Self Improvement – Career Life Institute

Deeper Well-being with Feng Shui

Feng Shui is the practice of healing one's exterior environment to bring about a major shift, and healing, of one's interior environment. So profound is this ancient art at accomplishing this, that most Chinese acupuncturists refer their patients to a Feng Shui practitioner who will follow up on their treatments by making corresponding adjustments in the patient's home.

Our homes and businesses hold our entire psyche, for good or ill, in a complex pattern of spatial, visual and sensual dynamics. The secrets of Feng Shui are now flooding into our western world, revealing the practical ways with which we can heal ourselves through changes we are willing to make in our daily living spaces.

Feng Shui wisdom instructs us to unclog the home of all of the stagnant clutter and excess objects which drag our energy down and stop the "Ch'i", or vital life energies, from flowing smoothly. If done well, this can have the same healing effect as a giant colonic, removing years of toxic psychological residue from our lives. The next step is to switch to living surrounded only by what we love, with a healing effect on us that is similar to the effect of eating healthier, more nourishing foods.

Feng Shui's remedies for structural no no's, such as slanted ceilings, oppressive overhead beams, etc., will give an immediate chiropractic benefit to us. Finally, placing visual cues throughout our environment which affirm our new healing visions for ourselves will hold those visions in as gentle, subtle and powerful a manner as hypnotherapy does. These are just a few of the healing modalities which precision Feng Shui can complement and reinforce.

If the essence of well-being is to heal the whole body and whole mind together, we can no longer overlook the great power for healing which lies in our homes and work spaces. Let your spaces hold your highest visions of harmony and abundance, becoming spatial affirmations of your goals with Feng Shui.

Karen Carrasco is an Essential Feng Shui consultant. You can contact her at fengshui@humboldt1.com, or call (707) 825-8859, with your questions or interests.

MegaTraits: 12 Traits of Successful People

Book Summary

Top achievers usually share key traits, says an expert who interviewed 1,000 of America's most successful people. Here are some of the characteristics they tend to have in common according to Doris Lee McCoy, Ph.D., author of MegaTraits: 12 Traits of Successful People.

Successful people enjoy their work. "These people are having the time of their lives. They work with a total involvement that seems to shut out everything else," said McCoy.
They have a positive attitude and plenty of confidence. "The successful never seem to doubt that they will achieve," she said. "And when they do, it contributes even more strongly to their self-esteem."
They use negative experiences to discover their strengths. For example, TV producer Norman Lear grew up with parents who were always screaming at each other, but he learned to find humor in the situation—and then used it to develop All in the Family.
They're decisive, disciplined goal setters. Most achievers have a clear idea what they want out of life, and they take the shortest route to go after it.
They have integrity and help others succeed. Karl Eller, chairman of Circle K Store told McCoy, "With any deal, I've been careful that I was fair to the other side, so both parties were happy. " That fairness is an integral part of success.

This book is currently out of print. You may request a search at Amazon.com

Five Words for a Full and Prosperous Life

There are five simple words we need to use to have a prosperous life:

YES.
Simply say "yes" to your dreams and allow yourselves to actively pursue your dreams.
NO.
Learn to say "no" when you need to say no. Success is being able to set limits about what you don't want in your lives.
OUCH.
Allow yourself to feel pain and recognize what is causing your pain. Know that pain is a healthy warning system for you to take some action.
NEXT.
Fully experience your challenges and accomplishments and have completion with what you start. Know when it is time to move on to your next…
WOW!
Be fully in the present and really experience life—events and people in your lives, achieving goals and having things, enjoying simple pleasures such as good tastes, touches, sights, sounds, smells, etc. Be fully aware of all your blessings! Know that all of life is an experiment, so enjoy the process!

Change Your Handwriting, Change Your Life: Raise Your Self-Esteem

Just as the personality can be determined by the strokes we make as we write, reversing the process and changing those strokes can also change our personality.

I first read about this "graphotherapy" in the early 1960's. They had just begun to use the process with juvenile delinquents to assist them with changing some of the negative aspects of their personalities. I was intrigued and even though I wasn't a juvenile delinquent, decided I could use some improvement too. I changed a couple of strokes (one to add even more creativity), and I liked what I noticed in the results.

Over the years I remember several times of changing my handwriting when I felt particularly stuck in a rut. Of course then I didn't understand the impact of the changes, and not all of them were necessarily positive, but they did cause a shift!!

One of the biggest problems that exist today is the lack of adequate self-esteem. Most people do not give themselves enough credit, and some folks are downright rude to themselves!! This usually develops over time, and is the result of a variety of circumstances and events. Unfortunately, most people who have low self-esteem have reinforced it to the point where they don't even notice how pervasively they perpetuate the negativity in their lives.

The good news is that this is a relatively easy area to change with Graphotherapy.

When you look at your own writing, notice where on the T stem you actually cross your T's. My favorite analogy is the pole at the county fair – you remember the one where the guys used this huge hammer and tried to make the slider hit the bell at the top?? Well, you know who the winners were – the ones who got to the top!! The same is true of your T-bar – the closer to the top you get, the more of a winner you will be.

The height of the T-bar also determines the height of your goals. If your T-bar is low on the stem, you probably either don't set many goals, or you have lots of reasons for not reaching them – and you are bound to stay in a bad situation far longer than you should. If your T-bar is crossed in the middle of the stem, or slightly above middle, you set good, practical goals, based on what you have achieved before. You set your sights based on where you are comfortable, and don't take a lot of risks. In both these cases you are settling for less than you are capable of achieving, and trading comfort (what you already know) for the big successes that take a bit more risk.

Crossing your T-bar at the top of the stem lengthens your vision and your goals, and gives you a larger scope of possibility. Of course, make sure your T-bars are touching the stem. The person whose T-bar flies above the stem is the same person whose head is in the clouds, and is therefore not grounded. We call that person a dreamer, and we all know that as important as dreams are, they must be followed through with practical application in order to be successful.

Take a look at the handwriting of people you know who feel good about themselves, consistently take risks and achieve what they go after. You will find that most of them have consistently high T-bars. This is a trait you can easily change by practicing your T's for 5 to 10 minutes each day (1 to 3 pages daily for 30 days). And it works great with kids, too!! I have testimonials from kids who improved their grades and their social relationships just from changing this one trait.

(Note: Ignore T's where the bar links to the next letter, as in the words "the" or "with" where the bar of the T links into the H. This linking of the T to the next letter is considered "fluidity of thought" and the height of the T-bar is ignored. Also, make your T-bar higher, not your T-stem taller.)

So, keep your T-bars high, and enjoy your successes!!

Find out more about Handwriting Analysis and GraphoTherapy at HandwritingTraits.com