When applying feng shui the best practice is to avoid the bad and go for the good because not everything can be cured. For this reason when it comes to buying or renting a home it is better to evaluate it following some basic feng shui principles before making a decision.

The first thing that you need to do is check out its surroundings: make sure the land behind is higher than the land in front; the front of the house is open and clear of obstructions; there are no energy pylons close by, the landscape around looks lush and healthy and there aren’t any bodies of water (ponds, lakes or pools) located at the northeast, northwest, west or south of the house.

Once you verify the outside ask for a copy of the floor plan, a printed one because what you need to see is the shape of the house and that is not easy to verify just by walking around. Does the shape look like a square or a rectangle? If it doesn’t it is better to forget about buying or renting that place or to engage a professional feng shui consultant to determine exactly what areas of your life are going to be affected due to the missing sectors or protrusions. The reason behind this recommendation is that each of the sectors in a 3 by 3 grid is associated with a member of the family, a part of the body, a sickness, a life aspiration and much more. If you superimpose the 3 by 3 grid on the floor plan and you find out that one or more of the sectors of the grid don’t exist, the absence of those sectors will negatively impact the aspects that they represent.

Maybe the affected family member(s) aren’t members of your household or maybe you don’t care about the life aspiration that the sector(s) represent(s), if that is the case it might be OK for you to live in that house but please check it out. Once you verify the shape of the house go and explore the location of the main door, the bedroom(s), the home office (if you plan to work from home) and the stove. Avoid obstructions right inside the main door, pillars in the middle of any space, awkward bedroom shapes and sloped ceilings. Avoid as well ceiling beams right on top headboards, stovetops without support, and fire places, bathrooms and staircases in the center of the house.

If all the previous tests scored high you might want to engage a professional feng shui consultant to determine the quality of energy inside the place based on formulas. The main door is the conduct of energy into the house so you want to make sure that whatever comes through that door is favorable; the bedrooms are the locations where you and your loved ones spend at least eight hours every day so the energy in those rooms better be good too otherwise it could cause sickness and misfortune; the home office is the place where you spend at least other eight hours every day so it also needs to be favorable; the stove is considered the center of health that allows you to generate wealth so you really want it to be in a safe place.

I know the perfect home is not easy to find but if it was easy everybody would have a perfect life.

Many people are nowadays talking about the US presidential election and are trying to forecast who will be the next president. Despite the fact that Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Mr. Donald Trump have not yet been officially appointed by their parties, they will most likely be the ones competing for the white house so let’s join the crowd and talk about them.

As much as we all like to know ahead of time what could happen in the future, I don’t see much value in knowing that information unless we are able to do something about it now. I believe that the year of the monkey has not been an easy year for Mrs. Clinton in different aspects of her life, however during the election time the energy is going to be more favorable for her than for Mr. Trump. I don’t think we can do much with what I just said so instead of forecasting the future let’s go over some personality traits of the candidates, which could help you decide who to vote for.

Mrs. Clinton is a strong and stable individual with unlimited potential for growth and personal development. She is mysterious and stubborn and tends to hide intelligence and power beneath her calm exterior. She is competitive and always strives to be number one, she is persistent and never gives up without a fight. The key to her success relies on her patience so it is essential for her to be passive in her business or career.

She is trustable but sometimes she tends to procrastinate. She is moody but she is not temperamental. She is extremely territorial with everything that she thinks belongs to her. She has a moralistic approach to life and inborn abilities to listen and to observe. She has the power of anticipation that comes from real observation so she has the ability to solve problems before they actually take place.

She is creative, energetic and innovative; she is an idea person, a dreamer, a visionary. She likes to be under the spot, to do presentations, to talk, and to brain storm.

She is very friendly, she likes people and she always connects with the right individuals; she is appreciative, forgiving, encouraging and courteous. She is also warm hearted and tends to think win-win.

At work Mrs. Clinton looks great on the surface because she knows how to package herself well. She has good ideas but she is bad at details. She is a super star kind of leader, very charismatic and inspirational, people follow her for her personality but sometimes she makes promises that later on she doesn’t fulfill, not because she is not genuine but because she forgets. She is good in the political arena because of her charisma but she has to be careful of not losing credibility.

Mr. Trump is talented and has a strong determination to seek wealth, he is bold and courageous but he can be too quick and thoughtless with his speech. He has great business acumen and entrepreneurial mindset. He is hardworking and passionate about his career, which greatly contributes to his success. He has the ability to find solutions quickly and effectively and to get support from helpful people but he also comes across a lot of petty people on his way.

He is very resourceful and his success relies on managing other people’s resources. He is multitalented but he really doesn’t master any of his talents; he is a multitasker and he keeps himself busy all the time even though he is not necessarily productive all the time. He tends to have a big ego but despite his ego he is considered and he doesn’t like to keep an argument or to have a cold war with someone. His greatest motivation is to enjoy life, more than money he likes to accumulate stuff.

He is driven by success, has mature ideas and is good at connecting with other people. He is a thinker, he likes to analyze and to advise. He is very good at identifying a problem and he is also good at taking action to solve it. He is methodic and thorough, he likes to have all the information at hand, this is his strength but also his weakness because he is always seeking for completeness and sometimes that makes him lose time in capitalizing opportunities. He is good at details: facts, figures, graphs and trends.

At work Mr. Trump is schedule oriented and detail conscious. He is very persistent but he tends to be slow, he takes a lot of time to make decisions because he considers and analyzes all the pros and cons, however once he starts something he won’t stop until it is done. He is not good providing guidance so he needs a competent team supporting him.