Spirit Almanac: Your Guide To Celebrating January's Mystical Holidays

Anjie Cho January 4, 2017

featured this week on MindBodyGreen by Emma Loewe

image credit: Chloé Bulpin / mbg creative — *image credit: Chloé Bulpin / mbg creative*

We all know to mark our calendars for Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s, National Avocado Day, and those other occasions people celebrate in big, bold, beautiful ways. But what about the lesser-acknowledged spiritual, astrological events that roll around every year? Consider our Spirit Almanac series your own personal guide to the divine.

This month, we’re unpacking the mystical magic of January with sound healing, gemstone rituals, and some pretty powerful New Year’s cleansing.

January 28, Chinese New Year

Today signals the first day of the traditional Chinese calendar—one that was marked by the lunar and solar phases. Traditionally a day to honor household and heavenly deities, the occasion is still a vibrant celebration of life and new beginnings. Here, feng shui expert Anjie Cho speaks about the animal tied to 2017 and shares how to harness its auspicious energy.

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Vision and Clarity for the New Year!

Anjie Cho January 1, 2017

Happy New Year to everyone! And welcome 2017!

I can’t believe it’s been five years of blogging now...it’s been amazing journey, and I’m looking forward to more to come! Following last year's choice of the word "inspiration," I want to share with each of you my view for this year: vision and clarity.

With regard to vision, I just pulled a healing angel oracle card titled “Vision.” It reads:

“A positive outcome requires a positive vision. Visualize everyone involved in your present situation surrounded by light and love — make sure to include yourself also. Your love has the power to influence and transform the current events.”

This card was very enlightening for me, because I think it’s essential to have a positive outlook, and most of us get that, however, what I often forget is to include myself! I'm looking forward to including myself in this year's positive outlook!

Then there's the second part: clarity. Clarity is so important, because it’s about clear seeing, clear vision. There’s precision and brilliance that comes from clarity. It is of the utmost importance to see what’s really there, see things as they are. To quote one of my teachers, Steve Saitzyk:

“We need to be able to work with things as they fundamentally are and not just how we think, believe, hope or fear they are.”

I tend to get so caught up in my preconceived perspectives of what I believe is “right.” For instance, I was talking to a teacher about expanding my business earlier today. I have it stuck in my mind that I need to hire a particular kind of person, and then everything will be perfect. But when asked to clarify what my vision is, I just want more time. It may or may not be a new staff member that helps with this vision. It seems I need to look and see clearly what my vision is!

Of course, my feng shui twist on how to create vision and clarity is a wonderful way to reinforce your intentions in your physical environment. It’s very simple: clean your windows! I’m talking squeaky clean! In fact, we just called someone to clean our windows. 😃 Your windows represent your eyes and how clearly you see in the world…how do your windows look? For bonus points, use green cleaning products, like our favorite glass cleaning recipe.

Chogyam Trungpa summarized the importance of vision and clarity well, when he wrote:

“ The universe is constantly trying to reach us to say something or teach something, but we are rejecting it all the time”

If we open our eyes and minds to seeing things with vision and clarity (and love), we can hear what the universe has to share. And I promise it will be beautiful. Here's to the new beginning of a year of vision, clarity and listening to the universe!

by Anjie Cho

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*image credit: Teragren LLC for "Designing with Bamboo for Superior Environmental & Human Health Impacts"*

Yes, You Should Go With Bamboo

Anjie Cho December 28, 2016

As we work toward becoming a more sustainable, eco-friendly society, it's becoming more and more common to see bamboo used throughout homes in various ways. From flooring to paneling to furniture and more, bamboo is making its way to the limelight, and there's more than one good reason.

Enhanced Performance

Perhaps one of the most important factors for building materials is performance, and bamboo shines here. Across the board, it has been shown to perform as well as, or better than hardwood. It can handle more weight than steel and concrete and is more water resistant than hardwood options as well.

In the Janka test, which determines how hard a wood is and how resistant it is to denting and wear, both traditional and strand bamboo (we'll get into that in a second) outperform almost all other hardwoods, including oak. In addition, bamboo options are more dimensionally stable than other woods, meaning that, when exposed to moisture, bamboo doesn't shrink or expand as much.

It is worth noting that not all bamboo is created equal, and we'll get more in depth with that in another post. To benefit from bamboo's outstanding performance, it's important to make sure you're buying bamboo from a trusted source, harvested at a certain age. If harvested too early, bamboo products are not as strong and can actually be inferior to other options.

Variety

If you're inclined to think choosing bamboo means submitting to the stereotypical "zen" look that bamboo often brings, think again! Bamboo is available in a wide variety of appearances, thanks to a few things.

First, there are two basic types of bamboo building material: traditional and strand. Traditional bamboo is very obviously bamboo, and the knuckles of the bamboo plant are visible in the finished product. It's made by slatting bamboo, then gluing it back together, and this is the type of bamboo used most often in those "zen" environments.

But the other type of bamboo, strand bamboo, is made by shredding the plant and compressing it with adhesive into solid, usable material, and it resembles traditional hardwood. This means it can be used to create more traditional looks, and it actually accounts for about 80% of bamboo sales.

In addition to choosing your style of bamboo, you can also opt for multiple texture and finish options, including whitewashed, dark stain, multi-color and more. Just be sure to keep the toxicity of these chemicals in mind!

Eco-Friendly

We've talked about this before, but using bamboo far surpasses any other wood in the area of green design. Based on bamboo's unique ability to sequester carbon, even after being cut, its ability to rapidly renew and the fact that it doesn't wear out soil, bamboo isn't just eco-friendly, it's also sustainable, environmentally and in terms of indigenous ecosystems.

Natural

Bamboo may not always give off that natural, green look, but it is one of the safest building materials to use in your holistic space, and it brings in a touch of nature to any room, most notably bathrooms and kitchens, where stainless steel appliances can create a cold, austere look. Bamboo brings warmth to these spaces as well as the benefits of adding nature indoors, from stress relief to reduced blood pressure and more.

If you're renovating your space, building from scratch or adding new components like furniture, consider using bamboo in place of other, less-sustainable, potentially more toxic materials. Using bamboo can enhance the look and feel of your indoor space while providing relief to our planet as well as communities across the world. Why not give it a try?

by Anjie Cho