*Feng Shui: Home plants
Plants in your home attract good energy
Feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of directing energy, and using feng shui with houseplants is an important part of the practice. The word itself literally translates into "wind" and "water." These are the two life forces that flow freely over the Earth, creating the central life force known in Chinese as "chi." Thus, feng shui is concerned with directing chi, or energy, throughout a home to bring its occupants into harmony. Houseplants are an important part of this esteemed art.
Healthy houseplants are good and beneficial, especially wooded houseplants and bamboos. In feng shui, wood represents creativity, birth, regeneration, the direction east, and spring. It is one of the five basic elements in feng shui.
In general, all kinds of plants emit a positive energy and, because they cleanse air, they contribute to the positive flow of chi throughout a house. Houseplants can also be used to disguise harsh angles or other elements that would otherwise create a stagnant flow of energy, thus acting as "bad energy sinks" that redistribute and redirect.
Research shows the benefits of optimism and a positive frame of mind are huge: optimists enjoy better health, stronger relationships, are more productive, and experience less stress, among other things. This is because optimists tend to take more risks, and blame external circumstances if they fail, maintaining a 'try again' mind-set; this makes them more likely to succeed in the future, and less upset by failure in general.
Pessimists, on the other hand, tend to blame themselves when things go wrong, becoming more reluctant to try again with each negative experience in life. They begin to look at positive events in their lives as 'flukes' that have nothing to do with them, and expect the worst.
When you understand this, it becomes more clear how optimism and positive self-talk can impact your stress levels, as can pessimism and negative self-talk. Negative events are less stressful when you see them as 'not your fault', and less likely to recur.
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Similarly, positive events are even sweeter when you see them as evidence of more to come, and see yourself as the master of your own fate. Additionally, because of the difference in behavior in optimists vs. pessimists, those who habitually practice positive thinking tend to experience more success, which can add up to a less stressful life.
Positive affirmations will help you to reprogram yourself and your way of thinking so that positive thinking becomes more automatic and less something you need to think about consciously in each new situation.
Feng Shui Tips
The rules with feng shui are flexible, to allow for the infinite variety of homes and people. But there are some basic principles that you can use when placing plants in your home that will increase chi:
- Mind the entrance. Your front door is literally the beginning point in the journey of your home. It is where you welcome people, and where air circulates most freely. Place or hang plants near the front entrance whenever possible.
- Disguise harsh lines. Slopes ceilings, corners, and other sharp lines are considered negative energy enhancers because they stop the flow of chi through a house. use plants to disguise these architectural features of your house and enhance air flow between rooms and through "dead" spaces.
- Don't keep dead or dying plants. It seems obvious, but dead or dying plants emit negative energy and should be discarded. This applies to cut flowers also. In general, flowers are good for the home, but declining bouquets should be discarded. After all, what's the point in keeping a literal symbol of death hanging around?
- Keep herbs in the home. The Chinese often burn herbs after an argument or other disruptive event to purify the home. Growing herbs are also beneficial and should be kept in the home. Lavender is a particularly powerful herb as it is widely considered to promote relaxation and peace.
- Think in terms of whole rooms. Decorate the whole room at once with plants, or begin on one side and move slowly across the room. Don't think of the plants as separate from your furniture, but as an integral part of your living space. Pairs are considered beneficial also, so use pairings of plants to increase chi.
- Avoid thorns. Thorny plants form a protective barrier, thus stopping the flow of chi. If you must, place them by a window to discourage intruders. Don't place thorny plants near the front door.
Some Plants to Use
Any healthy plant can help increase a home's chi or be used in feng shui designs. However, some plants are more beneficial than others, and wooded plants are considered the best of all. Here are some great plants to consider:
- Bamboo. Any variety of bamboo is a good, even lucky bamboo (which technically is Dracaena sanderiana, a shrubby plant native to west Africa).
- Palms
- Dracaena. There are many species of dracaena, some of which form thick, wooded stalks.
- Peace lilies.
- Jade plants. These are sometimes called money plants.
- Ficus species. There are many species of ficus, including rubber plants and the weeping fig. These are beneficial plants—in fact, Buddha achieved enlightenment while sitting beneath a ficus tree.
- Hanging plants. Baskets are great for moving chi throughout a room and near the ceiling.
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"Your will, negative or positive, is the magnet that attracts to adverse circumstances or good. Your positive or negative attitude to the facts, determine the purpose for you. All I thought at the same time feeling an emotion, is what manifests or attracts. It is absolutely impossible to attract and find something that your correspondence with us. "
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**MUSIC IMPACTING YOUR LIFE
Music has direct access to our emotions, being able to generate strong feelings. It lifts your mood, it distracts the mind from unpleasant thoughts and encourages mental work like daydreaming. Listening to music releases endorphins, thus music is a good technique for tweaking our moods, most effective deterrent to tension and even sedentary – knowing that music makes most of the people dance.
What’s more, music is used even as therapy to treat a wide range of conditions from stress, depression and anxiety to serious diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Mozart’s sonatas proved to be effective in decreasing the levels of the stress hormone cortisol, as a result, tension or anxiety go down. New-age music, known also as ambient music, relaxing or music or even electronic music, is addressed to the human spirit, created especially for meditation, relaxation and auto-healing.
Uplifting Music: Listening to music that not only has a soothing melody, but an uplifting message, can be great for developing positive self-talk. Have you ever had a song ‘stuck in your head’ for a few hours or days, the lyrics repeating themselves in your mind? If those lyrics were positive and inspirational, that would be a good thing. It’s a much better mental sound track to have than a running stream of complaints, criticisms or self-limiting thoughts, or even songs that had more depressing or sad lyrics.
Choose positive message for your activities and moods. Music with different rhythms and tempos can help you to improve your activities & state of mind.
HOW MUSIC THERAPY IMPROVES YOUR BODY
Brain Waves: music with a strong beat can stimulate brainwaves to resonate in sync with the beat, with faster beats bringing sharper concentration and more alert thinking, and a slower tempo promoting a calm, meditative state. Also, research has found that the change in brainwave activity levels that music can bring can also enable the brain to shift speeds more easily on its own as needed, which means that music can bring lasting benefits to your state of mind, even after you’ve stopped listening.
Breathing and Heart Rate: With alterations in brainwaves comes changes in other bodily functions. Those governed by the autonomic nervous system, such as breathing and heart rate can also be altered by the changes music can bring. This can mean slower breathing, slower heart rate, and an activation of the relaxation response, among other things. This is why music and music therapy can help counteract or prevent the damaging effects of chronic stress, greatly promoting not only relaxation, but health.
State of Mind: Music can also be used to bring a more positive state of mind, helping to keep depression and anxiety at bay. This can help prevent the stress response from wreaking havoc on the body, and can help keep creativity and optimism levels higher, bringing many other benefits.
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