Two days later, he did the dishes (3rd time all year), took out the trash, cooked dinner, went grocery shopping, and even picked up the floor after our baby – using the vacuum cleaner – which he’s never ever done.  It was so above and beyond the call of duty it just had to be the Feng Shui.  The same night my friend who I couldn’t get a hold of called me. OK she NEVER calls.  This was the third time she has called me in maybe FIVE years. You could have knocked me over with a feather at that point. Wow.

If these had happened on different days I probably wouldn’t have believed it was the Feng Shui but it’s too coincidental to ignore.  I am just in shock.  THANK YOU for writing the book in such an easy to use way. I really appreciate it.

- Susan

Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The Helpful People Box is the most consistently successful cure in my book. And if you haven’t yet found one or made one of your own click here, because we carry them in the online store!

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.

Answer: Yes, I do! Do NOT just say it. Write it down! Make it real by dreaming about completing it and then WRITE it down on paper. My best advice is to write a story about what it’s going to be like once you have completed it. All this falls back to the book I highly recommend, Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting by Lynn Grabhorn. If you haven’t read it, I would try to make that your resolution! And if you have and you need additional resources, please feel free to dig into Henriette Anne Klauser’s book Write It Down, Make it Happen.

These two books are exceptional at teaching you techniques on how to get clear on what you want and making it manifest in your life. A fun way to manifest your dreams is to write down the list and share it with a group of friends. Pass out copies of your lists to each other so you can monitor all of the group’s dreams as they come true! (I love getting friends involved in my rituals – it seems to #1: make me do it. #2: hold myself more accountable for it. #3: have more fun doing it.) Try it – what’s the harm?

Now, from a feng shui perspective, I would suggest enhancing the front left-hand part of the home or room called the Skills and Knowledge gua. This gua is related to the mountain trigram, which symbolizes the place to go within to reflect and learn. The element is earth, the color is blue, a great symbol is light…so feel free to take some time to enhance this gua with the intention of you gaining wisdom about your life’s path and what is best to give your energy to this year.

Next, accent the center front and front right-hand areas of the home (called  the Career and Helpful People guas respectively) and you are on your way to placing yourself in the right place at the right time for what you are supposed to be doing in the coming year.  Items that help hold good energies here are things made of metal. You can place that list you just wrote in the front right-hand area in a metal box to tie it all together with your resolutions.

“My family pigeon-holes me into someone I’m not anymore.” OR “My old classmates still think of me as a dweeb.” – Work the FAME AND REPUTATION GUA fire and light cures with the intention of allowing the universe to show you respect and know who you really are now! You can also dress powerfully by either hiding red on you or wearing red (preferably on top half of body) with the intention of always maintaining your fire energy and being seen in the best light (and possibly for a little protection!)

“My family just never seems to get along or actually have fun at these events. All they do is dredge up the past like it is a current event.” – Place a specific cure in the FAMILY GUA with the intention of cutting negative thought ties to the past, so the family can live in the present moment. Use the last gathering/reunion photo in a wooden frame if you have it or simply place something green, a symbol, or a living plant there with the same intention! You can also employ the helpful people box in the HELPFUL PEOPLE GUA with the names of the family members that promote the negative behavior. And as long as we’re using the family and helpful people gua, you might as well do a three harmonies cure and get the RELATIONSHIP GUA involved. When you have all three balancing each other here with the same intention, you have increased your chi power tremendously! A little love goes a long way to complete this cure!

“My family/friends/classmates haven’t seen me in a long time. I want them to remember me fondly until the next time we meet, so I want everything to go great during the event.” – Let’s try a yin cure for this one. Each day for nine days prior to the event, write down how the whole evening goes, making sure everyone who sees you in your “dream diary” comments on how great you look, and how much fun you are to hang out with at the event (or add whatever exactly you want them to think about you.) Write down the quotes of what they say, and the quotes of what you say in return as if you are remembering the event word for word. Write at least one page per day. You can also employ the above FAME AND REPUTATION GUA techniques as well.

And finally, you can place a calming or meditative symbol in your HEALTH GUA with the intention of simply removing your own sense of stress over the event and not buying into the illusion that there is something to stress out over.
Have fun!

I tried a variety of approaches over the months to help these guys understand my need for sleep…to no avail. Letters and calls to their landlord, letters and calls to them…nothing really worked. A few weeks ago, while reading your book, I read about “deflecting” the energy of (as you called them on page 218) “sucky neighbors.” I put a mirror in my bedroom window, facing outward. This mirror has special meaning for me: it’s from the home of an aunt whom I loved very much. Seeing the mirror reminds me of her house, a place where I always felt safe and happy.

Within a few days of putting the mirror in the window, I received an e-mail from a police lieutenant. This officer had been brought into the noisy neighbor situation after I wrote a letter to my neighborhood association. In his e-mail, the officer stated that he had met with my loud neighbors and “read them the riot act.” They have been quiet as MICE for the last two weeks. Not even a loud conversation out on the “party deck.”  Wow.

Can’t wait to put some other cures in place and see what happens!”

Johanna

Remember, mirrors can do several things depending on your intention:

1.      They can erase – like when you have a wall too close in front of a doorway you can add a mirror to “push that wall back.” Make sure your whole head is reflected in this one!

2.      They can double things – like when you want to have eight burners instead of four for a prosperity boost – you add a mirror near the stove to reflect the burners. A little one will do here – perhaps 4 to 6 inches in diameter.

3.      They draw in – like when you want to bring in a room that is “outside the bagua.” I’d say an average is about 8 to 12 inches in diameter for this one.

4.      And they deflect – like when you have “sucky neighbors.” I usually try to deflect them away from the farthest point I can. If you have a yard around your house and you are trying to keep away the obnoxious neighbors, then put the mirror all the way out against your fence at the property line! If you can’t to that, just up against your interior wall facing out towards their house will do.

During the consultation, I treated this home in a couple of ways. I looked at it as if I was someone who was going to live there. I pointed out anything that I felt “was off message” like dirt/grime, personalized trinkets, as well as clutter. (She  was living there until she got the first renter.) This is the same tactic that I use when I’m trying to sell a home for a client. No one wants to move into a room that has dirty baseboards, grime in the closet door track, left-behind things in closets, nicks in the wall paint, and dirty windows. These things REALLY jump out – especially when there is no furniture in the room like some of these bedrooms.

I also tried to “tell the story” of how a renter would live there – similar to how you might stage a home to sell. We created a “game room” (complete with the game on the table in the sun room,)  a TV/computer lounge, a family-style dining room, and a few outdoor seating areas that made the most of the gardens and golf course view.

One of these outdoor seating areas was just outside the front of the house where one bedroom had french doors to the front garden. The problem with this set of doors is that they competed with the front door — to be more specific, they actually won out over the front door because they were visible from the street but the front door was not. So, we placed a bistro table and chairs to “block” the french doors and make them look like a private patio space instead of a possible front door. We then set about to add more “front door clues” along the sidewalk between the real front door and the sidewalk (colorful whirly-gig, chime, etc.) to easily guide people to the formal front door.

Of course we did space clearing and employ the helpful people box cure to set the intentions as well, …and voila! Seven days later, after months and months of waiting for a renter, she had someone sign up. She made over 8 times the money she paid me, and will be receiving that amount each and every month while that renter is there! Now that’s a direct financial success, right? Woo-hoo!

Her husband, who wasn’t on board at all with her spending the money to have me do a feng shui consultation, is now on board with any feng shui ANYTHING she wants to do. Does feng shui really work? You bet! 

When you are in such a natural place as this, it is easy to feel the relating, still, strong, and majestic energies of mountains. It is also easy to see  the feng shui “form, shape, and flow” that we’re always trying to assign to our man-made environments. There’s nothing at a right angle or synthetic here, and it somehow feels so good. It’s definitely something to think about when you are bringing some new-fangled material or object into your home now. Perhaps for every man-made item we add to our environments we lose a bit of that “aaahh,” relaxing mood, and inner stillness that the still, clean, mountain energy brings.

The mountain is the symbol (one of the 9 traditional cures) for the Skills and Knowledge Gua in feng shui. Its energy about being still, being calm, seeking inner guidance, and overall stability. The opposite of the traditional cure of a “moving object” if that helps you. It also is all about the energy of the earth element.

Are there any other places to have a mountain symbol besides the skills and knowledge gua? The relationship gua might need one, as it is governed by earth element. You might also use its energies for creativity and children and helpful people as earth “gives life to” the metal which governs them. You might also simply add a picture of a mountain behind you at your desk for strength (and stability,) or near your bed – especially if you find yourself not able to sleep well.

Take a look around and see if earth element and mountain symbol is something that you could use a little bit more of. You can use a calendar picture or something printed off the internet if you’ve got nothing else. Then let me know what stables out in your life!

Once when I was speaking in Denver/Boulder, I was walking along Pearl Street when a person stoped in front of me and said “Karen Rauch Carter!” I had no idea who this person was! And then she proceeded to tel me that she read my book Move Your Stuff Change Your Life and had created her helpful people box, and placed my name in it with intentions of meeting me someday where we could talk one on one because she was shy and didn’t want to take up my time in a book signing, etc. How freaky is that?! What was strange was my obsession of finding Pearl Street that day – like I was on a mission – even though I got their after all the stores had closed that Sunday. Was this feng shui energies at work?

Be Helpful! Donate to ALS walk Today!

Anyway, back to today… I get this email from my sister asking me to help her with her $200 sponsorship goal  for an ALS walk in Cincinati in honor of her sister-in-law who recently died of ALS, and I thought, yea, I could just send in some money and call it a day, but I also could totally blow her away by helping her exceed her goal by tons simply by taking a moment to send a shout out to all my peeps online. I want to overdeliver my helpfulness!

So, if you are in a pay-it-forward kind of mood, click on her donation link and toss some money in her till, and then go shine up your helpful people box (or helpful people silver envelope )with anticipation of the help you will receive as well as the callings you will receive to be of service to others!

Being in sync is a wondrous thing. People come out of the woodwork to scoot you along in life. This tends to result in you being more confident, more trusting, and ultimately more abundant and comfortable in life.

The door is along the bottom of this map

If you’d like to have a more synchronous life, try this little feng shui tip. Add items made of metal in the front right-hand area of your home, or another room (where it is gray on this map) – even your office where you work – to enliven the energies for synchronicity. This front, right-hand part of your home or room (based upon where you enter through the door) isn’t called the “Helpful People” gua for nothing! It is the part of the feng shui’s bagua pattern that can literally make life easier for you.

Here are some other items that “equal” metal in the wonderful world of feng shui, so feel free to use them instead or as well:

White, light (pastel) and metallic colors, round objects as well as , of course, wrought iron, brass, aluminum (foil even!), chrome, gold, silver, bronze, copper, nickel, etc.

Although, it isn’t required, I like to think about some specific things that I’d like help with as I do spiff up this area, so when something happens, I am reminded that I’m getting results from my feng shui work!

1. Keep clutter to a minimum. If you are stepping over wet beach towels to get around, you are probably living in less than optimal chi. Only take the bare necessities and trust that you will come across everything you need when you need it.

2. And what helps you trust that everything will come your way in the perfect way? Your helpful people box of course! And since I think aluminum foil and RV”s go so well together I would suggest using this thin metal wrap to add perfect synchronicity to your life on the road. Just keep a well stocked roll in a cabinet I’d say somewhere to the right of when you are standing at your stove. It should work fine there. Is it any wonder why foil-covered leftovers can be so helpful on busy days?

3. I’d definitely red tape the pipes that go from the toilet to the storage tank and also red tape the frame of the bed if it happens to be in line with the door to the bedroom. Red tape may also be needed along a sill if the head of the bed is at a window. You may also place a mirror face down under the bed if you are sleeping over the gas tank or storage.

4. A small bell tied to the door can repel intruders.

5. And finally, I think I’d invest in some luxurious sheets so you feel more at home and nurtured while on the road.

Yes you can feng shui your house on wheels!