Relationships | Michelle Cromer

Nine Feng Shui Tips to Eliminate Holiday Stress

Michelle Cromer November 25, 2024 2 Comments

With the holidays once more upon us, we need to keep your chi in balance. Here are my 9 Holiday Feng Shui Tips.

Set your holiday intentions:
Before the holidays begin clear the energy of your space by opening up the windows and burning a sage. Spray rose oil to invite in love. Write down affirmations in the present tense in a blue journal. The color blue is a calming color.
Be Mindful of the Colors you wear:
The traditional colors of the season are red and green. Red represents the element of fire and green is the element of wood. Fire burns wood and grows stronger. Balance the red by using colors that represent water such as blue and black.
Clear the Clutter From Your Front Door:
The front door is the entryway to bring in good chi and harmony. Make sure this area is clutter-free and well-lit, and honor this space by using your front door every day.
Live plants:
Healthy plants enhance the wood element and symbolize new beginnings and family relationships. The perfect thing for the holidays and the New Year!
You are what you eat: The holidays are full of sugar, sugar, and more sugar. To keep good internal harmony, balance, and flow select seasonal foods in the color of the rainbow.
Take a nine-minute break each day and go for a walk: A walk, hike, or bike ride outside will provide the fresh air needed to replenish our bodies with oxygen and help us cope with holiday stress. Take your shoes off, stand in the grass, and breathe. This calming gesture will help us reduce stress.
Place a bowl of oranges with cloves in your kitchen: Oranges stimulate the mind and improve your mood. Cloves stimulate balance. The combination has a powerful effect on the flow of chi and energy in the home.
You are what you keep: Decluttering can increase the chi (life energy) of your home and invite change into your life. End the year by reducing your clutter and opening up space for new energy to flow into your life.
Space clearing after the holidays: After the parties are over and the relatives are gone, burn incense or sage throughout the house open the doors and windows, and bring in fresh air to clear out all the lingering stress. And stand in gratitude that the holidays are over and everything went well.

Click here for your free downloadable Holiday Tips.

Are you wearing the best colors for you? Each of us has a power color based on the five elements and the day we were born. Sign up for my email list and provide me the day, month, and year of your birth and I will send you your birth element and power color!

Instant Karma

Michelle Cromer November 12, 2024 Leave a Comment

I bought a John Lennon pen for my husband’s birthday recently and so I have been doing a great deal of thinking about John Lennon. His song, Instant Karma! (We All Shine On), first popularized the idea that the world immediately mirrors your inner state. It might not be everyone’s experience, but it was his.

Because John Lennon was acutely aware of his inner feelings he could outwardly express his creative genius. Since he was so aware of his inner world, he realized that in every moment, in some way, the outer world reflected back his inner state. Perhaps this is true for everyone, but many are just not aware of their inner state.

The principle of instant karma is that if you are feeling really good inside, then “instantly” the people you interact with tend to make you feel really good. If you are feeling anxious and in a hurry, then the line at Target you get in will be the slowest. If you are angry, then people do things to make you angrier. On the other hand, if you begin to let go of your anger, people begin to let go of theirs.

Instant Karma means that what you put out is what you get back instantly.

What are you putting out there today?

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group

Cultivating Joy

Michelle Cromer November 11, 2024 Leave a Comment

My son August came down from Brooklyn for a visit. He was going through his old closet and asked me to mail back some things that wouldn’t fit in his suitcase. I had no idea what was in the bag he left until I dumped out the contents at a shipping company. To my delight I discovered dudgeon and dragon dice, playing cards, baby arm props, bull whips, and costumes.

It was a box full of creativity and to me, a box full of joy.

Joy walks alongside all of us. You don’t have to hunt for joy, manufacture it, or live a stress-free perfect life. Joy arrives when you welcome it into the messiness of our crazy lives. She sneaks up when you least expect it. You cannot invite her, you can only be ready when she shows up, and hug her with all your mite when she does. Joy slithers through the cracks of the imperfect life. That’s how joy works.

Every moment in our lives offers each of us a choice. Look at your life and it will show you what you value. Are you choosing stress, conflict, and unhappiness? Joy provides the perfect barometer for navigating life. All you need to do is determine and recognize what brings you joy. Do that.

Being Thankful

Michelle Cromer November 4, 2024 Leave a Comment

A wise woman was traveling in the mountains. As she crossed a stream she looked down and found a precious stone. She picked it up and tucked it away in her bag. The following day the wise woman met another traveler who was hungry. When she opened her bag to share her food, the hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he returned in order to give the stone back to the wise woman.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious.”

“What could that possibly be?” asked the wise woman.

“Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone,” the hungry man replied.

***

I have heard many versions of this beautiful Zen story and there are so many lessons to learn from this one simple tale. I interpret the river to be symbolic of the journey of life, and the precious stones to be the people in my life. We find many precious stones during this journey. They may not look precious. They may seem to be plain old pebbles. But if we look closely – if we pay attention and take the time to pick up the stones and shine them, and look after them – we can see that they are precious beyond all measure. But they do not belong to us. We just look after them for a while. They come and go as life takes all kinds of twists and turns. All we can do is enjoy the beauty when it is in our hands and in our lives and let it go when the time comes to do so. These are moments of grace. Moments of gratitude. As we focus on them, we manifest more of the same.

In this month of thanksgiving, I want to give thanks for the precious stones that I have been honored to hold in my arms and in my life: my steadfast family, my incredible friends, my astonishing colleagues, and my amazing clients. Oftentimes, these precious stones stay with me for months or years, but always the time spent seems fleeting. They are the greatest and most humble teachers, the most inspiring and heart-warming support.

My wish for you this season is that you hold the precious stones in your life close. You never know when the time will come when you must let them go.

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire, if you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don’t know something, for it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times, during those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes,
they will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you’re tired and weary because it means you’ve made a difference.
It is easy to be thankful for the good things,
a life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.
GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings. ~ Author Unknown

If I Could Speak to Myself Twenty Years Ago Today

Michelle Cromer October 14, 2024 Leave a Comment

Happy Birthday! You won’t believe what I see from this vantage point. The years are stretching before you like a long and winding road. Saddle up. I don’t want to scare you, but there is a forest up ahead. One that is dense and so dark, the sunlight won’t reach you for such a long time. You will wander lost, in the long and perilous night, not knowing if it will ever come to an end. But know the light will find you again, and when it does, you will never be afraid of the dark.

Somewhere between what you will survive and who you are becoming is exactly who you are supposed to be. Survival looks good on you so love the journey. Find comfort in the quiet corners of your wildest dreams.

Tomorrow you will wake up and still be enough. You’re fine, and when they want you to be bigger, faster, happier, don’t listen. This world doesn’t need a new you. It needs you. Don’t blend in. Do every last thing that feels right, and do it all your way, in your time.

You’re so beautifully flawed.

Speak with brutal honesty. People will love you in bits and pieces and hate you just the same. You’ll always be too much for some and not enough for others. There’s magic in you that most others can’t believe in, simply because they haven’t made sense of themselves. But you’re magic, still. You’ve been that way all along. And even if the world changes everything in you, this much will always be true.

Stand up for yourself. Grab your demons by the throat, and choke the life out of them.
Push through pain so you can absorb more love.
Never take a meal, a moment, or a tear for granted.
Leave the best part of yourself with everyone you touch.

See that turn ahead? That’s the place where love is waiting, with arms so warm it will melt away the winter in an instant. And then it will be summer for a very long time.

And one more thing, invest in Tesla early.

Are you wearing the best colors for you? We have a power color based on the five elements and the day we were born. Sign up for my email list and provide me the day, month, and year of your birth and I will send you your birth element and power color!

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