Who's Holding You Accountable?

In his book Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits Wayne Dyer talks about overcoming avoidance by doing what you make excuses not to do. He writes: “I have a free will, and there is nothing I need to avoid. I will refrain from using any excuses to justify my avoidance behavior.”

Sometimes, it's enough to tell yourself you will do something, and then do it. Other times, although we want to overcome our blocks and procrastination, we make it harder than it has to be. We promise ourselves we'll do something, but it never gets done.

At these times, a close friend, coach or mentor can encourage us and hold us accountable. Tell someone you trust what you intend to do. Even if you find it hard to remain true to yourself, you won't want to break your word to this other person.

Make sure this person is someone you trust to keep your idea to themselves and someone you know will encourage you to stay true to your word. We all need a hand, sometimes, on our life's journey.

If you want to attract an accountability partner into your life, you can use Feng Shui to help. Take a look at the section of your home that corresponds to “travel and helpful people” in the bagua. You can activate or strengthen this section with metal objects such as windchimes or brass lamps.

1 Simple Step To Financial Empowerment

“Where does all my money go?” 

Have you ever uttered these words at the end of the month, when the bills are paid but you feel as if you should have a little bit left -- and you never do?

There are several Feng Shui cures you can implement to increase your income and improve your financial situation. But if you are seeking true financial empowerment, it's available in one easy step: Track all your spending.

For one week, carry a small notebook around with you. Write down every purchase you make, from that bagel and coffee at the local deli to those Broadway play tickets. You'll notice three things happening:

1. You'll become more aware of your spending. You may not like the answers, but you'll no longer ask, “Where does all my money go?”

2. You may begin thinking twice about purchases. Seeing those numbers add up on paper can be quite sobering.

3. You'll most definitely gain a sense of financial empowerment.



Knowledge is power, and knowledge about your own financial situation is the first step on the road to wealth.

Meet the Love of Your Life in the Right Clothes

Are you seeking love? Commitment? Fulfillment in a romantic relationship and an eventual family? It all starts with a first date.

What you wear on that first date can increase the odds you'll form a powerful connection with potential for a long-term relationship. On the other hand, the wrong choice in clothes can make you disappear quickly from the person's mind as soon as the door closes on the evening.

Red to Turn Heads
If you want to turn heads, a red dress or shirt will do the trick. This sends a message that you are a person full of passion. Red, often the color of a Chinese wedding dress, is an auspicious color for most occasions, and especially for a woman or man seeking a mate.

Pink or Peach for Seduction
If you want to show that you're open to seduction -- and looking for a more intimate connection -- a pale peach or beige satin top, which blends with your skin and gives the illusion that you are almost nude, sends a subtle message to your date that you are both daring and passionate. Pink has the added benefit of being a lucky color for finding a marriage partner.

Whatever you wear, make sure you are comfortable. An outfit that is flattering in its fit, cut and colors will give you tremendous confidence before you even leave your home. That confidence will project itself as a radiating inner light, attracting others -- including that special someone -- to you.

Dress to Enhance Your Chi
If you want to impress your date, you can choose colors that enhance your most positive inner traits or, alternatively, colors that correspond with your sign in the Chinese zodiac. These colors strengthen your chi.

For instance, if you are creatively charged and ready to deliver stimulating conversation -- and looking for someone who can do the same - wear blue, red or purple.

If you wish to showcase your natural compassion, green, blue, black or red will send a message to your date. Black can also indicate wisdom, class and style. (Think of a black tie affair.) However, to avoid depressing black chi that could overwhelm the otherwise happy occasion, dress up the outfit with colorful accessories, such as a red evening bag.

By strengthening your chi for a special occasion like a first date, you increase your own confidence. The right colors also change the way people perceive you and affect their chi in a positive manner, as well.

Rainbow Colors to Connect
Most people respond to rainbow colors. Salespeople often wear this color in order to appeal to a broad variety of buyers; this technique can work on a date, too. Rainbow colors enhance every type of chi and support the virtues of all five elements.

It takes a certain personality type to pull off a rainbow outfit without looking like a clown. Consider, instead, using rainbow elements on your undergarments or in very small doses, like on a piece of jewelry.

The Five Elemental Colors
Instead of a rainbow, you can employ the five-elemental colors in any order on your outfit to bring good fortune during a first date. Using the five elemental colors in an outfit is a special Feng Shui technique used to increase your fortune during important events.

You can see that Feng Shui can help you dress for a successful first date. With so many different color options that will help you make it a night to remember, you can choose the combination that works best for you.

I'm curious, do you have a favorite first date outfit or color that you really like?

Wash Your Hands After a Big Decision to Cut Down on Second-Guessing

According to a University of Michigan Ann Arbor study, the physical act of washing your hands can help remove those niggling second thoughts about a decision you've made.

The metaphor of washing your hands of something as washing your conscience (or your mind) clean may have some basis in truth. Graduate student Spike W.S. Lee conducted the study, analyzing how individuals reacted to decisions they made based on the simple act of hand washing. Lee found that when people literally washed their hands after a decision, they felt justified about their choices and felt increasingly better about their decisions. When people did not wash their hands, they were less likely to justify their decision.

For more interesting tidbits on the relationship between hand washing and its effect on the mind, the NPR podcast (embedded below) also offers more food for thought.




Photo by Arlington County.
[Lifehacker]

For info about Feng Shui, go here: Feng Shui Quick-Start Guide

12 Colors That Help You To Achieve Your Goals In Life

We know that colors play an important role in Feng Shui. Colors can be used to activate a “missing section” of the bagua in a home or apartment. Colors can be used strategically in your wardrobe for greater fortune, increased wealth, or to enhance your persuasive or sales powers. Painting different rooms of your house in auspicious colors, or using the five-element color cycle, can improve many different areas of your life, and help you attract love, money or success.

But what do specific colors symbolize? Keep in mind that many colors have cultural connotations. For instance, a green hat in China symbolizes marital infidelity. White symbolizes death in China, but U.S.-based brides wear white to symbolize purity. In China, brides consider red to be the most auspicious color.

These guidelines will help you select the best colors to strengthen your chi and achieve your goals in romance, your career, finances, spirituality and more.

Red - The Chinese consider this color one of the most auspicious. Full of fire energy, red is stimulating, powerful and persuasive.

Purple - Purple is as auspicious as red, with the added connotation of money and power.

Yellow - While people in the U.S. often interpret yellow to symbolize cowardice, in Feng Shui yellow or gold is associated with royalty and wisdom. It is not as “high energy” as red, but it represents, tolerance, patience and wisdom -- worthy attributes for leaders.

Green - Like the springtime grass, green represents hope and freshness. A great color for a kitchen or bedroom, it can be both energizing and tranquil, depending on the shade.

Blue - Like green, blue is associated with the element of wood and therefore symbolizes growth and hope. Blue hospital gowns have a calming effect on patients and represent the hope of recovery.

Black - The ultimate in “yin” energy, black creates a sense of depth in mood and perspective. People may don this color for wisdom. Too much yin energy, though, can lead to depression, so people who are naturally “down” should avoid this color.

Gray - The perfect blending of black and white (yin and yang), gray can symbolize the ultimate balance. However, it can also take on characteristics of black and represent hopelessness (as in a gray and dreary day.) Use your instincts when applying this color -- does it feel uplifting and balanced or drab and depressing?

Brown - Symbolizing the depth and roots of wood, brown conveys a sense of permanence and stability. On the other hand, it can also create a heavy, weighed-down feeling. Dark brown can also represent the element of water and take on the yin characteristics of the color black.

Tan - Unlike dark brown, tan is an “earth” color, representing re-birth and possibility growing out of hopelessness.

Orange - Like red and yellow, orange is an auspicious fire color, designed to energize a space.

Pink - A softer shade of red, pink often represents love, joy, and romance. If red is fiery hot passion, pink is pure love and affection.

Peach - An important color in Feng Shui, this blending of pink, red, and orange can be auspicious, as in peach blossom luck. It is a social color, attracting friends and lovers. It is a good color for a single person's bedroom if they hope to attract love. However, peach in a married couple's bedroom could lead to infidelity.

Which colors do you most identify with right now? Which colors are lacking in your life, and would adding them to your home or wardrobe help you achieve your goals?

Best Colors For Your Career

Are you following your passion with a career you love? The adage, “Do what you love and the money will follow rings very true.” However, if you are positive you love your career -- whether you are an entrepreneur or working for someone else -- but still haven't achieved the success you would like, you may be dressing for the wrong calling.

In Feng Shui, certain colors fit certain career paths best. If you match your career to the bagua color wheel, where different colors correspond with different elements and sections of a space, you can activate your personal chi for greater career success.

Here are a few examples of common careers and the colors people in these industries should wear to promote success.

Banker/Investor - One key to this job is helping people feel secure when they entrust you with their money. The color blue is comforting and confidence-inspiring. Because the wealth area of the bagua sits between wood and fire (blue/green and red, respectively), pink, red, blue, green and purple are all auspicious accent colors.

College professor - Black or dark brown promote an air of seriousness. Be careful, though, not to stock your wardrobe with entirely drab colors. Brighten your outfit with lively complimentary colors or you may risk depression. Red encourages rationality and lively thinking in your students and is a good counterpart to more somber colors.

Health care worker - Hospitals have it right when they dress doctors and nurses in light shades of blue and green. These colors encourage hopefulness while inspiring confidence. White is also good to encourage -- and exude -- an air of cleanliness, while red accents symbolize a warm heart and good bedside manner.

Real Estate Agent - White will encourage your speaking ability while also letting the home “speak for itself,” creating the proverbial blank slate so you don't distract from the house's interior decorating. Red will bring out rationality in your buyers, while pink will warm up your customers. Also, if you haven't had a chance to meet your prospective buyers or sellers or have a number of appointments scheduled for the day, employing multicolored clothing can help any salesperson achieve their objective and will do the same for real estate professionals.

School teacher - Green, blue and pink inspires confidence and “warms up” students. Red will encourage rational thinking. In contrast to college professors, who want a serious, attentive class, primary school teachers who wear dark, somber colors may find it hard to excite young students about the subject matter.

Therapist/Psychologist - The best colors for this job may depend upon the patients you are meeting that day. White will help you maintain your own peace of mind in the presence of patients who may not be stable. Green will give you energy and enthusiasm. Black can give you an air of seriousness, but be careful -- too much black in your wardrobe will depress your chi, especially after listening to other people's problems all day. Multicolored clothing may work well for mentally unstable patients.

Graphic designers/writers/creative careers - Graphic designers work well when dressed in multi-colored clothing, or outfits of a single primary color -- except black or white, which don't promote creativity. Writers and editors can enhance their personal chi and creativity with multi-colored clothing, as well.

All-black outfits for people in creative professions, including publishing and advertising, may work on deadline weeks or days, when calm attentiveness is required. Red or green are great for brainstorming sessions, as they promote new ideas.

5 Ways Of Dealing With Depression Without Drugs

Feng Shui can be used to help alleviate depression and feelings of being "stuck," which are so common in today's society. Often, an individual just needs a gentle nudge to return to his correct path, where he can be his true self.

I should know; I've battled feelings of depression and low energy. A combination of Feng Shui, proper nutrition, exercise, meditation and re-connecting with nature alleviated my depression and placed me on a path toward fulfillment.

My career has soared. I have a stronger drive for achievement and activity and I am truly grateful and happy. As a result, I've been fortunate to help many others welcome energy, drive and the feelings of joy and gratitude back into their lives. That is my true path.

1. Feng Shui Your Space: A Feng Shui consultation may be the first step in getting "unstuck." A Feng Shui consultant can recommend ways to shift the energy of a person and space, creating amazing transformations.

When I perform a Feng Shui consultation for a client who is feeling stuck or depressed, I pay close attention to the entrance of the space. The entrance should not be blocked, which prevents energy or chi from entering the area.

I'll also take a look at the work environment, specifically under a person's desk. That part of the office should be clean, clear and permit plenty of leg room.

I often introduce life energy into a space. You can do this in your home or office by adding living plants, fresh flowers, raw fruit or moving water.

There are also specific Feng Shui cures and remedies you can employ. For instance, you can use Feng Shui Wind Chimes To Help With Depression.

2. Reconnect With Nature: It's easy to lose your connection with nature and, for many people, this leads to depression.

Don't you feel rejuvenated after spending a day at the beach or a few hours hiking in the mountains? Try to make nature a small part of your life every day. Spend more time outdoors walking, hiking, cycling or simply sitting in the park appreciating the environment.

3. Diet & Nutrition: Chronic fatigue is an indication that the body's "batteries" have run down. Resistance drops and illness or disease may strike.

Often, fatigue is caused by a critical deficiency of active enzymes in the diet and an overabundance of "dead" foods: processed, preserved and over-cooked foods, eaten in incompatible combinations.

Many fad diets literally starve cells of nutrition and energy and permit toxic wastes to accumulate in the tissues. This prevents the body from generating and directing energy for work or play, since all available energy must be used to keep the body alive.

According to The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity, denatured, processed, preserved, canned and cooked foods should compose less than 50 percent of the daily diet. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains to give your body the energy it needs and combat chronic fatigue.

Sun Ssu-mo, the Tang Dynasty Taoist physician who correctly diagnosed and cured the nutritional-deficiency disease beriberi 1,300 years ago, a full millennium before European doctors did in 1642, wrote in Precious Recipes: "A truly good physician first finds out the cause of illness, and having found that, he first tries to cure it by food. Only when food fails does he prescribe medication."

4. Proper Exercise:

"The Tao of nurturing life requires that one keep oneself as fluid and flexible as possible. One should not stay still for too long, nor should one exhaust oneself by trying to perform impossible tasks. One should learn how to exercise from nature by observing the fact that flower water never stagnates and a busy door with active hinges never rusts or rots. Why? Because they exercise themselves perpetually and are almost always moving." (Sun Ssu-mo - Precious Recipes)

In this passage, Sun Ssu-mo succinctly distills the essence of Taoist exercise principles. If we observe nature, we see that rhythmic movement is the foundation for cultivating essence and energy.

Balance and moderation are also key factors. How many times have you started a difficult or time-consuming exercise regime only to abandon it after a few weeks-or a few days? Start slowly so your early success will spark your drive to continue. In addition to structured exercise, look for ways to introduce more physical activity into your everyday life.

The Spring and Autumn Annals tells us: Essence and energy, body and breath, are indivisible: when the body does not move, essence cannot flow; when essence cannot flow, energy becomes stagnant.

Keep your essence moving like a mountain stream by practicing controlled deep breathing balanced with rhythmic physical movement. Body and breath will harmonize and vital energy will circulate to every organ and tissue in the body.

5. Meditation: Meditation purifies the mind and restores the spirit's primal powers by withdrawing all distracting thoughts and disturbing emotions from the mind. Meditation is to spirit what diet and nutrition are to essence - an indispensable tool for cultivating and conserving that treasure.

Emotions are regarded as major causes of disease in Chinese medicine. When unbridled by firm intent, they can cloud our minds and vandalize our precious reserves of essence and energy. To restore conscious awareness, one must empty the mind of all thoughts and pacify all emotions in the solitary silence and peaceful serenity of meditation.

In an article entitled "Mental Muscle" (Omni magazine, June 1992), Kathy Keeton writes:

"When the psychologists Charles Alexander of the Maharishi International University in Fairland, Iowa, and Ellen Langer of Harvard University, taught transcendental meditation (TM) to a group of octogenarians in eight Boston-area nursing homes, 100 percent of those who practiced meditation 20 minutes a day were still alive three years later, while 38 percent of their peers who did not meditate had passed on. This is reminiscent of legends of Himalayan yogis using similar techniques to live more than a hundred years...

Alexander is one of a growing body of scientists who believe that we can muster the power of our brains to stay healthy, to heal ourselves when we're sick, and, quite possibly, to extend our life expectancy."

Combining Feng Shui with proper nutrition, exercise, meditation and time to reconnect with nature will put you on the path to health, happiness, longevity, peace of mind, greater drive and ultimate success.

How many items listed above are you doing? Why not try adding a new one each week for the next few weeks? Please come back and share your results!

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