If you are tired of feng shui myths then join us on an insightful Feng Shui Society Approved introduction course in  in Bristol on 20-21st March at The Pierian Centre or inLondon on 27th&28th March.

Check out the syllabus and booking options here

If you are tired of feng shui myths then join us on an insightful Feng Shui Society Approved introduction course in London on 27th&28th March  or in Bristol on 20-21st March at The Pierian Centre.

Check out the syllabus and booking options here

This is an interesting little article about celebrity chef Ching-He Huang and her positive experience with Chinese Astrology and Feng Shui.  I am completing a fair few horoscopes for my clients at the moment and it is quite telling how those I warned would have a difficult time last year and who did not take my advice certainly had a difficult time. It can sometimes happen that one person in a marriage believes in the benefits of Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology and the other person doesn’t. It can be painful for the one who knows the benefits to see their partner suffer because they choose not to take on board my advice. This is why I am so passionate about educating people about the benefits of Chinese cosmology in all its formats – Feng Shui Design, Astrology, Divination, Acupuncture etc. Life force is mysterious but it is available to all who care to connect with it, either intuitively or with the help of a professional like me, or both!

Chinese Astrology Ching He Huang YOU Magazine article portrait

Here’s a link to more information on my Chinese Astrology charts.

Until next time

Sarah

Becoming Fully Present in Your Feng Shui Practice

I wrote this from within the peaceful surroundings of an eco yoga retreat in Goa, allowing the heat to warm and soften my body and the wonderful chaos of India to sharpen my senses. Even on holiday my mind still turns to how I can improve my practice and my work/life balance upon return with my new perspectives. Quite often in life we know what to do but just need to create enough space and take the time to hear our own wisdom. Similarly, in our practice we need to master time and our inner space in order to be at our most effective.

Just as our bodies are always talking to us telling us what we need to do to remain in balance, so does a house or business premises. If we become seduced by the intricacies of hexagram crunching and become too much “in our heads” then we can miss out on the rich symphony of the present moment and entirely overlook subtle cues presented by the body language and phrases of the client and the language of the space and form. A classic example would be fixating on the kinship of a front door while neglecting to observe whether it opens the right way for the energy flow inwards or not. When we are properly centred it is easier to strike a balance between technique, intuition and observation.

Being in the present and centred in our Tan Tien helps us to apply our creativity with the least expenditure of energy for maximum effect. Also known as the “Minimax” principle – minimum effort, maximum result or as Grand Master Chan would say “1 move 3 results”. When centred we are more in tune with the “myriad beings” and can see more holistically than when occupying our logical mind alone. Another concept I find useful for attuning to the moment is that of “deep mental feminine beauty” – whether you are a man or a woman, this deep mind space is inwardly smiling and we seem to inhabit a starry dark blue velvety space – symbolically speaking – in each of us our imagination will work differently. Use whatever image, practice or feeling that conjures a space of tranquillity and inner knowing.

Cultivating Mindfulness
Ultimately, the body is within the mind and practices such as yoga help us to unite all aspects of our being – mind, body and spirit – sounds obvious, but how many times do we forget the simple virtues and practices! Being physically fit is so important for the cultivation of a strong mind and strong chi energy. When illness reveals itself it is like a wake-up call for us to become more present to ourselves and reassess how we are living our lives and taking care of ourselves. It is no good at all to just have a strong mind or just have a strong body – both are designed to be harmonious and work together. What is mindfulness? It is not a self-obsessed form of navel-gazing, but an ability to be comfortably in the moment and aware of your impact on others and their impact on you and also be conscious of our motivations and what mirrors other people represent for us. We can also interpret and interact with our environment and surroundings far more easily when we are balanced. The only way to be liberated from the “monkey mind” chattering away filling up our days with nonsense is to cultivate a regular meditation practice (or something equally as nourishing that works for you) and have the discipline to follow it. I am grateful to my Feng Shui practice because it always demands of me that I relax and connect with the universe much like we connect to “the source” in a meditation. My Feng Shui practice is both vocational and a career, and it both nurtures and challenges me.

The riches of being in the Present
I find it helpful to remind myself that being in the moment gifts us with quiet riches, which is why it is so aptly named “the present”! We experience spaciousness between our perceptions and our actions, rather than being stuck in “automatic drive” or a reactive mode. It is in these seemingly empty spaces that we more easily find the leverage point of a consultation; the crux of the matter.  We can help ourselves to stay in the flow of life by acting in rhythm with the Tung Sing – I love tidying my office or throwing out old clothes on a Remove or Destroy day as it frees up and organises space within and without.

Acknowledge the positive impact you have on people
Clients and friends have often remarked that when I am at my work I exude a tranquillity that also makes them feel good. The practice of Feng Shui has far reaching effects and nurtures not only my own seeds of happiness but also the positive seeds within others too. We are doing a wonderful job helping people to connect with energy and nature so we need to look after ourselves each day in order to be able to fully utilise the gifts Grand Master Chan has helped develop and facilitate within us. Using acupuncture, chi kung and yoga restores my balance and nourishes the seeds of calm, clarity, perspective and fresh awareness so that I can be a real resource to my clients. Acknowledging ourselves positively connects us to our passion and this helps us dwell in the present moment.

We are worth waiting for…
If we take too much work on for fear of enquirers going to another consultant or the attitude of “make hay while the sun shines” for fear of a drought in the flow of consultations then we just burn out emotionally and drag ourselves from one consultation to the next. This is very dangerous because it means that we will not be able to protect ourselves from the negativity of the client or the negativity in the building occupied by a client. Their suffering will just strengthen our own rather than us having a little buffer of positivity – plenty for ourselves and running over to help others. Our only options in this situation will be to close down our awareness and the consultation becomes flat, lacks vitality and is not very successful or we get exhausted easily and our sense of personal boundary is disturbed – neither are desirable outcomes and your present reality is full of pain so you distract yourself from it with posturing or busyness or eating sugar rich foods for an instant boost…its just a lose-lose situation.

It is better to tell people you have a waiting list than bend over backwards to accommodate them – believe me, after hard earned experience, this is true – if they won’t wait then they weren’t right for you in the first place. Don’t be tempted to buy in to the Western mindset of speedy service, because Feng Shui operates in a non-linear world, so we must honour the ebb and flow in our own lives before carrying out work on behalf of others. If this means we aren’t available for 6 weeks then so be it.

Physician Heal Thyself
We are doctors of space and time and need to be gentle with ourselves first and foremost and not berate ourselves if we stray from the path now and then or allow stress to accumulate to an unmanageable point that we burn out. It is always a learning curve and we discover more about our strengths and weaknesses in the process. We teach best what we most need to learn and I had a period of burn out just recently, where I felt easily harassed by my clients and had a mountain of reports and date selections to finish off over Christmas (!), so I pushed hard to finish the absolutely necessary work then took myself away to a nurturing space and switched off the blackberry and decided to freefall for at least a week and not do anything or think of anything much at all. I then committed to 10 days of yoga practice, deepening my existing yoga awareness and reconnecting to my body in a wholesome way. Our life can fly by in a state of “doing” or a time-rich sense of living fully – we just have to exercise a positive choice every day.

Here are a few tips if you have lost connection with the present and feel stressed by your Feng Shui work. They are also useful if you are experiencing blocks and stressed by not having enough work. The underlying principle is to let go of anything that muddies or hampers your chi:

Let go of the need to convince clients of your worth
In the past I have done freebies for the “what if this comes good?” scenario, but ultimately it has never worked to my advantage. The clients have always been somehow resistant or not taken the information I provided on board and the end result is a diluted form of Feng Shui. When people happily pay what you are worth they take notice and put into action what you request of them and experience positive results. When people are just playing about with Feng Shui and comparing practitioners to each other before selecting one, it confuses the chi. I don’t interview several dentists or doctors when I need some help, and even if I did, I wouldn’t ask them to do work for free so I can see whether I like what they do or not!! It’s OK to spend an hour at a meeting showing someone your portfolio if it doesn’t take too much time or energy, but don’t go around performing consultation work for free, unless it is a compassionate case and pro bono. The only time it is worth doing this is when you are a fresh graduate or very qualified yet practically inexperienced and need to build up your portfolio, otherwise, stick to your guns and go for gold!

Accept you cannot be all things to all people
Some clients like to think of themselves as “armchair practitioners” and want you to explain things in the terminology of “pop Feng Shui” and will ask you questions about East/West life groups or whatever – make it very clear in your initial dealings with them that you do not explain yourself unnecessarily and that your advice is based on years of study and that your role is to fix their problem not provide private tuition in Feng Shui or perform a comparison between styles. If you make this clear at the outset, you should be able to attract only the clients who respect your terms. When clients ask me too many questions I inform them about my next Module A introduction course and suggest they attend.

Don’t explain yourself too much
When you first start out, you want to explain to people in no uncertain terms how good Chue Feng Shui is and why it works etc. We can fall over ourselves awkwardly explaining to clients about the merits of Feng Shui – resist at all costs! Over explaining puts the brakes on the energy flow. We Chue style people have a tendency to get too “in our heads” if we aren’t careful and this blocks the benevolent intentions that we hold for our clients. Think of the interaction with clients as a process similar to lovemaking! You don’t want to be talking and explaining too much throughout! You want to be dancing with the energy and allowing life to bubble through into the situation.

Allow some freedom in your consultation style
I used to worry about having overlooked some aspects of a property but then I realised that I was in the moment and would see what needed to be seen. If we are too dogmatic in our approach, then our chi is too rigid. Of course we need to follow some basic lines of enquiry but we should also allow ourselves space within the consultation to just ponder or simply sit in silence in a house and listen to what it is telling us. We also don’t need to pre-judge within ourselves what our discoveries will look like and how they will happen. We might need only 45 minutes at a property or 4-5 hours. Our insights may come quickly or take some time. This is the beauty of our work – we are tracing the energy each time we engage with a property or project – so it will invariably be different each time.

Honour yourself
Energy responds to clarity and confidence – never underestimate how radiant you are and how you can positively start changing a client even by an email or telephone conversation. Many a time people book in with me and already start seeing activity where there was a blockage even before I arrive on site and sometimes the visit itself sparks new activity, causing quite a lot of consternation for the client! If this sounds arrogant to you then I suggest you meditate on your significant responsibility as a Feng Shui consultant. I find it humbling rather than self-aggrandising that my work in connecting to the source can influence another being or enterprise so powerfully.  Honour your ability to connect compassionately to people.

Perceive and observe nature
Feng Shui has always been about nature for me and we can’t truly master our skills if we never connect to the natural world. Long walks on your own or sitting and observing the “baseline harmony” in a forest or woodland, all the time being mindful of your breathing are good ways to connect to natural energy. If your world is just interiors, computer screens and driving around in a car how can you call yourself a Feng Shui expert?
I hope the above thoughts are useful for some of you.

Master Sarah McAllister

Hi all, I just completed a brief and lighthearted live chat with the presenters at Talk Sport radio who asked me to explain about what Feng Shui is and how it can be applied to city environments. I had hoped to tell them what I would do to help Michael Owen if he approached me (look at his horoscope, look at the Feng Shui of his home, advise on his travelling arrangements when playing fixtures etc) but I didn’t get a chance!

Anyhow, the original newspaper article that sparked the debate can be found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/05/geoffrey-boycott-michael-owen-feng-shui

Enjoy!!

Sarah x