In Layman’s Terms...

Simply put, proper Feng Shui will make you feel fabulous in your home or office. It’s largely common sense. For example, it just feels better to have your back to a wall and see the door in your office. To have your back to the door, you tend to feel anxious that someone will sneak up on you. This makes you less productive. This is also why in a restaurant, men prefer to take the seat against the wall, looking out, with a view of the widest expanse of the room. They instinctually feel more able to protect their partners in this position. They are also safe from attack, which undoubtedly hearkens back to hunting and gathering days. Feng Shui intuition runs very deep, and we all feel it. Knowing how to manipulate it is another matter. Feng Shui is about taking care of a myriad of rules and details like this, in your home or office, which all add up. The overall effect can be improved dramatically by using these rules to adjust your furniture, objects, colors and materials. Once you learn about Feng Shui, you will never see the world the same way again.

There are many facets to Feng Shui, and it takes many years to become a certified Feng Shui consultant. For example:

• Topography
• Structure
• Placement of objects
• Yin & Yang
• The Occupants
• The 5 Elements
• The Bagua
• Full blown interior design based on Feng Shui assessment

For more details on the above, see:

Feng Shui Overview

There are also what I call “mundane solutions”. In other words, if you wanted to be wealthier, a mundane solution might be to read up on the stock market, save a certain amount of money every month, or look for a new job. A Feng Shui solution might be to add a large purple flowering plant to your wealth corner. That way, when you entered your house, you would see the purple plant and it would be like a visual reminder that you were attracting wealth.

Combining Feng Shui with ‘mundane solutions’ produces the best results. For instance, you wouldn’t “pump up” your relationship corner, and then sit home every night. How would you ever meet anyone? Feeling great in your home has a profound affect on how you feel in general, when you’re out in the world, and consequently explains why people have such marvelous results after doing a consultation. You give off very attractive “vibes” when your house has proper Feng Shui.

Finally, there is luck (heavenly and earthly), and fate. Some combination of all of this will determine how your life unfolds. There is no such thing as “perfect” Feng Shui, so it is not something to obsess over. You may implement changes quickly, or slowly, and watch what happens. It is a fascinating blend of art and science, and many people become enraptured with it as they embark on the journey.

Bedrooms I Have Known

I'm a Feng Shui consultant, and I wanted to share a few vignettes about "bedrooms I have known" (at least as a Feng Shui Consultant!) One of the more memorable ones went as follows: I was telling this woman that she should be careful of what she stored under the bed - especially if it had to do with ex-boyfriends, or anything bad or dangerous.

Well, we got on our hands and knees, and starting pulling things out from under the bed. Not only did we find a box with every letter her ex-boyfriend ever wrote, we found gifts he had given her, and (here's the kicker) we found a SWORD under her bed! Along with this was a lot of dust, a board game called "Risk" and a few other goodies. Needless to say, we were horrified.

Another time, I was doing consulting for a man in Boston, and he shared with me his propensity for stacking up piles of papers. I didn't really get the full impact of what he was saying until he showed me his bedroom. On EVERY available inch of floor space, were these neatly stacked piles of papers. The only floor space showing was a tiny path for him to get into his bed. He also admitted that he probably hadn't vacuumed in 7 years.

You know, people wonder why their lives are all screwed up. I've seen it all. On another memorable gig, a woman was sleeping under a giant beam that basically cut her in two (energetically speaking). Add to this that she too had a sword on the wall - directly over her head - and guess what was in her relationship area? Dirty Laundry!

Then there was the time I found suitcases in someone else's relationship area. I asked them, "Do you tend to have long-distance relationships that never work out?" "How did you KNOW?" They asked. Like I said, I've seen some pretty crazy stuff out there.

Here are my parting words. Clean up your clutter, and remember ALL your senses when it comes to your bedroom. This means it should not only look good, smell good, and feel good, but if it does, you're on your way to good Feng Shui.For more info, check out my website at Feng Shui Style

Jennifer Emmer is the Owner of Feng Shui Style, an interior design firm in the Bay Area of California. She is a Feng Shui Consultant & Interior Designer with 13 years experience, and hundreds of clients.

She has designed homes, offices, businesses, movie studios, pilates studios, bed & breakfasts, and yachts on the West Coast, East Coast, the middle U.S., Italy, and England.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Emmer

Steven Wright: on a bus

And now, for something completely different...
Hey, it's Friday, and sometimes we just need some humor.

Steven Wright: on a bus

The World Journal Culture Center & Sogo Tofu

Cupertino, CA

After skipping breakfast, I found myself ravenous.... something that I notice has been happening more and more in my mad rush to blog the free world.

In any event, when time is of the essence, you don't want to spend a fortune, and you're in the mood for a cultural adventure, head to Cupertino.

Check it out.

Sogo Tofu offers a combination lunch platter - 3 items plus noodles of your choice, for $5.98. Just to give you an idea of how much food we're talking about, I got three meals out of it, and I still have more!

Better still, it's all vegetarian.

Moving onto the World Journal Culture Center next door, I went over to the Chinese buffet, just to see what they had, and found myself ordering 4 tea-smoked eggs. I simply cannot resist the things. They are delicately spicy, a little salty, and drenched in tea. Wonderful.
Seeing as they offer Pearl Tea here, I couldn't help leaving with a Kumquat tea for me & a Jasmine for my SO. I would have picked up a package of red bean paste dumplings, but thank God, they were all out.

The funniest part of my trip to these places is the looks I get. I'm about as white bread as they get, and when I saunter into the Tofu place, the other customers (not the owners, who know me) look at me like "Are you sure you're in the right place, lady?" Except that they are wondering that in Chinese. ;-) For some reason, being a Feng Shui consultant, I have this weird inherent need to soak myself in Chinese culture.

Meanwhile, while you're drinking your pearl tea, read all about the legend of the Feng Shui Money Frog....