Author Archives: Laura Benko
Want to Wake Up Fully Rested? Try These Mind Body Spirit Tips
There are specific actions you can take to greatly enhance the quality of your sleep. As with my book, The Holistic Home: Feng Shui for Mind Body Spirit Space and my business, The Holistic Home Company, it’s all about looking deeper within the surface of your space, to tackle your challenges by using three planes of action – mind, body and spirit – in your home to evoke the most effective change. The mind covers the psychology of how we dwell and the subconscious symbolism in our surroundings. The body portion is
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Forget A Showplace Home. A Home That Bears the Traces of Real Life is Best.
In my upcoming book, The Holistic Home: Feng Shui Your Mind Body Spirit Space, I talk about creating spaces that not only reflect who are are, but help elevate you to where you hope to be. One aspect of that means creating a home that heralds who you are and fully serves those who live there by being efficient, meaningful, inspiring and mostly organized. By “mostly”, I mean having organizational systems in place for things like keys, a method for filing papers and recycling but NOT stressing yourself out when creative messes occur or the toilet bowl is less than sparkling. If you are stressed about the order of your space, your guests and occupants will be too. That stress can effect each person differently over time. (Not feeling comfortable in your own skin, uncertainty with decisions, feeling a loss of identity, anxiety or nervousness.)
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My Outrage with UPS!
I’ve NEVER written a post like this before. But I am FURIOUS with UPS for damaging an extremely important package, giving me the run-around about it, making false promises of saying that they would definitely call me back twice and never did, and denying a legitimate claim to reimburse what they ruined. It all began when I sent out the most important package of my career. It was so important that I packaged it with extra care, bubble wrap and peanuts and even took out FIVE TIMES the amount of insurance! I put FRAGILE stickers on every side. When the UPS deliveryman arrived at the recipient’s porch, he dropped it there and tried to walk away without even ringing her bell. She came out and was horrified that the box was busted open on all sides, had small holes, a caved in area on top and black marks all over that looked like tire marks. She brought it in and immediately took a picture of it.
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The Holistic Home Company Goes Into Retail!
It’s been a little over a year since I launched The Holistic Home Company, selling luxury goods online for the mind, body, spirit, space and I finally felt comfortable to venture into wholesale. Uncommon Goods picked up two of my gift sets, one is the Deluxe Scrub Set and the other is the Aromatherapy Spray Gift set. The Aromatherapy Spray Gift Set has become a huge hit. I’ve had to scale up my business to keep up with the orders, hire new employees, get more space for materials and luckily, the business has adjusted well with the new pace. Selling online has been great but I felt The Holistic Home Company was ready to expand to brick and mortar spaces and it could not be just any place. It had to be special. It had to be a place where the energy of the space matched the energy of my products. I set the intention, put it out there to the Universe, and it happened.
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My Book! The Holistic Home: Feng Shui Your Mind, Body, Spirit, Space
For the last fourteen I’ve been working as a Feng Shui consultant. During this time, I lectured and taught around the country, yanking this ancient subject into the 21st century when needed. In some ways, my approach with Feng Shui shifted from my early teachings and I began to shed some of the arcane principals that didn’t make sense, I kept concepts that worked well for my clients and dropped all the teachings that were based in fear. (Ancient Feng Shui Pet Peeve #32, “A mirror in the bedroom will steal your soul!”) I began to address all areas of my clients life – not just for example that they had lots of clutter, but I’d delve into the real reasons they were holding on to stuff and accumulating. When I dealt with their emotional, spiritual and physical aspects of their space and self, their transformations were extremely effective and long lasting. Their stories, as well as my modernized, holistic Feng Shui approach became the inspiration for my book.
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Yoga, Feng Shui & Real Moments That Connect Everything
Feng Shui and Yoga are both ancient practices that work with energetic flows – one within the body and the other within the home. Both have goals of improving well being with end results aimed at enhancing the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of yourself. As a Feng Shui Consultant I have the energetic flows pretty much covered inside my home but when it comes to another intimate environment – my body – I needed to amp it up because my recent visit to my hematologist /oncologist last week delivered some disturbing news. It had been years since I practiced yoga regularly and I knew it could have a positive effect on my health but I needed motivation to get into the groove again. So, when the yoga studio
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Find The Best Mother’s Day Gifts at Uncommon Goods!
I love Uncommon Goods. They feature unique products that are handmade, made in the USA or recycled. They’ve curated their collection with a keen eye for design and a kind heart for sustainability, fair wages and giving back. I like them. Thats why I was especially thrilled when they picked up two of my TheHolisticHomeCompany.com gift sets. The aromatherapy spray gift set and the deluxe scrub gift set. They wanted them in time for Mother’s Day and I get it. Mom will love this like nothing else!
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Misconceptions about Feng Shui That Need To Stop!
Today Huffington Post Home posted another article about Feng Shui that made my blood boil. Publishing articles like this on a topic that is already often misaligned and misrepresented only further portrays this ancient art of placement as hokey and superstitious! The article stated that mirrors in the bedroom are bad because “When you see a human image in the mirror, you’re inviting another person into your relationship, whether that’s your relationship with yourself or with your partner.” This was a “Feng Shui” quote given by someone who’s website says she is a professional stager/designer and calls herself a “marketing professional”. (And this quote makes me wonder “what does inviting another person into the relationship- not with your partner- but with yourself mean???”). Huffington Post Home, you can do better!
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Preparing Your Mind Body Spirit & Space for Spring
Spring arrives this month on March 20th. For some of us, it couldn’t happen soon enough. There are many things that you can do to help usher in this new cycle so that the best may unfold for you this season. And I am truly confident that if you take the time to implement these tips, you will certainly feel a difference in yourself and your space. Feng Shui teaches us that when you syncopate with the seasons, you are in synch with the universal forces around you and when that happens, you are
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Feng Shui for Love! Tips to Bring It, Tips To Keep It!
Ahh, love is my favorite topic so I’ll get right into it. As most of you know, my feng shui recommendations are never as simple as suggesting you add some pink flowers in the relationship corner of your home and then wait for love to appear in your life. It’s much more. It’s closely examining your surroundings and seeing if they are congruent with your relationship goals. It’s
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