Seven Stressors
Our ability to cope with everyday events is a reliable indicator of our physical, mental and emotional health. This chapter considers seven aspects of life and our environment that cause stress – clutter and disorder, electromagnetic radiation, chemical pollution, environmental stress, geopathic stress, lifestyle stress and an unhealthy diet. Each of them has a significant impact on our health and wellbeing. Although a single stressor may be handled individually without unbalancing the body too much, the cumulative effect of a few can be extremely detrimental.
Clutter & Disorder ~ Electropollution ~ Chemical Pollution ~ Environmental Stress
Geopathic stress ~ Lifestyle stress ~ Unhealthy diet
Click on any of the above to find out more
Clutter & Disorder
Our home is another aspect of ourselves. It is our outer reality, reflecting what is happening inside us and in our lives. The way your home looks and is managed becomes a barometer for not only our physical health, but also our mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. If your home is tidy and ordered it goes hand-in-hand with a well-structured and supportive routine. Similarly, if you live in a chaotic space, or one that is extremely cluttered, it represents a lifestyle that may be confused, lethargic and lacking in energy.
The more you have tucked away, such as long-forgotten photo albums and bags of unwanted clothes, the more they reflect stagnation in your life and the need for you to cleanse out toxins hidden away deep inside.
An over-crowded environment will drain your vitality and make it difficult for positive energy to flow around your home.
Clutter in the home is very much a late twentieth-century disease. Most people in the Western world suffer from having too many possessions, and at the same time have too little time to do the things they want to do. In short, our lives are much too full. Consider how your crowded life might match the saturation that exists in your home. Look at your cupboards and drawers and see how many of them are overflowing.
(Extracts taken from The Healthy Home book)
If you want to know more about handling clutter in your life, I recommend that you read Karen Kingston’s book on the subject. Karen might not like me to call her this but she really is the ‘Queen of Clutter’. I worked with Karen through the mid-1990s producing her courses in the UK and I witnessed at first-hand the transformative effect of a day spent with her. It is hard to be a hoarder, as so many of us are, when you hear what clutter really does to you. And all those stories about how people suddenly got loads of money after throwing out half the contents of their wardrobe or attic – they are true! I have had letters from clients telling me the same thing. Try it for your self, it is the only way to find out for sure.
Clear Your Clutter!
Ten Top Tips from Feng Shui expert Karen Kingston*
1 Clear your clutter and your life will start moving – clutter represents energy which is stuck!
2 Having lots of clutter makes you feel tired. Clearing it releases energy, and you will feel lighter in mind, body and spirit.
3 Your home (or workplace) is a mirror of you. Don’t hold yourself back by hanging on to things ‘just in case’. Surround yourself only with things you love from now on.
4 Clear out your junk room. Each area of your home is connected to a different aspect of your life so wherever you keep your junk it will affect you. Let it go!
5 Clear out your clutter before implementing Feng Shui cures or enhancements such as mirrors and crystals, otherwise you may double your problems rather than resolve them!
6 If something is broken, fix it – or throw it out. Your energy levels drop when you are surrounded by things which don’t work properly.
7 Clear out your wardrobe. Keep just your favourite things and in future only buy items you absolutely love. When you look good, you feel good, and your life works better.
8 Clear clutter from corridors and behind doors. Your life will proceed more smoothly when the energy can flow unobstructed around your space.
9 Clear your desk! Mountains of paperwork make you feel defeated before you even start. A clear desk means a clear mind, better creativity and more job satisfaction.
10 Bring yourself up-to-date and stay that way. Do all those jobs nagging away at the back of your mind to be done. See your energy levels soar when you write those letters and make those outstanding phone calls.
*Karen Kingston is the author of the best-selling books Creating Sacred Space with Feng Shui and Clear your Clutter and is an internationally acclaimed expert and lecturer on this specialised branch of Feng Shui – the art of understanding how our homes and workplaces affect our physical, emotional and spiritual health.
Tips published by Gina Lazenby for the Feng Shui Network International
Clutter & Disorder ~ Electropollution ~ Chemical Pollution ~ Environmental Stress
Geopathic stress ~ Lifestyle stress ~ Unhealthy diet
EMFs
Long before electricity was discovered, the natural world was pervaded by rhythmically changing, life-supporting electromagnetic fields. These include the daily bathing of the earth’s surface in sunlight with its warming far infrared waves and the continuing gentle oscillation of the earth’s natural magnetic field. When we talk about electromagnetic fields (EMFs) being damaging, it is the emissions from human-made sources that are the issue, such as radio wave signals and microwaves. Some frequencies are believed by an increasing number of scientists and lay people to be harmful and the terms electro-smog and electropollution describe the unwelcome nature of some of the frequencies. The EMFs around our homes represent a growing health hazard, yet very little is known about them by the average householder. The EMFs we create have an unnatural resonance that makes more of an assault on our bodies.
EMFs affect everybody but we each have different sensitivities to them. Alasdair Philips of Powerwatch, a consumer support and advice service in the UK on electromagnetic radiation issues, says that around five per cent of the population are deemed to be highly sensitive to electrical fields and tests on these people have shown that they experience real, physiological damage to their peripheral nerves. These people will feel uncomfortable in an electrically overloaded environment long before anyone else, but it doesn’t mean that only they are being compromised. We are all being affected to some degree.
Since the communication between cells is regulated by tiny electromagnetic signals, EMFs from electrical wiring inside the home, mobile phones, transmitters and electricity supply lines, can cause problems in the body. (Extracts taken from The Healthy Home)
Useful Products to Buy:
EMF testing meter
Bioshield TV and Computer screen protection device
Dowsing rods
Mobile Phone shields
Demand Switches/Circuit Breakers
These products can all be ordered through our Recommended Products page
EMF testing meter
This measures the electric and magnetic fields radiating from electrical equipment and wiring. It is particularly important to check these around your bed since the wiring running behind the plaster, obviously hidden from view, could be disturbing your sleep. You can use this device to take accurate readings all over the house and determine ‘hot spots’ to be avoided. (See page 29 The Healthy Homebook).
The one I recommend is this model designed by Alasdair Philips which we used when we checked every new area of wiring when we built our extension. Full instructions provided – simple to use and with its digital window easy to read.
Price £295 (inc VAT) plus Post and Packaging
Bioshield TV and Computer screen protection device
This scientifically tested device has been designed to eliminate the harmful radiation coming off a cathode ray screen (that is a television or computer monitor). Note that laptop computers with LCD (liquid crystal display screens) do not have this radiation. It consists of two white plastic balls filled with rare earth salts that you put on either side of the screen. (See page 29 The Healthy Home book).
Price:
Bioshield 1 – £65.00 + post & packaging
Bioshield 2 – £79.00 + post & packaging
Dowsing rods
I recommend that you use rods to check for many different harmful radiations in your home. It is easy to learn how to use them and simple instructions are included (also see page 29 and 64-65 of The Healthy Home book). You can use them to check for geopathic stress and also to test the effectiveness of devices like the Bioshield. The copper ones we sell are sensitive but you can always cut a pair from a couple of metal coat hangers.
Price £12 for a pair + post & packaging
Mobile Phone shields
After all I have said about the harmful radiation coming off a mobile phone you might be surprised to know that I do own one BUT I use it very little. (It is invaluable when I get lost and can ring people for directions when I take a wrong turn!) However, I NEVER put it next to my head without a protection shield. If I do I get a sickly headache within about 20 seconds, and my partner is just as sensitive. I have tried several stick on gadgets that supposedly deflect the radiation away from your head but I have not found that they worked for me. I used to use the hands-free facility but now I use this protective cover from AntiRad. I definitely notice the difference and I feel very confident with it. I was particularly reassured by the testing reported by Alasdair Philips and he rates this product very highly.
Available in different styles to fit all makes of phone
Please state the make and model of your phone.
Price £29.95 (inc VAT & UK postage)
Demand Switches/Circuit Breakers
Some of the highest electromagnetic fields are found in bedrooms, most often because of cables supplying lighting and power for upstairs running under the floor or behind the wall of a bed. Bedside lights, clock radios and TVs all add to the cabling in a bedroom. The easiest and most effective way to remove these EMFs at night when they are most likely to affect you adversely is to install a Demand Switch. When everything is switched off, the Demand Switch automatically disconnects the line at the fuse box. However, as soon as it detects any switch on the circuit being turned on, it will restore power instantly. There is no fear of being left in the dark in the middle of the night. Full installation and operating instructions are provided for you to give to your electrician and it takes less than 30 minutes to install.
There are 2 versions: NT-16 plus recommended for light circuits and NT20-plus for ring mains and other domestic power circuits. You will require one switch for each circuit in the fuse box (usually one for the power and one for the lights)
NT 16-plus £119.50
NT 20-plus £134.50
prices include UK carriage and VAT.
Clutter & Disorder ~ Electropollution ~ Chemical Pollution ~ Environmental Stress
Geopathic stress ~ Lifestyle stress ~ Unhealthy diet
Chemical Stress
In recent years people have become increasingly aware of the threat of environmental pollution on a global scale, much of which is caused by chemicals, but there are far fewer who are aware of the pollution that also exists within our homes. These odourless and colourless poisons have become a part of our lives for the last 30-40 years and are released from cleansing products, but more insidiously from synthetic materials used in the home and the pesticides that exist in many foods. Allergies and other illnesses are becoming everyday problems as this exposure takes its toll on our bodies.
The worthy campaigns to save home energy costs have backfired on themselves and stopped our houses from being able to breathe out all the toxins that we are bringing in. While the popularity of health and organic foods has been on the increase for some time, the interest in ecologically-friendly products has been less sustained. And even when people buy some of these, they often do not take the same care with buying paints, DIY products or furnishings which still often contain the chemicals they have previously rejected.
In the last few decades there has been a huge increase in the number of petrochemicals used for packaging and making furniture and fabrics. Of the chemicals manufactured every year little is known about their long-term effects. Most homes and offices are now filled with synthetic substances which are believed to be responsible for headaches and mild depression, niggling, annoying conditions that are not life-threatening but which bring us down and help to erode our sense of wellbeing.
Environmental pollution is now a factor being investigated as significant in affecting a variety of conditions such as asthma, emphysema, nervous disorders and depression, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease as well as different types of cancer. A study at Stanford University Medical School, for example, reported in May 2000 that research points to the fact that people who use insecticides in their homes are twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.
Acute exposure to chemical substances can cause an immediate reaction, but this will often not do any long-lasting damage. However, chronic exposure over a longer period of time can be much more deadly simply because we are not aware of it and the negative effects, which are accumulative, may not appear for decades.
(Extracts taken from The Healthy Home)
Reduce your consumption of chemicals in the home:
· Use natural cleaning products
· Choose furnishings and furniture from natural materials
· Use less washing powder (or none)
· Filter your water
· Choose organic decorating materials
Useful Products to Buy:
Magnetic wash balls – these amazing wash balls mean that you no longer need to use detergent!! We stock these and I can highly recommend them. I used to use the ecological Ecover washing powder (again recommended) which was kinder to our local water supply and our clothes. Now I just pop the ball into the machine and that’s it. It deals with most clothes but I have not road-tested it on any really dirty items like football kit. They make great presents for people. Buy three – one for your washing machine, one for your dishwasher and another will make a great present.
Magnetic Washball £16 plus post & packaging
Clutter & Disorder ~ Electropollution ~ Chemical Pollution ~ Environmental Stress
Geopathic stress ~ Lifestyle stress ~ Unhealthy diet
Environmental Stress
Good Feng Shui ~ Healthy Lighting
Use Feng Shui to create a healthy environment
Environmental stress is caused by not following the good principles of feng shui, which is a simple understanding of how we are connected to, and influenced by, the environments in which we live and work. Adjusting the energy flow in our home and surrounding environment can help to create a healthier life.
Much of this knowledge, and the name by which it is best known, came from China but it embodies universal principles used by many traditional communities. It does not necessarily require any belief system, since energy flows influence everything around us, but it does become more powerful when we work with its principles in a positive way.
Feng shui dates back to the time when humans would seek shelter in a cave and choose the one that afforded the greatest protection. It was used prominently by Chinese emperors observing the movement of the sun, moon and stars with complex tables of calculations which enabled them to decide how best to harness the natural flow of energy when creating buildings. The Balinese still build houses that base the design of the building on the actual measurements taken from the various parts of the body of the head of the household.
Today, we can benefit from the wisdom of feng shui by paying attention to how we arrange our homes, but we need to remember that much of the most relevant knowledge comes from within. We already know deep inside us when we are comfortable and secure, when a place feels healthy or not, but many of us have forgotten how to recognize and work with these feelings. Even the folklore of our grandparents would stand us in good stead for creating more harmonious living spaces. So what happened to that connection? Our lives have become more cluttered and this makes it more difficult for us to be able to listen to our inner voice. We need to ask more questions and listen to the response from our intuitive self.
To ensure that your home has a healthy atmosphere, you need to increase your awareness of your surrounding environment so that you can check for good energy flow. If you have any ‘environmental stress’ brought about by blocked energy it will affect the quality of your life. The following key principles will support you in checking that your home has good feng shui and is not creating any stress for you.
Your home is a mirror of you
Take a look around and be objective about it. In feng shui we look at the home as the extension of the person. Everything about that place is a reflection of them or the people who live there. All their past experiences and current circumstances are held within it as are all their future dreams. Each object has been chosen by the occupants for a reason. When you know how to ‘read’ a home you can get to know a great deal about the person. For example items that are broken and waiting to be repaired can sometimes indicate that something in that person’s life is broken and needs to be fixed.
When we are focusing on health it is most important that everything about our homes is in good working order. Watch out for areas of distress and decay that occur, and don’t leave them too long before you fix them and sort out the root cause.
(Extracts taken from The Healthy Home)
Get professional help
Click here if you would like a professional feng shui practitioner to visit your home and give advice. Let us know the location and size of your home and we will put you in touch with a recommended practitioner and an indication of price.
Healthy Lighting
Over the centuries our bodies have adapted to the cycles of the sun and our biological clocks follow the cycles of light and dark. Natural light not only nourishes our physical wellbeing, but a lack of it can severely affect our psychological and emotional balance. Around 10-11 per cent of the British and American population are estimated to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) during the winter months, which makes people lethargic, depressed, gain weight and crave carbohydrates and can even drive some sufferers to suicide.
Looking at the sky, natural light and sunlight all powerfully influence our moods. The less light that is visible, the more stressed, trapped and depressed many people can feel. Shops that depend upon impulse purchases do better when sited on the sunny side of the street as people are more inclined to enter.
Dr John Ott, a pioneering researcher into lighting and the effect on health, says that artificial light lacks essential wavelengths. People are now spending 75-90 per cent of their time indoors so it is important that buildings offer people some access to natural light. We can then experience the natural light of the seasons differently. In summer, with the longer daylight hours, we are energized by the light that enters our homes, while in winter, the shorter days and weaker light tends to slow us down and awaken our inner world, encouraging us to withdraw in the same way that other animals hibernate.
Windows allow us to maintain a connection with the cycles of the natural world outside, as we exist in an artificially controlled environment. Studies have shown that patients with a view out of a hospital window tend to recover more quickly and need fewer painkilling drugs. Many elderly people in nursing homes have been found to be deficient in vitamin D because they are not able to get outdoors. Indoor light, with its lack of ultraviolet radiation, impairs the intestine’s ability to absorb calcium so that bone fractures are more likely when older people fall. Windowless classrooms have been found to have a damaging effect on children’s health and behaviour. Experiments with rats and rabbits kept in windowless rooms showed that they attack each other and themselves.
Daylight helps to regulate the body’s internal clock, which in turn controls temperature and our sleeping/waking cycles. Sitting in a bright, artificially lit room for an evening means that our body can disconnect with the rhythms of nature and not always know that it is the right time to produce the sleep hormone, melatonin. This can artificially stimulate the body and make it more difficult to sleep.
Light creates brightness and life inside buildings. Choosing the right lighting can make an enormous contribution to not only your physical and mental health but also to your social wellbeing. Working under bright, artificial light all day long can make you feel ill and tired, so it is important to counteract this with the right level and type of illumination, as well as making sure that you go outside for a while in the natural daylight every day.
(Extracts taken from The Healthy Home)
Clutter & Disorder ~ Electropollution ~ Chemical Pollution ~ Environmental Stress
Geopathic stress ~ Lifestyle stress ~ Unhealthy diet
Geopathic Stress
The term geopathic stress (GS) comes from the Greek ‘Geo’ (earth) and ‘Pathos’ (make sick) and means disease from the earth. It is the name used for distorted or unstable electromagnetic fields coming from the earth. These natural energy fields under the ground are changed by something that creates a discordant resonance above the ground. This invisible energy then ‘appears’ as a line or ray of geopathic stress which is typically about a foot or so wide. Where there are serious disturbances of energy they can be as large as the width of a house, but this is extreme.
The negative effect of GS lines can be felt as strongly on the twentieth floor of a building as on the ground floor, because the amount of concrete and steel used in modern construction amplifies the negative earth radiations. Underground water can carry the vibrations of GS, amplifying the negativity so water that flows under a home can prove harmful to its occupants. Natural earth movements can create friction where there are large mineral deposits and faults in the substrata, and these are all natural sources of GS. However, there are an increasing number of man-made causes. Large movements of earth and rock and deep excavation work for mines, quarries, roads, railway cuttings, underground trains, electricity pylons and building foundations can all bring about the discordance that is known as GS.
It is important for people to check for geopathic stress in the home, and either to move furniture to avoid negative areas or to use electrical devices or other methods to neutralize it so that the effects of this bad energy does not prove detrimental to health.
The effects of GS
The harmful influence of GS can be found in many homes today. It is on the increase because it appears that it is boosted by electromagnetic pollution from electrical appliances and supply lines. GS is most harmful if a line ‘appears’ in your bedroom crossing your bed, or even worse if two cross each other. The effects are felt strongly because you spend seven to eight hours sleeping in that one place so your whole body is affected, and for some reason the radiations from the earth have been found to be stronger at night. So instead of your body being nourished by the earth’s natural frequency it is bathed in another frequency which does not support the proper functioning of the body. This causes disturbance of the immune system and many different symptoms can appear that have now become associated with GS. Because of the general energy disturbance, people who live in geopathically stressed homes are also more likely to argue, suffer from financial problems, lack energy, vitality and concentration and experience bad luck.
(Extracts taken from The Healthy Home)
Professional Help
We have a register of trained people who can check out your home for geopathic stress and other harmful energies. They can then help to clear it by working at a distance or by visiting your property.
Useful Products to Buy:
Dowsing rods
We have copper dowsing rods in stock
Price: £12 per pair plus post & packaging
Helios
This is a simple gadget that you plug into an electrical socket.
Click here to find out how you can harmonise your home using one.
Price: £188 inc VAT plus post & packaging
“The Helios changed the atmosphere in our home overnight. It seemed to take the ‘buzz’ out of the electrical circuitry. The house immediately felt more natural and we feel much calmer. I am personally not keen on gadgets but I would recommend this device to anyone without reservation.” Dr William Bloom.
Clutter & Disorder ~ Electropollution ~ Chemical Pollution ~ Environmental Stress
Geopathic stress ~ Lifestyle stress ~ Unhealthy diet
Lifestyle Stress
Our bodies are made up of the energetic systems of our mind, body, emotions, and spirit and all of these are delicately interwoven and connected. When one of these systems gets out of balance, it eventually affects all the others. So if we regularly suffer from anxieties or emotional crises they can eventually start to erode our physical health. Our immune system is not only weakened by the onslaught from increased toxins in our environment and in our food, but also our ability to cope with that influx is diminished by the huge rise in the emotional toxins we create inside us from being anxious. Psychological and emotional pressures that affect us come from two sources: external factors in our life and our standard of living, and secondly, the degree to which we cope with demands and how we manage our emotions. Both relate to good health and may determine whether we will suffer from disease.
External pressures
Many people lead frantic lives in the fast lane – they work long hours and put themselves under huge amounts of stress. It has been shown that people are twice as likely to get a cold or develop an allergic condition if they are working under prolonged stress. A survey of British workers, published in the Daily Mail in 1999, found that 71 per cent were stressed by the fast pace of their lives, while 40 per cent stated that the time they took off work for sickness was directly caused by the stress being experienced.
In today’s world, many people feel great pressure to work long hours in competitive high performance environments to achieve success. But what is our definition of success? In the West it is very much linked to having power, status and material wealth to live well with every creature comfort. And yet this is a very narrow definition of success which is difficult to substantiate.
A survey in 1998 by Demos, a British think-tank, suggested that money cannot buy you happiness. The research into the link between personal spending power and perceived quality of life showed that people in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, got more happiness from their small incomes than the British do from their relatively large ones. In a league table of 54 countries, Britain ranked 32nd while the USA managed 46th with Bangladesh at number one. While the British had financial wealth compared to many countries, the report concluded that many people suffered from emotional poverty caused by consumerism and the breakdown of extended family and community life.
(Extracts taken from The Healthy Home)
Clutter & Disorder ~ Electropollution ~ Chemical Pollution ~ Environmental Stress
Geopathic stress ~ Lifestyle stress ~ Unhealthy diet
Diet Stress
An unhealthy diet
We are what we eat, so every time we eat something we are making an important health choice. Most people think they eat a reasonable diet, but many Western diets are inadequate and some people are actually malnourished. Many of the dietary practices that we have grown up with are now recognized as being major contributors to degenerative diseases. While the effects of poor diet may initially only show up as lack of energy, irritability or mild allergies, in the longer term, the food we eat might be doing much more damage to our health.
It is hard to correct a lifetime of poor eating, but we do urgently need to review the food we eat and adopt new practices which contribute more positively to our health.
Too much food
Put simply, Western societies consume too much food. Our calorie intake is up to three times as much as people in less developed countries, many of whom also lead much more active lives. Our bodies can become stressed from eating so much, and often it is too much of the wrong food. Because our bodies are not gaining essential nutrients from the food we are eating, our stomachs send out ‘hungry’ signals even after we have eaten far more, in terms of calories, than is good for us. The problem for us is that the food looks so good and tastes delicious too.
Half of adults in Britain are now overweight, and according to a Worldwatch Institute report in The Sunday Times (January 2000), obesity rates have doubled in the last decade. Eating too much shortens our lives, as well as causing other problems including low energy. It is believed that by drastically cutting our calories, for example by half, to less than 2000 a day, we could significantly extend our life span.
(Extracts taken from The Healthy Home book)
The book gives more information about the effect of the following on our health: a high fat diet, processed food and additives, too much red meat, too much protein, overconsumption of dairy products, drinking too many stimulants, sugar in the diet and cooking with a microwave oven.