#positive energy spaces

[harmonyhealinghub]

Feng Shui: Balancing Your Space for Harmony and Positive Energy Shaina Tranquilino January 5, 2024

In today's fast-paced, technology-driven world, finding balance and tranquility in our lives has become more important than ever. Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese practice dating back thousands of years, offers a unique approach to creating harmony and positive energy within our living spaces. Whether you're looking to improve your home or office environment, incorporating Feng Shui principles can have a profound impact on your overall well-being. At its core, Feng Shui is about the flow and arrangement of energy, known as "Qi," in our surroundings. By understanding how Qi moves through different spaces and how it interacts with elements such as light, colour, furniture placement, and natural materials, we can create an environment that supports and nurtures us.

One key aspect of Feng Shui is decluttering. Clutter not only overwhelms our physical space but also affects our mental state. According to Feng Shui principles, clutter blocks the flow of Qi and hinders opportunities from entering our lives. By removing unnecessary items from our surroundings and organizing our belongings thoughtfully, we can open up space for new possibilities.

Another fundamental principle of Feng Shui is balancing the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Each element represents specific qualities and characteristics that contribute to a harmonious environment. For example:

1. Wood symbolizes growth, vitality, and creativity. Incorporate wooden furniture or plants to introduce this element into your space.

2. Fire embodies passion, excitement, and transformation. Use candles or bright colours sparingly to bring in this element while avoiding overwhelming effects.

3. Earth signifies stability, nourishment, and grounding. Decorate with earthy tones such as beige or brown and include natural materials like stones or ceramics.

4. Metal represents clarity, precision, and efficiency. Introduce metallic accents or décor pieces made of metals like copper or silver to enhance this element.

5. Water embodies calmness, reflection, and abundance. Add a small fountain or mirror to create the illusion of water in your space.

Additionally, paying attention to the Bagua map can help guide you in optimizing different areas of your home or office. The Bagua is an energy map divided into nine sections, each corresponding to a specific area of life such as health, wealth, relationships, and career. By aligning these areas with their respective elements and enhancing them accordingly, one can attract positive energy and improve various aspects of life.

It's worth noting that Feng Shui is not about blindly following rules; it's about creating a space that resonates with you personally. While general principles are essential to consider, ultimately, trust your intuition and what feels right for you.

Incorporating Feng Shui principles into your living or working environment can bring numerous benefits. It can enhance overall well-being, boost productivity and creativity, foster harmonious relationships, increase abundance and prosperity, and promote better physical and mental health.

If you're new to Feng Shui or unsure where to start, consulting with a Feng Shui expert can provide valuable insights tailored to your specific needs. They can help assess your space and make recommendations based on its unique characteristics.

Remember that Feng Shui is a continuous process – regularly reassessing your space as circumstances change ensures that the energy remains balanced. By investing time and effort into creating a harmonious environment through Feng Shui practices, you'll find yourself surrounded by positive energy that supports your goals and aspirations.

[sysig]

*You’re starting to feel very sleepy... (Patreon)

[nano30cm]

they're gym buddies :)

[authenticcadence18]

Twice this week I have received comments on Can’t Help Falling in Love critiquing my use of tags and I’m just like?

those “extra” tags have been there for four years? no im not going to delete them?? I think if it truly was a big issue one of my moots/writer friends would’ve brought it up to me by now???

I use tags to express my creative voice and personality. And I DO include lots of real tags.

if someone makes something FOR FREE and it’s not harmful maybe just say what you like about it and move on?

like? do yall like my tags?? have my tags dissuaded you from checking out my stuff??? because I’ve been posting on ao3 since 2019 and this is the first time anyone has ever brought it up :/

[cringefailvox]

WRITING IS EASY AGAIN WE'RE SO FUCKING BACK

[uncanny-tranny]

You're allowed to be proud of yourself for achieving things that are not seen as achievements or are seen as "just the norm."

Sometimes, the achievement is reaching where others have always been, and it isn't about being normal, but about the things you have done to achieve a goal. You can celebrate and be proud no matter how "small" a feat it is

[cocoabuttavasa]

healthily floating.

[georg-prime]

Is alcohol really needed to have fun?

I don't know how to tag this and if anyone will/could help but, I've seen people say before they wished there were places to gather that wouldn't have alcohol. I'm guessing in the way bars are opened in the evening/at night, while coffee shops usually close early (at least most of the time, since they usually open during the day).

The coffee shop Time Out Space I talked about here, was opening until 9-10pm, but they had almost no one showing up so at some point decided to change a bit their opening hours, but it still didn't work unfortunately.

Now the people who run it think it must be because they don't sell hard alcohol (except for one type of light Korean beer but people have to also buy something to eat with it, for license reasons). They see bars all around town completely full every night, like so crowded people can't even find sits sometimes, and would even stay standing outside some bars with their glass awkwardly hovering until a group leave.

I think they simply didn't find the right partrons yet, people who have money to spend and would be into pop culture and would rather have a nice calm place to eat and drink soft drinks, and be able to play games and/or discuss nerdy stuff. I believe people who don't like super noisy full of drunk people bars exist, and it's sadly just hard to reach people through social media if you're not constantly pumping content and sharing pretty things, but being able to sell alcohol still wouldn't help them.

Does someone have ideas to be able to attract the right regular clients attention? Or are they right and the problem is the lack of alcohol?

[not-the-living-ghost]

Holy cannoli, Twitter Sucks!!

[fangirllena]

shine bright like the stars

I love to see stars shining bright in the night sky.

ahh - so beautiful!

but there are stars that we will never be able to see.

because regions of space are moving away from one another, the first population of stars to form in the universe are now too far away for us to see them.

there's still hope, as we can still try to spot them indirectly from the energetic bursts of radiation they emit at the end of their lives

such a beautiful sight when stars light up the sky

we can shine bright like the stars and emit all the positive energy everywhere! be everything you want to be and shine bright like the stars.

happy Monday night

[quietwingsinthesky]

.

[pastafossa]

how long did it take for your fanfiction to start getting some recognition? did you "advertise" it or "promote" it in any way?

i know that people say this doesn't matter, but i feel like even if you love writing the feeling that you're just talking to yourself gets pretty exhausting at some point. so i'm not talking about having thousands of readers but rather like. what's your advice to have readers at least?

- someone who hasn't even started writing their ideas yet...

LONG POST INCOMING.

First I want you (and everyone else reading who may be struggling with this) to know I'm absolutely with you and generally think 'it doesn't matter' is a horseshit answer. It's this weird thing we do in fanfic that we generally don't apply to other artforms that I've seen. If you're a painter, a playwriter, a novel writer, and you say, 'I want at least a few people to love my paintings, I want some people to come see my play, I want my novel to be published and do at least ok' we all support them, we nod, we agree, we talk about how they can do that successfully. It's considered normal to want some amount of success. But hold up fanfic instead and it becomes, 'how dare you want that praise, you're being egotistical, you should be writing only for yourself'. I'm not saying you can't do that - there are some who do - but it's definitely this bizarre switchup to say there's this single artform in which we can't want attention on our work and that there's something wrong with us if we do. That can be an absolute creativity killer depending on what kind of writer you are (hi, extrovert writer here who only gets writy writy juice from social interaction - aka comments and discussion. So I totally get it being exhausting just doing this on your own).

So let me say this categorically: you're allowed to want things. You're allowed to want kudos, comments, and hits. You're allowed to want messages and asks. You're allowed to want some readers you can talk with about your story.

You. Are. Allowed.

Ok, now that that's out of the way.

Edit: more below the cut cause I didn't realize the length of this on mobile

TRT definitely didn't get popular overnight. The first four chapters were sporadic, and then I took a hiatus due to life things for a couple years. During that time, it kept slowly ticking up bit by bit on AO3, with occasional comments. Iirc it was hovering somewhere around 700 kudos by the time I came back in Jan 2021 - and that's a awesome! It's big! But it's also a number that was gained over a few years, to put it in perspective. It absolutely took off after I came back though, and over the past 2 years both TRT's popularity and the stats of my one-shots in the fandom have grown. Part of that's just the time frame (TRT's been up about 6 years), but it's also due to a couple things that I think built up TRT's popularity.

Building a tumblr presence was huge. Ironically I didn't really intend to do it for advertising; I just wanted a place readers could ask questions or we could all freak out about Matt or I could post some drabbles or updates on the fic. But considering the fact that AO3 and tumblr are the top fic sites online, I wound up promoting my fics unintentionally just by being a friendly, happy tumblr user and fandom goer. All I did was follow the courtesy rules I knew - post stuff regularly, reblog, comment, make friends with other writers, just be friendly in your neighborhood because you love the lady with the gif flower shop on the corner or the wise old pizza maker who serves hot fandom takes all day long. I built familiarity with my writing and name by posting short fics, and by taking part in challenges and prompt lists and short requests for drabbles if I saw them, though that's something that's hard to do if you don't have time (I've got less time now, but I started this blog in the early pandemic so I had aaaaall the time in the world to write and was using it to stay sane). I tagged religiously because I LOVE tags, but that helped, too. Tumblr's search system is half broken but the half that works means people CAN find your writing even if they aren't following. Doing all this over here got me a huge boost over on AO3.

I will say that if you can have a fandom tiktok presence, there's a lot of fic reviewers, edits, and good stuff that can get your fic some readers (I've had some people do this on tiktok for TRT and it sent a surge over). I personally haven't done anything there yet, in part because while I'm on tiktok I try to keep my actual, real person accounts separate from my fic/fandom accounts and i haven't bothered to make a second account solely dedicated to the Pasta name yet.

Longfics on AO3 have the advantage in fic stats in the sense that every time you add a chapter, it gets bumped to the top of the front page and you get seen again. Eventually a lot of people will click out of curiosity. They may not, however, give you a lot of user subs or add to your other fic stats at first, whereas if you do a bunch of oneshots you're more likely to get user subs but less hits on each fic. This is a decision you'll have to make, and I know folks in both camps who built their followings using different methods on each. Either way, it helps if you're posting regularly, either in a long fic or one-shots. I call this the Stephen King method, who said he just writes a ton and throws it all at the wall, and eventually you get enough good despite the bad that you start building a following.

Learn learn learn. This is standard fic advice I always give, but it's still relevant. I think one of the reasons imo TRT has done so well is that I've spent a lot of time over the years learning how to write and edit - I read a ton of books (sometimes just to figure out HOW good authors structure their stories), I took a lot of English classes, I've taken some creative writing courses in my spare time. That two year hiatus was heavily spent doing a lot of research and practice around an original novel I want published one day. And I used ALL of that in TRT, just to see what it was like to put it all together. Be hungry for knowledge, be hungry to learn. The more you learn, the better your fic will be, and the more people that will click.

That learning also includes a looooong string of fanfics that started at a very novice level (hello 12 year old me), to fics that were ok and did moderately well but weren't anything huge. Hell, I had a tumblr account for my previous fandoms before I wandered over to Pastafossa, and while those fics did decently, I never had the huge reaction I've gotten here. But I used each and every one of those fics to learn and grow and adapt. Treat your own fics the same way. If it doesn't get hits, try to learn from it before moving on to the next idea a little wiser and a slightly better writer than before. There will always be people who start to follow you along the way.

A small one, but important: I swear to god, do not shit-talk yourself. Not in the summary, not in the tags, not in the A/Ns. I'm not talking, 'this is my first fic!' That's fine. I mean trashing your own work. Shit like, 'ha ha this sucks, it's terrible but oh well' will absolutely lower your stats, because people will believe you and will ditch your fic. On top of that, it's just mean to yourself, and as I said above, you want to be a good person in the fandom neighborhood. That means not breaking the windows of your own house.

People generally think of summaries as a side note, but a shitty summary can absolutely tank your stats. Treat it like the rest of your fic - this is the trailer before the movie, and it's a huge element of what gets people interested in the first place.

Lastly, like I said at the top, the biggest factor is time. There are people who post one fic and explode in popularity, absolutely. But far, far more little followings are built on the bones of time, of abandoned fics, of muttering and highlighting phrases in books in the middle of the night, of trying and trying and trying until we have at last have a breakthrough and then drag that breakthrough forward with us to the next fic. TRT is absolutely one part lightning in a bottle - the biggest success I've ever had anywhere with my writing, a confluence of fandom factors and world events that gave people (and me!) time to write and read. But it's also standing on the back of whole lot of fics I wrote that look like everyone else's: ones with no comments, low interaction, insults; ones where I had precisely zero idea of what I was doing, but wanted to try anyway. And the way I got through that, as a writer who needs interaction in order to create, was by building friendships in fandom so that even when a fic didn't do all that well, I still had friends I could talk to about the characters, the world, the fandom itself. I asked friends to look them over and give advice. I had friends being my cheerleaders. And if you're an extrovert like me, or just a writer who needs that to create, then those connections are vital as you build up a following.

That's a lot of what I've done. I know there are other ways to build a following, but this is generally what I've done, what I've learned to do, and it seems to have worked. Just remember that there are no bad fics - just learning opportunities. Learn something, and that fic's a success, and work as hard as you can to make those fandom connections to carry you through the process.

I absolutely hope to see your work around one day, so that I can be on of those followers!

[thelavellans]

Life update that I had a bit of an unintentional break from here since my burnout got real bad and then one of my dogs passed away at the end of April. Still feeling very tired and sad and with everything that’s been happening it’s taken a huge hit to my mental health, but I have been trying to be more active on here and at least keep my queue filled which has been a nice distraction. BetYouThoughtYou’dSeenTheLastOfMe.gif

Her name was Daisy Mae and I actually keep putting off posting this because I feel like I can’t say anything that does her justice. She had been diagnosed with diabetes about 4 years ago and then cancer about 2 years after. Loosing her is hard, but I try to remember that she far, far outlived the life expectancy she had been given.

I’ll never forget how when we first adopted her at 9 months old she was so grumpy and mistrusting. She had hated being picked up, but we had no choice since she didn’t know how to climb stairs. Fast forward just a few days and she had settled in very quickly. She came to love being held (only by me though lol) and would squeal with joy and often jump into my arms when I would come home. Despite being warned at the pound that she seemed a bit aggressive, she was the biggest sweetheart who would never hurt anyone. She wanted to be friends with literally everyone and thing she saw including the bees that flew by, the chipmunks she’d see run past her and she absolutely adored cats the most (I think she thought she was one). She also taught one of our other dogs at the time who was afraid of cats to be more comfortable around them. I also remember how we would sometimes sing her the Daisy Bell song and it would always seem to annoy her. To the point that if she had known how to roll her eyes I think she would have.

She was the best and I miss her a lot.

[tenrose]

I hate living in this world.

[ongawdclub]

G o o d

E n e r g y

[wyaxbros-apparel]