Defining the Ba Gua (map of energy) can help you understand how specific parts of your home are connected to specific areas of your life. For example, the Southeast Feng Shui part of your home connects to the money energy flow. After we defined all the sectors, it’s important to treat them accordingly, i.e. it would be counter indicated to have a dirty bookshelf full of unusable, old junk in our love/relationship sector because it brings us a useless and dull relationship that will not progress. Instead, try to clean your home, and decorate it with plants, flowers and water fountains as they symbolize life, growth and prosperity. Use statues and paintings of cherubs or lovers in your love sector. Fruit baskets, lucky coins, ducks, turtles, goldfish and lucky bamboos are the lucky elements in your home.
A few ideas of what to avoid: Avoid sharp elements in your home as they symbolize danger and bring out bad energy. Avoid using cracked or broken dishes as it brings bad luck as well as wearing old ripped cloths.
Study the Five Elements Feng Shui Theory. It will help you to balance the Feng Shui five elements in your home. For example, if you are working on attracting more prosperity, you will use the Feng Shui elements of Wood and Water in the Southeast area of your house or an apartment.
It is important to know your Feng Shui birth element. Knowing your element will assist you with improving your own energy. For example, if your own element is Fire, you will need to introduce symbols of Fire, which could be the Fire element colors (red, orange, purple, magenta, pink, yellow), triangular shapes, and so on. You will also need a strong Wood element in your home as Wood feeds the Fire in the relationship of five Feng Shui elements.
Feng Shui Tips for Your Home
(By: Amanda Collins, Feng Shui Consultant) http://www.take5moment.com/cgi/members.mpl?Action=View&id=279&media_type=blog
1) There should be no shoes or slippers lying around outside the main door of your house. Allow that space at the main door to be free and clear.
2) There should be no television sets in your bedrooms: If you cannot get rid of that habit then after watching the television, cover it with a plastic, not a fabric, table cloth.
3) There should be no mirrors opposite your bed or at the side of your bed. Mirrors opposite the bed can attract a third party to the relationship.
4) Place an indoor water fountain in your home, position in a favorable area to attract whatever you want in your life.
5) If you already have a fish tank in your house, be careful. A fish tank placed correctly can bring about greater fortune. But it can also cause you to have lawsuits, bankruptcy, work pressure, troubles and problems.
6) In your kitchen, ensure that opposite your stove there is no refrigerator, washing machine, washbasin and toilet. The fire and water crash causing family members to have disagreements.
7) Try not to allow children to sleep on mattresses on the floor as it causes young children to fall sick frequently. The reason is: chi is not able to flow underneath the bed.
8) For young children, try to have their back to the wall when they write. It is important there should be a solid wall behind a children's writing table. This allows the child to have support so that he can sit there and study longer.
9) Do not allow children to sleep on double bunk beds even if it means saving space. The child sleeping underneath will not have "fresh chi" and so his health might be weak.
10) Your bed should always have a solid wall behind you. This is important if you wish to have a good rest. A solid wall simply means that you can go into deeper sleep and therefore enabling you to have good rest so that when you wake up in the morning, you will feel fresh and well rested.
11) There should be no beam on top of your bed. The beam above causes chi to be pressured thus enabling you to have pressures in life.
12) If you have a lot of work pressure, maybe it's the marble table that you have in your dining room that causes you to have those problems. Remove that marble table and change to a wooden one or alternatively live with that work pressure!
14) Do not use a red sofa set: red represents the element of fire. For Feng Shui, some places simply cannot have red color in that sector. A red sofa sets gives rise to heavy work pressure, troubles and obstacles.
15) Always open your bedroom windows at least once 20 minutes a day to allow fresh chi to come in, we do this so that it allows fresh new chi from outside to come into your bedroom, if not you will be sleeping with stale chi every night.
For more information, visit www.HealingLLC.com for details.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Spring Cleaning - How to Incorporate Feng Shui into your Life.
Have you ever wondered if there is a relationship between layout or design of your home and your life? The old Chinese art called Feng Shui was created thousands of years ago and meant to improve people’s lives by creating the right energy flow at home. Chinese people used laws of astronomy and geography and applied them to the orientation of rooms and objects in the house in order to improve their lives.
Feng Shui is a whole art and can be taught for days and days. In this blog we would love to talk about some basics of it. Making your home look cozy is not an easy thing to do and Rodika Thi, specialist in Feng Shui has a few recommendations:
Clear out your clutter! Try to get rid of everything you do not love in your house. It is, mentally and emotionally a very challenging process. Clutter clearing is a time-and energy-consuming process. Some people compare it to therapy as it helps you feel better.
It is essential to have Good Quality Air and Good Quality Light in your house. These two elements are in charge of good Feng Shui energy, called Chi, in your home. Try to open the windows daily for 10-20 minutes. It will let fresh new energy to come in to your house. Allow as much natural light as possible into your home, and consider using full-spectrum lights.
The most interesting part of Feng Shui is to define the Ba Gua, or the Feng Shui energy map of your house. In order to define it you shall use one of the two main Feng Shui methods - the compass or the BTB grid. Ba Gua is used to find out which part of your home correlates with a particular situation in your life. A compass will determine 9 geographical directions your home (North, North-East, East, South-East, South, South-West, West, North-West, and the center of your house). Every direction will correspond to a certain part of your life.
SE -Finances, Prosperity
S- Fame, Reputation
SW- Relationships, Love
W- Children/Creativity,
NW – Helpful People, Blessing, Travel
N- Career,
NE- Knowledge, Wisdom and Spirituality
E- Family
Center - Physical Health
For more information, visit www.HealingLLC.com for details.
Feng Shui is a whole art and can be taught for days and days. In this blog we would love to talk about some basics of it. Making your home look cozy is not an easy thing to do and Rodika Thi, specialist in Feng Shui has a few recommendations:
Clear out your clutter! Try to get rid of everything you do not love in your house. It is, mentally and emotionally a very challenging process. Clutter clearing is a time-and energy-consuming process. Some people compare it to therapy as it helps you feel better.
It is essential to have Good Quality Air and Good Quality Light in your house. These two elements are in charge of good Feng Shui energy, called Chi, in your home. Try to open the windows daily for 10-20 minutes. It will let fresh new energy to come in to your house. Allow as much natural light as possible into your home, and consider using full-spectrum lights.
The most interesting part of Feng Shui is to define the Ba Gua, or the Feng Shui energy map of your house. In order to define it you shall use one of the two main Feng Shui methods - the compass or the BTB grid. Ba Gua is used to find out which part of your home correlates with a particular situation in your life. A compass will determine 9 geographical directions your home (North, North-East, East, South-East, South, South-West, West, North-West, and the center of your house). Every direction will correspond to a certain part of your life.
SE -Finances, Prosperity
S- Fame, Reputation
SW- Relationships, Love
W- Children/Creativity,
NW – Helpful People, Blessing, Travel
N- Career,
NE- Knowledge, Wisdom and Spirituality
E- Family
Center - Physical Health
For more information, visit www.HealingLLC.com for details.
Monday, February 28, 2011
More Ideas about Resolutions and Goals
How are your New Year’s resolutions coming along? Are you finding it difficult to change, despite resolving to make it finally happen this year?
When reading Psychology Today, this month, I came across a very interesting article about training your brain to help you reach your goals without having to use sheer willpower.
The crux of this article was social psychologist and author, Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. remarks that using the ‘if-then’ technique can be incredibly useful (and 2-3 times more powerful) for “resisting temptation and building good habits”. The technique basically entails making a specific if-then statement about your goal. So, if your goal is to stop eating after 8pm, the revised goal would be: IF it is after 8pm, THEN I will not eat any more food. Or, if your goal is to stop leaving dishes in the sink, your revised goal would be: If I see dishes in the sink, THEN I will wash them immediately before leaving the kitchen.
The reason this technique is so useful is because your brain is biologically programmed to determine behavior from your surroundings. Your brain is always automatically scanning your surroundings for “if” situations, in order to help you know what to do next. So, using an if-then statement creates a link or a bond between the cue (seeing dishes) and the behavior (washing the dishes). This link can become automatic, so you will unconsciously have already told your body what to do in the given situation, which means you will use less conscious will power to go ahead and do the activity. In other words, the dishes will get done and you will decrease your eating after 8pm.
As I mentioned last month, it is important to be gentle with yourself and know that it takes time to get used to any new habit. No one is perfect and making changes often happens incrementally. There will be ups and downs. If you make your goals into if-then statements, your brain can do some of the hard work for you.
This is one more trick in your tool bag of living the life you want. In turn, you will find you can make the changes you want to make for 2011 and for many years to come.
For more information, visit www.HealingLLC.com/cso for details.
When reading Psychology Today, this month, I came across a very interesting article about training your brain to help you reach your goals without having to use sheer willpower.
The crux of this article was social psychologist and author, Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. remarks that using the ‘if-then’ technique can be incredibly useful (and 2-3 times more powerful) for “resisting temptation and building good habits”. The technique basically entails making a specific if-then statement about your goal. So, if your goal is to stop eating after 8pm, the revised goal would be: IF it is after 8pm, THEN I will not eat any more food. Or, if your goal is to stop leaving dishes in the sink, your revised goal would be: If I see dishes in the sink, THEN I will wash them immediately before leaving the kitchen.
The reason this technique is so useful is because your brain is biologically programmed to determine behavior from your surroundings. Your brain is always automatically scanning your surroundings for “if” situations, in order to help you know what to do next. So, using an if-then statement creates a link or a bond between the cue (seeing dishes) and the behavior (washing the dishes). This link can become automatic, so you will unconsciously have already told your body what to do in the given situation, which means you will use less conscious will power to go ahead and do the activity. In other words, the dishes will get done and you will decrease your eating after 8pm.
As I mentioned last month, it is important to be gentle with yourself and know that it takes time to get used to any new habit. No one is perfect and making changes often happens incrementally. There will be ups and downs. If you make your goals into if-then statements, your brain can do some of the hard work for you.
This is one more trick in your tool bag of living the life you want. In turn, you will find you can make the changes you want to make for 2011 and for many years to come.
For more information, visit www.HealingLLC.com/cso for details.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Happy New Year – A Few Words on Resolutions
Happy New Year to all!
Did you make some resolutions this year?
Are you having trouble sticking to them now that a month has passed?
There is one secret that will help you reach your goals, and it might be easier than you think.
Perhaps you resolved to work out and lose weight this year. Or you decided to spend more time with family and friends. Have you decided this is the year you will quit smoking, drinking, or overspending?
These are great goals – sometimes they might seem too great. Sometimes we make really big goals because we want to make big changes. The secret to sticking with your resolutions is breaking them down into manageable steps.
If you are determined to lose weight this year, that can be overwhelming, which can cause stress, which can cause you to over eat or give up on exercise. Instead let’s consider breaking this resolution down into smaller steps. For example:
Goal: To lose 15 pounds.
Possible Steps:
Most of all, be gentle with yourself. No one is perfect and this is a journey. There will be ups and downs. If you make your goals specific, small, obtainable and focused, you will find you are better able to stick with those resolutions for 2011 and for many years to come.
I would love to hear from you! Please write in with any comments or questions about how to keep or maintain new years or any kind of resolution. All information will remain confidential if emailed to AnotherLook@HealingLLC.com. Or for more information, go to www.HealingLLC.com. Thanks for checking in!
Take Good Care,
Amy L. Hooper, LGSW, CEAP
Director, Another Look at Healing, LLC
Did you make some resolutions this year?
Are you having trouble sticking to them now that a month has passed?
There is one secret that will help you reach your goals, and it might be easier than you think.
Perhaps you resolved to work out and lose weight this year. Or you decided to spend more time with family and friends. Have you decided this is the year you will quit smoking, drinking, or overspending?
These are great goals – sometimes they might seem too great. Sometimes we make really big goals because we want to make big changes. The secret to sticking with your resolutions is breaking them down into manageable steps.
If you are determined to lose weight this year, that can be overwhelming, which can cause stress, which can cause you to over eat or give up on exercise. Instead let’s consider breaking this resolution down into smaller steps. For example:
Goal: To lose 15 pounds.
Possible Steps:
- Plan to lose about one pound each month – this is a reachable goal.
- Get on track with exercise – plan to work out between one and three times per week for between 20 and 60 minutes. Be specific. If you aren’t sure about how to exercise, joins a gym, ask a friend or hire a trainer.
- Change your Eating – Keep a journal of what you eat for a week, and then take a look at it. Are you eating late at night? Are you making healthy choices? Make some adjustments as needed to include plenty of water, fruits and vegetables. If you need help, consult with a nutritionist.
- Get a friend or co-worker to join your plan so you have someone to be accountable to.
- Make a checklist of healthy living activities (Ate Fruit, Drank Water, Exercised etc.) and put it on your fridge – then you can check it off each day and at the end of the week, reward yourself (bubble bath, massage, lunch out with a friend).
Most of all, be gentle with yourself. No one is perfect and this is a journey. There will be ups and downs. If you make your goals specific, small, obtainable and focused, you will find you are better able to stick with those resolutions for 2011 and for many years to come.
I would love to hear from you! Please write in with any comments or questions about how to keep or maintain new years or any kind of resolution. All information will remain confidential if emailed to AnotherLook@HealingLLC.com. Or for more information, go to www.HealingLLC.com. Thanks for checking in!
Take Good Care,
Amy L. Hooper, LGSW, CEAP
Director, Another Look at Healing, LLC
Thursday, December 16, 2010
I always overeat during the holidays, how can I stop?
- Be Present! During the meal, pay attention to yourself. Are you filling your plate to the brim just because that’s what everyone else does? Are you drinking alcohol to “loosen up”? If so, identify what is making you feel uncomfortable and address it directly. Do you actually taste each bite, or just the first few and then you slip into robotic eating mode? Do you eat to quickly to even give yourself time to feel full?
- Treat Yourself! Allow yourself permission to feel good both before and after the meal. If you always end up feeling so stuffed it is painfully uncomfortable, or you feel guilty afterwards, treat yourself to the gift of feeling good. Know that you can eat a wonderful meal, and even have dessert without completely filling yourself until you want to pop! Take less food – you can always go back for seconds if you are still hungry. You earned the right to feel good.
- Enjoy Nature! Take a Walk. After the meal, get the family together or a special relative to take a walk with. This will give you some time to talk, get some fresh air, use your muscles and energize.
If you are feeling overstressed or depressed about the holidays and cannot find a way to manage all of those feelings, or if you begin to feel anxiety or depression that interferes with your life, call us today for a free consultation. You can call Amy directly at 240-274-5680 or by email at AnotherLook@HealingLLC.com. For more information, visit www.HealingLLC.com/cso for details.
How can I save money this holiday season?
a. Give To Others. Gifts for others do not have to be expensive. Volunteer at a local homeless shelter or in an elementary school or nursing home. Make cookies or cards and send them out to those who are less fortunate than you. Connecting with people who give, and giving to others will allow you to be part of something larger than yourself, and to be sharing your love and your self with others who feel lonely this holiday season.
b. Traveling can be a great way to see different parts of the country. When you travel, you get to go on adventures that you would not be able to do at home. Try to arrange an outing or excursion to someplace new when returning to a frequently visited location.
c. Time off of work can be both rewarding and stressful. Many people busy themselves with their work and it becomes who they are. When you have time off from work, you have time to explore who you really are as a person, not just what you do for a living.
For more information, visit www.HealingLLC.com/fees for details.
b. Traveling can be a great way to see different parts of the country. When you travel, you get to go on adventures that you would not be able to do at home. Try to arrange an outing or excursion to someplace new when returning to a frequently visited location.
c. Time off of work can be both rewarding and stressful. Many people busy themselves with their work and it becomes who they are. When you have time off from work, you have time to explore who you really are as a person, not just what you do for a living.
For more information, visit www.HealingLLC.com/fees for details.
Are you feeling overwhelmed or lonely this holiday season?
In this day and age, families are more spread out, more distant, and busier than ever. For many, not having family to celebrate with is difficult. Others may be single at this time, and not want to participate in holiday activities because they don’t have a partner to go with them. Meanwhile, many people do have family or friends around them, but they still feel very alone. These difficult feelings can be due to strained relationships from divorce, past issues or current personal struggles that can interfere with their enjoyment such as depression or anxiety.
- What can you do when you are feeling overwhelmed or lonely this holiday season, or throughout the year?
a. Stay connected. Invite friends to your home. It can be your single women friends, a few friends from work, or more of your acquaintances who you want to get to know better. Or, call an old friend you haven’t spoken to for a while. Talk more with your coworkers instead of rushing them out of your office. If you want to feel more connected to people this holiday season, offer to connect with them!
b. Take care of you. Take care of yourself this holiday season by treating yourself to something special, Treat yourself to a nice gift, perhaps a stress relieving massage, guitar lessons, or a vacation to somewhere you have never been before. You can also treat yourself by eating right and exercising and you will be more likely to feel good about yourself and where you are in your life.
c. Know you are not alone. During the holidays, many people share these same feelings of loneliness, isolation, sadness, confusion. It is important to understand that you are not the only one having these feelings so spend time talking to others who you think share some of the same feelings. Understand that movies and television portray the holidays and family lifestyles that are not as realistic as they may seem. In talking with others, you might be surprised by how many people feel the same way you do.
d. Appreciate what you do have. Change your focus to the wonderful things you do have in your life. It’s OK to take a friend to a holiday party or go alone, be grateful that you were invited. May be your aunt Jane’s sarcastic remarks are the only way she knows how to share her feelings, and that she really does love you.
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