Lifestyle
Time To Feng Shui Your Home
Social-distancing and being quarantined at during the Covid-19 pandemic, is the ideal time to embark on a major de-clutter and clean-up. By doing a thorough cleaning and clutter clearing clutter now, we can open up the flow for positive energy to flow through our homes, offices and lives once the quarantine is lifted.
To make the most of such a spring clean, consider applying some feng shui principles to rearrange your home. Many people’s perception of feng shui is that it is just a form of interior design, but it is actually an ancient spiritual practice and philosophy. It will literally open energy channels for abundance and prosperity, as well as health and wellness to flow into your life.
Feng shui is a system of laws that govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of energy (chi). The aim is to create a harmonious environment that enhance the balance of yin and yang. It is about living in spiritual harmony with our environment.
When we apply feng shui to our home and lifestyle, we do so in order to achieve balance in both our working and living space, and maximize our potential for success in our personal lives and in business.
Feng shui literally translated means ‘wind water.’ Wind scatters energy and water holds energy. In applying its principles, we can clear out negative energy and generate more positive energy.
Now Is The Time To Invest In Yourself
Throughout our childhood, we receive advice from family and teachers on how we should succeed in life. Study hard. Get good grades. Go to college for a quality career. Get married and have a family. Buy the dream home. Financial success and prosperity. Provide for your family. Send your kids to college. Become proud grandparents.
In reality, our real life experiences can throw us major curve balls, and impact what we envision as our dream future. In the same vein, life experiences create magnificent opportunities. Well-meaning guidance and suggestions from family and friends is beneficial. It is to be part of our consideration. It can give us goals, and affirm what we know about ourselves.
Careers can include being of service. A social worker, doctor, nurse, lawyer, first-responder, accountant, veterinarian, military, waitperson. A career in science. A researcher, chemist, biologist, architect, engineering. A career in entertainment. An artist, musician, dancer, playwright, author, actor, composer.
The career you choose is, however, to be one that nurture’s your heart as a priority. It should give you a feeling of passion and purpose, rather than financial security. Financial security is a goal one needs to have a degree of focus upon. We do need money to pay our bills, to support our family and lifestyle, to finance our dreams. Money being ‘the root of all evil’ is a fallacy. Money is a form of energy exchange. It has no judgment. It can influence or impede financial security. It is what you do with it that matters. But financial security is often temporary and based on your decisions and emotions.
Enter into your career choice with enthusiasm, passion, and a zest for knowledge. It may turn out that your career changes as you grow older. Jobs will definitely change through the years. You may be an individual who says, “Money does not matter or drive me.” This is a learned, mental paradigm picked up from your upbringing and childhood environment. Change it. Start thinking of how you can use financial security to benefit others.
The Rosary Reflections Of A Spiritualist
Some of us are merely going through the motions every day, doing what we think others expect of us, doing the ‘should’ we put on ourselves. Living life by rote. I equate this to saying prayer beads. It becomes almost an unconscious act. So, when something unexpected happens, like the coronavirus pandemic, and we are forced to slow down, or even come to a complete halt, we are suddenly confronted with our own truths.
For some of us, the only things that then come to mind are all the things that we perceive we have done ‘wrong’ in the past. We feel guilt over all the people we have disappointed or hurt. We mourn the relationships that did not go the distance. We obsess over the skeletons in our own personal closet.
When we get into this mindset of shame and regret, it affects our immune system and our well-being. The ‘poor me, bad me, angry me’ turns into a very ‘toxic me.’ When the world seems to be falling apart, the mind does a life review. We let the fear and regret creep in. What if there really is an afterlife, even if you have always said, “I don’t believe in heaven and hell.” The ‘what if’s’ in life can really do a number on us. When faced with uncertain times it is only natural to think about our own mortality, and our failures and past mistakes.
One thing I find that really helps, is to reflect on the good memories. Let the unpleasant ones come and go, and not reside in your mind. Thoughts are such powerful things, especially when you are still reflecting on things at 3am in the morning, while you should be sleeping. These worries and bad memories are usually things we can’t do anything about, even if we desperately want to.
When things seem out of control, flip the switch. Reflect instead on all the things you have accomplished. Think about things in your life that have brought you great joy. Times that even one person said good job. People that have said “I hear you,” and “you matter to me.”
The Transmutation Power of Crystals and Stones
The beneficial powers of gemstones and crystals is well-known in the psychic and metaphysical community. Many of us use them in our daily spiritual work. One of the most amazing things crystals and stones do for us is to transmute energy, that is to say, change negative energies into powerful healing.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the more popular crystals and stones and their individual energy properties. Remember, if you choose to use any of these crystals in your daily practice, their energies can be combined, depending on your individual needs.
Rose Quartz
Shades of pink, milky or opaque
Represents the planet Venus, and the signs of Taurus and Libra.
Not surprisingly, given its connection to Venus, this stone contains energies of universal and healing love. Many practitioners use it to increase levels of compassion for others, or before and after a session for grounding.
Rose quartz will help us to rid ourselves of fear, anger, jealously, or aggressiveness. It can also help us in a journey to let go of loved ones we have lost.
May 2020 Weekly Astro Forecasts
May 4 – 10
The Scorpio Full Moon takes center stage this week and could shake things up for a few days, as it waxes full on Thursday. Scorpio is the most karmic sign of the zodiac, making this Full Moon famous for the spiritual and the unusual. We’re likely to reconnect with people we haven’t seen in ages, or quite possibly, even in this lifetime! Because a Full Moon promotes release, this week can herald a time of reconciliation, forgiveness, and letting go of the past. This Moon opposes the Taurus Sun, which can also affect finances, health and comfort.
The Moon will travel through Libra on Monday and Tuesday, allowing us time to get things in order and restore balance on all levels: emotional, physical and spiritual. Once the Moon waxes full, we’ll begin to feel much lighter and joyful. Friday and Saturday’s Sagittarius Moon will add to the sense of hope and optimism in the air, and insists we focus on sharing and unconditional love with all those around us.
Saturn will turn retrograde on Sunday and continue to travel backward until the end of September. A Saturn retrograde allows us to take down walls, move more freely and in tandem with the Scorpio full Moon, release anything that stands in the way our dreams.
Kindness Begins With Greater Self-Care
In a world where you can be anything, be kind. And kindness starts with being kind to yourself. When we are not kind to ourselves, we cannot be kind to others, and others will also be unkind to us! When we are not kind to ourselves we allow that type of behavior, be it from a spouse, sibling, friend, or relative.
So, kindness really starts with us. When we are kind to ourselves, the domino effect is that we are happier, healthier and more energized. When we are not carving out time for self-care, we are not being kind to ourselves, and cannot truly be kind to others.
Sometimes people can be unkind not even realizing it. How is that? Well, by playing the part of the victim, or acting like others are responsible for their happiness or contentment. They make others feel guilty, because they are putting their problems upon others, without realizing that it is often their own self-made issues.
Everyone has free will. We are ultimately where we choose to put ourselves. In the end no one else is to blame. Period.
A vital aspect of self-kindness is to employ healthy boundaries when others make us feel bad, because they are sad and unhappy. When we take better care of ourselves and come in alignment with our soul, body and mind, we can recognize this. You are not put upon this Earth to energetically fill up the cups of others. Learn to say no, and learn to stand up for yourself when others try to take advantage of you. This is one important way of being kind to yourself.
Sheltering In Gentle Grace
The subject and substance of grace is near and dear to my heart. Its consistency is gentle and ethereal, but nonetheless a source of grounded strength. I appreciate it as a richly layered, soft, spiritually textured energy, flowing between Heaven and Earth – divine in its origin from God, yet accessible in unlimited ways within, and around us.
A few years ago, I wrote a book on grace, moving in divine alignment. The words channeled through me, as if being dictated by Grace herself, a feminine goddess personifying the compassionate energy emanating from God as the Supreme Source. Therein, the quality of grace on the hard paths of life revealed itself to me as follows.
When the dance stands still in the dark – outside my comfort zone, in the space of the unknown, in the history of pain, before the next step – I tend to feel neither peaceful, patient, nor poised.
I have grabbed for answers, change, relief, but found none independently within my clutch. So, I envision a fabric of grace, formed when the favor of God becomes interwoven with the sweetness of elegant movement and presence.
Unlike ordinary cloth, the fabric of grace dons a mystical twist. It is a lifeline of being, bearing inexhaustible strength to uplift and pull us forward through all experiences.
There is an artistry of the soul in reaching for this spiritual material of grace. It calls forth inner enlightenment and skill to clasp it in the heart, not in the hands.