I have
not been really fond of feng shui, not until we transferred to the
house next to my in-laws house here in the compound. It’s a two-bedroom
bungalow, ideal for a family that’s just starting. We had the house
blessed last Dec. 17, 2006 and at the same time celebrated my (Dec.
13), Papa Popoy’s (Dec. 14), CJ’s (Dec. 15) & Mama Ching’s (Dec.
18) birthday. Whoa! Sunod-sunod kami ng birthday. Hehehe… Kaya isang
handaan na lang. Tipid din. 
The bungalow is a very relaxed place. Minimalist in interior.
Actually, it’s my father-in-law, Papa Popoy, who decorated it and lent
us some furnitures. He’s good at doing interiors and home arrangements.
We still have other stuff to fill into. We still need a ref, stove,
etc. Jonjon and I want to buy a stove oven so we could finally cook and
bake. It’s the baking thing that we really want to try. I did bake a
ready made carrot cake mix before and I hope I could do more of that
soon. Jonjon and I love to cook. We usually dissect a dish that we have
eaten in a restaurant and then cook it at home. If we could not discern
the things and the spices that makes the dish flavourful, we usually
browse the net for our reference.
Going back to feng shui, I am not really serious decorating the
bungalow in the feng shui way but the curious me makes me search for
sites on the particular topic.
In my researches, I came across this article again, well, somewhat
related to earlier new year blog that I posted. Another article worth
noting because it gives us a clear idea on how to bring out the best in
ourselves.
18 Ways to Activate Inner Feng Shui
Everyone has the ability to attain his or her highest
potential, which is limitless. It all begins in the mind. Learn to use
inner feng shui by creating positive energy inside your head. That will
activate the chi that helps you make your dreams come true. Train your
mind to think in empowering ways, always positive, always generous,
never shackled by insecurities and negative emotions. This is the way
to tutor your consciousness so the attainment of desires becomes easy.
Here LILLIAN TOO shares are 18 powerful ways to make your mind tune
itself to creating positive energy, to help strengthen the yang side of
your consciousness.
1. Move Your Goal Posts
Do not wait till it is too late to realize your goals may simply be far
too small, too mediocre or too vague to excite you very much. So many
of us are afraid to set higher standards and higher goals for
ourselves, so we aim low, satisfied with mediocrity. Setting easily
achievable goals can never really excite us, because we know deep
inside that in the end, our success is not enough for us. You may be
able to fool the world, but you sure cannot fool yourself.
A small goal is a small goal. But a large goal is something else again.
When your goal is seemingly difficult or even impossible, it takes on a
magical aura. It lives and breathes, and provides powerful motivational
energy. It is there with you in the mornings when you wake up, and
there with you when you sleep. You can taste it, smell it and feel it.
You will doodle about it, write about it, speak about it as it fills
your life with a purpose of stunning clarity. So move your goal posts
if you are indeed setting your sights too low.
2. Discover Your Key
Find out what really galvanizes and excites you. When you know what
button to press to get you enthusiastic, it is like discovering the key
to making your life one long enchanting journey. So many of us do not
really know what we want, nor appreciate the potential we have of
finding permanent happiness. The wise men of all traditions tell us
that the beginning of experiencing real happiness is to understand the
true nature of happiness. Then only can we find the special key that
will bring happiness to us.
3. Create A Vision
This is an excellent motivational tool. When you have a vision, your
mind has something exciting to focus on and to look forward to. There
is nothing more empowering! Create your vision now and refine your
wishes as you think about how you can live your life in a fulfilling
and rewarding way. Remember that creating a vision is not about what
you want so much as how you can make your life excitingly meaningful.
This is how yang energy comes to life – with thoughts that empower the
road ahead with real meaning. When it is merely thinking about what you
want, your thoughts will lack sustenance and strength; because what you
want will change from month to month, and even from day to day. Making
your life meaningful however is a lasting vision, which gets more
stable as you think it through.
4. Practise Whole Brain Thinking
So many people I know wait for an awful crisis to erupt in their lives
before forcing all their brain cells to get working overtime. Theirs is
a life lived in reacting to circumstances. This is what is meant when
someone describes a person as being reactive rather than proactive.
Such people seldom, if ever, practise whole brain thinking. They use
only one side of their brain. To them, creativity is an unknown word.
They live with only one side of their brain activated, while the other
side grows stagnant with stale chi. As a result, there is no music, no
art, no frivolity in their lives. They are so serious, these people.
They don’t know how to laugh. People like this cannot think with both
sides of the brain, so something will always be lacking. From the
start, train yourself to use your entire brain – both right and left
sides, with the serious mingling with the joyous, the rational with the
frivolous. Whole brain activity leads to creativity of the most
wondrous kind.
5. Deprogram Your Negatives
From childhood, we may have been programmed to think so negatively
about ourselves that when we do succeed, we negate our own success by
denying it. If you are one of those who have been programmed in the
negative, the best way to motivate yourself is to start the
deprogramming exercise now. Don’t waste any more time. Bring yang chi
into your psyche by discarding everything associated with the negative
mindset. Everyday, tell yourself you are getting better and better at
being positive, optimistic and happy. Program yourself with
affirmations. Surround yourself with positive friends and discard
everything that reminds you of the negatives in your life. Read
motivational books. Use your mind to mentally discard all negative
thoughts and then picture all these negatives flowing right out of you!
6. Embrace Your Willpower
Everyone has willpower. If you think you have no willpower, you are
undermining your own success potential. You must believe you have it
and you must welcome its presence as part of you. If someone said to
you, “Let’s go climb Mount Everest,” what would your answer be? Would
you laugh and say “Impossible!” And then go on to say how unfit, weak
and lacking in stamina you are? These answers indicate a rejection of
your willpower, undermining your potential to be strong, healthy and
fit enough to climb Mount Everest. Think about this and you will
realize that we all have it in us to do anything, including climb Mount
Everest. If we want to do it badly enough, we can indeed generate the
willpower to become strong and fit enough to do so.
7. Inspire Yourself With A Biography
Next time you feel the need for someone to give
you a push and shake you out of lethargy, go in search of a
well-written biography. There’s nothing more motivating than reading
about someone’s hard-earned success story. The first time I read a
biography, it was a book called Long Road To Freedom about Nelson
Mandela. I had been given the book as a birthday gift and at that time,
I knew little about the politics of South Africa and was certain I
would be bored. How wrong I was. Nelson Mandela’s journey of peace and
his determination to lead his people out of their awful state inspired
me so much I have been reading biographies ever since. If you want to
motivate yourself, find a worthwhile role model in a book, then watch
yourself get strongly inspired.
8. Debate With Your Dark Side
Whenever you catch yourself brooding, worrying, feeling depressed about
a situation or an outcome, recognize instantly that it is the negative
side of you being dominant. Everyone has a negative side. This is
nothing to be ashamed of. But if you want to strengthen yourself with
powerful inner chi, start a debate with your dark side, making sure you
win! Convince your mind how much better life looks when you see the
bright side brought about by having an optimistic attitude. Build a
case for being an idealist. List all the ways your mind and heart can
expand as you open doors to all that is possible rather than close the
door because you think everything you want to do is impossible.
9. Become A Hero / Heroine
Get used to playing the role of the conquering hero or heroine. This is
what initiates success vibrations within you. Reject the role of the
supporting or bit player. In your scheme of things, see yourself as the
main player, as the star. When the inner consciousness gets used to
thinking of itself this way, motivating oneself becomes a hugely
satisfying exercise that gets built on over the years. You will find it
much easier then to drive yourself into making the kinds of decisions
and taking the kinds of action that will actualize this.
10. Challenge Yourself On A Regular Basis
With every new day, challenge yourself and the strength of your
determination. It is challenge that brings out the hidden skills and
talents that lie asleep within you. Resist the urge to seek your
comfort zones. When we give way to laziness and lethargy, it is easy to
get buried in sloth. Comfort zones are for resting, not for living. Use
comfort zone times to consciously relax so as to restore your inner
energy. The body needs rest and so does the mind, but remember also to
challenge yourself, striving all the time to improve, so the benchmarks
you set yourself get harder. Train the energy that accompanies all your
efforts with a sense of the positive. You will be surprised how good
chi gets even better when stretched.
11. Turn Daydreaming Into A Mental Skill
Do not belittle your mental fantasies, they are the stuff of potential
reality. Give your mind free rein to dream of all that you can be and
all that you can do to bring fulfillment and meaning into your life. If
you fantasize about being rich, think of how you can use all your
wealth to benefit so many people. And if you want power, think of all
the great things you would do to make the world a better place. When
you fantasize, you are using your subconscious mind and thoughts to
excite you and this will activate your inner capabilities, lighting up
pathways inside your head that will lead to the stretching of your
potential. In feng shui philosophy, we learn that it is the thinking
that provokes the movement, which in turn wakes up the power of the tai
chi - the coming together of yin and yang to activate the powerful
whole.
12. Confront Your Fears
If you are harbouring deep-seated fears, the best way to overcome them
is to confront them! Fear arises from feelings of inadequacy, of
standing in awe of someone, of being rejected. To deal with them and
not let them become obstacles on your journey to success, first admit
these fears to yourself. Face them squarely and confront them. Secret
fears often manifest as wild animals chasing you in a dream and you
will be running away. Next time it happens, turn around and confront
the wild animal. Likewise, each time you are afraid of anything, stop
and face whatever is making you afraid. If you fear speaking in front
of a group of people, force yourself to do it. If you fear being
rejected by asking a girl out, just do it. Often, the reality of what
you fear is a lot less fearful than you expect.
13. Discover Your Inner Einstein
Everyone of us has the capacity to be a genius. There is an Einstein
lurking within our heads somewhere – if only we make an effort to find
him! Let me tell you a true story. About ten years ago when my
daughter Jennifer was still at school, she shared her dream of wanting
to make it to Cambridge University with me. “It’s so hard to get in,”
she said to me, “there are so many clever people wanting to get a place
there.” I realised that arranging the feng shui of her room would not
be enough. I had to convince her she could make it. I had to imbue her
with some powerful inner feng shui – build her confidence and her
belief in herself. So we went shopping for Einstein.
We found the most gorgeous painting of this genius along Bayswater Road
in London on a Sunday morning on one of her exeats from school. I paid
200 pounds for the painting and then hung the painting above her bed in
her room at school. “Each night as you sleep,” I told her, “Einstein
will help you become so good in your Maths you will sail right through
your A levels, and with a double A in Maths that should help you in
your application to Cambridge”. So for two years, Einstein worked his
magic for Jennifer. She scored A’s in 12 modules of A level Maths and
gained a place at Cambridge. Here is the picture of our Einstein
painting to help any one of you readers along who might want to use it
the same way we did.
14. Paint Your Universe
Don’t go through life allowing others to control your aura and your
environment. The key to enjoying excellent feng shui whether inner or
outer is to take control of your surroundings, and by extension your
life. Paint your own Universe. Create your canvas. Fill it with the
colours and strokes of your choice. If you go through each day
accepting what other people and circumstances splatter on your canvas,
your painting (and your life) could well get ruined. How much better
when you are in control, if not completely then at least partially.
This is a freedom we all have. You only need to recognize it and you
will begin to see that there are pots of paints in every hue and colour
just waiting for you to make something of your life’s canvas.
15. Sing Even When You Don’t Feel Like It
The best time to lift your voice in song is when you don’t feel like
doing so. There is something truly magical about singing – it lifts the
spirits like nothing else can. Even when you sing sad songs that move
you to tears, it is incredibly cleansing, helping you pour out all the
negatives inside your head. And when you sing happy songs, it creates
bridges made of lights and moonbeams from your heart to your mind,
infusing it with a brightness of spirit that will make even the most
depressed and insecure of souls get up and dance. Next time someone
asks you to sing, do so, even when you don’t feel like it.
16. Hang On To Your Encouraging Friends
Life can be a long, hard road of negativity if one is surrounded by
pessimist friends who convince us how bad, ill equipped and weak we
are. It is so much better to surround oneself with friends that raise
us high, build us up, make us feel like we can do anything, climb any
mountain, swim the deepest oceans. Friends who encourage you and
nurture your inner chi are as precious as the brightest of gemstones.
Hang on to them!
17. Create A Game Plan
If you want to work with passion and imbue your everyday life with a
sense of purpose, it is a good idea to develop a game plan. When you
have a game plan, your waking hours suddenly become more productive.
Whatever you do then is instilled with a sense of purpose. There is
then a road map to attaining success and a benchmark to evaluate your
days. Creating a game plan also helps you establish vital signposts of
attainments.
18. Talk to Yourself
The best way to program yourself positively and to rid yourself of
debilitating negatives is to talk aloud to yourself. Write a script
describing everything positive about yourself and then read it aloud.
This should be an exercise in boosting your confidence, in making you
feel good and in convincing yourself that you can be whatever you want
to be. That there are simply no heights in the world you cannot attain.
Each time you hear yourself saying anything pessimistic or derogatory,
pinch yourself and loudly contradict it. Be careful what you subject
your ears to. They believe everything they hear unless the mind
actively tells them not to believe. So each time you talk to yourself,
say positive, encouraging things. Use the same attitude towards others
around you. In time, you will find that you criticize yourself and
others less and less, thereby setting the stage for only good and
positive things to come into your life.
Hope everyone will have a fruitful year ahead of us.
