Sunday, February 12, 2017

Quarterly Focus: Physical Health


This is one of the most important areas of Life Management. It can make or break all other areas and is multifaceted. It is more than simply what you put in your body, it is also how you move your body, and making sure you are resting your body & getting enough sleep. As you create your vision of 100% Physical Health means to you, consider some of these things to add to your Three to Thrive Action list:

Put things in your body that are good for you

  • Don’t smoke. There is enough research out there to justify this advice. Smoking kills.
  • Limit alcohol – Sure, wine is made of grapes; beer and liquor come from grains. However, the processing they go through take them far from that natural state and in excess, alcohol can be toxic, literally poisoning your body and your damaging organs.
  • Drink lots of water. You’ve heard that most of your body is made up of water, and that drinking pure clean water is vital to flush out toxins from your body, but there is more. Thirst and hunger both originate in the hypothalamus and are sometimes hard to differentiate from each other. So drink a glass of water before you have a snack.
  • Eat fresh whole foods including lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.
  • Limit processed foods and meats
  • Choose whole grains
  • Get an annual physical, or at least your bloodwork done to determine your blood sugar, cholesterol. Keep track of your blood pressure and heart rate.

Move your body in healthy ways:

  • Maintain good posture
  • Exercise regularly –
  • Strength
  • flexibility and
  • endurance –

Breathe fresh air – go outside and enjoy nature – enjoy the sun but protect your skin

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Feng Shui; another way create balance in your life!

This Life In Balance series would not be complete without introducing the ancient art of Feng Shui. The best explanation I found was at About.com: Feng shui is an ancient art and science developed over 3,000 years ago in China. It is a complex body of knowledge that teaches how to balance the energies in any given space - be it a home, office or garden -  in order to assure good fortune for people inhabiting it.


As good fortune comes in many ways - better health, successful career, fulfilling love life, etc - feng shui has detailed tips for almost any area of one's life. You will see that one of the Feng Shui tools, known as a Bagua, looks like the Life Wheel we introduced to you early in this series. I like to incorporate this in my home as a whole, and in any room I spend a lot of time in, like my office!


Feng means wind and shui means water. In Chinese culture wind and water are associated with good health, thus good feng shui came to mean good fortune, while bad feng shui means bad luck, or misfortune. Feng shui is based on the Taoist vision and understanding of nature, particularly on the idea that the land is alive and filled with Chi, or energy.


The ancient Chinese believed that specific land's energy could either make or break the kingdom, so to speak. The theories of yin and yang, as well as the five feng shui elements, are some of the basic aspects of a feng shui analysis that come from Taoism.


The main tools used in a feng shui analysis of any space are the feng shui compass and the bagua. The feng shui energy map, or bagua, is an octagonal grid containing the symbols of the I Ching, the ancient oracle on which feng shui is based.


Knowing the bagua of your home will help you understand the connection of specific feng shui areas of your home to specific areas of your life. For example, you have a love and marriage area in your home, a career area, a health and family area, etc.


There is a total of 8 bagua areas in your home that can be worked on in order to improve the areas of your life that are connected to these bagua areas. Read: All About Your Feng Shui Bagua


Feng shui offers a variety of cures to improve your life. From the feng shui use of aquariums to attract prosperity to the feng shui use of crystals and fountains; from the right feng shui use of colours to the feng shui use of clocks, there are many ways you can improve the energy in your home or office with solid, good feng shui. Read: 25+ Popular Feng Shui Cures for Your Home
Although some levels of feng shui are easy to understand and apply, the core knowledge takes years of study. Just like the Traditional Chinese medicine, the feng shui knowledge is deep and complex. The more you know about feng shui, the more there is to explore!
That is one of the things I hope you get out of this series...a desire to explore things you might not have considered before! And while we are on the subject of energy, here is a book that I found fun and you might want to check this out ... Inside are a series of experiments you can try to see how you might be affecting energy. I look forward to hearing about any personal experiences you might have. Mine were mind blowing!