Happy New Year!

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. To me, it is like pushing against the unwanted; which does nothing but bring it right back to you. Instead of resolutions I have a tradition of reading my favorite book (Life Cycles, by Christine DeLorey) to find out what the new year has in store for me.

I keep waiting for the year that will just be full of success, happiness and fun. So... apparently that year doesn't exist, it seems we just keep learning new things and we can have our success, happiness and fun; but we also have the bumps in the road, the lessons and the tests.

Last year was my abundant year, and boy was it ever! The journey I went on last year was unlike anything I have ever experienced! I wrapped up the first season of Feng Shui Your Way, started my second book, worked with incredible people and spent my time with my beautiful friends and family.

This year I get to tie up loose ends, look at the past, learn from it and let it go so that next year I can start something new. I find myself wondering if I will ever get to the place where I sit back on the porch and enjoy the view and then it hit me that I don't have to be sitting on the porch to enjoy the view, I have many different places to enjoy the view from... why limit myself to just the porch? Seems a little boring when I stop and think about it!

Here is to a year of enjoying the view no matter where you are! It is your creation so find the beauty in it and remember that if you don't like your view, you can always change it!

Happy 2008

Leigh

Walking in the Rain

We just finished dinner, got the kitchen cleaned up and I was getting ready to sit down with the family to watch deal or no deal together. I had a few minutes, so I decided to take some mail up to the mailbox at the top of the street. When I went outside I noticed that it was drizzling, and I almost turned around and came back inside, but then I thought, why??

Our stained driveway is very slick in the rain, (well the polished diamonds are anyway) and that was the second thing that almost sent me back inside the warm, dry, comfortable home. But I decided to intend that I wouldn't slip and that I really needed this walk.

As I walked up the hill to the mailbox, the drizzle wasn't really bad, it actually felt nice. Then I put the mail in the box and turned around to come home and the drizzle picked up a bit, it could even be considered rain. I noticed that I put my head down, hunched my shoulders and felt very tense. Why??? I asked myself. So I lifted my head up, put my shoulders back and enjoyed the rain in my face. It made me consider of all the times I walk around with my head down, my shoulders hunched, feeling tense; what else am I missing out on?

So, right now today I am making an intention to walk around this beautiful place I get to live with my head up, my shoulders back and not feeling tense at all. Life is to beautiful to miss the rain in your face or anything else for that matter.

Have fun playing in the rain!

Leigh

All we need is love.....

I believe that there are only two emotions; love and fear. With that knowledge, I wouldn't think that I would cross over into fear mode... oops!! (Fear can show up as anger, judgment, blame, guilt... all the nasty stuff that doesn't allow for growth or love)

Over the past few weeks I have a "friend" that I have been noticing all kinds of things about. One day I spoke them out loud (big mistake) and it is like these judgments took over. I was finding all kinds of things to be angry about, but not just with this person, I was finding fault with others. It is as if a switch had flipped and my world had changed; I didn't like it. I wasn't the happy bubbly me, I was a judge..... yuck.

Last night I received an email that I shouldn't have been included on. The sender was trying to humiliate a friend of mine about some volunteer work she was doing and instead of directing her concerns directly to my friend, she included about 8 others. My initial reaction was to send this woman an email telling her it was inappropriate to include all of us on it, but then I thought... "that isn't loving" what would love do? I wrote and re-wrote emails to this woman trying to sound loving... but none of them were. (I wasn't really feeling so loving towards this woman) Then the thought came to me to write my friend and tell her how much I appreciated all of her hard work... that felt loving. I ignored the email from that woman, and focused in on how much I appreciated the hard work of my friend.

So I made a choice to look at what love would do, look at how love would feel, and the switch flipped back. When I start seeing things that don't make me feel good, I look for the side of it that does make me feel good. It isn't easy all the time and sometimes I have to stop and think... "what would love do", fumble through and when I ask that question I always feel better and I seem to have better things show up, more loving things.

So next time you find yourself being angry or offended, why not ask "what would love do" and try that on, it really does feel good!

Love,

Leigh

Intention

I teach that we create with our intentions. When I go into clients homes, I tell them to "intend" this or that. What has happened to me in the last week has strengthened my belief in intention.

There are about three times of year that our money slows down. I won't tell you what it is called since I don't want to put any limiting beliefs on you, but when I was told about these times of the year "Amy" told me "you will not make any money during these times, so plan accordingly."

I have noticed that over the past few years during these "cycles" we don't make a lot of money. We do make some, but not what we normally do. This "cycle" I thought was earlier than it really was. We weren't making the money that we typically do, so I checked to see when this cycle would be over. I was surprised to find out it hadn't even started yet.

I decided that my belief was the problem, not the "cycle". So I did an experiment! I intended the exact amount of money that I would make in the next week. Now this amount was far more than I would make on an average week and I choose this amount because I wanted to see the power of my intention.

The results were amazing. I reached my goal and realized the power that I had to create anything I wanted. Whether I wanted to not make money or make a lot of money... where my focus was is where my reality was. It was as easy as I taught people, and although I experienced this all the time, this time was a little different because of the intent I came into it with.

What limiting beliefs are holding you back? What could you let go of that would open up doors for you? Try an experiment of your own and see the power you hold to create your life anyway you want!

Leigh

That was quick...

Well, Lily came home from school and helped me put her room back together...huh? That was a first. LOL !! She played in there by herself for quite a while last night and I wondered what she was up to. She was making a "show" called "Teen Spirit" (got the name from her deodorant on her dresser) She set up the camera and recorded herself talking to the camera. It was quite cute and impressive. We are trying to decide what to do with it (she wants it sent to On Networks), but at the very least will just start a collection for her. Her creativity amazes and inspires me. I'm glad I made time yesterday to clear out the old to bring in the new. I am also glad to see how much she feels the difference. Her creativity has shifted, now we will see about the rest of us!

Leigh

Children/Creativity

OK, I have cleared out the center of the house and really should be moving to the journey area.... but I just can't stand it any longer!!!!

My youngest, Lily, is such an angel. She is as cute as she can be... but she is a slob. (to put it nicely!) Maybe I'm a little to uptight, but I have been trying to relax and it has just created a mess! Her drawers are overflowing with crap (to put it nicely) under her bed is also filled with crap, her closet... yep it is there too. (I believe I am being paid back for what I put my Mom through... sorry Mom)

I have been feeling distracted and not as focused as I need to be to keep up with my work load. My thought is that since this is the creativity area of the home, it needs to be cleaned out. Plus her birthday is Sunday (she will be 9) and I need to make room for all the new crap coming in. Oh, I mean presents... yes presents!

Well I'm off to clean out this black hole of crap, I'll let you know when I make it out and how it all turns out!

Wish me luck!

Leigh

Winning the lottery....

WOW!!! I just don't know how it gets any better than this???? Today I was standing in "the" Dr. Joe Vitale's office,(http://www.mrfire.com/) shooting an episode of Feng Shui Your Way, and as I was talking with him I was pinching myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming! I feel like I just won the lottery!

I will never forget the night (3/06) that Paul and I were lying in bed, with my laptop, watching for the very first time The Secret (http://www.thesecret.tv/) . We have watched it so many times since then, but I will never forget that first time. What everyone shared in that show... I have no way to express my appreciation.

Now, 10/07 what is that 19 months later??? I am standing in the home of one of the people responsible for changing my life... how do you express that kind of gratitude? That kind of appreciation? I just hope that I could share something with him that would inspire him in some way.... just a little bit of what he shared with me and my family.

I realize what being grateful can bring you. It amazes me what and who is in my life. It seems that everyday is some sort of a gift. An email from a loved one, a phone call, a letter, an opportunity... even all three some days. I don't even understand all the opportunities that I am blessed with. When I try to say it outloud, it sounds like too much and I think "why am I so lucky"? I am not bragging, I am just so grateful!

I guess I need to take responsibility for my life, I certainly have bashed myself enough for my mistakes. I guess if I can be responsible for my mistakes, I can be responsible for my success too? All I can say is that I am grateful for the people, things and opportunities in my life! I just don't know how it gets any better than this?

Thank you Dr. Joe Vitale for opening up your home to us, and for everything you share that keeps all of us so inspired!

Blessings,

Leigh

Who is happier?

"Who is happier?

The uniters or the dividers?
The builders or breakers?
The givers or the takers?

I think you know the answer. There is a whole world out there that needs you. Down the street or across the ocean.

Give."

~Bill Clinton in his new book "Giving"

When I heard Oprah read this today I got chill bumps and felt a huge sense of gratitude. It does feel good to give, to share and to unite. When I am focused on pulling people together rather than pointing fingers, I feel better. When I choose love over hate, I feel better. When I choose compassion over judgment, I feel better. What is great about these emotions is that when I give these emotions, I recieve them from others. We all do! We get what we give.

What are we giving?

Leigh

Starting Over

Well, the kids have gone back to school and I get to get back into my comfortable routine! This summer has been a bit crazy and it is time to go back over the house, room by room, and declutter.

I'm going to start this process by moving 27 things in the house and then starting with the center. The energy around here is a little sluggish so I want to get it moving and that is certainly a way to jump start it.

I'll keep you posted as I go around the house!

Leigh

Fear

I should start this by saying that I am so grateful for the opportunities that I have, the friends, family and encouragement that I recieve. That being said I have to admit that with all of the changes taking place around here I have found myself being a bit fearful... the fear of the unknown is scary; well at least to me. I have been white knuckling it so to speak.

With the new show (www.onnetworks.com) I have also been fearful of criticism, judgement or dis-approval. Well I know that when I focus on something it just gets bigger so I found more things to be fearful of and found myself in a bit of an uncomfortable rut.

Luckily I snapped out of it and decided to just be grateful and enjoy the ride; instead of trying to control it. How can you live your authentic life on purpose when you are afraid of things that just don't matter?

I came home this morning from out of town and found my favorite daily quote waiting for me and it really hit home. "You're picky about the car you drive. You're picky about what you wear. You're picky about what you put in your mouth. We want you to be pickier about what you think." (Thank you Esther Hicks!) I knew this information, but it is so nice to have such a sweet reminder.

Here is to being picky about what you think!

Leigh

Unhealthy Patterns

There can be unhealthy patterns in our home, but worse than those are the ones we hold onto in our bodies. Judgment, shame, blame, guilt, and hate; these patterns are so dangerous to our well being. When we are focused on how we have been "wronged" we tend to attract more opportunities to feel like we have been wronged. These negative feelings grow over time and like a junk room in our home, that impedes the flow of chi to our home, these negative feelings we hold onto impede the flow of opportunity, growth and love to our life. We can't live our authentic life being loving, accepting and forgiving because we walk around angry all of the time; trying to control everything and everybody. It's funny, control is really just an illusion.


What is worse than holding onto these unhealthy patterns is when we give them to our children and fill them with hate too. They take our wounds as their own, along with our limited perspective. Is it really fair to poison our children with these limited perspectives? Shouldn't we teach them how to think critically, looking at different points of view so they can learn? We don't share these limited perspectives with our children because we don't love them, we share them because we think we are protecting them. But wouldn't sharing love, acceptance, forgiveness and teaching them how to listen to themselves serve them better?


If we all would look at our enemies with compassionate eyes and from a different perspective, we might find out that we are more alike than we would like to admit. Once we realize that people that have hurt us are hurting inside just like when we are hurting inside we have hurt others; we will see with different eyes and show compassion and understanding. The world won't be such a mean scary place, because we see the beauty in it.


Go easy on yourself and others. Look for the beauty around you and notice how more beautiful things show up. Here is to peace.


Leigh

Happy Independence Day!

We all celebrate July 4th, America’s Independence from Great Britain. We claimed our independence and were no longer limited or contained, we could grow and take charge of our destiny, for better or for worse, we were now in control of where we could go.

What a concept! Why don’t we break free from the old ways of thinking, the limited thinking of I can’t do this, I can’t do that and move into I can on do anything …. When you get really honest with yourself about what you want to do, you will attract the way. So I will ask you, if you could do anything with your life, what would it be? Don’t think about the practicality of it, what would fulfill your needs, on a soul level? Don’t concern yourself with the money, or the how, just feel it, and if it feels right then you will know that you can create it.

If you look back at your life, you will see how you have drawn circumstances and opportunities to you. Think about how you just knew something would happen and it did. (Good or bad things) That knowing you had in that moment attracted it to you. The fact of the matter is you can create it however you want. So, what is it that you would like to create?

Leigh

What we see is what we become...

The more homes I work in, the more I see that what we surround ourselves with is what we experience. When we surround ourselves with reminders of what we don't have, more things show up that support the belief that we don't have enough. When we surround ourselves with things that remind us that anything is possible, more things show up that support this belief. The feelings that our surroundings bring us, is what manifests for us because that is what is always on our minds.

Now, Feng Shui isn't 100% intention, so you do want to pay attention to the patterns. If you put fire (an actual fire place, triangles or even red) in your wealth area, you will feel it in your wallet. One of my students put all of her bills in a red box in her wealth area. Soon she began having trouble making ends meet. She began having unexpected bills and found that where she didn't have problems before, she did now. Her intention was that red was gook luck, but she didn't take into account where she was putting it and what it meant to that area of her home. About two weeks later she realized what she had done and put her bills in a black box (black = water, which feeds the wood in the wealth area) and things turned back around!

What story does your home tell about you? What is your home creating for you? When you are making adjustments in your home, the adjustment needs to make sense to you. If you are just placing some object in some corner, how is that really going to support your goals? Make it meaningful, so that when you walk into your home you see inspiration in every room; this is the way Feng Shui will work for you!

Leigh

What do we really want?

I get posts from Abraham Hicks every day. Today, this one came three times. I suppose I'm supposed to get the message ....


"As you begin to state what you do want, rather than clamoring about what you don't want, you come into your own power. When you come into your own power, you feel better. And when you feel better -- those who love you also feel better."

Sometimes life gets so busy that we start to focus on those things we don't want and are so surprised at what we are attracting. We can get so caught up in the drama of life that we lose sight of what we really want. When we look back we can see that we attracted what we focused on, but being in the middle of it makes it hard to see. What if we tried a different approach? Esther Hicks says "What you are feeling is a direct reflection of what is in the process of becoming." So if we watch how we feel, we will know what we are attracting. If we don't like the way we feel, we just need to change our thoughts!

Let's all agree to have a day filled with thoughts that feel good.

Blessings,

Leigh

finishing up...

Well, since last time I checked in I have completed the entire home. I got each area completely organized and clutter free! We planted flowers in the journey, abundance, fame and helpful areas of our yard. We painted the shutters and the front door and have been so excited about the things that this would create.

We have had so many new opportunities open up for us. First, we started "Manifestation Monday's" a weekly group where we meet online to share our goals with people from all across the country. (found at www.thefengshuitrainingcenter.com in the E-Campus) Since starting this, we are seeing the correlation between what we are focusing on and what shows up. This has helped us get really clear on what we want and what we don't. It has also encouraged us to be grateful and stay in a state of gratitude. We have also been approached with a huge opportunity that we will be sharing later. It is amazing to me how things are shifting and unexpected things are showing up, some that are expected; but all are welcome.

How does it get any better than this?

Leigh

The Journey..begins....

Oh this is my favorite part of the house to work in, not just in my home, but also with clients. We may call this area the career area, but lets go a little deeper than that. Let's dig in on a soul level. To me this area is about doing what feeds my soul everyday and finding purpose in my work as well as being able to take care of our family.

So I got this area cleaned out and organized; it wasn't too hard since it is our office and in the front of the home, so it needs to stay somewhat straight. Paul added a fish to the aquarium and put in a few rocks that we picked up while we were in Sedona Arizona this summer. What is so interesting about this is that hours after I finished this room, I decided to change my Education goals, in fact I'm going in a completely different direction with my education that I had originally planned. It feels really right and I'm so excited to be doing the next thing.

The next place for me to work was in the wisdom/self knowledge area. Not only is it the next sector I work in in the pattern of the Ba Gua, but it makes sense with my new goals. This is our garage and luckily the concrete is stained many earthy colors and appears to be to be an earth. I loaded up the back of Paul's truck and we got rid of quite a few things we aren't using. It is exciting to see things being opened up; I can't wait to see what we are making room for!

I will be moving into the family area in the next few days; but this weekend we have been working out in the yard. Paul has aerated the entire yard and we have been busy putting down the dillo dirt mix and planting flowers. I have seen this as opening ourselves up to new opportunities in our personal life as well as in business. It's exciting to see the possibilities that are represented here.

How does it get any better than this?

Leigh

Food For Thought

While cleaning out my "health" area if found this in a pile in a cabinet and I forgot that I had it. This is from the book The Ten commitments by David Simon, M.D. I ran across it last April, and meant to do share it; I guess I will now!

The Ten commitments

1. I commit to expand freedom in my life
2. I commit to live a life of authenticity
3. I commit to accept the present moment
4. I commit to honor the natural cycle of activity and rest
5. I commit to explore my complete self
6. I commit to nurture my creativity
7. I commit to practice abundance
8. I commit to integrity in thought, word and action
9. I commit to cultivating nourishing relationships
10. I commit to compassion and forgiveness

How different would our world be if we would practice these commitments?

Leigh

The Center

Ugh... I have challenged my students and clients to begin working in their homes, clearing clutter and organizing. Clutter represents stagnation and will cause blockages in the corresponding area of your life. Well, since I teach this, I have to live by it and I thought I was in good shape. Oops.. what I discovered upon closer observation that yes our home is clutter free on the surface, but there are areas of improvement.

I began working in the "Health" or center area of the home this morning. We don't have much to do in this area.. or so I thought. This is an office area, book shelf and closet. I have loaded up two garbage bags of items we don't use have started a good will pile and have worked for over two hours today!

Since it is spring break and the kids are gone I will continue to work in this area until it is complete, even if I have to work till midnight... I believe this is the first place to work in the home so that the home can be balanced in all areas.

The next step is the journey area....

Leigh