Balanced Living, Inc.

The Year of the Yang Water Dragon

2012-01-18T14:37:00.000-05:00

The Dragon is associated with the season of spring, so this means you need to get off to a fast start in 2012 as things are going to happen early in the year. If you have been paying attention, you most likely have been feeling some shifts in energy as early as November or December of 2011. Hopefully you used some of the quiet time of the peaceful Rabbit last year to plan for the dramatic dragon. Good luck and opportunities to make money could come very soon after lunar New Year.

The Dragon, however, is a reminder that everyone has dreams, and that the time to pursue them is now. Now is the time to take a chance, to reach for the proverbial brass ring, to not only dream but act on that impossible dream. The Dragon gives you the best chance to make it come true.

There is heavenly energy bestowed upon you and there will be people who will come to your aid - from near and far. The question is: will you reject them or will you accept their assistance? The problem is often not about not getting something we want, the problem is that we often stand in the way of receiving. We get in our own way even when someone is trying to help us. Vow to yourself that you will not only accept help, you'll offer it, too, in the year ahead.

Feng Shui your Holidays

2011-12-01T13:44:00.000-05:00

Do holiday gatherings create more stress than harmony? The holidays may result with your home being overwhelmed with long lost relatives, friends you haven't seen in ages and a whole host of other visitors. We are never more aware of these facts than at the holiday season.

From a Feng Shui perspective, the addition of abundant fire energy, adds an overwhelming level of stress, activity and high emotional sensitivity. This fire energy is created by a higher number of people gathered together, more lights and a lot of red colored decor. However, there are ways you can prepare your home to make the holidays go more smoothly. Feng Shui has some easy, practical solutions for creating harmony for your home this holiday season.

Try some of these Feng Shui tips, and have a safe, stress-free holiday!
Wishing you all a blessed holiday season.

Sincerely,

The Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree is a powerful focal point in your holiday décor. There are three favorable locations to consider for your tree. First, is the center section of the left side of your home, where it will promote family togetherness. The next is the far left corner of your home, where it will encourage abundance and blessings. Finally, the center portion of the far wall of your home can invite self illumination. When decorating your tree, consider applying Feng Shui colors for beneficial results. Red is the most popular color for the holidays, but avoid overdoing it. Red is of the fire element and can bring about unwelcomed stress and anxiety. The color green represents the wood element that can help calm your home as well as be nourishing to your health. Blue is a water element color and can also have a very calming and soothing influence.

Decorating with Plants

Living plants are providers of fresh, vital chi, and adding Christmas plants to a room is a wonderful Feng Shui cure. Mistletoe is thought to inspire calmness and a peaceful state of mind. This is believed by some to be a magical, healing plant. Holly is a sign of good wishes towards all. The Poinsettia represents love and passion. You might also include wood in your decorations such as a wreath, to help promote harmonious family gatherings.

Feng Shui & Weight Loss Tips

2011-11-11T13:42:00.001-05:00

Tip #1: Eat food on square plates
In Feng Shui round shapes stand for curiosity and square shapes for contentment. So, if you eat your food on a square plate it reduces your craving for more food.

Tip #2: Use earthen colors
If you are serious about your weight loss program, paint your kitchen and dining room in earth tones. Brighter colors arouse your appetite, mellow shades offer contentment and reduces your food craving.

Tip#3 De-clutter!!!
One of the most common reasons that people continue to hold weight is that they are holding onto the past, and thus holding themselves back from change and growth. Do a major de-cluttering in the home. If you want to drop weight and feel more alive and vibrant, you must have clear energy around you. Once you have created room for new habits and positive energy to flow you have a much better chance for success.

Tip#4 Hide the Scale - No Judgment
Avoid judging yourself! If you have a bathroom scale in full view every time to enter the bathroom, it is a physical reminder that you have yet to meet your goals. Weigh yourself once a week, then store it out of sight.

Tip#5 The Power of Color
Avoid the fire colors of red or orange in the kitchen, as it encourages your appetite. Instead use colors of blue or black in place mats, dining linens and plates. Better yet, eat on black, square plates. Black makes food look less appealing, and there's less contrast of a food's color against a black plate. Black dampens your inner chi, whereas bright colors make you feel more energized, so you won't feel like eating as much.

Tip#5 Visual Affirmations
Keep prescriptions & supplements out of sight. Having them on your bathroom vanity, reflecting in the vanity mirror will just magnify the health issue. Use a weekly pill organizer for your medication & supplements

Tip#6 Tien Yi
If you are having health concerns, you can tap into your "Tien Yi" (health) direction according to BaZhai compass formula to improve your health. Everyone has a health direction based on their year of birth and gender. To know your direction, you have to first find out your gua number.

Tip#7 East direction
Use a compass to identify the east corner of your home, which is the area of health and longevity. In this corner, remove clutter (which symbolizes heaviness and obstacles) and put images that represent your weight loss or fitness goals. 1st: Find your gua number 2nd: Find your Tien Yi direction

Tip#8 Bagua – Family & Health
Find the middle left side of the home. It is the Family & Health Gua of the Home. Add Wood Elements: Colors of green or blue, Plants & flowers, Pictures of flowers & landscapes, Floral or striped fabrics, items made out of wood, tall, column or pillar shapes.

Tip#9 The Kitchen
Avoid seeing the kitchen from the front door. If you have this situation, try to create an eye-catching view in another direction when entering the home or add doors or screens to block the view of the kitchen.

Feng Shui & Weight Loss - The Power of Color

2011-11-07T12:58:00.000-05:00

THE POWER OF COLOR
If you are serious about your weight loss program, paint your kitchen and dining room in earth tones. Brighter colors arouse your appetite, and mellow shades offer contentment and reduces your food craving.

Avoid the fire colors of red or orange in the kitchen, as it encourages your appetite. Instead use colors of blue or black in place mats, dining linens and plates. Better yet, eat on black, square plates. Black makes food look less appealing, and there's less contrast of a food's color against a black plate. Black dampens your inner chi, whereas bright colors make you feel more energized, so you won't feel like eating as much.

Feng Shui and Weight Loss - Healthy Energy

2011-11-07T01:23:00.000-05:00

HEALTHY ENERGY

Essentials for good health and weight loss:

Natural light
In addition to fresh air, a lot of natural light will make your space seem brighter, lighter and allow healthy chi to circulate. Light is the strongest manifestation of chi energy, you will need to use as much of it as possible to keep your environment focused and positive.

Clutter-free space
Nothing weighs people down more than clutter in the home. This includes hidden clutter such as closets, basements, attics or garages. Clearing the clutter from your home creates a feeling of lightness, as if a weight has been lifted from your shoulders. You can achieve this feeling of lightness by clearing out anything that no longer encourages your goal of losing weight and getting healthy. Check your kitchen cabinets and pantry for expired foods, junk food and sweets. Don't forget the refrigerator. Condiments are usually way passed their acceptable freshness date.

The Weight of Objects :The Kitchen

2011-10-27T23:20:00.003-04:00

I am starting a new series of helpful hints on how Feng Shui can help you on your quest to getting healthy, including losing weight!

Many of us struggle with weight issues which could be actual body weight or the "weight" of objects standing in our way to a healthier lifestyle. So where do we start? The Feng Shui Trinity - The Kitchen, the Bathroom & the Bedroom. Your well being is deeply affected by the connection of these three rooms. The intention, as always is to create a pathway for positive energy to enter your home, as well as your life.

The Kitchen
Avoid seeing the kitchen from the main entrance to the home. If you have this situation, try to create an eye-catching view in another direction when walking in to attract your focus in that direction. Add saloon doors to block the vision of the kitchen. If you enter the home from an alternative entrance such as through the garage, by all means, use the front door.

If the first room you see upon entering your home is the kitchen - all the energy coming into the home is going into the kitchen, as well as your appetite. A few tips if you have this situation:

Keep counter top free of clutter to allow the chi to circulate the room without encumbrances.
The stove should be in a power position - seeing the entrance to the kitchen as you are cooking at the stove.
Use directional artwork at the entrance to the home to draw the energy away from the kitchen entrance. Better yet, use a screen or doors to hide the kitchen from view.
Display healthy, fresh energy such as a bowl of fresh fruit or a healthy plant.
De-clutter cabinets & refrigerator of foods not of a health nature.
Display only minimal items on the refrigerator.
Avoid the color red in the kitchen, the color red subconsciously increases hunger.(This is why restaurants use the color red). Use the colors of blue or black in placemats or dining table linens.
Placing objects around your home that represent a healthy body image.

FENG SHUI CHI ENHANCER: COLOR

2011-07-29T02:59:00.001-04:00

The use of color is the most powerful and easiest enhancement that you can make to your home. Placing an object or picture in a specific color in an area of your home can help to stimulate chi and attract good energy. Additionally, the color that represents the Bagua area in the home will be equally beneficial. As always, surround yourself with your favorite colors.

Wind Chimes Bring Money into Your Home

2011-07-24T23:19:00.000-04:00

By Jeff Hinkley
http://www.jeffhinkley.com

You may be asking yourself, how can wind chimes possibly bring money into my home. Well, first of all, you need to understand that there is a universal constant flow of energy around us. In the east, particularly China, it is called Chi. This energy can be influenced by many things, such as thoughts, symbols or objects to name a few, in a direction to create more beneficial effects to ourselves and our surroundings. In China an ancient art of placement, called Feng Shui (pronounced fung shway), which means wind and water, is used to balance the flow of chi. In Feng Shui, wind chimes have been used for centuries and are the most powerful enhancer and cure for many situations. Sound is used for clearing and cleansing negative energies, so that the environment is once more harmonious. Wind chimes promote a constant flow of beneficial Sheng Chi attracting happiness, good fortune, good luck and prosperity. To attract money or accumulate wealth; wind chimes are placed in areas of your home where the energy has the most influence on your wealth.

The placement of wind chimes in your home or business will be discussed in this article in general terms. There are certain properties of wind chimes that have specific applications, though, and that will be mentioned later. Each environment and architecture is different in specific ways in how rooms, windows, hallways and doorways interact with each other. To properly balance a home you need to have a reading done by a Feng Shui master or other trained person. In all areas where you hang the wind chimes be careful not to obstruct your pathways.

Listed below are five areas that a wind chime can be placed i n any home to promote wealth.

1. Hanging a wind chime near the entrance to your home is a very easy and effective way to attract wealth.

2. One of the most important areas is in the main wealth place. This is the furthest back left corner of your home or property as you stand looking at it from the street or where you enter your home.

3. Another wealth area is in your main living area. As you face the entrance to your main living room, it is the most immediate left upper corner of the room.

4. Placing a wind chime in a bathroom prevents wealth and aspirations from being drained away.

5. Placing a wind chime at the end of an upper stairway prevents wealth from rushing down towards your main door downstairs.

Do not hang a wind chime directly above where you sleep, sit, eat, work or stand. Your energy will be suppressed. If it is unavoidable, hang the wind chime lower than waist level.

The number of tubes on a wind chime produces different results. Those with five, six or eight tubes will work well in promoting wealth. Five tubes represent Earth and attracts excellent chi and prosperity from five directions, north, south, east, west and center. Six tubes represent Big Metal and luck form heaven. Eight tubes represent Prosperity Blessings and is the most popularly desired number by the Chinese. As an important rule of thumb, five tubes are best to suppress bad luck and bad chi, while six and eight tubes are best to attract good luck. In terms of materials, metal wind chimes are used specifically for the west, northwest and north, but they are also the best overall as cures in all the directions.

On a final note, Feng Shui is not static, but continually changing depending upon the individual’s energy and life changes or an outside force, which means that the changes you make to your living environment today, may need re-adjustments in the following years.

About the Artist

Jeff Hinkley was born in 1955 and raised in a rural area outside of St. Paul, Minnesota. As a young boy one of his favorite pastimes was to take long walks through the woods surrounding his home. On these walks he felt at peace and connected to all, and he developed a great love for the outdoors and all of nature. Since he was not brought up with any religious dogmas, nature became his spirituality and he saw that there was a unity to all life.

Jeff also liked to spend time in his father's basement workshop where he could let his creativity unfold through woodworking projects, experimenting and inventing. As a teenager he began to explore metaphysical concepts and was guided to transcendental meditation (TM), which later became a large part of his life.

In his high school years Jeff's favorite subject was science and in particular biology. With his love of nature and the outdoors he had plans to attend college to become a field biologist, but in the latter part of his senior year he made a radical change and went into vocational training for photography and photofinishing.

The earliest part of Jeff's career was spent working in a professional photofinishing lab. After a few years he left for an advanced course in TM. Leaving jobs to take courses became a trend until he moved to work on staff at MIU, a TM based university in Iowa. There he met a student, moved with her to Colorado, got married, moved to Florida and after a few years divorced. During these years he expressed his artistic side by working on creative projects at home, but was not finding his full expression and potential through his work.

In 1993 Jeff finally realized that he needed to make his own business and created Thunderbird Chimes, high quality copper wind chimes. Over the years he wanted to be more expansive with his artistic creations and in 2006 he began working on wall sculptures applying techniques and processes he had learned over the years working with copper.

Today Jeff is happily married and lives with his wife, their two cats and two horses on a horse farm in Stuart, Florida.

Artist Statement

In all life there is symmetry. Symmetry creates balance and harmony. I use this as a fundamental basis in the form and structure of my sculptures and bring a fluid gracefulness to its symmetry with the lines within the piece merging and complementing the outer flowing curves. My objective is to create unique sculptures with aesthetic balance to captivate the viewer's eyes and hopefully bring a sense of harmony between him and what he is viewing.

If you have any questions or need help, please call or e-mail.

Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm EST

Phone: 1-772-288-0926
Fax: 1-772-288-0926
e-mail: tbirdchimes@aol.com

Mail to:

Jeff Hinkley
P.O. Box 3323
Stuart, FL 34995

Feng Shui Chi Enhancers: MIRRORS

2011-07-19T00:04:00.000-04:00

Mirrors are great "band aids" for problem locations in the home. If you are missing an area of your floor plan according to the Bagua, hang a mirror on the wall of the missing area. A few guidelines for mirrors: Not facing your front door, reflecting a cluttered area, dining rooms or in the bedroom.

Minimize the use of mirrors in the bedroom or remove them altogether. This is because mirrors reflect the energy and send it to places other than where it should be. If you decide to keep a mirror, television or computer (which can also reflect and block energy) you should keep them in a wooden cabinet while you sleep so it will prevent this from happening and help you have a more peaceful rest. Never place mirrors opposite, next to or over the bed. In addition to bouncing too much energy around the room to allow for good rest, these reflective surfaces are thought to magnify problems and worries - and also that mirrors in the bedroom can invite a third party to interfere in your relationship. If you have mirrored closet doors, treat them like windows and hang curtains in front of them. Move other mirrors out of the room, face them away from the bed or drape them with a pretty piece of fabric when you turn in for the night.

Mirrors in a Dining Room create too much yang energy. If you are looking to create a calm, relaxing environment for a leisurely dinner and regroup with your family,rethink the mirrors. Mirrors will create an atmosphere where people will want to eat and run.

Stay away from tiled or smokey mirrors and make sure that mirrors don't cut off your head - you need a clear, positive image of yourself. Mirrors must not face each other, as this increases the energy and speed of chi, which should be slow and calm. Mirrors should be as large as possible in the bathroom, without any visible joints. Be careful not to situate mirrors in places where the toilet is reflected. Mirrors are great for over a fireplace, as it balances the fire and water elements.