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The ancient Chinese practice of Feng Shui (pronounced fung shway) is the art of object arrangement and space planning designed to bring balance, harmony and well-being to your living and working areas.  Its purpose is not only to enhance prosperity, but also to increase creativity, health, and romance. Feng Shui fortifies a home with positive energy known as chi. The attainment of positive chi is both an art and a blessing to those who manifest that chi. The word “feng” means wind and “shui” means water, each one associated with a good harvest and ultimate good health or good fortune.

Many of the benefits from good Feng Shui come from reducing subtle stresses and irritations , making life easier and more comfortable . A good energy flow is brought about by the application of good Feng Shui , making for a better life and greater happiness.

Five Feng Shui Tips

1. Arrange your office such that your desk faces the door or is at a diagonal to the door. Placing a mirror such that you can see what is behind you is a decent second choice. I’ve been more productive since I changed the layout so that my desk faces the door.
2. While you are cleaning and organizing pay attention to basements and under your bed as energy rises.   As far as attics go, this is energy “hanging over you.”   Are the items you have stored in these places really necessary?  If spring cleaning is the only time you see this stuff thn maybe it’s time to get rid of it.   Cleaning up clutter helped me relax.
3. In the kitchen, if you stand facing the wall while you cook, you leave your back exposed , a position that is considered weak in feng shui. Placing a mirror on the wall behind the stove will allow you to see what’s going on behind you while you cook. If something happens, or someone comes up behind you, then you will be able to see it in the mirror.
4. Fresh flowers bring beautiful uplifting energy to the kitchen. Place a bowl of fruit, a vase of flowers, or a living plant on your kitchen table, windowsill, or wherever the layout of your kitchen allows. (In feng shui, dried flowers have no life energy in them, so they are not recommended. If real plants are impossible, you can use very life-like fake ones, but the effect will not be nearly as strong.)
5. If your love life needs a quick boost, you can use the art of placement to produce the romantic results you desire. Dust and cobwebs on the fans, walls, light fixtures and ceilings should be cleaned away. Enhance your space with romance colors, such as shades of pinks, reds and whites. Guys, this does not mean it has to be feminine. You can use maroon, grayish tones of pinks and whites to achieve the same results. The key is to not use any one color so much that it overpowers the others, so consulting with a Feng Shui expert is a good idea.

These five tips will help to give your life the boost it deserves and the fulfillment it requires. Alter your space and you will change your life.

Feng Shui has been practiced for hundreds of years to increase the quality of our lifes in addition to induce harmony, concerning many other elements, into the home. Anyone can incorporate Feng Shui in any place that you would prefer however some persons use it in the bedchamber.

Feng Shui is pronounced “Fung Shway” and can be used to help you rest better and enhance your own love life. If this seems like something you would want to implement to your bedroom, there are a few “rules” which you will need to figure out to guide you achieve a feng shui bedroom.

The bed is actually probably the most major part of your furniture in the bedroom. Any bed should be in a command location. This means that a person’s bed needs to be in whole view of the room door although not in the direct line of the door. You will also need to leave a sufficient amount of space on both sides of the bed for everyone to get in and out of bed with ease.

Also, do not ever have your bed in the position in which your feet are facing the door. This is very harmful Feng Shui. This kind of position is known as the death posture or coffin position, considering the dead are usually carried out by their feet.

It’s better whenever people opt for to have your bedroom in the farthest room in your home from the front door. This is said to provide the mind increased security considering there’s that much more distance between anything coming in the door and you resting in bed.

It is undesirable Feng Shui to have your bedroom pointing toward the front entrance. However, sometimes we have no real choice where the bedroom is situated but you can in spite of this utilise many other techniques to Feng Shui your bedroom.

Eliminate clutter. Any sort of mess that reaches around your head that can make people feel anxious, consequently you will need to clean all sorts of things which shouldn’t be piled up on your table dresser or side furniture. The clutter will suppress the Chi from flowing naturally as it should.

Anything in your current bedroom that has to do with other things that don’t have to do with sleep or the bedroom need to be taken out. For instance if you have job related objects in your bedroom, these things should be taken out and replaced. Computers, tvs and also other electronics do not belong in the bedroom either.

These are generally three of the most effective recommendations that can be given for people who choose to turn their sleeping rooms straight into a Feng Shui heaven. Feng Shui will enrich your existence and can help improve your sleep habits so you get up feeling being much more relaxed as well as totally regenerated.

There are actually all kinds of other things people have to bear in mind when you plan set up a feng shui bedroom. Always make sure you do as much basic research as you can before you begin. You need to understand exactly what you are going to do and precisely how to accomplish it before you get started. You actually don’t have to be a believer for Feng Shui to bring amazing things in your existence.

The Buddhist flags hung in honor of Buddha's birthday in Patan, Kathmandu

Buddhism is everywhere here in Nepal and it’s intermingled with Hinduism. It seems though that most people I come across are Buddhist. I have always had an interest in Buddhism; they say it’s a philosophy and not a religion. That may be true but here in Nepal it comes across as very religious to me.  The temples alone yell religion and then all the people performing different rituals also smacks of it. Religion isn’t so bad; it brings comforts to millions. Ritual is amazing; it creates energy like nothing else I’ve ever seen. And yet, I find myself resistant to it.  Here in Nepal though I feel slightly less resistant. When I am asked if I am a Buddhist the next question is usually if I am a Christian. When I tell them I’m nothing they don’t try and convert me, they just listen.

So Lord Buddha’s (as they call him) birthday is May 27^th and I happened to be in Nepal for it. It’s actually a national holiday here as you can expect. Being next to the gumpa that contains all the mini monks Buddha’s  birthday was an interesting experience for me. All the trumpet playing and horn blowing they have been practicing seemed to be for this day. It was a full moon and I went onto the roof to watch the boys playing their trumpets out towards the city.

I couldn’t get any good pictures from our roof so I decided to go up on theirs. I had my camera with me and as I went to go up on the roof many of the monks were outside the gumpa. They beckoned me and asked that I please, please come in.

Up to this point I had been afraid to go in. I can’t really tell you why. I guess I didn’t want to be disrespectful, this lame tourist poking around inside a religious structure. I think I was also waiting for an invitation. So I finally had it and I removed my shoes and followed the monks in.

It’s so beautiful inside with large statues of Buddha and some other folks. I learned that you always walk clockwise around any religious site here and so I followed the path around inside. The energy inside the gumpa was astounding; I could feel it circulating clockwise through the building. I could feel the energy of everyone that had come that day to pray. It was positively vibrating. As I walked around I saw mini monks stashed away in corners repeating mantras out loud, sometimes in pairs, sometimes alone.

The gumpa next door

Doorway to the gumpa

As I came to the end again there was a local prostrating himself. It’s quite something to see someone doing this. It’s so humble, almost apologetic. He was doing this movement over and over across the floor as if to say “forgive me, I am so worthless, make me better.” It wasn’t in the direction of Buddha’s statue and I wasn’t about to interrupt him to ask him to who or what he was doing this to. Perhaps it was just himself.

The mini monks asked if I wanted to learn how it was done and I hesitantly said yes. I have this fear of looking like an idiot because I don’t get something right the first time, but I know that it’s better to say yes and have a new experience.

One young monk showed me first. You stand up straight and put your hands in prayer position, then you bring them to your head, your heart, and then you get down on the ground and bow your head all the way down. Then you push yourself up without using your hands more than once for the push.

The first time I tried this I had to use my hands twice, I didn’t really trust my own strength on the hard marble floor and I was being watched. I could see on their faces that I had done it wrong even though they were obviously trying to hide it. I tried again and this time got smiles from the two monks. This is the kind of magical thing I hoped for, the sort of romantic idea that got into my head when I first heard the name Nepal. After this I felt uneasy, wondering what I should do now that I had made my rounds so I made my way out into the entranceway and watched all the young monks gathering at the lit candles. They were picking them up and bringing them inside for some purpose that I couldn’t gather, mostly because I didn’t ask. I kept having this sense like I was interrupting something, that I was an outsider. I felt myself shrinking back. I wanted to take a picture badly but was afraid to ask. I didn’t want to make a wrong impression or say something wrong but the photo opportunity was too good to let go.

I haven’t prostrated myself since then but I have this feeling like it would do me some good. I think it would do a lot of people some good. Do I have to prostrate myself to some religious god? Shouldn’t I prostrate myself in front of my own self judgment instead. I could learn to be easier and more care free…

Woman performing a ritual in honor of Buddha's birthday

Himin Group's Sun-Moon Mansion

This rabbit recently hopped over to the city of Dezhou, in Shandong Province, to partake in some Earth Day festivities with a few friends. While there, I learned more about the greening of China and the significant role Dezhou plays in this cleantech movement. The future certainly looks bright for 德州!

Did you know that Dezhou is one of the leading global players in solar technology today? The city boasts a thriving research and development, manufacturing, and tourism center and those in the renewable industry often refer to Dezhou as China’s Solar Valley. The Chinese government has supported the cleantech movement in this region through preferential tax benefits and other various policies that helped attract top firms to Dezhou. In just a few short years, China has become the leading manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels around the world. It appears China has really stepped up in a significant way to promote sustainable technology.

According to the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA), there were 1.12 million renewable energy jobs in China, as of 2008; the association believes more than 100,000 new jobs will be added each year in China going forward. The solar industry in China is very robust and is currently experiencing a growth rate of nearly 30 percent a year. It is China’s stated goal to have 8 percent of their electricity generation come from solar, biomass, and wind by the year 2020. The government plans to subsidize renewables to the tune of $450 billion over the next five years to help meet this goal.

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