First, get yourself in order to receive this job by enhancing Skills and Knowledge gua, which is the front, left-hand part of your home office, bedroom, or the entire house (this area, of course, is found based upon you entering through the room or front door respectively.)

Add something made from earth element, like a bowl of stones or dirt or sand, or you could even use a picture of a mountain, to symbolize earth and groundedness.

If you want to take it a step further, use this gua to pump up your research about the job or companies that are offering jobs. Place any collateral material, or anything associated with the specific company you are looking towards for employment in this part of the home or room as well with intentions of “being wise” about this company. The second area to work with is the Fame and Reputation gua, which is the part of the bagua that is located in the center back part of the room or home. Enhance this area by making sure there is enough light or “fire element” there. Even an unlit candle can hold the potential for you “being seen in the best light” if you give it that intention. Reds and hot colors may also help add fiery energies to this space.

The third spot to work on is in the Helpful People and Travel gua, which is the front, right-hand part of the room or home. This zone runs well with metal element, so anything made from metal or metallic-colored is helpful here. And of course, if you know me or have read my book, you know that I’ll also suggest employing the “helpful people box.” Write down on paper a note that says something like, “Thank you for the perfect job for me now…” I’d suggest writing whatever details that make this job the most compelling and juicy-sounding to you. Perhaps write something like, “Thank you for my new job that allows me to be completely creative, has me interacting with fun peers and associates, and gives me the financial rewards that make me feel free in all areas of my life!” Make it specific to you and your job, but be sure to include how you feel in that job or setting. Armed with this triple-whammy cure, you are now ready to get out there and watch what opportunities show up! My advice is to be open…you never know the path that the universal energies will take to get you to your dream career, but if you stay in a state of excited-ness and openness, you’ll attract it more quickly than if you stay in fear or a continued sense of entitlement or some other negative-running emotion.

And finally, if you have trouble controlling those negative emotions and poor attitudes, set up a time with me to do a “feng shui your mindset” consultation - as it may be this very energetic sequence of staying in an unresourceful state that is keeping you unemployed or underemployed:

…could be the best money you ever spent! I wonder if it is a write-off if you do it specifically for a new job…

Yes, once you get your home set up to support the things in life that you want, all kinds of things can change rapidly…sometimes, it can be quite a bumpy ride! For example, I have seen people get laid off the very next day after applying feng shui cures for a dream job…and I have seen relationship breakups happen right after “bring me the perfect relationship” changes were made…AND, I have seen numerous appliances and household fixtures break or die right after using feng shui…but to call these bad is probably not accurate from a feng shui perspective.

Getting laid off right after making feng shui adjustments usually means that the path is cleared, and the dream new job is now available to come to you. Same goes for the relationship if you asked for “the perfect relationship for me now” as one of your feng shui wishes. And as for the appliances and household stuff (plumbing, electrical, door handles, etc.), I usually paint this picture for my clients to help them understand: “It is like the feng shui energies are breaking the weak energetic links in your strong feng shui chain now, so once you fix them, the new, stronger energies can now arrive and HOLD in your home…which then, will be able to support your new intentions.”…make sense?

So, is it really “bad,” when the very thing that you asked for is going to be in your life way sooner because you went through a little “bad” bumpy patch?? Only you can decide!

1. Employ the “helpful people box.” Place the name of the person you are interviewing with, the company name, and anyone else you can think of that needs to be helpful with regard to you getting this job on paper (try red to activate it) and place it in a metal box with a lid or a metallic envelope, and then place that box or metallic envelope in the front right-hand part of your home or your desk space with the intention of everyone on that list helping you in this endeavor.

2. Start a “fake-it-till-you-make-it diary.” Write down each day how your day goes now that you are employed with this company – diary-style…”For example, “today, I got up excited to get into work today because all of the work I do there is so exciting and rewarding! I literally say to myself all the time “I’m so lucky to have this awesome job!” It feels great to be in such a good position to be so helpful… – whatever you want to say here… Write every day, just like you would write a diary…you might want to do this fake diary cure as if you are talking about your ultimate DRAEM JOB instead of the one you are interviewing for, in case there is a better fit out there for you. (This employs trust – if you do not get this current job, you gotta keep writing as that better on is finding its way to you!)

3. Wear something blue if you do a face to face interview as it denotes “trust-worthiness.”

4. Wear something red (can even be and probably is preferable to be hidden) to give you a little extra “power” during the interview.

5. Peel 9 orange pieces of peel off of an orange and place those bits in your pocket with intentions of clearing any negativity off of you during this interview.

6. Have a neat, clean, and big-enough-to do-the-job desk space built and ready to go at home. Even if you are not going to use it for this job, it will energetically say “I’ve got the time and space to handle this job.”  If you are living in a Starbucks off of a laptop and can’t figure out why you do not have full time PERMANENT employment, consider that your desk space is saying “you are temporary” for you.

7. Be on time, be prepared, and know how to interview – everyone always expects feng shui to be oddball, but the mundane every-day stuff IS important to your feng shui too!

If you have not:

1. used it yet
2. figured out how to use it
3. installed it
4. decided that you even like it

then, you may have just picked up a “cling-on!” That’s right – we’ve got trouble my friend, right here in your city! That starts with T and that rhymes with C and that stands for CLUTTER!

And if it is still taking up space (also known as opportunities in the feng shui world) in your house, feng shui rules would say that you’ve just picked up some guilt! Boo! Who needs that?

Shed that off-colored sweater, that cheap all-in-one tool that has broken already, that icky-looking bottle of apricot wine, and  that holiday chip and dip tray only useful once a year NOW to avoid an opportunity “pinch” later on.

Every thing that is added to your house that was not countered by removing something of equal size MUST aid you in life – or else it is going to stop something else that can be helpful from showing up in that space.

If you’ve been reading my work for some time now, you know that I hold a yearly, “guilt-free zone”  re-gifting party, where my friends bring whatever they need to dump for some merry ol’ swapping. It is the funniest party of the year that I throw!

I invite you to:

1. not let guilt run your home and life
2. not allow others to slow down your energy
3. not keep stuff and make it hard to “shed the weight” in life
4. have a good time with friends releasing/swapping stuff that is not useful to you.

I’d love to hear from you if you throw a re-gifter so be sure to comment!

And, in around 15 seconds, I turned it into this:

I am ALWAYS astonished as how much LESS room these miscellaneous bowels and lids take when you put the lids on each bowl and stack them on top of each other – It is kind of like magic to me every time!

Anyway, this is my teeny way to show that doing even the littlest decluttering jobs are not only worth doing, but can add up to making you feel calm, organized, and less frantic in life — now that’s something worth having!

The key is to :

1. Eliminate: get rid of anything that you don’t use or don’t like or is broken, etc. immediately.

2. Categorize: put like items together

3. Organize: place the groups of items together somewhere where it makes sense…like on a shelf together…

That’s it! You could literally make a game out of it — like doing one or two cabinets during each commercial break while watching TV, or bringing a drawer to the couch with you to sift through while watching TV, I swear, once you get started, you’ll love it! I just did my jewelry box last night and my makeup drawer the night before…all while sitting in front of the TV (with a trash can nearby) and wowie! I can’t believe how much more pleasant the whole morning ritual of getting ready is for me.

So now there is no excuse – you can chip away bit by bit until you WANT TO carve out time to get it all done. The key is just to start.

Happy decluttering!

(And I’ll make a note to myself about writing an upcoming blog post on how I switched all this plastic out for a healthier choice of storage material – as I just noticed that this is not the glass storage cabinet, but the plastic one — not the best storage material for hot items especially due to plastics breaking down and off gassing. )

I often ask my clients to describe in detail how their job, their finances, or their relationship, or whatever else they hired me to get for them with feng shui would go if they got it. Many respond in two ways. They either say, “Oh, I don’t really know exactly” or they spout off some energetically-disconnected, pie-in-the-sky, rote-type of response like “a million dollars,” or “the knight in shining armor.” Some are just stumped, and look at me like I just asked them to recite the tax code word-for-word or something.

Here’s a little feng shui secret (not really, but hopefully it got your attention if you got stinkin’ thinkin’!) The recipe for success includes: 1. Getting CLEAR on your intention and having a CLEAR vision of what you want to attract.

2. Spending time imagining how you’ll feel, what you’ll see, what you’ll hear and what you’ll be saying to yourself when this change has happened in your life.

3. Believing that it can be yours NOW.

Two ways you can organize and anchor these dreams, thoughts and beliefs are to journal and to create a vision board. I recently had one client write me to let me know how her vision board worked for her:

“I would like to let you know almost all of it had happen this year. I became a flight attendant & got my passport this year & had a steady man in my life all year until recently. I’m looking forward to doing another for next year now that I have new goals for the upcoming year. I feel sort of different this year, I guess more spiritually & I what to focus on that. Thank you for all the info you put out every month.” Sincerely Elizabeth A.

As you can see, she has a “cup half full” attitude rather than a “this economy is killing me” attitude, even with the “steady man” leaving – VERY IMPORTANT distinction. This minute detail is a big part of what separates those who prosper and those who dry up when mass consciousness is in the dumper.

So, rate yourself on how often you think positively and how often you are playing over at the stinkin’ thinkin’ playground, and see if there is a correlation. I invite you to spend more time over in the playground that has you exploring how it looks, feels, sounds and tastes like to have your dreams fulfilled – especially as this is a brand new year!

And if you are craft-challenged, and need a kick-start on how to create a visions board, check out this site!

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.

I bring this little game up during this time of year as a reminder that sometimes, when getting together with family members and other people that feel like all they want to do is push you off balance, that can be a very powerful answer to their perceived  aggression — to yield.

Your new counter attack to their loud, snarky, back-biting, and other unbecoming yang behaviors and expressions is to yield…and allow them to toss emotional grenades in all directions without so much as a twitch back in their direction…

…and as sure as ever, the one who yields best wins. The victory is to create the silence of one hand clapping – no opposition, the fight where there is no fight… now that’s freedom — to be consistently grounded no matter what is thrown your way.

Happy Holidays.

HAPPY Holidays!

See that first word there? The capitalized one? Let’s try to remember that energy quality as we’re standing in line at the mall, preparing food, and spending time with children.

Since some people do affirmations daily, I thought I’d just take a moment to write up a few affirmations  to de-stress around this holiday season. Just re-reading them makes me feel calmer….so good for the body… I hope they do the same for you.

I Am One With the Spirit of the Holidays.

I Am Joyful.

I Am Rich in Spirit.

I Am at Peace.

Living with these push-me-pull-you feelings is exhausting. Part of them wants one thing, and for some reason or another, part of them wants the exact opposite.

For this situation, ther are many things I might take into consideration. But ALWAYS on the list are the following two:

1. Integrate the conflicting parts. Lucky for me, I have a great technique for this. It is in the consultation that I call “Feng Shui Your Mindset” on my website. It is about re-aligning your thought patterns so that they are going in one direction. Depending on the situation, this usually takes around 3 to 6 hours via the telephone (yes – that’s all!) I have a laser-focused technique that gets every “part” on the same page using neuro-linguistic repatterning and other subconscious “mind reboot” strategies.

If this sounds hard to believe, well – that just may be an unresourceful thought FOR YOU!

2. Look at the Skills and Knowledge and Family guas of the bagua. That is the front left-hand and left side (respectively) of the home or room from coming in the door. ANY confusion there may trigger these thoughts and feelings. It may be clutter, poor symbols leaking chi (big windows, door to door relationship, etc.) or even an element imbalance problem (skills and knowledge gua is governed by earth element and the family gua’s element is wood.)

Working on the skills and knowledge gua can help with the decision-making part (ie: “a part of me wants to do the feng shui your mindset program and a part doesn’t!”) and working on the family gua can help to snip the tether to the past (ie: “My mom said I wasn’t good enough.”) so you can move powerfully into ONE DIRECTION in your future.

If this seems like a level 2 conversation and you are only level 1 or a beginner, review my book or some of the other blog posts here to familiarize yourself with how to do simple changes to change your life!