Feng Shui Tips

Get only the best tips, news, and advice from the world of feng shui. Get a helping hand in what can be an otherwise complicated and confusing way of life (as opposed to harmonized and balanced which it should be) - feng shui!

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Feng Shui Taking Hold In Poland

Radio Polonia: "Stroking toads
Listen

Feng Shui – which could be described as a kind of metaphysical interior decorating – is becoming big business in Poland. But why, one hundred years after Albert Einstein’s e=mc2 are these anti-scientific remedies, for problems we didn’t even know we had, taking over not just the way we arrange our bathrooms, but the way we arrange our lives?

I turned on the television on Monday to watch A Question for Breakfast, a programme I have mentioned before on this spot. Studio presenters introduce ‘experts’ on anything and everything, and viewers call in with their questions. This day, the subject was Feng Shui. Loads of people rang in with questions.

Feng Shui, like lots of other ‘New Ageisms’ took off here after the fall of communism. Now there is no escaping the weird and wacky in Poland. Turn on the ITV cable station and get your tarot card reading done live on air. Walk down any high street and pop into the esoteric shop and buy your self some rhino horn. But feng Shui is the new ageism of choice for the Polish middle classes.

So, I have been boning up on the principles of Feng Shui. Maybe it could help me too.

As with everything that comes from the East, it’s all about energy, karma, ying and yang, or whatever.

If you want a successful life, then you must optimize the flow of energy in your home. Chi, the Feng Shui energy thingy, comes in through your front door - although it never rings the bell.

Once in your front door, energy likes to flow freely. If you have potted plants in a place where red flowers should be, then your life is going to be absolute hell. Apparently.

Clean up all clutter and mess. Feng Shui does not like mess. Dirty windows cloud your judgment! Burnt out light bulbs contribute to a lack of vision!

Certain ‘hot spots’ in your home have to be activated. If you have a problem with money, then the problem could just lie in the way you have arranged your kitchen. If you have a problem with you relationship, then the problem could be found – maybe not surprisingly - in the bedroom. Is you sex life not swinging as it should? Then throw away that bottle of Viagra and rearrange the bedroom furniture, stupid!

Put lots of crystals, chimes and fish tanks everywhere, except in the bathroom. In the bathroom keep the toilet seat down, because if you don’t then the energy of chi will immediately spot this and dive head first down the pan.

And above all, make sure you have lots of models of frogs and toads. Before leaving for work in the morning, make sure you give the little toad a little stroke on his little head. Go on, you know it makes sense.

The obvious question, I suppose, is why do so many intelligent people in Poland, and elsewhere, fall hook line and sinker for this gibberish?

Maybe it’s because people have lost faith in the West; with science, with progress. And if the West is bad, then the East must be good.

So here are a few more drops of wisdom from the East that you might like to try.

For example: feeling depressed, lonely, spiritually unfulfilled? Then why not try what is known as coning, or ear candling. This involves a hollow candle inserted into your ear and lit. The resulting vacuum does not just suck out your earwax, but also vacuums up bad energies and karma. If this goes wrong, however, then it could suck out half your brain cells, as well.

Radio Polonia does not advise you to try this at home, listeners.

So maybe it would be wiser to do what the Xinhua news agency says that 3 million Chinese do everyday before breakfast: drink your own urine! Some prefer it straight; apparently, others say that a few drop in your orange juice works best. This, say devotees, cures anything from flu, to toothache, fatigue, lumbago, depression, Parkinson’s disease, athlete’s foot, diabetes and much, much more. I bet it’s even a good cure for bulimia! Or maybe not. It does make sense, of course. It is a completely portable cure; it is free and could be marketed as the ultimate home brew.

To my knowledge, however, the only home brew Poles are interested in is cooking up their own vodka. But naturopathy, homeopathy, and a whole host of so-called ‘alternative medicines’ certainly are big news here. Worldwide, alternative medicine – meaning medicines that have failed to pass any sort of scientific test and basically don’t work– are worth 15 billion dollars in sales every year.

Another obvious question, in a country where 95% claim to be Catholic is: why are so many Poles dabbling in what could be termed ‘New Ageism’?

Well, you won’t be surprised to know that in a country like Poland, the sociology of religion is one of the most researched topics in social science departments. Leading sociologists in the field, such as Irena Borowik, Tadeusz Doktor and Darota Hall, say that the Polish are “belongers but not believers’. Poles customize their beliefs to fit their lives. In a mono-religious culture, Poles are surprisingly pluralistic.

So New Age quackery fits in well.

And New Ageism fits in well with the West as well. The West really has lost faith in itself. It is suspicious of the very science that has made it so successful. And into this vacuum comes quackery, irrationality and fundamentalism of all sorts.

And we all know where that particular road can lead. Stroking toads, sometimes, can be bad for our health.

Read on:
Peculiarity of the new age movement Poland by Dorota Hall, Warsaw University "

You might be peculiar in Poland but your alright with me. A special hi to you if you're from Poland!

Sam, Feng Shui Tips

Not Ready To Toss The Tele, Throw Your Cell? No Problem!

EMF Protection - for Cell Phones, Computers, etc.

I just found this web site. Here you can purchase devices to protect yourself from EMF. I'd highly reccomend these products to you.

Sam, Feng Shui Tips

Toss Your Cell, Throw Away The TV!

EMF Protection Solutions: "Cell Phone Biological Studies
So far, over 200 studies have been completed and published during the last 10 years on cell phone EMF radiation and their possible effect on living tissue. Some of these studies were funded by the wireless industry and some are independent. It's interesting to see the numbers: 32% of industry-funded studies show biological effect, and 68% do not. However, among independent studies not funded by the industry, 71% show biological effect, and only 29% do not. (You are free to speculate about this variance.)

Anyway, the majority of these studies taken together (55%) have shown different changes in the living cells. These biological effects, can, but do not necessarily lead to health effects or diseases. All wireless devices must comply with certain health standards. These standards (SARs) only limit the amount of heat generated upon exposure. However, numerous published studies have shown biological effects occurring at levels up to 200,000 times below the allowed safety levels.

But what's alarming is that some of the biological effects documented in these studies involve the most essential functions of the cell, among them the cellular repair system. This potentially causes an increased number of unrepaired DNA strands and micronuclei, which constitutes a substantial cancer risk. It is a fact that the body, most of the time, is able to repair or undo such biological changes, but not all the time. Constant exposure could lead to a 'tipping point' at which the cells are not able to 'bounce back'; instead they degenerate and suffer cell death.

Dr. Henry Lai, an eminent researcher at the University of Washington, has compiled the abstracts of the 204 cell phone studies. If you are interested, you can download it here: Cell Phone Biological Studies Abstracts (right-click and 'Save As')"

Look at the dangers of EMF emitted from electronic devices. I don't normally post items off topic but this is reason for concern!

Sam, Feng Shui Tips

Feng Shui Times

This is another excellent Feng Shui News Articles and Tips Site!

Check them out today.

Sam, Feng Shui Tips

Feng Shui Tips Site

These guys have some great feng shui tips! Unfortunately they no longer seem to be posting new tips.

Take a look, be sure to come back here afterwards to get more Feng Shui Tips!

Sam, Feng Shui Tips

Debunking Feng Shui Myths

Practical Feng Shui – Debunking the Myths: "Practical Feng Shui – Debunking the Myths
By Joey Lewitin Platinum Quality Author

Most of the information that is available concerning Feng Shui is highly over-simplified. It often comes in the form of out-of-context eastern principals, mixed in with basic interior design horse sense from the west, to form a hybrid which many professional Feng Shui analysts agree can be as harmful as it is helpful. Feng Shui is more than just choosing certain colors, or “getting rid of clutter”, as many books and articles will have you believe. It is actually an extremely complex system of mathematical formulas that give highly specific advice based on the type of home, its layout, and its time of construction. There are no simple answers in Feng Shui, however there is something we can learn from the methods the ancients used to derive these principals.

Real Feng Shui is a system that has been evolving over thousands of years. The concept behind this design form is the idea that energy or “chi” flows through everything. Feng Shui is an attempt to maximize the flow of positive chi through a space to benefit the lives of the people within that setting. Feng Shui is originally based on the I Ching, an ancient Chinese text of mystical origins. Over the years successive schools of thought have come to dominate this decorative philosophy. As each new movement came to power, they refined the formulas and functions of previous schools. In this ongoing process of refinement, every possible arrangement of objects was tested against numerous people’s emotional and spiritual reaction to them over thousands of years. These reactions allowed the ancients to slowly improve their diagrams for the placement of objects.

This ancient mathematical formula for laying out the design of a setting does seem to be a sound method for improving the quality of a room’s décor. While this may be due to the ancients having determined the way chi flows, their real accomplishment might instead have been to develop a systemized mathematical representation of a wide scale, long term psychological study. While trying to determine the flow of energy, they may have instead determined the basic principals of design that elicit positive responses in humans, by experimentally testing and recording peoples reactions to different object settings.

Real Feng Shui is extraordinarily specific, and complex. The only way to do real Feng Shui is either to become a student of this art, and painstakingly learn the many principals and subtleties it requires, or to hire a professional to do an analysis and work over of your home. Either way, use of this design style requires a large sacrifice, and is outside the realm of most people’s time and money budget.

However, Feng Shui does teach us something that is very useful when decorating your home. The ancient thinkers who developed this idea derived it by simply paying attention to the feeling of objects in different spaces. This is a process that every person has it within their power to do. Everyone has taste, everyone has feelings. By simply getting in touch with your inner critic, you can become the source for your own personal Feng Shui. No matter how specific they were, a Philosopher from a thousand years ago is not going to understand the spiritual and emotional nuances of you, your family, and your home as well as you do. By using the strategy rather than the formula of Feng Shui, you can develop a highly personalized design that is a true expression of yourself.

Walk into a room, and see how it makes you feel. Notice the colors, the objects, and their placement. What do they evoke in you? Is the room comfortable? Is it calming or invigorating? Maybe there is something wrong in the room, even if you can’t tell exactly what it is, register that feeling. If you are attentive, you will start to get sensitive to the psychological influences that placement and design have on your own mind.

Color

Colors have very strong and individual effects on people. Different shades will have radically different results on people’s mental behavior. Dark colors can either be relaxing or depressing, light colors can be uplifting or annoying, and extreme colors can be exhilarating or aggravating. Pay attention to how these colors make you feel. When you visit other peoples homes, or even their shops or offices, pay attention to the effect that walking into a room has on you. Sometimes you will enter a space and feel naturally relaxed. Other places can have a negative effect, making you feel uncomfortable or agitated for no apparent reason. Remember the colors and the shades of these rooms, especially if you have a particularly strong response to one.

Colors also affect the nature of interactions, and when you enter a new space you should always pay attention to the way people behave to one another. If there is a room in your home where people tend to get into arguments, reassess the colors in that room. Bright or extreme colors can irritate people’s eyes and increase their metabolism, making them more likely to fight. Darker rooms can put people in a bad mood and make them lethargic. Color and placement are not the only things that influence interactions, but by paying attention you may be able to understand the subtle influence it can have.

Flow

In traditional Feng Shui, the goal is to maximize the flow of positive chi in an area. While you will probably not be able to detect the essence of the energy of a space, you can increase the feeling of flow in a room by paying attention to the way people and objects move through the space.

The flow you want to achieve is in the essence of the room. You want there to be easy access for people moving through the room, as well as in and out of it. You want objects to be able to move from their storage, into use, and back without adding to clutter. This kind of flow is a mixture of organization and design that focuses on removing blockages and allowing easy movement through every area.

You will be able to feel whether a room has flow just by walking into it. There are tiny currents of air that run through every space. We do not generally notice these currents, however using your intuition you can just barely perceive this air. The difference between greater and lesser currents will be translated into your mind as greater or lesser flow. As always, make yourself sensitive to the subtleties of the space.

EXPERIMENT

It is important to allow yourself to be wrong. If you don’t make mistakes, you won’t learn anything. Pay attention to emotional variations you feel from placing different decorations and colors in different spaces. At a certain point, stop and simply exist in the room, remaining attentive to the feel of the space. Occasionally, make small changes, and observe the emotional and interactive differences.

If you don’t have the time or strength to constantly move furnishings and furniture around, then try visualizing different scenarios. Sit somewhere quiet, close your eyes, and imagine the room in a different style. Imagine yourself in the room, and try to incorporate every detail in the room into the setting. Feel how your emotions respond to such a setting. Pay attention to any problems you may feel. Allow yourself access to the subconscious of your mind, and trust its natural inclinations, as it will pick up on problems and solutions that you won’t consciously understand. Use color charts and pictures to help with the imagination process.

Feng Shui is a very respectable form of interior decorating with a long and rich history. However, it was originally based on simple trial and error, as ancient Chinese thinkers explored the many different ways that positioning and design can affect the most subtle workings of the human mind. Today you can try to recreate that method, by experimenting with yourself and your surroundings to produce a room that will affect you and your family in a positive way. While you probably won’t achieve the accuracy of the ancients in your first attempt, each try will educate you as to the style and design that suites you best as well as the way it affects you. Exploring this further can allow you a creative outlet enabling you to get in touch with the very basic nature of art that exists within you.

Copyright Joey Lewitin 2005

This article is free to reprint if there are no major alterations made to its content, and if the resource box appears at the bottom of the page with a clickable link in it.

Joey Lewitin is an author, artist, and designer of home décor accessories made from imported stone. Original designs from him and other artisans can be seen at The Stone Décor Store

Joey Lewitin is an author, artist, and designer of home décor accessories made from imported stone. Original designs from him and other artisans can be seen at http://pebblez.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/"

These tips really help to clarify feng shui today.

Sam, Feng Shui Tips

Jakob Jelling's Feng Shui Career Tips

Learn Some Useful Feng Shui Career Tips: "Learn Some Useful Feng Shui Career Tips
By Jakob Jelling

As it does with every main life aspect, feng shui also provides tips and guidelines to help you improving your career. If your career is not moving on in the way you wish, that is due to a lack of balance and harmony within your environment and the elements that affect it. Feng shui career tips intend to help you reach that harmony, but besides of following these specific tips, you should try to follow feng shui guidelines for all your life areas, since your life should be balanced as a whole as well.

One first and very important feng shui career tip talks about your desk position. The desk or table you use for working should be placed in a position that allows you to see the main door. Your desk should never be with your back at the door, since that would be very harmful for your career. And if possible, you should also try to place it in such an angle where you can also see the window.

You should be careful of not having your back towards a sharp edge or a poison arrow. If you can't avoid this, you could minimize the harmful effects by placing a plant or a crystal covering it. In case you have a door or a window at your back, you can also place a plant or a crystal to neutralize bad consequences.

It is also important that you design your office or working space according to the bagua map indications. If possible, you should try to create your working space at the south of the environment where it will be. According to the bagua, south symbolizes the life area corresponding to career, and therefore it is the ideal place for such purpose.

Another important thing to take into account is tidiness. Your working space, and especially your desk, should be tidy. You should get rid of clutter from your working space and maintain it as clean and tidy as possible. Besides, it is particularly important that you keep the south area of your desk free of objects since this area is the one which corresponds to career according to the bagua map.

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.fengshuicrazy.com Please visit his website and learn all the feng shui tips you'll ever need!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/"

These are really great Feng Shui Tips yeah?

Sam, Feng Shui Tips