Tag Archives: energy

WHEN YOUR CREATIVITY BANK IS EMPTY

Take one tired employee (you), add one cluttered atmosphere (your work space), mix in working too many hours and no time for relaxation. What do you have? A recipe for burn out, low productivity, and no fun at work.

Here are some feng shui steps to bring you back your focus and drive.

1) TAKE INVENTORY  The nine areas of your life according to feng shui principles are: Career, Wisdom & Knowledge, Family & Health, Wealth, Fame & Reputation, Love & Relationship, Creativity & Future Projects (this covers children, too), Travel & Helpful People, and, Tai Ch’I (which is your core being). Ask yourself what areas of your life are working for you and where do you feel blocked? Make a list. You’ll be able to see clearly where you need to give yourself some extra attention.

2) BABY STEPS  Decide to address one of those blocked areas at a time. Most likely you won’t be blocked in every single area of your life…focus on the positive things going on first. Express gratitude for all the blessings you do have. Where there are problems, ask yourself what steps need to be taken to remove the obstacles to your success. If your health is suffering and that is on your list, you can implement the following solutions:get a physical, take vitamins, begin exercising and, if you’ve got time built up, take a much needed vacation so you can begin work again with a fresh attitude.

3) ME TIME Look at your busy calendar and set aside a little “me time”.  IE, if you feel blocked creatively, take a break and put some ideas into your “creativity bank”. That may mean scheduling visits to museums, window shopping for fun, going to the movies, or even to an amusement park. Perhaps you’ve lost touch with mentors and colleagues? Taking time to make a few phone calls to reconnect you to those Helpful People might give you a mental boost as well as put you on to some hot leads. All of which can stimulate your Career ch’I (energy) and get your groove back on.

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Filed under Feng Shui, Feng Shui Office, Self Help

FENG SHUI=YOGA FOR YOUR HOME

images  The art of feng shui is about achieving balance in our lives so that chi (energy) can circulate freely without blockage. I often think of feng shui as yoga for the environments where we live and work because yoga teaches our bodies to breathe. Ever get winded going up a flight of stairs? Well, if your home or office has stagnant energy in it, it’s like the room or building itself is in a constant state of being winded. Not having enough energy to do the job. And in this case, the job I’m referring to is having enough positive chi to support a balanced life, a life filled with opportunities for success. That’s what feng shui is all about. So clear out the clutter and let your home breathe deep. I think I hear your kitchen saying “OM”…

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Filed under Feng Shui, Feng Shui Home, Health & Fitness

BEWARE PSYCHIC VAMPIRES: GET HAPPY!

Two paintings by Vincent Van Gogh both painted in 1890–“Almond Branches in Bloom” and “At Eternity’s Gate”. Which one makes you happy?!

Ever notice how being around negative people — a.k.a. “psychic vampires” — can bring you down? We’ve all experienced a colleague who comes to the water cooler carrying the bad news about who got fired recently, or dumps all the venom she feels for the boss on you. Being around negativity can really bring us down.

The good news? It’s now been scientifically proven that happiness is contagious. That’s right: Research compiled by the Harvard Medical School and the University of California at San Diego proves that our moods are directly affected by the people we hang out with, and even by the people they hang out with. The study demonstrated that our social networks (family, friends, neighbors, professional colleagues) influence us greatly whether we realize it or not.

Like a virus, happiness can spread from person to person with direct contact. The flip side, of course, is that sadness and negativity spread in the same manner. However, the research proved that sorrow did not spread as efficiently and completely as happiness did, which is good reason to be cheerful (and pass it on).

How can you do that if you’re unhappy with your life and career? First, rule out clinical depression.

If you’re feeling sad, overwhelmed, disinterested in anything, sleeping too much or not sleeping at all, these symptoms indicate that a visit to your doctor is in order. If you simply hate where you work, there is something you can do; you can choose happiness. That’s right: Happiness is a choice. We can set up healthy boundaries, adopt an infectious upbeat attitude, and work toward changing our career direction to match our goals.

• Surround yourself with happy people. Avoid the office gossip and other toxic people in your life. Spend more time with happy people that you know.

• Pump up your endorphins. Exercise releases happy hormones in your brain. If you’re a couch potato or a desk jockey, no wonder you’re feeling blue. Leave your desk and go for a walk around the block on your break if you can’t get to the gym.

• Stay hydrated. Along with proper diet and nutrition, remember to drink plenty of water. Without it, we get sluggish, and happy people are energetic ones.

• Count sheep. Getting a good night’s sleep is half the battle. With so many of us suffering from sleep disorders, no wonder we’re so grumpy. Lack of sleep causes irritability and lack of focus on the job. If you’re having problems sleeping consult a physician.

• Get clear on what is missing from your current employment and take steps to get what you need. Make lists of the pros and cons of staying with this gig or leaving. Take inventory of what you like about your job and what you don’t. Write down what would make you happier with this job or the next one.

• Take control of your situation. One of the reasons for unhappiness is that we feel we have no control over our situation. But whose life are we living? Speak up. You may not be able to get the boss to agree to everything on your wish list, but with some negotiation you may get some of what you want, you just have to risk asking for it.

Beware: Choosing happiness is contagious. When you choose happiness, you will be influencing others around you to get happy, too. When that happens, you may actually discover that you like where you are after all.

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Filed under Feng Shui, Feng Shui Home, Feng Shui Office, Healing Energy, Health & Fitness, Love & Relationship, Self Help

SETTING INTENTIONS- 5 Tips on how to start your day like a rockstar

I just discovered this wonderful post on the Malavika Blog. She gives 5 terrific tips on setting intentions for your day. I couldn’t have done a better job–go see:

How to start your day like a rockstar.

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Filed under Healing Energy, Health & Fitness, Self Help, Wisdom & Knowledge

DO TRY THIS AT HOME

 

"Big Chair (Thomasville)"  (c)Katy Allgeyer

"Big Chair (Thomasville)" (c)Katy Allgeyer

SURVIVING IS IMPORTANT

 “Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.” ~ Maya Angelou

The runaway success–indeed, the survival for several years of seasons!–of the TV show “Survivor” proves that a  large number of the viewing public is fascinated with whether or not they could last under primitive living conditions. Then again, maybe the show’s popularity just proves that people want to see girls in skimpy clothing eating raw kangaroo meat covered with flies.

But regardless of whether or not you watch television, you may be interested to know that many of the principles of Feng Shui originated as survival techniques. The ancestors of our ancestors who lived in caves knew that it was important not to turn one’s back to the cave entrance. If you did, you could be devoured by a cave dwelling beast (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!), or, a rival tribe could come and steal your fire, your food, and your family.

It was in this way that the idea of positioning the bed and the stove and the desk so that the door to the room can be easily seen was born. In this placement, one feels able to relax and “let one’s guard down” (notice the idiom that evolved as a direct result of this principle). Of course, the ideal furniture placement can not always work within the limitations of the architecture of our homes and offices. This is where a Feng Shui expert can offer you alternate solutions to achieve the desired peace of mind.

Ch’i Whiz! It Really Does Feel Different

DO try this at home (when you are bored with eating bonbons and being waited on hand and foot by your husband):

Take a room that has only one entry and place a chair in the middle of the room with the back facing the door. If you have other people around, ask them to give you some time to settle into your room, but eventually have them move around in the hallway outside the door and come into the room occasionally without telling you when they are coming in.

Now, sit in the chair so that you are unable to see the door. Sit there for awhile, try to get a sense of the ch’i energy surrounding you and pay attention to how it feels. Now, try to read a magazine.

Notice how you feel. Do you feel uneasy and unable to concentrate on the magazine? Is your mind constantly wandering to the activity in the hallway and on alert mode so that you won’t be startled when someone comes into the room and surprises you?

Ok, once you’ve experienced that feeling, turn the chair around to where you have a clear view of the door as you sit and read your magazine. Notice how you feel. Is your posture more at ease? Are you able to focus more intently on the task of reading the magazine? You have now witnessed the importance of placement for  peace of mind based on the principle of survival.

THRIVING IS ELEGANT  

The ancient cave dwellers painted their cave walls mostly to serve  sacred ceremonial purposes and did not have to worry about matching the drapery fabric to the wall paint. Today, we express ourselves through the way we decorate our homes and the myriad of choices we make as to color, style, space, objects, art, and placement. But even though we have come a long way from the cave and the necessity of being in constant survival mode, we can feel a connection to our ancestors and benefit from their wisdom by incorporating the principles of Feng Shui into our modern lives. 

 

 

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Filed under Command Position, Feng Shui, Feng Shui Home, Self Help

THE POWER OF WORDS AND INTENTIONS: Your Treasure Map Can Be All Words If You Want

Here’s a picture of my Personal Feng Shui Treasure Map for 2010. I’m a painter and a writer as well as a feng shui consultant so for me it seemed natural to simply paint the words of my intentions in the correct colors to correspond to the bagua map. I didn’t need magazine visuals. I didn’t need a lot of time (I completed the project within one hour although I have been thinking about my intentions for days now).

My Personal Feng Shui Treasure Map (c) Katy Allgeyer

The words resonate powerfully for me and I like the way my manifestation board looks. I have it hanging in the Love & Relationship area of my home which corresponds to the Wisdom & Knowledge area of my studio. So, if you’re strapped for time today but you still want to take advantage of Tracy Cook’s astrological timing for creating your Personal Feng Shui Treasure Map, take inspiration from me—you don’t even need to paint them like I did. You can simply take the time to write them down on a large piece of paper using magic markers to activate the colors that correspond to the bagua.

Wealth= Red, Purple, Green or Gold metallic
Fame= Red/Orange
Love & Relationship= Red, Pink, White
Family & Health= Blues/Greens
Tai Chi Center= Golden yellows
Creativity & Children= grey and black and all the colors
Wisdom & Knowledge= greens blues
Career= black
Travel & helpful people= deep blues/greys/black

I sincerely hope that sharing my own Personal Feng Shui Treasure Map has helped you to realize that you CAN create your own map and there is no such thing as “perfect” or “should be done this way”. Use your own available time, energy, and ideas to create a vision of health, prosperity, and love for your life! Send me your pics of your maps if you’d like to share with our readers. Good luck!

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Filed under ART, Creativity & Future Projects, Feng Shui, Fun, Getting Organized, Self Help, Wealth & Finances

SUNBEAMS: Feng Shui of Beams II

A lot of people love the look of beams. Try sleeping under them for any length of time and you may or may not make the connection between your sleep difficulties and other health issues with the beams crossing your body and energy field overhead. The photo above is a classic example. It’s a guest room in someone’s home that is beautifully decorated. The sunbeam yellow color of the walls, the soft patina of the wood floors, the natural light, the balance of elements and the art work….all are very well done and it’s a very cozy room. Almost. Even the ceiling fan that can be a potential problem in feng shui terms is placed in a position where it can do no harm (it’s over the center of the room instead of over any beds–this is fine). But the wood beams are a problem. Solution? Paint them white because white symbolizes metal and metal cuts wood. This diffuses the energy of the beams and neutralizes their heavy impact so the room will feel more comfortable to sleep in. Hmmmm….this IS a guest room…maybe the intention was to not have guests overstay their welcome? In that case: leave the beams as is!

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Filed under Architecture, Feng Shui, Feng Shui Home, Interior Design, Qi

HALLOWEEN: GHOSTS, GOBLINS, & FENG SHUI

basket
This sacred basket with monkey skulls has a scary feel to it and could carry residual energies too powerful to handle outside of a museum setting.

A few years ago, I was called on to feng shui a building belonging to a Hollywood post-production company. I pulled up in front of a very sleek building with 60’s modern glass block façade in Burbank not too far from Disney Studios. The client’s business was editing film for features and commercials, so, naturally most of the space was filled with electronic equipment used for that purpose. The bold design of the building matched the high-tech business occupying the space perfectly. Or so I thought.

Within a few minutes, during my interview with the client in his office, I began to experience a strange sensation. I kept hearing the word “mortuary” in my mind and became distracted by the persistence of this thought. I struggled to keep my focus on the client and asked him what the building’s history was, who occupied the space before him, etc. He told me that the building had been his for more than twenty years and that prior to that it was also used for film editing for at least a dozen years.

“Mortuary” kept getting louder in my head and I began to feel uncomfortable in this office. I said to my client, “Okay. So this building has always housed your type of business then. Let’s move on to the next question.” He then said, rather casually, “Well, but originally it was built to hold a mortuary.” He eyed me nervously, noting my skin had just turned a shade whiter, and asked me, “Is that bad feng shui?”

Here’s the bottom line: it’s not good feng shui to have stagnant, dead, negative energy in any space, let alone your work space. Residual energy was lingering even decades after the mortuary had been closed and replaced by high tech businesses.

There could very possibly have been ghosts in that space, too, although I didn’t see or feel any at the time. We did a feng shui space clearing ceremony and blessing ritual and cleared out all negative vibes. Often, that is all that needs to be done to reset the energy to a clean and positively charged space.

Recently, I have come across more cases of corporate office buildings inhabited by ghosts and sane working people who are encountering strange energies. Maybe it’s just the onset of the Halloween season, but, there does seem to be a heightened awareness of spirit energy around this time of year. A technician at a computer chip company told me that he was sitting in his office and felt a strong tap on his shoulder. He turned around expecting to find a colleague only to discover there was nobody there. At a bank in Santa Monica, a Vice President told me she had felt a presence hugging her at her home and she was afraid to return to her apartment. Also, she was concerned the entity might follow her to work. I worked with these clients on strengthening their feng shui and clearing their space with a Native American smudgestick and reclamation ceremony. They’re now ghost-free.

However, some situations involve much darker forces. Heavy—maybe even “evil”—energy does exist. To clear a space of this type of energy takes an experienced healer or a spiritualist with ghostbusting knowledge. Deita Klaus and her partner Deirdre Devlin are two such people. Their company, Hollywood Ghostbusters, handles calls from individuals and corporations desperate to remove paranormal energies from their homes and office buildings. Although Deita said they have encountered poltergeists and demons, most cases they work on involve simply helping the spirit of a departed person move on.
Their fees depend on the size of the job and the type of entity to be ousted and each case is different.

I asked Deita if there were any notoriously famous haunted buildings in LA that she knows of. She told me that The Brewery Arts Complex, Paramount Studios, and the Comedy Store all have spirits residing there. She also claimed that the Hollywood Hills area has many haunted homes because they were built above sacred Native American burial grounds. “The Magic Castle has many spirits, too, yet they want them there. The magic you see there is really the ghosts!”, Deita said.

Deita and Deirdre have been practicing their gifts for a long time. I asked Deita if it is dangerous to deal with paranormal energies? She told me, “Oh yes, they can take over your spirit…you must know how to protect yourself and not be afraid. Fear is what they invoke and then they try to get into you.” Is it dangerous for someone to do their own ghostbusting? “Yes, we ask people, unless they have the experience, do not try and take the energy out.”

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Filed under Holidays, Uncategorized

URN YOUR GOOD CHI

2 urns

I was perusing a favorite site last night and saw a posting on “Ode to an Autumn Urn”. I was reminded that Feng Shui By Fishgirl also loves the idea of using urns for unexpected wimsy. On the farm in Maine, we have two heavy black iron antique urns filled with two vintage barn top wind catchers. The windcatchers are usually placed on a barn’s roof in a cupula where they catch wind and direct it downward into the barn for good air circulation. They spin quite rapidly here when the wind is gusty on our island and they emit a pleasant humming sound when they’re spinning. Great feng shui because of the equal balance to either side of our entry walkway, movement of chi (energy), the beautiful visual, and the pleasing sound.
1urn

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Filed under Architecture, Creativity & Future Projects, Design, Feng Shui, Feng Shui Home, Plants & Outdoors, Qi

UNDER THE BED

Dead bodies should NOT be stored under your bed.

Dead bodies should NOT be stored under your bed.

Feng shui is about Qi/chi (energy) being able to flow and circulate freely. Storing anything under your bed blocks this process. But if you’re limited in space, underbed storage may be necessary. What to do? Feng Shui By Fishgirl recommends your optimum feng shui is to keep the underside of your bed clean and clutterfree. But if you must store something there…..

DO store soft items (ie: more bedding, linens, comforters, soft clothing) in organized containers or drawer systems under your bed.

DON’T store electrical items and appliances, negatively charged items (weapons, for example), sharp items, things that don’t belong in bedrooms, items associated with past love relationships (photo albums of exes).

What’s under your bed? Do tell!

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Filed under Feng Shui, Feng Shui Home, Getting Organized, Love & Relationship, Qi