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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 shuid 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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Introduction
By Dana Claudat
What exactly does feng shui mean? Letss 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 is-
so I can paint you a better picture of what feng shui is all about and how it can change your
experience of life.
FENG SHUI 101
Your
dream life
design is
autobiographical,
intuitive & deeply
connected to who
you are!
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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 1970s 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 sisters 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 sisters 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 present-
day 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 safari-
themed 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 didnt 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, theres 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 didnt set out to be a feng shui lifestyle curator that I suppose Ive 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:
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! a dollar-store journal or a fancy journal or a Trapper Keeper book-
like 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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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 60s
craftsman houses (her house at the shore).
Is it any wonder that I live in a building just
WEEK ONE
Our
lives used to be
far more connected
to each other & to
space; now we need
to get back in
touch!
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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 peoples 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 cant 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 stride-
communicate 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 20
th
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. Im 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
think of a song and then find it on the radio
when you turn it on. You may feel someone
is about to say something before they say it,
and then they do. Whether you call it
telepathy, intuition, synchronicity or just
plain coincidence, these incidents give some
credence to the notion that even our
thoughts are actually audible without
words and that subtle waves in the air might
just be detectable if we tune into them and
pay attention.
I am fairly sure you have all
read or heard of The
Secret or the Law of
Attraction which
promote the notion that
if you can think and
feel and imagine
something clearly, you
will see it manifest in
your life. There are
thousands of examples of
how this Law of Attraction
works in life, with mega-stars
proclaiming its greatness. I absolutely can
say that the ability to see a goal clearly and
experience life as if that desired objective
has arrived definitely has moved me closer
to my objectives, but there are a few missing
ingredients not covered often in these books
(like working with intensity and smarts,
having an aptitude for what you want, and
having goals that are actually vested with
purpose, amongst other things these books
dont always cover!), the core of this thought
philosophy is about how ones clear
thoughts can communicate to produce
results in the physical universe. That idea
has been proven somewhat scientifically
following Einsteins theories- your thoughts
have mass (weight) and they have energy
(waves) that are definitely bouncing around
in space.
What does this philosophy have to do
with your home and your life? Everything!
To explain, lets talk about space itself. If
you believe that as a human being you are
comprised of a mind, a body and perhaps a
soul, you still need a space for all these parts
to communicate with one another and with
an environment in order to function. At the
risk of getting too metaphysical, if
you didnt have a space within
which to function you
would cease to exist as
you know yourself
right now! Your
country, your state,
neighborhood, home,
office, mode of
transportation and
even your life on the
Internet are spaces within
which you function.
Space tends to mirror the inner
workings of your thoughts and mind.
The Japanese concept of esho funi explains
the oneness of man and environment. If
your environment is out of whack, your
thoughts and well-being are also likely to be
askew.
There is an inexplicable line of
communication between ourselves and our
spaces. If you walked into a home of a
prospective business partner and saw a pile
of dishes in the sink, scuffs on the walls and
the lighting was dim, you might immediately
feel like this will not be a successful venture.
This person is communicating their
potential lack of follow-through, vigor and
initiative through their environment.
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Go and do the
things you can't.
That is how you get
to do them.
- Picasso
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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 dont
talk about...and thats 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 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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Fusce ac leo
Purus, in consectetuer
Proin in sapien. Fusce
urna magna,neque
eget lacus. Maecenas
felis nunc, aliquam ac,
consequat vitae,
feugiat at, blandit
vitae, euismod vel.

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!

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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 friends 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 cant wait to take them out of storage.

While you do this free-write, dont think too much. Dont 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.
BRAINSTORM
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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 clients 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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WORKSHEET
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Turn on all the lights you have that you regularly use. Thats 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 details-
from your favorite crystal doorknobs to the crack spanning the length of your hallway wall.
Everything.
I dont 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.
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 thats
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
dont 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? Youll know. If you
dont know, stop whenever you want to.
This Room Makes Me Feel..
This part of our getting to know our homes week is easy. Or its 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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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 ooding your home with too much hot light, to the
point where you are over-stimulated and maybe even have trouble sleeping at night
or difculty nding 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.
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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. Dont 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 wasnt 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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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. Ive 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, ofce, or rank
b : to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior
3: cause, occasion <famine creates high food prices>
4 a : to produce through imaginative skill <create a painting>
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 most-
frequently-called-upon
exercises from Julia Camerons 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.
CREATIVITY

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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, doesnt 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 Emotos studies of water crystals
documented in many books like The
Hidden Messages In Water have been
deemed quackery by many scientists, but I
cant 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.
WEEK TWO
Energy.
Its such a buzz
word because the
world moves faster &
faster! Get into your
own energy
groove!
19
For example, a sample of water was
prayed to, and this water froze to be
gorgeous crystals under a microscope, yet a
sample of water that was yelled at
disparagingly might not even freeze into
solid ice crystal at all. Given the fact that we
are a large percentage of water as human
beings, these studies, if factual, have
enormous impact upon the way that various
stimuli affect our bodies as well as everything
on this planet. I suggest you take the time to
look at Emotos photos and writings- they
are fascinating if only
philosophical.
In Buddhism, it is
taught that
EVERYTHING is
capable of attaining
enlightenment. That
is a somewhat thrilling
concept: if everything
is held together by
specific magnetic bonds
and energy is running
through everything, why cant
EVERYTHING be capable of
attaining its most ideal form?
Exactly. It is quite cool to think about.
You can dive deep and study this concept
and all of quantum and particle physics in
depth and I am sure it can be time well
spent. For our purposes, lets just start with
this idea: things are not just what they seem
on the surface. Everything is energy and
everything is capable of undergoing
transformation.
Now, you may have heard the concept
of chi or qi when reading about feng
shui or Chinese philosophy. Chi is not a
thing. Chi is what is experienced through the
senses. I know at first that this concept
sounds convoluted, but chi is what you
energetically pick up from life. For our
intents and purposes, chi is purely
experiential. Chi is something akin to life
force, or that essence that infuses life with
life. So, if a chair or a table is held
together by magnetic bonds or atoms and
their moving particles, chi is what we feel as
a result of experiencing these qualities of the
chair through our sense- vision, scent, touch,
hearing, temperature and taste.
When chi is positive, you feel fabulous.
When chi is blocked or absent or
negative, you feel like crap.
Chi is the life force energy
that also circulates
through your body.
Acupuncture and
Traditional Chinese
Medicine harness and
balance chi and help it
to flow to create
optimal health. Feng
Shui, in a sense, is like
acupuncture for your
environment. When you have chi
flowing and optimized at home or work,
chances are that you will feel fantastic.
The energy of your home is something
that you experience as chi. Our goal is to
amp up the positive flow of chi and
eliminate imbalances in your environment.
Your experience of your space is highly
personal, and after last week, I bet you have
a better sense of where things may fall flat or
feel stagnant around you. This week you
can make a few small adjustments that
hopefully will breathe momentum into the
weeks to come.
Before we get to moving things around,
lets talk about your physical energy. Do you
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The universe
exists because we
are aware of it.
- Martin Rees
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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
dont 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 dont 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. Its 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 chain-
smoking 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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Fusce ac leo
Purus, in consectetuer
Proin in sapien. Fusce
urna magna,neque
eget lacus. Maecenas
felis nunc, aliquam ac,
consequat vitae,
feugiat at, blandit
vitae, euismod vel.
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MAGIC
Have you experienced magic?
Ive had some wildly transcendent experiences and have seen lots of kooky
stuff. Ive also pulled off what seem like impossible feats every now and then.
We all have. That said, Ive 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 dont.... 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!!!
BRAINSTORM
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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 dcor 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
Ive 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 dcor 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.
WORKSHEET
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This fabulous art was sculptural and hung in dramatic and gorgeous ways. What she didnt
realize was that in her living room this delightful art was ready to sever someones 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 didnt 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 didnt accommodate others. Eliminating the poison arrows opened
up the space tremendously to a new flow of people and events.
Creating Welcome Inside
Lets 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.
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Tip: You dont 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 dont be dismayed if you feel you cant create a
traditional welcome outside your house or apartment.
24
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 dont 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 isnt---
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 cant 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. Theres 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
dont 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 shuid lifestyle journey but in your whole entire life!
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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.
25
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! (Ive 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. Ive 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!
CLEANING UP!
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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 its not for every moment of
every day: you must live!!!
Psychotherapy, pop psychology and our
WEEK THREE
The
past and the
future are both
great, but when you
get present, there is
so much more joy
and potential!
27
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 dont 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.
Its 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 landlords 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 its 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!
Clutter
To get present, we must remove,
repurpose or polish up things from the past
that we have stuffed away in corners of our
lives- or our minds- that are doing nothing
but taking up space. We talked a bit about
the energy invested in objects. Think about
all those broken objects collected in your
closets that do nothing but highlight
dysfunction. What about gifts from an old
lover, a friend who betrayed you..? Do
these things make you feel a certain way
that is either longing for the past or resenting
it in some way?
I had a fabulous client who de-cluttered
her home prior to our consultation. She
told me that there was nothing left to dump,
that everything was totally clean and clear.
She was ready for a new relationship and
ready for big changes. After talking some
time, I asked her what was in a cabinet in
her bedroom in the prosperity area of the
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
therapeutic-grade essential oils. The rest
have been processed to the point where they
lose their usefulness and good vibrations,
become nothing more than diluted perfume.
Peppermint oil diffused in your air for a
few minutes a morning for up to a week (no
longer than that, its too stimulating) will
wake up your minds eye. Make sure to do
this early in the day if you try peppermint
oil, as it can affect your ability to sleep.
(Yes, its that powerful!)
Rosemary is another essential oil that I
love for its ability to heighten alertness. I
put a few drops in a bath with a few drops (I
use 10 or so) of lavender oil to stay both
grounded and awake when I am at a loss for
focus. You can mix a few drops into any oil
(even olive oil) or sprinkle some onto a
spoonful of baking soda or a cup of Epsom
salt or even milk to make the bath "
complete experience.
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
bottom of a flower pot) can sit by your office
computer relatively unnoticed by anyone
else, yet the perimeter of the fragrance (the
distance the scent will travel) will envelope
you in your seat.
Lavender is my go-to oil for most things. I
mix a teaspoon in a small spray bottle of
mainly water with a little vodka to create
aromatherapy room spray. I sprinkle it on
my pillows when I am very wound-up. I put
a drop on my wrists when I am stressed and
a little spacey.
We will touch upon more aromatherapy
later, but for the ultimate learning
experience, check out Valerie Wormwoods
books. I happen to adore her book, The
Fragrant Mind.
Music & Your Mind
Chopin, Bach, VivaldiThere is a good
chance one reminds you of vodka and the
others sound like stereo systems, but these
are just a few of the names to plug into your
iTunes and download. Classical music has
an intrinsic structure that mimics artistic
mathematics and listening to this music
while studying can improve your memory.
Studies have shown that classical music can
lift your mood, enhance your sense of well-
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.
27 Things
If you feel spaced-out or stuck anywhere,
move 27 things around your room. I know
it sounds strange and arbitrary, but it works
to get a new flow going. Think back to week
one and how you felt when you started to
touch and feel your space physically.
Consider this a mini-version of that exercise
with motion added to the mix. The number
27 is a multiple of 9, which is an auspicious
number in traditional feng shui. To me , 27
is an arbitrary number, though large enough
to make an impact on your space. Your 27
things can be as small as a paper clip or as
big as a sofa. Just moveem!
Tip: Aromatherapy can be mixed
into beauty products with a little
experimentation. I mix a few drops
of lavender into my conditioner at
times. I mix a few drops of lavender
and rosemary into a scoop of
coconut oil to make the best scalp-
stimulating deep conditioner on dry
hair. After massaging it in and letting
it sit for a bit, I shampoo and rinse
with 1 part cider vinegar and 9 parts
water after shampooing. Brilliant.
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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 doesnt 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.
BRAINSTORM
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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 to-
do 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. Its 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 cant really be there 100%
with a plate full ofBAGGAGE.
Sit down and make a list of the unfinished things around you. (Everything from changing
light-bulbs to repairing a broken clock to a months 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 wasnt working for you? a painting class you didnt like that much?) may
be able to get tossed off the list because you just truly do not need them in your life. Thats
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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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 dont 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 youve 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
theyve lived in their home. The next is why the former tenants or owners moved out. Ask
yourself both questions. Ask around if you dont 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 didnt 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. Youll 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.
HOME KARMA

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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.
A Life Of Purpose
The world is blanketed over with want,
want, want. Everyone wants something.
Some want what they cant have, or always
want the person, place or thing completely
contrary to their present life where the grass
seems greener. Others spend their lives in
pursuit of things that they are certain will
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
actually purchase or strictly window-shop.
Most of us know that things- however
awesome they may be- do not amount to
real fulfillment.
Fulfillment is both intensely personal
and tricky to define. What will make your
life complete is totally different from what
will make your mother or sister or best
WEEK FOUR
With
greater focus,
you become more
of a dazzling laser
beam, which means
more free play
time, too!
34
friend feel the same. What seems to be
constant is that living a creative life with
purpose- (even if the purpose is as simple as
to take pride in what I do whatever it may
be)- generally leads to more lasting
happiness.
At the start of my feng shui practice, I
used to have my clients tell me their three
wishes which I would make come true in
their feng shui re-design. Now I stay away
from the word wishes because it seems
that what Im doing is magic.
You are the magic. I just
provide a clear path but
you add the magic, so its
not really wish
granting. Now I ask,
What do you need?
What do you want?
and thats how we
focus.
What is fascinating
about the wish granting
days of the past is this: Two
major wishes prevailed over the
years across the boards: MONEY & LOVE.
Very few people ask me to help create
balance or creativity or closer
friendships or self-esteem or a healthy
home, yet usually any one of these things is
more necessary to help someone thrive than
the very big words MONEY and LOVE.
Its a lot easier to wish for things or a person
to complete the picture of life rather than to
dive deeper and discover what would really
make your life more harmonious.
To create a home that encourages
financial prosperity for an unemployed
creative woman would seem easy enough,
right? You just do feng shui money things
to the money corner, right? Well, as it
turned out, she had a deeply rooted feeling
that she was not worthy of nice things, so we
could mess with the money corner forever
and she wouldnt really get what she was
not able to accept. Instead, we looked at her
sense of creativity and personal investment
in her space. She pulled out all of her more
special home accessories- from silver
candleholders to fancy sheets to good
China - that were all stocked in storage.
This helped remind her than she was
worthy. Her sense of personal
power- the fame
area (more on this to
come later!) of her
home- needed a good
deal of perking up as
well. As a result, not
only did she have a ton
of money flow into her
life, she also started
taking classes and
renovating her sense of self
and purpose in the world. She
is currently buying her first house,
and realizes that she, indeed, deserves it!
Love is the trickiest of all things to
manifest if we are still talking in the
language of wish-granting. There are a
billion and one reasons why a person has
not found the love of their life, or cannot
keep love in their life. What is most curious
is when I suggest that people start working
on their present relationships (friends,
family, colleagues) if they are not in a
romantic relationship they look at me like I
am from Mars. I have great friends and a
perfect family, Im fine with everything with
my friends! one woman told me,
indignantly, as if I were accusing her of
murder. As it turned out, she didnt have
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Thats been one
of my mantras-
focus and
simplicity.
Steve Jobs
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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 thats just fine, its just very
odd to reach out to me to feng shui your
place if everything is perfect, though, isnt 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!
Your DREAM vs. Your CAREER
vs. What You Do All Day!
The work that you do for money may
have absolutely nothing to do with your
purpose, or it can be the totality of your
mission in life. Some of you may be
unemployed, full-time students, housewives
or husbands, or independently wealthy: you
all still need Purpose.
About three years ago, I hit the Los
Angeles random-evening-event lottery- I was
invited to see Simon Sinek talk at
Causecasts offices in Santa Monica. I could
barely sleep for days after his electrifying
presentation, high on the sheer potential of
purpose. His message was simple yet so
elusive: when you start with WHY you do
what you do and allow the WHY to inform
your decisions and actions you are ultimately
infusing your life with purpose and have a
greater potential to both succeed and create
good in the world.
Simons background is in marketing, and
his examples were excellent. Apple
Computers doesnt 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
didnt have the WHY to infuse their
product with purpose. The iPod made all
other MP3s 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 Simons book, Start With
Why.
The wildest part of Simons
presentation, the part that left a lasting
imprint on my mind, was this fact: our
brains have a nearly impossible time on a
mechanical level translating our own WHY -
our life purpose- into words. So, if you are
doing some soul-searching and feel stuck,
the answer may be biological- your brain
cant physically tell you what your purpose
is! So, how do you ever get to your WHY
and live by your true purpose if you cant
express your purpose in words? The answer
was astonishing and simple: Ask your
friends, he said. If you ask your closest
friends what they like about you, and press
them to go beyond the generalities like
youre are a good guy or you are a great
hostess really press them you will come
up with the core words that are a key to your
WHY.
I decided to badger my friends to tell me
what they liked about me. After much
belabored Um.um.um. I got some
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. Its 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.
What are you actually doing all
day?
When I first started approaching the idea of
doing what I loved in a serious way, I had
another job. In fact, I had a major job that
consumed most of my time. I snuck in time
to write a little, study, work with a few
clients, blog a bit... but mainly my life was all
about something else that was very
important and full of high-stakes pressure.
All I could dream about was having the time
to exclusively do what I wanted to do and
live my dreams.
Eventually, I found myself with a landscape
of totally free time. What was my dream
was now confusing, and I spent most of my
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 shuid 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
structure and balance you can have a crazy
job and fit in the yoga classes or personal
trainer or romantic dates or art classes or
anything that you need to work on in your
life. When you work a bit toward
something, it grows. It may not be overnight
transformation, but momentum builds faster
than you realize if you are willing to allow
yourself to have the time. When you are
more balanced, it becomes easier to do 12
hours of works more quickly, or, at the very
least, more pleasantly. Often it seems its all
or nothing. Life isnt black or white- you
dont need to dive head-first into a new
endeavor and drop everything else in your
life, or, conversely, stick your dreams on a
shelf while you wait for a better time.
Balance is possible.

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Structure & Balance
First lets talk STRUCTURE. While I know
we are not in the military, there is
something to be said for waking up at a set
time, or at the very least, at a time YOU
SET every day, and a lot to be said for
having a day planned out that allows for the
time you need for various things you want to
do. In your house, structure is key.
Structure involves how solid the walls are,
how good the plumbing and electrical
systems are, how your doors operate, how
solid your furniture is and how well things
are put together around you.
BALANCE is a giant word. You know
when you are balanced. In fact, if you are
used to being either very under-active or
extremely over-active, when you reach a
state of relative balance you might feel so
calm/ happy/ open to life that it scares you
at first! I used to think balance was a word
designed for people with no ambition; all
my hyper-active massive-achieving left me
burnt out and sick. Balance is a word that is
the true epitome of success. It doesnt
imply achieving less...it implies more overall
well-being and pleasure in the process of
doing what you do.
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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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If you could do anything in the world, what would it be???
& HEREs a little video thats very fitting for right about now.
BRAINSTORM
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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
arent living your dreams, look at where you time is actually going. Dont be general: exactly
where is your time going? Clock your time for an average day. I bet youll 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 dont 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, thats 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 isnt 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 its 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 doesnt 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 dont 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 dont abandon your daring to step
outside of what is usual and comfortable because it isnt 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 is not boring... in fact, it is glamorous and exciting!
Welcome to Albert Maslows 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 shuid 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 has! in this one: its something I hope you enjoy!
STABILITY
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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 dont 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
WEEK FIVE
Your
house is not
your destiny, but its
present condition
reects where you
are at right now in
your life!
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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 homes
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 wasnt 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!
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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 isnt 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 theres
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, dont
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 grid-
just as they appear on the diagram above-
directly 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 dont 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
dont 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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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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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
dont 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 youve
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.
Ive given you a significant amount of work to do up until now, and theres 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 dont want to lose momentum right now.
Slow & steady & consistent progress is our way through to the end!
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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 FDAs 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 Phalates-
as 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 Ive 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 wont 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.
SCENT
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THE FIVE ELEMENTS
basic five element theory in practice
WHAT ARE THE FIVE
ELEMENTS?
In Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, all
living things are comprised of five elements:
Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal.
These five elements affect our personality,
the way we process information, the way we
eat, the state of our health, our ability to
prosper and just about every other facet of
our lives. You see, when the elements are in
balance- or nearing balance- we are in
balance. The five elements are expressed in
materials, colors, sounds, art, food and even
emotions.
Some people naturally express more of
one of two elements strongly as part of their
personality. If not balanced with their diet
and environment, their natural temperament
could be overwhelming to themselves and to
others. For example, a film director who is
driven by passion and the desire to challenge
the societal norms with his ferocious
individuality is likely running ferociously
high in fire (heat, catalyst) and wood
(creative, dynamic) elemental energy. Now,
if he were to eat lots of hot, spicy food, have
tons of sex and live in a wood-paneled or
Spanish style terra cotta mansion in a desert
filled with fireplaces and red he would
WEEK SIX
Plants,
stones, oceans,
gems, shells, re,
steel: you are about
to become
enchanted by
elements!
51
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 shuid 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 unfamiliar-
color, 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. Lets 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 gold-
framed 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, doesnt 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,
architecture and even food and activity
correlates with certain elements. Lets say
that you live in a home that is extremely
bright with a pitched roof, loads of chevron,
red, abstract art and fireplaces. This space
holds a tremendous amount of fire. Too
much fire element can lead to anxiety or an
intense amount of projects started in a flurry
then abandoned. If your life is looking like
a mess of fear, panic and frenetic action yet
no completed cycles of action, it is time
to reduce or destroy some of
that fire. You can add more
EARTH to limit the fire
or WATER to put out
& destroy the fire. In
this case, a great big
fountain could both
put out the fire and
drive progress in its
flowing motion.
So, you see, the idea
in balancing your own
elements is to understand
where you are at for yourself, then
look at your home and see what its
elemental make-up looks like. If you start to
adjust the elements in your home, you will
create a more balanced environment based
on what you need. This is not simple, and
its taken me years to properly implement
with any degree of exactitude. That said, I
included all of the above so that you have
more of a comprehensive understanding of
the way that each element affects the other.
Extremes Are Bad News
It is important to see how you cant
focus in on one element (like the creative
power of wood) and just drown your home
in it, hoping to increase the power of that
element in your life. If you try to do this,
not only will you experience the negative
effect of the excess of a single element,
every other element will be pulled out of
whack(*more on this ahead). Extremes are
the OPPOSITE of what we are doing here.
While we are raised to believe You cant
have too much of a good thing, nature
proves that a very false notion.
Because this book is something for you
to use and apply, and so as to
not spin you into a flurry of
confusion, I am going to
give you a very effective
guideline to working
with the elements to
create a greater degree
of balance in your
home that you
positively CAN DO.
When you are first using
the elements, I suggest you
read the attributes starting on
the next page several times and really
let them soak in. Draw pictures. Use
crayons and color. This is a very physical-
work concept so its hard to grasp it without
real-world mass to use as examples as you
learn and play round with it.
In fact, before we go any further, see if
you can grab a glass of water (water!), a
stone (earth), matches or something red
(fire) , a few coins (metal) and a pencil or a
stick (wood) and do little demos for yourself
of the cycles of the elements. (**use any
objects that resonate with you!) This is a
great way to have a Eureka! moment. When
you see and feel the cycles in action you will
become one with the theory as fact.
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Adopt the pace
of nature: her
secret is
patience.
Emerson
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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 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 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.
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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Metal
Water
Wood
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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 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 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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Fire
Earth
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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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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. Lets 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 wont 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; thats what its there for.
WORKSHEET
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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 life-
giving, 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.
COLOR
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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-colorthat 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 (Bobs 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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OWNING IT
personal connection is power
How Far We Have Come!
Now weve come quite a way along in your
feng shui makeover. Your clutter is gone (or
nearly gone!) since you started purging what
you no longer need or want. You have
created space mentally and physically.
There are new opportunities popping up.
There is more balance and calm... and some
fun new routines, perhaps, that are
energizing that have appeared along the way.
You may have a better sense of how your
space has been affecting you and how you
affect it. At this stage in the game you may
feel totally done with this life reorganization
and it may seem as though you have taken
quite enough action and you are already
liking what you see.
Dont quit yet! The fun has just begun!
In these next two chapters we are going to
stamp your personal style, dreams and
actions onto your walls, wardrobe...even
your plate.
We are going to look at specific ways you
can tune up different areas to help
promote more of whatever energy you may
need in your life right now. It all starts with
a little discussion of a concept so big that its
almost impossible to fathom: !"#$ Things
are about to get dazzling!
WEEK SEVEN

Heres where
you delevop your
style to new heights
and infuse your
whole life with feel-
goodness!
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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
didnt 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;
dont 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 youve 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. Thats 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: Thats what your
web presence is, even your Facebook. If you
dont 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 weeks Brainstorm will also spark a ton
of inspiration!
Your Personal Objects
Photos, memorabilia, old gifts, letters,
diaries... trophies, keepsakes, rocks from the
lake when you were a kid. Personal objects
are storehouses of emotion and energy.
Remember when you were clearing clutter
(perhaps you still are?!) and there were
things that you came upon that literally
queued up a wave of sadness or joy? Did
you have that experience? Feeling
emotional waves is a common reaction to
clutter clearing. Objects are loaded with
energy, and that energy in its most positive
and inspiring form can catalyze your
creativity, your self-esteem and even a
greater sense of health and vitality.
Being personal in a personal history
sense is very important to your overall home
Tao connection. There are certain parts of
my family history that I will have with me-
my godmothers afghans that she crocheted
in front of the black & white TV in her
apartment, the mayonnaise jar of rare
coins my grandmother collected that are not
rare, the letter my mom sent me on Mothers
Day that arrived the day she died. There are
some things I will always have stashed in
special places, and some on display. I
suggest that you do the same. Not
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
cant 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
family photography is so full that there is,
perhaps, no room to live in the present day.
This idea also applies to homes filled with
self portraits. Yes, Ive seen my share of
people in Los Angeles with a tremendous
number of portraits of themselves
glamorously strewn through their home.
Blanketing the walls with photos of yourself
is a great way to make others feel excluded.
Its also a good way to chase off lovers. One
great photo of yourself...? OK, fine, if you
must. More than a few self portraits on your
walls and you are treading very deep waters
of a solitary or exclusionary existence.
Nature
Nature is something enormously important
to our survival, even in the thick of the
urban jungle. Before we get into a
discussion of Tao and nature in
environments, I have a little note about
spending time in nature: you must connect
to the earth! Whether you can lean up
against a tree in a park and read a book, sit
with your feet in wet sand, climb a snowy
mountain or just sit on a patio with awesome
potted plants beside you, youve got to
connect to the core of nature as much as
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possible. Nature is grounding, and that
rooted energy directly affects your ability
to survive, thrive and even experience your
sexuality.
Local nature should be invited indoors
to create a fabulously flowing environment.
If you live in the countryside, in a rural area
or have lots of landscaping in your yard then
nature is not going to be hard to find in an
immediate sense. Opening windows to
bring in a bigger view is a near-instant nature
fix; snipping some flowers into vases
brings the garden inside. If
you dont have the pleasure
of being right beside local
nature, think of what
forms of nature are
most indigenous to
your area. In Los
Angeles, the colors
and styles of the beach
are refreshing even when
you live an hour away
from the coast. In New
Mexico, red clay is reminiscent of
the nearby earth and some unglazed pottery
can really reflect nature beautifully in your
home or office.
If you live in a city, bring an element of
the architecture, nature and style of the city
indoors. You can do it in an abstract way (no
need to put a statue of the Empire State
Building on your Manhattan coffee table).
For example: if you live in a city that has lots
of skyscrapers, can you add strong verticals
in your home to echo the vertical lines? If
you are in an art district, can you creatively
gallery-hang your art to mirror the vibe of
the local culture...or hang more art in
general? This is another way to integrate
your outside inside... but always do it in a
way that feels amazing to you. While this
might not feel like nature, your
neighborhood (where we started on week
one) is absolutely local nature for our
TAO purposes. That said, shopping locally,
going to farmers markets, frequenting and
supporting local artisans and small
businesses are all very much a part of TAO
generation!
Gemstones
Crystals are a fabulous gift of
nature, molecular jigsaw
puzzles that express great
beauty and actual
energy. Quartz is the
ultra-example of true
natural power.
Metaphysical types
have been talking for
quite some time about
quartz crystal and its
ability to be programmed
with memories and desires.
Although there is no scientific evidence
to support this, there is loads of anecdotal
evidence that this crystal can store
information. What has been scientifically
proven is that quartz both conducts and
generates electrical energy. Crystals are a
great way to add the element of earth, plus
sparkle, color and symbolism to your home
an a very unique way. Every crystal is like a
snowflake; no two are the same. The colors,
molecular growth patterns and finishes of
natural gemstone crystal make each a unique
expression of your desires and energetic life.
People ask me how to pick crystals and,
also, if certain crystals are better in certain
areas of your home. I say: Pick crystals you
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Always be a rst
rate version of
yourself and not a
second rate version
of someone else.
Judy Garland
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love and that attract you for whatever
reason. Dont 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?
Habits & Routines
Everything you do all day either brings
you closer to the world around you or
farther away. If you are running amok with
a million things on your to-do list, none of
which include time for yourself to breathe,
to be outside in nature, to rest or to even
spa, you are really not connecting to
yourself , your space or the world on a
regular basis. Do you remember early on
how I suggested you do a touching tour of
your home? Now its time to build one- or a
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
have trails nearby, is an absolutely gift in its
astonishing visual and botanical richness. I
can take a hike and feel my urban concerns
melt in the face of enormous views and
crooked trees within moments.
While a physical routine may be more
obvious, an energetic routine every day to
get grounded is also invaluable. There are
many grounding exercises that can help
you to fuse your personal energy with that of
the core of the earth.
A favorite exercise of mine: Walk
barefoot on the grass or at the beach and
feel your feet sink into the ground. Pull
energy up through your feet (feel it from the
ground, entering your soles) and imagine it
cycling up your legs and spine, out the top of
your head and then back down through your
body, out your feet and into the ground
again. Repeat this as many times as you can
and see what you feel like!
Another cool energetic exercise is
playing with color in visualization.
Visualization is a great big word that is
luckily both simple and fun to do. Back in
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Tip: I always suggest that you take the
time to clean your crystals in salt water
(*make sure your stones wont get
damaged in salt!) often or let them sit
out on the ground in the sun frequently
to charge with goodness and reconnect
to their own home in the earth. Some
people run them under a sage wand that
is lit and smoking...but I prefer the sun.
We all need to re-boot and plug in to
our source to get radiant!
65
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, dont use peppermint oil
for a long stretch of time, and never after the
morning hours.
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RAINBOWS
#$ 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.
BRAINSTORM
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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 youve 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 youd 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 peoples 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 thats 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!
WORKSHEET
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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.
Ive 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 Rubicks 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. Ive 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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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 arent 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 dont 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
dont sleep well struggle to keep up, cant 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!
SLEEP
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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 rulesand 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 youll
sleep better. a mirror that allows you to see the entrance door will help you feel less
threatened, as I mentioned above)

The no-nos & 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 dont 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. Dont store things under your bed!
6. If you sleep under beams, get a canopy for your bed. If you cant 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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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.
WEEK EIGHT
This
week will
challenge you in
the best possible way
to use what you
know to continue
to grow!
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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 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. Lets 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 dont 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 dont 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 isnt your soulmate... its steps
toward him or her!
MONEY/SELF EMPOWERMENT: Isnt it curious that money and self-
empowerment 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 dont 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 wont 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-to-
get 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 cant 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- Ive 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. Im not putting a label on you ( & if I am, I put it on
myself as well, its a big issue Ive struggled with) but co-dependence is very difficult to
contend with at best. Its not saintly, and Ive 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 dont 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? Well 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 cant control or change anyone else.
In my experience, ones health and ones 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 homes 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 dont 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 havent 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.
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 someones 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 shuid 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 sphere-
attending 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-by-
case you will all have different career needs. Some of you are
retired, some of you dont 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.
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 well-
placed 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, thats 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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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?
Id 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.
BRAINSTORM
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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 weve 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 youve 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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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 youve 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
AND...NOTES
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APPENDIX
FENG
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Welcome to your Design Appendix. Initially I didnt 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 arent quite sure what is askew. Lets 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 cant 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 dont 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 cant 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.
USE IT ALL!
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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 its 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 youll 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.
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Living Room

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 doesnt 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? Youll 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 dont 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.
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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 dont interfere with people sitting comfortably?
Also, be sure they dont 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!!!)!
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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...
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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 grandmothers 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 its 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.
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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 youve 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. Theres room
for whimsy, but dont 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

Youll 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 Id 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.
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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
dont 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?
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What if you have no room for nightstands?
There are situations where there is no room for a traditional nightstand, but that doesnt 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 high-
lofted 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 wont work in your space. It happens to the best of us. Its time to make the best of them.
Ive already given you some quick fixes for a less-than-ideal bedroom. I know you are wondering whats 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!
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.

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 dont 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 weve 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 dont 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 shuid kitchens that will get you
scrubbing, chopping and enjoying it all: http://www.learnitlive.com/class/2878/Kitchen-Feng-Shui
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Balconies & Patios
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 therapists 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 cant 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!
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Things To Consider:
Your Family
If you are living with a significant other or a whole family, everyones design input matters. Even the non-
designers 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....? Im all ears! xoxo Dana
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At some point in life the
worlds beauty becomes
enough. You dont need
to photograph, paint, or
even remember it. It is
enough. -Toni Morrison