Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1
The energies associated with this sector obviously will speak to your job, your income, and how you make a living and grab your paycheck. But it’s so, so, so much more than that. This sector is about how you feel about yourself, way deep down inside. It goes directly to your sense of who you are, your self-esteem, and your confidence in your ability to take charge of your life. It’s about who you are at your very core and how much you, individually, have to offer the world. See, every single solitary soul born on this planet brings with him or her something entirely special and unique to and for that person only. Gifts and talents, things that only they can do better than anyone else because those gifts and talents define their very identity and ideals as well as bring bright expectations and fuel to their dreams.
Mrs. Fields evidently can bake a better chocolate chip cookie than I can (but, to be honest, that’s not very hard to do). That’s her gift, her talent, and, BONUS, she loves doing it. You get it, it’s the old Joseph Campbell admonition to always “follow your bliss,” because if you do what you absolutely love and are good at it, then the money will naturally follow.
The harder question then remains: “What is my bliss?” “What am I better at than anyone else?” Uh-oh, is that a self-esteem issue I hear creeping into the Career area? Seriously, sometimes I have clients who have become so far removed from themselves and whatever their special gifts and talents are that I have to ask them to take a moment to answer this invasive but oh-so-illuminating question: “Okay, ifI called your mother (or whoever raised you) right now, dead or alive, and asked her what you LOVED to do as a kid, what would she tell me?” Because chances are really, really high that whatever you loved to do as a kid is something shy of how you should be earning a paycheck now.
Or, we can take the more “holistic” route where I ask, “What would happen if there were no money in the world and we all had to barter with one another to exist? Obviously your neighbor Joe the plumber could fix your broken pipes, but what, then, could you possibly offer him in return?”
These are the really hard questions. In fact, they are standard Psychology 101. Why am I here? What’s the point? To live, work, pay taxes, and die? NO! So, you see, although this energy has a name called Career, it’s really all about YOU! Your gifts! Your talents! And your making money from them (because, let’s face it, Joe ain’t fixing your pipes for even anywhere close to free anytime soon). Your special gifts are there, that much I know. They sometimes get buried by the need to pay the mortgage, the tuition, the monthly telephone bill, but they exist and they are calling you nonetheless.
So, maybe someday you can stop to answer that call (and smell the roses while you’re at it, especially if you have a talent for floral arranging), and give some thought to what it is you’ve always dreamed about doing. Then take some of the time-tested and success-filled suggestions that follow and go get yourself the job of your dreams. If that’s a bit too much of a leap for you at this moment, just start thinking about what you’d love to be doing day in and day out and do something, anything, to get that party started.
In the meantime, the adjustments and cures included herein will bring you to the ladder and help you climb it, higher and higher, until you are at the tippy-top rung and ready to start all over again. And when that happens, try to give some thought to what the world would love from you. And see if you can use some of these cures to get to that place because then, my friend, you will have come home.
Career is primarily located in the bottom, or front, middle of the main floor, the living room, and especially your office, or any space you spend a lot of time in. In the tic-tac-toe-board analogy, it is the center bottom square, or sector, of your Bagua map. The element here is water and the color is black. If the energy of Career also asks “Why am I here?” then it might follow that to place water in this space represents the eternal mother, the womb, and the water from which we are all birthed. Water itself deep down is black (the only reason it appears blue to us is the reflection from the sun). So from the dark depths of the womb we emerge alone to forge our potentially perfect path. Alone. Therefore the number associated here is 1. Place one black frame here with a picture of moving water in it to create your own flow—soon you will find yourself floating in a space of personal peace and bliss.
FINDING A NEW JOB
Anyone actively searching for a new job is in so many ways about to embark on so many new beginnings on so many different levels that this time of life can be both exciting and nerve-racking at the exact same moment. This is true even if you aren’t the one who made the decision to leave the old employ. Either finding a new job or looking for one that is far more fulfilling taps our reserves of courage, our sense of security, and, of course, our self-esteem. It’s imperative, then, to find the positive in each and every job-searching situation and, most important, to keep every interview, rejection, and/or offer in as perfect a perspective as is manageable.
My client Josh first called me from his office on the West Coast to complain about what he felt was a lack of recognition and reward for all the effort he was “constantly contributing” to his job. Although he was considered part of a comprehensive team, his individual input (due to his own experience in this field) was critical to finding his financial institution new products to sell to their customers. He really was looking for some personal acknowledgment from his superiors, but, since I didn’t fully understand (because—as we’ve all heard more than once—there is no I in team), I wanted him to get much clearer about what it was that he truly wanted from his job. I felt he wanted out but just couldn’t let go because of the twenty years he had invested in that bank.
He needn’t have worried quite so much because three weeks after our consultation, his bank was bought out and he, along with most of the senior staff, was let go. He was both angry and relieved at the same time, but with a wife and baby at home and another on the way, he needed to figure out his next steps before his bitty daughter took her first ones.
One of the initial things that I told Josh to do was to Find a New Job (or add HUGE opportunities to an existing one) at its finest. Traditional dictates tell us that it’s crucially important, while we’re outside searching for both the right and the perfect job, that we leave our own outside lights on—on the front door entryway, on the front walkway, or, even better, on both. (If you have no outside lights, keep on the first light inside the front door.)
You should leave them on for at least three hours a day (preferably during the daytime, when they would not normally be on), illuminating, or actually “calling in,” job opportunities. I actually have a red light outside my front door. My neighbors always know when some sort of big business is cooking around here because that light will stay on until the deal is signed, sealed, and, because that red light makes it much easier to find my house, delivered. Josh not only enacted this cure but did some of the others I am about to include herein, and inside of two weeks opportunity came knocking and he took a job as a freelance consultant to several local lending institutions. At last count he was making three times his previous salary. And the new baby was a bouncing and now well-supported boy. Here are some more tips for creating luck as you Find a New Job:
•In Feng Shui, WATER is the element associated with how well everything in your job world is flowing. If things are coursing along exactly the way that you would like them to, then you should place some symbol of water directly inside the front door. Literally, a moving-water fountain will hasten the hallelujah when you come home with the perfect offer, but any symbol, such as a picture of the ocean or even of fish swimming inside a bowl, will also do the trick. Water is the element that represents career opportunities and advantages. Energetically, you can now influence a positive flow in the job search as well as bring in helpful contacts and, finally, job fulfillment. (If you are using an actual fountain, or any other physical water, be sure it’s flowing INTO the house and not pointed out the front door, as that’s where all your opportunities will go as well.)
Another client, Kara, a graphic designer looking to put her imprint in the workplace, put a full-fledged aquarium (eight goldfish and one black fish is the ticket) inside her front door when her own client list unexpectedly began to dry up. Within weeks of watching those little job seekers do their job, she called to tell me that she was doing a lot of traveling and was worried about taking on too much work and that while she was away her little fishies would perish. I told her to replace the aquarium with a picture of a meandering stream (less powerful than the actual water, but still potent enough) in her Career area and move the aquarium to her Wealth sector (back left-hand corner and entirely apropos). Soon her client count settled at exactly double where it was when she first called me, and she was easily able to afford a caring fish sitter and keep up with the workload!
•Hang metal wind chimes (with hollow rods or prongs) just outside the front door to help control movement within your career (and your life!). When hung with this particular intention, chimes will ring a breath of fresh air into your job search. If you don’t have the wherewithal to hang chimes outside your front door because you share common space in an apartment hallway or for whatever reason, then get a small metal wind chime and hang it immediately inside your front door. If you are using the latter adjustment, then the ideal situation is to hang the chimes high in such a way that the clapper (the piece that hangs down and creates the movement) lightly touches the top of the front door whenever it opens.
•Locate the Career area inside your own home and bedroom (on our tic-tac-toe Bagua map that you overlay onto your floor plan, this is the bottom center area, quite usually where the front door actually is) and clear ALL clutter out of this area. Period. Really. End of sentence. ALL CLUTTER CLEARED! Next, clean your front door—especially if there is glass on it. This is the window to your future. Windex away! This is the place where opportunity will come knocking.
•Look at your front-door area very, very carefully. If the door sticks or cannot open all the way, then you are creating blockages in your job search and your life. Make sure EVERYTHING around that doorway (doorbell, etc.) is in good working order and very soon so will you be.
•Use mirrors to open up lines of communication, expand lateral thinking, and create opportunity. The gold standard for using mirrors in the Career area is to install a pair of mirrors on opposite sides of your front entry at home. These should be affixed directly across from each other so that you must pass between them as you enter and exit. This is really efficacious when your front entry is narrow but still works no matter the architecture. You can use teeny-tiny mirrors (found at a crafts store), or you can decorate with elaborate and/or decoratively inspired larger ones. Every time you pass between them they will be working to expand, open up, and create new avenues of employment.
•The Elephant Cure. Place an elephant (wooden, ceramic— the material doesn’t matter) on the floor by your front door and put a clear quartz crystal on his back. He will lend you his power, prudence, and sagacity and carry you through your job search like a king. (Feng Shui lore holds that the elephant is the bearer of the infamous “wish granting” gem; in this case it’s the clarity that you will now bring to procure the job of your dreams. Don’t forget to take this elephant along on your job hunt. It guarantees a successful safari.
•Create a strong intention about what sort of job you want and then go claim it.
•While you are looking outside for employment, search inside for support by also inviting the universe along. One Universal affirmation that you can use comes from The Game of Life and How to Play It, by one of my favorite authors, Florence Scovel Shinn: I have a perfect work In a perfect way, I give a perfect service For perfect pay. Empowering with each or any of these cures will dissolve potential obstacles along your way and will make your search clear, easy, and successful.
JOB INTERVIEW
I am positively sure that you will now have all the information necessary to pull off the most impressive job interview EVER! You cannot even imagine the calls I get from the previously out-of-work worrywart clients who now are nervous Nellies because of the slew of interviews coming through. And then the ones I get telling me gleefully all about how easily the interview went and how great the new job (the one they were immediately and on the spot offered) is going to be! Take Jen, who had just graduated from college and was up for a position that she had dreamed about for four long years: a directorial assistant’s job at a major television network. She had it all—the look, the attitude, along with the sweaty palms, the sleepless nights, and, of course, the pre–job interview jitters. She kept telling me that she just “had to” make a good first impression (critical!) and say all the right things, as well as be able to listen, react appropriately, and then remember everything the interviewer would be telling her. I shared the interview Shui that never fails and then found out her interview didn’t either. Last I heard she was working for one of Ted Turner’s networks in Atlanta. Here’s some Lucky Day Shui to keep you occupied before, during, and directly after your interview(s).
Read a Sample Chapter
Make This Your Lucky Day
Fun and Easy Feng Shui Secrets to Success, Romance, Health, and Harmony
By Ellen Whitehurst Ballantine Books
Copyright © 2007 Ellen Whitehurst
All right reserved. ISBN: 9780345500540
Chapter 1
The energies associated with this sector obviously will speak to your job, your income, and how you make a living and grab your paycheck. But it’s so, so, so much more than that. This sector is about how you feel about yourself, way deep down inside. It goes directly to your sense of who you are, your self-esteem, and your confidence in your ability to take charge of your life. It’s about who you are at your very core and how much you, individually, have to offer the world. See, every single solitary soul born on this planet brings with him or her something entirely special and unique to and for that person only. Gifts and talents, things that only they can do better than anyone else because those gifts and talents define their very identity and ideals as well as bring bright expectations and fuel to their dreams.
Mrs. Fields evidently can bake a better chocolate chip cookie than I can (but, to be honest, that’s not very hard to do). That’s her gift, her talent, and, BONUS, she loves doing it. You get it, it’s the old Joseph Campbell admonition to always “follow your bliss,” because if you do what you absolutely love and aregood at it, then the money will naturally follow.
The harder question then remains: “What is my bliss?” “What am I better at than anyone else?” Uh-oh, is that a self-esteem issue I hear creeping into the Career area? Seriously, sometimes I have clients who have become so far removed from themselves and whatever their special gifts and talents are that I have to ask them to take a moment to answer this invasive but oh-so-illuminating question: “Okay, if I called your mother (or whoever raised you) right now, dead or alive, and asked her what you LOVED to do as a kid, what would she tell me?” Because chances are really, really high that whatever you loved to do as a kid is something shy of how you should be earning a paycheck now.
Or, we can take the more “holistic” route where I ask, “What would happen if there were no money in the world and we all had to barter with one another to exist? Obviously your neighbor Joe the plumber could fix your broken pipes, but what, then, could you possibly offer him in return?”
These are the really hard questions. In fact, they are standard Psychology 101. Why am I here? What’s the point? To live, work, pay taxes, and die? NO! So, you see, although this energy has a name called Career, it’s really all about YOU! Your gifts! Your talents! And your making money from them (because, let’s face it, Joe ain’t fixing your pipes for even anywhere close to free anytime soon). Your special gifts are there, that much I know. They sometimes get buried by the need to pay the mortgage, the tuition, the monthly telephone bill, but they exist and they are calling you nonetheless.
So, maybe someday you can stop to answer that call (and smell the roses while you’re at it, especially if you have a talent for floral arranging), and give some thought to what it is you’ve always dreamed about doing. Then take some of the time-tested and success-filled suggestions that follow and go get yourself the job of your dreams. If that’s a bit too much of a leap for you at this moment, just start thinking about what you’d love to be doing day in and day out and do something, anything, to get that party started.
In the meantime, the adjustments and cures included herein will bring you to the ladder and help you climb it, higher and higher, until you are at the tippy-top rung and ready to start all over again. And when that happens, try to give some thought to what the world would love from you. And see if you can use some of these cures to get to that place because then, my friend, you will have come home.
Career is primarily located in the bottom, or front, middle of the main floor, the living room, and especially your office, or any space you spend a lot of time in. In the tic-tac-toe-board analogy, it is the center bottom square, or sector, of your Bagua map. The element here is water and the color is black. If the energy of Career also asks “Why am I here?” then it might follow that to place water in this space represents the eternal mother, the womb, and the water from which we are all birthed. Water itself deep down is black (the only reason it appears blue to us is the reflection from the sun). So from the dark depths of the womb we emerge alone to forge our potentially perfect path. Alone. Therefore the number associated here is 1. Place one black frame here with a picture of moving water in it to create your own flow—soon you will find yourself floating in a space of personal peace and bliss.
FINDING A NEW JOB
Anyone actively searching for a new job is in so many ways about to embark on so many new beginnings on so many different levels that this time of life can be both exciting and nerve-racking at the exact same moment. This is true even if you aren’t the one who made the decision to leave the old employ. Either finding a new job or looking for one that is far more fulfilling taps our reserves of courage, our sense of security, and, of course, our self-esteem. It’s imperative, then, to find the positive in each and every job-searching situation and, most important, to keep every interview, rejection, and/or offer in as perfect a perspective as is manageable.
My client Josh first called me from his office on the West Coast to complain about what he felt was a lack of recognition and reward for all the effort he was “constantly contributing” to his job. Although he was considered part of a comprehensive team, his individual input (due to his own experience in this field) was critical to finding his financial institution new products to sell to their customers. He really was looking for some personal acknowledgment from his superiors, but, since I didn’t fully understand (because—as we’ve all heard more than once—there is no I in team), I wanted him to get much clearer about what it was that he truly wanted from his job. I felt he wanted out but just couldn’t let go because of the twenty years he had invested in that bank.
He needn’t have worried quite so much because three weeks after our consultation, his bank was bought out and he, along with most of the senior staff, was let go. He was both angry and relieved at the same time, but with a wife and baby at home and another on the way, he needed to figure out his next steps before his bitty daughter took her first ones.
One of the initial things that I told Josh to do was to Find a New Job (or add HUGE opportunities to an existing one) at its finest. Traditional dictates tell us that it’s crucially important, while we’re outside searching for both the right and the perfect job, that we leave our own outside lights on—on the front door entryway, on the front walkway, or, even better, on both. (If you have no outside lights, keep on the first light inside the front door.)
You should leave them on for at least three hours a day (preferably during the daytime, when they would not normally be on), illuminating, or actually “calling in,” job opportunities. I actually have a red light outside my front door. My neighbors always know when some sort of big business is cooking around here because that light will stay on until the deal is signed, sealed, and, because that red light makes it much easier to find my house, delivered. Josh not only enacted this cure but did some of the others I am about to include herein, and inside of two weeks opportunity came knocking and he took a job as a freelance consultant to several local lending institutions. At last count he was making three times his previous salary. And the new baby was a bouncing and now well-supported boy. Here are some more tips for creating luck as you Find a New Job:
•In Feng Shui, WATER is the element associated with how well everything in your job world is flowing. If things are coursing along exactly the way that you would like them to, then you should place some symbol of water directly inside the front door. Literally, a moving-water fountain will hasten the hallelujah when you come home with the perfect offer, but any symbol, such as a picture of the ocean or even of fish swimming inside a bowl, will also do the trick. Water is the element that represents career opportunities and advantages. Energetically, you can now influence a positive flow in the job search as well as bring in helpful contacts and, finally, job fulfillment. (If you are using an actual fountain, or any other physical water, be sure it’s flowing INTO the house and not pointed out the front door, as that’s where all your opportunities will go as well.)
Another client, Kara, a graphic designer looking to put her imprint in the workplace, put a full-fledged aquarium (eight goldfish and one black fish is the ticket) inside her front door when her own client list unexpectedly began to dry up. Within weeks of watching those little job seekers do their job, she called to tell me that she was doing a lot of traveling and was worried about taking on too much work and that while she was away her little fishies would perish. I told her to replace the aquarium with a picture of a meandering stream (less powerful than the actual water, but still potent enough) in her Career area and move the aquarium to her Wealth sector (back left-hand corner and entirely apropos). Soon her client count settled at exactly double where it was when she first called me, and she was easily able to afford a caring fish sitter and keep up with the workload!
•Hang metal wind chimes (with hollow rods or prongs) just outside the front door to help control movement within your career (and your life!). When hung with this particular intention, chimes will ring a breath of fresh air into your job search. If you don’t have the wherewithal to hang chimes outside your front door because you share common space in an apartment hallway or for whatever reason, then get a small metal wind chime and hang it immediately inside your front door. If you are using the latter adjustment, then the ideal situation is to hang the chimes high in such a way that the clapper (the piece that hangs down and creates the movement) lightly touches the top of the front door whenever it opens.
•Locate the Career area inside your own home and bedroom (on our tic-tac-toe Bagua map that you overlay onto your floor plan, this is the bottom center area, quite usually where the front door actually is) and clear ALL clutter out of this area. Period. Really. End of sentence. ALL CLUTTER CLEARED! Next, clean your front door—especially if there is glass on it. This is the window to your future. Windex away! This is the place where opportunity will come knocking.
•Look at your front-door area very, very carefully. If the door sticks or cannot open all the way, then you are creating blockages in your job search and your life. Make sure EVERYTHING around that doorway (doorbell, etc.) is in good working order and very soon so will you be.
•Use mirrors to open up lines of communication, expand lateral thinking, and create opportunity. The gold standard for using mirrors in the Career area is to install a pair of mirrors on opposite sides of your front entry at home. These should be affixed directly across from each other so that you must pass between them as you enter and exit. This is really efficacious when your front entry is narrow but still works no matter the architecture. You can use teeny-tiny mirrors (found at a crafts store), or you can decorate with elaborate and/or decoratively inspired larger ones. Every time you pass between them they will be working to expand, open up, and create new avenues of employment.
•The Elephant Cure. Place an elephant (wooden, ceramic— the material doesn’t matter) on the floor by your front door and put a clear quartz crystal on his back. He will lend you his power, prudence, and sagacity and carry you through your job search like a king. (Feng Shui lore holds that the elephant is the bearer of the infamous “wish granting” gem; in this case it’s the clarity that you will now bring to procure the job of your dreams. Don’t forget to take this elephant along on your job hunt. It guarantees a successful safari.
•Create a strong intention about what sort of job you want and then go claim it.
•While you are looking outside for employment, search inside for support by also inviting the universe along. One Universal affirmation that you can use comes from The Game of Life and How to Play It, by one of my favorite authors, Florence Scovel Shinn: I have a perfect work In a perfect way, I give a perfect service For perfect pay. Empowering with each or any of these cures will dissolve potential obstacles along your way and will make your search clear, easy, and successful.
JOB INTERVIEW
I am positively sure that you will now have all the information necessary to pull off the most impressive job interview EVER! You cannot even imagine the calls I get from the previously out-of-work worrywart clients who now are nervous Nellies because of the slew of interviews coming through. And then the ones I get telling me gleefully all about how easily the interview went and how great the new job (the one they were immediately and on the spot offered) is going to be! Take Jen, who had just graduated from college and was up for a position that she had dreamed about for four long years: a directorial assistant’s job at a major television network. She had it all—the look, the attitude, along with the sweaty palms, the sleepless nights, and, of course, the pre–job interview jitters. She kept telling me that she just “had to” make a good first impression (critical!) and say all the right things, as well as be able to listen, react appropriately, and then remember everything the interviewer would be telling her. I shared the interview Shui that never fails and then found out her interview didn’t either. Last I heard she was working for one of Ted Turner’s networks in Atlanta. Here’s some Lucky Day Shui to keep you occupied before, during, and directly after your interview(s).
Continues...
Excerpted from Make This Your Lucky Day by Ellen Whitehurst Copyright © 2007 by Ellen Whitehurst. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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