About Green Living

For over 3,000 years Chinese people have turned to the ancient wisdom of Feng Shui to achieve greater harmony in their environment, and in themselves. Today we are bombarded by constant stress. How often do you wait anxiously in traffic, scroll through seemingly endless pages of email, leap at the sound of the cell phone? We are all bombarded by the daily demands of work and family, housekeeping and leisure. The pressure of bills and bosses can leave anyoneís nerves feeling frayed, and all too often we have unfulfilled personal expectations for our lives on top of the stress of just getting through the day. The good news is, you can restore your energy, recharge yourself and release tension by utilizing Feng Shui to create a home that is a sanctuary.

The principles of Feng Shui can help you design an environment that creates and directs positive energy. You may not be aware of the ways your physical space is affecting your well-being. Feng Shui provides guidelines to help in identifying problems in your environment. If learning about Feng Shui sounds like one more project in an already busy life, consider that this is one project that will lighten your load, provide relief and enhance your energy, rather than drain your internal resources or tire you out. This makes feng shui a truly worthy use of your time.

If your energy and your efforts are blocked, if your environment is contributing to your sense of restriction because the Feng Shui is not in balance, your stress only worsens. Scientists have demonstrated the negative effects of stress on the body. The overproduction of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline tax all of the systems in your body. These hormones contribute to the chronic conditions, like heart disease, that plague our society. And, excess stress wears down the immune system and leads to frequent colds and other aliments.

One of the keys to restoring energy and relieving stress is getting enough rest. Using Feng Shui to arrange your bedroom will help you get the sleep you need. Feng Shui will guide you in selecting the right room to sleep in, careful placement of your bed, eliminating mirrors in the bedroom, all of which will contribute to the quality of your rest and your waking energy.

Anxiety and stress trap and deplete energy. Feng Shui optimizes energy. An environment that employs proper Feng Shui principles contributes to harmony and well-being. The Chinese believe that Feng Shui helps create the conditions whereby you can thrive in your life and in your relationships. Feng Shui helps restore your energy because the objective of Feng Shui is to allow you to achieve harmony through your surroundings. You will learn how to place objects and arrange space so as to assist the flow of Chi energy. You will learn to leave negative energy at the door and fill your living space with good energy. With Feng Shui you can give yourself the positive pleasure of a harmonious, planned home environment designed to increase your well-being.

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We all want to do our part in ensuring our environment stays as safe and healthy as possible for our children and future generations to come. Many people don’t stop to think how their household cleaners can affect the environment, and how toxic they can make the immediate environment of your home. With some careful forethought, planning and effort, your home can be cleaned safely and effectively, sparing the environment, your home, family and pets from toxic chemicals and fumes.

Most people firmly believe that surfaces in their homes must be disinfected on a continual basis to prevent illness and the spread of disease. But the truth is most areas of your home don’t need to be disinfected to prevent the spread of germs. This includes your bathroom. Mild detergents, hot water, and some elbow grease can generally do the trick.

The exception to this rule is the kitchen. Anything involved in food preparation should be completely scrubbed down and disinfected with each use. This includes food preparation surfaces, utensils, cleaning clothes, and sponges.

When shopping for cleaning products, pay special attention to those with the words poison or danger on the label. These words indicate the highest level of hazard, under federal law. Products labeled with the words caution or warning can present a moderate hazard and should be regarded with care. Always read labels and follow the directions.
Never mix cleaning products, such as those containing chlorine with those containing ammonia.

Consider using products such as vinegar, baking soda, and mild detergent when cleaning your home. If you have questions about how to properly dispose of toxic household cleaning chemicals, contact your local health department or county sanitation office for advice and assistance. Most areas provide a household hazardous waste collection site for residents to properly dispose of such items.

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Every year, tons of material that could be recycled aren’t, and end up clogging our already overwhelmed dumps, waterways and roadsides. Most people think it’s a difficult undertaking to organize a recycling center at home. However, with some creativity and commitment, it can be easy to do. You’ll feel better about yourself doing your part to care for the environment as a result, too.

Find a convenient place in your home or apartment for the center. It doesn’t take much room for your recyclables. The garages, a storage closet, corner of the kitchen, or under your kitchen sink all make great locations. Find and clearly label containers in which to store your recycled materials. Plastic buckets, storage containers or even trash cans work great depending on the amount of room you have available.

Get your family actively involved in the recycling process. Make sure they all are aware of what products can be recycled. Teach them the difference between the aluminum cans and tin cans. While doing their weekly chores, teach them to be on the lookout for recyclable material lying around the house, and encourage them to place it in the proper storage bins.

Encourage them to come up with ideas for reducing the amount of recycled material that’s consumed by your household. Take them along with you to the recycling center in your neighborhood so they can witness the process firsthand. Show them how they can reuse recyclable materials in their own organizational efforts at home. Perhaps a large cardboard box can double as a bin for all their shoes, or a coffee can be repurposed as a penny bank.

And when they learn the money that can be both saved and earned from recycling and reusing products, they’ll have developed an environmentally healthy and thrifty habit for life.

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We are all contributing to global warming, pollution and otherwise damaging our environment - each and every one of us personally. Maybe big companies and corporations do more damage than you as an individual, but you are still doing damage. Hopefully you are already acting responsibly and trying to minimize that damage, or maybe you are here to find out ways in which you can live a greener, more environmentally-friendly lifestyle. So here’s one thing for you to consider… what’s your carbon footprint for your personal computer use?

I must admit this is something I had thought about briefly and then totally forgot about as I strive to improve my Reduce, Reuse, Recycle process. But today I came across this great article, complete with links to Carbon Footprint Calculators so you can calculate your personal computing Carbon Footprint. Of course you won’t have the impact of a major corporation, but imagine the impact you can have over your lifetime of neutralizing your own carbon footprint? It is worth doing… positive change begins with individuals and this article gives you ways to make a positive difference.

Make Your Personal Computing Carbon Neutral: 12 Easy Steps

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Feng shui is the process of improving your life and your attitude by improving your environment. The basic principles of feng shui teach you to rethink your relationship to the objects in your space in order to help you create an area that is harmoniously arranged, visually balanced, and allows positive energy to flow freely and unhampered. Applying the fundamentals of feng shui can change the way you do business, or the way that you interact with friends and family. Feng shui can help you gain a little extra boost in any area of your life where you feel you have room for improvement.

Feng shui uses a variety of techniques, most of which are very simple. Learning a few practical feng shui tips can help you improve your home or office environment in as little as a few minutes. When you become familiar with the fundamentals of feng shui, you will be able to assess any room in minutes and see where there are problems. Feng shui teaches you to look for things like sharp edges, dark corners, or bad furniture placement that can stand in the path of positive energy, blocking your life from moving forwards as freely as it should. With feng shui, you can take tangible, physical steps towards having a smoother journey on your lifeís path.

Feng shui can be used in your home, your office, or even in your car. Any place that you spend time in can be optimized according to feng shui principles. With feng shui, you can take steps to make yourself happier no matter what you are doing, because so long as you are spending time in a place where feng shui has been put into practice, you will be helping your mind, body, and spirit grow healthier and stronger. Feng shui can help you overcome any blocks or challenges that you are facing by helping you feel calmer, happier, and more balanced throughout the day. This will leave you feeling refreshed and revitalized, and ready to take all the necessary steps to make your dreams come true.

Feng shui can help you achieve greater harmony with your environment so that every breath you take will help you feel happier and more confident. When you use feng shui to improve the flow of chi, or life energy, throughout a space where you spend time, you are taking a positive step towards improving your quality of life. With feng shui, you can begin to make your dreams a reality today by putting a few simple techniques into place that will help your environment reflect your goals, desires, and potential. The fundamental set of ideas behind feng shui is not so complicated that you cannot get a basic grasp of feng shui in as little as a single day, and you wonít have to purchase any fancy equipment or objects in order to make feng shui work for you. All that you need in order to benefit from feng shui is a little bit of education, and a willingness to try something new.

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Feng shui traditions tell us that by changing your environment to reflect your desire for something, you can improve you chances of getting it. This means that you can use feng shui techniques to try to attract love, to try and push your earning power to the next level, or to . There are many different theories as to why, and how, feng shui works. Whether you think one or all of these theories are true, or not, what their sum total adds up to is that if you employ feng shui in an attempt to get love or money, you just might be taking the first step towards success.Feng shui may work because it changes your expectations for yourself. The moment you hang an object on the wall that youíve been told will help you find love, you will expect that you will meet someone special. This may make you open to conversations with new people, or more optimistic about your chances of connecting with a stranger. These factors increase the likelihood that you will fall in love after you put feng shui practices into place. So, even if the reason that feng shui helps you find love isn’t so much spiritual as it is psychological, it is hard to contest the fact that feng shui is responsible for your new romance.

Another reason that feng shui can be a great technique is that it continually reminds you of where you want to go. This may motivate you to take steps to fulfill your dreams. By putting a symbol of what you want in plain view of yourself and others, you are making it impossible to forget your goals. A daily reminder of what you desire to achieve can help you stay motivated as you struggle to fulfill that aim.

Many psychological experts believe that just by definitively admitting and announcing that you desire to reach a goal, you are more likely to achieve it than someone who swallows their desire instead of expressing it. This fact alone could explain why feng shui works. By the time that you have learned what the feng shui approach to your situation would be, bought the necessary objects to practice that particular technique, and completed the process so that your environment reflects your goal, you will have made it thoroughly clear to yourself that you are committed to seeing your desire fulfilled, which can help you make your dreams come true.

Of course, there is always another possible explanation about why feng shui can change your life. Perhaps the claims of feng shui, such as the idea that decorating a room in a certain way allows positive energy to flow freely throughout the environment, are actually true. Whether you believe that the reason feng shui works has to do with your expectations and keeping you motivated, or if you believe it is related to the spiritual realm, there is one thing that you can be sure of. You have nothing to lose by testing out feng shui works for you.

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Feng shui is an ancient Chinese art said to increase the flow of chi, or positive life energy, in a space. By boosting the levels of chi and allowing it to move freely throughout a space, feng shui is meant to allow practitioners to achieve their personal goals. For thousands of years the principles of feng shui have been used to attract success in the realm of the heart, in business, and to win friends. The phrase feng shui translates to “wind and water”, two symbols of natural flow. Feng shui practices attempt to create an environment where chi flows as freely and easily as wind or water does in nature.

Feng shui has traditionally been practiced by experts. The school of thought known as feng shui was created by a spiritual master who was a student of nature and the spiritual realm. Over three thousand years ago, he created a set of basic rules that were meant to help optimize the positive attributes of an area by increasing positive energy. His dream of creating auspicious dwellings and workplaces that would help the occupants to attract good luck and positive fortune while equipping them to make the most of opportunity when it knocks is alive and well today.

Feng shui quickly gained popularity and credibility in China, and people began to gain expertise and skill in the subject. Eventually, feng shui found reception all over the world, and today many homeowners and businesspeople consult feng shui experts when decorating rooms. Feng shui consultants have thousands of years of tradition and investigation at their disposal. With feng shui, an expert can transform the energy of any kind of space or area. Throughout the years, several different schools of feng shui have emerged, each with its own unique aims and strategies. This makes it possible to find a feng shui system that is right for your specific situation. As feng shui becomes more specialized, it becomes increasingly easier for consumers who are interested in feng shui to incorporate it into their lives.

As time passes, the general practice of feng shui becomes more and more exact so that better results are possible with less work and less cost than they used to be. Throughout the centuries, feng shui practitioners have refined the art of feng shui into a mathematical science. Feng shui is much easier to apply to a space today than it used to be because there are clear guidelines that allow even an untrained amateur to apply feng shui to a home or office space. Feng shui can help you create a feeling of balance and harmony in any space of any size, and with all of the feng shui guides and information available directly to consumers through the internet, there is no longer any need to consult a costly feng shui expert before you begin to practice and benefit from the rules of feng shui.

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Here’s a brilliant solution for reusing plastic bags and making yourself a great shopping carry bag made of recycled materials.

This article shows how to make yarn from plastic bags. You can then crochet or knit yourself a bag to carry your shopping, thus reducing the number of plastic bags you consume. It’s a brilliant solution. Thanks to Birds Before The Storm!

Update: Here’s a photo of the finished bag made from bags.

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You have heard about global warming. You have heard the debates about buying local and buying organic and you have probably tried not to give it too much thought. The truth is that every solution that is provided to you seems to be flawed one way or another: organic is expensive, local is expensive and sometimes neither is very fresh when a new shipment of apples just arrived from Chile. So what is a concerned citizen of the world to do when faced with such a dilemma? Plant your own garden of course! It may seem to be a bit of an overreaction to the threat of global warming, but the fact is that it is the simplest and most direct way to make an impact.

You can change as many light-bulbs as you want, buy a hybrid car and stop using plastic bags but you are still not doing as much as you could for the environment. This is not to say that any of those things are useless, they are simply pieces of the healthy planet puzzle. If you really want to change the world, start in your own back yard. If you don’t have a back yard because you live in an apartment building or are planning to move soon, you can plant food in pots and grow it on your counter tops or in your stairways. Gardening vegetables and fruits has never been easier. You can even reuse your food waste in the form of compost to help your plants flourish.

“But I don’t have the time!” you say.

What about those hours you spend watching television? You might think that you are resting or relaxing while you are sitting on the couch watching a rerun. Be honest with yourself, doesn’t it feel better to be actively doing something that will enrich your life and the planet? Sometimes just gardening: weeding or planting seeds is the most relaxing of all. Think how amazing it is to be able to put a seed in some earth in a pot and to watch it grow slowly and then suddenly only 8 days later the plant is already taller than a leprechaun? Now that is rewarding.

“I can’t afford to garden!” you remind yourself.

Gardening may have some upfront costs such as purchasing tools, pots, good soil and some seeds. But once you have these you are practically home free! You can use the seeds from the vegetables you grow this year to plant more next year. You can reuse the same pots, reuse the same tools. You might even be able to find some good soil near where you live. On the flip side you should consider how much money you will actually SAVE by planting and growing your own food. You will no longer need to buy salad materials and you will probably have enough fresh herbs, tomato, cucumbers, zucchinis and lettuce to last you until late fall. You can also freeze extra tomato and other vegetables for use during the winter. What more economic methods of attaining food than that?

Don’t let any excuses get in the way of your reconnection to this beautiful planet. Grow your own food. Save the planet. Be healthy. It’s a win-win-win solution.

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Local and seasonal

Although not actually written into the legal standards that govern organic food, the majority of organic growers support local food initiatives, which encourage consumers to buy their food locally and seasonally. The organic community supports local food initiatives such as farmers markets, where farmers sell their own produce usually in monthly gatherings held in local towns and cities; box schemes, whereby mostly organic fruit and vegetables that have just been harvested are delivered to your door for a fixed fee; and small independent stores such as healthfood stores or organic fruit and vegetable stores.

As these are often run by the farmers themselves they reinforce the link between grower and consumer that has been lost over the years in developed countries and which many believe has led to the mistrust and divisions between town and country. Such consumers may come to change their habits - learning to cook seasonal recipes with ingredients they may not have seen since their grandmother passed away, and mastering the art of making the most of a glut of certain crops, such as tomatoes and fruits.

Buying local produce also avoids the costs of pollution associated with conventional food production and distribution. Conventional farmers and retailers appear to pay little heed to the environmental cost of shipping crops around the world and growing strawberries in mid-winter. As a result, air transport - now the fastest-growing source of carbon dioxide emissions - is used for an increasing number of food imports. Further pollution is generated when the food is then brought to a central depot before being trucked out to the individual supermarkets, and then driven home by a customer.

Also, food that has traveled long distances tends to require more packaging in order to protect it on its journey, resulting in the waste of huge amounts of plastic, cardboard and glass.

TIPS

Crops that have been genetically modified to resist insects kill not just the target insect but also beneficial insects. Pollen from GM plants can kill endangered butterflies such as the monarch, for example.

Planting herbicide-resistant crops could encourages the use of larger quantities of herbicide, so all plant growth other than the crop is removed. This in turn wipes out seed-eating and insect-eating wild birds, such as skylarks and blackbirds, and small mammals, such as dormice.

Insects can become resistant to the insecticide produced by GM plants and some GM plants may crossbreed with wild species to produce ’superweeds’, which could out-compete and disrupt the natural biodiversity of an area (this may also happen with animals, such as GM salmon). As a consequence, the use of GM technology may not reduce the need for toxic chemicals in farming but increases it, as the search goes on for ever-more effective weapons against pests.

GM plants can contaminate non-GM plants and honey.

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