Feng Shui Architect

Feng Shui for Health and Wellbeing: An Interview with Feng Shui Architect Siulem Li

Feng Shui Architect
Mimi

Mimi

Feng Shui for Health and Wellbeing: An Interview with Feng Shui Architect Siulem Li

I had the good fortune of meeting Siulem Li, a Feng Shui Architect, at my recent speaking event for the Professional Women’s Network of Costa Rica (PWNCR). As soon as I met Siulem, I knew she was a woman I wanted to work with!

About Siulem

The first thing I noticed bout Siulem was her radiant smile. She possesses a magnetic personality that is both comforting and energizing. It was apparent to me within the first few minutes of speaking with her, that Siulem is a woman with a lot of knowledge and experience. She expressed this through a relaxed confidence while we talked about things like holistic healing, metaphysics, and Feng Shui for spas.

Understanding Feng Shui

Before I met Siulem, I really had no idea how Feng Shui works or why someone would want to consider it in their interior design. I had heard about Feng Shui in relation to energy balancing, but I didn’t know enough about it to consider how I could apply to my own life or my clients’ spa projects. 

By the end of the interview, I was so impressed by the way Feng Shui can be used to plan a space, my entire perspective on interior design had changed. Once you know better you do better, as they say, and I will never again set up a yoga studio or massage room without first considering how the energy flows through that space. 

Here are a few of the most eye-opening things I learned about the art and science of Feng Shui during our interview:
  • Buildings have birthdays and a specific energy in each space. The astrological sign of your home is important to take into consideration because it influences the type of energy the home has.
  • Much of what we know about Feng Shui in the West came from one man who blended the practice with other teachings. Classical Feng Shui (what Siulem practices), retains the most complete ancestral wisdom.
  • There are no specific Feng Shui recommendations that work for all spaces — each space is unique.

Feng Shui for Health and Wellbeing

In the wellness industry, there are many trends that influence the spa services or healing therapies we offer (silver ion bath or chocolate pedicure, anyone?). Feng Shui is not one of those trends. The use of Feng Shui for health and wellbeing is an ancient tradition.

Over the past 5,000 years, Feng Shui has been used to assess and carefully curate spaces for living and working. It is an art that considers the subtle energies that affect our beings in body, mind, and spirit. Therefore, it provides a way for us to allign environments intended for healing, assuring the space will have flow that is harmonious with human health.  

Watch the Full Interview

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Mimi Mudd

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Music for Yoga

How to find music for yoga class? What is the best music for yoga class? Are there famous yoga musicians/recording artists? How to make a playlist for yoga class?

Chakra Balancing with Essential Oils Free live Webcast

I found an essential oil expert to interview in my next webcast and I can’t wait to introduce her to you!

Y’all, I’m so excited to talk with Dr. Harmony I can’t get over myself. After more than 25 years of experience running a natural product business, Dr. Harmony has become an internationally recognized leader in energetic healing. She produces her own line of essential oils and the things she does with them might blow your mind.

If you’re anything like me, you probably have several little amber bottles of essential oils around your home or office. You firmly believe at least two of them “work really well,” meaning they do more than just smell good, but how or why they work you couldn’t say…

I’ve been using essential oils for years, not just for myself but as tools to balance energy in my yoga classes. I’ve seen first hand the effect essential oils can have energetically. I’m no expert, but I found one and she’s willing to answer all my questions, and yours too!

I invite you to join us (it’s free) Thursday, May 31 at 8:00 pm Eastern, 6:00 pm Central.

Dr. Harmony, PhD of Harmony’s Essential Oils

Here’s what we’re going to cover:

  • Why essential oils are tools for energetic healing and not just pretty smells.
  • How the energy of essential oils correlates to the chakra energetic system of the human body.
  • Why essential oils are not all created equally and how to select high-quality, high-vibrational essential oils.
  • How ear candles are not at all what you think they are and why essential oils can enhance their effectiveness. 
  • Simple yet incredibly effective ways to use essential oils to balance your chakras, restore energy, and make meditation easier.

Bonus: We will be giving away a couple of freebies to everyone who shows up at the webcast.

Dr. Harmony and I worked together to create some exclusive free downloads that will only be available during the event. 

The first essential oil I ever used was Tea Tree and it has been a staple in my medicine cabinet ever since. I first experimented with using essential oils in my yoga classes in 2014 and honestly, I’m continually surprised by the experience they provide my participants. 

If you’re a yoga teacher, massage therapist, natural medicine practitioner, or just interested in learning more about essential oils for yourself and your family, you won’t want to miss this event. I hope you can join me for the webcast on May 31. If you are interested but can’t make it at that date/time go ahead and sign up so that you can be on the list to get a link to the replay.

Essential Oils and Yoga

Essential oils and yoga  — it’s about creating an experience. Just as each asana creates a sensation in the body and mind, each essential oil stimulates a feeling or emotion. 

Asanas and essential oils each have unique energies. For example, when participants come into class lively and talkative, I can quickly guide them to an introspective space by bringing them into child’s pose for a few minutes. Equally, when class includes a lot of back-bending I may offer participants a little cotton with a drop or two of chamomile essential oil. Chamomile promotes heart health and soothes the nerves. I find it helps take the edge off the fear people have around heart-opening and back-bending. 

How to Pair Yoga Asanas with Essential Oils

There are lots of ways to decide which essential oil to combine with a particular asana sequence. Challenging sequences that require focus and balance pair well with peppermint, whereas ylang ylang essential oil helps mentally relax participants for a slow sequence with long yin poses. 

But what if you aren’t familiar with essential oils and their benefits? Or what if you use and love essential oils but have no idea how they pair with yoga asanas? You can spend the time it takes to study the energy of each asana and the uses of each essential oil (a worthy endeavor), but there is a faster, easier way.

Essential Oils and Chakras

Selection from Dr. Harmony’s guide to essential oils for chakra balancing

Many readers may already know this, but the chakra energetic system is yoga. First described in the Upanishads, chakras were included in the oldest known texts pertaining to yoga and predate the asanas we know and practice as yoga today. In other words: chakras are more yoga than yoga.

There are specific asanas and yoga sequences that affect the energy or parts of the body associated with one of the seven chakras. Likewise, different essential oils are used for calming or activating each chakra.

The chakra energetic system can be used to translate between asanas and essential oils. In this way, they become two tools for balancing energy that work better together, each one enhancing the other’s effects. The experience can be further enhanced by incorporating the colors and vibrational sounds that relate to the specific chakra as well.

 

Pick up a free guide for pairing essential oils to the chakras at my live webcast “Chakra Balancing with Essential Oils” featuring Dr. Harmony on Thursday, May 31. 

Sign up for the webcast

Ways to Use Essential Oils in Yoga

There are a number of ways to use essential oils in your personal asana practice or yoga classes. The delivery method will depend on the oil you are using, your desired affect, and your sensitivity or the sensitivity of participants. Click on the quick reference below to read more about each way to incorporate essential oils in your yoga.

Put 1-2 drops of essential oil on a small cotton pad or ball. I sew so I often use a little piece of scrap fabric — one square inch will do. The idea is to provide just enough to hold the oil.

This is my favorite delivery method for sharing an oil with groups. It allows each individual to experience the essential oil as much or as little as they like. It avoids the risk of staining someone’s clothing with an oil, and reduces the risk of skin irritation. It also serves as a memento of the class and participants have told me they kept it in their purse and enjoyed the smell for weeks. 

An oil diffuser can be used to permeate a scent throughout the room during yoga class. There are a variety of diffusers to choose from and each have  their pros and cons. Check out this essential oil diffuser guide by Wellness Mama to understand the available options. 

I personally prefer heat diffusers, such as the classic ceramic burners that work with a tealight candle. They provide a silent, economical, and effective way of distributing oils and work great for burning a scent throughout an hour-long yoga practice.

 

 

First and foremost, never spray anyone in the face with an essential oil, diluted or not. I had a yoga teacher who did this during savasana and it was the most jarring experience.

Diluted essential oil sprays can be used to clean yoga mats but are not the best way to share a scent with a group. However, there is an exception when an essential oil spritz can be a delicious experience: when the individual is already warm enough to sweat from asana practice. Even then, you should ask permission before spritzing each individual in a group and aim for their chest.  

Ready to learn more about essential oils and yoga? Join me at the live webcast “Chakra Balancing with Essential Oils” Thursday, May 31, when I will interview Dr. Harmony, PhD., producer of Harmony’s Essential Oils.

Sign up for the webcast here. 

Free Webinar: “The 5 Worst Habits Working Moms Have That are Killing Their Bodies and How to Find Instant Relief”

What if I told you that you don’t have to live with back, neck and shoulder pain? What if I told you there is a way to regain the mobility and flexibility you once had or maybe more than you’ve ever had in your life? Would you believe me? Would it sound too good to be true?

What if you could greatly reduce your level of pain from joint and muscle strain or maybe even eliminate it all together? What if you felt comfortable sitting or standing with good posture – the kind that naturally makes you look thinner and more confident and instantly makes you more attractive?

Imagine what it would feel like to be truly comfortable in your body. Imagine an entire day without the physical nagging of a neck so tight it can be hard to turn your head; without shoulders that feel pinched, or a lower back that is so tense it can be hard to stand up straight? Imagine a day without aches – a week – a year…

Imagine leaving your Achey Mom Bod behind for a stronger, more flexible model. Imagine walking taller, looking slimmer, and having more physical aptitude to do all the things you love to do in life. You could play more with your kids; you could play more with other adults… you could pick up the sport of your dreams or simply improve in the sport you feel “too old” to play.

Free Webinar: “The 5 Worst Habits Working Moms Have That are Killing Their Bodies and How to Find Instant Relief”

Here’s What You’re Going to Learn:

  • How to find instant relief from nagging pain in your shoulders, neck, and back by changing a few common working-mom habits.
  • The one thing all working women do that is deforming their bodies and causing neck and shoulder pain.
  • Simple stretches you can do from a chair to counteract the strain of working and being a mom.
  • The real reason your posture has gotten worse over time and how to retrain your body to sit and stand with healthy, attractive alignment.
  • The secret way to shed your mom bod for a “younger” model and how to stay feeling young, flexible and comfortable in your body for many years to come.

MONDAY, APRIL 16 AT 6:00 PM EASTERN / 4:00 PM CENTRAL / 3:00 PM PACIFIC

Click on over to the signup page and reserve your seat in the webinar now! Can’t make it this Monday? I’ll be running the same free webinar at least once more, at a later date. Go ahead and sign up and I will announce the second webinar date on Tuesday.

See you there! xo, Mimi

 

Booty-Builder Yoga Class at Bosque de la Hoja

Do you love nature and nice round rears? Then this yoga class is for you! Join us in scenic Bosque de la Hoja for a hip-opening and booty-building class. Learn a yoga flow you can practice on the reg for fighting flat-butt-syndrome and feeling fancy-free in your lower body.

When

Saturday, March 31 at 9 am. The park opens at 9:00 so it might take everyone a few minutes to park and file in. Please register at the bottom of the page (if you haven’t already via the pop-up) so we know to wait for you!

This Class is FREE

The class itself is free of charge. However, the park charges a small fee for parking ( ¢2.000) plus an entry fee of ¢800.

About Bosque de la Hoja

Bosque de la Hoja is a lush green paradise tucked in the hills of Heredia. It is about a 30-minute drive from the center of Heredia. The air is cooler and there are over 20 hectares to explore, including a playground for kids, trails for hiking or riding bikes, and ranchos equipped with grills. Also known to locals as “Las Chorreras,” Bosque de la Hoja features natural springs that supply water to the surrounding community. Visit the Heredia.go website for more information (in Spanish).

Mimi’s Regular Saturday Morning Class

This event replaces Mimi’s regular Saturday morning yoga class at Finca Rosa Blanca in Barrio Jesus de Santa Barbara de Heredia. The regular class resumes at the normal time, 7:30 am, on April 7.  
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Sign Up for a Free Yoga Class at Bosque de la Hoja

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Vinyasa Twists Class

If you’re looking for a way to access the tension in muscles along your neck, shoulders, back, and down into your hips then this class is for you!

Twisting stretches are the single most important habit for restoring and retaining your spine’s natural range of motion.

If you don’t use it, you lose it, as they say. The limited range of motion in our daily lives often leads to a shortening and lack of functionality in the soft tissue surrounding our joints. Ultimately, this can lead to the hardening and fusing of joints.

Look younger and feel free as you enjoy your range of motion

A Twist for Everyone

The Vinyasa Twists Class is jam-packed with, well, twists! Seated twists, standing twists, and twists lying down. You might not be able to do every twist and that’s okay. In this class, you will experience a variety of twists to add to your personal stretching repertoire.

This is a dynamic class that flows through familiar Sun Salutations. It includes forward bending and backbends that warm up the muscles and joints and prepare the body for the various spinal twists. It also includes some deeply restorative twists borrowed from Yin Yoga.

Twists are also great for:

  • Increasing blood circulation to organs
  • Stimulating the nerves involved in digestion and elimination
  • Aiding a compromised or sluggish digestive system
  • Relieving tension in the muscles of the neck, back, and hips

Twist Like the Lord of the Fish

According to Indian legend, matsyendrasana, or seated spinal twist pose, was named after Matsyendra Natha, the first yoga master after Shiva. Matsyendra was born of a fish, but not just any fish, the Lord of the Fish credited with saving the world after a great flood.

The Vinyasa Twists Class is NOT  for you if:

  • You are in the first trimester of pregnancy
  • You have a spinal disk injury — consult your doctor before twisting

 

Sun Salutations and Gratitude Class

The sequence of yoga poses known as Sun Salutations, or Surya Namaskar dates as far back as 2,800 years. There are as many different versions of the sequence as there are styles of yoga, as well as multiple variations of Sun Salutations within a single style.

In this class, you will experience two sequences commonly known as Surya Namaskar A and Surya Namaskar B.

Sun Salutations include some of the most common yoga positions:

  • Standing Backbend
  • Standing Forward Fold
  • Plank Position
  • Cobra
  • Downward Facing Dog

These five poses are integral to Ashtanga and Vinyasa yoga, and for good reason! They allow us to explore a very important an often neglected range of motion in our bodies: the flexion and extension of our spine.

The 280º Spine

The woman pictured above is not showing an example of the full 280º range of the spine, not even close. First off, she only exploring maybe 10 percent of the amazing 115º range of flexion and extension of the cervical spine (aka the neck).

Practicing the five poses mentioned above is an excellent way to tune into the needs of your neck, shoulders, and back.

Is your neck stiff and tight?
Are your shoulders rolled forward?
Does your middle or lower back ache?

 

Sun Salutations provide a way to explore these types of tension in the body and find relief. The results can include:

  • Relief from Tension and Sore Muscles
  • Improved Respiration and Circulation
  • Improved Muscle Tone
  • Improved Posture
  • An Overwhelming Sense of Gratitude

The Grateful Monkey God

In Hindu mythology, the first Sun Salutations were practiced by the monkey god, Hanuman. It’s a lovely parable about learning hard lessons, perseverance, and dedication. But it’s the story told between the lines — the way in which Hanuman is inspired to practice — that reveals the real insights to the origin of the series of poses.

The step-back-step-forward movement of the sequence; the sense of gratitude that comes with bowing and placing your hands together before your heart — Sun Salutations can feel like a devotional practice. It is a heart-centered moving meditation that is useful for building energy and giving thanks.

 

 

Moon Salutations Goddess Kali Class

Spread your entire stance wide apart: you are generating energy. There is a fire growing between your hips in the core of your abdomen, breathe out the flames! Show your teeth with a powerful smile. Stick out your tongue until the tip reaches your chin, open your mouth wide and say “EHHHHHHHHH!”

In this class you will experience:

  • Moon Salutations
  • Forward Folds
  • Floor Stretches
  • Spinal Twists
  • Standing Balancing
  • The Power to Destroy Evil Forces

 

Oh Holy Hip Stretch

The Moon Salutations Goddess Kali Class is an excellent practice for picking up things from the floor without straining your back. The Chandra Namaskar, or Moon Salutation, begins by reaching tall, but then circles down to the floor. It passes through all the best hip-opening poses including stretches for the back of the hip, lower back, inner thighs, and hamstrings.

This class is for you if:

  • You need a good stretch in your hips and legs
  • You feel tired and would like a class that builds energy
  • You have aches and pains that prevent you from putting any weight on your hands/arms
  • You feel high-energy and need to regain focus
  • You need to practice harnessing and projecting your energy

Get Creative Already

Creative breakthroughs can happen when you are able to harness your power. When you feel confident projecting power it makes you a more effective communicator.

Kali is also known as the Divine Mother, Mother of the Universe, the Divine Protector, and the Freedom Giver. The Chandra Namaskar draws from Kali’s energy as it moves through some of her most iconic poses.

This class is NOT for you if:

  • You have knee or hip issues that provent you from bending and stretching your legs

Saluting the moon isn’t easy! Although only around 10 minutes of this class is spent in deep knee bends and hip-opening poses, they can be challenging for someone dealing with an injury. As always, I welcome you to join the class whatever your level or ability and participate up to your personal comfort level.