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  contents

  Acknowledgments

  How to Use This Book

  Chapter 1: Opening the Feng Shui Toolbox

  Ch’i Wiz!

  Ba-Gwhat?

  Cures, Cures, and More Cures

  So Much to Do and So Little Time

  Truth or Dare

  Oh, Bagua

  The Cycle of Life and Your Home

  Lost in Space?

  Calling the Panacea Police!

  Got the Tools and Ain’t Afraid to Use ’Em

  Chapter 2: Show Me the Money!—Prosperity

  Power Tools for Prosperity

  Hazardous Materials for Prosperity

  Using Rags to Get Riches

  Using Riches to Get Out of Rags

  Is This the Stairway to Heaven, or Hell?

  Credit Card Blues? Try Another Color

  Bust a Move—There’s No Place Like Your Own Home

  As Soon As I Win the Lottery . . . Well, Here’s Your Magic Ticket

  Dirty Money

  No Time to Waste—Show Me the Money Now

  King in a High Chair

  You Get What You Give

  Checks and Balances and Ch’i, Oh My!

  Opposites Attract

  Hip to Be Square

  Pieces of Eight

  Immediate Action Items for Prosperity

  Prosperity in Summary

  Chapter 3: They Like Me, They Really, Really Like Me—Fame and Reputation

  Power Tools for Fame and Reputation

  Hazardous Materials for Fame and Reputation

  Swimming in Fame

  Undo a “Dis”—Get Respect

  Fame Is Not a Four-Letter Word

  The Red Carpet Treatment

  “Hello, I Do Exist!”

  Building a Reputation One Block at a Time

  Glowing Reviews

  The Red Badge of Courage

  Nine-to-Five Respect

  Slings and Arrows

  Life of the Party

  Fire and Ice

  Eye’m Famous!

  One Is the Loneliest Number

  Immediate Action Items for Fame and Reputation

  Fame and Reputation in Summary

  Chapter 4: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?—Relationships and Love

  Just a Spent Fuel Rod in the Toxic Waste Dump of Love?

  Power Tools for Relationships and Love

  Hazardous Materials for Relationships and Love

  Be Careful What You Wish For . . .

  Really, My Seventeen Cats and I Are Fine, We Don’t Need Anyone Else

  Back Off and Nobody Gets Hurt

  My Roommates Are Driving Me Crazy

  Not Always the Bridesmaid

  Sleeping Single in a Double Bed

  My So-Called Wife

  Yo Quiero “Cu-ch’i Cu-ch’i”

  The Revolving Door to My Bedroom

  What Good Could Come of This?

  “Come In—May I Take Your Clothes?”

  I’ll Never Trust Again

  The Organ Trail

  It Takes Two to Tango

  Immediate Action Items for Relationships and Love

  Relationships and Love in Summary

  Chapter 5: Express Yourself—Creativity and Children

  Power Tools for Creativity and Children

  Hazardous Materials for Creativity and Children

  When the Feng Shui Wind Blows, the Cradle Will Rock

  Banishing the Balancing Bunnies

  Too Much of a Good Thing?

  Taking a Dip in the Fountain of Youth

  An Ounce of Prevention

  Color Your World—Starting in the Closet

  Children—A Big Part of the Family

  Washing Their Mouths with a Bar of Soap

  Three-Year-Old Thinking

  Immediate Action Items for Creativity and Children

  Creativity and Children in Summary

  Chapter 6: 911—Helpful People and Travel

  Let People Help—It’s OK

  Power Tools for Helpful People and Travel

  Hazardous Materials for Helpful People and Travel

  Get Jacked In—Networking Magic

  The Dragon Lady

  Contractors from Hell

  The Art of Selling Houses, Cars, and Products

  Getting Even

  A Road More or Less Traveled

  Wishing You the Best

  First Class Taste on Coach Budget

  Headin’ Out

  Five Countries in a Day

  Immediate Action Items for Helpful People and Travel

  Helpful People and Travel in Summary

  Chapter 7: At the Intersection of Possibility and Potential—Career and Life Path

  Power Tools for Career and Life Path

  Hazardous Materials for Career and Life Path

  The Secret Door to Success Shouldn’t Stick

  Poinsettias and Professions

  Stressed-Out Landscape

  The First Step on the Path

  Take This Job and Love It

  Skipping Rungs on the Corporate Ladder

  King or Queen of the Cubicle

  Ancient Tech Meets High Tech

  Left, Right, Up, or Down?

  Retail Rescue

  Flower Power

  Dipping Your Pen in Company Ink

  An Ear for Career

  Six of One, Half a Dozen of Another

  Immediate Action Items for Career and Life Path

  Career and Life Path in Summary

  Chapter 8: If I Only Had a Brain—Skills and Knowledge

  Power Tools for Skills and Knowledge

  Hazardous Materials for Skills and Knowledge

  Left Your Brain in the Garage?

  The Wisdom to Go It Alone

  Dumb and Dumber

  Everyone Is the Teacher and the Student

  It’s All in the Hands

  Lucky Number 7

  Immediate Action Items for Skills and Knowledge

  Skills and Knowledge in Summary

  Chapter 9: How Not to Play Family Feud—Family

  Power Tools for Family

  Hazardous Materials for Family

  A Family Only Jerry Springer Could Love

  Family Ties

  Family Heirlooms

  The Choice Is Yours—Make It a Good One

  Healing Old Wounds

  Claim Your Space

  Hang Up Your Hang-Ups About Sex

  Ward, I’m Worried About the Beaver

  Happy Feet

  The Four Corners of the Earth

  Immediate Action Items for Family

  Family in Summary

  Chapter 10: Just for the Health of It—Health

  Power Tools for Health

  Hazardous Materials for Health

  Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

  If I Had Only Known Then What I Know Now . . .

  Feng Shui, the Real Maytag Repairman

  The Weight of the World Is on My Shoulders, Thighs, Hips, and Abdomen

  Room with a View (For One Eyeball, Anyway)

  The Body Bases Are Covered

  Nine Ladies Dancing

  Immediate Action Items for Health

  Health in Summary

  Chapter 11: Our House Is a Very, Very, Very Strange House

  Commonly Asked Questions
and Cures

  Chapter 12: Pump Up the Feng Shui—Adding Extra Power to Your Feng Shui Cures

  OK, Stuff Moved—Volume Level 3

  Invisible Feng Shui

  Adding Helpful People to Your Power—Volume Level 5

  Reality Bites If You Let It—Volume Level 7

  Magic Words—Volume Level 10

  Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk—Volume Level 12

  When to Call In the Pros

  OK, I Moved My Stuff—Has My Life Changed Yet?

  About Karen Rauch Carter

  Index

  To my son, Cole, my favorite distraction while writing this book

  acknowledgments

  My special thanks to:

  Professor Lin Yun, for all his wisdom

  Nate Batoon, who has been kind and generous enough to teach me about feng shui and allow me to use so many of his stories for this book

  Bridget Skinner, Vicki Allinson, and all the members of the Orange County Feng Shui Guild, for their support

  Obie Wade, for his undying support and our conversations about what’s possible

  Marcela Landres, for recognizing the need for this type of feng shui book, and for her enthusiasm and editing savvy

  Jeff Fessler, for helping me illustrate this book and for sharing his gift of humor

  Donna Allen, Erika and Alton Burkhalter, Nancy Finley, Alison and David Hahn, Annemarie Hall, Melissa Moore, Margaret Rauch, Nancie Vollmer, and Rich Welt, who all agreed to read drafts of this book and comment

  My husband, Steve Carter, who allowed me the space in our lives to take on this endeavor

  And finally, all the people whose lives were changed in such outrageous ways by feng shui that they became stories in this book

  how to use this book

  The best way to read this book is with pen and paper in hand. Since your notes may be around for a while, I would suggest using one of those small, nicely bound blank books worthy of sitting on your nightstand or a bookshelf in your home.

  Not only will this notebook become your personal feng shui guide to happiness and fulfillment; it will serve as a written account of your “old life”—the one before knowing and using the ancient Chinese secrets of feng shui.

  Be inquisitive, yet have a jovial frame of mind when reading and following the advice in this book. I attempted to write Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life in a lighthearted, humorous manner because love and laughter are energetically more powerful for this work than sadness or seriousness. In other words, move your stuff with a smile and you will experience faster results.

  If you don’t control your attitude, it controls you.

  chapter 1

  * * *

  Opening the Feng Shui Toolbox

  If you want to create a sundae that would put Jenny Craig into a spin, you need some tools: bowl, spoon, Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream, and calorie-laden toppings. If you want to create a life worth living, you also need some tools: a living environment, an idea of what you want out of life, good intentions, and an understanding of the ancient Chinese secrets of feng shui (better say it right: fung shway). Translated, it means “wind and water.”

  Feng shui is just a term borrowed from the Chinese. Since they have honed this art throughout the past centuries, let’s honor them by keeping their name. But don’t just think of it as local Chinese wisdom—think of it as universal common sense. Everyone, regardless of culture or creed, has employed some system of thoughtful placement with regard to their living environment and furnishings. Simple spatial organization actually comes quite naturally to most humans. It’s when things get complicated with contraptions like computers, microwaves, and all-terrain vehicles that mistakes are often made.

  Proper feng shui is purposefully arranging the stuff around you to gain positive results. What stuff? you ask. All stuff—your worldly possessions, your desk at work, your toothbrush, your underwear. Just as that Chunky Monkey sundae affects your body when you eat it, each object you place in your living environment affects you as well. You also affect each environment you encounter. Wouldn’t it be nice to know how?

  This book will give you that answer. Consider it the proper nutrition guide for your home.

  I want to emphasize this point a bit more because I have been asked by a few clients and friends if feng shui is a religion. Some others have asked if it can conflict with their organized religion. Although I don’t claim to know the dogma of every religion, I do know that feng shui is not meant to replace or challenge anyone’s religious values or ideas. It is simply a collection of environment-oriented information, just as a cookbook is a collection of food-oriented information.

  If you are still questioning about this, here’s a quick test to help you find your answer. If knowing how food affects your body interferes with your religion, then perhaps knowing how feng shui affects you would too. OK, ’nuff said. Let’s get on with it.

  Everything consisting of matter in this three-dimensional universe is placed next to something else. This spatial relationship is feng shui. So really, feng shui has been around you as long as you’ve been around. It is the type of feng shui you have around you that this book addresses. Instead of thinking everything is not feng shuied until you feng shui it, think of everything always being in some state of feng shui, and you changing it for the better.

  For all you scientific minds out there, I asked Barry Gordon, a physicist as well as a feng shui practitioner, to briefly explain from a science perspective how and why feng shui works. He sees feng shui as “the intelligent use of intention through environmental metaphor.” In more detail he states:

  If we accept the message of both quantum mechanics and the great spiritual teachers, then every smidgen of our universe affects every other. From this viewpoint there is no inside or outside. Everything is contained in consciousness, which has no boundaries. So the placement of your bed has meaning in relation to the rest of your experience. The bed is a representation of your beliefs and emotions on the physical dimension, which manifest differently, and seemingly disconnected by you, on other dimensions. When your bed is moved with intention, the belief and emotion dimensions also move.

  The great eighteenth-century scientist and mathematician Leibniz discovered that photons, the basic particles of light, exhibit intention and purpose. If we take light to be the whole spectrum of vibration, not only visible light, then everything is composed of photons. That means the universe is intentional. And since we have been given the ability to intend, we are co-creators of the universe that we individually experience.

  Every thing, even the sticky front door that doesn’t open all the way, has meaning. Every thing, every action is intentional, sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious. Feng shui brings the unconscious in our environment back into consciousness. That brings the beliefs and feelings back into consciousness. Then we have choice and can create our universe consciously.

  I don’t know about you, but that’s about all the science and quantum mechanics I can take in one sitting. You might want to come back to this quote after reading the book to see if it makes more sense to you. Now, let’s get back to changing your life . . .

  Consider this chapter the feng shui toolbox. It’s not exactly the kind of toolbox that Bob Villa totes around, but it’s just as important. It explains the feng shui basics: exactly what you need to know to make your dreams come true. And don’t worry if you get a little spun around in this chapter. There are entire books on feng shui that attempt to explain the information I am dumping on you in Chapter 1. As the rest of the book unfolds, this information is repeated in different ways, which gives you several chances to absorb the specific wisdom that is pertinent to your life and home.

  Don’t skip the rest of this chapter either. Although it may look enticing to skip ahead to the Prosperity or Relationship chapters, I wouldn’t advise it. You wouldn’t eat a sundae without the correct tools (technically, you could slurp the ice cream straight out of the carton, but that looks
pathetic). So don’t try to use feng shui without the correct tools.

  | Ch’i Wiz! |

  Ch’i (pronounced chee, like half of cheese) is another word for energy. Energy is what’s moved around when you apply the rules of this book to your environment. By shifting the energy with cures, you can better your life. (Cure is just another name for balance.) You cure—balance, or enhance—something by specifically placing an item somewhere to help you in life. If you don’t correct poor object placement with cures, you expend your own energy to make things happen in your life. But why waste your own energy when you can get a lamp or mirror to do the work for you? Bonus: inanimate objects don’t whine about whose turn it is to expend energy.

  | Ba-Gwhat? |

  Everything that happens in life can be boiled down and placed into nine categories, or life situations. These categories are spatially represented by areas in your living quarters. Each area is called a gua (pronounced gwa). The sum of these guas put in a particular order is called the bagua. The ba of bagua means “eight,” and the bagua has eight sides (Figure 1). The eight sides plus the middle make up the nine zones that relate to the different life situations (Figure 2).

  The following are the specific life situations associated with the nine zones that make up the bagua.

  “Bagua,” by definition.

  FIGURE 1

  Simplified bagua showing the associated life situations.

  FIGURE 2

  Prosperity

  This area relates to wealth: having money for the good things in life (not for the necessities in life like food, rent, and phone bills). This gua is considered a power corner by many because money is seen as power, and power can get you what you want. Think Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and the person who invented Velcro. If big money is what you are looking for, work on the Prosperity corner.

  Fame and Reputation

  This is the area in the home that supports you as a person out in the big world. It deals with how you are perceived by others, which makes a big difference with concerns like how and where money and relationships come to you. It also has to do with your own integrity and honesty, which can make a difference in things like marriage and relationships. So, if you are a jerk, or at least people think you are, don’t despair. The Fame and Reputation area can help you out.