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Feng Shui Tips for the Bedroom for Health and Relationship Improvements

by Karen on September 28, 2011 in 5 elements, De-Cluttering, Furniture Position in Room, Health, Relationships and Love, The Five Elements

On average, one third of your life is spent in your bedroom. I think it is practically impossible to “waste money” on creating the perfect bedroom as it is your most impacting room of your house! Here are my tips for bedrooms if your love life seems stale or is non-existent, or your health could use some improvement, or you are looking for a new or different outlook on life:

#1 Remove anything that does not support love/passion and health/rest. If your bedroom looks more like an office or multi-purpose room, your environment is working against you. If you want to go the extra mile with feng shui, try to get a good balance of the five elements in there as well.

#2 If you are looking for a major change, then stretch yourself and make major decor changes within the bedroom. In other words, “Don’t buy the same old comfort zone stuff that will get you the same old love and health-life situations!”

#3 Buy a wooden bed if you have the choice. Metal beds can conduct electrical fields which can be a health concern. Avoid having anything plugged-in near your bed, and especially no electrical blankets (even if they are plugged in but not turned on they can be harmful!), heating pads, or massage pads.

#4 Check the lighting level to see if it is not too harsh (yang) or too dim (yin). Listen for distracting sounds and try to alleviate or remove.

#5 Avoid large living plants or water fountains in the bedroom.

#6 Avoid large mirrors in the room. You should not be able to see yourself reflected in any mirror when in your bed.

#7 Avoid sharp metal within the bedroom (knives, axes, swords, guns, scissors, etc.) Sharp metal near you in bed usually results in “being cut” in life – as in surgeries.

#8 Create a headboard for the bed and place it against the most solid wall in the room – cure poison arrows or “bed in line with doorway” lines by hanging a crystal between the bed and the negative item.

Don’t settle for a “6″ Bedroom when you can have a 10!!!!!

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Using the 5 Element “Reductive Cycle” to Feng Shui Balance your Home

by Karen on August 25, 2011 in 5 elements, Blog, The Five Elements

I know, I know. In my book I mentioned the creative and destructive cycles when I discussed the five elements. But those in-the-know know that there are three cycles and not two.The one that got edited out was the reductive cycle.

The reductive cycle is a cycle where you can “reduce” an element without totally destroying it. Let’s say, for example that you have a totally white room (which equals metal) with a lot of metal furnishings in the creativity/children gua of your home (where metal is a GOOD thing.) Things should be good, right? But perhaps too much of a good thing can be harmful and out of balance as well. Perhaps, as much as you love your totally creative life, you can’t sleep for all the great ideas coming your way. You find yourself dragging around life from a type of “creative exhaustion.”

In this case, you certainly don’t want to destroy your creativity, but you would like to bring in the reins a bit. With the reductive cycle, you would add water element to that metal space.

It’s like the metal in that creativity gua above is saying “I’m growing, I’m growing, I’m growing, oops, now I have to use some of myself to create water.” It can’t become so powerful because it has a job to do. It has to “feed” the water element. (I’m trying with the visual here, I hope it is working!) Again, if you area trying to reduce wood element somewhere for example, you would add fire. Then, the wood is “saying,” “I’m growing, I’m growing, I’m growing, but gotta feed the fire.” So it has to take the time to feed the fire and therefore not become “out of control wood.” Wow, I hope this is getting across to you out there!

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Feng Shui the Kids to be More Mature – Or the Mom to See Kids in a New Light

by Karen on July 16, 2011 in 5 elements, Blog, Creativity and Children, Fame and Reputation

I recently did a consultation where the client had two children that she felt still needed a lot of directing even though they were girls and were 11 and 15. When I looked through the house, I noticed that there were MANY photographs of the girls as babies and small children, but none at the age they are now. The mom said it was because she could not get them to even think of posing for a picture now because whatever she wants the kids to do, they want the opposite.

Well, you know what I say, if the client is very resistant to it, or thinks it can’t be done, or even shouldn’t be done, perhaps that is the VERY thing that should be done. So, for the time being (at LEAST until she can get her fame and reputation gua up and running to get some respect within her own household, and overhauling the relationship gua which was her “totally over watered” office,) we took down all the pictures. the funny thing was, the girls didn’t seem to mind at all, but it was the mother that seemed upset that they were all gone.

So, was the problem really the kids being juvenile or the perception of the mother only being able to see her children as babies? What do you think?

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The Wrong Color for a Part of the Bagua – Q and A

by Karen on June 27, 2011 in 5 elements, Creativity and Children, Family and Friends, Furniture Position in Room, General

It all depends on what is around it!

Question: I just read your book and am now rethinking my decor ideas. I was just getting ready to hang a red curtain in my guest bathroom that falls in the Creativity and Children Gua, and white blinds in a window in the Family Gua window. What would you say to this?

Answer: If you only knew how many questions I get like this! The answer is: it depends. Color is one of the MANY items you can use to cure a space, that is true. But unless EVERY SINGLE thing in the room is that same color (I hope not!) then you’ve got some aspects of other elements nearby as well. There is also the “cover your butt” cure in my book that you might want to review. It states that if you don’t know if you’ve got too much of one element or not enough of another, then put some of every element there with good intentions and it will balance itself out! As a matter of fact, I would say to consider the shape of the item first, then it’s construction material, and then its color to decide what element it is if you are looking at these items from a 5 element perspective.

So, can your particular bathroom handle a red curtain – maybe! It depends. Sometimes red can be used in the Fame and Reputation Gua of THAT ROOM and there you go! Or perhaps everything is all dark blue or some other dark color (which would be considered water element with a downward flow), then perhaps a little upward moving fire element in the red curtain would be helpful.. One would really have to know the context of the particular item to have an opinion.

So, there you have it. Depending on the context, that one red curtain could be bad, could be good, could be neutral…it all depends. That’s why I do live and telephone consultations (where people send me pictures and floor plans ) – it’s because I need to see what’s around each item and how it all works together.

Nothing is inherently good or bad feng shui. It just depends on where it is and what’s around it.

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Cheap Feng Shui Products at Work!

by Karen on June 4, 2011 in 5 elements, Blog, Relationships and Love

I always get a lot of people telling me how much they love the success stories. This one that I found in my archives had a fun little twist to it, so I thought I’d share it again to make a point:

“Well, last January I had all I could take – I was with a very lazy, narcissistic man who wouldn’t work, and I couldn’t spend another year with him. I bought your book, did some “trailer park Feng Shui” as I call it (which mostly involves felt and construction paper) as well as moved stuff around. I found pictures of children playing and wrote my wish to have children (and to always be child-like with wonder) on the back of it. I decided to move to Tampa and go to a sperm donor for children, which was (and still is) a major desire for myself. I then moved my weight set (round, metal) into my Love and Relationships corner and asked to be strong enough to attract a mate who admired my strengths and was strong enough to take care of himself. Also put some colored felt there. And I jazzed up my Helpful People corner with some sparkly silvery stuff.

BANG! One week later, on February 2nd, I had thrown out the lazy man. My friend at work (a Helpful Person) introduced me to one of her friends, and we got married this year on August 9th. One of the major attractions between us was our desire to have children. Guess I won’t be needing that sperm donor after all! Go figure! And he’s a STRONG MAN – he picks my 200-pound body up like a rag doll. Guess those weights were in the right place! He is kind and gentle and sees me the way I wish I could see myself – strong, intelligent, loyal… he values the qualities that others did not see in me and he treats me like an equal, not as a subordinate.

Thanks again! My new husband and I are moving this week into our apartment – and I have already charted out our feng shui floor plan, and he is helping me plan where to put things!”

Thanks,

Mickey

Now, some of you who that just read that may be thinking “No, don’t put metal weights in the earth-dominated relationship gua – that is the reductive cycle! It sounds like she could use all the earth she can get in that gua!”

But you see, it worked for her. Why? Because the weights became a symbol of her intentions, and her intentions were so powerful, her thoughts of finding strength in herself and a mate overpowered the fact that the elements were not placed perfectly. And if you remember, symbols are one of the nine traditional cures that will rev up energy in any space you choose.

It’s true we don’t know the whole story of her house and what else may be supporting her in the relationship area, but she obviously succeeded with a symbolic cure even though it is a reductive cycle cure.

This is a great lesson in not getting so flustered about feng shui placement of objects – and simply holding clear intention of what you are intending to create or change with your feng shui cure. I get a lot of emails from petrified people afraid to start feng shuiing for fear of doing something dreadful. I’m here to let you know that it is the fear itself that is the dreadful thing. When you feng shui with a clear heart and mind, you really can’t go wrong. I have seen people turn around what appeared to be a total feng shui disaster with a different spin with their intentions.

There, there now, doesn’t that feel better? Feng shui is about balancing the vibratory patterns of energy. Think of the feng shui books out there as helpful advice to build upon, and not “the only way to go,” and I think you will find your feng shui efforts paying off big time.

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What is “the Reductive Cycle” in Feng Shui?

by Karen on May 10, 2011 in 5 elements, General, Just for Fun

What is the reductive cycle? I read up on it in another book but didn’t quite get it.

The reductive cycle is a cycle that got edited out of my book Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life (those darned editors!) It is the cycle where you can “reduce” an element without totally destroying it. (Now, this upcoming is an answer meant for someone who pretty much knows the other two cycles – so if you don’t, you might want to pick up a copy of my book first!)

Let’s say, for example that you have a totally white room with a lot of metal furnishings. It is also in the creativity/children gua. As much as you love your totally creative life, you can’t sleep for all the great ideas coming your way. You find yourself dragging around life from a type of “creative exhaustion.” You certainly don’t want to destroy your creativity, but you would like to bring in the reins a bit. With the reductive cycle, you would add water element to that metal space.

Basically the reductive cycle uses the element ahead of it in the creative cycle (see page 37 of my book.) If you want to reduce metal, use water. If you want to reduce water, use wood. If you want to reduce wood, use fire. If you want to reduce fire, use earth. If you want to reduce earth, use metal. It’s like the metal in that creativity gua above is saying “I’m growing, I’m growing, I’m growing, oops, now I have to use some of myself to create water.” It can’t become so powerful because it has a job to do. It has to “feed” the water element. (I’m trying with the visual here, I hope it is working!)

Again, if you area trying to reduce wood element somewhere, you would add fire. Then, the wood is “saying,” “I’m growing, I’m growing, I’m growing, feed the fire.” So it has to take the time to feed the fire and therefore not become “out-of-control wood.” (Wow, I hope this is getting clear to all of you out there!)

Hope that helps!

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