Fast Feng Shui Blog
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October 31, 2008
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Bathroom Across from Entry |
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Q: When you enter my flat, there's a center hallway that leads to a bathroom. The bathroom door faces the main door. I do have a feeling this might be causing the financial problems we are facing. Nothing seems to be working out to better our finances or help me find a new job. We'll be really grateful for any cure you can suggest.
A: If your bathroom is directly opposite the door, at the end of a hallway in the center of your home, it is in the Fame/Reputation gua, not your Weatlh or Career areas. That could affect how others perceive you, which would be a factor when applying for a job, for example. While you might wish to address that (suggestions follow), I doubt it's the underlying cause of work/wealth problems. See this post for why I think feng shui bathroom phobia is often an overreaction.
Decorating your bathroom with greens, purples, reds, and some living plants, if possible, will help create a space more “friendly” to the Fire element associated with Fame and reputation.
Keep in mind that chi goes where your attention goes. If you are concerned about the bathroom placement, the first and easiest solution is to keep the door closed or just a little ajar so you don't see into the bathroom when you enter your home. Look for opportunities to place something to attract your attention away from the bathroom as you enter the apartment. For example, if space allows, you might place a console table and attractive floral arrangement (artificial flowers okay) or lamp (on a timer, so it's lit when you come home in the evening) in the foyer, or hang a beautiful tapestry or fabric panel, or an art poster, somewhere along the hallway or even on the bathroom door to catch your eye.
A faceted crystal ball halfway down the hall, or chandelier-style light fixture in the foyer or hall will also help to divert chi from the bathroom.
Although a large mirror is often recommended for the outside of the bathroom door, I would not recommend it in your case because it will visually double the length of the hallway, which will encourage chi to move too quickly in that direction.
Don't forget to examine your wealth and career areas as well: any feng shui problems in those areas will have a more direct impact on your job/money issues than the bathroom.
Hope this helps clarify things for you,
Stephanie R.
Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left) before sending me a question. Do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it will be several days (often longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.Labels: bathroom, crystals, doors, Feng Shui Q+A, mirrors, prosperity
posted by Stephanie R. #
10/31/2008 10:18:00 AM
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October 06, 2008
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Watch My Prosperity Mind Movie! |
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The Mind Movies Creation Kit is a software package and tutorials that guide you through creating a completely customized slideshow of words (your personal affirmations) and images to illustrate your goals and desires.
In other words, it’s an animated collage of words and images that you create to specifically reflect your wishes and dreams. Those of you who’ve been reading my books and blog for a while know what a huge fan I am of creating a collage to reflect your feng shui goals. Mind Movies are even better, because by including movement and sound (use any song you like for your soundtrack!) it works on even more levels than a paper collage. And, because it’s in video-clip format on your computer, you can watch it anytime you want.
Is that awesome, or what!?
You have total freedom to create whatever word slides you want, and to include any images you want. Then, you set it to the music of your choice and define how you want each slide to look. You have total control over the transition style between slides, as well as pan, zoom, and rotate functions.
The tutorials are extremely detailed and easy to follow and creating a Mind Movie of your own is incredibly quick and easy (so easy, in fact, that I skipped most of the tutorials and didn't have any problems). You can easily spend several happy hours doing your photo research online and tweaking your pan/zoom/rotate settings for each image; that's the only part that takes any time at all and it’s loads of fun. Putting the pieces together into your customized video-clip is a snap!
Once your Mind Movie is done, watch it several times a day and watch how your overall mood and attitude stay bright and positive.
OUR PROSPERITY MIND MOVIE
Although I highly recommend making a “Feng Shui Mind Movie” that covers your hopes and objectives for all the areas of the ba gua (I’m creating one for myself), you can do whatever you want with the program.
With all the economic doom-and-gloom in the media the past few weeks, my husband and I have found it a little challenging lately to keep our thoughts, attitudes, and expectations about money matters and future income as optimistic as we like them to be. So, we decided to make a short Prosperity Mind Movie that we can watch any time we feel a need to boost our “money vibe.”
We had a blast putting it together, and every time we get another “oh no, the country's heading for a recession” email, or see scary financial headlines in the papers, we click on our Prosperity Mind Movie and in less than two minutes are smiling and feeling great about our financial future.
In fact, ever since we made a first rough-cut of this Mind Movie last week, our online sales -- which had taken a bit of a hit when all the financial “bad news” started dominating the headlines -- bounced right back up and have stayed strong. How great is that!
We’ve posted our Prosperity Mind Movie on our AllAboutProsperity website, so you can watch it here:
To find out more about making a Mind Movie of your own click here, to watch a video interview with program creator Ryan Higgins.
TIP #1: Your Mind Movie will be even more powerful if you include pictures of yourself in it. (Ours does, but not in the version you’re seeing. My husband is a very private person, and wanted to keep the version with our pictures in just for ourselves.)
TIP #2: Pick peppy, happy, upbeat music for your Mind Movie soundtrack. We’ve used one of Jason Castro’s goofier performances from last year’s American Idol competition for our Prosperity Mind Movie, because it makes us smile and feel good every time we hear it. What’s your favorite feel-good song?
And remember that you can make a Mind Movie on any theme you want. Next, we’re going to make one for the house we’d like to buy next year...
Watch my Prosperity Mind Move here:
… then make one of your own!
I hope you have as much fun -- and as much success with -- your Mind Movies as we've had creating ours.Labels: article, Mind Movies, prosperity
posted by Stephanie R. #
10/06/2008 11:13:00 AM
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September 29, 2008
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Plumbing in the Wealth Corner |
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Q: My washer & dryer are in a closet in the wealth corner of the first floor of my house. I heard that plumbing in the wealth corner is not good. Do you agree? If so, is there a cure for this?
A: Please read the article here:
(Plumbing “remedies” apply to laundry room, too.)
And the blog post here:
Everyone, this is why I respectfully request that you do your feng shui homework before sending me your questions. Basic stuff has all been addressed elsewhere, either on my site or someone else’s, and certainly it’s all covered in books and classes. The more questions like this I get, the less time I have to answer the juicy ones.
Just a hint,
Stephanie R.Labels: ba gua, Feng Shui Q+A, prosperity
posted by Stephanie R. #
9/29/2008 12:06:00 PM
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September 16, 2008
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Discord over money tasks |
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Q: Do you have any advice for me and my husband in regards to finances? We do not work well together on money tasks and the bills pile up and no one wants to deal with any of it because it is such a negative experience.
A: My best guess, based on very limited info, is that some prosperity consciousness study/training is more in order for you at this point than specific feng shui strategies. Without that (which will help you transform your expectations and attitude towards financial chores) any feng shui tactics you might use are not likely to be effective.
If "prosperity consciousness" is a new concept to you, AllAboutProsperity.com is a useful place to start. Learning to let go of those negative expectations will certainly help.
Marital discord about financial matters -- lack of defined responsibility for who does what, conflicting priorities, different spending/saving habits, etc. -- is extremely common. Money stuff pushes all of our buttons better than just about anything else. I suspect you might get more help from someone like Suze Orman, who addresses such issues in her books and columns, than by looking to feng shui for an answer.
I will say that if you've noticed the discord only happens when you discuss finances in a certain area of the home (in the dining room, for example), and that you also bicker about other issues in that space, then there may be feng shui factors involved. You should look for and correct or avoid any sources of sha chi in that room and see if you can talk about your finances more amicably in another area of the home.
If finances in general are an issue--in a broader sense than just dealing with personal/family finance tasks--then certainly you can look around for feng shui factors. But that's far too broad a topic to be addressed here.
Sorry I can't be of more help, but feng shui is only one of many "life tools" available to us: don't reach for the hammer when what you need is a screwdriver.
Hope this helps in some way,
Stephanie R.
Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left) before sending me a question. Do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it may be several days (or longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.Labels: Feng Shui Q+A, money, prosperity
posted by Stephanie R. #
9/16/2008 11:08:00 AM
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August 29, 2008
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Stairs in the "Money Corner" |
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Q: The stairs in my condo are in the Money corner. Is that a problem? If so, what can I do about it?
A: Stairs are not necessarily a problem. You may have heard that the bottom of a staircase very close to the front door can cause money to “run out of the house,” but that’s one very specific situation, and does not mean that all stairs in any location are an issue.
However, because stairs are where we go up and down in our homes, a stair in hsun gua might indicate “ups and downs” in your financial experience. But unless that’s really extreme I wouldn’t see it as a big problem: some ebb and flow in the money arena is natural.
Also keep in mind that there’s a “money corner” for each room in the condo as well. If you want to place prosperity imagery/objects somewhere, use hsun gua of your bedroom, living room, or kitchen rather than the stairs. I think stairs have a “neither here nor there” kind of energy to them: they’re between “upstairs” and “downstairs’ and the time we spend on them is always temporary and transitional, so choose a spot with more stable "chi" for that wealth vase or your prosperity collage.
Stephanie
Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left). If you send me a question, do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it may be several days (or longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.Labels: Feng Shui Q+A, prosperity, stairs
posted by Stephanie R. #
8/29/2008 11:50:00 AM
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July 15, 2008
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Fallen Wind Chime |
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Q: The "Prosperity" wind chime (Chinese coins strung on red strings), which I had hung outside my front door, suddenly broke this weekend. I happened to look out this morning and saw them lying on the railing below where I had hung them. Can you tell me what that might mean? After I bought a rose quartz "love" bracelet that had broken, I read that this was actually a good thing. In the case of the bracelet, it mentioned that perhaps it symbolized that a cycle in my life was finally breaking and leading me onto a better path concerning love.
I have experienced a very difficult year financially and am awaiting word on an offer to purchase a piece of property I co~own, which had been my main source of income. We have been having trouble finding new tenants to replace the one large tenant who moved out over a year ago, so we are hoping to just sell the property finally. ... If nothing else, I am so glad to have come across your website, Stephanie!!!
A: I believe what matters is what the broken wind chime means to you, not what meaning you might find if you could look it up in an index somewhere. Kind of like dreams: there may be universal meanings associated with various dream imagery, but any particular event or image might mean something very different to you than it does to most people. You did ask what I think, though, so here goes:
On the most mundane level, perhaps the wind chime fell because the string from which it was hanging isn't suited to an outdoor location. Sun and rain damage fibers, so if it's been out there for a while needing a new string would be normal. (It’s a good idea to inspect your feng shui remedies from time to time.) When you get into something like feng shui, where virtually everything has some symbolic meaning, it's easy to start over-interpreting things. So, even though it's worth exploring what a fallen wind chime might imply, jumping to the conclusion that it means something ominous or highly significant could be a stretch. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth paying attention to, though, and I suggest that you do. If nothing else, it may signify that there’s some aspect of your money situation you’ve been taking for granted which could use attention before it "breaks."
I also think that when something falls or breaks, it’s usually because you have conflicted feelings about it on some level. This would especially be likely if the string should not have worn out so quickly. Perhaps you aren’t 100% convinced that you’ve made the best decision about what to do with the property you’re selling. Doesn't mean selling is the wrong decision, but maybe there are some issues you still need to make peace with.
When you feel undecided about something, flipping a coin can help you make up your mind: not because of any commitment to do what the heads-or-tails outcomes dictates, but because when you see the result, sometimes you feel an instant twinge of relief or disappointment, and that tells you what you really want to do.
Did you have a gut feeling when you saw the fallen wind chime? If so, was it "Uh oh, something's not working out for me", or "Oh, good, I'm moving away from needing that prosperity cure now"?
If you had an "uh oh" response, that's a clue to explore what assumptions, beliefs, or anxieties you might have about money that are still factoring into your experience. It’s difficult to experience good results from feng shui if your mind is filled with doubt or worry, or if you have a subconscious belief that you don't really deserve to prosper. I explore these very important issues in depth in my book, Fast Feng Shui for Prosperity, so you might want to take a look at that.
Whether your fallen wind chime is highly, or just mildly, significant, do be sure, if you’re going to hang it up again, to use a heavier/sturdier red string to hang it with, and be sure that the desired outcome you image is clear and strong in your mind.
Hope this helps you gain some helpful insight from the incident, and that your finances take a turn for the better soon,
Stephanie R.
Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left). If you send me a question, do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it may be several days (or longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.Labels: feng shui, money, prosperity, wind chime
posted by Stephanie R. #
7/15/2008 11:07:00 AM
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