A few weeks ago His Holiness Grandmaster Thomas Lin Yun passed away.  He had been my Feng Shui teacher since 1992 when I met him in Berkeley.  Although over the years we saw him struggling with diabetes and a serious heart condition, he always seemed to rise above these physical impairments to offer his eager students humor, guidance, a model of compassion, not to mention boundless information about Feng Shui.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t abble to get past the most recent hurdles.

Many of us were able to attend his funeral where we supported one another, cried together, and told endless stories about him.  Everyone had a story about Professor Lin.  The best one I heard was from a man I met the morning of the funeral.  He was an Asian gentleman and obviously came to the funeral by himself.  He caught my eye so we struck up a conversation.  “How long have you known Professor Lin?” I asked.  “About 28 years, but I haven’t seen Professor for nearly 20 years,” he replied.  I assured him that if Professor were here today, he would remember him despite such a long passage of time.  I had been witness to this gift of Professor’s once when traveling with him in India.  A woman he had met once in New York many years prior approached him to say hello for she, too, was traveling in India.  Without missing a beat and before she could refresh his memory, he asked about her husband who had been sick when they had originally met.  I had no doubt  Professor would recall this refined gentleman.

As it turns out, my Asian friend told me that Professor had actually invited him to his funeral.  He explained that on Tuesday of the prior week, he had a dream about Professor who told him he wanted to see him.  Although the man hadn’t thought about Professor for many years, he decided he’d make arrangements to pay a visit.  Two days later he read Professor’s obituary in the paper—-he knew then Professor had come to him with an invitation to his funeral.

Professor was leader to thousands and recognized all over the world.  It wasn’t unusual to be attending a workshop in Boston and be seated next to a whole contingency from Caracao, or people from Hong Kong or South America.  He not only had an important message but he delivered it with his characteristic charm.  He loved to teach and he loved his students.  This past weekend I taught a group of students and, at times, simultaneously felt his loss and his presence.  “Do one good deed a day” was always his advice, for he   felt it could not only cure a lot of bad Feng Shui but also create a lot of good will.

I am grateful and honored to have been counted among his disciples.  A year ago he blessed what was then the beginning of my new book “Conversations with Your Home.”  I’m sorry he didn’t get to see the finished product, but his blessing of this material will be eternal.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Whether it’s the economy, the way the stars are aligned, or a generally high-anxiety/high-stress time, a LOT of people are struggling with money.  I’m sure there was always a contingency who had a difficult relationship with their finances, but it seems as though it’s more pressing now and more front-and-center in people’s lives.  I find that the majority of my advice these days has to do with how someone can make a difference in their money situation.

It’s also a very charged topic, meaning people get angry and defensive about their finances; they rant and rave about not having enough; they feel like a victim unjustifiably punished.  Some don’t want to talk much about it, yet spend time and energy fuming over their struggle; others can’t stop talking about it, endlessly worrying and fretting over their money.  It can take on a life-or-death magnitude regardless whether this is reality or not.

Feng Shui can offer a new perspective that removes the focus from the problem itself and instead turns it toward ways of changing how you feel about yourself.  When changes are made to enhance your own well-being, problems look differently.  These changes don’t work directly on the individual but on their space.  The principle here is that by making changes in your space you will see changes in yourself and therefore changes in the problem.

What follows are three tips for making changes in your space that can jump-start an improvement in your money situation.  By implementing all three, you will assure yourself of greater success.

Tip #1:  Declutter.  I know this seems to be the mantra of most Feng Shui consultants, but that should underscore how important it is.  Clutter implies that there is a pattern of careless disarray—you have lost track of things, can’t find things when you want to, may even get angry about the condition of things that you do have.  Since how you do one thing is how you do everything, go back to the italicized sentence above and substitute your money every time the word things shows up.  Taking care of your things will translate into taking care of your money.

Tip #2:  Use your proper entry.  Your proper entry is your front door.  It holds the symbolic importance of representing opportunities that may be knocking.  If you don’t use it, it means you come into your space sideways or from the back.  You want to open wide to the possibilities coming through the door and meet them head-on.  Use the front door as often as you can to make sure money can find its way in.  If you already use your door (thumbs up) then enhance it in some way—-a beautiful welcome mat, a wreath on the door, a lock that works, etc.

Tip #3:  Officiate in your office.  In the majority of cases, the way you make your money comes from a place of business.  Even if your job doesn’t require you to sit at a desk much, the office is probably your base camp for career-related stuff.  If you’re not feeling as though you’re at your best when seated at your desk, get a high-back chair to lend support and authority.  Keep those tall bookshelves from overwhelming you by keeping them in order and interspersing the books and folders with eye candy.  Make sure you have enough storage so you aren’t having to use the top of your desk as a permanent storage place. 

Making these small changes in your space can give you the energy and the clarity to find ways to bring in the abundance you want and deserve.  If you feel rich, you will become so.  To offer even further clarity around this topic, sign up for a free teleseminar being given on Tuesday August 24th.  Lisa Zimmerman, Intuitive Astrologer and I will be offering lots of in-depth advice on the money situation.  Go to Money Miracles:  Create Unlimited Abundance by Aligning the Cosmic Force of Feng Shui and Astrology.

Over the years of being a Feng Shui consultant, I have acquired a pretty solid list of “regulars”—-people who consult with me annually, semi-annually, sometimes every other year.  At their request, I return to see what has happened, make additional suggestions as needed, and take those clients who are open and interested into a deeper and subtler understanding of what Feng Shui can do.  My clients and I discuss what worked and what didn’t since my last visit.  I discovered there was frequently a theme about money—-their Feng Shui money adjustments seemed to do little to improve their situation. 

I listened to their experiences and clarified their intentions.  It wasn’t until I worked with a couple named Jeanette and Will that I started to realize there was more to the story than making an adjustment in the Wealth area.  According to Black Sect Feng Shui, their Wealth area was located in the garage, which was filled to the brim.  They both parked their cars in the driveway because the garage was so full.  It goes without saying that their finances were in a critical state.  They took my words to heart; they cleared and cleaned the garage with very positive results.

However, Will found reasons to haul things little-by-little from the basement and the attic—and he put them in the garage.  Soon they were parking in the driveway again; it wasn’t long before he lost his joib.  They cleaned out the garage;  Will got a job.  He filled up the garage; he lost his job.  Jeanette saw this sabotaging behavior as something that needed professional help.  Long story short, Will discoverd that he was struggling with guilt every time he started to make a decent salary, exhibiting doubts about his self-worth.  By keeping the garage cluttered, he coiuld alleviate his guilt and return to the familiar financial struggle.  This was the beginning of my investigation around why Feng Shui adjustments didn’t always “hold” and that outer Feng Shui had to be combined with an inner approach in order to get to the bottom of the issue.

Once open to this idea, I observed my clients and students who were struggling with money despite their Feng Shui efforts and I determined there were four patterns that could prevent someone from allowing abundance to take hold in their lives.   One was guilt, as exhibited by Will;one was fear of money and what it would bring; another was being a pleaser with money and letting people take advantage of them; and the last reason someone may not be able to accept money is that they simply did not want the responsibiloity money would bring.  If any of these patterns were strongly in place, a typical Feng Shui adjustment would probably not override their influence until the pattern was unraveled and examined.

Not wanting to abandon my clients yet not being a therapist myself, it seemed as though there was still a way that Feng Shui could help.  Bringing together the basic idea of Feng Shui (making a physical adjustment in the environment to elicit a desired change) along with an awareness of the crux of the problem, mixed with a 5 Element approach, and a vibrational pattern, the Feng Shui adjustment eventually revealed itself.  All of these pieces came together result in the video download, workbook, and transcript called The 4 Faces of Money:  Financial Feng Shui.

With the help of questionnaires, an individual can identify the particular aspect of “face” of money that currently challenges them.  From there the appropriate adjustments are included in a workbook.  These adjustments are intended to be used in the environment as well as personaqlly.  This may not eliminate the need for professional help; however, it maqy be enough of a shift on a psychological level that any further guidance will be minimal.  As I’ve seen, simply being aware of what is holdiing you back from accepting money is often enough to take appropriate action.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with money, the 4 Faces of Money: Financial Feng Shui is available as a download, along with the workbook and the transcript.  To order your copy, click on the link above.