11 Things in Your Home That Are Making You Unhappy

featured this month in HouseBeautiful by Brie Dyas

When you walk into a room, pay attention to how you feel. Do your surroundings inspire you? Or do you experience a vaguely persistent "blah" feeling? If the latter rings true, you might want to take a second look at the decor and clutter within the space. Surprisingly, these things can have an impact on your day-to-day emotions, according to experts.

Broken Items

Every time you open the cabinet, there it is: The broken vintage teacup that you curse yourself for dropping, but still haven't gotten around to fixing. It might be past repair, but you still hesitate throwing it out. "My theory is that it's a feeling of lack," says Anjie Cho, architect, certified feng shui consultant and founder of Holistic Spaces. "We're scared of not having enough, it's a poverty mentality. Which really is about not feeling "enough" or worthy in ourselves. The fear of letting go of things."

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How to Feng Shui Your Beauty Cabinet

featured this month on MindBodyGreen

In feng shui, areas and objects in your spaces represent something deeper. Think about your beauty cabinet where you keep skincare products, hair styling tools, makeup, and other toiletries in abundance. You're sitting on a goldmine, because you've already created a space that holds some keys to assist you in showing your radiance to the world — now you just need to maximize its potential.

Whether you have a beauty cabinet chock full of the latest products, or you just have a few precious bottles that you use daily, here are three tricks to give you and your beauty cabinet some radiant energy:

1. Toss the expired items.

I think it goes without saying, but just in case .. be sure to go through and toss any expired items. It may be hard to let go of some of your favorite or most expensive products, but it's important to know that using them past their expiration date can actually negate their effects. Using expired skincare products can essentially mean putting bacteria on your face which can lead to irritation, inflammation, redness, bumps, rashes and swelling.

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by Anjie Cho

5 Simple Steps To Creating A Zen Bed For Your Best Ever Sleep

featured this week on MindBodyGreen

When I think of a Zen bedroom, I imagine a beautiful and nurturing space that supports sleep and revitalization. One of the best ways to lose weight and improve your skin and energy levels is to get enough restful sleep!

In feng shui philosophy, the bedroom represents you and deeply affects your body and soul. At the very least we spend a handful of hours sleeping in this room. Most of that time, we're asleep, in a passive "yin" state, so what we have around us greatly shapes how restful and restorative sleep can be. Here are five simple ways to create a Zen sleeping space to maximize your beauty sleep!

What's under the bed?

As I previously noted, we spend all these hours sleeping in bed. So let's check to see what you have underneath you while you're sleeping. Some things I've seen: old tax records, love letters from ex-boyfriends, shoes, electronics, and the list goes on. Best is to have nothing under the bed, so the chi can flow smoothly. But if you must, the rule of thumb here is to have only soft sleep-related items such as pillows or blankets. Old tax records may have you stressed about money. Love letters from the one that got away may block you from new lovers. And shoes may keep your mind walking in circles.

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by Anjie Cho