The Thanksgiving Gift

“May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.”
– John O’Donahue

We’ve been through more than we knew we could handle and though the struggle has been challenging, I believe we have been given this year to birth something new in each one of us. I admire your courage to overcome the obstacles that came your way and your fortitude to grow in love. The signs tell us we are coming into a state of grace and it begins with the Thanksgiving gift. 

Wealth is a reflection of good-heartedness, trust in the future and generosity. Here is my Thanksgiving gift to you as “something beautiful to hold in your heart to survive difficult times and enjoy good times.”

The Three Harmony
If a house is square or rectangle and there are  no extensions you can magnify this shape with the Three Harmony. It’s a method from Professor Lin to create auspicious extensions in your home. If you wish to improve your career, go to the Career gua (middle front) and place a mirror. Visualize a projection and in your visualization, the mirror becomes an auspicious extension. You may stop here OR enhance the mirror placement in Career, by placing a mirror in Wealth (far back left) and one in Partnership (far back right). These guas harmonize with Career and this adjustment is The Three Harmony of Water (water is the element of the Career gua). Complete with the Reinforce with each adjustment with your body, mind and speech.

Three Harmony of Water - Career, Wealth and Relationship. Add mirrors to each sector (guas) of the home. Shen Men Feng Shui, Portland, Oregon

             Three Harmony of Water

If you are looking to build a new home, remodel, plan a wedding, purchase a home or sell one, when you begin has tremendous influence on the outcome of your event. Beginning on the right foot with an auspicious date and time will bring success to your endeavor. Contact me, bette@shenmenfengshui.com for details of how I can assist you with getting started.

Allow me to help you arrange your home where you feel fully supported. I am available for a full consultation service or for an hour telephone conversation. Details are at this link Feng Shui A La Carte. Think of it as a fairy godmother for your house.

What I have discovered about our homes is that creating a heart healthy space leads to peace and contentment. The bedroom is where it begins. Start with my complimentary pdf: 27 Bedroom Concepts To Maximize Your Health, Happiness and Peace of Mind. Design your space to your best advantage. Subscribe to my blog and special offers. You’ll receive this valuable Feng Shui Guide as a thank you gift.

Photo credit: Jack Hood, Flickr

Take Your Dreams To Heart

“One moment can change a day, one day can change a life and one life can change the world.”
– Buddha

You have an amazing heart and for that I have a special blog for you this month because I know it’s been a big job to hold strong, to have faith, to practice your best self when Covid-19 has pulled the rug out from under your plans and your future feels hijacked. You’ve got this and I want you to get more. I want you to know there is a benefit to the reality that is shifting before your eyes. These are fertile times for personal illumination and destiny is calling us to live our dreams through our hearts. 

Recently I have been enjoying a beautiful meditation by Gregg Braden. It opens the heart to the extraordinary feeling of bliss because this is the space from which dreams come true. And I am supplementing this opportunity for expanded intuition and creativity with four Feng Shui adjustments that correct and enhance “Li” the gua related to the heart.

Gregg shares we have 40,000 brain-like cells,  ‘sensory neurites’, concentrated in such a way that they are called the ‘little brain in the heart’. They can learn independently from the neurons in our brain. They can think and remember independently from the neurons in the brain. They communicate separately to us from the neurons in our brain…When we marry the heart and the brain together, when we harmonize the heart and the brain together, this extended neural network makes us different from all other forms of life. This is where our deepest empathy, compassion, intuition comes from. When we harmonize the little brain heart with the big brain in the head we can process information very quickly. Really fast information recall. Here is the reason why: when we access with our heart, using our intuition we don’t go through the logic and the fear, self esteem and all the doubt that we have in our brain which defends with ego resistance nor are we slowed down by our mental functions.

Our heart doesn’t work that way. Affirmations are powerful tools to implement change in our lives at any time. They are especially potent when we are communicating with our subconscious in a language that our subconscious recognizes. When we harmonize our heart and our brain, this is the hot line to our subconscious. Our affirmations of our perfect relationships, our healing, our dreams begins in our bodies. Extraordinary states of deep intuition are available through harmonizing the heart and the brain. There are three steps to creating this harmonious awareness that come from ancient traditions. (This can be performed just as you awake or go to sleep because these are excellent times for intention setting and opening the channel to the subconscious. Enhance the meditation with background music, lighting a candle, burning incense to clear energy, diffusing sandalwood or frankincense essentials oils. – Bette Steflik)

• Simply and gently place either one finger or your hand or your palms or the prayer mudra on the sternum of your heart. Your awareness will always go to the place in your body where you feel the touch, the sensation. Allow your awareness to move there.

• Slow your breathing. Five seconds on the inhale. Five seconds on the exhale. This sends a powerful signal to your body, from your mind to your heart that says I am turning my attention inward. You are telling your body that “I am safe”. That frees your body to let go of the stress hormones and the feelings of stress. When that happens the healing chemistry begins….Now the body is awakening to its powerful immune response and anti-aging hormones. Breathing slower you are telling your body it is safe.

• Create a feeling in your heart where you feel the touch. Feel one or some combination of the following four feelings: care for anything or for anyone. Appreciation or anything or for anyone. Gratitude or anything or for anyone. And compassion for or anything or for anyone. Researchers have found these four key words will trigger the experience between our heart and our brain to create that coherence .1 Hz. To the best of your ability feel those feelings and breathe from your heart center. Do that for 60 seconds. This ritual is ancient and primal. It is the key to the deepest truth of who you are in this world. The positive vibration you created will hold for six hours after you open your eyes. 

Why do this? This is where the super learning comes from. Or when you are working to solve or create something new: a book, poetry, music. Your creativity comes from this deep space.
– Gregg Braden

In the Bagua formation, Li, the Fame gua is connected to the Fire element of the Five Elements. The heart which is known as the Emperor in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the organ that represents this phase. When standing at the front door facing into your home, the location is the central back section of your house. It rests between Hsun, the Wealth gua to the left and Kun, the Partnership gua to the right.

If this area is missing or depleted by a design feature such as a bathroom it may be difficult to excel in your career, pass examinations, receive recognition for a promotion, improve your status, and connect with networking groups that can enhance your visibility and that affects your sense of esteem and well-being. Physically you may develop eye disorders. Mentally your clarity, whether it’s your goals, being self directed or your vision of your future, may be obscured. A side note when Fame is enhanced this activates and improves your career. Want more name recognition? More heart in your relationships? More joy in your life? Here are four Fame tips to increase your influence.

Correct A bathroom in the Fame gua depletes this area (see above). Place a mirror on the outside of the door. It will reflect whatever is in front of it and the bathroom will transcendentally disappear. The nuance from Professor Lin the door may remain open and the cure still works.

Color Red is associated with Fame and Fire. Color may be used to fill in a missing area. Painting the wall red with the visualization that the color is pushing the wall out will transcendentally correct the missing area of the house. The added bonus is you’ve added your “Wall of Fame”.

Center Stage Li means “bright”. When you project yourself from a place of courtesy, professionalism and regard, you raise your esteem and others will view you as confident, considerate and connected. This place of power raises your status. Activate this area with diplomas, awards, and recognitions. The triangle shape is associated with this gua. Animals that represent Li are the tortoise, crab, pheasant (from The Form School) and shellfish. Illumination is a quality of this gua. A framed sunset or a rainbow are suitable for this gua as well.

Credit Believe in you, find your mantra and light your fire with an empowerment. Place an affirmation in this area, such as “I am so grateful and happy that I am now…(fill in the blank) or I am endlessly abundant with talent, skill, intelligence and joy that I utilize everyday. 

If you are looking to build a new home, remodel, plan a wedding, purchase a home or sell one, when you begin has tremendous influence on the outcome of your event. Beginning on the right foot with an auspicious date and time will bring success to your endeavor. Contact me, bette@shenmenfengshui.com for details of how I can assist you with getting started.

Allow me to help you arrange your home where you feel fully supported. I am available for a full consultation service or for an hour telephone conversation. Details are at this link Feng Shui A La Carte. Think of it as a fairy godmother for your house.

What I have discovered about our homes is that creating a heart healthy space leads to peace and contentment. The bedroom is where it begins. Start with my complimentary pdf: 27 Bedroom Concepts To Maximize Your Health, Happiness and Peace of Mind. Design your space to your best advantage. Subscribe to my blog and special offers. You’ll receive this valuable Feng Shui Guide as a thank you gift.

The Gratitude Jar – Sparking Freedom Everyday!

July 4th reminds me how I am lucky to live in the United States. It is more than backyard barbecues and trips to the beach. We’re blessed we have the resources to burn the night sky with brilliant pyrotechnics, free to express dissent or appreciation and to pursue the happiness we choose.

Declaring gratitude is a lot like a declaration of independence. When I practice tenderness and compassion, I feel an inner freedom. When I practice a grateful heart, it sparks a happy resonance. When I say “thank you”; when I acknowledge the people I love; when I affirm kindness, I feel liberated. I’ve discovered that expressing gratitude increases the value of, not only what I appreciate, but my value as well. It throws the doors open to sovereignty, to being authentic, full, expressing unlimited potential, receiving divine inspiration and these augment my well being. If this is not freedom, then what is?

If you’ve been waiting to amplify your health, your happiness, appreciate your worth, wouldn’t now be the time? It’s takes very little out of your day to write down your mementos, your thoughts, your love, your appreciation, your victories, your tributes (jazz them up on brightly colored paper) to the people, places, animals, colors, sounds, moods, emotions, music, whatever moves you, and pour these into a ‘Gratitude Jar’. Give it a try. You may see that this container of joy quickly creates an unrelenting flame.

Building joy, luck and flexibility leads to personal freedom. Feeling unappreciated? Need to feel stable? Here is a Ch’i strengthening exercise to spark your energy, manifest robustness and increase prosperity. I’d love to hear what you experienced. 

Stability Cure

Materials Needed: new black pen and a circle of red paper.

Procedure:

  • Using the new black pen, write “stability” on one side of the red circle. Hold your breath while you write.
  • Continue to hold your breath, turn the circle over and write the name and birth date of the person in need of stability.
  • Attach the red circle under the bed (beneath the heart). The word “stability” should face the ground.
  • Reinforce with the body (calming heart mudra or prayer mudra), speech (six true words mantra or prayer) and mind (visualize stability).

What I have discovered about our homes is that creating a heart healthy space leads to peace and contentment. The bedroom is where it begins. Start with my complimentary pdf: 27 Bedroom Concepts To Maximize Your Health, Happiness and Peace of Mind. Design your space to your best advantage. Subscribe to my blog and special offers. You’ll receive this valuable Feng Shui Guide as a thank you gift.