Feng Shui Chic: Change Your Life With Spirit and Style - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Carole Swann Meltzer is a world-renowned Asian-trained feng shui master who is widely quoted in major consumer and trade magazines. She has appeared on national television shows such as The View. Visit her website at fengshuispirit.com to learn more about her products and services.

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Chapter One: What is Feng Shui Chic?

Feng Shui Chic. As I look at these three words, I can't help but smile. After all, the very word chic implies all that is trendy and new. And while I am the biggest devotee of feng shui anywhere, it's hard to think of this ancient practice as trendy or chic!

Yet that, my friends, is exactly what this book is about: Feng Shui Chic. This is because what we wear, how we dress, our makeup, and even the scent we wear influences our energy, and thus whole aspects of our lives. It's about looking and feeling your absolute finest through the principles of feng shui not sometimes, not once in a while, but for every day of your life.

The Practice of Feng Shui Chic

About ten years ago, after moving back to the States following many years in Asia, I began to incorporate Feng Shui Chic into the traditional feng shui I was performing -- and the results of this combination were fruitful indeed. I believed I had touched upon a winning synthesis of personal and spatial feng shui.

Feng Shui Chic is based on the study and practice of Chinese aesthetic medicine. Used for centuries, this practice combines medicine with aesthetics. Why? Because in Asia, psychological and physical health are seen as one and the same, not as two distinct, unrelated forces. In fact, beauty -- seen as somewhat superficial to Western minds -- is a function of body alignment. And if you know just a bit about Chinese medicine and body meridians, you know that body alignment is seen as a form of preventive medicine -- the first step to beauty inside and out.

A large part of this book is about achieving wellness through internal, as well as external, health. By balancing energy, we balance our internal organs in conjunction with spatial alignment.

While pondering the various uses of feng shui, it struck me: In modern society, we feng shui our houses, our offices, our apartments. But, unlike many people in Eastern cultures, we don't feng shui ourselves.

Feng shui, after all, isn't merely about moving a piece Of furniture If it were, we'd all be as rich as Anna Nicole Smith, as skinny as Courteney Cox Arquette, and as professionally successful as Carly Fiorentina, the head of Hewlett-Packard.

Sometimes, the best ideas are those that are staring you in the face. Why hadn't I, a fashionista from the word go, thought about this earlier?

And then I wondered: How come

• a chic scarf can look so Audrey Hepburn-like in some circumstances, and so pretentious and showy in others?
  
  
• a form-fitting skirt can set the world on fire in some settings, and just look slutty on other occasions?
  
  
• a boxy suit can invest you with authority in key situations, and do nothing for you at other times?
  

And thus the notion of Feng Shui Chic was born.

After coming to this conclusion about the missing adoption of personal feng shui for American audiences, I began working with friends, family, and private clients. Today, after years of modification and change, I can say with certitude that using this system -- the steps of Feng Shui Chic -- will let you have the power and passion you so richly deserve in all aspects of your life.

What This Book Will Do for You

But that's just the start! While looking wonderful -- and of course, superstylish -- is certainly a goal we all share, there's much more to this book than that. Because by using the guidelines of Feng Shui Chic, you can change not only your dress and appearance, but many other aspects of your life. In so doing, you can attract a whole new range of opportunities to you.

Sound too good to be true? I assure you, new friends, that it isn't. I know that this system works because I have seen its results in the thousands of women -- clients and friends alike -- with whom I have worked over the past twenty years.

This is the start of a whole new way of living for you. In a phrase, it is the beginning of a life of Feng Shui Chic.

Have you ever wondered how some people seem to flow effortlessly through life, achieving their heart's desires and then some? And how, conversely, others among us face a series of roadblocks so daunting that we sometimes wonder how to make it through yet another day?

We speak, don't we, of "golden girls" or of "the boys of summer," those women and men who seem to have it all from the day they were born. While there's no denying the powers of circumstance and fate, it is equally true that we can chart our own destiny if only we know how. Gaining this power in order to make the most of your life is what this book is all about.

In Feng Shui Chic, I will teach you how to use the time-tested fundamentals of feng shui to

• advance your career
  
  
• improve relationships with your loved ones and friends
  
  
• attract money
  
  
• gain wisdom and inner strength
  
  
• tap into your sensual energy
  

And, most important of all, how to

• find the love you so richly deserve...
  

...all while looking more chic than you ever dreamed you could.

Sound too good to be true? Odd? Impossible to achieve? At first blush, perhaps it does. But I assure you -- and I say this only from years of experience -- that all of the above are possible when using the easy-to-follow program of Feng Shui Chic. More than anything, this book is about finding personal power and harnessing its force to gain the best out of your life...today, tomorrow, and in the times to come.

"But how is this possible?" you may well ask. To know the answer to this question, you Must first know more about the ancient practice of feng shui...and telling people how to change their lives through feng shui is what I like to do more than anything else.

In the following chapter through chapter five, I will provide you with the basics of feng shui, with a special focus on how you can adapt these ancient traditions to your daily modern life. Once you have this understanding, I'll be able to show you how chi energy can interact with your body, fashion, color, and scent to maximize life opportunities...and how you can achieve balance in all aspects of your life. In this way, you will have a potent formula for change -- and be able to achieve personal enrichment of the most satisfying kind.

Of course, if you are eager to find a Feng Shui Chic solution to a pressing problem, you may go straight to the appropriate chapter now -- e.g., chapter six for love, chapter seven for career. How can you do this? Because when you have a headache, you take an aspirin with complete confidence that it will lessen your pain, even though you may not be able to explain precisely how or why it works.

Similarly, while it is best to have a basic understanding of the principles of Feng Shui Chic, you can use this system with complete confidence that it will solve almost any problem -- without your needing to know the whys and wherefores as fully as a feng shui master does, and looking your best while you do.

Does Feng Shui Really Work?

I've always felt that one reason the very real benefits of feng shui have been derided in some circles is that the critical parties do not understand the true nature and background of this ancient art. To be perfectly fair, I can understand their concerns, because many Western practitioners use a form of feng shui that is but a weak dilution of its Asian origins.

For now, I'd like to dispel the commonly held notions about feng shui. It is absolutely not about

• changing the furniture in your home or office to make a million dollars
  
  
• using one fixed color as a good luck talisman
  
  
• repositioning mirrors to cast the evil eye on your...