June 30, 2005 - Feng Shui Tips for the Kitchen

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June 30, 2005

Fast Feng Shui Newsletter

In this issue:
• Feng Shui Article:
   How the Location of Your Kitchen Affects Your Health
• Announcements:
   June Give-Away
• Feng Shui Q+A:
   Moving the Kitchen Stove to the North
• Featured Resource:
   Amazon Rainforest Herbs
• Featured Charity:
   The Rainforest Site

How the Location of Your Kitchen Affects Your Health

by Stephanie Roberts

The kitchen is a source of nourishment for you and your family. Because of the close connection between health and finances - financial stress may contribute to or aggravate health problems, and poor health can seriously harm your financial wellbeing - the kitchen is associated in feng shui with both money and health issues. In a previous issue of this newsletter, I wrote about the significance of your stove as the "wealth generator" for your family. Today I want to discuss three specific ways in which the location of your kitchen within the overall layout of your home may affect your physical wellbeing, and what steps you can take to protect the health of yourself and your family.

Kitchen in the Center of the Home
The center of the home - the "tai chi" - is like the hub of a wheel. No matter how strong the outer sections are, if the center is weak the wheel will not hold together. The tai chi location in feng shui is strongly associated with health; whatever is going on in the center of the home is said to affect all of the other areas as well. The kitchen is a very yang space, with lots of fire energy from the stove and electrical appliances. It's often the center of family activity as well. When all of this energy is concentrated in the center of the home, the affect can be over-stimulating. In terms of physical health, this is most likely to affect the stomach and digestive system and/or the heart (especially high blood pressure). To calm the energy of a central kitchen, emphasize the earth element. Yellow is an especially good color to use here, as are beige and other earthy shades. Stone and ceramic materials and accessories will be helpful as well. If possible, place a large mirror on a kitchen wall where it will reflect the stove away from the center.

Kitchen at the Front Door
If you enter your home through the kitchen, food and eating will often be on your mind. This is especially true if the stove or refrigerator is the first thing that you see. You may find that you gain weight too easily and that losing any excess pounds is harder for you than it should be. If the only thing harmed by this is your vanity, it may not be a serious, but if you or any family members are struggling with weight-related health issues it's a good idea to use a different entry if you can. Although the front door always has prominence in feng shui, you may be affected in a similar way if you frequently go in and out of your house through a back or garage door that opens directly into the kitchen. If that's the case, take the extra steps to walk around to the front door, and go into and out of the house that way. You may find it a little easier to resist those extra snacks that put on the pounds, and who knows… all those extra steps may not burn many calories a day, but by the end of a year the incremental increase in effort could help you slim down as well.

Bathroom next to the Kitchen
When architects and builders design a home, it is economical to keep all the major plumbing in one area. Frequently this means that the kitchen and a bathroom share a wall. Although this is not an ideal arrangement in feng shui terms, it's also not always a major problem. The kitchen sink and the bathroom sink back-to-back on either side of the wall, for example, is okay. However, if the bathroom toilet, tub, sink, or shower is directly on the other side of a shared wall from your stove, this is considered a threat to the health of the family. Not only is this thought to lead to disagreements and conflict among family members, but digestive and urinary health may be affected as well. If this layout exists in your home, it's a good idea to paint both sides of the shared wall green, and to place a mirror on at least one side of the wall; a mirror on each side is even better. The best solution, of course, would be a complete kitchen remodel to move the stove to another part of the room, but most of us will need to make do with a less extensive overhaul.

No matter where the kitchen is in your home, do be sure to keep it clean and organized. The beneficial chi of even the most auspiciously placed kitchen will be undermined by untidy clutter, a smelly garbage can, or a sink full of dirty dishes.

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BONUS TIP: Summer is grilling season! If you often cook outdoors avoid setting up your grill on the left side of the back yard, which is the wealth area (hsun gua) of your property. (If you prefer to use the compass orientation for the ba gua, avoid the SE sector.) Hsun gua is associated with the wood element, and the fire of a grill or barbecue will consume the wood energy and weaken your wealth gua. If you do grill in hsun gua, it will help to have lots of plants in that area; make sure they are all well-watered and healthy before you fire up the grill. A bucket of water is good to have on hand as well; water nourishes wood, so its presence will help to keep the wood energy of hsun gua strong.

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Announcements

JUNE GIVE-AWAY

To help promote public awareness of the health risks associated with EMF radiation (particularly with regards to cell phone use), we are giving away a few of the original device-specific BIOPRO Cell Chips we still have in stock.

To join this month's give-away drawing, send an email with your complete postal address to
Deadline for entries is midnight (Hawaii time) on Saturday, July 6, 2005. Late, duplicate, and incomplete entries will be deleted.

To learn more about the possbile health effects of EMF exposure, visit EMF-Health.com. We also invite you to watch the special video report: The Invisible Dangers of EMF Radiation.

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: : "We are remodeling our kitchen. Our contractor (who practices feng shui) says that we should consider moving the sink from the south position to the north position. It will be a lot of work to redo the plumbing. Is he accurate about having the sink in the north and not in the south?"

A: Your contractor is correct that the sink is better suited to the north, because north is associated with the water element. The sink is not well-suited to the south, because the element of that direction is fire, which fights with water. From a feng shui perspective, having the sink in the south may lead to conflicts and arguments in the home. The south is a better position for the stove than for the sink.

However, that said, I would never make such a decision without also considering many other factors. I do recommend that you:

1) Place the sink and stove so that they are not directly opposite each other.

2) Install the stove on an island or counter extension so that you do not face the wall (with your back to the room) while you cook.

I believe these two factors are more important than the compass location of the sink or stove.

Your own preferences for how you want to arrange the space and (very important!) how you wish to allocate your renovation budget should be given the most weight. There's no point in creating a "feng shui correct" kitchen if you will not like how it looks or works, because that's not good feng shui, either.

If you can fit relocating the sink in with your other plans, then consider it a bonus improvement. If it will eat up budget $$ and mean giving up some other changes you had wanted to make, it may not be worth the trade-off.

Featured Resource

Amazon Rainforest Herbs

Save Your Health and Save the Rainforest!
We have been using the Amazon Herb Company herb formulas for more than a year now, and we just can't say anough about it. They have made a difference in our physical, mental and emotional well-being. The nutrient-dense plants are grown sustainably in virgin soil of the Amazon Rainforest by indigenous tribes who then use their proceeds to buy deeds to their land. This keeps the loggers and miners away and helps preserve their natural habitat.

The herbs are harvested with the native care and respect for plant wisdom, and processed utilizing an ancient method of 'plant alchemy' called spagyric processing. This method of extraction delivers ALL of the herb's nutritional properties. Nothing is discarded. The result is a highly nutritious line of formulas from the finest botanicals on the planet with the highest concentration of life energy--delivered right to your door.

Visit our sister site, AmazonBioenergetics.com. Watch our online video, "Discover the Treasures of the Rainforest," and learn more about the greatest pharmacy on Earth. Listen to a panel of health experts share their personal experiences as well as those of their patients, including some of the most amazing stories of healing. Learn how you can dramatically improve your health and help preserve the Amazon Rainforest for generations to come. Click here now.

Featured Charity

The Rainforest Site

One click will fund the preservation of 11.4 square feet of endangered rainforest. You don't pay a penny. Sponsors will pay for the services your click provides. Isn't that cool?

Originally, 6 million square miles of tropical rainforest existed worldwide. As a result of deforestation, only 2.6 million square miles remain today. The race is on to save our rainforests and the incredible biodiversity they hold.

Funding generated by The Rainforest Site goes to pay for rainforest acquisition and management, ensuring the protection of Earth's biological diversity. The amount of land protected depends on the number of visitors to The Rainforest Site. So please click every day, and spread the word to family and friends!

With warm aloha,

Maui, HI
Fast Feng Shui.com

Feng Shui Books & eBooks

Fast Feng Shui

Fast Feng Shui
for Singles

Fast Feng Shui for Prosperity (ebook)

Clutter-Free Forever Home Coaching

Miscellaneous

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND EDITIONS NOW AVAILABLE!!!

Softcover editions of "Fast Feng Shui" and "Fast Feng Shui for Prosperity" are now available in AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND through Fast Trak Direct Pty. Ltd.

Order your copies today by calling Fast Trak Direct at: 3 5255 3073 (Wallington, VIC) Please note that Fast Track can only ship to Australia/New Zealand postal addresses.

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Newsletter Archives

This newsletter is published approximately twice a month. If you missed our previous issues, you can read them here.

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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 versions for your immediate download: Fast Feng Shui, Fast Feng Shui for Singles and Fast Feng Shui for Prosperity.

EMF Protection - Are Cell Phones Causing Cancer? Watch special video report on "The Invisible Dangers of EMF Radiation." Learn the facts about electromagnetic fields (EMF) and how they affect your health.

(c) 2005 Stephanie Roberts. All rights reserved.
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