Tag Archives: Thich Nhat Hanh

Feng Shui Design For Better Immune Health

Posted on by

“You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control  what goes on inside.”
–Dr. Wayne Dyer

Staying healthy is a premium during this Covid-19 quarantine. Immune health isn’t necessarily a goal we connect with our homes but in reality our spaces are the barriers against illness. I have been contemplating what will be useful to you during this extraordinarily difficult time. I have curated ten adjustments and ceremonies (a qigong practice too) to help you minimize stress, strengthen your immune health and a Feng Shui tip for the front door to get clarity about what course of action to take.

Defense against stress
Over the past 20 years scientific studies have reported stress is the number one causes of illness besides inflammation. If you are working from home and if you are looking after your children, place three lush, green plants in every room where you work and also where you supervise your children. Plants enhance concentration, abate air toxicity, minimize tension, increase your immune health and lift your frame of mind.

Light the front entry (the brighter the better), both the outside and the inside of the front door. The front entrance represents your head besides your health, the light brings more clarity to your brain, helping you choose the right course of action to take.

Worried about the future? Adjust any dark small or narrow area near the front door or the door you enter often. Add sound here. Hang a bell on the door or a wind chime from the ceiling. Clean up any untidy plants at the front door.  Adjust the Helpful People area with a statue or an image of someone who is a mentor, teacher, someone you highly respect. It can also be an image of a deity. If a statue of a deity make sure it is up off the floor. Or place an image or statue of a dragon, (not red, that is a cooked dragon). They are mythical creatures who have benevolent intent to help humans. 

Lost your job during this time? Check to see if one of your doors, particularly the front door opens to a wall. This is known as a contrary door. Your shoulders may be starting to weigh upon your heart and lungs, depleting your pulmonary system, weakening your ability to ward off virus and illnesses. Adjust this feature by hanging a mirror (be sure not to cut off the top of your head nor chin) on the wall that you see as you enter. This wakes up your Ch’i .

SARS outbreak of 2003, scientists discovered the infectious disease spread like wildfire throughout an apartment complex via the sewage pipes. Clean your sewage pipes. If you live in an apartment building contact your landlord.

Harmonize Your Energy
Dried orange peels were used for centuries in ancient China. They were an important part of traditional Chinese medicine. Perform a ceremony with nine whole oranges. Cut nine circles out of each orange for a total of 81 circles. Break those down on a plate and while doing so see the light of 10,000 Buddhas being infused into the peels. Start at your front door and walk around your home (either clockwise or counter clockwise) casting the peels onto the floor. Visualize the light of 10,000 Buddhas is removing any sick Ch’i, bad luck Ch’i and bankruptcy Ch’i, instead happy Ch’i, wealth Ch’i and abundant blessings have come to nest in your home. Best to do this at 11:00 p.m.

Acrid odors have been used in China for centuries to stave off illness. Hang one of the following in your space. Be sure it is visible to everyone. You are adjusting by the sense of smell.
Cloves of garlic
Curry, dill or duren
Garlic chives
Red pepper
Raw onions
Orange peel

Besides cleansing your surfaces, take the opportunity to cleanse your lymphatic system. “This system builds immune health by making special white blood cells called lymphocytes that produce antibodies which are responsible for immune responses that defend the body against disease.” (Unity Point) Tai Chi Forest qigong shares a calming, clarifying short video on tapping the lymphatic meridians. 

According to Thich Nhat Hanh, “a mantra is a magic formula that, once it is uttered, can entirely change a situation, our mind, our body or a person. But this magic formula must be spoken in a state of concentration-that is to say, a state in which body and mind are absolutely in a state of unity.” Tara is the “Mother of all the Buddhas” and she protects the welfare of all beings. Find an image of Red Tara to help you focus. Red Tara eats up illness. Her right eye reflects the sun and kills the virus. The left eye reflects the moon. An elixir pours out of her eyes healing those afflicted. As you face her she connects to your heart and the light sends to you comes from your heart and circles the planet. As you visualize the above, chant, “Om Tara Tuttare Ture Soha” 108 times.

Kindness matches the same vibration as abundance. Perform one good deed a day for 27 days or 9 good deeds a day for nine days to improve your luck and strengthen your cures.

I wish for you good health, peace and hope.

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.

Mud not clean, but it is what you need to grow.

Posted on by

Mud is unavoidable. Plop. plop. Giant drops. Spring started in biblical fashion, wet, soggy, take a soaking weather. Heaven had conspired to macerate every penetrable fingerbreadth of earth. To stay inside was the safe alternative rather than experience getting stuck. Thich Nhat Hanh’s soothing voice softened the backdrop of thunderous rain. His talk: the nature of mud. Coincidence? Maybe not. When it stopped, the rains wet force brought floods of mud. It was everywhere. If you could sell mud, it would make you a fortune. Playing in mud were happy days for me as a child. I couldn’t wait to twirl the mud swimming tadpoles and make mud pies. When did it happened that I sidestepped mud? When did we disconnect from the life giving medicine of mud?

Some of my client’s stories are a stark reminder how powerful our present circumstances and past memories can keep us caught in a storm. One dear friend felt his home was sucking him under. He felt it would kill his spirit if he didn’t leave. What appeared like a drastic measure was a summoning of courage to save his own skin. He began a pilgrimage, visiting havens to collect the fragments of his past. One experience he described was so compelling I felt equally compelled to share he need not feel inundated by the ooze of his memories. I sent him a compassionate teaching of Thich Nhat Hanh. It was meant to reassure him that vicissitudes bear gifts, “Mud…not clean, doesn’t always smell good but it is what the lotus needs to grow. It cannot grow from anything but mud.” “Remember friend, your mud makes you a lotus.”

Mud, glorious mud. Mud represents a meaningful part of the lotus flower’s development. In Buddhist teachings, we humans are born into suffering, it is a vital part of our experience. The sacred lotus grows in the deep mud, far away from the sun. Yet eventually it reaches the light becoming the most beautiful flower imaginable. If you’ve struggled to accept your fears. If you’ve felt your burdens have undermined your redemption. If despair reminds you of what you feel you have failed in, it may be difficult to see that these muddy waters make you the exquisite human being that you are. And you are!

Rain renews the earth, it is a blessing. And renewal is a universal theme this time of year. It is inherent in all manner of life’s DNA. The mud the lotus grows in is the “rising and blooming above the murk to achieve enlightenment.” Rebirth and renewal need not only be a physical transformation but also a change of heart about your ideas about life. It can be the renaissance that changes the course of painful memories by forgiving and saying prayers of gratitude when you receive a second chance.

When you feel the pain of your past, hold yourself gently as you would a crying baby. Thich Nhat Hanh shares: breathe in, come home to your body and say softly, “I recognize in you there is pain.” When you breathe out say to your mind, “I will take good care of you.” Mindful breathing brings concentration, insight and liberation. When you feel anger rising, you are not in your body. ”Breathe in, you are home. Breathe out, you realize the miracle of life.”

When you breathe mindfully you grasp the root of your passion. This simple mindfulness practice brings peace and the gift gives rise to find wise, funny and creative ways to reinvent your glorious mud.

There are many metaphors in Feng Shui for creating awareness. Rather than “the aspirin of Feng Shui” as a mirror has been described, it is like your higher consciousness, your Buddha nature. It does not judge, it only fills what is before it. It reflects, it expands, it can bend or turn an image. Like mindful breathing, enhance your confidence and your command of the present moment when you place a mirror before you at your bed, desk or stove and may your blessings multiply in this month of the Dragon.

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.