Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Chinese New Year! Welcome, year of the Earth Ox!

You can click on the picture for some wonderful Flying Star hints right now, plus I'm looking forward to offering you personal predictions in our February Cheat Sheet in a few days time.

Here's a sneak peek... If you're an Ox, Rooster, Snake or Monkey, you can really look forward to wonderful progression in the next 12 months. And, for all of us, it's SO important to strengthen the element fire in both home and business environments this year to ensure increasing prosperity and abundance of all good things.

Love, luck and lots of happiness coming your way in 2009! More than any other sign, the Ox is a sign of integrity. Expect rewards for omitting pure, positive energy.

Samantha.

xxx

Winter Sunset

... the last I'll see in a while. Tomorrow I'll be spirited off... across the planet...

I'm heading to a wide brown country. A land of sweeping plains. Of rugged mountain ranges. Of droughts, and flooding rains.

Leaving... this gem of God's earth, an Island so strong and so fair;
Built firm as Barrule, Thy Throne of Home Rule
Makes us free as thy sweet mountain air.

(Or, as we call it, Sweet Home Ballasalla.)

But I'll be back.

So much to do! Are you racing against the clock, too? Remember the energetic secret to remove obstacles and stretch time: keep focused on what you want. When we fix our eye on the prize, and keep moving towards it... "The question is not If, only When."

Happily Ever After

"My mission in life is... to live happily ever after."

see the Bridge in the background? where on earth do you feel happiest, and why?

Just Bonkers

i remember walking along the dirt road in Tobago on our wedding night, ludicrously dressed in white trousers...

i didn't think it at the time; I was worried about my shoes getting dirty!

We had supper in Bonkers, we love the joint, we especially like Troy, and how he so charmingly sweats it around the wood floor bure, holding it all together...

Husby has been there more than me, he spent weekends learning to dive in Tobago, and took Caribbean-faring holiday family to Bonkers.

I'd recommend it in a minute.

And to me I want it to stay the humid, outdoorsy, best-crab-cakes-on-this-planet place it is. It's the perfectly bonkers place to celebrate a brilliantly bonkers partnership.

Image by Olaf Gehrmann

Feng Shui for Love- Smitten...

Smitten- the mitten for two- such a beautiful feng shui accessory for love!

Though I'm not sure that Husby would want to be seen wearing this anywhere he might run into someone he knows, in the cockpit of the helicopter... with me beside him as co-pilot on a cold winters night... he'd adore it. A smitten really says, I'm-with-you-on-this-one, don't you think?

Q. Are you the giver or the taker in your relationship? Or do both of you take turns?

Keep cosy, wherever you are! I hope you're snuggling up to someone you love. If not, but you'd like to be, why not get your heart's desire a Smitten for lover's day? People are shy and insecure inside, you know... the odd present with note sayng, "Let's be together!" can work wonders...

Here, I'm making pizza dough with oven up HOT to chase away these freezing draughts. I wonder if The Lady in the Flour will appear?

The Art of Allowing- wellness

We would like you to release the word "achieve" or "earn" from your
vocabulary and from your understanding, altogether, and we would like you to
replace those words with the word "allow". You're wanting to allow your
Well-being, not achieve it. It's not something that you need to earn. All you
have to do is decide what it is you would like to experience, and then allow it
in order to achieve it. It isn't something you have to struggle for or try for.
You are all worthy beings. You are deserving of this Well-being.

-Abraham-Hicks daily quote

Allowing Wellness...

When talking to a friend whose opinion I value a few days ago, she expressed great surprise at my complete and quick recovery.

"Isn't that fantastic," she replied, with more than a hint of doubt in her voice. "But you know, you should still take it easy..." Others have said the same.

Just a hint of doubt from someone you believe in, as more knowledgeable than you, can interrupt your vibration and cause you to disallow wellness.

So... never sick, right now i'm suffering a very yukky flu-type thing.

Miraculous, the human body is. Accidents or surgeries we can bounce back from and forget... then a flu will take us, literally, by the throat!! I wonder if this was created by my adopting the expectation of others that I am still to be unwell?

So, time for a reminder: Well being is natural. Wellness prevails. The human body lives, recovers, gets back to it's own state of equilibrium. Well being is the default for all of us.

Unless... is there a kick-back to my being unwell? The sympathy, the connection, the attention?

(Answer: Nah. If I was receiving lots of flowers, maybe. But no.)

Okay, so are you that easily influenced? Who is actually more knowledgeable on you, than you? At how healed you are, than how you are feeling?

(Answer: That's true. No-one is. No one lives in this body but me. I guess that makes me the expert! Hey, I'm allowed to be completely healthy if I want.)

Others may disbelieve your wonderful powers of self-healing; but disregard! Instead, congratulate yourself for allowing the natural miracle of your body to do the thing it was designed to do.

Feng Shui recommends:

The particular combination of citrine and rose quartz crystals (tumbled stones), carried with me everywhere I go, placed nearby wherever I am, have been of such comfort and great assistance, throughout the healing process. Experiment with your own combination of semi-precious stones. May light and health be with you.

Keep choosing.... your dream life

Just finished the January Cheat Sheet and stumbled across some amazing confirmation of one of the tips inside... it's so wonderful when this happens- thank you Universe!

Hope you like it. Here goes.

Are you like me and can get, at times, anxious about food, exercise, weight and how-it-all-fits together? Then you're probably as fascinated as I am with Oprah's ups and downs. And here's a really interesting weblink- her personal trainer, medical and spiritual advisor discussing why she's put on weight, and whether it'll go away again.

So, why is this so relevant to feng shui & the law of attraction? Simply because of something her spritual advisor, Michael Bernard Beckwith, refers to. It's not about weight. It's about creating our dream life. He says,

"The ego got in there. She said I conquered it. We are not here to conquer
weight. We are here to activate our potential. What she was talking about was a
personal accomplishment, rather than a way of living.

...What I loved about one of (Bob Greene, Oprah's personal
trainer) answers when he was talking about Oprah conquering something, he
hit that right on the head. You don't conquer this. You have to wake up
each day and renew your commitments to yourself. This is a daily
thing... What we're saying here is that it's a way of life and that you have to approach this by doing something every single day for
the rest of your life, and then you celebrate the triumphs along the
way.

Oprah's trainer, Bob Greene, concludes the discussion by affirming,

"I've been working with her for 14 years. And never on an interview, and I won't
start tonight, will I say the words she beat it. You don't beat this. It's,
again, this daily thing, where you are recommitting to the life that
you're meant to live every day of your life."

Whether it's weight loss, or to be a more loving person, or like my new year resolution, to look for the beauty in everything, everyday; we need to keep choosing to make it part of our experience.

By every day waking up and deliberately choosing our actions and how we want to live our life, we can reach that place where we are living what a few months before, seemed completely impossible.

So... write down your vision for yourself! Hang it on your mirror, or somewhere where you see it often, and keep talking and thinking and dreaming about it! I'm running, going to do this right now!

and just two quotes beg to finish this post for me:

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing -
that's why we recommend it daily.
-Zig Ziglar

Here is the secret of all Masters: Keep choosing the same
thing, over and over again.
-Neale Donald Walsch (Conversations With God book 1, paraphrased)

xxx

Shortcuts to Higher, more Positive Energy

... in the Feng Shui By The Sea January newsletter for law-of-attraction-and-feng-shui lovers of the good life.




Here- in a nutshell- the way to create positive change in your life. It doesn't take any more "living through this" or any special equipment, or a purchase. It's the number one way to use your mind so what you want to happen, falls into place for you.



Also... releasing your inner artist, developing self trust, why you love some places & people and not others (and how to change this!).

Have you registered for your free January feng shui by the sea Cheat Sheet yet? If not, be sure to pop your email address at the box at the top left hand corner of the page. You could even do that now.

New Year Resolutions

photograph by Max ---wonderful wonderful!!

that's it... can't hold out anymore! I looove resolutions. I love new moon resolutions, not to mention new year resolutions. They really focus the power of our intention.

And though I've really, really tried hard to hold out til Chinese New Year, being a feng shui-ist and all, I simply can't!





Have given in because... well, there's no elegant way of saying it- peer group pressure. I've spent an indulgent few hours today cruising talented blogs and am so inspired by other peoples visions for themselves and this year. Here are many of the recurring ones:





think more positively

give more kisses

read one book a week

take more pictures

learn to cook properly

learn Italian

visit Paris, live in France or eat and dress like a French woman

meditate

do yoga

write more thank-you cards

live more, work less

Inspiring, oui?

A big one for me this year is to look for the beauty in everything, everyday..

What's your new year/new moon/ January resolution?

Starck Shui

what i love about feng shui is that it's not the pursuit of glamour, or of style par excellence... although it's so wonderful when they meet up.

Which is an idea that came to me whilst gawping at Paris Apartment's beautiful blog posts on Phillippe Starck's work. You'll love them!

Clever- unique- avant garde- iconic.

Here, my take on a few designs by Philippe Starck: how-to-make-sure-your-restaurant is always busy feng shui...

Busy, and filled-with-friends feng shui...

And, we can try this centrepiece +candles at home to always have the feng shui that attracts fascinating, warm and social people in our lives...

But lets avoid this bedroom configuration and keep good feng shui for health!

Feng Shui is an ambience that feeds you positive energy...

Oh no! What's this? Another motorcycle indoors?

Mr Starck- you can't have been responsible- it's hardly part of the new ambience you created for Le Meurice!

Bright blessings

Beautiful congratulations to the winner of a Feng Shui By The Sea Smudge Stick- subscriber Heather, with her lovely intentions for positive change in 2009.

Shortly this home-tied bundle of sage, sweetgrass and isle of man cedar will be winging it's way into your life to cleanse, bless and protect your space!

and a picture, promising rosy new possibilities, taken along the path where I gather the sweetgrass on this special island..

Love and bright blessings to you for a magical, inspirational, deliciously auspicious 2009!