3 Ways Your Entrance Could Be Hurting Your Health and Opportunities

How do you feel when you enter your home? Do you feel uplifted, yet relaxed at the sight of the first room you enter, or depressed, stifled and unmotivated?

Do you frequently welcome visitors who love “dropping by” your home? Or do people look uncomfortable when they enter and leave quickly?

How your home's entrance makes you and others feel could also reflect the effects your home's entrance has on your life, health, wealth, success and happiness.

Let's look at 3 ways your entrance could be blocking your path to success.

Dark, narrow foyer - Chokes chi, limiting opportunity. May cause respiratory problems or difficulty with childbirth. A skylight, bright light on the ceiling and painting the entry light colors will visually open the space. Hanging a mirror on the wall you see as you open the door will create a sense of depth.

Foyer wall too close to the door - Inhibits chi, causing residents to feel as if life is a constant struggle. To create a sense of depth and permit chi to flow more freely, hang a mirror on the wall.

Front door faces back door or window - Chi (as well as money and opportunity) rush through the house too quickly. To disperse the chi and permit positive energy to linger in your home, hang windchimes, a Feng Shui Crystal or plant between the two openings.

Six Common Ailments and How to Cure Them Using Feng Shui

Have a sore throat? Wearing the color black, especially near or around your throat, or sipping tea with honey from a black cup, may help. That's because a sore throat is believed to be caused by too much fire chi, and black -- the color of water -- will cool the pain. Aqua and green will also soothe a sore throat.

There are very few pains and ailments that can't be alleviated, if not cured, using the powers of Feng Shui and color. You can apply "color cures" -- that is, use colors that correspond with that area of the ba gua -- to heal pain and discomfort.

Because parts of the body also correspond with each of the elements, you can choose colors that will create, enhance or complement these elements.

Here are some common ailments and the colors you should use to feel better. Of course, apply these color cures with common sense and always seek medical attention for persistent or recurring health problems. You can also use colorful, nutritious foods to fight disease and improve your health.

1. Headache - The soothing colors of pink and green will help you fight a headache, as will white and gray, which corresponds with the "helpful people" section of the ba gua.

2. Sore throat - black, aqua, green

3. Flu - Use red to cure the flu, which is a water ailment and red will "boil it out." You can also use blue and green (for hope, life and vitality).

4. Childhood illnesses - Rainbow colors

5. Stomach ache - yellow or red

6. High blood pressure - black, white, light blue or light green to "calm" your nerves. Avoid red, an agitating color. Apply the same colors for heart problems.

Would You Buy Nicolas Cage's Bel-Air Mansion?

Let's just say that you have $12.75 million laying around the house, would you purchase the 1940 Bel-Air estate that Nicolas Cage previously owned?

Some of the highlights of this impressive 11,817 square foot mansion include a central tower, custom wine cellar, 35-seat home theater, six bedrooms and nine bathrooms. There is a brick paved motor court and a swimming pool.

Here are 3 reasons why I would NOT buy this home from a Feng Shui point of view:

1. Financial Difficulty: The ivy growing on the facade may give it an old world look and feel but from a Feng Shui stand point, this means that the energy is being choked and drained from the house. As a result, this will lead to financial difficulty.

2. Ill Health: With the overgrown ivy facade, this can also lead to health issues and mental instability.

3. Predecessor Chi: With homes, apartments and property, there is something that we refer to as predecessor chi, which is the pattern of those that lived or occupied the space previously as it may help you understand what you may be in for if you occupy the space.

So be sure to ask questions to understand:
-    Was a single person living in the space and did they move in with their significant other,
-    Was it a couple and were they happy or did they separate
-    Was there financial difficulty or prosperity
-    Are they upgrading or downgrading for their next home
-    Did they raise kids in the space
-    What was the health of the occupants
-    Any type of physical, emotional or drug related abuse
-    Was the home in foreclosure

Cage recently lost the home at a foreclosure auction earlier this month when it failed to generate any bids (starting bid $10.4 million) and ownership reverted to Citibank. The foreclosing lender was one of six holding a total of $18 million in loans on the English Tudor. It had been marketed as high as $35 million.

These 3 points are good enough reasons for me to not want to look any further. However, if you want to learn more and see additional photos of the estate, visit The Huffington Post.

You know, if you'd like some help with home, apartment or land selection, go ahead and visit here and we can talk about working on your project together.

4 Easy Ways to Lose Weight with Feng Shui

The summer is fast approaching and many people want to lose weight to look better in lightweight, revealing summer styles. You can use Feng Shui methods to encourage weight loss, and to raise your own chi as well as the chi in your home, which will give you more energy to exercise and pursue your goals.

Clear the clutter - Nothing weighs people down -- literally and figuratively -- more than clutter in the home. This includes clutter you can't see, in closets, basements, attics or garages. If tackling all the clutter at once is too overwhelming, begin with the kitchen. A clutter-free kitchen will feel fresh and light, encouraging you to want to feel the same way.

Most importantly, rid the kitchen of all those foods you know are no good for you -- sodas, chips, sweets and anything that makes you want to overeat. Then, give the kitchen a thorough cleaning.

Surround Yourself with Healthy Foods - Stock the pantry with bright, colorful foods, that complement each other. If you have any specific health concerns, you may want to eat foods that offer Feng Shui treatments for these problems.

Additionally, keep fresh fruit of a variety of colors in plain sight, where you can grab whenever hunger strikes. You can also keep fresh herbs on the counter in decorative containers. You'll be reminded that you don't need excess amounts of salt and white sugar to make food taste good, and the fresh herbs will be close at hand when you need them for recipes. Fresh herbs like thyme and basil or those found in a curry provide strong, pleasing flavors. To learn more, check out The Best Feng Shui Foods for Your Heart, Lungs and More.

Colors to Curb Your Appetite - The best colors for a kitchen are blue, which curbs the appetite, or fresh white, a color of purity. Avoid green, which stimulates the appetite, and any of the colors that correspond with the fire element, such as red or orange.

Black tablecloths, black place mats or even black plates make food look less appealing, so you'll eat less and lose weight. There's less contrast of a food's bright colors against a black backdrop. Additionally, black dampens your inner chi -- as opposed to bright colors, which make you feel more energized -- so you won't feel like eating as much.

Place your food on smaller plates, too, so your plate will look fuller than usual and you'll trick yourself into thinking you're eating more.

Wear white - Contrary to fashion advisors everywhere, Feng Shui Master Lin Yun recommends that heavy people who want to lose weight dress in all white.

The reasoning is simple: White clothes really do make  people look heavier. This will serve as a reminder of the need to lose weight and inspire people to take the steps to make that happen.

White clothes also force the wearer to slow down with every bite, to avoid spilling or dropping food on their pure white outfit.

An ancient Indian proverb states: “Drink your food, chew your drink.” Literally, it means you should chew your food enough to liquify it, while thoroughly tasting your drink (in the manner of chewing food) before swallowing. In essence, slow down to enjoy the entire dining experience, and use these Feng Shui tips to enhance your weight loss efforts based on a sound diet and daily exercise.

Use Feng Shui to Create a Happy Home and Healthy Body

In Feng Shui terms, our home is a direct reflection of our body and, therefore, our health. It is also an expression of our psychological and spiritual state. In this way, Feng Shui affects and reflects our:

- environment
- body
- mind

If the passageways of our home or apartment are blocked -- by clutter or due to bad design -- we may feel stuck in our lives, unable to advance in our careers or to even get out of our own way.

When we maintain a space, keeping it clean and orderly, we send a powerful transcendental message to the universe that we are ready to accept abundance in every area of our life. In a mundane and practical sense, keeping a home or apartment neat and clean makes us always ready to welcome guests and makes us feel more calm, relaxed and organized.

We can look at the parts of the home as corresponding to parts of the human body, where:

- the electrical wiring is our circulatory system

- the plumbing corresponds to the human body's plumbing -- “bad pipes” in the home may create infertility issues with a couple

- walls represent our skin

- the front left and right of the house or apartment represents your hands

- the roof ridge pole, a main support structure in a house, represents both the human back and head

- the front door may represent the head but can also represent the birth canal, especially if a woman in the home or apartment is pregnant.

We can also apply the eight trigrams of the ba gua to main parts of the human body.

How To Use Feng Shui To Overcome Life's Struggles

Did you recently move into a home and experience a string of unfortunate events negatively impacting your income, health or relationships with others? Have you experienced these struggles your whole life?

It could be due to unbalanced or negative chi collecting in your home's central palace, the very heart of your home. Just as our heart, lungs and other major organs reside in the center of our body and do their individual jobs to keep us alive, the central palace of our home affects the Feng Shui of the house or apartment.

If a kitchen or bathroom (and especially a stove) is located in the central palace, you may experience a loss of income, adverse events that negatively affect your relationships with others, and even health problems.

How to Find the Central Palace
To find the central palace, find the center point of each room in your home. If you have irregularly shaped rooms, it may be easier to divide your home into individual squares and rectangles implied by the home's layout. Connect the points to a central axis point in your home, which represents the chi of the house and Central Palace. Basically the direct center of your home or space and notice what is located there.

Feng Shui Cures for the Central Palace
If a bathroom is located in your home's central palace, you can place a mirror on the outside of the bathroom door to reflect the chi away from the toilet. If your kitchen is located in the central palace, you can place mirrors on either side and behind the stove.

If you want to adjust the balance of chi in the Central Palace, even though you can't pinpoint a specific problem, a number of cures can work. Choose the one that best fits your style preference and the decor of the space. Visualizing the balanced chi and positive effects on your lifestyle, place or hang any one of the following in the Central Palace:

- Wind chimes
- Crystal ball
- Lights
- Plants

How Doors Can Affect Your Health and Wealth in Feng Shui

Do you find money leaving you as quickly as it comes in, virtually flying out of your hands? Do people in your house bicker constantly? Do you sometimes feel dizzy, nauseated or even anxious for no reason? The placement of the doors in your house could be partly to blame.

Doors facing each other across a hallway should either be completely aligned with each other, or not aligned at all. Slightly misaligned doors can lead to arguments and bickering in your home.

In a worst-case scenario, the frame of a door will coincide with the center of an opposing door. This can cause depression, nausea, dizziness, and negative effects on behavior, emotions and general health. You can balance the chi of misaligned doors by employing the five elemental colors, as well as by hanging wind chimes or a crystal between the two doors.

Misaligned doors create bad Feng Shui and ailments whether the doors are located in a single-family home or in an apartment building. If two apartment front doors are misaligned, place a photo of your child or another pleasant picture on the wall closest to the other apartment door.

Front Door Feng Shui
While fully aligned doors are good Feng Shui in most cases, one exception exists. The front door should never be completely aligned with the back door or bathroom door. If it is, crystals or windchimes hung in the space between the doors will slow the rushing chi and prevent your wealth from rushing out or, worse, down the toilet.

Let's explore some other possible door placements, how they affect the flow of chi in your home, and some common Feng Shui cures.

Long, Narrow Corridor with Doors at Either End
This placement of doors, typical in railroad-style apartments, can cause money to rush out of your life, resulting in financial trouble. It's even worse if the corridor runs along the center line of the building. That can cause liver, gallbladder and spleen problems. Placing mirrors to create a sense of wider space and hanging crystals or windchimes to slow the flow of chi can help.

Piercing Heart Doors
Three or more doors on both sides of a hallway that are in a row, aligned or partially aligned, can cause heart problems, headaches, and problems with the liver, gallbladder and spleen, as well as conflicts in the home. Hang two crystal balls or two windchimes to cure this placement. One should hang in line with the center line of the door, while the second should be in the middle of the corridor between the doors.

“Empty” doors - An empty door describes a door frame or passageway with no actual door to separate the spaces. An empty door is good Feng Shui if it is between a kitchen and dining room. An empty door to a bedroom may encourage an affair or lead to the husband or wife not being home often. To cure empty doors in Feng Shui, hang a regular curtain, beaded curtain, or a three-part curtain in the doorway. You can also add nine multifaceted, spherical glass crystals: four on each side of the door frame and one in the center.

Remember, intention plays a large role in Feng Shui remedies, so envision the space being filled and visualize the positive consequences you expect the cure will encourage.

The Best Feng Shui Foods for Your Heart, Lungs and More

Vegetables and whole grains are often advertised as “heart-healthy foods.” But did you know that, according to ancient Chinese medicine, red peppers, tomatoes, and even shrimp in moderation may also help improve heart health?

According to Chinese medicine and Feng Shui philosophies, an imbalance of yin or yang in a body may contribute to health problems or disease. Therefore, eating complementary foods to re-create a balance of yin and yang can help cure disease.

The five elements correspond to the five visceral organs. Eating foods in the color that represent the element corresponding to the organ you wish to treat, along with the mutually creative colors as accents in the meal.

Here is a list of the five visceral organs, all crucial to good health, the elements they correspond to, and the colors represented by each:

Heart --> Fire --> Red
Spleen --> Earth --> Yellow
Lungs --> Metal --> White
Liver --> Wood --> Green
Kidney --> Water --> Black

Food Combinations to Eat for Better Health
If you want to improve the health of a particular organ, prepare meals that employ the colors corresponding to the organ you wish to heal. You can use this technique as preventative medicine -- for better heart-health, for instance -- or to assist in curing illnesses affecting that organ. It's important to use these recommendations in conjunction with conventional or alternative medical treatments.

Use common sense. Lobster, as a red food, positively affects the heart, but it's also high in cholesterol and many people eat it dipped in butter -- that's not healthy at all. As a whole, eat healthy, colorful and nutritious foods. When you combine the food of a specific elemental color with foods in the colors of its complementary creative colors, you'll also be creating a well-balanced meal in every sense. For instance, a good meal for heart health might be a dish of fresh ripe tomatoes with a small portion of pasta (yellow/orange/tan) and green peppers.

Here are some more meal suggestions to treat the five specific organs:

Spleen
Color: yellow/orange/tan
Accent colors: red, white
Meal: A stir fry dish with orange and yellow vegetables like squash and carrots, along with red peppers and mixed with a small portion of white rice.

Lungs
Color: White
Accent colors: yellow/orange/tan, black/dark brown
Meal: chicken with brown rice and black beans

Kidneys
Color: black/dark brown
Accent colors: white, green/blue
Meal: Beef or eggplant with white rice and green beans or broccoli

Liver
Color: green/blue
Accent Colors: black/dark brown, red
Meal: A leafy green or spinach salad with red ripe tomatoes and black beans or small slices of beef.

Heart
Color: Red
Accent colors: blue/green, yellow/orange/tan
Meal: A fruit dish of strawberries, accented with orange sections and green grapes or blueberries

* This advice is not meant to diagnose or treat any illness. Consult a physician for any illness or suspected illness.

Do You Feel Stuck In Your Life?

If you are feeling stuck in your life or career, structures in your home may be (at least partially) to blame. Structures such as beams, staircases and pillars can negatively affect the flow of chi in your space and lead to illness, financial difficulty, problems in your career, and trouble sleeping. Let's look at these three features in a home and some cures you can use to alleviate their negative effects.

Ceiling Beams Can Cause Illness
Some homes have exposed ceiling beams, either functional or decorative. When these beams are located above a desk, bed, or important seat, they can lead to illness, injury, or simply a feeling of being “stuck” in your life.

For instance, if a beam crosses your bed above your legs, you may face an injury that inhibits your ability to move or a car accident. A beam over your head may lead to headaches. Exposed beams crossing a bed are worse than those that run parallel.

To minimize the impact, paint the beams the same color as the ceiling or place flutes at 45 degree angles to the beam, or vertically with the flute's mouthpiece pointing toward the ceiling.

Staircases Lead to Financial Trouble
Staircases in the center of a house or directly in line with your front door cause chi to rush out of the house too quickly. If the door is far enough away from the staircase (more than twice the height of the tallest person in your house) it won't cause problems. But if the staircase is closer, you may experience financial difficulties. You can place a wind chime or round faceted crystal ball in the space between the stair case and door to alleviate these negative effects.

If your stairs have treads, they should also have risers -- in other words, the treads should be connected so the chi can move freely up the stairs.

Pillars Create Obstacles
Pillars that obstruct your movement through a space can also block your movement forward in life. If you find a pillar creating obstacles in your career, finances or personal relations, you can add mirrors to its surface or cover it with artificial vines or flowers, in essence creating a tree.

Not all pillars create obstructions. Round pillars placed to the sides of a door, positioned as guardians but not blocking the entrance, elevate the chi of the entrance.

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Feng Shui Do’s and Don’ts for Better Health

Our home is intrinsically connected to our health and well-being. If our house or apartment is dirty, cluttered or filled with stagnant chi, our health may suffer as well. Follow these important Feng Shui Do’s and Don’ts as the first steps toward more energy and better health.

Do: Have good quality air. Most of us feel better after spending a day in the outdoors in the woods or mountains, breathing fresh air. Maintain that high-quality air in your home, as well, to improve your overall health.

Open windows to let air – and chi – circulate, and add plants to your environment. Plants release oxygen into the air and absorb CO2, making our air cleaner with their very existence. Because plants are alive, they also add positive chi to an environment.

Do: Let the sunlight in. In the morning, open the blinds or curtains on windows to let lots of energizing light into the space. Decorate with light or bright colors, using dark colors as accents, to promote positive energy, too.

Don’t: Overpower your home with artificial scents, like those from air fresheners and scented candles.

Don’t: Let clutter take over the center of your home. The center of your home should be clean, clear and still. As the center of your home has to do with your own health and should be left open as it can adversely affect your health.