The Spiritual Feng Shui newsletter Issue 11 November 2007 Truly Happy Holidays Beating Holiday Hangovers with Feng Shui Also: Feng Shui Tip Inspirational Quotes Dear Friend, Welcome to The Spiritual Feng Shui newsletter for November 2007; it is good to have your company once again! This month we talk about using light in your home 每 one of the most basic parts of any Feng Shui practice. Adding light can be a little problematic for people who live in apartments, or even in larger houses (with 'room-locked' areas), so we explore how to use light in windowless areas. We also have inspirational quotes and Feng Shui tips, as usual. May peace and harmony reign for you in November. 0x Feature Article: Harmonious Holidays 每 Reality, not a Dream! - It is possible with the help of Feng Shui 0x Q&A: Drinking to Your Health - How can Feng Shui help you, if holidays always taker their toll on your body? 0x Feng Shui Tip 每 Holiday Helpers 0x Inspirational Quotes Enjoy! Mike Z. Wang Author of The Spiritual Feng Shui Thespiritualfengshui.com Unit 616, 220 Lake Promenade, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, m8w1a9 Feature article: Harmonious Holidays 每 Reality, not a Dream! They say that you can choose your friends, but not your family # and they are right! The thing that ties you most to your family is the security of knowing that they always have been and always will be your family, and should be there for you. This security, ever-presence and constancy can also drive you crazy! Why does your brother have to always drink so much and laugh so loud? Why does your Mum have to always gossip about the rest of the family? Why is your Gran just so nuts? We are never more aware of these facts than at holiday season, when all of the family is together, and stuck like that! However, there are ways you can prepare your home to make the holidays go more smoothly and happily. Feng Shui has some easy, practical solutions for creating harmony for your home this holiday season. The areas you will be looking at in your home to prepare for the holiday season are your family Gua, and your love and relationships Gua. Your family gua lies in the eastern corner of your house, and your love and relationships gua is in the north east corner of your house. However, your living room and other communal areas, your bedroom, and your children's bedrooms also influence your family and relationship Chi. The kitchen is also an important area, as cooking and eating are often done with your family. As with all Feng Shui practice, you need to start with a clean slate to make a difference 每 and that means a whole lot of throwing out, wiping, tidying, washing and organizing! This would have been a good idea anyway, if you have people coming to your house for the holidays. However, it is just as useful if you are going away from your own home for the holidays 每 your mental and spiritual life can still be positively influenced. Remove items you don't use, clean and tidy the ones that you do, and give everything a good freshen up. Pay attention to cupboards and the fridge in the kitchen, to shelving and storage in the living room, and to the whole kit and caboodle in your family and relationship guas. A Christmas clean, to follow your Spring Clean! Bring some sweet smells, some bright and happy colors, extra fresh air, as well as pure life and Chi into these areas with plants and fresh flowers. For the holiday season, some obvious choices are holly and mistletoe, if you live in the colder parts of the world! Some other good choices would be flowers and plants colored pink, for affection, such as roses, chrysanthemums, orchids... there is such a huge choice of pink flowers. You can also buy red-leaved plants, for a change, to enhance your family harmony 每 there is a great selection of these among the cycad family, as well as among the eremophilae 每 and these plants also usually do well indoors. Just double-check with your garden centre. You can also place photos of yourself and your family during happy times in these areas 每 a great, very specific, way to help enhance your family relationships. You know, even the photos where your little brother was doing rabbit ears behind your head # but you didn't seem to mind. Even Freud would have to agree with this Feng Shui technique, it is a very effective visual affirmation! Pop the pictures in wooden frames to further enhance the togetherness Chi in this area. If your family or your love and relationships Gua is missing (there is no 'room' in that area), that may be a clue as to why you suffer from 'horrible holiday' syndrome! If you do not have a traditional family gua, because of the layout of your house, then enhance the outside area where this gua would have been. You can use wind chimes, fresh paint, and sun catchers hung outside to bring energy to this area, and help your holidays go a bit more smoothly. Do the usual practices, like keeping the area clean and clutter free, and if it is outside, then you actually have even more choice of plants to place here to help bring life and Chi! Although, you do have the added cleaning of dust, cobwebs, rain spatters and mould # whether the positive of having a choice of plants outweighs the cleaning, is up to you! You can also enhance the left square of the middle row in every other room of your house 每 this is the family 'area' of every other gua. The earlier you start putting in place these changes in your home, the more you can benefit. So for next year, you could even aim for # everybody to be on speaking terms, everyone to get their ideal present, and all the kids to behave perfectly and have a great time. Sounds like some sort of parallel dimension, doesn't it! But quite possible, with the help of Feng Shui. Q&A: I always come out of the holidays feeling a bit worse for wear, having drunk and eaten so much, and done so much sitting down and talking. Can Feng Shui help me feel better by the time it is New Year's Day? In a word # yes! Especially the Spiritual Feng Shui, which is about much more than placing lucky coins and red ribbons. One of the guiding principles is 'as without, so within'# meaning that your home environment is intimately connected to your inner life. When it comes to staying healthy, the 'without' that relates to your body and health is the area in the very centre of the Bagua, and therefore, the centre of your house. The other major area to focus on is the kitchen 每 the food and drink you put into your body is intimately connected to your health! You should start by clearing all of the clutter out of your health gua. This will also help improve Chi flow through all of the other areas of your life 每 as you can imagine, if the center part is blocked, energy won't be able to move freely to any part of your house. So, if you pick things up, put them away, store like with like, in attractive, well-chosen boxes, and remove things entirely that you no longer use, your Chi flow will improve immensely. It is very similar to the actual physical workings of your body. So any blockages create problems, whether they are in your circulatory system, your digestive system, your nervous system, and especially your respiratory system. Cleaning out your health gua is like helping your blood flow freely, getting a big breath of fresh air, and just feeling clean and ready for action! If you have a skylight in this area, make sure you open it frequently to let in light, and therefore Chi. And also to help save your wallet from your electricity bill! While this area probably won't have any windows, if you occasionally turn a fan on in here, and make sure there is air flow available from other rooms, you'll freshen up your health gua〞bringing in pleasant scents, sounds from outside, and a little extra ambient light. This all helps refresh your body as well as your soul! Reds, browns and yellows are great colors to enhance these areas with. You can get a double-dose of positive Chi by using red-leaved plants, or nice sunshine-yellow flowers. However, anything in these gorgeous earthy tones will enhance this area. Look at red, brown or yellow Christmas decorations, cushions and throw rugs, and paintings or wall hangings. There is some obvious, physical advice to help you feel a little less overindulged by the end of the holidays. You would know already that the less you eat, and the healthier choices you make with what you do eat, the better you will feel by New Year's. Another great tactic is to make physical activity part of the togetherness, which is easier than it sounds! If you live in a cold area, go make snowmen, snow angels, or find a handy pond (or rink!!) to ice skate on. If you live in the southern hemisphere, then the outdoors is probably part of your Christmas routine already. While you're out there, bring a ball, and even a bat of some sort # magic can happen! Feng Shui Tip: Holiday Helpers Many people are left shaking their very sore heads at the mess left behind in their home at the end of the holidays. In Feng Shui, if your home is messy and cluttered, Chi has no way to flow properly. The solution is to clean as you go 每 but that doesn't mean you can't have fun doing it! Make cleaning up a family activity 每 if you notice someone cleaning, get up and help, even if you have done a lot already. Many hands make light work! Chat as you go, and the job will go ten times as quickly. Don't suffer in silence either 每 feel free to ask for help in clearing up dishes, folding up wrapping paper, and moving things back to their right places. What is family for, after all? Inspirational Quotes: Your children need your presence more than your presents. ~Jesse Jackson I am thankful for the mess to clean after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends. ~Nancie J. Carmody It takes two men to make one brother. ~Israel Zangwill