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WHAT: Book Signing Event for Feng Shui that Makes Sense; Easy Ways to Create a Home that FEELS as Good as it Looks

WHEN: Sunday, October 16th, 2011 from Noon until 2pm

WHERE:                                                                                                            Warwick’s Book Store                                                                                                     7812 Girard Avenue La Jolla, CA  92037                                                                         (858) 454-0347

ABOUT: I have been asked to sign copies of my best-selling book,
Feng Shui that Makes Sense, Easy Ways to Create a Home that FEELS as Good as it Looks at Warwick’s Books this coming Sunday from noon until
2:00pm.                                                                                                                                                                           Warwick’s is the oldest family-owned book store in the country,
and hosts the most famous authors and celebrities in the world including,
Bill Clinton, Julia Child, Stephen King, Jack Canfield, and many, many more.                                                                                                                                 Feng Shui that Makes Sense is currently ranked #3
out of over 3,000 feng shui books on Amazon. It is the fastest-selling feng
shui book the distributor has ever carried and is already on its third
printing! I’m very pleased to say that the book continues to receive rave reviews.

Come and spend this Sunday afternoon in beautiful La Jolla,
California and pick up a personally signed copy of the book at
Warwick’s between noon and 2:00. With it’s beautiful shops, delicious
restaurants, and gorgeous beaches, spending an afternoon in La Jolla is always
a special treat.

I look forward to seeing you!                                                                                          Best Wishes,                                                                                                                   Cathleen McCandless

Beautiful La Jolla, California

When  balancing the way a room feels we must consider its function. A room we use for sleeping has different requirements than a room we use for entertaining. A room that is dark and quiet would be classified as a “Yin” space and is more
conducive for sleep. A room that is bright and active is a “Yang” space and
would be better for socializing.

One of the most common comments I hear from my clients is that,
try as they might, a particular room does not feel right to them. This
situation can be caused by subtle features in the room that may feel unsafe,
things like the positioning of furniture or sharp points and edges can make a
room feel uncomfortable on a subconscious level. The room may look attractive, yet there is something that just doesn’t feel quite right.

The first thing to address is whether or not the basic principles of Feng Shui have been followed. The following are examples of qualities that can make a room feel uncomfortable.

• Are there an abundance of right angles or sharp edges in the room?
• Is the furniture arranged to best serve the function of the room
  (entertaining, working, sleeping, etc.)?
• Are there heavy items hung above head level or any pieces of furniture that feel oppressive or unsafe (a tall bookcase too close to a chair, a shelf
  or cabinet hanging on a wall above a seating area)?

Once the safety factors have been addressed, the room may still
feel like something is “off” and is not yet a place where people want to spend
much time. This is when we begin to employ the Goldilocks Principle to help
identify the aspects of a room that may be creating a feeling of imbalance. In
traditional feng shui, the Goldilocks Principle is known as the “Yin/Yang
Theory”.

To find out if you need to apply The Goldilocks Principle to a
room, you can use the Yin/Yang checklist below. The checklist will help you
determine if there is too much or too little of something in a room. You can
balance the room by adding or subtracting items that the checklist points out
for you.

To help you discover where imbalances in a room are,
complete the following sentences:

• Use three words to describe this room: _________, __________, ________.
• There is too much ________________ in this room.
• There is too little ________________ in this room.

For example, you may have a guest room that just doesn’t feel
right. You might describe the room with these three words: stuffy,
crowded, plain.

The next thing to do is think of the opposite meaning for each word:

Stuffy/Airy

Crowded/Spacious

Plain/Interesting

You then might say, “There is too much old furniture in this room.”

“There is too little color in this room.”

You have now indentified ways for the room to change. You will
have discovered that you need to remove some of the old furniture in the room
to update it and give it more spaciousness. You also might want to consider
painting it a new color, or update the comforter to add some interest and color to the drab room. By using the Yin/Yang worksheet and these simple statements you will get a better idea of where you need to start and what you need to do to make a room feel better.

When you realize where the imbalances are in your space, you can
correct them by bringing in items or colors of the opposite quality to make the
space feel better. Everything should feel “just right,” or it will start to get
to you and negative feelings will compound.

As part of my Feng Shui practice, I am often asked to help stage
homes for sale. One of my clients had a home that was reasonably priced, yet
this home would not sell. I knew right away the living room was one of the
biggest problems. The floors of the house were covered with polished marble
tile, the couches and chairs were upholstered with leather, the windows shaded
with plastic vertical blinds, and the tables were all glass with metal legs.
All of these hard shiny surfaces made the home feel extremely cold and
uninviting  (similar to the feeling in the picture below). My client knew that potential buyers were saying that her home felt
“too cold,” yet she had no idea how to fix the problem.

It was time to utilize The Goldilocks Principle. I told my client
that the extreme amount of cold, hard surfaces in the home needed to be
balanced with texture and fabric in order to warm the house up. The fact that potential buyers were using the word “too” to describe the feeling in her home (“The house feels too cold”) helps identify what the problem with the home was. My client’s choice in décor left the house feeling “too” cold. I encouraged her to buy some thick, textured rugs for the floors, drapes for the windows, and fabric throw pillows on the couches in colors to match the rugs. She also needed to add some healthy plants in order to bring a more vibrant, natural feeling to the home.

Once my client applied the changes to her home the results were
staggering. Within two days of bringing balance into the décor of her home, my
client’s house sold. The new owners even commented on how “warm” and “inviting” the house felt! By using the Goldilocks Principle (the balance of extremes) we were able to quickly transform her living room into a space that was not only attractive, but felt friendlier and more comfortable at the same time.

Using the Yin/Yang
Checklist

After you have answered the questions at the top of the page,
place a check mark in the category where you feel the items in a room fall.
When you are finished, tally the check marks in each category, Yin or Yang.

If the totals are close, the room is most likely well-balanced.
Large discrepancies between the Yin and Yang tallies indicate features you may
wish to add or remove in order to create a more harmonious environment. Go back
over the items you checked in each column to see what you may wish to remove
from one column and add to the other to help the room feel better. Remember,
that the balance of Yin and Yang energy differs based on the function of the
room.

Yin/Yang Checklist

Complete these sentences describing the room.

1. Type of room (eg. living room, dining, bedroom, etc.)
_________________________

2. The function of this room is (eg. sleeping, cooking, gathering,
etc.)

___________________________________________________________________

3. I feel this room is too (eg. hot, cold, dry, wet, dark, frilly,
sterile, etc.)

___________________________________________________________________

4. If I could change anything about this room it would be
_____________________

___________________________________________________________________

5. Three words that describe this room are

a. ____________________ b. ____________________ c.
____________________

Place a checkmark in the appropriate column. If you aren’t sure,
just leave it blank. If the item falls in between the two categories just go on
to the next one. This is not a scientific study, it is simply a way to help you
determine what you may or may not need to adjust to make the room feel better.

Yin Yang

Main Colors ____ Dark ____ Light

Floor Covering ____ Rugs/Carpet ____ Wood/Stone

Size of Room ____ Small ____ Large

Ceiling Height ____ Low ____ High

Sound Levels ____ Quiet ____ Noisy

Organization ____ Cluttered ____ Organized

Room Location ____ Back ____ Front

Natural Light ____ Low ____ Bright

Furniture Lines ____ Curved ____ Straight

Artwork ____ Complex ____ Simple

Window Treatment ____ Fabric/Drapes ____ Wood/Blinds

Plants ____ Several____ Few/None

Materials ____ Natural ____ Man-made

Totals ____ Yin ____ Yang

Once you have applied the Goldilocks Principle to a room, you’ll
find it is much easier to determine what needs to stay, and what needs to go in
order to make the space feel more pleasant and more comfortable.

To learn the next step in creating a happy, harmonious space, please pick up a copy of Cathleen’s best-selling new book, Feng Shui that Makes Sense: Easy Ways to Create a Home that FEELS as Good as it Looks.

Copyright protected c. 2011 Cathleen McCandless www.sandiegofengshui.com

A while back I got a bouncing, barking, baby puppy. He was so cute and at the same time so much work. Just like any baby, my puppy went through a chewing stage. Anything he could sink his little chompers into was fair game for a chew toy. Because of his prolific chewing activities, I decided that the electrical cords in one particular area of my home posed a potential deadly threat to my ever-curious puppy. To protect him I put a metal “puppy gate” around the area where the majority of the cords were. When I did that I didn’t stop to think about what “feng shui area” this part of the house was. I just plopped the puppy gate down and forgot about it.

A couple of months passed. My time had been consumed with taking care of my very active puppy and putting the final touches on my book before it went to press. During this time I noticed that my income started declining. Yes I know all about the current state of the economy, but this was different. This was an unusual dip in finances that was starting to move past a “dip” and was becoming more of a canyon. I started getting worried. Then I thought, “If I were my client, what would I tell myself?” The answer was, “Look at the southeast (wealth) sector and see if anything is going on there that shouldn’t be.” My wealth sector happens to fall in the exact location where I had placed the puppy gate a couple of months ago (around the same time my finances became stressed.) You see, growing wood (i.e. a healthy plant) is the needed element for the southeast meridian. In the Chinese 5 Element Cycle, Metal (the puppy gate) energetically destroys the needed element (wood). When I realized that I had placed the metal gate in the area where metal was the worst element, I removed it immediately (luckily the puppy was past his chewing stage by then). Sure enough, within a week finances began to improve and in a couple of weeks were back to where they were before the ” Puppy Gate  Incident”.

  The next story I’m going to tell on myself is similar to the one I just mentioned, only this time it has to do with the north (career) sector. My career sector (the north meridian) falls exactly in my guest bathroom, which is fine, because water is the main element for career energy. In feng shui, when we add water to an area we need to make sure the water is circulating. This is why a table top fountain is so ideal in the north. That said, for almost ten years my live-in boyfriend used that bathroom as “his” bathroom. The daily use of that bathroom kept the water circulating and there was no need for a fountain. During that time my career had really taken off. I had more appointments than I could book, starred in a television series, and had risen to the top of my field. Then three years ago we came to the decision to go our separate ways. He moved out and the guest bathroom went back to being a guest bathroom and was only used very occasionally. Truth be told, during that time my career had begun to stall. Big contracts were fewer and farther between, class sizes got smaller and the frequency of my appointments went from sometimes up to three in a day to sometimes three in a week. I blamed it on the economy and kept plugging away, “hoping” it would get better.

 Finally (I’m a bit slow on the uptake sometimes),  like the incident with the puppy gate, I decided to look at my home the way I would with a client. Was there anything amiss in my career area that I had overlooked or unthinkingly changed? Then it dawned on me. My career started slowing down shortly after my boyfriend moved out. The guest bathroom went from being used every day to being used maybe once a week. As a result, the water in that area became stagnant instead of circulating. A lightbulb went on in my head. (DUH!) I needed to put a fountain in that bathroom as soon as possible. Guess what? Within two weeks after I put the fountain in that bathroom, my career went into the stratosphere! Suddenly my appointment book was full, big contracts were once again flowing in, and I was back to where I was three years before. If only this had dawned on me sooner!

I know what you’re thinking…the ”Feng Shui Lady” should have known this all along, but the truth of the matter is that we all get used to the way our houses are. We place something (or remove something) without thinking of its impact on the overall energy of the feng shui our home. I also think there is a deeper meaning here. In order for me to be able to help my clients, I MUST know that what I do has truth and validity. My experiences in my own life and in my own home are true testimonies to the power of feng shui!

      To keep your home on its feng shui toes, be sure to pick up a copy of my book, “Feng Shui that Makes Sense, Easy Ways to Create a Space that FEELS as Good as it Looks”. Take it from me, this stuff  really works!! Enjoy your day! -Cathleen

Copyright protected c. 2011 Cathleen McCandless www.sandiegofengshui.com

Feng Shui is an ancient system of environmental design that strives to create spaces that feel both nurturing and comfortable. When it comes to the bedroom, feng shui offers a great deal of dos and don’ts for a better night’s sleep. Let’s
take a look at five of them and see if they can offer you an opportunity to get
more shut-eye.

1.    Bed Position

Bed positioning is crucial to a good night’s
sleep. Ideally, the bed is placed so the head of the bed sits against a solid
wall and there’s a clear view of the door without being directly in line with
it. The figure here illustrates the best position for a bed. This bed position allows you to relax a bit more because you can see who’s entering the room, giving you an extra second or two to respond if necessary.

2.  Get yourself a “Big Girl/Big Boy” Bed

I know this sounds funny, but it is amazing how many adults I meet with that are sleeping either on a mattress on the floor, or simply have their bed shoved up against the wall with no bedframe or headboard. One of the basic rules in Feng Shui is to protect your back. This is especially true while we are sleeping. A bed frame with a significant headboard feels much more protected than a mattress that is pushed up against a wall. Feng Shui suggests a solid wood or upholstered head board with no holes or slats in the head board. Having something solid and significant behind your head while sleeping really does feel more restful. Yes, I know the wall is right there, but trust me, a head board and bed frame really does lend a significant difference to your sleeping experience.

3. Add Warmth and Texture

Bedrooms should feel cozy and comfortable.  Rooms
containing  a lot of smooth, shiny surfaces (such as glass tables and wood or tile flooring) need texture to warm them up.  Plush carpet, area rugs, drapes, comforters and pillows will add a feeling of softness to the room while creating an environment that is more conducive to rest. Alternatively, tan,
brown, flesh tones, and earthy colors will create a softer, cozier feeling than
cool colors like blue and white.

4. Choose Soothing Artwork

Artwork in the bedroom should be considered very carefully—it’s the last thing you see at night and the first thing you see in the morning. Science has proven that the brain waves and subconscious mind are most susceptible to suggestion right before we go to sleep and right after we wake up. When choosing artwork for the master bedroom, choose serene, positive images. To strengthen partnerships, it’s best to choose artwork that depicts people or objects in pairs. For romance, try to avoid pictures with strong religious overtones or familiar people—friends, children, or parents. For some, items like these displayed in the bedroom are “mood breakers” for many people.

5. Keep Active things out of the Bedroom

Bedrooms are places for rest, relaxation and
connecting with our partners. Placing items used for activities such as
exercise and work in the bedroom can make it difficult to relax. Exercise
equipment (such as treadmills and rowing machines) can add up to a nightly
guilt trip and amplify negative body-image issues, and work-related items  can make it difficult to turn off from work in the evenings and to wake up relaxed in the morning. Find a better location for these items for a more restful night’s sleep.

If you and your partner can drop off to sleep anytime, any where, consider yourself very fortunate! For the rest of us, feng shui may offer simple solutions to help our bedrooms become places to rest, relax, and rejuvenate.

For more bedroom tips and great feng shui information, pick up a copy of Cathleen McCandless’s best-selling book, Feng Shui that Makes Sense: Easy Ways to Create a Home that Feels as Good as it Looks

© 2011 Cathleen McCandless, All Rights Reserved

Copyright protected c. 2011 Cathleen McCandless www.sandiegofengshui.com

In this workshop you will learn basic:

• Feng Shui tips and techniques for the entire  home, including all rooms and landscape or  garden areas.
• The history of Feng Shui
• Feng Shui tips for outdoor areas and landscaping
• Basic design techniques for each room of the house
• How to determine the Life Aspiration Areas based
  on the compass (wealth, career, etc.) and how to enhance them
• Introduction to the Five Elements and how to place them properly
• Space-clearing techniques for removing negative energy in an environment
• Healthy home tips
• How to determine your Personal Best Directions
• Home Numerology
• Environmental Psychology
• How to apply what you have learned to your own home
• And much more!

Dates: Saturday & Sunday August 13th & 14th, 2011
Time:  10:00 am until 4:00 pm
Fee: $150 for the entire weekend (includes all materials, bottled water and light snacks)
Location: La Jolla, California
For more information or to register, please click here to email us

Have you ever had an uneasy feeling in your home that you can’t explain? Do you live in a place where an unfortunate event has occurred, such as a death, divorce, accident or foreclosure? Have you had the experience of moving into a new home or apartment and felt that the previous occupants were still connected to your space? The fact is, all buildings have the potential to hold onto the energy of the events and people that have been in that place. I’m not talking about ghosts and spirits (though they would certainly fall into this category.) I’m talking about having an uncomfortable feeling in a home or business that just doesn’t seem to go away. In my twenty years as a feng shui and home staging expert, I can tell you that these feelings are not in your imagination, but are actually a real phenomena that can be explained by the laws of physics. By understanding and using these laws, we can easily and effectively rid a space of negative energy and in turn feel happy and more positive while living and working in these environments.

Understanding the Process

The process of cleansing and healing the energy of the environment is commonly known as “Space Clearing”. In the seventeenth century, a Dutch scientist named Christiaan Huygens noticed that two pendulum clocks hung side by side would eventually synchronize and begin to swing in the same rhythm. Huygens called this process entrainment. Entrainment occurs as two objects, each with their own vibratory pattern, transfer small amounts of energy between them, eventually settling into a rhythmic relationship. Everything in the universe, including human beings, is made up of molecules and atoms that are vibrating at different frequencies. Even objects that appear solid and inanimate, such as walls, ceilings, and floors, are made up of atomic particles that constantly vibrate. Science has proven that human emotions and thoughts have electrical frequencies. Different emotions have different vibratory patterns. The stronger the emotion behind the thought, the more intense the vibration is. When someone experiences strong emotions or thoughts repeatedly in a space, they send out vibrations that are picked up by and projected back from the solid materials in the surroundings, including walls, ceilings, floors, and furniture. Through the process of entrainment, the room itself begins to match the vibration of these emotional frequencies.

   Let’s imagine, for example, that you have serious financial trouble, and your thoughts and emotions are focused on money worries, loss, and financial ruin. When you’re at home, these thoughts and emotions constantly send out specific frequencies into your surroundings. Through the process of entrainment, the energy of your worry and stress influences the vibratory rate of the molecules and atoms in the walls, ceilings, and floors, synchronizing the house to the energetic pattern of financial difficulty. Eventually, you move out of the home, but your energetic imprint remains, still vibrating in the structure of the house. Since energy is in perpetual motion until something interferes with it, the home continues to vibrate at the same frequency, even though you’re no longer living there. The next owner of the home may have had no previous problems with finances but may begin to experience more and more issues in this area after moving into the home. Why? Once again, through the dynamic process of entrainment, the energetic imprint of the home influences the energetic vibration of the new resident. A home is much larger than a human being. Therefore, the home’s energy surrounds the new resident, and over time, the new resident often experiences similar life patterns as the previous occupants. It seems like every neighborhood has a home or a place of business where negative events (divorces, bankruptcies, accidents, etc.) occur repeatedly. Often it is the energetic imprint that has been left in the building that keeps the space in a perpetual state of negativity. This is one of the reasons why it’s important to learn about the history of a building before you live or work there. Fortunately, a space clearing can work wonders to cleanse the home of unfavorable influences.

Using Sound to Clear a Space

There are many techniques that can rid a home or a workspace of unwanted energy. Experience has shown me the benefit of using sound and the scientific
process of entrainment to clear a space. Sound is very effective in shifting the energy of a room and clearing any negative energy that may linger there. Sound waves travel well through solids and liquids which is why you can hear sounds so well under water. By introducing sound waves into a space, you can influence the vibrational frequency of the walls, ceilings, furniture, and other objects in a room. Through the process of entrainment, the building’s previous energy imprint is eliminated and the result is a place that feels lighter, fresher, and more positive.

Procedure

You will need some kind of percussion instrument (you can even clap your hands.) I prefer to use an “Energy Chime” that is specially made for this procedure (you can purchase these on my web site www.FengShuiThatMakesSense.com/shop.html  if you wish.) If you don’t have an Energy Chime, you can use a drum, bell, singing bowl, or even clapping your hands to direct sound into each room of the home. Begin at the front door. This is the area where most of us dump our energy when we first arrive home. By standing inside the entrance, direct the sound at the door, and then move clockwise through that area, travelling through each room of the house continuing the procedure. Include the closets, garage, and storage areas (such as basements) when you are conducting your clearing. Sound travels out from its source, so the sound waves will continue into the walls, the furniture, and even up to the ceiling. Notice how you feel as you conduct the clearing. Do certain areas feel dull or negative? How does your body feel? Very sensitive people can perceive a lot of information about the energy of the home as the old vibrations are released during the clearing. If your home is large and you become tired, sit and rest and continue from where you left off, but don’t wait too long to get started again, or your efforts won’t be as successful. You really need to clear the entire house in order to shift the energy of the space.

    After you’ve moved through your home directing the sound at all the walls, including hallways and doors, you will wind up back where you started at your front door. You can conclude your space clearing in any manner that feels right to you. If you are a spiritual person you may want to say a prayer or a blessing for your home. If you’d like to just take a deep breath and let it slowly out picturing all the negativity leaving your home, you can do that too. I like to picture golden white light filling every inch of my home when I’m finished, and that always makes my house feel really nice. The choice is yours. You will notice once you have successfully completed your space clearing, the light in the house seems brighter, the colors are clearer, and often the air feels fresher and cooler. Clearing your house of residual energy is one of the very best things you can do in order to have a home that nurtures and inspires your body, mind, and spirit.

   To read more about Space Clearing, Home Blessings, and Feng Shui, pick up a copy of my new book, “Feng Shui that Makes Sense: Easy Ways to Create a Home that FEELS as Good as it Looks.”

Copyright protected c. 2011 Cathleen McCandless www.sandiegofengshui.com

Copyright Protected 2011, Cathleen McCandless, All Rights Reserved, No portion of this
article can be copied, shared or printed without the author’s permission.