The Refresh Orlando Heirs

Whether you work outside the home or have a home based business, utilizing Feng Shui techniques can be very important and rewarding.

Use your personal KUA number to activate the sectors of your office or workspace. The two most important directions to concentrate on would be your Sheng Chi and Fu Wei directions. Depending upon the size of your workspace, this should be a fairly easy thing to do. If you work from a home office, also have your workspace arranged according to the Pakua for the layout of your house. The following are a few tips to help you with your workplace whether it be a home office or outside the home.

Arrange your desk to be facing the door if at all possible. If this is not possible, and your back is to the door, place a mirror on the wall or on your desk so that the door is visible. This mirror can be just a regular mirror, or an art piece with floral designs, etc. Just as long as you can see a reflection of the door. The reason for this is to prevent “backstabbing” from others.

Also try to sit facing your Sheng Chi direction as this direction governs your success and mentor luck. This should be done whether at work, or a meeting outside of your home / office. In your office, if sitting facing your Sheng Chi direction makes you have your back to the door, it is better to change the desk so that your back is not to the door.

If you have power struggles or office politics and feel you need protection from that, place a tiger or fu dogs right inside your office door. Placing a dragon in the eastern sector of your office is also good for protection and luck, as the dragon is all-powerful. Do not place a dragon on your desk if you are not a strong willed person.

If your job requires a great deal of concentration, hang a crystal in the window or set a crystal figurine on your desk as that will help you with creativity and concentration. If your job is stressful, try to place things that symbolize relaxation to you in your office. A live plant is great to bring yang energy into an office and can also be a very relaxing item. (If you have a home office and the office is in your bedroom, go with silk plants not real ones as the real ones could cause problems with your marital relationship.)

If at all possible, use aromatherapy to help in these areas as well. The work I do at home (accounting, web page development, and running my online store to name a few) can create a lot of stress and require a lot of creativity. I usually have either Lavender or Ylang Ylang aromas going in my office for the most part of the day while I am working because it really seems to keep my stress levels down and helps my creativity keep flowing! : ) Aromatherapy is something that you will see immediate results with and it is quite amazing to me!

In a home office, displaying prosperity items such as a wealth ship, lucky cat, money frogs, lucky bamboo, etc should help with the business finances. I have 3 coins tied together with a red thread attached to the first invoice from my online store on my bulletin board. You can also use these coins to tape on the front of your invoice ledger to your customers. If your business has a lot of phone work involved, tape a set of these coins under the phone to encourage the phone to ring and bring in more business. Placing the phone so that the back of the phone where the line is plugged in is in your Sheng Chi direction is also good for business.

Just a few words of wisdom as I close on this article: I personally feel that Feng Shui is not a miracle cure to make your business prosper or help you gain success at work. I believe you are the one ultimately responsible for those things. Practicing Feng Shui can hopefully make things come easier and more quickly - but the end result is that YOU make it happen. As you work during the day - if you have thoughts or ideas on how to promote your business or career - don’t just blow them off - write them down if you don’t have time to fully think about it at that time. Then later, go back and do some research on what you wrote down. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the results you will get!

Judy Gunderson is a Feng Shui practitioner and has helped many clients over the years with consultations and supplying them with Feng Shui products on her website at http://learnaboutfengshui.com

Everything that happens to us happens in purpose. And sometimes,
one thing leads to another. Instead of locking yourself up in
your cage of fears and crying over past heartaches,
embarrassment and failures, treat them as your teachers and they
will become your tools in both self improvement and success.

I remember watching Patch Adams - its my favorite movie,
actually. Its one great film that will help you improve
yourself. Hunter “patch” Adams is a medical student who failed
to make it through the board exams. After months of suffering in
melancholy, depression and suicidal attempts - he decided to
seek for medical attention and voluntarily admitted himself in a
psychiatric ward. His months of stay in the hospital led him to
meeting different kinds of people. Sick people in that matter.
He met a catatonic, a mentally retarded, a schizophrenic and so
on. Patch found ways of treating his own ailment and finally
realized he has to get back on track. He woke up one morning
realizing that after all the failure and pains he has gone
through, he still want to become the a doctor. He carries with
himself a positive attitude that brought him self improvement
and success. He didn’t only improved himself, but also the life
of the people around him and the quality of life. Did he
succeed? Needless to say, he became the best damn doctor his
country has ever known.

So, when does self improvement become synonymous with success?
Where do we start? Take these tips, friends… *Stop thinking
and feeling as if you’re a failure, because you’re not. How can
others accept you if YOU can’t accept YOU?

*When you see hunks and models on TV, think more on self
improvement, not self pitying. Self acceptance is not just about
having nice slender legs, or great abs. Concentrate on inner
beauty.

*When people feel so down and low about themselves, help them
move up. Don’t go down with them. They’ll pull you down further
and both of you will end up feeling inferior.

*The world is a large room for lessons, not mistakes. Don’t feel
stupid and doomed forever just because you failed on a science
quiz. There’s always a next time. Make rooms for self
improvement.

*Take things one at a time. You don’t expect black sheep’s to be
goody-two-shoes in just a snap of a finger. Self improvement is
a one day at a time process.

*Self improvement results to inner stability, personality
development and dig this …. SUCCESS. It comes from self
confidence, self appreciation and self esteem.

* Set meaningful and achievable goals. Self improvement doesn’t
turn you to be the exact replica of Cameron Diaz or Ralph
Fiennes. It hopes and aims to result to an improved and better
YOU.

*Little things mean BIG to other people. Sometimes, we don’t
realize that the little things that we do like a pat on the
back, saying “hi” or “hello”, greeting someone “good day” or
telling Mr. Smith something like “hey, I love your tie!” are
simple things that mean so much to other people. When we’re
being appreciative about beautiful things around us and other
people, we also become beautiful to them.

*When you’re willing to accept change and go through the process
of self improvement, it doesn’t mean that everyone else is. The
world is a place where people of different values and attitude
hang out. Sometimes, even if you think you and your best friend
always like to do the same thing together at the same time, she
would most likely decline an invitation for self improvement.

We should always remember that there’s no such thing as ‘over
night success’. Its always a wonderful feeling to hold on to the
things that you already have now, realizing that those are just
one of the things you once wished for. A very nice quote says
that “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” We
are all here to learn our lessons. Our parents, school teachers,
friends, colleagues, officemates, neighbors… they are our
teachers. When we open our doors for self improvement, we
increase our chances to head to the road of success.

Read more Self Improvement at
http://www.self-improvement-guide.com

Understanding of I-Ching and Tai Chi

Tai Chi, The Great Ultimate, was found earliest in the Book of
Change, or otherwise known as I-Ching. Legend said that this
scripture has written by the first emperor of the Zhou Dynasty -
Zhou Wen Wang. Thus I-Ching is also known as Zhou-Yi.

I-Ching, or the Book of Change, with its name implies, stated
that life is in constant flux of change. The word I (Yi in
pinyin) means ‘change’ in Chinese. It is formed from the
characters of the sun and the moon, which represents yang and
yin respectively.

It has a verse stating, “Changes has the Great Ultimate, which
give rise to the Two Elements. The Two Elements give rise to the
Four Phenomena, and the Four Phenomena give rise to the Eight
Hexagrams…”

Let’s begin with the word Tai Chi - the Great Ultimate. It
actually means the earliest, the beginning… of all events and
things. In some case, it refers to the Universe by ancient
Chinese.

In one of the scripture, it stated that “One yin and one yang is
the Way…” This means that the all changes of events and things
in the universe come from this opposing, yet united forces of
yin and yang.

This is why in from Tai Chi, there arises in the Two Elements -
yin and yang. Take a look at the Tai Chi diagram, which is
better known as the 2-Fishes diagram in Chinese. It is a circle
divided into 2 sections in proportion. The circle is
representing Tai Chi, or the Universe Whole, and within this
wholeness, there’s the Two Elements.

The division of the yin and yang in Tai Chi means that there are
2 opposing elements, represented by the black section and white
section respectively. Yet, the division is not a straight
division, but a curved division - meaning that the 2 opposing
elements actually accommodate each other in order to form the
complete circle.

Firstly, this means that while it is divided as opposing
elements - it is united in a way to form the complete wholeness.
The opposing yet united forces of yin and yang became the basis
of the thinking in I-Ching. And Tai Chi uses the concepts in the
I-Ching, the yin and yang elements as the core concepts to
explain the both physical and meta-physical aspects of the world.

Secondly, the curved division gives a sense of balance. Here, we
are talking about balancing the yin and yang elements here.
There’s this statement in I-Ching: “When the yin goes to the
extreme, the yang is born. And when the yang goes to the
extreme, the yin is born”.

Look at the 2-fishes diagram again. If you go in counter-clock
wise along the diameter of the Tai Chi circle, you will find
that as one element grows more and more and reach its peak, the
other elements will begin to grow in replacement. For example,
if you move along the diameter on the black side, you will see
that the ‘half’ represented by the black will become bigger and
bigger and then suddenly shrink and the white ‘half’ will begin
to grow instead. This means that if one element goes to the
extreme, the other will begin to set in.

What does this mean to us then? Simple: we have to balance our
life in every aspect, and do not just focus only on one or a
few. We have to balance between work and personal life, between
family and friends, between material and spiritual, and the list
goes on. Otherwise, there will be disharmony in our lives.

Thirdly, the movement growing or shrinking of the yin and yang
elements within the Tai Chi diagram suggests that life changes
constantly to and from between good and bad, joy and sorrow,
happiness and sadness, high and low and between any two extreme
qualities. This is the dualistic principles in I-Ching.

In any events or things, there are two qualities within. There’s
no such thing as complete good or perfectly bad things. It is
the degree of good, or bad that matters.

Take for example, can we say that a person is good because
there’s no bad quality in him, or a person is bad because he or
she have never done any ‘good’ at all??? A good person may at
times been guilty of small bad deeds, and a bad person may at
times have some good in him or her. Isn’t it?

A good thing may have some negative side in it. And vice versa,
a bad thing may have some positive side in it. It depends on how
we perceive the issue. That’s the dualistic principles in
I-Ching.

This goes to the next concepts. In the diagram, within each
element, there’s a dot in it. The black section has a white dot,
while the white section has a black dot. What does this means?
We move now to the next statement: The Two Elements give rise to
the Four Phenomena. This means, in the yin element, there will
be yang element and vice versa, in the yang element, there will
be yin element.

What does it means to us?

In any events or things, there will be some good in the bad, and
some bad in the good. Just like there’s some yin in the yang,
and some yang in the yin. For example, when a person wins a
race, others will lose the race. There’s bad news within the
good news, there’s sorrow amongst joy, there’s losing among
winning and so on.

In life, there will be mixtures of good and bad, joy and sorrow,
happiness and sadness, winning and losing, high and low, and it
all come in a ‘package’!

Therefore, we should learn to be more give and take - and accept
the nature of life as it is. Enjoy the good things, and accept
the bad one bravely and gracefully. This will then help us to
achieve a more balance and harmonious life.

Tai Chi’s concepts of yin and yang became influential to the
ancient Chinese, and found its way into the philosophy,
theories, medicine, art of war, religion, arts and the way of
maintaining life. It has found its way into Daoism, which in
some ways, people claimed that Tai Chi is under the idea of
Daoism, which is not quite true. It should be the other way
round.

Whatever it is, understanding the principles of I-Ching does
help us to understand the nature of life itself to better
balance and manage our ups and downs to face our daily chores
and challenges. And I wish all of you success and harmony in
your life. May the Energy of Tai Chi be with you!

Written by: C. Guan Soo http://www.TaichiEx
erciseForHealth.com

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