Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Value of a Good Impression -- Building Your Chi

Your house also speaks volumes about your life at the entrance. The typical homeowner rarely uses the front door and those that do reap the benefits. Sadly the front door is usually relegated to FedEx deliveries and the UPS man. But if you ignore the entrance to your home, you are depriving your life of opportunities and advancement. In feng shui the front door is called the mouth of chi. This is where chi, or energy, enters the home. If the front door does not look auspicious or beautiful and isn’t regularly used, the result is limited potential. Growth slows and opportunities grind to a halt.




My front door mat has an auspicious symbol of the mystic knot for never-ending opportunities


Look at your front door and see if you can’t improve the impression your home gives. And, yes, impressions do count. Beauty creates beautiful energy called sheng chi. Sheng chi is enhanced by dappled shade, light breezes, pretty flowers, and a well-kept appearance. When you have a beautiful entryway to your home, you invite this beautiful and auspicious energy into your home each time you open the door. If, however, your door has peeling paint, cracks in the sidewalk or dead plants, you invite negative energy called shar chi. But whether you have sheng chi or shar chi at your front door, it’s important to know that both kinds of energy grow.


This urn sits at the left of my front door to bring the wealth of opportunities


When you continue to maintain and improve the appearance and upkeep of the front of your house, you cultivate your home’s sheng chi. Doing so provides benefits to everyone in the house. Beautiful sheng chi energy creates well-being in the house and in the residents. Shar chi grows too and when it does, it becomes more yin, more negative. That’s why when you see houses that seem to be declining they will continue to decline.



I energize my yard, and specifically my growth and family sector with a flowing fountain and beautiful plants to symbolize wealth, health, and growth.


As my friend, Sally Francis' husband, Deryl, says, Westerners build muscle and Easterners build chi. Make it a point to build your wealth chi in and around your house to lift your spirit, maximize your enjoyment of your home and bring you the wealth and opportunities you want.


Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Paradox of Our Age and Wealth

I've long admired the Dalai Lamai and Buddhism. On a recent trip to Taos, New Mexico, I read and inscription by HH the Dalai Lama entitled, The Paradox of Our Age and was very moved by it because it explains the essence of what is missing in so many of our lives.

The Paradox of Our Age
by The Dalai Lama

We have bigger houses but smaller families;
More conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicines, but less healthiness;
We've been all the way to the moon and back,
but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We build more computers to hold more information to
produce more copies than ever but have less communication.
We have become long on quantity,
but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall man but short character;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It's a time when there is much in the window,
but nothing in the room.


When I write about acquiring money in feng shui, I focus my attention on wealth versus money. That's because money comes and goes -- wealth stays. And, isn't that what we want? Money becomes a river, but wealth is a well. This is one of the reasons I am so attracted to feng shui and talk about it in my newsletter is because I am most interested in helping people to build wealth. By improving your feng shui, you create the energy in your home, your office -- yourself -- to attract wealth to you.

The Paradox of Our Times is a wonderful way to explain the difference between having money and being wealthy. This is a key idea because just wanting money is short-sighted. The problem is in the thinking. Your goal must be the "bigger picture" of wealth in order to make a change. Even the Reverend Billy Graham is quoted saying "If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life."

Your mind could be what's holding back your feng shui if you have had difficulty manifesting money. That's because getting your mind straight with money and wealth will help you attract more and be more abundant. Watching as my husband and I grow financially is very rewarding. But maybe more valuable, is the sense of stability, security and safety that come with it. It also helps me come from a position of success when dealing with my clients and I enjoy myself more with them. Even shopping has become more fun as I focus on acquiring better items instead of just buying "more."

Well, here's wishing you good chi --

Katie

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Welcome to my blog



This is my first blog entry. It seems like the whole world is blogging and I'm lagging behind. Many of the readers of my ezine ask about my personal life and want to see more photos. I thought a blog would be the perfect place to do this. I'll feature some of the things I'm doing in my business as the publisher of the Red Lotus Letter Feng Shui E-zine and also to keep you posted on some of what I'm doing in my personal life.

Because I only have so much room in my weekly e-zine, this gives me a little more space to "spread out" and include some of the fun stuff that I'm doing and share some more of my personal life with my readers.

This month in the Red Lotus Letter is "Money Month." The entire month of newsletters will be devoted to using feng shui to attract and manifest more wealth and abundance. If you're interested in learning more about wealth and abundance, sign up at http://www.redlotusconsulting.com/.

Tim and I Celebrated 18 Years!
Last week was the 4th of July and my husband and I also celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. Because we live in a small South Texas town, we decided to go to San Antonio and have dinner at the Hemisfair Tower with our son, Steve, aged 9. This is our family at the tower after we'd finished eating (Steve gobbled his mahi mahi and Tim and I loved the crab stuffed mushrooms. Hmmmm hmmm.) Don't I have two handsome men?




We had a terrific meal with rose champagne (remember I told you I LOVE champagne!). But we really had a great time clowning around with the camera.




After dinner, we went to the observation deck and watched as a rainstorm came through. This is me and my son Steve being blown by the high winds. It was almost a "Marilyn Monroe" kind of picture!



Getting a new perspective on life is so important. We chose the tower to celebrate our anniversary because it's so tall and gave us a beautiful view (good visual feng shui?? you bet!) of the city as the sun went down. Sitting in the amber rays bathed us in golden sunlight (another wonderful feng shui enhancer!). Yes, we are still in love. This picture was taken by our son.



After dinner and the observation deck, we went to a 4-D presentation of "Skies Over Texas" that was a BLAST. What a great show for kids and adults. I won't give away all the secrets, but you really 'get into' the movie on a number of levels. This is us goofing with the glasses before the movie.




If you live in San Antonio, or close by, stop in at the tower. The food is very good and the views are spectacular. We had a terrific evening. The fact that it rained on our wedding day 18 years ago after two months of drought -- and then again for our anniversary -- was a wonderful omen of blessings and prosperity.

I will keep you posted on what's going on in my life, my feng shui musings, and continue to share with you more important news and events here, so check back from time to time.

I'm wishing you good chi!

Katie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Red Lotus Letter Weekly Feng Shui E-Zine , and is devoted to sharing the wealth and life-enhancing benefits of feng shui to people around the world. Her goal is to help you create the life of your dreams by creating supportive, wealth-enhancing environments that support your well-being. She publishes 'Red Lotus Letter' weekly ezine with 8,000+ subscribers. If you'd like to create greater wealth, and a happy, smoother and more successful life and business, you can get your FREE subscription and more FREE feng shui tips at http://www.redlotusletter.com