I just have to tell you this story about my son getting into high school as I think it perfectly demonstrates how a “highest good” type of intention can be the most rewarding. After all, it isn’t helpful to wear yourself out fretting every second of your life over a very specific outcome. Instead, be open to the highest good.

A few years ago, I heard of an Arts High School that is a nearby charter school dedicated to young artists. I approached my son to see if he thought it was an opportunity worth pursuing for him. (My son Cole has quite the acting bug if you aren’t aware.) Here’s the thing; in order to get in, you have to audition for the conservatory. That felt like a stretch for Cole (he has a thing about wanting to be prefect FIRST) so I’d say his attitude about auditioning was “sitting on the fence” at best. On one hand, it might be fun, but on the other hand, he’d be leaving all his friends to do it. I asked him if he would audition “for the heck of it” just to see if he could get in. After all, I heard there’s something like 4000 people auditioning for about 350 spots, so the numbers game was definitely not on our side. He, oh… how shall I say, “cautiously limped in.”

Fast forward a year. Cole and I have now have spent considerable time in acting classes, hiring audition specialists, building an acting resume by doing local theater, blah, blah, and we are ready to audition (can you see by the use of the term “we,” how invested I am in this outcome?).

Then the audition notice comes in the mail. We expectantly read over the letter…Wait! What? His audition time is on the same day that I have an all day live event? AAAHHH! My mind starts racing…who’s going to be there to spit-comb his hair and tell him to smile as he walks into the audition? (Hello helicopter parents – ME!) His dad will just do something like say, “You’re up — I’ll wait for you here. Good luck.” (Unacceptable “after all I’ve done!” says helicopter parent Karen!)

So, it was about then that I noticed my behavior and my total attachment to the specific outcome of this and decided to take a step back. Am I trying to alter his life course in a way that is not helpful to him?

So, deep breath…instead of lining my helpful people box with notes saying things like “Thank you for Cole’s acceptance into the School of the Arts” Which is what I REALLY WANTED, I decided to simply write “The Arts School is very helpful to me and Cole Carter. Thank you!” – and whether they are helpful by NOT choosing him, or choosing him – I’m NOT ATTACHED. My intention was that I wanted the best school for Cole and would embrace whatever showed up as I put the note in the box.

From my life experience, I know that EVENTUALLY, the lessons gained of trying times and “losses” are sometimes more valuable than what’s gained from the wins, so decided to have faith that by letting go of the outcome, whatever way it ended up, he’d still be on his right path. And on another note, the school that all his friends are at and where he’d go if he didn’t get in is about 100 yards away and the arts school would be a considerable time commitment for me to just get him there and back!

The results: He got on the waiting list. I thought, well there you have it…not in, not quite out…the exact mirroring of my intentions…DANG IT!

OK, so looks like we’re registering for the local public school, and if we get “called up” to the arts school, we’ll jump ship to the other side. So, Cole graduates from middle school and summer plans start to take shape. As a graduation gift, I gave Cole a ticket to a leadership/personal growth seminar that I did years ago and loved. We were going to go to Denver to do it (thus my travels to Denver in June.) But then his yearly church camp happened to be the same week and so he skipped the Denver seminar. I then researched and found that the leadership seminar was going to be in San Jose (thus my trip to San Jose – yep I’m a multitasking entrepreneur mom!)

In San Jose, I gave my workshops at EastWest Bookshop while he was attending his seminar across town, and we also had a wonderful vacation time together. The day after his seminar ended we decided to go zip-lining in the redwoods. That morning, I got a call saying “We have room for Cole at the School of the Arts if he is still interested.” We jumped for joy, because one of the things he got in that personal growth seminar was how committed he was to his acting career and how he REALLY wanted to get into the arts school now. (AKA – his own energy shift.) He also got how he didn’t have to be perfect BEFORE trying anything, which was my dream for him to “get” since he was thinking of choosing a career that is classically “full of rejection.”

Here’s the crazy thing….. the arts school started on August 21. Had he been accepted any earlier, Cole would have never had the opportunity to do the leadership training seminar on August 24-26th that actually shifted his energy to REALLY WANT IN! So, essentially we all got what we wanted – I wanted him to get in the school, I wanted him to take that personal growth training and clean up some of his unresourceful thinking before starting high school. And best of all, he got into one of the best high schools in the country – IN the acting conservatory no less! He just had to start school a week and a half late to do it all – which somehow ended up alright. How freaky is THAT?

All summer long we erroneously felt bummed as we registered for the “second choice” local school because we couldn’t see the bigger picture. We should have had faith that either way, it always works out in the end – even though it certainly didn’t look that way to us at the time.

So, I’m here to tell you to give consideration to this — perhaps, just perhaps… even if your life may not be unfolding exactly like you envisioned it as you placed your feng shui cures, I have a renewed confidence to say…

It will still all working out in the end.

School’s out and I’m overwhelmed with all the stuff that is left over. Do you have any ideas on how to get a grip on all the paper that my kids bring home from school so I’m prepared this fall? It got ahead of me this year but I don’t want to make that mistake again…I’m afraid it will take over my house if I don’t have a plan!

Great feng shui question, so here’s my answer…

I feel your pain sister! Kids bring home TONS of papers – it can be really hard to stay on top of it all. So I say the best way to not get overwhelmed is to get a handle on it before it gets out of control. Remember, there has to be dedicated physical space for every intended function within the house. Temporary storage for school information and incoming papers included.

First, find a spot in the house that can handle it. Often, it starts encroaching on the kitchen counter (which is pretty incongruent with what a kitchen counter is designed for.) If you have the kitchen space and no other – go for it. Clean out a junk drawer that is currently only holding old twist ties and give it a more functional use. If not, then carve out space somewhere else (and don’t even think about your bedroom here!) I believe each child should have their own space somewhere – hopefully it can be in the same neighborhood as where they do their homework and have easy access to it.

I also hope this space can be “permanent” (and not simply a temporary zone at the kitchen counter where it has to be removed every day.) Even if your children does their homework on the living room floor or at the kitchen counter, they need a “permanent space” elsewhere to keep books, backpacks, etc. and hopefully this “paper drop zone” can take up residence there too. A wire mesh bin (the metal will promote cleanliness as opposed to a wooden or woven one) near the bill paying desk or area may be the choice to make. It may be necessary to have one bin for each child to keep things organized so those stackable office trays might be the answer. Don’t let them be big enough to actually hold a year’s worth of stuff either! Set up a ritual (once a week or month) to clean it out, or it just may swallow up all your living space! Perhaps this is a Sunday night ritual or a tacked-on task when you pay the bills.

The refrigerator can be used for your proud displays, but don’t let them overtake the space! Try to keep 50% of the refrigerator facade empty so it can visually “hold” what you hang up.

And now, a note for the parent who can’t seem to throw ANY of your child’s papers or work out:

Appreciate them and then let them go. (Consider a paper recycling bin near the mesh bin above!)

I’m talking about the parent who can’t let go even if that particular paper doesn’t mean that much (or anything) to the child. I don’t think you are doing anyone any favors by saving EVERYTHING your child brings home. It is slowly eating up living space within your home’s living body and it keeps some people living in the past. And do I even need to discuss what it may be doing to your health?

Consult a professional organizer if you can’t make decisions here, or enlist a friend or relative to help of you can go there. But please don’t stifle your energy thinking that these papers and class projects are more valuable than your family’s health. The Chinese say not to have books in the bedroom because “they’re dead.” The energetic quality of most stuff that comes home I would lump in the same category.

It’s official! I’ve got a teenager! I just saw this on his door and had to share. This is definitely a keeper picture for when he has kids, right? How cute!

Ya just gotta love the many stages of life. As much as parents freak out when kids grow and “rebel,” this type of “claiming space” is precisely what is needed when a 13-year-old is trying to find himself, etc. This is teen feng shui in the making.

So, as much as it might seem hurtful to parents on one end, know that it is entirely appropriate on another. I know I’m in for some challenges ahead, but change is what life is all about, right?

Note to self: Look up penmanship classes for teens…

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?

Last month I was rearranging my teenaged daughter’ s room one morning. I had JUST taken a bulletin board off the wall and removed all of the items, with the intention of painting the border, weeding out some of the seemingly superfluous items and rehanging it (perhaps in a different spot).

Among the items were; a photo of her at age ten driving an old pickup truck around a pasture with my husband in the passenger’s seat,  a copy of her driver’s safety handbook, and a photo of my dad, a Chicago policeman known for his extreme proficiency behind the wheel. The phone rang. It was my daughter, tearfully telling me she had just been in a fender-bender on her way to school (first one in  2 years of driving)!! I painted the board, replaced all of the items and put it RIGHT back where it was.  OKAY, I  BELIEVE !!

Now-I have a question; Now that she’s heading for college, she’s been collecting new items for her apartment, but there are also multiple items she want to take with her from her bedroom here at home. What do we do?  Should she take them? Should I try to find exact duplicates of the items she wants, so she has them at both locations? I haven’t been able to find an answer to this one anywhere. Thanks-  DJ Kelly Memphis TN

Answer:

OK DJ, now take a breath…

The answer to this questions is simply this. The place that you associate as your main home will be the place that impacts you the most. I am assuming by saying this that you are sleeping there and spending a significant amount of time there. So, if she moves and takes her stuff out of that  bedroom and creates a new nest somewhere else, her world should NOT crash around her. You do not need to recreate a fake, still, museum-like room to keep her chi up. I would guess that the type of space I just described might  do the opposite.

The good news is, if she is “very clean” with her chi, which, if your tweaking her space brought those immediate “negative” results, then she has the  capacity to get good results just as quickly. All she needs to do is stay positive with her thoughts and keep her space as revved up as it seems to be now….make sense?

I have seen people take feng shui to the extreme and get all paranoid about everything, and it usually does not serve them well. My advice would be to think of it like this…if thinking about the immediate repercussions that  what I describe is paranoid way keeps you ever-mindful about the placement of the stuff in your surroundings to the point where you sleep great at night, are present in teh moment of life, and your world is working great for you, then go full-on that way of thinking. If it seems to stop you in your tracks, make you start to doubt or question everything you do or everything you move or change in your environment, then drop it, and take a more laid back observer approach. By that I mean, be in a type of constant “experimental” state of mind. Make a change with specific intentions, assume the best outcome, and see what shows up…then lather, rinse and repeat…almost like you are in a state of wonder at how the world works – IN A GOOD WAY.

Hope that helps!

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.

Answer : Aggression is being over stimulated in this, or I would guess, ANY child’s world. And, among the many theories out there these days about the cause of autism, both genes and environment are on the tops of many scientists’ lists. For example, a July study released by The California Department of Public Health suggested a connection between autism and exposure to pesticides while in the womb. Since environments, not genes, are my forte, I’ll give you some ideas from that point of view. For both aggression and “over-stimulated” symptoms, try to tone down the stimulation in the room, and then you can work your way out into other parts of the house as needed.

Here’s a quick list of ideas starting out with Healthy Bedroom Tips for Anyone, but especially for those with autism:

A. Remove Wi-fi, or any other wireless technology such as cordless phones, and baby monitors (get them away from the beds and crib please!) Although I suggest and sell the BioPro mitigation devices, I would suggest removing these items from a home that has such pronounced issue such as aggressive behaviors and autism if at all possible. At least try it first before taking a fallback position with mitigation devices.

B. Remove electro-pollution as much as possible. That means getting everything that plugs in, out of the bedroom. Heating blankets, waterbed heaters, lights built into the headboard or ANYTHING else plugged in near you while sleeping is a no-no for optimal health. If you can’t hire a bau-biologist or building biologist or a feng shui consultant who practices building biology practices, I would suggest shutting down the entire home’s circuit board while the family sleeps, or at least the circuits that run electricity in the walls of the bedrooms. Yes, you’ve got to get wind-up alarms, and yes, your food will stay cold in the fridge if it has to unplug for the experiment, but you may learn something about you son’s behavior in relation to “dirty electricity environments,” AND sleep better than ever before. I might suggest testing this first, before you make any other changes to anyone’s room or environments, to give it the X-factor test so you’ll know whether this is a factor or not. (If you do this for 30 days and see no improvement whatsoever, then go ahead and turn it all back on and work the other things.)C. Remove synthetic wall-to-wall carpet as it releases toxins into your breathing air. Use natural, hard-surface flooring with removable natural (like organic wool, cotton, sea grass, coir, sisal) rugs instead. If you meet this tip with resistance, read this article: http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm?fileName=030601a.xml#sidebar-1

D. Remove synthetic wallpaper with natural material and non-toxic paint and avoid as many plastic products as possible.

E. Avoid ionization-type smoke detectors (that have radioactive material in them if you can believe it) that can ruin sleep patterns and make anyone cranky or “aggressive!”

F. Remove any toxic cleaning or pest-controlling chemicals from the home and yard. There are many organic and natural substitutes out there these days if you just look.

G. If you’re going all out I’d suggest getting a natural latex “no springs” bed mattress and natural pillows and natural, untreated bedding fabrics. Also, do not use a water bed or a metal bed frame. The best bed is a full wooden frame, preferably with untreated, unsealed wood. Are you starting to get the connection between the chemicals and synthetics in the home and a not-so-healthy environment yet?

Here are some Traditional Feng Shui Tips That are Good for Anyone - especially those with challenges in life:

This one could be in the above category as well. Avoid an arrangement of having the bedroom connected to the garage (above it or next to it, etc.) Use a mirror in the bedroom facing the garage if you need to cure it if unavoidable (ie: a mirror face down under a bed if the garage is below the bedroom.)

Placing the bed in a good position – a solid wall at the head of the bed, being able to see who’s coming in the door but not be in line with it, and not having ANY electrical fields or electromagnetic fields on the bed (or play space for that matter.) Be mindful of what is on the other side of the wall from the headboard. Avoid locations where there is a toilet (or wet wall with water pipes in it,) stove, electronic device or circuit panel on the other side of the wall. Also consider what is above and below the bed and bedroom. If the air conditioner unit or a toilet is directly above the bed on the floor above, try a different location. If unavoidable, hang a crystal above the center of the bed with intentions of diffusing the harsh energy above.

No mirrors in the room unless your son’s room is above the garage where I would place a mirror under his bed, face down with the intention of deflecting the fast energy and toxicity of the garage away from the bedroom.

Hiding the bagua color pattern under the mattress (the bottom of the bed is the “door” side with blue, black and gray along that side and purple, red and pink towards the top of the bed.)

Avoid clutter at all costs. Every surface should have at least 50% of its space open and available (ie; half of the night stand top, half of the floor space, half the wall space, etc.)

Check out the creativity and children gua of every room in the house and the whole house’s creativity gua. If there is any element imbalance (like too much fire) or any literal imbalance (like a bookshelf that is leaning) balance it out.

Employ the helpful people box. Place your son’s name in it, so that he is helpful to you and your family. You can also place a request (written like a thank you note of course!) for help in building biology testing (below) or for proper teachers and helpers specifically for your son.

COLORS: Use warm muted colors – like a sage green. Don’t use bright colors – like reds and bright yellows especially. I’d suggest having the floor the darkest color in the room, (for more grounding – which is usually needed in these situations) the walls the middle color, and the ceiling the lightest color. Avoid painting the ceiling the same color as the walls, and avoid having white, extremely light, or blue flooring.

LIGHTING: Use incandescent lighting in a way that creates low light stimulus. Avoid big overhead lights. As far as natural light goes, avoid sky lights in the bedroom. Do not have the child’s bed in a location where sunlight hits his/her bed directly. Avoid fluorescent lighting.

SOUNDS: Classical string music works great (it exercises the 8^th cranial nerve.) Extraneous noises (a humming computer CPU, fish tank, shocking neighboring noises) should be mitigated as best you can.

FURNISHINGS: Soft pillows and unstructured furnishings like bean bag chairs and hammocks and hammock-type swings work best. (Try to get natural fabrics as opposed to all synthetic.) Applying deep pressure (squeezing) 45 minutes to 2 hours a day in furnishings such as a hammock can help with his aggression. Those yoga balls that people use for office chairs are helpful in this room too. As far as the bed goes, avoid bunk or trundle beds on wheels.

TOYS, ETC.: I’m not sure how old your son is, but things like a sit-n-spin, scooter boards, and soft obstacle course-type items work well. Legos, puzzles, and other building sets are good, but make sure that they all have a tucked away place to be stored (especially if they are made of plastic – If the toys smell, they are off-gassing toxic emissions in the room. Do yourself and your child a favor and ditch anything made of PVC plastic – it is an assault on the environment and your health. I’ll go one up on you here: Remove PVC plastic shoes from the room. One trip to a cheap shoe store for a quick sniff and you get an idea of what those shoes are doing on a lesser scale in your kid’s room. Check your shoe brand’s company policy on PVC use in their products.) And since there is so much lead cropping up in toys these days, you might be interested in getting some home lead-testing kits. Here’s a link for you: http://ww8.aitsafe.com/go.htm?go=www.leadinspector.com/secure_order.html&afid=15914&tm=30&im=1

(This site also has a lot of information about where to look for lead in your home and how to avoid contamination.)

Try to keep the bed area as low stimulating as possible – especially at bedtime. If the “all-in-one” functioning bedroom is necessary, create a “sensory section” of the room where items can be explored such as clay (versus play-doh as it contains wheat) and hand-held massagers (but do your best to keep a distance from the bed zone.) Stuffed animals with different textures also work well (be mindful of allergies and dust mites with these and other soft/plush items – once again, natural fabrics that don’t hold an electrostatic charge and create ion imbalance is best!)

SYMBOLS: Add nature scenes, objects, materials, and other items that display natural perfection and order. (But avoid electrically-powered “nature” like a water fountain.) Remove any aggressive or on-the-move symbols such as action figures, bats and balls, bulldozers, etc. from fabrics and art. Avoid literally or visually sharp objects (like swords arrows, or baseball pennants) and replace with softer-edged or rounded shapes.

FOOD ENERGY TIPS: A gluten free, casein free, additive free diet is sometimes helpful in cases of autism. But this  is a whole other conversation.

I could actually go on and on, but I think this is a good traditional feng shui starter list to consider.

Answer: Bed-wetting is a cold condition affecting the water element. I would start with immediate changes in diet. First, reduce and cut out frozen foods (like ice creams, etc.) raw foods, and excess fruits. Definitely halt the consumption of cold refrigerated drinks. Switch to cooked foods, cooked fruits and warm drinks. Miso soup is excellent for the water element and brings balance back and strengthens the bladder muscle.

I’d also make sure that your son’s bed is in a safe position – headboard up against a solid (hopefully interior) wall. He should not have any doors in line with his bed. If so, cure with a crystal between the two. According to Louise Hay’s book, You Can Heal Your Life -bed-wetting is a fear of a parent – usually the father, so a safe-feeling furniture position is a must. Affirmations may be helpful to support feeling safe.

Obviously, removing any water element from his room, like posters of beach and ocean scenes or black and blue colors and replacing them with more earthy, inward colors may further help the situation.

If there is a bathroom adjacent to his bedroom, you may want to place a mirror against the bedroom wall that separates his room from the bathroom facing the bathroom with intentions of pushing the water away from him. Do this after you have removed all other water items from the room.

QUESTION: I’m in a funk. I feel moody, unsure of my financial future, and quite frankly guilty about celebrating anything, let alone Valentine’s day….. Is there something I can do to my home to help me climb out of this funk?

ANSWER:Now here’s a question that I can sink my teeth into! Let’s do something concrete to counterbalance an uncomfortable feeling that you can’t quite grasp.

Feelings of sadness, guilt and depression are usually spawned from thwarted expectations, and from unconscious beliefs that you may have that you are not even aware you’ve got. You expect things to go one way, and they go another…..you want this to happen; and that happened. When you look at this way of being, it becomes obvious that you are not centered in the now, but are trapped in past or future thinking. I usually attach this problem from many angles – most notably, from a mindset-makeover perspective, and from a traditional feng shui perspective. The “mindset makeover” is my way of describing a protocol that I put my clients through when they can’t see their way out of a problem They are very set, or stuck in their thinking , and that thinking is actually stopping them from something that they desperately want in life. (see the link below for more info.)

Now to the traditional feng shui treatment. Where is the past and future dealt with in feng shui? It is dealt with in the Family (half way back on the left side of a room or the home) and Creativity and Children guas.(half way back on the right.) Here’s my concrete feng shui advice to help sort out and address these feelings.

1. Check for imbalances in the wood and metal elements in your home – especially in the family and creativity guas. As you scan the room, see if you can find all 5 elements and see if they all balanced. Think about the materials the furniture and accessories are made of as well as the colors and shapes of things. Mentally (or physically!) label them and make a tally of what the room needs. Scan each room for added power. Then go about shifting items to bring about balance of all five elements – especially in these two guas. If there is more of one element in these guas, make sure that is it more wood in Family and more metal in Creativity.

2. Check for sad, still, and lonely art and symbols in your home. Sometimes it is best to have a friend come in and look at your stuff with their critical eye because it is so hard to objectively look at your old stuff in a new way. Remove any items that feel or appear not to lift up the space but rather bring it down….a weeping willow on a foggy lake, a portrait of a smile-less person….whatever seems like a downer to you or your friend. Either remove them for good (my preference) or give them away temporarily until you have a better handle on your emotions if you can’t part with them at this time. Be on the look out for stillness in main rooms in the home and possibly add a moving object or a living object to counterbalance this situation. It is amazing what a fresh lively plant or a little table fountain can do in this situation.

3. Check lighting levels…..especially at this time of year when sunlight is so short (if you are in the northern hemisphere.) It may help at this time to seek additional lighting, wattage, or change lighting levels to full spectrum lighting. Remember, light is a traditional cure that can shift ch’i anywhere – no knowledge of guas needed!

4. Create a “centering” space – hopefully somewhere in the heart or near the center of the home. Place objects and furnishings there that totally nurture you and make you feel cared for. Make it feel sacred to you so you feel special when there. If there is no space, create a treasure map/vision board by cutting out pictures and words from magazines, etc. and paste them on a board in a very mindful manner. Then hang this in a place that is rather private (just inside your walk-in closet, or where you get dressed in the morning) for you to enjoy and remind yourself of that which brings you joy.

And if you are not seeing results with the above changes:

5. Have a professional dowser or feng shui consultant check for unhealthy geopathic stress – the earth energy that is not conducive to a healthy, balanced living space.

6. If you’d like me to unleash everything I’ve got to shift your mind, body, spirit and your environment on you, feel free to click here.. When you’re done with me, you’ll see life in a whole new way – I guarantee it.

7. Don’t forget the medical mundane cure. If you have done as much with your home as you can and still do not feel you have appropriate results, seek professional medical and mental health expertise. Medical attention may be part of the key for you to find balance within.

Healthy-Schmelthy—Give me the chocolate! Chocolate with all its pleasure is offering profound health benefits? Knowing this please remember ‘Portion Distortion’ during the upcoming holidays?

When chocolate is minimally processed, that’s without heat; it contains flavanol which matches the content of any food. Flavanols are phytonutrients (bioactive chemical compounds found in plants, as antioxidants) also found in some fruits and vegetables. Flavanols are associated with numerous health benefits. The specific benefits found from eating minimally processed chocolate are:

• Lowering of blood pressure
• Moderating cholesterol levels
• Preventing sunburn (That doesn’t mean melt it and cover your body with it although asking for help getting it off could prove interesting.)

Let’s look at each of these potential benefits. Researchers at Harvard discovered a puzzling fact involving the Kuna group of indigenous people living among the islands along the coast of Panama. The Kuna attracted medical attention because they exhibited no age-related increase in blood pressure. The 60-year olds and the 20-year olds registered the same blood pressure. For those Kunas that moved to Panama City 45% exhibited an elevated blood pressure by the age of 60.

The Harvard researchers evaluated the Kuna diet carefully. Surprisingly, the island-dwelling Kuna consumed five or more cups of flavanol rich home-processed cocoa daily. Chocolate is incorporated in many native recipes. The Kuna who moved to Panama City not only drank less cocoa but the cocoa they did consume was commercially produced having far less flavanols.

I can see the headlines now—“Mass exodus of chocolate lovers move to Panama.”

Commercial processing of chocolate involves heating the cocoa beans which nearly destroys all of the flavanols. Home-processed chocolate does not require heating and therefore provides the flavanols in the chocolate to provide protection against high blood pressure.

Nitric oxide is a powerful vasodilator (causes blood vessels to enlarge), improving the function of the blood vessels. Eating chocolate high in flavanol activates specific enzymes called nitric oxide synthases. The enzymes increase the amount of nitric oxide made in the blood. Simply said: Chocolate in = increase in blood vessel size = decrease in blood pressure = is good for you and has a pleasurable taste.

How much would you need to eat to get these benefits? A 2010 study published in the American Journal of Hypertension suggests as few as six grams (25 grams = 1 oz) a day of high-flavanol chocolate will protect blood vessels and lower blood pressure. This quantity is not too difficult to meet for the average chocolaholic – it is just a taste.

What about heart health, cholesterol and chocolate? In a paper published in 2008, in the Southern Medical Journal, chocolate decreased blood markers for vascular inflammation. Also, subjects in the study lowered their “bad” cholesterol (LDL) by six percent and their “good” cholesterol (HDL) rose by nine percent.

Chocolate prevents sunburn?  A double blind study in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology last year gave 15 volunteers high-flavanol chocolate to eat. A control group of 15 volunteers received processed chocolate.

The MED measurement (how much sun exposure it takes to trigger sunburn) was calculated at the start of the experiment for all of the volunteers and again three months later. The volunteers eating the high-flavanol chocolate doubled the time it took for them to sunburn. The volunteers who ate the commercially processed chocolate had no change in sun sensitivity.

Beware: not all chocolates are created equal. In all of the above experiments, the researchers used chocolates with much higher flavanol contents than that normally encountered in the average store.

More and more companies are finding ways to make chocolates without having to use the flavanol-destroying heat process.

One Belgian chocolate manufactured by Barry Callebaut markets chocolate under the Acticoa label. Presently it is not sold in the U.S. and is scheduled to be introduced this summer (2011). [Boooooooo---we want it now. Hmmmmmm fly to Panama and make our own or off to Belgium – I wonder if it can be purchased online?]

Another high-flavanol chocolate is one sold by the Mars Candy Company under the Cirku-Health label. More companies are marketing their chocolates as “minimally” or “cold” processed. While they undoubtedly carry higher flavanol content, the amount of flavanols varies.

Volunteering for the next chocolate study sounds like a good idea. For now, discuss chocolate’s benefits with your healthcare practitioner and keep an eye out for the GOOD chocolates!

Lewis Connor, D.C.
Chiropractor
California’s Leading Headache Expert
as seen on NBC’s “Wellness Secrets TV” show

Email: dr.lewconnor@hotmail.com

The information in Healthy Tips from Dr. Lew is not intended  as a substitute for personal medical advice. Before making any decision regarding your health, please consult a physician or other qualified healthcare practitioner.

Well now, this certainly explains my consistent low blood pressure compared to all the rest of my family members who are quite known to be heart UN-healthy.

So now, for my ideas on where to place it as a feng shui fix (I refrained from using the word “cure” here for potential legal reasons!):

If your intentions is for the chocolate to give you a health boost, then perhaps placed it in the center of the home or kitchen.

If you want to be more specific and employ its benefits for your blood circulation, then the Career Gua is the way to go. (Front and center of a room or your home.)

If you simply consider your chocolate a joy, then the Creativity and Children Gua (half way back on the right of your home or a room from when you enter through the door) is the perfect spot. Funny, this fun-filled gua governs the mouth, which is my absolute FAVORITE place to place MY CHOCOLATE!