Archive for March, 2010
In my last blogpost, we talked about the waxing moon: a time to put your wheels in motion. The waxing moon is a great time to create a sacred space in your home, a deliberate composition of sorts. Place objects and belongings in your sacred space that represent the idea or thought you had during the new moon – when you reinforce the thought or desire, you set the wheels in motion.
The next step in the process is to set your intentions in your sacred space and do it in a way that keeps your intention in your awareness. You might write your intention down on a beautiful piece of paper and then place it in the place of honor in your sacred space. Or bury in the soil of a plant, and every time you water the plant imagine that you are watering or feeding your intention.
The next moon cycle is the full moon. The full moon is the time for the culmination of projects and celebration; the time when your ideas, projects and things you began during the new moon are fully energized. This is when the bloom on the flower is at its fullest. This is the time to dance, a time to celebrate and connect to the moon at its fullest power. You could go swimming at night, dance in the moonlight, have dinner outside with the moon lighting your way, take a night walk, or watch the moon as it appears in the night sky. Celebrate the full moon!
Pay attention to your creative energy. This is a time to embrace your creativity, and your dreams. Let your imagination go!
Take walks. Try out new forms of exercise. Reflect on your relationships, your goals, your achievements, The full moon is a great time to make improvements, your energy is higher and your awareness is heightened.
A ritual to incorporate during the full moon is ritual of celebration. Rituals can be as casual or as fancy as you like. It’s up to you, it’s not necessary to follow a prescribed ritual. What’s important is that whatever you do, you do from a place of connection. The more personal you make it the stronger it will be. All of the ideas I mentioned above could serve as a ritual, even something as simple as inviting friends over to dinner, a celebration of friendship!
To learn more about creating rituals for change, listen to my podcast here: http://www.harmony-life.net/simplefengshuitips.shtml
© 2010 Harmony Life, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and the following information:
Feng Shui Teacher, Designer and Entrepreneur Laurie Bornstein, is the author and creator of ‘Feng Shui Lifestyle’, her FREE monthly ezine filled with Feng Shui and Lifestyle Marketing articles and tips, empowering and inspiring you to live and work in comfort, balance and harmony.
Visit http://www.harmonylifedesign.com to learn more.
The new moon is a time for planting, aligning with earth energy and the cyclic patterns of nature to optimize the health and outcome of the plantings. That’s an awful lot like Feng Shui, isn’t it? If we observe the patterns of energy in a place, and we understand them and work with them, we yield a predictable outcome.
We refer to the cycles of nature as the seasons, spring, summer, fall and winter, the magnetic ebb and flow of the earth and its relationship to the moon. And there are rituals that align with each of the seasons just as there are rituals that align with the various moon cycles. In nature all energy flows in a cyclical manner, just as day gives way to night and then night gives way to day. The moon affects the energy flow in the world around us. While the sun is the yang energy that supports growth and life, water is the giver of life, the yin source.
The waxing moon is a time for the projects you began during the new moon to hit their stride. This is a time to boost your own energy reserves, when our projects hit their stride it is easy to overextend ourselves, to overdo it. Be sure to make time for yourself, keep a balance between life and work. Go with the flow, not against it.
Life is infinitely easier when you go with the flow, the natural energy, as opposed to fighting it. That sense of swimming up stream or jumping over one more hurdle or banging your head against a wall – all of those are wonderful phrases that we have created to describe exactly what going against the flow is like! We’ve all done it and, we can probably all agree that we’ve all done it more than once and we will continue to in different areas and in different times in our lives.
When you catch yourself going against the flow, especially now that we’ve defined it a little bit, think of it as an opportunity for you to choose a new pattern, to choose to step away from these struggles, the fight, the constant battle, and move back in alignment with your own energy. And the energy around you.
A wonderful ritual to incorporate into your life during the waxing moon cycle is to take regular Epsom salt baths. Epsom salt connects you to the earth while removing toxins and impurities from your body. Water soothes, replenishes and restores your body, connecting to the energy of the moon. A ritual like Epsom salt baths, are simple, convenient and connect you to the natural energy cycle of the moon. When we connect to the natural energy patterns around us we are truly in the flow. If you feel compelled or drawn to create your own ritual or ceremony, I encourage you to honor that. When you are connected and committed to what you are doing it is not only more meaningful, it is also far more powerful.
To learn more about energy patterns and Feng Shui, listen to my podcast here: http://www.harmony-life.net/simplefengshuitips.shtml
© 2010 Harmony Life, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and the following information:
Feng Shui Teacher, Designer and Entrepreneur Laurie Bornstein, is the author and creator of ‘Feng Shui Lifestyle’, her FREE monthly ezine filled with Feng Shui and Lifestyle Marketing articles and tips, empowering and inspiring you to live and work in comfort, balance and harmony.
Visit http://www.harmonylifedesign.com to learn more.
I believe that we always know the right thing to do. We just fail to listen. We’re so busy that we don’t hear our intuition, our inner voice, speaking to us.
The new moon is the perfect time to slow down and connect to our inner awareness. To begin to plant the seeds for new ideas and projects. This is the perfect time to be still, to meditate, and to connect to who you are at the core of your being. In this place of deep connection and introspection, the information you seek will come to you. It might come to you during a dream, or in a seemingly random thought or impression, perhaps even in the words of a song or message in a movie. How it comes is of little consequence, what is important is that you are aware of it.
To be aware, we have to be listen and in order to listen, we have to be quiet; we have to be still. The energy of the new moon can support you as you move toward a place of introspection.
Each moon cycle lasts approximately seven days. At the end of one cycle is the beginning of another. They flow seamlessly into one another. Like all energy, when we follow the flow we are in alignment.
What are some things you can do to align with the energy of the new moon? This is a wonderful time to connect to the cleansing, nourishing energy of water. A simple way to do this is to take several Epsom salt baths over the next week.
You can also take this time to reconnect with nature; it’s easy it’s all around you! Sit out in your backyard or on your lawn or lean against a tree and feel the space around you. Or just take five minutes a day for a quiet moment with a cup of tea. Connecting doesn’t have to be a long meditation or an hour out of your day – it only takes a moment.
When you take that time to be quiet, you are present in the moment. And the magic of awareness comes to us in the moment.
It is important to find your own way of being still and your own way of connecting. There are so many methods available – one isn’t better than another; they are all simply different options.
If you choose to take a bath, you are bringing in the connection to water. The moon and water are very strongly connected to one another. The moon cycle controls the tides. Water is both emotionally healing and cleansing.
Use the new moon energy to get centered and quiet, and listen to your intuition and carefully plant the seeds of what is to be!
To learn more about how Feng Shui and the Lunar Cycle, listen to my podcast here: http://www.harmony-life.net/simplefengshuitips.shtml
© 2010 Harmony Life, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and the following information:
Feng Shui Teacher, Designer and Entrepreneur Laurie Bornstein, is the author and creator of ‘Feng Shui Lifestyle’, her FREE monthly ezine filled with Feng Shui and Lifestyle Marketing articles and tips, empowering and inspiring you to live and work in comfort, balance and harmony.
Visit http://www.harmonylifedesign.com to learn more.
Spring is quickly approaching, and with it, a new moon cycle.
There are four phases in each moon cycle: the new moon, the waxing moon, the full moon, and the waning moon. The lunar cycle follows a pattern of renewal, similar to the four seasons. You begin with a time of introspection, followed by emerging ideas, manifestation, release and then moving back to introspection.
The first moon phase, the new moon, is a time of introspection and contemplative thought, time for connecting to your inner awareness. The season that aligns with this energy is winter.
This is a wonderful time to set new intentions, affirmations and to give thought to the changes you would like to bring into your life.
As you begin to cycle out of the new moon into the waxing moon you align with the energy of spring. It’s the time when ideas are energized. There’s a sense of wanting to manifest something in your life so it’s an excellent time to put the wheels in motion to begin to set up what you need to achieve your desire or idea. Just like in spring, the sprout bursts through the ground and it’s the beginning of a cycle of growth.
The next cycle is the full moon, which is similar to summer. It’s a time of a culmination of projects and celebration. It’s a time when there is a lot of energy expended. I compare it to the full bloom of the flower or the plant. This is the time to really come alive and to completely immerse yourself in your creative energies.
Last is the waning moon, this is where energy begins to recede. It’s a natural time to release what isn’t needed. This is the perfect time for space clearing. If the purpose of space clearing is to release and let go of that that isn’t serving you any longer, such as clutter clearing, the waning moon is perfect.
In my next entry I’ll talk about the new moon and we have one coming on March 16th! This is the perfect time to dive deep into the depths of yourself, connect to your inner desires and prepare for spring!
To learn more about how Feng Shui and the Lunar Cycle, listen to my podcast here: http://www.harmony-life.net/simplefengshuitips.shtml
© 2010 Harmony Life, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and the following information:
Feng Shui Teacher, Designer and Entrepreneur Laurie Bornstein, is the author and creator of ‘Feng Shui Lifestyle’, her FREE monthly ezine filled with Feng Shui and Lifestyle Marketing articles and tips, empowering and inspiring you to live and work in comfort, balance and harmony.
Visit http://www.harmonylifedesign.com to learn more.
How do we live together and preserve our own personal space, our own personal preferences?
If there is more than one person living under the same roof, conflict can result from personality differences – some people are more organized than others, some are more creative than others. This can be a cause of tension between family members.
If one person has a preferred way of keeping the home, and the other has theirs, what can we do to ensure that we maintain a sense of harmony while still preserving our own individuality?
The answer is simple: Compromise.
Compromise is the tool we use in order to not only survive, but to thrive together.
If one person is tidy and the other is not, then the messy person’s natural pattern is to leave things scattered about. If this is a consistent pattern throughout the home, the tidy person may think that the messy one is deliberately leaving things lying around to antagonize them, but that’s often not the case. The messy person is just doing what comes naturally to them.
One compromise that needs to occur here is for the tidy person has to relinquish control and let the messy person be who they are. And both of these people need to honor who they are and who each other is, by finding their own space in the home where they can be true to their natural way of being. The rest of the home should be considered a shared space, and compromise must occur in those shared areas so that both people are comfortable. It might not be perfect, but it will be balanced enough to let them live in a harmonious environment.
For instance, if the bathroom is an area of conflict because one person squeezes the toothpaste in the middle and the other squeezes it at the end, simply buy two tubes of toothpaste! Perhaps you have a young adult who only lives at home during the summer – co-create house rules for everyone about shared and private space. This way everyone living in the home shares responsibility to honor each others personal space as well as the shared spaces. Making space in our hearts and minds for others to be who they naturally are, is one of the most supportive steps we can take in relationships.
What has compromise got to do with Feng Shui? In Feng Shui we seek to create balance, and sometime balance is something that has to be achieved between people just as it does in living environments. Compromise is inner Feng Shui at work. Inner Feng Shui is about working on inner connection and balance and then supporting that inner change or desire for change by making adjustments in your outer environment.
To learn more about how to apply Feng Shui in your family relationships, listen to my podcast here: http://www.harmony-life.net/simplefengshuitips.shtml
© 2010 Harmony Life, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and the following information:
Feng Shui Teacher, Designer and Entrepreneur Laurie Bornstein, is the author and creator of ‘Feng Shui Lifestyle’, her FREE monthly ezine filled with Feng Shui and Lifestyle Marketing articles and tips, empowering and inspiring you to live and work in comfort, balance and harmony.
Visit http://www.harmonylifedesign.com to learn more.
