Tag Archives: Education

Expanding Feng Shui – the good news!

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As I study Feng Shui, the tradition, rules, and guidelines that have come down to us in the West,  I have questions.  Sometimes trying to figure out how particular ‘cure’ should be applied. Sometimes the poetic nature of the base principle becomes downright confusing as how to use it. The entire scheme of Feng Shui is steeped in a culture most of us here in the west find foreign – we don’t have the context. The poetic way it is expressed doesn’t fit our love of specificity.

The wisdom of Feng Shui made me wonder, what was here in the West that could also be called  “feng shui”? Surely there had to be things that have been developed here that reflected the wisdom of the East but rooted in the West.

Our local paper, Sneak Preview, just published a notice that a Permaculture Design Course would be offered beginning in February. Many of the principles contained in Permaculture includes what a sustainable or regenerative lifestyle looks like.


This is NOT a Western middle class style. Permaculture incorporates what happens as climate change takes it’s toll.
At it’s base, Permaculture teaches how to synergize with Nature.

The article defines Permaculture at “a system of land use planning and a design protocol for creating human habitations that embody three ethical foundations: care of the Earth, care of people, and the reinvestment of surplus to support those ethics.” It’s basis is positive approach to see our place in nature – not as dominators and controllers – but as an intelligent contributing part.  If successful, is that not also the results of successful Feng Shui?

I’ve been invited to talk Saturday, Feb 27, at the Chinese New Year’s celebration in Jacksonville. I will tease out some of permaculture practices that I term Western Feng Shui and how we can use them now. I will demonstrate the interconnections between Fng Shui and Permaculture. Of course, many will say that Feng Shui is about the placement of items INSIDE the house. Originally it was used to site the grave sites of the ancestors. Hardly inside stuff! We can use it when siting a house, deciding whether or not to buy certain land, how to lay out an effective landscape. For those who feel Feng Shui is only for how to paint the wall and where to put the couch, I doubt that the talk will have any interest, but for others, I hope you will make it. The talk will be in the Old Jail in Jacksonville.

I will be giving two talks that day. You can make sure this will be a good use of your time if you will write me a note and tell me what you would like to know by attending. use <info@creative-visions.co> to send me what you’d like to take away.

5 Keys to Effective Lighting

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It’s amazing how much light affects us, yet most people have little awareness about this important element. Surprisingly, light is not included as one of the 5 elements in Feng Shui, yet it’s affects on us can be just as significant as the other elements. So here are 5 tips to make light work for you.

daylight1) Try to get at least a half hour of real sunlight a day. If you can’t, take Vitamin D3.

2) Don’t place lights sources in back of you. Often kitchens and offices just have overhead lights and people stand at a surface casting a shadow on their work. Under-counter lights to correct this. The less you strain your eyes, the less likely your eyesight will diminish with age.

3) Visible light comes in a full color spectrum. Though most of us can’t recognize the different between a 2500K light source and a 5K source, it affects the colors we see and how we feel about them.  Many people say “use daylight, or full spectrum lights. That’s fine, but the light feels cold and impersonal. It can do the same thing to many colors, making warm color feel cold. We are used to a warmer light. So before you replace bulbs (anywhere!) go to a dealer who has a series flight boxes with the same photo in each. You’ll quickly see which one looks the best to you. That’s the amount of Kelvin you want to get. [Kelvin is the measurement of the light wave length.)

4) If you’re converting to LEDs you are being kind to the environment and using electricity wisely. But make sure you know what you’re getting. Ever notice some new cars have piercingly blue/white headlights? You don’t want that inside. Look for warm white LEDs for inside use.
Storefront5) Want to draw attention to something? Put lots of light on it. If you’re in business, you’d be surprised how that can bring people into a store. Likewise, if you want your party to be mellow and casual, keep the lighting soft.  Soft lighting

One fellow I know made his entire lucrative business lighting restaurants so that women look really good.  He laughed all the way to the bank while his cynics thought he was cracked. How and were you use light is more important than you think.

Want to solve a situation with light? Call Sugeet. He’s not only a Feng Shui expert, he also was an art gallery director for 12 years. Talk about lighting!

Start to eliminate overwhelm. Here’s a key

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You may know you are in overwhelm or that you become overwhelmed from time to time.  How bad does it get?Overwhelm How often? If you’ll take the time to look at you desk (if that’s where you spend most of your time) or your office, or you shop, or you home, and you see clutter, you have a thermometer for overwhelm.  It’s a well known fact in Feng Shui and in business circles that if you have a lot of clutter, your thinking will reflect that back.

It’s an ego trip to think of “how busy I am, look at everything I need to get done…” That’s the perfect cue to go into overwhelm. You probably aren’t getting that much done and what you do get done may not be your best work. So take the baby step, clear everything off your desk and only outback things that are used everyday. Keep it simple. Then notice that you are thinking more clearly about what you have to get don. Try it! You’ll like it.

A Feng Shui tune up – Windchimes!

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Too often I hear people disparaging wind chimes as just another gewgaw to annoy the neighbors.  Beg to differ. Here’s a brief story to help you understand how the ancient art and science of Feng Shui uses wind chimes.

A client loved her new home, but soon realized that she was unable to relax and recharge.See through The home had a beautiful view of the valley, had lots of light, was room, and not cluttered. She called her Feng Shui practitioner wanting it fixed.

Here was a home that welcomed you, inviting you in. Yet once in the front door, all the energy zoomed out those gorgeous picture windows overlooking the valley. As far as the energy went, you could have had 3 or 4 big fans making wind in the home. No wonder she couldn’t relax!

The fix was to use strategically placed wind chimes to disperse and slow the energy. A visual metaphor is possibly a better illustration of what a good wind chime can do.

Picture a tray or plate with sand mounded on it. When wind meets the sand, it picks up grains of and takes them where the wind goes. This is the situation when the home’s chi is lost – right out the beautiful picture windows. Now quietly vibrate that same tray and what happens? The mound dissipates and the sand becomes flat, level. The chi enters the home, gets dissipated  by the wind chime and only later leaves.

Choosing the right wind chime is critical. We’ve all been on vacation where every craft shop and garden center has many, many to choose from.  Some are crafts gone mad. Come are downright clever. Others cute. You need none of these. Look for a wind chime that produces a positive effect on YOUR mood. A good wind chime is a pleasing sound one you won’t mind hearing when the wind moves it.

Some of the better ones are tuned to certain musical keys. You’ll resonate with one over the others. That’s the one for you.

Two manufacturers of high quality chimes are Woodstock and Music of the Spheres. You can listen to them online. See how they affect you. (These are just suggestions, I have no affiliation with either.) Pick the one that draws you – that creates pleasure. Then hang that one where the Feng Shui Practitioner suggested.

Of the client? Her practitioner brought her a wonderful one (she later got 2 more!) and she feels 100% different.

Sound is one form of energy that Feng Shui works with. Used correctly, sound can change your life! (You get a ‘tune-up’ for your car…what about a tune up for yourself?)

Declutter Your Life – Part 3

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And the last of the lessons learned when Dawn decided to simplify her life:

I had also been hanging on to a lot of books and notebooks filled to the brim from my graduate days in our basement even though I was no longer interested in continuing to pursue my Ph.D. or teaching. In looking through the notebooks and papers I had written, I remembered all the good times I had enjoyed while working on my degree. I had already put the bad times behind me and had chosen to forgive so getting rid of this stuff was the final thing I needed to do to let go. I kept my thesis work and a few writing samples and that was it. Upstairs, I kept sheet music, poetry I wrote, an art journal, Christian literature, my art books and a few special books from my childhood that I will pass on to our son, Hayden. Every book I own is now in one, medium-sized, clear, plastic storage container in our laundry/computer room. Since I seldom use even these books it felt right to put the bookshelf down in storage for our son, as he gets a bit older.

Our place looks so much better without all that surface-area clutter and requires much less dusting! I am putting together two 12 photo collages (one for pictures clutter_free_homeof my son, and one for family and friends) to go on the walls of the living and dining rooms and one 3 photo collage of our favorite wedding photos. This will greatly simplify the rooms and visual space. I am also looking forward to be able to look at all the people that truly enhance my life without needing to search through a lot of clutter.

Living simply for me also means not over committing my time, energy and money. I chose not to re-join a community choir because the rehearsal time is very inconvenient and I would rather spend that time with my family. Since I am fortunate to have the material things I need, I avoid shopping, especially looking at certain “trigger” sites online (something I used to really enjoy doing). That has been a hard thing for me to change but it saves money for our family and creates more time, which is better spent elsewhere.

Through my efforts to de-clutter and simplify, my husband was inspired to help me by pulling my stuff out of storage so I could go through it. As the chef of the house, he also went through all the kitchen gadgets and utensils. He even agreed with me to go paperless, as much as possible, with our files. My mom was inspired to go through her dreaded hall closet getting rid of many, many things. Although my husband still feels that there is no way that he would ever want to live in a tiny house, my decision and efforts to simplify have made a lot of progress for all of us.

So… you can live tinier and simplify your life without living in a tiny house. You don’t need to have everyone on board with you to make real progress both with your living space, your perspective, and your own personal growth. Your process will not look the same as mine as the journey you experience will be uniquely yours, and entirely worth it! Take care and live tinier. -Dawn Zimmerman

With thanks to www.TinyHouseBuild.com

Adding Feng Shui to your landscape

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Beauty almost always includes positive Feng Shui. Good modern design often means simplifying, so it often unknowingly incorporates basic Feng Shui.

Here’s a link to 10 backyard renovations, each and all of which bring beauty in simplicity. There’s only one problem: notice how angular and yang they are. If you like these ideas, soften the lines (bringing yin energy in) and enjoy the results.

http://tinyurl.com/mwazxdb Zen outdoor fountain

Part 2 – What to Shred and When

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Shredding is great fun but not if you shred the wrong documents. Here’s your guide:

Monthly

Credit card receipts after reconciliation with the credit card statement. Don’t shred receipts needed for tax purses or warranties. Attach those receipts to either the user manual or the warranty.

Shred cancelled checks and debit receipts [again excepting those needed for taxes or warranties. My bank has a picture, front and back of all my checks, so a paper copy, mailed by the bank is redundant.]

Yearly Shredpaper-shredding-machine1

• Monthly retirement and investment account statements after they are reconciled with their year end statement.

• The monthly bank statement IF you have reconciled with the year end statement.

• Pay stubs after reconciliation with W-2s, 1099s or equivalents, the IRS has their own copy!

• Repeating monthly bill. Check it against last year’s to see that there is not some freak leak. [My utility company gives me a usage graph this year and last year, so I don’t need to do this comparison and I can just shred last years statement.]

After 7 or 10 years:
• Year end bank statements [if  not needed for tax purposes]

• Any titles, deeds, or surveys to any cars and/or property not owned for 7 years.

 NEVER SHRED

• Certificates of birth, divorce, death.

• Military service records [I have been hearing a horror story of a retired serviceman who is trying to get disability, only to have the Army “losing” his records….]

• Wills and Trusts, revocable and non revocable

• Power of Attorney documents

• Social Security reports

• Year- end retirement statements and policies

• Loans and mortgage paid-in-full docs

• Diplomas and transcripts

• Medical records

* Current resume

• Evaluation and receipts of valuables [art, silver, jewels]

Many of these documents really belong out of the home. A Safe deposit box is good. But make sure someone else who you trust is also on the safe deposit list and has a key. Why? If something happens to you, you die or are incapacitated, they can get whatever is needed.

Next up: Organize what you have and lose even MORE paper!

More Freedom! More Life! More Joy!

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The latest group of friends who took the plunge and started getting a real handle on their over crowded lives. We met for the last time yesterday. Two could not be there due to personal emergencies, but I think you can tell from the expressions the class was a success. Soon I will announce a new class, RECLAIM YOUR LIFE, where we will come to understand why we gather too much and how to be permanently rid of that little barnacle that costs money, time, health and happiness. Stay tuned! If you’d like to be in on it, let me know and whether you’d enjoy a teleclass (if you’re out of the Rogue Valley.) If you have questions, contact me at info@Creative-Visions.co

Mainlining Feng Shui

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Recently a couple of articles have crossed my desk  trumpeting  a graduating class of Feng Shui majors leaving major interior design Institutes. Think, feng shui is going mainstream even if at a snails pace. And while it might be trendy to include Feng Shui on the curriculum, the deeper truth is experiencing how effective Feng Shui can be. Those of you who keep up with this blog, already know that I find the principles of Feng Shui being used under other names. If you want absolutely contemporary feng shui, learn Permaculture.