It’s been decades since the sun caught me in bed, it’s my favorite time of the day. Investing more thought and time into morning routines can single-handedly change how the rest of your day unfolds. Adding these eight chi-boosting habits to your morning will help to improve your mood, and your relationship with others, and you will be able to manage your stress and anxiety. The important thing to consider is to create a morning ritual that makes you feel good about yourself. Here are mine:
Silence –sit in silence and focus on your breath. Notice the sense of calm that comes over you. You will feel peaceful.
Reading – grab any book, and read for 10 minutes. You will feel motivated.
Affirmations –an affirmation is a powerful reminder of the unlimited potential that exists inside of you. Write your own. You will feel empowered.
Visualization –what do you want? Put images on a board that motivates you and represents your heart’s desires. Take time each morning to pause at each image and feel what it would be like to manifest what you want. You will feel inspired.
Journaling –the simple act of writing down things is powerful. Start by writing down all the things in your life that you are grateful for. You will feel grateful.
Photo by Alexy Almond from PexelsExercise –moving your chi physically every day will prove to empower, inspire and get your chi set for the rest of the day. You will feel energized.
Prayer – speaking to a higher power will ease stress and set the tone for the day. You will feel holy.
Meditation – sit with your eyes closed and when a thought enters your mind imagine that you are tying a red balloon to that thought and allowing it to float away. When you empty your mind you will find that you make room for innovative ideas and solutions. You will feel deeply connected to the whole.
Photo by Simon Berger from Pexels
Sunrises are breathtaking; the sun starts subtly as if it is afraid to rise. Then the dawn breaks over the horizon like an egg yolk spilling across the clouds. The sun, a true artist, creates beauty on its canvas, reminding me that this picturesque site is not what I love about mornings. I love how they resemble hope and the promise of new beginnings.
40% of us will be diagnosed with cancer in our lives. So, if you don’t have cancer, I know you know someone who does. Here are nine tips for you or someone you love who goes through the cancer journey to recovery.
Make sure the room has enough natural light. If not, bring in nature photos, and natural light bulbs.
If they are in the hospital have a few personal items that are meaningful and make the person happy, but not too much. We don’t want clutter. With hospital things, medicines, etc., there is already a lot going on.
Play the person’s favorite music. This creates flow in the room as well. We need movement or else we have stagnation. • Add an air filter. This adds movement as well and keeps the dust to a minimum too.
Don’t use ceiling fans. The blades of the fan create a “cutting chi” over the person. Feel free to use an oscillating floor fan for circulation and to cool the person if needed.
Use healing aromatherapy oils. An oil diffuser is nice as it sends the scent into the air. You can turn it on or off as needed. Lavender is relaxing, Eucalyptus is energizing. Peppermint is good for congestion. You can ask the person what their favorite flower scent is and find that oil. I used rose.
If you’re loved one can be moved to another room occasionally, it’s a good idea to Smudge. This is a Native American ritual to get rid of negative energies. When one is sick, depression, anger, or sadness, can come up. Even people entering the room can bring this in. Sage is a dried herb and can be found online or at Whole Foods-type stores. You just light it, it sends out smoke. You wave it around the room like you are doing a cleansing. Make sure a door or window to the outside is open when doing this. It only takes a few minutes. When done, just put the smoke out and save the sage for another time. Do this on the same day you would be changing the bed sheets/linens and cleaning up the room.
If you are the patient, then state an intention for what you desire. Read inspiring work, affirmations, or words that bring you to a happy place. “I am at peace where I am and I feel happy”, or “My body is healthy,” are some examples. See yourself where you want to be not where you are. Yes, be happy where you are as in gratitude but know that you can desire more and better.
Have a picture or painting of something that makes you happy opposite your bed, so you see it when you wake up and when you go to bed. NO mirrors opposite the bed as they disturb nighttime chi.
Add natural plants with rounded leaves. Plants represent the Wood element which is growth. They are good for adding energy to a room and creating better health.
I have a medical mantra: You can believe the diagnoses but not the prognosis. I know these tips will help because they certainly helped me.
Recently a viewer asked me if people who visit her affect the chi in her home. YES! Our homes are filled with chi that we create and allow us to flourish. In many cases, our relationship with the pulse of our homes is passive rather than active because we don’t pay particular heed to the chi that is coming in. It is only when we regard these spaces as unique sections, as the nine power centers of the Bagua that we begin to understand why it is necessary to take charge of the chi that fills our homes. Stagnant, inharmonious chi can find its way into our homes through many avenues: previous occupants, visitors, and the individuals who live in a home leave a strong chi imprint. Objects and symbols can also have an effect on the chi of a residence. Such as an Ouija board, which is known for inviting negative chi. When we are aware of all that can influence the energy of our spaces, we are empowered to create harmonious homes that do more than meet our need for shelter.
One of the easiest ways to ensure that the chi of your home remains loving and supportive is to be selective as to whom you invite into your home. However, it is not always possible to keep out potentially harmful people but we can take precautions. Have a routine of thorough cleansing or smudging. Have symbolic protection by your front door, such as a crystal or a feng shui frog facing in, which symbolically guards against bad luck.
A home can appear beautiful, comfortable, and stable while still serving as a dwelling place for negative or otherwise offensive chi. If you care for your home diligently and with great care, you will instinctively look beyond the surface qualities of your home when assessing how it feels. Since you actively guard your home against the intrusion of unwelcome chi, you will have the time and energy necessary to cope with it constructively. The spirit of your spaces will respond to your thoughtful actions and it will support you for as long as you choose to reside within her walls.
And like one of my favorite books, Under the Tucson Sun said, “What are four walls, anyway? They are what they contain. The house protects the dreamer. Unthinkably good things can happen, even late in the game. It’s such a surprise.”
Feng Shui is a traditional Chinese concept that links our destiny to our environment. It aims to ensure people live in harmony with their surroundings. There is a deep belief in chi, which is the animating force that is everywhere. It’s invisible energy. The purpose of feng shui is to enable you to tap into this chi energy in order to remove obstacles to free up the flow of the chi.
The principles of feng shui have existed for thousands of years. It was first used in China for the graves of the royal family and then the ancestors. Like the Terracotta Army which was the first known grave site that used feng shui and this was the grave site of the Emperor, The Chinese king Fu Xi. He devised the eight trigrams through the observation of the natural world as seen on the back of a tortoise shell.
The king was sitting on the bank of the Yellow River when a tortoise emerged and this concept was downloaded into his consciousness. The eight tortoise markings became the eight-sided map known as the bagua or the energy map of feng shui. Each section of the eight-sided map corresponds to one of the eight areas of our life experience: career and journey; knowledge; helpful people and travel; family and health, children and creativity, wealth and prosperity, fame and reputation, and relationships and marriage.
Taoist cosmology is structured on five natural elements: fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. Everything in heaven and earth is characterized by the constant interplay among the five elements, which are in constant motion. In feng shui, the balanced blend of these five elements and the yin and yang, male and female chi creates a harmonious environment.
Seeing that feng shui has been around since the 9th century BC, and is still popular today means it has had a historical impact and there is a reason for its longevity. It works. So when I hear people say feng shui is part of the new age movement which is only around 60 years old, I just say, “bless your heart” as we say in Texas.
I recently was asked the question, “ Is Eating Meat Good Feng Shui?”
There are many schools of feng shui and there are many ways to interpret feng shui just like yoga. Dating back 2000 years yoga drew on a range of traditions like Hinduism and Buddhism but it wasn’t until medieval times that physical postures were introduced.
Modern-day yoga still has echoes of these religious beliefs like the dance pose for example is a representation of the Hindu God Shiva. Today in the West we put goats on our backs and do yoga and we call it exercise, so we truly have westernized this ancient practice.
Same thing with Feng Shui. It has roots in early Taoism and stems from the Taoist belief in chi or the life force that inhabits everything. When feng shui spread to China and Buddhists began to adopt this practice then they added that a feng shui principle was not to consume meat based on their principle– do no harm. This was grounded on the five Buddhist commitments, which are: abstaining from killing live beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxication. Within Buddhist doctrine, they are meant to develop mind and character to make progress on the path to enlightenment.
That was around the barn and through the fence – as we say in Texas – to say that it depends on what feng shui you practice. When feng shui was introduced in the west it was altered eliminating any religious connotation. For example, my sister is a vegan but she is not a Buddhist, she is a Christian but she can’t fathom doing harm to any animals. My friend Alex who films my videos is a vegan and he has brought his awareness into my life, and he practices feng shui. I am not a vegan but if I wear python boots I don’t eat snakes – and I used to and they are delicious. If I wear leather, which I do, I do not eat red meat. So there is a tradeoff that makes me feel like I am balancing my chi.
My grandmother used to bless the energy of the animal she was about to consume and thank it for its life. She did this not only to honor the life of the animal but also to defuse the energy of fear the animal must have felt before he was killed. She used to say you ingest the fear if you don’t bless the spirit. So to answer your question, it just depends.
Use healing aromatherapy oils. An oil diffuser is nice as it sends the scent into the air. You can turn it on or off as needed. Lavender is relaxing, Eucalyptus is energizing. Peppermint is good for congestion. You can ask the person what their favorite flower scent is and find that oil. I used rose. 
One of the easiest ways to ensure that the chi of your home remains loving and supportive is to be selective as to whom you invite into your home. However, it is not always possible to keep out potentially harmful people but we can take precautions. Have a routine of thorough cleansing or 
The principles of feng shui have existed for thousands of years. It was first used in China for the graves of the royal family and then the ancestors. Like the 
