Category: Nourish Your Environment

5 Ways to Celebrate Chinese New Year and Improve your Wealth

Happy New Year! Wishing you Health, Wealth and Prosperity in this New Lunar Year of the Pig

The Year of the Earth Pig starts today, 5th February 2019, and ends on 24th January 2020.  

Good News! This is going to be a great year. In Chinese culture, pigs are the symbol of wealth;  it is a great year to make money, a good year to invest and a year where we are we are encouraged to find what makes us happy and do more of it.

Feng Shui, a Chinese art and science, is central in this New Year’s celebration being its main goal to create harmonious relationship between a person and his/her environment that will bring him/her wealth and wellness.  It is based on a Taoist idea that nature is alive and has energy in different forms.

Wealth in Feng Shui is not all about getting rich,  it is also means prosperity in your relationships and your health.

I’ve been a Feng Shui enthusiast for more than a decade and even though I am not a Chinese descendent I have big admiration for  this wonderful ancient culture and its connection with the cosmos and the environment.

Keep in mind that Feng Shui is only one third of the total cosmic trinity and success is determined by other factors like your efforts and willpower.

The Feng Shui practice can be as  as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. There are simple steps you can follow to bring harmony to your life or more complicated practices at more sophisticated level like  people planning it’s edifications around this.

5 Ways to Celebrate the Chinese New Year and welcome wealth and happiness into our life:

Clean up!

Yes! Declutter, declutter, declutter. Everything broken or not working should be out of your house. That way you’ll be saying out with the old and welcoming a new and fresh start. However, today is a day of celebrating not cleaning but keep it in mind as decluttering will bring good energy to your place.

Eat Dumplings

It is customary to eat dumplings in the New Year’s Eve, the 1st and the 5th day of the New Year to welcome wealth in the coming year. I think my family will be pretty happy with this one! We love dumplings!

Decorate with red items and wear red too!

Red is the colour for good luck; decorate with red lanterns with golden symbols and wear read or bright colours and try to avoid black or white just for today.

Watch the Dragon & Lion Dance

Oftenly mixed up, the Lion Dance has usually two acrobat performers inside a costume. Dragons often require more performers as it is a longer costume. They both dance to the tune of a band playing drums and gongs very loudly with the intention to scare away bad intentioned spirits.

Share a Meal with your Family and Friends

As in every other celebration date what is better than to have your family and/or friends together to share the joy. Avoid complaining and negative words, be grateful and positive to keep the good vibes up

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

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Listening to Music: an easy way of self-care

Do you know that listening to music is another way to care for yourself? Have you noticed the effects on your mood after listening to a song you like or to an upbeat one? And of course, your preferences may differ from mine, but music has the same impact on every one of us in a personal and distinctive way.

Music is primal and exists since the very beginning of humanity. A mum singing a lullaby to her baby have soothing effects and helps with bonding. Cultures around the world tell different stories through music, some ancient ones prevail until today.

Studies have shown that music creates peak emotions and a study from the University of California in 2009 showed that there is a part of the human brain that “associates music and memories when we experience emotionally salient episodic memories that are triggered by familiar songs from our personal past.” meaning that music connects us with deep and meaningful memories. Based on this, it is not surprising that listening to music increases the amount of dopamine released by the brain translating into a feel-good state.

Music increases the amount of dopamine, the feel good hormone, released by the brain in response of a rewarding stimuli.

I recently asked in some of my Facebook groups suggestions of feel-good commercial music to add to my playlist. Macklemore is a favourite, and I certainly know why! His songs and collaborations with other artists are spot on. Here is the list of all their excellent suggestions, my favourite part of the songs and also, of course, my favourite ones.

Flames - Sia & David Guetta

David Guetta and Australian singer-songwriter Sia bring this awesome, vibrant, feel-good song. Can you tell it is my new favourite?

"One foot in front of the other babe
One breath leads to another yeah
Just keep moving, oh
Look within for the strength today
Listen out for the voice to say
Just keep moving, oh
Go, go, go
Figure it out, figure it out, but don't stop moving
Go, go, go
Figure it out, figure it out, you can do this"

Just take it easy, we are not perfect but as long as we keep on moving, that is what counts.

Claudia – Wellfulness

Moana How Far I'll Go - Auli'i Cravalho

“One day I’ll know how far I’ll go”

Felicity said she may have watched this movie more times than her son. It's a beautiful movie, very empowering, follow your dreams and push yourself to achieve what you meant to do in this world.  Felicity, one day probably you'll know how far you go (when you finally publish your blog, just saying, lol! no pressure! LOL)

Felicity Green - Wellfulness blogger

This Is Me - The Greatest Showman

Have you seen this movie? Wow! and I meant WOW!  It is great, mood lifting, a heartwarming movie in a non-cheesy way. Even if you don’t enjoy musicals, it is a nice watch. Thanks to Kelly Webb – Live Well. Be Well for this great suggestion and I watched the movie after seeing this video on Youtube and I wasn't disappointed. I think this movie will be added to my collection of "Best movies to Watch"


"I am who I'm meant to be, this is me
Look out 'cause here I come
And I'm marching on to the beat I drum
I'm not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me"

Glorious - Mackelmore

Song by American rapper Macklemore. I seriously couldn't stop listening to this song after it was suggested by Natasha Stewart from Business Jump. It got me going for days and still is! Motivation at its best, as always!

"I feel glorious, glorious
Got a chance to start again
I was born for this, born for this
It's who I am, how could I forget?
I made it through the darkest part of the night
And now I see the sunrise
Now I feel glorious, glorious
I feel glorious, glorious"

One More Time - Daft Punk

Suggested by Mel Driver from Embalm Skincare, awesome song, definitely will be listening to this while doing the skincare routine you shared in the Barefaced & Beautiful Facebook group the other day.

Music's got me feeling so free
We're gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance so free
One more time

Run the World - Beyoncé

Rani, you run the world with your time-saving - yummy recipes.

The beat is very uplifting, I love Beyonce and her #GIRLEMPOWERMENT

Suggested by Rani Hansen - You Totally Got This

Hold On - Wilson Phillips

This is an oldie but a good one. It always gets me signing from the top of my lungs (sorry world, I know I am not a good singer - know yourself: weakness and strengths, right?, but I can't help it, I love this song)

"I know that there is pain
But you hold on for one more day and
Break free the chains
Yeah I know that there is pain
But you hold on for one more day and you
Break free, break from the chains

Don't you know?
Don't you know things can change
Things'll go your way
If you hold on for one more day yeah
If you hold on"

Shared by me, Claudia – Wellfulness

Good old days - Macklemore

Another good song from Mackelmore, recommended by Cynthia Torok from The Intimates Collection


Maybe I've been missing what it's about
Been scared of the future, thinking about the past
While missing out on now
We've come so far, I guess I'm proud
And I ain't worried about the wrinkles around my smile
I've got some scars, I've been around
I've felt some pain, I've seen some things, but I'm here now

These Days - Rudimental & Macklemore

Thanks Marissa Towndrow from Renovating Mums for this great recommendation!

I love the message of this song! Nothing is permanent, and all is relative. Even when things are not great sometimes, it is called life, and maybe one day we will look back to that moment and smile because the days that may have looked a bit rough were the best because they helped to shape who we are.

I added these and a few more to my Youtube playlist (press here to check it out) and listen to all and turn the music up.  Listen to it while working or at home, when doing some house chores like cleaning, washing up the dishes, tidying up or take a break and dance around your place (take the chance and dance like no one is watching!). Not only will you get your heart rate up, but it will also lift your mood.

What's your favourite song?

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