 |
|
January 26, 2006 Fast Feng Shui Newsletter In
this issue:
Welcome
In Luck with the Chinese New Year The Chinese Lunar New Year, which arrives on January 29th, 2006, is an excellent time to give your home some extra care and attention. Since we have many new subscribers this year who may not be familiar with how intentional house-cleaning can help welcome good luck to the home, here's an updated version of an article we published around this time last year:
Traditional Chinese New Year celebrations focus on home and family, and on ensuring that the New Year will bring lots of good luck. Much of this activity centers on thorough house cleaning to clear out old energy and make way for the new. In the Chinese Lunar Calendar, the New Year marks the start of Spring, so it's a good time for "spring cleaning" even if the weather is still wintry in your part of the world. If you don't have time to clean and de-clutter your entire home before New Year, concentrate on your kitchen. A clean, food-filled kitchen is the center of family life and a symbol of health and prosperity, so it is especially auspicious for the New Year. Here are some key things you can do: - Clean out your refrigerator and freezer. Toss anything ancient, mysterious, or "iffy", and get refill or replace anything that's almost less than half-full (such as condiment bottles and jars). Defrost the freezer and get the inside of the fridge sparkling clean. - Clean off the outside of the refrigerator, too. If your fridge is covered with magnets, photos, take-out menus and grocery lists, clear them all off to create a clean slate (you can put any necessary ones back after the New Year). - Declutter your pantry shelves, and use or toss anything that's been in there for months. Wipe down the shelves and clean the cabinet doors. - Clean your oven and stovetop, and replace burner pan liners if they're no longer shiny and new-looking. - Replace worn and/or grubby oven mitts and dish towels with new ones. - Get out a broom and thoroughly sweep the kitchen, and then from the kitchen out the nearest door. This symbolically sweeps out the old energy and any lingering not-so-good luck, to make room for better luck to come in with the New Year. On January 29th, make sure your broom is hidden away in a closet out of sight, and don't do any sweeping on that day. This will ensure that all the new luck (especially money luck!) that comes into your home with the New Year stays in the home and is not swept back out. - Do a big grocery shop a day or two before the New Year, so your fridge and pantry will be filled with bounty when the New Year arrives. Make sure any canisters (flour, sugar, rice, etc.) are full. - Buy nine of the biggest, most perfect oranges you can find, and place them in a bowl on the kitchen counter or in the center of the kitchen table. Or, on New Year's day, roll the oranges one by one through your front door to symbolize luck coming in to fill your house. Then gather up the oranges and place them in a bowl in your kitchen or living room. - Prepare some of your family's favorite foods the day before, to serve on New Year's Day. Plan ahead, because using sharp knives on New Year's Day is thought to bring bad luck, instead of good! (This is more superstitious than symbolic, but it does mean you can enjoy a good meal with the prep-work already done.) If welcoming in greater prosperity is high on your wish list, add these steps to your New Year preparations: - Pay all your current bills before January 29th this year, and pay off as much as possible of any debts you may have. Even a small additional payment on a credit card bill symbolizes your strong intention to prosper and become debt-free in the New Year. - A day or so before New Year, stop by the bank or ATM and withdraw an amount of cash that's more than you usually carry around, so you enter the New Year with a fat wallet. If money's tight, fill your wallet with one-dollar bills and your change purse with pennies. Having many pieces of money around for the New Year is more important than how much it adds up to. - In addition to the nine oranges mentioned above, place more bowls of fruit and nuts around your home and in your office, as symbols of abundance. - Buy a new red garment and wear it on New Year's Day. You don't have to dress from head to toe in red, so long as you wear something red and new - even a small accessory will do, if that's all you can afford. Remember that Chinese New Year is a time to celebrate family. Even if you don't bother with any of these preparations, it's a good time to pick up the phone and call your friends and loved ones to let them know they are important to you. With best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year, Stephanie
Announcement
Feng
Shui Q+A (Most questions will have been edited for clarity and length, and any identifying details have been changed. Please note that due to the high volume of email I receive, it is no longer possible for me to respond to every question personally. I still welcome your questions, and if I cannot provide a personal response I will try to address your issue in a future Q+A column.) Q: : "What can I do if our wealth area
is our garage? We live in Florida, and we spend 6 months out of the
year moving everything in our yard into piles in the garage, preparing
for hurricanes. We also have no basement, so things like the lawn mower,
gas cans, generators, etc. all end up in the garage, too." Your garage is providing a safe haven for your stuff. That's not a bad thing, even if it is your wealth corner. I'm sure many people in the world would consider owning a power lawn mower and a portable generator to be substantial blessings and an indication of great prosperity -- and a garage to keep them in, even better! Also keep in mind that the ba gua applies to EVERY space, so there is a ba gua for each room within your home, as well as your overall floorplan. If you are looking for ways to enhance the wealth area, work with that corner within your kitchen, living room, and bedroom. Do your best to keep the garage tidy and organized, and don't worry about it beyond that.
Featured
Resource Are We on the Verge of a Health Crisis of Epidemic Proportions? Important Audio Interview with Dr. George Carlo (FREE)
Clutter
Clearing Tip DEALING WITH THE CLUTTER CLEARING "YEAH, BUTS" If you are having trouble "paring down," it's likely
that your inner voice is saying "yeah, but..." a lot as you try to make
your keep-or-toss decisions. For example, you might pick something out
of a closet and mentally say to yourself, "I guess I don't really need
this," but before you can actually put it in a give-away box, your inner
voice pipes up with "Yeah, but..." Listening to your inner "yeah buts" will help you gain clarity about why you are hanging on to this stuff. For example, I can easily toss out letters and greeting cards, but getting rid of clothes that I haven't worn in five years because they are a size too small is very difficult for me. What this really means is that I am secure in knowing that the people who love me love me, but I am not at peace with my body and don't want to accept that I'm not quite as slim as I used to be. "Thank you for providing the impetus for
me to take de-cluttering seriously, and for helping me to believe it
actually is possible."
Featured
Charity
Your click, along with others' today, improves the lives of more than 1,000 children. Each click helps prevent life-threatening diseases, restore vision to blind children, and enable child amputees to walk. You don't pay a penny. Sponsors will pay for the services your click provides. In 2004, visitor clicks funded basic, critical health services for more than 461,000 children around the world. The number of children helped depends on the number of people who visit The Child Health Site. Please click every day, and encourage your friends and family to do the same.
A hui ho! (until next time),
Feng
Shui Books & eBooks
Miscellaneous AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND EDITIONS Softcover editions of "Fast Feng Shui" and "Fast
Feng Shui for Prosperity" are available in AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND
through Fast Trak Direct Pty. Ltd. ••• Newsletter Archives This newsletter is published approximately twice a month. If you missed our previous issues, you can read them here. ••• We also invite you to visit our other sites: All About Prosperity - Articles and resources for developing Prosperity Consciousness and Wealth Building skills: creative visualization, goal setting, emotional intelligence, as well as affiliate marketing, money management, and more. Feng-Shui-Ebooks.com - Our popular Fast Feng Shui book series is now available in ebook version for your immediate download. BIOPRO EMF Protection - Watch special video report on "The Invisible Dangers of EMF Radiation." Learn the facts about electromagnetic fields (EMF) and how they affect your health. Find out how you can create an electropollution-free zone in your home and office with the Home Harmonizer. Amazon Rainforest Herbs - Wild Foods Nutrition from virgin soil of the highest concentration of life energy on the planet - the Amazon Rainforest. Save your health while helping save the Rainforest.
(c)
2005 Stephanie Roberts. All rights reserved.
Our records indicate that you have expressed interest in receiving emails and have provided us with your email address. If you no longer wish to be included in our email updates, please send an email to: ). Thank you. Lotus Pond
Press LLC |
