Home Improvement – Designing a Beautiful Home

Archive for the ‘Feng Shui’ Category

http://www.davecrane.tv

I’m Dave Crane and I help corporate clients and individuals to design their perfect lives using a combination of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and Life coaching techniques.

I am always open to new things.
Whether it’s Reiki or Pranic healing (both are energy based healings) or someting else, as long as I can do it and see the results – I’m in. If, however, I can’t get it to work, I dump it with a healthy open mind. A degree of skepticism is essential in my work, but I am also prepeared to champion something that starts to bring instant results.

That’s why I decided to investigate Feng Shui. This is the ancient Chinese art of working with energy in environments like the home or office to make the best success for the owner or inhabitants.

My very good friend Proshat Sarablou Lehmann is an accomplished practitioner of this. My wife Azizah and I asked her to design the Feng Shui for our villa before she emigrated to Canada.

I have to admit, I wasn’t keen in some of the advice, which seemed a little strange and unnecessary.
Painting entire walls red (but not the room)?
Adding a water feature in the south west corner of the downstairs dining room?
Moving our bedroom to the guest bedroom, the office to our old bedroom and our old office into a spare bedroom. It seems to smack more of ADDHD than scientific method.

But, it works. Since adding the water feature, I have been inundated with business opportunities I didnt believe could have existed. I’ve travelled to India to set up a number of joint ventures and my calender looks like a healthy mix of trips to the west, middle east and far east before November.

Was it the Feng Shui or just an upsturn in the economy plus my profile? I don’t rightly know – nor do I care. I just enjoy the fact that it’s working and so this comes highly recommended to you.

Get a Feng Shui master practitioner in today and ask how they can improve your money, romance and longevity.

What’s the worst thing that can happen?

You make some cash and get to spend the rest of your life enjoying it with the partner of your dreams?

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art used in the home to create balance and harmony. Feng Shui Practitioners have many tricks of the trade used to get rid of negative energy and promote happiness, stability, affluence, tranquility and peace. With the help of this guide, now you, too, can use Feng Shui to enhance your surroundings.

Here are some Feng Shui fast solutions to allow you to experience maximum fulfillment in your current home:

Color. Color can lift you up or bring you down, so pay attention to the colors you choose for your furniture and to decorate your house. Decide on which color best suits your living room, bedrooms, dining room and furniture by figuring out the energy you would like for that particular room or area.

* Red: Great for energy and excitement. Works perfectly in a dining room to keep folks awake at the dinner table. Not so good for bedrooms and studies, as its properties can make it hard to relax and unwind.
* Orange: Stimulates hunger. Softer, lighter shades work great for living rooms, playrooms, and even bedrooms.
* Yellow: Inspires happiness and creativity. Use in any room to add brightness and vitality.
* Green: A healing and soothing color. A perfect choice for a living room or any room where you want to enhance the energy of balance.
* Blue: A healing and soothing color. A perfect choice for a living room or any room where you want to enhance the energy of balance.
* Indigo: Yet another color that heals and soothes. Good for a child’s room to promote healthy sleep habits.
* Purple: A highly spiritual color that promotes richness and transformation. Can be too high of a frequency for a large room, so consider using accents of purple as an alternative to painting an entire room.

Light. Light exerts a strong influence over how we feel. Take care to light each room so that you achieve the appropriate calming or energizing effect.* Sunlight: Natural lighting is the very best way to brighten a room.
* Good Quality Lighting: Second best to natural lighting. If possible, don’t skimp when it comes to buying lamps, track lighting, or fixtures for your home.
* Bright Lighting: Promotes energy and activity (for a playroom, for example).
* Low Lighting: Promotes calmness and relaxation (for a bedroom or study, for example).
* Dimmers: Can be purchased at a local hardware store. Dimmer switches give you the flexibility to alternate between bright and low lighting in the same room. With a dimmer, bedrooms can be used to play, study, or sleep, your dining room can accommodate a lively brunch or a romantic supper, and the living room can foster animated conversation or some quiet family reading.

Touch. Designers often overlook the power of texture and how it influences the energy of your home and surroundings. Play with accessories and furniture of different materials to achieve surprising results.

* Rugs: A shag rug emits a playful energy, while a tightly coiled country rug adds a homey, nurturing touch to a living room. Decide whether you would prefer to tread barefoot upon a soft carpet or a cool shiny wood floor. One draws the energy of comfort, the other professionalism. Choose the materials best suited for the energy you would like each room of your home to radiate.
* Pillows: Silk pillows add richness and sensuality. Cotton is good for kids or casual relaxation, and fun, fluffy pillows can be employed for a lighter, playful effect in a living room or playroom.
* Furniture: Sleek wood furniture conveys a sturdy and reassuring energy, while soft leather couches and armchairs add a luxurious energy to a living room or study.

Smell. Aromas are an easy and inexpensive solution to help you achieve a harmonious home environment. Play with different scents in each room, changing them occasionally to see how the smells aid in energizing or relaxing you.* Flowers: Flowers can be a terrific addition to any household because of their color and innate positive energy. Easy to forget, however, is how wonderful a room smells when fresh flowers are added.
* Candles: Candles look beautiful and have an immediate calming effect on a room. Use different scents for each room, or place various candles with unique smells together in one collection.
* Cooking: Cooking provides nourishment and comfort. An added benefit is the wonderful smells of cooking, which contribute to a balanced atmosphere in your home.
* Incense or alternatively, Sage: Incense is a fantastic cleansing agent. Use it to erase negative energies, such as after an argument. The scent will permeate all corners of the room, and either relax or invigorate the inhabitants, depending on what type of incense you use.

You! Don’t forget the most important element of your home: you and your family. Even plants and flowers play a vital role in livening up an environment. Pets and children are great for adding movement in each room, which, in turn, keeps the energy of your house circulating. Play with these and other Feng Shui solutions, to maintain balance and perfect harmony in your home.

Whether you’re single, dating or married, the bedroom blues (and blahs) can strike at any time.  Here are five simple and easy to implement Feng Shui cures to help increase your romance quotient in the bedroom and beyond.

To begin, stand in the doorway of your bedroom, and make a note of the rear right corner of the room.  In the Feng Shui bagua map, this is known as the love and marriage area, and it is the area of the room that we will be focusing on.

Cure 1: De-clutter and clean the area.  This will help allow the ch’i, or energy in the home, to flow freely through the area.  Take the extra step, and remove clutter from the rest of the room as well.  Not only will that help the ch’i, it will also help improve your relaxation level while you are in the room, which can help romance.

Cure 2: Enhance the romantic decor.  Look at any photos, art, or collectibles you may have in the love and marriage area of the room.  Sad clowns, photos of exes, or solitary figures are not desirable for this area.  Choose items which represent romance for you.  Some positive examples might include a vintage poster of a kissing couple, abstract sculptures of two intertwined figures, or even something as whimsical as two happy clowns (if you happen to like clowns and find them romantic) or a figurine of cuddling frogs or bears.  The most important thing is to represent couples, particularly romantic or loving couples.

Cure 3: Add fresh flowers in a pretty vase.  Living things add ch’i  to a space, and flowers in particular add beauty and romance to any space.  Roses would be a traditional choice, but tulips, irises, or any flower you love will work well.  Avoid single flowers, however, because that implies aloneness.  Larger groupings of flowers imply an abundance of love and romance.  Take good care of your flowers, and replace frequently.  Allowing dead or dying flowers to remain in the area will detract from, rather than enhance the ch’i.

Cure 4: Hang a small wind chime and/or hanging crystal above the area.  This will soften the corner of the room.  Choose wind chimes that make soft, pleasant sounds that won’t disturb you while you sleep if there is a breeze in the room.  The design should suggest romance to you in some way- either by its’ shape (a heart, for example), or by the design (again, avoid solitary figures).  Hanging crystals, besides reflecting lovely rays of light on the wall,  help move ch’i throughout the room.

Cure 5: Place a small, tabletop indoor fountain in the area.  Choose a design which speaks to you of romance, either by design or by shape.  Many indoor fountains feature whimsically romantic designs (cuddling frogs, for example), or have groupings of candles, stones or bamboo.  This will keep the ch’i in the room flowing, and provide soothing sounds to enhance the romantic aura of your bedroom. 

Implement these five easy Feng Shui cures, and you will be on your way to upping your ante in the game of love!

Signifying the art of living in harmony, both Feng Shui and Vastu Shastra are rooted in ancient wisdom and philosophy of China and India, respectively.  In compliance with living principles and ancient wisdom, both these prehistoric schools of thought believe in creating a flow of positive energy, which is harmonious for living spaces.
With the global advent of architecture, the science of Feng Shui (pronounced as Fung Shway) is not restricted to China; it has come a long way to be recognized as a relevant science in today’s lifestyle. It applies to offices, homes, businesses and any other dwelling. Based on the principles of balancing energies connected with nature and environment, Feng Shui attempts to create a positive flow of force to impact in your prime areas of life. To understand the importance of Feng Shui practically, surveying a house or business is of utmost importance.

In a dwelling, the Kitchen and the Bedroom are most important features of a home; the Chinese even bestow the kitchen stove as being the source of health and prosperity. The birth number, known as Kua in Chinese helps to determine the best directions individually, even for your kitchen!

Tips on Kitchen

Feng Shui believes that a wrong kitchen direction can bring misfortune to a family. Also, the kitchen should not be directly below the toilet, or adjacent to it. It believes that the Kitchen should not be in the center, and that the cooking gas or stove should not be placed on the same slab as the sink.
Water and fire are opposite forms of energy and as water can put off fire, to avoid friction, they should be separate. Refrigerator is considered to be a water element too, and hence should be away from the stove. The best would be a triangle that the cooking gas, stove and refrigerator form.
While cooking, the cook should not have his back towards the door to avoid any feeling of startling while cooking. Reflecting mirrors can be a solution where all the other factors are sound.
Overhead lights on a cooking gas are believed to be disastrous. It can lead to financial crisis. To negate the effects, one can hang bamboo flutes at an angle of 45 degree.
Green is a kitchen color and a clutter free kitchen attracts Chi(positive energy), unused articles are advised to be discarded(articles not used in one and half years).

Tips on Bedroom

A bedroom door must open completely as it symbolizes allowing opportunities and fortune. In Feng Shui, bedroom doors that open less than 90* may mean constricted energy flow and opportunities.
On entrance, it is advised to place something pleasant-your art, vase and sculpture pieces or a family photograph. It is a greeting.
For optimum functionality, there should be a clutter-less area-closets, almirahs and storage furniture. Symbolically clutter means that there are things left undone in your life. Organization definitely feels like empowerment, and brings a feeling of neat space and serenity to any room, especially bedroom. Resting rooms need to be quiet and peaceful with little chaos.
The best sleeping direction would be the one that helps you face the door. When you get up, your feet should be towards to door to help you feel in command and control.
A mirror opposite the door where there is a wall will help circulate energy. Bright lights above the bed are a big ‘no’.

Feng shui (pronounced fung shway), or “wind-water,” is the ancient Chinese practice of achieving harmony with the environment through the design and layout of space and the placement of objects in one’s environment. This positioning is based on the belief in balance and harmony between nature and living beings, patterns of yin and yang and the flow and effects of positive and negative chi (energy).

The goal of feng shui is to achieve harmony, comfort and balance…first in one’s environment and then in one’s life. Feng shui objects and accessories can greatly enhance your environment, bring about positive life changes, create prosperity, enhance relationships, increase wealth, achieve goals, provide more energy and better health.

Adding new decorative items to your home that represent life, whether with plants, flowers or trees, helps to create a calming, tranquil atmosphere.

If you are hesitant to use real plants or flowers because of the maintenance involved, consider exquisitely made silk plants, silk flowers and silk trees from The Silk Garden. They never need water, aren’t messy and always look great.

“Many people shy away from using living plants in their decor, claiming their lack of a green thumb results in unhealthy and dead plants. For these people, I recommend using life-like or ‘live looking’ fake plants,” says Joyce Hyde, feng shui consultant. “Attractive, good quality silk plants are available in a wide variety of styles…their vibrant green color that symbolizes life, growth and health can transform a dull, lackluster space into a warm and inviting one.”

Feng Shui Decorating Suggestions

In feng shui, different plants, flowers and trees have different effects, depending on their overall shape, the shape of their leaves and flowers and their color. When incorporating feng shui into your decorating scheme, keep in mind the following feng shui suggestions.

1. Rooms of relaxation and rest, such as bedrooms, bathrooms or meditation rooms, should not include plants with spikes, spines or pointed leaves. Avoid cacti, dracaena, agave or bromeliad. Instead, use round-leaved plants, such as schefflera, monstera, calathea or jade plants.
2. Plants with pointed leaves or strong upward growth work well in areas that are used for stimulation, such as the kitchen, living room or office. Consider using cacti, palm trees, yuccas or dracaena.
3. Place plants with dense foliage and round leaves in front of any protruding corner.
4. Tall palm trees with spreading leaves work well in front of internal corners.
5. Have a long corridor in your home or office? Stagger bushy plants along either side.
6. Choose a silk flower arrangement in purple to add more passion to your life, a red or pink arrangement to add romance and excitement or a white flower arrangement to add stability.
7. A money or jade plant, with it’s round, thick leaves, brings positive energy, fortune and enhances finances. Lilies are also a symbol of abundance and positive energy.
8. Chrysanthemums bring laughter, happiness and harmony to an environment.
9. Hanging plants are great for moving energy around a room.
10. Tall green foliage plants, such as ferns and grasses, increase vitality and freshness.
11. Red or purple orchids can help revive a dormant sex life.
12. Dahlias, daisies and chrysanthemums enhance romance and finances.
13. Red tulips and red roses increase romance, pink tulips bring pleasure and white tulips increase motivation.
14. Bushy plants with rounded leaves are calming.
15. Trail philodendron or any round-leaved plant over sharp corners of tables or shelves.
16. Bamboo symbolizes positive energy and good fortune.
17. The most popular feng shui plants and flowers include bamboo, ficus, palms, dracaena, money plants, hanging baskets, peonies, chrysanthemums and lilies.

When choosing silk flowers, plants or trees for your feng shui decorating, be sure to purchase the highest quality silk flowers, silk plants and silk trees available.

The Silk Garden offers beautifully realistic, exceptional quality, designer silk flowers and arrangements, tropical silk flowers and orchids, silk plants, artificial silk trees and silk wreaths for discerning and particular plant enthusiasts or for those who simply want some of nature’s beauty to enhance their decor. Created with particular attention paid to detail, our silk flowers, silk plants, silk trees and silk wreaths look so authentic, you won’t believe they’re not!

Fountains in Feng Shui Decorating

Fountains, and the soothing sounds of flowing water, diffuse negative energy and enhance health, well-being and serenity, making them a very popular and beneficial element in feng shui decorating.

Feeling tired, stressed, worn out? Scientific evidence has shown that the sound of running water helps us relax, breathe deeper, alleviates depression, relieves stress, boosts our energy and can actually improve the quality of life.

Fountains are an easy way to incorporate the soothing sounds and benefits of flowing water into your life. Close your eyes, focus on the sounds of the water and drown out distracting noises and thoughts.  What a perfect way to center yourself, help you focus and relieve everyday stresses at home or at work.

Not only are fountains and water features a relaxing addition to your home or office, they bring positive energy into your life and are highly beneficial to your health, financial life, romance and relationships.

Purchase any of The Silk Garden’s water fountains, table fountains, wall fountains, indoor or outdoor fountains for your relaxed, positive state of mind at www.the-silk-garden.com/Fountains.htm.

Wind Chimes in Feng Shui Decorating

Wind chimes with pleasing sounds are very popular feng shui decorating items. They dispel negative energy and attract new, positive energy, promote health and harmony, increase popularity and goal realization and protect a home or business from intruders.

Wind chimes are very soothing and calming tools of tranquility, providing peaceful background noise. There is evidence that these gentle, wind-created sounds can improve health and well-being. Wind chimes are also quite comforting, their gentle sounds easing a troubled mind or soul.

Wind chimes are very popular choices as both indoor and outdoor accessories. When you add wind chimes to your porch or patio, hanging from a tree branch, roof beam, ceiling or any area where the wind will move them, you add a new dimension to your space. The sound of the metal, wooden or bamboo chimes adds a serene ambiance with its gentle sounds.

Improve your life with a selection of wind chimes from The Silk Garden at www.the-silk-garden.com/Wind Chimes.htm.

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