Balance Your Holiday Season - Sparks & Sparkles Workshop

How’s the Feng Shui in your Car?

The most important part of your Vehicle Feng Shui is to keep it clean and clutter free.  Make sure that the windows are clean and sparkling at all times.  It is your calling card to your passengers and they will remember you, especially if they travel with you a lot.  The cleanliness will also tell a lot about you and the respect you have for your vehicle translates to the respect you have for your passengers. 

Do not keep any receipts or food papers in your car.  If you must carry food, make sure that it is in a closed container and also remember the smells can turn people off as well. 

If you have had an accident or have had a lot of accidents, ring a bell in the car to clear the energy.  If you have had a passenger that you really didn’t like the way they spoke or you just plain didn’t like them, ring a bell after they leave and before your next passenger. 

Check out www.mydoterra.com/yvonnephillips for pure oils to freshen the air.

Fresh air in the car is very good for you and your passengers to maintain a healthy atmosphere.

Areas where I would like you to pay attention to are:

Fame Area-If you have business cards, sit on the dash board, neatly in a case.  Location of this area is the middle of the wind shield area.

Wealth Area-tape a piece of purple paper underneath the steering wheel, you can even use a sticker for this.  Just make sure others can’t see it. This location is the area where you are sitting/driving

Relationship Area-place a small sheet of pink paper inside the glove compartment.  It can even be a pink  sticker.

If you go to www.fengshuipublications.com and click on Articles

Then click on Feng Shui Basics, it will also show you the map of Feng Shui that relates to each area of your life.

Keep the trunk of your car clean, so you can easily transport your items as well as any passengers that you are assisting.  No empty water bottles or food containers.

Love your home and it will love you right back!

• Name your home-whether you live in a house, apartment or shared home-with an evocative, poetic and beautiful name
• Tell your home you love it, express your gratitude for its comfort, protection, warmth, memories
• Play sacred music even while you're away (your plants and animals will be blessed, too!)
• Keep your home in excellent repair-no burnt-out light bulbs, peeling paint, leaking faucets, cracked windows and so on
• Add some sparkle and shimmer! Add some metallic wall-paper, paint or décor for some interior bling. Or hang Swarovski leaded crystal spheres in your windows, off your chandeliers or even on your altar for glittering and dancing light.
• Bring in all 5 Chinese Elements into your space: plants and flowers (wood); water features (water); light the fire or candles (fire); pretty gemstones or crystals (earth); and décor made of metal (metal)
• Give it oxygen-open your windows every single day and let Nature Herself pour easily into your home

• Put essential oil of lemon or orange on your keys and key chain .  This method opens luck with the house key so now everyday you open your front door Take your shoes off at the front door and stop bringing dirt (and who-knows-what else!) into your home. Walk around in cozy slippers, instead. www.mydoterra.com/yvonnephillips
• Make your bed each day. I love to spritz pure organic essential oils (such as lavender) onto the sheets and blankets while I'm making it.
• Make fragrant incense offerings ( sandalwood, or frankincense) for your local land spirits and protectors of your home in the early evening after the sun has set. Imagine that they are accepting the incense and you can even ask for specific protection or request that an obstacle or illness be removed.
•  Walk around the rooms of your home and the boundaries of your land or garden three times in a clockwise direction. Imagine as you're walking that you're: purifying and cleansing the energies of your living space and land; overcoming everyday obstacles; dissolving any quarrelsome energy; dissipating any illnesses.

If you are interested in using essential oils, these are the best that I have ever found: www.mydoterra.com/yvonnephillips

Feng Shui for Landscaping

Bagua Map

Landscaping Map

Locate Door for Layout

Choose any "doorway" into your garden and set up the grid!

Yvonne Phillips FSII

Creative Color & Design

Master Gardener/Phipps Conservatory

This Holiday Season

This Holiday Season

By Yvonne Phillips FSII

The long standing tradition of festivals of lights is a tribute to celebrating all the good things in life and of the joy of holiday seasons.  Filling the home with lights, music and hosting families and friends to celebrate is what makes festive occasions so memorable.

With another Christmas season coming around the corner, homes, neighborhoods, city squares and parks will be glowing with thousands of twinkling lights and candles, lighting up the night skies at the darkest time of the year.  What would Christmas be without the magical effect of twinkling lights? 

The action of twinkling lights turning on and off creates the effect of “new light” being continually generated, warding off the opposing darkness of night with each twinkle.  The result is the creation of happy energy and joyful vibrations to uplift the spirit.  The ancient art of Feng Shui reveres light as a Yang activator, increasing the cheer and positive energy in the environment.  As a perfect reflection of the Tai Chi of Yin and Yang, the twinkling of lights represents new energy being created and the celestial balance of opposing forces of light and dark in harmony with each other.  One can’t help but feel affected by the positive energy created by the display of contrasting energies in a complementary dance of light. 

Throughout the world with all celebratory occasions, the power of lights has been creatively harnessed in grand displays of glowing triumph to inspire and uplift the senses.  No matter what culture, people naturally understand and celebrate the symbolism of the forces of light winning over darkness.  Many religious traditions, such as the Christians, Hindus or Buddhists have understood the effect of lights in the either the form of candles, lanterns or modern day electrical lighting, to signify offerings to God.  With light being revered as the manifestation of yang chi, the more and brighter the lights at ceremonies and altars, the greater the spiritual strength and upliftment of the devotees and worshipers.

The magical science of Feng Shui regards twinkling lights as powerfully attracting the energy of good fortune, and as a tool for enhancing business and more customers.  The Chinese have known this for centuries and utilize twinkling lights and Chinese Wealth Trees in their homes and businesses.  It’s known that shopping malls with large Christmas trees and twinkling lights benefit from increased sales by naturally attracting customers, in comparison to trees with stationary lighting.  With each twinkle of light, energy is activating the positive vibration of the premises. 

In the home, twinkling lights offer a warm welcome to friends and family upon entering, lifting moods and increasing harmony, peace and joy.  Any home can benefit from utilizing twinkling lights at all times of the year, and it’s wise to incorporate this beneficial and ancient Feng Shui tool for happy ambience, abundance and good will.

The universal understanding of good is perfectly reflected in grand displays of twinkling lights.  Motivated by nostalgic sentiment, tradition, spiritual upliftment or the knowledge of Feng Shui, many cultures uphold collective ceremonies of lighting millions of lights on certain nights of the year.  So as the festive season approaches around the globe with Winter Solstice, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, remember that a little twinkling lights can go a long way in creating a festive and joyful ambience.

Feng Shui with my Fries Please!

Chinese Proverb says:

“If there is harmony in the house, there is order in the nation.”  “If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.”

According to an article in the New York Times, the McDonalds Corporation joined the forces of
Feng Shui in 2008 in Los Angeles. Who would ever believe that! They did it by creating comfortable seating arrangements, good color design and great artwork.  It is the same kind of energy you want to create in your office and home.

Feng Shui is all about creating peace and harmony within your environment.  Retail managers constantly strive to keep us all in their businesses for as long as possible.  This is not always the goal of the Hospitality Industry.  Most of the time, they want a quick turn over, which means uncomfortable seating and a rushed atmosphere.

Disneyland made quite a few mistakes with its Hong Kong location. After they consulted with a Feng Shui Master, they changed the position of the door by 12 degrees.  This was to ensure that the prosperity would keep on flowing in the doors straight through the entrance way of the park. Once it was realized that they had to keep in mind the Asian culture and their love of Feng Shui, their business improved.

One of their services in this location is to cater large weddings.  The event center was designed utilizing   the number 8, which is believed to be prosperous! Their event room is 888 square meters, for this reason.  They do not use the number 4 because it is considered bad luck.  So if you are looking for a room on the fourth floor, you really are out of luck!

This ancient art will affect your mood and behavior and also be a factor in successful personal and professional relationships.  The goal is to get it right from the beginning, which means during the construction or remodeling of a building or home.  There are many ways to “fix” an area that doesn't have the correct design after it is built, but sometimes it requires more money to make any necessary changes.

Ideally, you should have a Feng Shui expert look at the property first, before you start construction. They will look at the geography of the land that will impact everyone in the building or home. The ideal location would have hills or mountains to the north and the reason is that the hills are symbolic for being protectors of the property.  The southern area for your front door is the most auspicious.
  

The next time you are hungry for the burger and fries menu, check out the restaurant and see why you like going there.  Is it the colors, the energy of the servers or is it the French fries?

Yvonne can be reached at 412-215-8247.  You can find more articles at: www.fengshuiabc1.com Yvonnephillips1@aol.com

Spring Forward with Feng Shui Now

A few tips that will get you in the mood for lighter times

     Why should I use the color Yellow in my Kitchen?

Any of the shades of the Earth tones are great for your kitchen.  The kitchen has a lot of the fire

Energy already because of the big energy of your appliances. So the trick now is to balance it with the Earth element.  It can be any of the earth tones, yellows through the orange tones.  Do not use the color red in your kitchen because you are actually adding fuel to the fire element.  This can make for heated discussions in the kitchen and crabby, grumpy people!  Negative energy will also affect the making of your food.

Refresh your kitchen by cleaning out the cabinets of old spices and down size all of those extra items that are hiding in the back.  Check out your pots & pans, do they fit in the cabinet?

Do you have old décor on the tops of your cabinets?  Time to refresh and cleanse the area.

Add new fresh energy to the space with opening windows to shift the old stale air out and bring fresh chi to all in the kitchen.

Did your holiday decorating look like this?

Stuff... we collect it, carry it around, live amongst it, and navigate our lives around it. Over time, the accumulation of “stuff” becomes clutter gathering dust, which then becomes useless junk that no longer serves a purpose. 

The consequence of being surrounded by clutter results in congested energy, blocked creativity and no room to allow prosperity to flow into our lives. Much like a detoxifying cleanse that is recommended for a healthier body and weight loss, freeing our home of accumulated clutter will result in a healthier and uplifted environment, and ultimately our state of being.

It’s said that a cluttered environment makes for a cluttered mind. The constant distraction and pull of random objects and piles of useless items around us only scatters and erodes our energy. True to the ancient science of Feng Shui, the movement of energy forces have an enormous impact on our psyche and emotional state. Like our diet, our home will ultimately nourish us or drain us.

As we begin a new year, why not enter it with a lighter load and fresh outlook? Perhaps it’s time for you to take stock of your possessions and evaluate if you have use for them anymore. Whether it’s clothes and shoes you no longer wear, old furniture, magazines and CDs, dishes, ornaments and trinkets, or cupboards full of old products, there are plenty of outlets that will gladly take used items, and you can feel good that you’re assisting others in need. You can approach the process with a light heart rather than as a dreaded chore, knowing it will benefit you and others.

When does nostalgia over an item become a weight? As the perception of what’s “junk” is subjective, it will be your personal decision for what no longer serves you. Ask yourself; does this item bring me joy and inspire me?

Why not start with your purse? Then turn to your home and clear the corners, entrance ways, window sills, closets, and bedroom drawers, under the sinks, the basement and garage. It’s vital to clear the foundation beyond just the surface, leaving nothing festering behind closed doors.

A helpful strategy is to arm yourself with some empty boxes and garbage bags, with the intention of categorizing your throw-away items for recycling, garbage, gifts to others, and second hand stores. Start with something that won’t overwhelm you and leave you feeling inspired; perhaps that might be de-cluttering your car! After clearing out the junk from your home, you might find yourself enthusiastic to continue revitalizing it by washing the walls – think of washing away years of old energy beyond cleaning off dirt and stains.  

Even more uplifting is adding fresh paint, new carpeting, flooring, curtains or blinds, new plants and better lighting.The purging process of de-cluttering your home is a healthy and liberating Feng Shui process, and you will be guaranteed to feel uplifted and more peaceful. 

Don’t go through 2014 weighted down by unnecessary clutter. Make room for new energy and opportunities to enter your life.