Healthy Living

Add Feng Shui to Your Spring House Cleaning

Carolyn Cooper, our official Energy Healing Expert

Just what is Feng Shui? The short answer is that it's an ancient Chinese art and science that was developed some 3000 years ago to help people balance the energies in the places they lived. It's pronounced Fung Shway and it translates to "Wind Water." In Chinese culture, the elements play an important part in everyday life, as in wind and water that bring good harvests, which in turn bring good health and prosperity.

Feng Shui is based on Taoist philosophy, which puts a great deal of stock in living in harmony with nature, and states that land is alive and brimming with energy, or chi (pronounced chee). This in turn means that your home is alive and full of chi as well and needs to be arranged in such a way that the chi can be maximized.

How can you use this Chinese art in your spring cleaning? You'll need to do some rearranging, but first, you'll need a bagua (pronounced bah-gwah) map. This map includes the eight building blocks of life, according to the Chinese Taoist philosophy: health, love/marriage, wealth, career, wisdom/knowledge, reputation/fame, children/creativity and helpful people, plus the center area of chi.

Read Carolyn's entire article Add Feng Shui to Your Spring Cleaning Routine

6 Tips to Turn Negative Thoughts into Positive Thoughts

Carolyn Cooper, our official Energy Healing Expert

1) Notice your speech patterns and change them when necessary. Do you ever say things like, "I'm not good enough," "I can't afford it," "I'm so fat," "There are no good men/women out there for me," etc. All of these are examples of very limited thinking. When you hear that negative self-talk creeping into your thoughts, acknowledge it briefly, then let it go by replacing it with a new positive affirmation. Examples: "I am enough," "Money flows to me; I always have enough to pay my bills and much more," "I love my healthy, fit body," "I am worthy of and attract a healthy relationship." Always state them in the present-tense positive: "I am healthy" rather than "I am not fat."

Even if you are 30 pounds overweight and your conscious mind isn't quite buying it, the subconscious mind, which sees in pictures, will take it without questioning and your behaviors always align themselves with that subconscious belief.

It actually becomes fun, coming up with more and more positive affirmations to say to yourself. Start your own affirmation notebook.

2) Be willing to let go of what is no longer serving you, even if (especially if) it will take you out of your comfort zone. Believe that it is safe to release the need to keep any distorted patterns.

Read Carolyn's entire article 6 Tips to Turn Negative into Positive

Reality TV vs. The Human Brain

Dr. Linda Miles, our offical Marriage and Family Therapist Expert, talks about Reality TV's affect on your brain.

 

View more of Linda's videos

Define the Courage Needed for Risk

Carolyn Cooper, our Energy Healing Expert

As an Energy Therapist, I have worked with people from all walks of life and have found that the number-one deterrent that holds us back from stepping up and being our best is lack of courage, which stems from lack of self worth. Whether from current circumstances, childhood issues, or even cellular memories we carry from our ancestors, feelings of unworthiness affect all of us at some time.

A woman I admire tells a story about growing up playing basketball and, as a teenager, being successful on the court. When she went to college, she wanted desperately to play on the girls' basketball team. She found out when tryouts were and arrived outside the doors of the gym at the appointed hour. When she pulled the door open and peeked inside, the girls were already running drills, and they looked good! Then came her negative inner sentences, all the insecurities: "You're not good enough," "You can't compete with them," etc. She goes on to say she paced up and down the hallway for a very long time - in fact, until the tryouts were over. She returned to her dorm room totally disgusted with herself for not having the courage to at least try. She had let fear dash a childhood dream. That failure had nagged at her ever since that day.

Read Carolyn's entire article The Courage to Risk

Meditation: It's Not Just for the Monks!

Carolyn Cooper, our Energy Healing Expert

Meditation is like learning a musical instrument - you're not going to play Mozart your first time sitting down at the piano. It takes practice and commitment to reap the benefits of this ancient discipline. This means you'll need to make time for it every day. To get the most from meditation you need to do it every day at a time and in a place where you're free from distractions.

* Use a quite, serene area of your home in which to meditate. If you like, burn a candle or some incense.

* Try not to eat prior to a meditation session. The process of digestion makes you lethargic and sleepy.

* According to expert practitioners, meditating early in the morning is the best time. Many Buddhist monks say 3 a.m.is the optimal time. But few of us are Buddhist monks. So really, the best time to meditate is when you can fit it in to your schedule. Start out with 15 minutes. Set a timer so you won't fret about taking too much time.

Read Carolyn's entire article Meditation: Not Just For Buddhist Monks!

How to Overcome Sex Addiction

Stephany Alexander, our official Dating Expert

Sexual addiction is described as a progressive intimacy disorder characterized by compulsive sexual thoughts and acts. Like all other addictions, its negative impact on the addict and on family members increases as the disorder progresses. Over time, the addict has to intensify the addictive behavior to achieve the same results.

For some sex addicts, behavior does not progress beyond compulsive masturbation or the widespread use of pornography or phone or computer sex services. For others, addiction can involve illegal activities such as voyeurism, exhibitionism, obscene phone calls, child molestation or rape. Sex addicts do not inevitably become sex offenders. Furthermore, not all sex offenders are sex addicts. According to psychcentral.com roughly 55% of convicted sex offenders can be considered sex addicts. About 71% of child molesters are sex addicts. For many, their problems are so severe that imprisonment is only the way to ensure society's safety against them.

Read Stephany's entire article Sex Addiction: How to Overcome Sex Addiction

Positive and Natural Home Energy Remedies

Carolyn Cooper, our Energy Healing Expert

You know that living things have energy, and the energy can be positive or negative. That's an oversimplification, of course, but you know what I'm talking about. Did you know that your home has energy too? I'm not talking about gas and electric, as I'm sure you've guessed. I'm talking about the living energy of the home that manifests through the people who live there, the activities they engage in and its overall spirit.

Good music, laughter and honest, positive communication can keep a good vibe. Arguments and conflict disturb the energy and and lower the vibrations. We've all walked into someone's home and either felt welcomed and enveloped, or rejected and cold -- just by feeling the vibrations.

I help realtors when they're preparing homes to sell. Sometimes my realtor clients will call and ask me to clear the energy of a house that is just not selling. Sometimes it's mourning the loss of the family who left it, or feeling the effects of a nasty divorce. We've all heard of haunted houses, and often that's stuck energy from a traumatic event.

Read Carolyn's entire article Positive Home Energy

 

Open Your Heart Using These 5 Ways

Carolyn Cooper, our official Energy Healing Expert

Love

Start by giving yourself unconditional love. You can't totally love and accept others when you have negative self-talk going on. After years of working with many clients in the field of Energy Healing, I am convinced that the #1 common denominator in every issue is the lack of self- worth, self-acceptance, self-love. Love is what we were born with; fear is what we have learned here. Our spiritual journey is to let go of the fear in order to accept the love back into our hearts. Recognize that we don't make any mistakes we don't need to in order to learn the lessons that are necessary for our growth. Listen to the lesson, forgive yourself, and move forward with love.

Help others

We all know the best way to lift ourselves when we are down is by giving service to someone else. It's a universal law; you can't bless the life of another without receiving blessings in return. It is as if we are all connected (which we are) by an invisible thread, and each time we lift another, we too are lifted. Likewise, each time we put someone else down, we also bring ourselves down. Helping a fellow-being, whether friend or stranger, is truly the best thing to do when you feel sorry for yourself. It opens your heart by helping you realize there are others in less fortunate circumstances right now than you.

Read Carolyn's entire article Five Ways to Open Your Heart

Remembering Your Deepest Level and Be Well

Judy R. Hansen, our official Guided Meditations Expert

Remembering who you are on the deepest level–that’s the real key to happiness!

Remembering requires little of you–just a few moments to change your perspective back to a more truthful one. Let me remind you now: you are not your body, your job, your education, your possessions, your family, your relationships, your health or your history–even though that may be how you happen to be expressing right now (since that’s the identity that’s most apparent to our five-sensory living.)

But will you allow me to share a deeper truth? Use your sixth sense of spiritual knowing and ponder with me for a moment that there is more to you!

Read Judy's entire article Remember... Be Well

Raising Vibrations in Your Life

Carolyn Cooper, our official Energy Healing Expert

In my line of work as an Energy Practitioner, I find that nearly everyone wants to know how they can feel better and how they can have a higher vibration, and also how they can maintain that higher vibration.

Many people want a formula to tell them how to keep their vibration strong and positive. They believe there must be some ancient secret or new age discovery that will teach them how to make that happen in their life.
Well, I'll tell you an age-old, tried and proven, definitely-works remedy for a waning personal vibration. Are you ready . . . . Drum roll please . . .

~ Be kinder than you need to be. ~

Yep, that's it! Kindness and service to others literally raises your energetic vibration! Is that answer too easy for you? Or perhaps that requires too much of you?

We all know that what you send out is what you get back. So, of course it makes sense that if you seek for happiness, helping someone else experience happiness will automatically bring it your way as well. When we help our fellowmen, not only do our deeds assist them, but we put our own problems in a fresher perspective. It's a win-win situation!

Read Carolyn's entire article Raise the Vibration on Your Life