In Ancient Chinese Traditions, life is governed by 3 types of luck:

Man Luck
Earth Luck
Heaven Luck

Man Luck = You, Your personality, your character
(completely open to change and subjective)

Earth Luck = Your home and/or office: FENG SHUI (if you are renting, it’s much easier to get up and move away from ‘bad’ earth luck than if you are a house owner)

Heaven Luck = Your ancestry, your birth, your beginning.
(Very little you can do about this luck!)

Water Dragon by Tymora

Single? Looking for a mate? Tired of the dating band wagon?

Take the 3 types of luck to improve your odds today:

Man Luck = You
33% of all your luck depends on your charm, charisma, speaking well, eye contact…
Take up dance lessons, join a toastmasters club to improve your speaking, join co-ed sports teams to increase opportunities to go out…PS learn some comedy, go to comedy clubs, read funny stories, increase your chances of being entertaining. Life is much more fun, when filled with laughter.

Earth Luck = Your home and/or Office
33% of your luck depends on the space around you. The environment we live in dictates (up to 33%) how successful we are. Our home and office directly affects how happy, energized, tired, bored, excited, or creative we are.
Clean up your space first. Then, arrange a few key design pieces in pairs. See those frames that are off centre? Centre them and put 2 together.

Match lamps by size and style. Make sure you have 2 nice place settings, and matching drapes instead of 1 long one. Walk around your home and office and notice how many stand alone items you have… If you truly wish to meet someone special, the stand alone items are directly hindering your progress. Now get to it.

Heaven Luck = This is a tough one. When we are born dictates 33% of our luck, or success in life. Each year also heralds a special energy of its own.
2012 is the year of the water Dragon and it officially starts reign now! (Well, February 4/5th the start of the spring season according to ancient custom) The Water Dragon brings in Yang Water energy. That’s fast moving, fast changing times for you and me. Are you ready? Time to move! (No, I don’t mean houses, I mean ‘change’, adapt, welcome new things) So what can you do to improve your Heaven Luck? Go with this energy.

When change comes at you, be ready. This is the year to work with flow, be fast adapting. Maybe you will meet someone on a trip, or travelling for work? Maybe you will literally be called to meet someone in the rain, or at a swimming pool. Where there is movement, there your love will be!

Try it out! Let me know what happens.

Single? blame it on your apartment & grandparents – Feng Shui, Luck and You

The top 5 reasons you are fat…from an environmental perspective.

1. - You need protection

2. - You love food…

3. - It’s easy to eat

4. - You are a creature of habit

5. - Life is too easy

   

You have read that calories in and calories out is the #1 way to change your physique. You then diligently calculate how much you eat everyday. How Fun! (Did you catch the sarcasm?) Then, you improve your exercise regimen and workout more, better, often. Within 2-3 months you are slimmer, stronger, and look better than ever right?

Hmmm. Why is it that many of us just never get there?

Let’s try another tack. Your metabolism is slow, so you pick up the health food journals, jot down some metabolically magic foods, increase your energy food intake, decrease the sluggish, heavy foods and within months you are 15 pounds lighter. No?

Well, there are countless resources out there on what to eat, what not to eat, when to exercise, when not to exercise, eat right for your body type, and on and on. Many of us have started a new ‘lifestyle’ of eating and living. Most of us have ‘failed’ to maintain this change.

In this post, I examine what happens to those of us who feel like we have ‘failed’.

1. You need Protection

Fat is protective. It provides physical protection from the elements, holds vital energy stores, in condensed form, keeps us insulated literally. It is also very protective energetically. You can be the happiest person in the world, but inside that extra 50-100 pounds, you might be hiding from something, or scared of something, or not wanting to face something. (BTW, we have an ancestral reason for eating fats: they keep us physically safer – check out this PubMed research abstract entry: The influence of food on pain perception in healthy human volunteers)

Fat also holds toxins. It is protecting us from toxic elements by accumulating them inside the fat cells, as they circulate in our bodies. You don’t have to grow up in Chernobyl to have grown up in a toxic environment. Emotions can turn toxic. Anger, hurt, rage, fear, grief, when not expressed, can become internalized and create a toxic environment inside your body. Some of us store decades of ‘bottled up emotions’ in our fat cells. They are very protective. Sometimes, a change in food intake and exercise that promotes fat loss can create huge mood swings, and even bring many of these bottled up feelings to the surface (and into the face of your loved or not so loved ones).

2. You love food…

Food is exciting, I am the first to admit that. Some foods are intoxicating (as all chocolate lovers know – if you love chocolate check out this post: Does Chocolate Addiction exist?). Studies have shown that some foods make us feel better than others. So, why not just eat more right? Well, the message here is: Is there really nothing more exciting in your life than eating more of that meal? Is that all you have to look forward to?

Some people tend to get into a rut. Where is the fun? Where is the hike up the mountain, a run down to the beach, a late night at the concert theatre? What about the all night talk-a-thon with your favorite pals? If there is no fun, no joy planned on a daily or at least a weekly basis, chances are that food is really the most fun you will encounter. Sad, isn’t it. So comforting to eat too, isn’t it. Eating also makes us ‘feel’ good emotionally and psychologically, regardless of whether we are hungry or not. You have heard of emotional eaters right? Yup, eating solves the unhappiness dilemma temporarily.

3. It’s easy to eat.

Some days are so friggin challenging that eating is probably the easiest thing you will do. As a parent, or project worker, a manager, organizer, or whatever your position is, you encounter days that are just very tiring, complex, strategically overwhelming and maybe even unsolvable. Problems, delays, system breakdowns can leak over to the next day and next day. You may not even see the end in sight. On those days, the hearty chili, or simple bagel and cream cheese just make you feel like you know what you are doing for that moment. It’s so simple. Toast. Butter. Coffee…Wonderful.

Better yet, after a long day of complex multitasking, isn’t it amazing that we can just hop into a restaurant, point to an item on a menu, maybe not even say the food out loud, just point and it comes to us. It’s so rewarding and pleasing.

Perhaps you are a procrastinator…You know what that means. That boring task ahead, those emails, the packages to send, the laundry to do; it’s all so much easier after a mid morning snack is

n’t it? We mistakenly reward in the wrong order! “I will eat this and then I will get that done”. WRONG! It’s much harder to say: “I will get that done and then I will eat this” Eating is easy, that’s why we do it so well, and forget about many other things, that are much harder to do, like ironing that pleated sleeve.

4. You are a creature of Habit

It’s time to get up. Put on the grey suit. Get on the 8 am train. Travel to work. Nod to your coworkers. Sit down. Type. type. type. Eat. Type. Eat. Print.Type. Walk around to get the paper. Sit down. Type. Travel home. Sit down and eat. Watch tv. Do dishes. Go to bed. Most days, we are pretty boring aren’t we? ‘But, you have to do that at work’ you argue… My DH told me that everyone sits in the same spot on the train travelling to work. WHY?

We are creatures of habit and it’s hard to break that habit. In many cases, the habits we pick don’t make our life better, easier, or happier, they are just the habits that stuck. They are the behaviours we did the longest in repetition. Repetition makes a new behaviour stick, like gum. So changing our diet, our exercise regimen isn’t going to stick after just a few days or even after a weeks. It’s just not long enough. Many of your ‘bad’ or negative lifestyle habits have been around for decades, thousands of repetitions. That’s what you are up against. The ‘old’ lifestyles creep back in over time and you feel like you have been sabotaged. But it’s not sabotage. It’s just you being human and choosing what you know over what you don’t know.

5. Life is too easy

Let’s face it. We can buy food in the modern world just about anywhere and anytime. 24 hour supermarket

s don’t discriminate. You can walk in with $1 and come out with a broccoli, or with a bag of processed, over-preserved, wannabe food anytime your heart desires. You don’t have to physically work for it. You may have a job all your life making phone calls (call centre), m

anaging people (sitting in a big chair), teaching (standing sometime), computing (majority of our jobs these days), and so on. These jobs, that we have created, are not designed for our bodies. Many have not even been created with our brains in mind. They are task oriented positions that require very little, if any, movement. (Check out more on this in the UK Telegraph, reporting on the latest study done on sitting and fat deposits)

It is up to you to compensate for that by getting outside everyday. It is up to you to go move, visit somewhere, do something. Walk. Run. Bike. We can all do it but we don’t. Why? It’s hard, and life is supposed to be easy right? Kids love to run. Kids love to move. At what age do we start to choose the sedentary lifestyle? Do we do that because of our parents? In our modern society, we have created such an easy life for ourselves with supermarkets, cars, automated bank machines, that we can get home to the couch so much faster. We can TIVO all our favorite shows and not miss a single thing. We spend more time watching people live on TV than we do actively living for ourselves.

That’s why we are fat. Because of one or more of the above is a part of who we are.

So, what do you think?

Why we are fat.

We read, we write, we talk, we hug, we eat, we go to parties, we sleep, we…

We do most of these wonderful actions effortlessly, often mindlessly, automatically, just to do them. Don’t we?

How often do we hear: “words have power”. Or “watch what you say”. In energy work and healing, we teach clients that all thoughts create action and determine the moments that will appear their lives. Sometimes, it can be quite overwhelming to have to be ‘mindful’ all the time. Just trying and thinking about being mindful can create anxiety. How can we do more, yet think less?

When I am trying to reduce stress levels, focus, create, grow and support my business, work with my clients, provide for my family, reach out to my friends, quite frankly, I get very tired of thinking. It’s exhausting!

I realized that one of my most powerful and magical tools is writing. No, I’m not getting back onto that screen play project just yet (but one day Toronto Film Fest spotlight will be mine!). Back to reality. I write my to do lists, everyday. Everyday, I sit down, place the large, lined paper planner in front of me and think of the ‘to do’ items that I wish to accomplish. I leaf through past days, past tasks, past notes, and am reminded of where I was, where I wish to go, and where I wish to be right now.

Sometimes, I even skip a day (I’m such a rebel) The writing-less days are FREE. Open days. Not days I lounge on the couch with Doritos and a can of coke (though that sounds nice right now!). I’m talking (writing) about days that are open to all possibilities and the path for events of the day is clear.  This gives me room to think and act, explore and be truly creative.

Why?
Well, when I write down items for the day and week, I find they get done!

And, I don’t even have to think about them throughout the day. The written words have tremendous magic for me. They pull me back. They hold me on course, to accomplish what is written. Thus, I have to be very careful about what I write, how I write, how much I define each task.

You see, this can be a positive or negative power: write too many needs and tasks to complete and you may find yourself running from one activity to another; write too little and your day ends up being filled with – (well with just about anything).

The written word is truly magical. It allows the hand to create your thoughts, places them on paper (or computer screen, though this isn’t nearly as satisfying, I find) and then links your thoughts to physical reality: your thoughts begin to exist as writing. You can read them, you ignore them, you can repeat them, you can edit them, or even burn them (poof! and they are gone)

Try this exercise for yourself:

Take 1 week and each day that week, write down what you wish to accomplish that day. The next morning, have a look at yesterday’s list. What happened? What worked and what didn’t? You may find that as the week progresses, your written word gets stronger and more magical.

Magical Power of the Written Word: Do More and Think Less

>“passion” is the new business buzz word, notice that?

Seems that everywhere I look, everything I read is all about finding your passion! Living your passion! Breathing your passion!

Ok – I get it. 
So, I have been thinking long and hard about what it is I am truly passionate about. (This need to really figure it out was fueled by my participation in Lolly Daskal’s weekly Leadership tweetchats called #leadfromwithin – the one in particular, you guessed it, on passion! – they are on 8pm EST every tuesday btw, if you want to join in. It is phenomenal the amount of tweet traffic that ensues.

I am passionate about everything I do, the only trouble is that it seems like a lot of different things!
My hands are in a hundred different cookie jars, so to speak. After much deliberation, I recognized all my passionate pursuits have one thing in common: behaviour!

I am passionate about behaviour. So here is the list of my top 10 things I am passionate about (and their behaviour)

10. Technology (behaviour of inorganic & organic compounds)

9. Communities (behaviour of social groups)

8. Reading (behaviour or words)

7. Social Media (behaviour of ‘apparently’ independent yet interconnected sources)

6. Product making (behaviour of ingredients)

5. Photography (behaviour of light and color)

4. Family (behaviour of loved ones)

3. Energy (behaviour of molecules and vibrations)

2. Plants (behaviour of the building blocks of life)

1. Learning (behaviour of the mind)

That’s the top 10 right now. It will change again, I’m sure. What’s in your top 10 passionate things?

10 things I am passionate about

>

What to do?
Drive another kilometer and keep rushing around, pushing my to do task list to completion?

Hmmm. Not today.
I decided to cease the precious moment of ‘nothing to do’ by going inside the gas station. I picked up a coffee, made small talk with the attendant behind the counter. Looked outside. Enjoyed the pause. Five minutes later, their system was back online, so I prepaid for my gas, and headed out.

The attendant said “coffee is on me, thanks for waiting.”Thank you Shell, for making your down time a good stop for me.

What would you have done: rushed off in search of another gas station or stayed put and waited?

(Due to that pause, the next few tasks were super positive experiences. Where everyone seemed to be extra nice – maybe I was simply less harried looking? Whatever that 5 minute pause did, it has made the rest of the day incredible)

Free coffee for seizing the moment

>Christmas time is such a magical time:  snow is falling, streets are covered in white powder, fireplace is crackling, the Christmas lights are twinkling…

To honor the magic and make your time at Christmas easier, follow me for the next 30 days of Christmas with ETSY treasuries. Each day I will create a gift focused treasury that will make your gift giving a breeze, decorating the house a wondrous delight, and it might even bring that magical sparkle back in your eye.

Round and Round we Go 
Dedicated to all things round, fall leaves falling, seasons changing, minds swirling…

Today, I present:

Green, Silver and Chime 
Christmas just around the corner…decorate with ease and style (and maybe pick up something for yourself…)

November 11th Treasury: All About Santa What’s red and white and jolly all over?

Next up treasury ideas:

3.All about Santa  

4.Growing up Jolly

5.Thinking up a storm 

6.Furry, warm, and cuddly 

7.Little Critters 

8.Pajama Party 

9.Drink and be Merry  

plus 21 others. Join me on my treasury journey. Send me treasury ideas (topics/names) if you want to participate. Cheers!

P.S. If you want to remember how many days left to Christmas just go to: http://www.xmasclock.com/

44 days 10 hours and 40 minutes to Christmas

>

Me: “Hi” (pronounced hgaiii, with a thick 90 year old smoker hack)
My friend: “How are you?”
Me:”Fine”
My friend: “Oh. Are you ok?”
(I want to scream: NO, I am not ok, but it’s polite to simply say fine, isn’t?”
Me: “I’m sick”
My friend: “Oh, you need to rest. Take it easy”
Me (to myself): Yes, I do. Yes, I know that. I feel terrible, I look terrible and all I want to do is collapse on the couch and not move.

The pain, aches, sore throat, hacking, phlegm continues all week, because I have to work, drive my kid to school, do errands. There is no magic fairy lifting things and getting them prepared for me you know.

But then, after 5 days of this horribleness ( I don’t care if that’s not a word, I’m still sick and I’m using it), my sweet hubby sends me this email and it just makes it all ok. Being sick is horrible. Being in pain is horrible. But, being loved makes it all bearable. 

This is what he sent:
(I’m sure it’s from some cheesey, love your wife or mother site but I don’t care)

A little boy asked his mother, “Why are you crying?” “Because I’m a woman,” she told him.“I don’t understand,” he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, “And you never will.”
Later the little boy asked his father, “Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?”
“All women cry for no reason,” was all his dad could say.
The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.
Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked, “God, why do women cry so easily?”
God said, “When I made the woman she had to be special.
I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world,
yet gentle enough to give comfort.
I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.
I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.
I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly.
I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.
I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly.
And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed.”
“You see my son,” said God, “the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart – the place where love resides.”

I am sick but I am loved

>The other day I tweeted: Unless you are a prisoner, you are exactly where you choose to be.

A few people noticed and asked me what that means, and more importantly, ‘what are the steps people can take?” (thanks Michelle @MeditativeArts)

I started tweeting out a couple of steps and then prompted, by Michelle, I figured the reply would be much more cohesive and useful for a read if put into a blog. So here it is.

What does it mean “you are exactly where you choose to be”?

We get up, we breathe, we eat, we walk out the door (well get dressed, brush teeth, etc. preferably) and join the rest of the world on our journey through life.

For the most part, we are making a decision about every step of our journey. Take the highway or side streets? Do I buy 2L of milk? Can I run in and drop off the books before I pick up the kids? Should the report be printed or is a pdf enough for my presentation?

The barrage of questions goes on and on in our heads all day long and often, continues after we fall asleep. Do you notice the subtle questions? Like: Am I good enough for this promotion? Can I put off exercise until thursday? This outfit doesn’t fit, but does it matter, do I care? This conversation is boring, but I’ll listen, I’m being polite right? I really want to go out to that event friday night, it would make me so happy, but hmm, I don’t want to impose on my in-laws, it’s not that important…

We get stuck in patterns, in assumptions, in habits, in Streams of Living. They make our ‘life’ faster, ‘easier’. At least that’s what we tell ourselves to get through each day. Don’t we? It’s easier to keep the same recording flowing between friends or family than to ‘step’ on their toes. Who the hell do we think we are? Right? We can’t hurt others, it’s easier to hurt ourselves…

Whenever we choose to keep doing the same thing, I believe we are creating a prison wall around ourselves. Many times I’ve seen clients so walled up that it takes a long time to crack open a window in their life so they can look out.

So, can you get out of your prison? 
Of course. 

Are you ready? (Hint: only you know the answer to that one)

Steps on How to Get out of your personal Prison and a begin a new Stream of Living.


step 1 – Identify what’s important in your life today, this week, this month, this year. Write it down.


step 2 – Write down the action(s) needed to keep, get, or maintain the important items (people, things, events, experiences) on your list


step 3 – Examine your skills and your support systems: what can you do, what can someone else do?


step 4 – Match up your list of important items with the skills and actions


step 5 – Write down the execution (no pun intended) of these actions in order of importance (e.g. family – dinner, work – accounting, friends – movie night…)


step 6 – Decide on time required for each one, each day and mark them in your calendar or to do book


step 7 – Carry this list of important items with you for 7 days, everywhere you go

step 8 – During times of great emotional change (happy/sad, joy/anger, love/fear, anxious/peace) put a checkmark  for Positive Emotion or  for Negative emotion, beside the item that you feel connected to (on your list). Add notes if you wish (to help you remember what transpired) Sometime, even if we are involved in a new experience/event or action (that may not be on our list), it makes us feel like we are doing something on our list so you may feel a connection to something you wrote down. 

step 9 – After 7 days, look at  your list & evaluate. What was more positive, what was more negative?

Results

Positive marks beside your items show you are choosing to live. Keep doing more of the actions that created them. Negative marks beside your items show you are choosing a wall of prison. Change your actions: find more support networks, take a deep breath before each future action, to be able to choose differently. Repeat this simple experiment whenever you feel in you are stuck in pattern that makes you feel unhappy.

Do you like this post? Does it make sense?
Should I write more on this topic?

How to get out of Prison

>In the many years I’ve worked as an aromatherapist, I have seen many a diffuser.

Why? 

Because, for the most part they were ugly!
Many manufacturers still make a ‘diffuser’ that’s simply a tacky blue and black aquarium pump with an attachment = aaaah! I can’t stand those.

It used to be that the only alternative to the hideous aquarium pumps was a candle diffuser and we all know how safe those are. With animals or kids in the home, the candle diffuser is a nice but impractical idea.

The year of 2011


The range of designer, beautiful, sleek, all around gorgeous diffusers is staggering. 

The Mini Chimney Humidifier from Japanese design house Takumi incorporates the health benefits of Negative Ions with humidifying moisture for dry winters

One of my faves is actually a humidifier that accepts essential oils in the reservoir that scent the room while increasing humidity. Something we desperately need in the cold, dry, Canadian winters.
read more on the Japan Trend Shop Site
I could easily have one of these in every room of the house!




By far the most beautiful and powerful is the Ultrasonic Aroma Diffuser.  To quote the product description: “Cutting edge technology never looked or smelled so good.”

A French designer is behind the tulip shape that includes six LED lights in three colors capable of up to 25 different illuminating patterns

So, if you are finally thinking about converting from manufactured, synthetic aroma blends to using essential oils for the home, you now have a fabulous array of diffuser gadgets to choose from. When using google search for aroma diffusers, over 800 000 hits came up. Choosing image only, you can preview many of these designer pieces from over 230 000 image hits.

This is what I call a wonderful merging of new technology (designer aroma diffusers) with old technology (essential oils)!

Discover other great diffuser products at: http://www.japantrendshop.com/ultrasonic-aroma-diffuser-p-299.html

"Beautiful" & "Diffuser" finally belong together

>An excerpt from one of my workshops with a focus on elements, energy & balance, drawing on the principles of the TAO. Enjoy.

Excerpt
Part 2 - Personal Wellness Introduction

What is ‘Wellness’?

Wellness can be summarized with four (possibly five) simple words: physiological, psychological, and emotional balance (the fifth word is spiritual).  We have been impeccably ’designed’ to work well with our environment whether surrounded by sandy beaches, stormy seas, rocky mountains or metropolitan havoc.  There is no particular environment that is completely ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.  The stress and tension at a fast paced office is the equivalent of securing new lodging or hunting down food for the day – from prehistoric times.

Problems arise when we don’t know how much stress is too much or what to do with the excess.

To better understand ourselves we need to breakdown the complex structure (our body) that we live in and simplify it.  We essentially operate on 3 levels: the physiological, psychological and the emotional.

Physical Health – Biological Homeostatis (Hunger versus satiation)The goal of this system is to keep all physical functions operating at optimal levels.  When optimal levels are compromised, our body provides us with Alarm Indicators.  These serve to tell our mind that something in our behavior, attitude, environment, etc. needs to be changed.  When we recognize the problem, we react and introduce a change.  This is commonly known as a remedy, doctor, help, healing, etc.

Some Alarm Indicators:

Fever
Blood pressure (high/low)
Skin irritation, changes
Pupil/cornea changes
Finger and Toe nail changes
Muscle fatigue/strain/tension
Low energy/muscle twitching

Some Remedies:

Lifestyle Wellness – Step 2