Neurotic behavior and/or extreme grief are often metal over-abundance. If you are lacking metal element in your personal life or space, you may have a problem creating healthy boundaries with people, you may have issues with codependence and your life may feel unfocused. Exhaustion, frequent colds and asthma are associated with metal deficiencies. A lack of metal may make it hard to grieve, as opposed to the endless grief that can be experienced by someone in metal excess.

Water Water is introspective and evokes germination, the start of a cycle and the bubbling beginning. It is the element represented by the colors BLACK and BLUE, watery scenes, motion that is fluid and undulating, watery sounds and wavy or irregular patterns. If you have too much water element in your personal life or space it can create bloating in life. You may have ideas that flow but you lack the initiative. You may feel overwhelmed by life, and in a sense you may be “drowning” in the excess water element. Manic depression emotional patterns can be seen as an extreme version of water excess. If you are lacking water element in your personal life or space you are internally and externally dehydrated. Kidneys create great life force energy in the body according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, and when they are dehydrated, it can lead to a feeling of being simultaneously tired & anxious, as though you just drank coffee right before falling bed on a very late night.

Wood If you add Wood energy to your life, you “fuel” Fire in your life. Wood activities include yoga, journals, and creative activity, woody scents…. in a space, greens and wood and rectangles and plants are some examples of

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Wood element. Wood is the element of growth and flexibility, the element that dominates childhood, the element that encourages breaking boundaries and engaging conversation. Some think of Wood as the money element, though I like to think of it as highly creative and dynamic. Money is a by-product of that creative energy if it is channeled well. If you have too much wood in your life or space it can make you feel stifled or stuck. Terrible PMS symptoms, allergies and headaches are considered wood excess conditions. Its like being so loaded with potential energy that you get overstimulated, overwhelmed and moody. If you are lacking wood element in your life or space you can be socially awkward or introverted. Without wood you are without creativity in its essence. Low self-esteem and aimlessness are thought to be wood deficiency.

Fire Fire can be represented in part by actual RED, ORANGE, and VIOLETS in color, animal and chevron and IKAT prints, fiery art, triangles and triangular seating arrangements, and lighting/ fires/ candles. Fire ignites passion and creates vibrant, rapid changes in the environment. If you have too much fire element in your personal life or space you literally run too hot. Anxiety, mania, anger and attention disorders are considered to be fire excess. Too much heat in a constitution can “burn out” the good energy in your body. If you are lacking fire element in your personal life or space you can be physically cold. Strangely, insomnia is thought to be a lack of fire. You may lack passion and may find yourself surrounded by a ton of unfinished projects.

Earth Earth is the great creative element. It holds within it a seed of all of the other elements. Reducing and eliminating “too much stuff” in the vignettes around the house is one way we will create a bit more “positive” earth element. When the earth element is challenged, people get extremely stuck. Earth is YELLOW, BROWN, earthy materials, symbols of earth and square shapes, to name few things. If you have too much earth element in your personal life or space you may feel horribly stuck and heavy. You may be over-cluttered in your life and/or overweight. If you are lacking earth element in your personal life or space you may be unhinged or ungrounded. Deficiency in Earth can lead to a joyless, more “frantic” life without connection to creativity.

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BRAINSTORM NATURAL INCLINATION

What are the elements you gravitate toward? Me: fire. Used to be wood. Once was earth. What are the environments most attractive to you right now? Can you feel what elements predominate? My observation over many years: We tend to be attracted to what is most like us elementally. We are also often deeply attracted to what we are most lacking in our personal elemental expression. Opposites do attract....but so do like-minded folks! Elements are always in flux. If you look back a year from now after making all these changes, you may find that the elements you crave are totally different. As you raise your awareness, you will feel when you are due for a small shift or two elementally!

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WORKSHEET Exercises For Week 6

Make A Rough Sketch Of Your Own Personal Elements Look through the element descriptions and identify where you would say you fall in the elemental categories in terms of any major deficiencies or abundances. You will likely see at least one or two elements that seem to have characteristics in excess or lack that resemble your life. For example, if you find that you are way too overwhelmed and too much of a perfectionist analyzing your life like crazy, you may identify with water and metal element excess. This is a fun way to take a snapshot of how “balanced” you are and intuitively start making small shifts. Let’s say that after a review of the elements you feel you lack fire. Buy a pair of red shoes, add candles to your house... small things but meaningful and powerful things. While completely balancing your own elements is a learned art form of sorts, you would be surprised how much a few small shifts can do to make a difference!

A Bit Of Each, Everywhere Generally speaking, no more than 2 elements should dominate a room, and they should be complimentary (be beside each other in the element creation cycle above) in an ideal world. For example, a room that is predominantly Earth and Fire (Fire creates Earth) is a good start. This room won’t be “complete” without some water (maybe glass vases, a fountain?), some metal (brass photo frames?) and some wood (maybe there are wood floors?) to create a “whole” room. If you feel like something is just “wrong” with a space and you want to paint or redecorate, use this “a bit of each, everywhere” rule as a bit of a guideline. Walk through your home armed with this information. Is there a little of each element in every room? If not, add a splash of something missing. You can use my blog for ideas; that’s what it’s there for.

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COLOR The study of color psychology is exhaustive and this is by no means a complete reference guide, though I included it because I thought you would find it handy. You can use color deliberately- from selecting fashion and even car colors to walls and the color pens you write with- to enhance your life in different ways. One note on color that will help you: saturated colors have more of an emotional impact than pastels or lighter tones. Use saturated colors for maximum emotional impact, and clear, light colors for more resonance with your mind. RED: Red is a stimulating color. It increases blood pressure, it magnetizes attention. Red is the color associated with passion. Red moves people close to you. It can make you hungry. It can help you feel warmer. Red is the color of the root chakra (energy center) of the body which corresponds to survival and stability. Too much red can stimulate anger and incite impulsive behavior, overstimulating our body at its core. MAGENTA: Magenta is “hot pink” verging on purple. Some say its not a color because its not seen the way other colors are seen: its seen as a compromise by our eyes between different tones rather than standing alone as a color itself. In that sense, magenta is magical. Magenta has been known as a “manifesting” color, turning dreams into realities. It has many of the “royal” attributes of violet (see below). Too much magenta is thought to incite arrogance, although I have never seen this side-effect. ORANGE: Orange is a color of cheer. It has the ruddiness and warmth of red with the substance of yellow. Orange is an active and positive color, excellent for encouraging a bright day or perking up when you are under the weather. Orange is the color of the second chakra of the body which corresponds with sexuality as well as relationships and finances: essentially, creativity at its most essential being. Orange in excess can be overwhelming and overstimulating. YELLOW: Yellow is the color of the sun. It is the warmest of all colors in that it is “sunny” but it can make you feel sallow in excess. Yellow is a color of confidence and vital substance. Depending on where you live, it can more or less reflect the actual element of earth (where the soil is more yellow, or the sand, as in a beach setting), and it is a very lifegiving, empowering and intuition-stimulating color. GREEN: Green, believe it or not, is a color associated with your heart chakra, the ability to be open with others, give and receive love and be compassionate toward life. Green is the color of creativity at its core- the flexible energy of wood is bursting in every shade of green. Researchers have proven that green stimulates creativity and even speeds healing in certain conditions. Too much green and you may create jealousy, or find yourself experiencing the effects of too much wood: a sort of stuck and stingy and overwhelmed effect can come from an overabundance of green.

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BLUE: Blue is an ultimate confidence color, especially for confidence in communication. It is a color that assists in problem solving, especially creative problem solving. Blue can create a sense of calm and can actually help you stick to your diet since it curbs your appetite. Think about it- have you ever eaten off of blue plates? Too much blue can make you, literally, blue. VIOLET: Violet is a color of the individualist, one who stands separate from the pack. Violet is long linked to royalty and higher spiritual standing. Its a color often suggested for meditation rooms. Too much violet can divorce you from reality and leave you ungrounded or “spaced out.” WHITE: White is not really a color but a representation of purity. Pure form, pure intention, pure space. White adds light to an environment with its own integral “glow”. It can suggest the immaculate, and it stimulates the mind. Too much white will leave you feeling uncomfortable, possibly inducing headaches from the eye strain of its brightness. White restricts motion due to the care it takes to protect white from blemishes. This is not a carefree social color. BLACK: Black is another “non-color”that is the ultimate in seductive. When used with care, black is the color of the elite, the sexually charged and the mysterious. Too much darkness and you fall into morbid depths of blackness. Black walls may go through periods of being trendy, but if you try to live with them you will soon learn that small amounts of black are generally best. Add bits of color creatively to your life with deliberate intention- even in the foods you eat or the leash for your dog (Bob’s leash went from green while he was growing to bright orange...) - and you will notice how color affects you personally. The more tuned in you are to your color cravings the more you will learn for yourself about their power.

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WEEK SEVEN Here’s where you delevop your style to new heights and infuse your whole life with feelgoodness!

OWNING IT personal connection is power How Far We Have Come!

and it may seem as though you have taken quite enough action and you are already Now we’ve come quite a way along in your liking what you see. feng shui makeover. Your clutter is gone (or Don’t quit yet! The fun has just begun! nearly gone!) since you started purging what In these next two chapters we are going to you no longer need or want. You have stamp your personal style, dreams and created space mentally and physically. actions onto your walls, wardrobe...even There are new opportunities popping up. your plate. There is more balance and calm... and some We are going to look at specific ways you fun new routines, perhaps, that are can “tune up” different areas to help energizing that have appeared along the way. promote more of whatever energy you may You may have a better sense of how your need in your life right now. It all starts with space has been affecting you and how you a little discussion of a concept so big that its affect it. At this stage in the game you may almost impossible to fathom: TAO. Things feel totally done with this life reorganization are about to get dazzling!

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Your Personal Style Personal style is not a static concept. What we like at 20 might not be what we are into at 25. I am a believer that some people refine their personal style over the years and some people find their personal style at turning points in their lives. If you were never much that into art, fashion or a particular aesthetic, you might not really, wholeheartedly know what you really jive with off the top of your head. Its the common phrase I hear from my clients, “ I didn’t know what to do with this place so I just let a designer do everything and I just went with it.” Those same people usually feel like strangers in their own homes. I ask my clients who feel disconnected from style to flip through magazines and read blogs and start a file of images that they like for at least a few weeks while cruising the Internet. From home photos to fashion, art and even food and entertainment, they amass a huge pile or file. Now, with the advent of Pinterest, its never ever been easier to make those compelling collections of images. However you collect your visual goodies, pull them together until they seem almost enormous in quantity. Let this be a task of opulence and embrace the excess; don’t think too much while selecting images, just pluck what you love at first sight and add it to the pile. Once you have amassed a satisfactory heap, scan them all to see what colors, styles, angles, periods (vintage, modern, antique, Mid Century, etc) and even what “emotions” you gravitated toward in your image-questing. Guess what? You now have a snapshot of your personal style in a great collage.

If you are familiar with your personal style already, ask yourself if you’ve truly incorporated it to your home. Have you? I have giant peacock blue art deco sofas, gold cane chairs upholstered in ikat fabric, faux animal skin rugs and a white leather bed. My personal style is all over my home, a very Lenny Kravitz design sensibility mixed with vintage glamour photographs, flowers, plants and Mid Century lamps. That’s my vibe, for sure. You can see this same feeling in my closet, too, as my clothes and shoes echo my house colors, prints and “eras” of vintage and modern design. As I change over time my style becomes more defined and refined and even more ornate in many ways, but its always my style. Online Real Estate: That’s what your web presence is, even your Facebook. If you don’t like what you see now, take some time during this week to re-color and re-image it to look more like you! A new Tumblr theme is like the start of a new online era for some. updating social media profiles can help build your confidence in real life, too. As much as we can say that the Internet is not real life, it absolutely is a part of it, and that will certainly continue. I am so connected to my online design that last year when I discovered that a food blogger had absolutely lifted my blog design and called it her own (cut and paste action, it was crazy) I felt like my home was robbed. That incident drove home a very cool point: I really am invested in my expression and its very personal to me. Do you feel the same? Does your house look like you yet? This week you will add a lot more flavor to your design recipe, even if its just seasoning. How? I like to start with colors and

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accessories. If you are willing to go the the extra mile, have a slipcover made for a sofa or have a chair reupholstered. If you are thinking of something less radical, try framing some of your favorite fabric and hanging it in panels on the walls or adding pillows that are your favorite colors and textures to your living room or bedroom. This week’s Brainstorm will also spark a ton of inspiration!

everything needs to be on display to have meaning and impact on your world. This brings up so an important point: especially where photos are concerned, too much personal imagery is too much. As with all things, striking a balance between personal objects and some “free space” to grow and welcome in the new is key. You can’t have a home packed with family photos at every turn and expect guests - or new energy in general- to feel welcome and at ease. A house filled to the brim with Your Personal Objects family photography is so “full” that there is, Photos, memorabilia, old gifts, letters, perhaps, no room to live in the present day. diaries... trophies, keepsakes, rocks from the This idea also applies to homes filled with lake when you were a kid. Personal objects self portraits. Yes, I’ve seen my share of are storehouses of emotion and energy. people in Los Angeles with a tremendous Remember when you were clearing clutter number of portraits of themselves (perhaps you still are?!) and there were glamorously strewn through their home. things that you came upon that literally Blanketing the walls with photos of yourself queued up a wave of sadness or joy? Did is a great way to make others feel excluded. you have that experience? Feeling Its also a good way to chase off lovers. One emotional waves is a common reaction to great photo of yourself...? OK, fine, if you clutter clearing. Objects are loaded with must. More than a few self portraits on your energy, and that energy in its most positive walls and you are treading very deep waters and inspiring form can catalyze your of a solitary or exclusionary existence. creativity, your self-esteem and even a greater sense of health and vitality. Nature Being personal in a “personal history” sense is very important to your overall home Nature is something enormously important Tao connection. There are certain parts of to our survival, even in the thick of the my family history that I will have with meurban jungle. Before we get into a my godmother’s afghans that she crocheted discussion of Tao and nature in in front of the black & white TV in her environments, I have a little note about apartment, the mayonnaise jar of “rare” spending time in nature: you must connect coins my grandmother collected that are not to the earth! Whether you can lean up rare, the letter my mom sent me on Mothers against a tree in a park and read a book, sit Day that arrived the day she died. There are with your feet in wet sand, climb a snowy some things I will always have stashed in mountain or just sit on a patio with awesome special places, and some on display. I potted plants beside you, you’ve got to suggest that you do the same. Not connect to the core of nature as much as

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possible. Nature is grounding, and that way that feels amazing to you. While this “rooted” energy directly affects your ability might not feel like “nature”, your to survive, thrive and even experience your neighborhood (where we started on week sexuality. one) is absolutely local “nature” for our Local “nature” should be invited indoors TAO purposes. That said, shopping locally, to create a fabulously flowing environment. going to farmers markets, frequenting and If you live in the countryside, in a rural area supporting local artisans and small or have lots of landscaping in your yard then businesses are all very much a part of TAO nature is not going to be hard to find in an generation! immediate sense. Opening windows to bring in a bigger view is a near-instant nature Gemstones fix; snipping some flowers into vases Crystals are a fabulous gift of brings the garden inside. If nature, molecular jigsaw you don’t have the pleasure puzzles that express great of being right beside local “Always be a first beauty and actual nature, think of what rate version of energy. Quartz is the forms of nature are ultra-example of true most indigenous to yourself and not a natural power. your area. In Los second rate version Metaphysical types Angeles, the colors have been talking for of someone else.” and styles of the beach quite some time about are refreshing even when Judy Garland quartz crystal and its you live an hour away ability to be “programmed” from the coast. In New with memories and desires. Mexico, red clay is reminiscent of Although there is no scientific evidence the nearby earth and some unglazed pottery to support this, there is loads of anecdotal can really reflect nature beautifully in your “evidence” that this crystal can store home or office. If you live in a city, bring an element of information. What has been scientifically the architecture, nature and style of the city proven is that quartz both conducts and indoors. You can do it in an abstract way (no generates electrical energy. Crystals are a great way to add the element of earth, plus need to put a statue of the Empire State sparkle, color and symbolism to your home Building on your Manhattan coffee table). For example: if you live in a city that has lots an a very unique way. Every crystal is like a of skyscrapers, can you add strong verticals snowflake; no two are the same. The colors, molecular growth  patterns and finishes of in your home to echo the vertical lines? If natural gemstone crystal make each a unique you are in an art district, can you creatively expression of your desires and energetic life. gallery-hang your art to mirror the vibe of People ask me how to pick crystals and, the local culture...or hang more art in also, if certain crystals are better in certain general? This is another way to integrate areas of your home. I say: “Pick crystals you your outside inside... but always do it in a

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love and that attract you for whatever reason.” Don’t fall prey to the notion that a textbook on gemstone metaphysics knows more than you do about what you love! Also, it is true that certain colors are better than others in certain environments. Check back to the elements chapter and see what colors of stones can add color to various areas of you life. Example: if green is a wood energy/creative color (*studies prove it over and again) so maybe you will use green aventurine stones that you really love to line your bookshelves or to display in eye-shot on your desk?

few- personal habits that keep you more in touch with your life on a regular basis. A physical routine is a tactile way to engage in the energy of the universe more fully. Getting into a habit of moving is one key way to access the flow of the universe and feel more of this connection. Going to the gym is a good thing for your health, but typical gym fare will not likely ground you to the earth in a classic sense. Yoga is an awesome way to get closer to your nature because you deliberately breathe and consciously move. Walks outside are another excellent way to connect to the pace- and pavement- of your universe. Hiking, should you be fortunate enough to Tip: I always suggest that you take the have trails nearby, is an absolutely gift in its time to “clean” your crystals in salt water astonishing visual and botanical richness. I (*make sure your stones wont get can take a hike and feel my urban concerns damaged in salt!) often or let them sit melt in the face of enormous views and out on the ground in the sun frequently crooked trees within moments. to “charge” with goodness and reconnect While a physical routine may be more to their own home in the earth. Some obvious, an “energetic” routine every day to people run them under a sage wand that get grounded is also invaluable. There are is lit and smoking...but I prefer the sun. many “grounding” exercises that can help We all need to re-boot and plug in to you to fuse your personal energy with that of our source to get radiant! the core of the earth. A favorite exercise of mine: Walk barefoot on the grass or at the beach and Habits & Routines feel your feet sink into the ground. Pull Everything you do all day either brings energy up through your feet (feel it from the you closer to the world around you or ground, entering your soles) and imagine it farther away. If you are running amok with cycling up your legs and spine, out the top of a million things on your to-do list, none of your head and then back down through your which include time for yourself to breathe, body, out your feet and into the ground to be outside in nature, to rest or to even again. Repeat this as many times as you can spa, you are really not connecting to and see what you feel like! yourself , your space or the world on a Another cool energetic exercise is regular basis. Do you remember early on playing with color in visualization. how I suggested you do a “touching tour” of Visualization is a great big word that is your home? Now its time to build one- or a luckily both simple and fun to do. Back in

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the day it was called daydreaming! If you shut your eyes and picture a flower or a fantasy of yours you are visualizing right now. Color is just as easy to imagine. Shut your eyes right now and see your favorite color. Easy, right? To visualize in a deeper, more creative fashion, lay down or recline in a chair with a straight spine. Now, count backward from 100 to 0 and let your whole body relax. Now add color: Imagine a red ball of energy vibrant in the area just below your tailbone and keep picturing that red light glowing until your feel more full of life. It may seem simplistic, but every color has its own wavelength and color both an emotional and physical impact on us. Energetic routines and habits can even be garnered from natural essential oils. Aromatherapy is another way to tune-up your energy regularly. Lavender essential

oil is a mainstay in my home, as it is suited to help balance out so many different emotional situations. Drop some on your pillow for a deeper sleep. I keep a bottle of sweet orange essential oil on hand and mix a few drops in a spray bottle to spray more joyful vibrations into a room after an argument or an upset. Cedarwood and sandalwood oil are grounding; I love a few drops of one or the other in my bath at night to strengthen my vital energy when I feel depleted from a long day. Peppermint oil can help you when you have difficulty expressing your feelings. I like to sprinkle a few drops of peppermint essential oil in the far corners of the shower and let the steamy water vaporize it slowly in the morning. As I mentioned earlier, don’t use peppermint oil for a long stretch of time, and never after the morning hours.

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BRAINSTORM RAINBOWS

If you want to get extremely vibrant with visualization in color, try a rainbow visualization. The colors flow like the colors of the rainbow: ruby red for the root of your spine, tangerine for the area just above your genitals, golden yellow for your navel area, emerald green for the center of your chest, rich blue for your throat, an indigo tone for the third eye are in the middle of your forehead, and a violet for the top of your head. You can light up each area with a color as you lay and relax, feeling each area fill with its color, developing a fluid rainbow as you work up your body in one direction and then the other. Feel all of the areas light up, filling your body with a rainbow of colored light while you breathe deeply. When I am feeling uninspired and dull I try to lay down and do this exercise to get my wheels turning artistically.

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WORKSHEET Exercises For Week 7 Does Your Home Look Like You? Now that you have read through this chapter, take a really good look around and see how much of your home looks like you. Take a tour of your closet (which is in great shape now that you’ve done some de-cluttering ;)) and see if your clothes and your home make sense together. If you collect and love music, can you see and hear it in your home? I can not stress this enough: your home needs to look like what you love, even if we can only integrate a bit at a time. This week, pick one thing: be it a color for your walls or your most favorite fragrance or the most intensely personal piece of art you can find or make and decide to integrate it into your home. Now, if you are making art, take your time to complete the piece but start right now. If you miss your vinyl collection, buy a handful of records and a turntable (or a vintage record player if you’d love one!) and prominently position it in your place. Note: If you live with a husband/wife/partner/family/roommates you can all do your bit of integration. Its really fun to see people’s styles blend. If you all get along well, your styles, even if totally different, will harmonize.

Pick A Routine And Try It On For my clients who are very spaced-out, overworked or uninspired, I like to suggest a daily habit that is very simple to try as a personal “grounding” routine. Inspired by the work of Julia Cameron, I love the idea of a daily walk and it serves me well. Taking a nightly bath is another habit that makes my day complete. Find your own get -grounded routine. When do you feel most like yourself? Writing in a journal, painting, drawing, stretching, cooking, making music, taking photos, swimming? Search your memory banks for the things you do that make you feel so much more like you. Try to do it daily, even for a few minutes a day if that’s all the time you have. If you are at a loss for ideas, take a walk every day while looking around you and see how you feel. While I am not going to tell you what is right for you, I want to encourage you to use a little personalized grounding routine to check in with yourself. Calling a friend to chat, going out with friends, watching TV, all fine. But still give yourself a little you-time!

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Style Your Home Did you ever notice that those interior design photographs you see online or in magazines and books are just loaded with too-good-to-be-true snapshots that create perfect pictures? Take a look around your house and see if you have any vignettes available for a professional photograph. Is there any part of your home set up to really be captured and create a sense of your style? I want you to create a vignette, even just one picture-perfect space in your home to start, and make it personal. I’ve professionally styled these photos before, and there is a definitive art to creating these vignettes. Try this: Mix materials- be it a handful of seashells or rocks, a glass vase, a painting on velvet and a wood table- and add a piece of ultra unique ephemera (maybe your antique doll, your Rubick’s cube from childhood, a family photo). With a little imagination, you have a vignette that will be picture-perfect. Another great trick to vignette building is to beautifully display a collection you have. If you collect pottery, display it in full. If you have a collection of elephant statues like my friend does, load up a mantle with them. Can you see how easy it can be to create a gorgeous, picture-perfect place in your home? Think back to the element chapter- a bit of each element represented in the display atop a coffee table or a countertop will really shine. This is a really great time to get on the hunt for things you might not have: great vases, glamourous dishes, beautiful bedding, photo frames, an upholstered ottoman, artwork, pillows or whatever your life may require to feel much more like you.

Bring The Outdoors Inside Nature. What does that word mean to you? Was there any version of nature in the place you called home as a child? I loved the garden my grandma would plant every summer, watching squash flowers turn into long zucchini, tomatoes ripen and garlic get harvested. I would hang out on the grass a lot, pick flowers, and even tried selling bunches of wild onions in a cart around my neighborhood. I miss that so much, and in urban dwelling, a lush potted garden was a dimension of life that brought me back to that great big yard beside the Secaucus High School. There were two types of plants in the house I grew up in- spider plants that hang and sprout “babies” and big, tall, mother-in-law tongues. I would spray the leaves in hopes that they would drink and stop browning in the sun. I’ve covered homes in both, and, secretly, name them and talk to them. If you have never had a green thumb before, in the wake of all your newfound connection and energy, try some indoor or outdoor planting again. Your plants respond to your energy as well as the vibrations in their environment!

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SLEEP Here are some key facts to know about sleep. Chances are if you are not sleeping enough you may be acting in many ways or feeling may things that just aren’t “you.” They may be symptoms of sleep deprivation. Under 6 hours of sleep for a full week for the average person is usually deemed deprivation. Yes, that means as I write this I just got over sleep deprivation. Its frightening what a lack of sleep can do, and I don’t particularly like fear. 1. Sleep deprivation can affect your immune system in a big, bad way. If you find yourself getting sick often, you might want to try sleeping more. 2. Sleeping too little will impact your athletic ability, including your precision. Athletes who don’t sleep well struggle to keep up, can’t focus as well, lack their best coordination and also have a greater risk of injury. You may not be a pro athlete, but that time you spend sleep deprived at the gym might be better spent catching up on sleep first so that your body can perform at its best. 3. Sleeping too little can impair your mind significantly, as though your were drunk. Yes, drunk. Sleepless behind the wheel might be just as dangerous as drunk behind the wheel of a car. In 2009, the National Sleep Foundation found that 1.9 million drivers (to their knowledge) had either been in an accident or had a near-miss in a car due to sleeplessness. Thats really not cool. That very statistic reminds me to get to bed before an early morning. 4. Sleeping has an impact on your ability to learn and will mess with your memory. 5. And the kicker- sleep can affect your GENES!  Over 700 genes can be changed in a person from sleep deprivation. Apparently, genes related to inflammation turn on (if you are not aware, inflammation is involved in everything from autoimmune diseases to allergies to cancer) and genes that help will cell renewal turn off. If you know anything about the science of Epigenetics (how our lifestyle influences which of our genes turn on or off) the recent studies at the University of Surrey in England will blow your mind. 6. Sleeping can help you with your weight. Its much harder for people to lose weight that are sleep deprived. Your metabolism is more efficient when you sleep. Sleeplessness aggravates your hormone balance, which will throw your appetite askew. That diet may not be working because you are not sleeping! A few tricks I use to help sleep when I am wound-up from a big day: * epsom salt baths (1-2 cups in a hot bath, as hot as I can comfortably handle) * a teaspoon of Calcium Magnesium powder in some mint tea (start with just a bit, like 1/4 or 12 teaspoon- it can mess with your stomach if you take more than you can handle) * shut down the computer and no phone calls at least an hour before bed * stretching / yoga for 15 minutes and, if I am really busy, I write a list of everything going on before bed so its out of my head and I can rest!

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Now, the big question: how to set up your bedroom? You will go through many other principles that you will apply to your whole home (including your bedroom) but this big one can get the party started: bed placement is 3/4 feng shui “rules”and 1/4 circumstantial. Not all bedrooms are the same and you may need to break the rules to have your bed placement work for you!

The basics of bed placement: These rules of bed placement have to do with being in “command” of you bedroom, so that you could see an intruder if they entered your room, before it was too late. As I mentioned, feng shui in ancient times was all about survival. You may not think about being threatened sleeping with your headboard on the same wall as the entrance door to your room, but, biologically you may be experiencing that vulnerability while you sleep. 1. Headboard is best on the wall opposite your entrance. If that means your feet will stick out the entrance door (not great feng shui) than you should keep your door closed and find a way to create a faux wall at the foot of your bed (shoji screens, beds with foot boards and/or canopies are some ideas to start) 2. Another “good” feng shui position is headboard on the far left wall from the entrance door according to traditional rules of feng shui. Again, this is just a guideline. 3. One of the the least great positions: headboard on the same wall as your door (try to put up a mirror on the wall opposite your bed to help this position “feel” better so you’ll sleep better. a mirror that allows you to see the entrance door will help you feel less threatened, as I mentioned above)

The no-no’s & ways to fix ‘em: 1. Never put your head up against a bathroom wall unless there is no option. (if thats the case, but a tapestry or other “insulation” behind your bed and use a very solid headboard) 2. If your bed has to be up against windows, use solid curtains to create more of a solid wall. Even though they are covered, still keep the windows sparkling clean. 3. If you have a ceiling fan, clean it often and don’t run it while you sleep. 4. If you have a chandelier over your bed, assess if its disrupting your life! Headaches, body aches, insomnia could all be a products of a big object hanging over you as you sleep. It may be best to move it and have a less-obtrusive light fixture there. 5. Don’t store things under your bed! 6. If you sleep under beams, get a canopy for your bed. If you can’t get a canopy, get fabric and canopy the beam. 7. If you decide you want your bed so its on a diagonal in the corner across from the entrance door, this can be good. In the empty space behind your bed, add a big plant and some upward-facing light.

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WEEK EIGHT This week will challenge you in the best possible way to use what you know to continue to grow!

DESIGNING DREAMS tune up your home & life You have built a great foundation. More style, more space, more energy, more sensory richness, more clarity and focus. Now, we will zero in on specific parts of your home to create spaces that support your dreams, goals and desires. Are you ready to get busy?! Why wait until eight weeks have passed to get to this point? If you skip ahead to this chapter, you miss the plot. An integrated life is what we should all aspire to live, and without all that we covered before this, you would not see things quite the same. All that you learned will finally melt together in a new way. If you have read feng shui books

before, what you are about to learn and do may sound different, or even wrong, on paper. You participate in this process, and you are not wrong, so the result can not help but be terrific! We will not hang strings, bless doors, flush herbs down the toilet or put pairs of ducks or good luck frogs around your house. We will talk about the big picture of the bagua along with some of the tools you have been introduced to, and you will learn how it all works together to a bit more synergistically. We are digging in to create space to support your dreams.

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Your Home As A Vision Board For Your Life Vision boards are a way to map out your dreams and goals in pictures. More than once I have taken a poster board and pasted up a bunch of ideals, goals and objects that I either need or want or feel drawn toward only to find that years after I have made the board I have somehow fulfilled that experience or gotten what I wanted. There is a tremendous value in being able to concretely see and to give your imagination and subconscious, active mind concrete pictures of what the objectives and plans are, so that they can be more fantastically realized. I like to map out the feeling of certain things, be it the feeling of peace, of spiritual elevation or even better health and energy: these pictures pasted onto boards in a collage help to clarify the thoughts and words in my head. Vision boards are nothing new, and, in fact, they are perhaps the most touted tool of life coaches, self help writers and creativity teachers. In warming up to the idea of designing your home as a vision board for your life you can try this quick exercise: • Take a piece of paper and draw our the bagua map as a simple grid. • In each of the nine sections, write your aspiration or intention for your life in that regard. For example, in the wisdom area you might put your desire to learn a new language or to travel the world. In the relationship area you might intend to have a better marriage or heal a broken heart. Whatever you desire, write it in the grid. • Now search for at least one image somewhere that represents the culmination of that goal or wish. Paste the pictures on the grid as you please. You are now in possession of a roadmap to your space that is a bit more rooted in space. Bust out your floor plan and see what your home looks like in each area that correlates with your bagua grid, placing the grid over the floor plan so that the bottom row aligns with the entrance door as explained earlier. Can you see a difference between what you want in an area of your life and what it looks like and what your HOME looks like in that area of your space in present day actuality? Are you using your home to further your dreams and support yourself along the way?

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Lighting Up The Bagua Map I am going to focus here on specific ways that you can “dress” up each area of the bagua, along with other tricks and tips for your home, to design your dream life. Since I am not able to sit down with each and every one of you, I am going to address five big subjects: PROSPERITY, LOVE, HEALTH, POWER & CREATIVITY and, in doing so, I will address their corresponding energy wherever possible in your home and life. You will see why we waited until the end: this will all make much more sense to you now!

MORE MoreLOVE Love LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS: The “relationship” area of the bagua is located in the far right corner from the room from the entrance door of a room or your home. Let’s look at your whole home floor plan overall. What is the far right of your home? In my home, this area is my dining room, filled with thriving plants, a wall of candles, wands of sage and pairs of gold vases. What is that room in your home? No matter what room this is in your home, fill it with pairs of objects. Pairs of objects express more of a unity than just single objects or odd numbers of objects. Clear out this area of all clutter, junk and ill repair. I had cracks in my walls in my dining room and when they were repaired, my relationships overall in my life began to thrive. This area of your home resonates with fire. No matter what part of the house it may be, add candles, fiery colors (red, pink, orange), chevron or ikat fabric, strong vertical lines. Dynamic art that reflects unity is another big piece of the puzzle for the relationship area. In the artistic arena, there is no one piece of art or one medium of expression that will demonstrate the type of love that you want, need or idealize-- the choice is yours to find it. WISDOM: Beyond the basics of the relationship area of your home, we need to look diagonally across your floor plan from the relationship area to the wisdom area. This is the area to the far left of your entrance door along the same wall. The wisdom area directly correlates with your relationships in a very simple way: the more you know about yourself, the better you will do with relationships. Conversely, the more you engage in relationships, the better you will know yourself and learn from the experiences. People generally view wisdom as a lame area of the bagua, to be honest. It seems very boring to many to become engaged with the idea of building wisdom. Alas, my friends, without wisdom (and honesty in that wisdom), your relationships don’t have a chance to become truly intimate.

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I like to make this area rich in personal creative indulgences and artwork. If you make music at home as a hobby, its a great place for your studio. If you have a library, this is an ideal place for it. Anything you want to learn more about can be stored in this area. For example, if you have always wanted to master yoga, here is a great spot for your yoga gear or even to set up your yoga practice at home. Solid, heavy furniture is ideal for this area. What is in this area of your home? By enriching your personal interests you also enrich your life and relationships. What did you write in this area as a goal for wisdom in your life? If you want to learn another language, can you put up landscape scenes of that country. Or, if you want to learn to cook better, can this be a place for your cookbook storage? Mirrors are generally great both symbolically and energetically in the wisdom area. Wisdom, after all, comes from self-reflection as well as life experience and study; mirrors are the ultimate in reflection. Not everyone will immediately feel comfortable with a mirror in this area, as it brings to light a lot of ourselves that we may not want to see. Peeling the onion of life is not always an effortless process- it is sometimes uncomfortable. If you try hanging a mirror or adding reflective objects to this area and it both looks and feels good - even if a bit strange- go with it and see how you feel about its affect. You can always take things down or move them, so please don’t be inhibited. Experiment! WISDOM & LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS are a synergistic pair. If you embrace this concept you can learn to take more risks for love, be more vulnerable and be more willing to experience the power of relationships even if each one isn’t your soulmate... its steps toward him or her!

MORE PROSPERITY MONEY/SELF EMPOWERMENT: Isn’t it curious that money and selfempowerment go hand-in-hand? Self-esteem and money are intimately linked. Here is the thing, its not money that creates the self-empowerment. Its the self-empowerment that reinforces a sense of prosperity. I want to be very clear about this, because at least half of you are thinking, “ Oh, if I had money I could be so much more confident...” Nope. Its because you are not confident and you don’t feel deserving that you are not really generating money. This area is often referred to as the money corner but I want to emphasize that it is the SELF EMPOWERMENT area. If you are empowered, you won’t need to worry about money. You might need to make things happen in your life and even hustle, but with confidence and self-esteem, making money is much easier...and not a drag!

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Shining light in your space is a very easy way of raising the vibration, creating more fire and dynamism. In the far right side of any room (perhaps your office?) and your home overall, bright light is a wonder to create dramatic change. I often suggest upward-facing light that literally shoots light- and your attention- upward. This is the most empowering form of light. Canister lights on a table facing upward, a torch light facing up... these are my easy-toget favorites for homes that need lots of absolute, powerful and poignant light. Straight vertical lines are another key to activating the yang energy that is prosperity. Pinstriped walls, tall furniture and vertically hung abstract art are all powerful vertical lines that punch up the prosperity. Physically standing straighter aligns your body more properly for its energy to flow. Another subtle trick here to strengthen verticals- hang your art just a tiny bit above eye level (emphasis, just an inch or so, nothing awkward where art is uncomfortably high to view)- and this will “lift” your space. Creating an abundant environment in this area of your home is absolutely essential. Now, because I can’t see the inside of each of your homes, its impossible for me to pinpoint what your specific abundance will be, but this exercise will help: First, ask yourself what it is that you dream of having --- is it art, fashion, real estate?--- and how can you infuse this into not just this area of your home, but your home overall. Now, ask yourself what makes you feel enriched...and rich!? Your favorite perfume, a luxurious candle, an incredible cashmere blanket? Get on it! COMPASSION/HELPFUL PEOPLE: In terms of your life overall, this is the space of compassionate connection to others; your connection to all of life builds your self-esteem in the most solid way possible. Your prosperity is intimately related to the amount of compassion you have in the world and the amount of helpful people you have in your life. Outflowing sincerity, compliments, even cheerfulness- these are valuable commodities to share with others. You might selflessly help a friend or do random acts of kindness for no other reason than this: it feels good. And it really does! If you are in business, this area deals with your audience and/or clients, mentors and coworkers on a team. What would happen if you stopped gossiping at work, and started seeking mentors? What if you helped others instead of competing with them? What if you love your clients rather than complaining about them? ( I have seen an abundance of all three!) Focus on giving, on connecting and on supporting. We are all in this together! On that note, if you give and give and give and you are the helpful person for everyone you know this is NOT a balanced equation. If a balanced life is your aim, you have to allow people to help you as well. If you can not accept help but can only give it, ultimately this

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act of helping will drain your energy and put a real damper on your prosperous life! People say “you get what you give” and to a large degree this is true, especially where compassion and help are concerned. The problem is that some of us tend to over-give to others beyond a comfortable point thinking that it is a virtuous act. I will venture to say that the vast majority of people who I see excel at caring for others in over-abundant ways tend to neglect themselves. This big word “compassion” in excess can help you to hide your own ambitions and fears behind seemingly extreme virtue. If you are an over-giver, you are likely exhausted all the time. You may have found it hard to get to week eight with us, and you may have skipped ahead to read this. I know it- I’ve done it more than once. If you spend more time helping others than you do helping yourself, unless it is your profession (caregiver, charity organizer, doctor, EMT, etc) I encourage you to read up on this behavior of co-dependence. I’m not putting a label on you ( & if I am, I put it on myself as well, its a big issue I’ve struggled with) but co-dependence is very difficult to contend with at best. Its not saintly, and I’ve seen it cost people very much in time, money, spirit and even health. You absolutely can break the cycle of over-helping. For now, make sure you don’t skip out on your grounding rituals and feel-good energy habits. Schedule them and make them a priority! Now, back to your home: What do you do with this are of your home to make it really work for you? Well, to start with, it is an area that should be unimpeded. Look for ways to make this area more personally magnetic, be it with color, better air circulation or even aromatherapy. My guideline to get you started in this area is very simple yet infinitely vast: “What represents the kind of help you give and the type of support you hope to receive?” The answer to this question can inform the initial symbolism that you put in this space. If you are a dazzling stage performer, maybe this area is filled with feathers and glitter to evoke all that jazz you bring to others? We’ll look at this more in the Brainstorm, but I want to get you thinking in these ways so that no matter where you go you can appoint a space most powerfully. SELF-EMPOWERMENT/MONEY & COMPASSION/HELPFUL PEOPLE are a pairing that is often overlooked in life. The tendency is to look toward separating ones self from others, making comparisons and fixating on personal achievement to fuel a feeling of self-esteem; this competitive, isolating approach to life is way off the mark. You must be connected to life and engaged with others to build solid self-esteem; the more you can integrate in a healthy way with your clients and your support system- and the universe overall- the more prosperity will flow in your direction. Does this make sense? We are not meant to exist on an island of one. Achievement-driven, self-fixated lives push us farther away from intimate connection and true integration. While achievement and self-reflection are a part of life, the process of getting to each milestone goal should be one

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of engagement and real connection to others. The more you are willing to be open to a healthy (key word!) network of friends, colleagues and clients, the more willing the world seems to be to keep you in the flow of affluence on many levels. That said, if your network is comprised of people who are operating with less morality than perhaps is positive for your life, now is the time to consider re-framing those relationships so that they are working well... or letting them go. The final decision is up to you. Just keep in mind that you can’t control or change anyone else.

HEALTH In my experience, one’s health and one’s home are intimately related. I pay great attention to health in every space I enter. Please keep in mind that I am neither a doctor nor a certified healer while we have this discussion of how a home influences your health; this is a really important subject in terms of feng shui symbolism and the way that your home mirrors and influences your life overall. As I mentioned earlier, in terms of the bagua placement, the geometric center of your home is where the actual health of your home is seated. You need to draw that X from corner to corner straight through your floor plan to find that true center. Often the true center is not where you might guess it is, so the floor plan exercise is very helpful, especially if you are having health issues or feel like you are drained of energy and need to pinpoint the home’s true heart to get a sense of what is there & potentially influencing your life. For example, if you have a fireplace in the center of your home that is not functioning well or well-maintained and you happen to have frequent indigestion or anxiety I am not surprised. If you have a lot of chemicals stored in this area (craft supplies, cleaning chemicals that I clearly don’t recommend) and you have frequent allergies, I am not surprised. This area should be extraordinarily clean and grounded. This area is balanced by earth and golden colors. The energy here should be calm and contemplative, or robust but never chaotic. If this “center” is in the middle of a long hallway, punctuate this area with absolutely stunning artwork to create a wonderful pause to keep people- and chi (life force energy) - from rushing through this center space. In terms of your home overall, detoxing all of the chemicals you clean with and purifying the air and water in your home will create a more truly holistic sense of environmental wellness.

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My natural cleaning kit at home is extremely basic: lots of baking soda, a big jug of white vinegar and some liquid castile soap. Sweet orange essential oil, lavender essential oil and lemon juice are a few richer additions. You can clean most every part of the average home with these few items to create a sparkling glow. Pull out the little DIY cleaning sheet and use it- or other non-toxic cleaning products including laundry detergent- if you haven’t yet. In addition to an overall home detox and de-clutter of this area, you can also look at ways to add earth to balance this space totally. Yellow, earth tones, pottery, a stone wall... you can be creative and even use art that is evocative of the earth around you locally. For example if you live in the desert, landscape photos of the canyons or desert are an awesome way to bring the outside inside. The same goes for local colors of earth. If you are in California at the beach, sandy colors are more relatable to earth than, say, deep browns. Red clay looks like earth to someone deep in the ruddy desert. Rich brown is a farmland earth tone. If you want to be that specific you can really supercharge your area with the most powerful energy of earth for your area. Any bathroom in this area should have perfect plumbing (no little leaks allowed!), lots of fabulous spa-like goodies, and plants, too, are extra-wonderful in this regard. The overall health of your home has been addressed throughout this eight week journey in a multitude of ways, but this bit of fine-tuning will take things to the next level.

MORE POWER POWER/FAME. This area is located in the middle of the back of your home and its importance can not be underestimated. I want to start my making the vast distinction between fame and power so that we can really make headway in this area. More often than not this area is considered the Fame area. We will call it the Power area. Fame and Power are not the same thing at all. The question I ask to clients looking to get famous is this: WHY DO YOU WANT FAME? This is an important question because it helps you focus your life on a purpose rather than becoming fixated on an abstract idea that everyone knowing your name will be gratifying. Also, there are many people who feel that they are pressured by society or their peers and family to strive to be “famous” rather than to strive to do good work in any way. There are lots of people who drum up attention for themselves that are not doing good work; fame in the classic sense is not in any way a judgement of someone’s ability. You can have a gratifying and even very visible career without the fame. I am not saying that fame in itself is a bad thing, I am suggesting that true “fame” can not be an end in itself if you are

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looking for a grounded and prosperous life. Having seen the flip side of extreme fame way too may times, I will say that it has a price for many way higher than anyone would be willing to pay. Also, fame is not necessarily power in any sense. Being famous for a spell may give you temporary weight in the world, but when that light of fame dims as it does for all but the rare few icons, so does the “power” that comes along with it. What is true power? In my experience, the truly powerful are truly solid. Having a grounded sense of who you are and harnessing the ability to make a positive impact in your environment is powerful. Knowing that you can confront any obstacle and turn any situation into a positive situation is powerful. Truly powerful individuals can navigate the twists and turns of life, can actualize their plans and can, if they are truly dedicated, fulfill their potential in this lifetime. A therapist once shared with me that she sees many people falling in love with the potential they see in a person rather than the person themselves. We all have unlimited amounts of potential. Whether or not we use that potential depends upon the choices we make and how willing we are to create an environment (physically, mentally, socially, emotionally) that allows that potential to flourish. To demonstrate your personal power, create a space infused with the maximum amount of your vision and personality. Put throw rugs under furniture to ground them in space. Use lots of fire element to embolden this part of your life. Use art to energize the area. The Power area is a great place to showcase your accomplishments and awards because it reminds you of your potential. We all have achievements in various areas of life that should be on display. In terms of your mental and social and emotional environment, real power means saying “yes” to yourself. Joseph Campbell talks about “following your bliss” and that is a similar notion as saying yes to your life. Now, this does not mean exclusively doing only what you feel like doing, ignoring obligations or anything of the sort. The notion of following your bliss in your newly feng shui’d life can be more organic and less chaotic and scary. Small steps toward having a greater impact in your life can be anything from amping up your wardrobe to speaking up a bit more when you need your opinion to be heard. Being willing to take even small steps out of your comfort zone and into a broader sphereattending social events, promoting yourself to press in your field, joining a networking group- are ways to ease into a greater circumference of life. TASK: Think of a few ways that you can actually integrate more into the bigger picture of life & actually start to do one right now. Put whatever you are reading this on down right now and take one step toward more personal power in your own world socially or even in social media if you would like. What can you do to express yourself further, connect to a greater group or bring your products to the world? It does not have to be perfect, this first

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step, but it does have to BE! My last words on Power for now are that this area of life and your home should feel spacious. We want to continually acknowledge our achievements in this space and also leave room to grow. There is not a “perfect Power area” for you because this area will expand and grow as you nourish both your life and space with proactive energy. Keep in mind that “self-actualization”, the more clinical term for living your dream life to your full potential, comes from having or building a stable foundation for your health, a sense of safety in your space, financial wellness, a solid social network and then, yes, the ability to reach for your more transcendent goals. Many of us want to reach the top of the mountain without building a stable foundation, and by doing this we create a house of cards that will topple at some point down the line. Blind ambition is not a great thing. Focused and excited aspiration reaps way bigger rewards! CAREER/SELF: Here we go, zooming toward the career area. On the same wall as your entrance door, center of the space, we find the area of your home that correlates with your self as related to your career. In this area I find it more important for most of us to focus on what should not be there rather than what should be there. Case-bycase you will all have different “career” needs. Some of you are retired, some of you don’t want or need a traditional job, but all of us have- or should have- a sense of self-purpose in the world. This area asks us to cultivate that purpose and, with some fortitude and directed intention, invites us to carry this energy straight across the bagua map to the space of Power. The Career/Self area is a headstrong space. If you find yourself acting like a victim or passively flowing though life just taking whatever falls upon you, the career area may need some special attention. Here are some challenges to remove from the career area: storage space, empty walls, trash cans (especially filled ones!) and darkness. This is fairly straightforward; all of these challenging situations call to mind a self-purpose that is dim or non-existent. In this space you are activating your willpower, your strength and what you want to do in the world. What to actually add here in your home is highly personal. Your purpose can be communicated in art, collage, vision boards, furnishings, and the overall emotional quality of the space. Neroli is a great essential oil to diffuse in this area to awaken a sense of divine inspiration. Create a space that is powerful and dynamic, and playful. If you have babies or animals who have toys, this is a good space for a toy chest for them (an exception to the storage idea), and some more adult toys for you like word puzzles or...gasp...video games. Our

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career should have a sense of play and lightness running through it; it is vital to our lives that there is a sense of wonder, imagination and the spirit of a game in our work. Color that is motivating can really stimulate your sense of will and fortitude. In traditional feng shui, black is the color to activate this area; blue is also a powerful self-affirming color for this space. That said, color is highly personal and enormously motivating, so you can reach for black or blue if you want, but I want you to use bold color that actually deeply stimulates your sense of power. CAREER/SELF & POWER/FAME is the pair of spaces in the bagua that deal with actualizing your specific purpose in your life. This highly personal line through your home is a path from what you are meant to do in your life toward the acknowledgement for getting the job done well. Whereas we can think of this coupling of spaces just in terms of occupations in life, it is much more. While setting up and designing these spaces think in terms of the question “What am I really meant to do in my life?” The answer may not be just one job or hat to wear that helps you climb a corporate ladder, it may be more of a mission like: “reawakening creativity in others” or “bringing more beauty to the world.” Your mission can and will get achieved, and the more concrete and specific you can be in answering that “What am I really meant to do in my life?” question will move you toward designing this space in a way that adds might to your intention.

CREATIVITY CHILDREN/CREATIVITY : Children/creativity is just that... an area that is either promoting your children in your life, or fostering creativity in your life...or both! The most “creative” way to use this space is to let it be a playroom, a play area, an art studio... or any version of that, for children, adults... or both! This “creative” area is often overlooked as a “not as desired” aspect of home and life while people rush toward fame, money and love. Its actually creativity and that continual spirit of creating that perpetuates that fame, money and love. Without being grounded and open to creative energy, you will miss out on the real abundance in the fame, money and love departments! If you are having issues with your own creativity, look at how you can clear some space in this area of your home (or your workroom) and add some motion. Dynamic art, a wellplaced fan, a fountain: all great ways to add motion.

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LEGACY: This area is often referred to as “community.” Who came before you & who will come after you? This is an area that acknowledges- for better or worse- your family. If its for “worse” its time to dig in and do the best you can with the family you have! Its also worth noting that this is a space for legacy in creative products. For example, if you create a new after school program at your local high school, that’s a legacy. Planting trees can be a legacy to leave. All of our creative products will form our legacy, along with our genetic lineage. This is a great place to display family photos, its a fabulous area to create a “gathering” space in your home or in a room. One way to really activate this area in your life is to actually become more involved in your community and groups. In your home, you can reflect your personal community interests in this space. CHILDREN/CREATIVITY & LEGACY are the ways in which we perpetuate ourselves in society. Whether its by having kids and acknowledging the family legacy that you are carrying on or by activating your creativity and then creating products that you will leave as your legacy in life--- or both!--- these areas in feng shui are so vital and so often overlooked. In Buddhism, you are directly linked to your family karmically, for the better or worse (!) and when you improve your life, you raise the well-being of your whole family.

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BRAINSTORM THE ARTS Movies, literature, music, museums, galleries, dance, poetry...are you immersed in the arts? What are your favorite books? What do you want to read? See? Hear? For your last little free write list of our eight week journey, free write on the culture you want to experience. A Radiohead concert in Prague? Be a part of an interactive art piece at a museum or a poetry slam? I’d like to be a part (as in, physically, a part of) a Doug Aitken film, spend an August in Florence wading through fountains, read every classic of literature, many again... and read every Danielle Steele book. Oh, and I want to be painting again in a bigger more real way. The list grows and grows. What about you? What do you want to experience of culture. Binge-watching TV shows totally counts, but try to mix it up- this is about stretching the boundaries a bit, too.

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WORKSHEET Exercises For Week 8 Check out that floor plan you drew at the start of this eight week journey! Now that we have come this far, what do you see when you look at your floor plan? Can you understand where your life was blocked by clutter, where the darkness was obscuring your intentions, how the lines of your home have been directing your actions... and, more importantly, where you are moving things next?!

Pull out the pictures you took on Week 1. Do you remember these??? Because I am a big fan of the Before & After photos, please re-shoot your home in its new incarnation if you are so inclined. Acknowledge all the progress you have made in both your home and your life in the last eight weeks. For all of you, this visual record of where you were at eight weeks ago will be a giant eye-opener. If you have done the work and applied even a bit of each chapter to your home, your space looks and/or feels and resonates much more clearly. If you email me your Before & Afters I will feature as many of you on the blog as I can, and will keep them recorded in my own image folder of “pride.” I am so utterly proud of you for getting through the sometimes emotional, sometimes challenging and always chaotic period of change that bring you to today.

Write down in your journal anything you have uncovered about yourself and your feelings of “home.” Does your place feel like “home” now? Do you understand in both your heart and mind what “home” is in your life, now? Write these impressions of home in your journal. Some of you, I am sure, have decided to move from where you are while reading through the weeks. That is a great thing, too! You now have the guidelines to search for and select a place that is healthier, happier and more “you” feeling... and you will make a more educated feng shui decision for your personal life, overall, as you move! Many of you might be surprised by what feels like home to you now, and that is excellent. Home is not always where we grew up. I firmly believe that karmically we are drawn to places with which help us to grow. Your childhood home may not represent safety, but it did help shape you and allow you the freedom to now create a new sense of home for yourself.

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BRING MORE LIFE TO YOUR LIFE Remember when we talked about purpose and vision boards and goals and personal style and connection to your home....and.... and..... Its time to use all of these tools as they seem fit to help you craft a home that is lit up with your style, keeping in mind your intentions for your life overall. How can you bring more life to your life? The only way I know how to do that is to have passion, and passion is borne of all the stuff we’ve covered. If you are true to your intention and your goals and you reorganize and reappoint and design areas of your home with these goals and intentions in mind, even the smallest switches can have huge effects. If you’ve read a ton online or in other books about what should go in each area, please try to block it out and focus on your goals and your personal experience of space! Your style and panache count more than some silly superstitions!

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AND...NOTES My end notes are AND notes because this process ever really ends! Over time, your personal elements will shift. Your priorities change. And either you will move, or your home will shift, as you grow. When your awareness of space expands, you will see things you’ve never seen before. Instinctually you will know when its time for a change. If you are “stuck” at any point in the process, please remember that this is not about “perfection.” Perfection is neither healthy nor balanced. There are countless ways that feng shui helps to shape space in new ways, and the success stories I have received run the gamut - some internal shifts felt, some mindset shifts, and some pure money and fame and love- and not all happen the next day. I credit myself with nothing but providing a template upon which you do the customizing work that creates the masterpiece of your life. Some shifts are instant. Some take a bit longer. Frustration is not a good feeling, so I always say that its much more fun to operate with trust that things will unfold as they should as you stay in action. Also, things like de-cluttering and great house cleaning and eliminating obstacles... all of these actions are a constant process. Go ahead and schedule a weekly 10 minute de-clutter every week, along with a monthly ultra-deep clean of your home (way more extensive than your normal home cleaning) so that you are really maintaining a clear foundation moving into the future. Wishing you happiness, light, peace, excitement, art and prosperity on every level! xoxo Dana

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DESIGN APPENDIX

FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

USE IT ALL! Welcome to your Design Appendix. Initially I didn’t want to impose upon your creativity... but I could not stop myself, since it had the potential to make your life so much easier! You can use this manual as a checklist or a way to troubleshoot when something feels off and you aren’t quite sure what is askew. Let’s use what you learned & put it all together beautifully!

Entranceway When you arrive at your door, what do you see? The entranceway to your home sets the pace for your experience of the space, so it has to be the best it can be. If you live in a building where you can’t make major changes, we will look at ways you can accomplish the task.

Your Door What condition is your door in? The locks, the handle, the hinges... Is it well painted? Do you like the color?

If you can change your door color: You can use the element colors we discussed to make a personalized change. You certainly don’t need a red door to have good feng shui, but red is the traditional color considered historically auspicious for many reasons. The main reason I find very useful to think with: red is magnetic and will draw people to your door. That might not be what you are after. Not everyone needs mountains of attention. In fact, if you think back to the chapter on elements, not everyone needs lots of fire in general. You likely have a great sense of your own elemental needs at this point, so keep that in mind as you select colors. I would avoid black, as it is too much of a void and has a negative connotation unless it is spectacularly lacquered to become sexy and mysterious. Keep in mind that doors are more solid and look more substantial in deeper tones as opposed to pastels.

If you can’t change your door color: Scrub it down and make sure that any house numbers on or surrounding the door are very legible.

Welcome mats: A welcome mat can be a very good thing in front of your door. Here is a perfect place to display your style to the world before entering your home. You can get a personalized mat handmade on Etsy, you can DIY one, or just grab one that you love from a local shop. Make sure the mat is: large enough, sturdy and not at all awkward or slippery.

FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

What If The Main Door You Use Is Your Back Door? I will tell you from much experience that homes that equally use front and back door as main entrances from the outside world tend to be full of energetic confusion, hectic lives and misdirected focus. Is that a massive generalization? Yes. But it’s one that I have witnessed too many times to count! When you have two main entrances, you are never quite oriented in your home to experience it soundly. I know that often times you’ll use one door for friends and family and the other for mail delivery and formal occasions. I understand that. What I suggest you do is decide now which door is your main door if you have options. Use the bagua map aligned with that back door as your main entrance door. Use the basic guidelines we just discussed to appoint that main door, wherever it may be, and make it inviting. If your front door is “not” your main door, still make it clear by its design what that front door is for, be it a way to greet the neighborhood with pleasantries and great color or a space to hang out on the porch.

What Is The First Thing You See? You may have a traditional foyer, you may enter into your living room, you might enter a hallway... no matter what room you enter into, you need to see something inviting when you first walk into your home.

Inviting ideas: Great art, bright light, incredible color, fresh flowers, an open gathering room seating arrangement, sparkling crystal vases, a coat rack, a bench to sit...

Ideas that turn you away: The back of chairs, blank walls in your face, darkness, obstructions, or those dreaded poison arrows in art or lamps or anything else pointing at you.

Think of your own place: How can you walk into color, light and openness? I will absolutely never forget walking into one of the “best” homes in Hollywood to be greeted by an animal in a pool of taxidermy liquid. Its a famous artwork by Damien Hirst, somehow, yet the most insanely sick sight to greet you at a door. I was sick the whole night, and acutely aware of every negative aspect of the experience. While I doubt any of you have a Hirst piece of taxidermy in your entranceway, even the small but negative experiences like not being able to access a light switch and clamoring in the darkness to turn on a light when you enter a home are setting you up for struggles in your home that can be easily avoided.

Living Room FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

There are common threads in many living rooms, even if the living room is part of a studio or open loft.

A Solid Sofa: There is nothing as important to welcome people into a room as a solid sofa. While it doesn’t have to be a giant sofa, it does have to be a sofa that you want to sit on. Hard sofas send the message that you want people to leave. They are a difficult message in your home, challenging to guests, and give people a message that they are unwelcome. Add throw pillows to hard sofas, big ones. They can be temporary for the sofa when guests appear and then stacked on the floor as floor pillows if that is more comfortable for you. A sofa that is TOO squishy and soft promotes laziness and keeps people around for a long time, perhaps too long! People will stay, though they may not be in their best form when sucked deep into your sofa cushions. If you have a big squishy sofa, can you get some firm ottomans to use as moveable seating? Or more stately chairs? You’ll have a yin & yang (remember that concept?) of textures. A sofa overloaded in throw pillows, as cool as it looks, may make a sofa unapproachable. While pillows a fantastic and a great way to mix up your elements and textures in a room, they can prohibit motion in excess. Conversely, a sofa without pillows feels naked some of the time. Find a good balance of pillows with this in mind. If your sofa is old and you are not in the market yet to reupholster, get some fantastic slipcovers. They are easy to find online and in stores everywhere. If you are handy with a sewing machine, you can make some, though they may be cheaper to buy. When in doubt, your grandmas afghan, a Pottery Barn throw blanket or the like will help you to breathe some new life into your sofa. At the risk of being a fear-monger, I am not a big fan of pulling furniture straight off the vintage store floor (or the curb) and into a home for you don’t know what might be living in it, insect-wise. If you are using any type of vintage furniture, I suggest you splurge to get the piece professionally cleaned before bringing it home. This will also help you to establish it as your own, having it freshly cleaned and polished up.

A few notes on seating: * If you are seating people in a circle, everyone will feel more equal but will not likely stick around a long time. * Seating in a rectangle or with furniture at right angles is most conversational. * Sitting with people in squares is “stable” but not the best for lively excitement as its the earth element in action.

FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

Coffee Table: Every room needs some sort of coffee table to create a geometric center of gravity. I know, you have side tables. But, when is the last time you felt comfortable resting a drink on a side table? Coffee tables are balancing. They are the centerpiece of a seating area and hold it together. They can be anything from an actual table to a big trunk, upholstered ottoman or even card tables. I will say this: the coffee table MUST have gravity, or a perceived weight. If it is lucite or less “material”, can you put a stack of coffee table books on it that you love? Can you keep a vase with flowers on it? A fabulous crystal hunk? You get the picture: make sure it has enough “heft” without being consumed by stuff that becomes clutter. Coffee tables are the biggest offenders in the poison arrow department. If you have sharp, pointed corners on yours, can you set up your living room so that these points don’t interfere with people sitting comfortably? Also, be sure they don’t point out toward people when they approach to sit from the common walkways. If at all possible, use a table with a bit more of a rounded edge. If your coffee table has storage, beware of filling it with clutter or controversial material. It is the energetic centerpiece of your social space, and you want to keep the space clear.

Activated Corners: Unloved corners of your home are like unactivated areas of your life. Not ever corner of your house needs to be filled, but each corner should be deliberately treated, whether with light, plants, a tall vase, or fabulous art (or anything else you love with a great message!) nearby to bring it to life. If you are at a loss for what do do with your dark and empty corners at the moment, start by keeping them clean and sprinkle a drop of essential oil like sweet orange or lavender in each to “brighten.” Eventually, the right things will appear. Keep the bagua map in mind for each room, to see if you can fine tune your intention further with your own improvised “design fixes.”

Nothing heavy overhead: I am deeply opposed to heavy things overhead as you sit. There is nothing more unsettling to me that sitting beneath a loaded shelf (except sleeping under it!!!)!

FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

Art: Art can also be unsettling: sitting directly beneath a massive painting or an improperly mounted large mirror does not always feel secure. If you are dealing with large pieces, have them professionally installed.

Chandeliers and other big hanging lights: If you do have a big, heavy chandelier or light fixture in a room, understand that it will create “gravity” of its own. Our eye will move toward the light. If you are setting up a gathering room, please try your best to do it so that the coffee table element is beneath the large light and the seating arranged around it.

Window Coverings: Here you have the ability to frame & block views beautifully. You may want to accentuate a view or shield yourself from the neighbors. Either way, windows are vital to your home!

Blinds Lots of people live in rentals with blinds. If you do, I am so sorry and empathize. You need to take them down and wash them. There is no other good way to get less-than-excellent blinds clean. Cleaning blinds will reveal an entirely new space, especially coupled with freshly-washed windows. Windows are the eyes of your home, so clean them frequently (at least once a month) to keep your mind clear.

Curtains Curtains are a strong vertical that creates active energy, so they rarely need to be (nor should they be) fire colors in most homes. The combination of the strong vertical & fire colors (orange, pink, red, violet) can overwhelm rooms that are already very active and take attention off the main event. That said, if you have a stunning view, fire colored curtains put all eyes out on nature. Do this deliberately. As yourself: Do I want people paying attention to this more than any other part of the room? Always make sure that curtain rods and curtains extend beyond the length of the window. If you have curtains, invest in extra panels if need be to create the fabric opulence that a room deserves. Also, if you have curtains, make sure that they are washed/dry cleaned well.

A few ideas for unique curtains: Tapestries, suzani, saris, some fabulous dress fabric from a fabric store brought to a tailored to be hemmed into curtains, tie-dyed sheets...

FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

Dining Areas A place to eat feeds your body and your soul in a communal fashion. The most important place in the home I grew up in was my grandmother’s kitchen table. 5pm every day was dinner time, and that was serious. It was an octagon-shaped wooden table. (perhaps foreshadowing my involvement with feng shui!) Whether its a breakfast table in your kitchen or a formal dining room, you need a designated, calm, collected place to eat and have meals. If you use your “eating” area as an office, or anything else, you may want to reconsider. I have seen this before, and without a dining space, even a card table, you are short-changing your wellbeing on many levels. I highly encourage you to sit and eat at a table with others, or even alone. If you have a kitchen bar for eating in your house, treat it the same as a table.

Centerpieces: Your centerpieces are not a waste of time and money: they can be critical to balancing and setting an attractive space in your home. A vase of flowers in the summer, a pumpkin dipped in glitter in the fall, some pine cones in a bowl in winter, you get the picture!

Set your table: Your favorite Pinterest picture of a banquet table will likely not be the model of your table every night, but trust me on this: placemats, nice linen napkins and a thoughtful- even if eclectic- group of dishes will elevate your eating experience. It is well worth the time it takes to assemble your collection. Do not ever serve food on chipped dishes. There is some concern that actual vintage china contains lead. Because it’s hard for me to know, even in person, I would say as a blanket statement that your vintage China at the very least should be used on very occasional special events.

Tablecloths: Got some pointy poison-arrow-edges? A tablecloth is the easy-breezy solution to your feng shui poison arrows. Never use blue tablecloths, as mentioned before: blue kills the appetite. Look back on the element lesson and see if a tablecloth can help you balance a room with “a little of each, everywhere.”

A few notes on seating: * Remember that with a circular table, everyone will feel more equal but will not likely stick around a long time. * A rectangular table is most conversational and lively. * A square table is, by its nature, stable but not very exciting.

FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

Bedroom Now to the room that seems the most complicated because there is one large piece of furniture- a bed- and its placement it tantamount to so much going the right way in your life. Or, so you’ve heard. We have already talked a bit about bed placement. There are a few design points I want to make sure to cover so you are loaded with ideas!

Bedding When I see black bedding or sheets, I run for cover. Black, dark purple, dark charcoal... all very severe colors. They will not promote a good flow of the recharging energy you want as you sleep. As a general rule, skin tones that run the gamut are great for duvets. You can get a bit creative and patterned, but do not get too cutesy unless you are a boy or a girl, and by that I mean or boy or girl age. There’s room for whimsy, but don’t let it sweep you away too much. Bedrooms are for rejuvenation & creation (i.e.: sex for adults) so keep that in mind when selecting your bedding.

Sheets are another story You’ll typically want sheets that are anywhere from coral to a nearly white beige. Light sage sheets can work, but they are a very “active” color. Blue sheets are isolating and self-affirming in general, as are lavender. Lavender in large amounts can actually make people feel uneasy, so I’d skip it unless you insist. Blue can be useful when getting through an emotional time. Red sheets are thought to be a feng shui love cure, but they can also cause insomnia as well as other restless emotions, so I would take that feng shui tip with a grain of salt. Pink and corals are way less of a jolt and yet being fire to your bedroom.

Appoint your bed properly Its a small investment to get a proper bed skirt (as needed), mattress cover, bed frame and box frame cover. You can always use a fitted sheet to cover the box frame beneath your mattress. Do not leave it exposed. If you have allergies, hypoallergenic bedding and a mattress cover that zips around your mattress can be of service to you. Some of this may seem trivial to you, but you can feel and see the difference when a bed is well-made!

Actually make your bed! Studies have shown that bed-makers are actually happier, more likely to like their lives and more likely to own their homes than non bed-makers. Join the winning team! Take the minute or two every morning to refresh and organize your bed in the morning so it will greet you with welcome in the evening.

FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

Headboards: The #1 question I get is “Do I need a headboard?” and yes, you do. It does not have to be a traditional headboard right off the bat if you are not feeling it. But, you do need support at the head of your bed to anchor you in bed as you sleep. Non-traditional headboards range from tapestries on the wall to amazing folding screens that are unfolded.... you can do a wall of curtains hung behind your bed to create a sense of a headboard, even if there is no window behind you. If you are using something affixed to the wall as a headboard, make it soft and light so that it does not become menacing.

Adding personality to a bedroom Keep in mind your intentions when decorating a bedroom. Solitary symbols = a solitary existence. You don’t want to hem yourself into a solitary corner. Art should be peaceful and convey unity in some way. Empty voids and other conceptual and challenging art can be placed somewhere else. Books function in the same way: nothing too dark, technical or work-related on your bedside table.

As a general rule, keep your bedroom free of: Computers, phones, stereo systems and televisions. Why? They are active distractions, they emit EMF rays (electromagenetic field pollution), they send a message that you do not need a partner (even if you have one) that you connect with intimately. Plus, you will never truly “unplug” and rest with your own thoughts and you will get all sorts of messages that disturb your sleep. If you live in a studio or loft, create a bedroom that is out of eyeshot of all of this stuff.

Do you need nightstands? Short answer: Yes. You do. Your nightstands can be card tables, fancy nightstands, chairs, or even smooth edged shelves on the walls flanking your bed. They do not need to match, but they should present symmetry when you see them. If you have just one nightstand, you are likely either not in a relationship or in a very one-sided relationship. Having a nightstand is an actual way of making space for a partner. Lots of people say they are looking for a relationship, but somewhere they are actually either blocked in a way or truly not interested in having a relationship although they try to convince others, or themselves, that they are open and ready for love. Also, not having two nightstands reflects on the way you feel about life: are you supported on both sides or are you exposed on one side?

FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX .

What if you have no room for nightstands? There are situations where there is no room for a traditional nightstand, but that doesn’t mean that you can do without the balance and support. The effort that you put into this space will set you up for a more spacious next space, so its worth coming up with a creative solution. Can you put tall, upward facing lamps on both sides of your bed? (If you do this, use very low wattage bulbs (40 or 60) and keep them very clean.) This will work in most of the tightest of spaces.

What is the first thing you see when you wake up? I used to wake up with a ceiling beam practically in my face. No joke: I lived in a beamed loft with a highlofted bed that meant I was fairly well trapped between beams as I slept. So, I woke to a dangerous obstacle and I found them cropping up through my whole life. I spent two weeks in the hospital and fell into utter ruin in that place.... but it was the place where I learned about feng shui. What about you? Are you waking up to view something that reflects your life themes? Some people ask if they can wake up to their vision board. I would say that it is a bit overwhelming- and antisocial- to wake up to a vision board of your dreams staring you in the face, but I far prefer this to having you wake up to a TV! Or a screaming alarm clock. The blog is full of DIY art projects and roundups of art ideas and decor tricks to help you create a perfectly apt scene to wake to; the whole Internet is chock full of them...! You can always incorporate elements of your vision board imagery in a self-made piece of art. For the next week or two, pay attention to what it is that you see when you wake up and see if that mirrors your present life. I know that by now you have rid yourself of major obstacles at home, but there is always room for fine tuning! Wake up to something that sets the thematic pace for your life!

No place for a bed? I get about ten questions a day pertaining to where a bed should be in a room. Sometimes we need to bend rules, make adjustments and compromises until we find our ideal place for a bed. The guidelines that I suggest just won’t work in your space. It happens to the best of us. Its time to make the best of them. I’ve already given you some quick fixes for a less-than-ideal bedroom. I know you are wondering “what’s the best one” given your situation. My answer: you will know almost immediately if your bed is in a good place for you. Trust yourself a bit with this. If you keep the “no headboard on bathroom walls” rule up, and make sure there is adequate space, no poison arrows, no intense beams ignored and a sense of being grounded in your bed, you have covered the biggest bases. This might not be 100% perfect, but investing the time in experimenting will help you move closer to a more ideal situation!

FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

Bathrooms Your bathroom is often considered to be the worst room of a home, feng shui wise. All of the drains are thought to suck the life force out of your home. This does not need to be the case!

Most bathrooms should have some/all of the following: 1. A tub or shower with no mold or mildew. Caulking of tile often needs to be re-done and it is well worth making the upgrade. 2. A shower filter that is changed regularly: even a basic shower filter will do the trick. The better the quality of water going down the drain, the better for this “draining” fortune. I have used a basic, inexpensive filter shower filter ( I use THIS one) that screens out lots of chlorine and other toxins. 3. EARTH element. and WOOD. Earth or wood colors, textures and materials are excellent! Orchids happen to thrive in bathrooms with adequate light. 4. Caddy up all of your bath products. Try to streamline your bath and beauty regime so that it fits in one caddy. 5. Ventilation! Air out that bathroom... all the time! if you don’t have windows in your bathroom, hang an image of a landscape or another artwork with depth to create the feeling of a window, and try not to shower with the door completely closed if possible. A lack of windows will encourage mold. Keep other windows and fans in your home active in the absence of a window... and if you have windows, open them often. 6. Take advantage of hand towels, fancy soaps and lovely candles in your bathroom, and in guest bathrooms too, if you have them. You are worth it!

Even though we’ve covered so much already, I want to help reinforce what you know. You can find more guidance on turning your bathroom into a spa in this video: http://youtu.be/r2KpdkJjfDY

Kitchen Your kitchen is the hub of prosperity in your home. It is incredibly powerful. A great kitchen will do wonders for your creativity, too. You don’t need to be a MasterChef contestant to embrace cooking... and take it to a new level. There are key basics for kitchens that will help you to thrive: lots of wood element, a clean refrigerator, loads of light and lots of actual cooking! In lieu of typing up a ton for you, here is another class I did on feng shui’d kitchens that will get you scrubbing, chopping and enjoying it all: http://www.learnitlive.com/class/2878/Kitchen-Feng-Shui

Balconies & Patios FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

Balconies and patios are extra “rooms” of you home. Do not neglect them! Appropriate outdoor chairs, outdoor twinkle lights, lanterns on the ground (do not hang them!) and the like are all possible for a patio... as are waterproof rugs, fabulous paint to create a metallic ground or a great earth tined color. If you can safely put potted plants on your balcony, please do! This is a fabulous way to really harness the power of the outdoors and use that growing energy to create a space that is teeming with life!

The Home Office: Home offices are becoming more and more popular, as the world moves toward more online businesses and telecommuting. If you have an office at home, there are a few design strategies that will help you get sorted and organized. 1. Color: A “thinking” office is a great space for white. White helps you to focus, it prompts more accurate work and cleaner aesthetics. If a space is white, you are forced to keep it clean. Creative offices do well with more wood element. If you have a therapist’s office at home, you might want some blue to create a more introspective space. 2. Wires: Inevitably, wires become a huge issue in office spaces for most of us. Use electrically safe duct tape (ask at your hardware store) to wrangle loose wires and pin them to an appropriate wall. 3. Plants. Offices + Plants = cleaner spaces. 4. Try not to have your back to a door if you sit at a desk. If you do find that the only adequate space for a desk puts your back to the door, add a reflective stand mirror or mirror on the wall over your desk that enables you to feel solid and see who is entering the room at all times. 5. Create a sense of organization that does not complicate your life. I see people organizing themselves into such depths that they can not keep up with their own systems. Generally, an inbox, and outbox and files are plenty for the average office. 6. A sense of play is very important in an office space. Whether you have a few old school toys, a box of crayons and a sketchpad or even a mini putting green in your office, its all important to have play integrated with work. 7. Make sure your office has adequate air circulation. Stale air = stale thoughts. If you can’t open windows, consider a well-placed fan that circulates air without disrupting you or anyone that might visit your office. In other words, no blasting people in the face with air when they walk into your office!

FENG SHUI 101 DESIGN APPENDIX

Things To Consider: Your Family If you are living with a significant other or a whole family, everyone’s design input matters. Even the nondesigners in our families have a good sense of what they prefer. Make this a collaborative event, negotiate and create a space where everyone is thriving.

Your Animals When setting up your home, be sure your pets are safe as well as able to have their fun. I once saw a home where the dogs were crated under benches in a forgotten part of the house at night. When that began, the started to be neglected. It was terrible to see. Incorporate your animal accoutrement into your home and your home will be way more integrated overall.

A Loft? A Studio? Lofts and studios present the same issues: no walls. If you have an open floor plan, your “feng shui” is the same. Think of ways to create distinct areas in your space using things like throw rugs, coffee tables and art in gathering spaces to ground them, and do the same for your sleeping and eating areas. You can create very visually distinct areas without creating partitions. If your bedroom is a part of the action, you may want to consider curtains around the bed if you are in a big enough loft, or a very unisex sheer canopy that will separate you from the rest of the home as you sleep. Every home has unique needs. Rely on the basic tools you have learned earlier and use these sketched design ideas as a jumping off point to create personalized design solutions that really make your home shine! Any questions....? I’m all ears! xoxo Dana

“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.” -Toni Morrison