Lemons and Pineapples

Episode 8: How to Use Feng Shui to Achieve your Goals with Moni Castaneda

Emma O'Brien Season 2 Episode 8

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Have you ever wondered how your home space affects your life?

Do you find yourself making excuses for your house and not really enjoying the space you live in?

Would you like to know how to feel happier in your current home?

If so, this episode is for you.

My guest, Feng Shui consultant Moni Castaneda, shares how to work with your home to achieve your goals, shift your energy and create a nurturing environment for everyone you share living space with so you can enjoy spending time in a home you love.

Episode highlights:

  • The basic principles of Feng Shui: what to put where so you can be happy, healthy and successful
  • An overview of the three types of Feng Shui
  • Moni’s Feng Shui system; The 9 Steps of Feng Shui
  • How Moni works with her clients’ own sense of style to help them love and be proud of their homes
  • The state of your home is a reflection of the state of your life
  • Ways to create safety, balance, harmony and a connection to nature in your home
  • Using specific areas in your home to help you set life goals
  • The most important areas to start applying Feng Shui principles for life success
  • How your art and mirrors affect the energy of your home
  • One surprising kitchen item that is very important for good chi
  • 3 things you can do right now to improve the energy of your home


Moni shares such brilliant ideas and insights in the episode about how your home space affects all the other areas of your life! If you’re on a self-development journey already, prepare to be taken to the next level!

Access Moni’s FREE Style your Home Masterclass here and make sure you stay on the list for access to 15 more free classes.

Visit Moni’s website here: www.ninestepstofengshui.com

Connect with Moni on Instagram here @fengshuiforus 

Are you fed-up of having your life ruled by stress? If what you need is more calm, better focus and improved productivity instead of constant frazzle and overwhelm, you'll love my brand new Stress Less PDF Guide.

Inside you'll find 21 practical, actionable stress reduction strategies to help you get your groove back. Buy the PDF guide here.

If you know you want more from your life or career but you're totally stuck about where to start, I invite you to book a complimentary strategy call with me here.

We'll uncover what's holding you back from the goals you want to achieve and you'll leave the call with actionable steps to get you moving in the right direction.

For the tea on me, how I work, who I coach and the packages I offer, please visit my website - www.emmaobriencoach.com

You can also connect with me on Instagram @emmaobriencoach where I share an abundance of tools, strategies and brilliant content, you might also see the occasional dog.

Check out two of my FREE online workshops:

My 7 Step Formula for Getting Unstuck

4 Ways to Stop Procrastination in its Tracks...

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Emma O'Brien: Hi folks welcome to season 2. Episode 8 of the lemons and pineapples. Podcast today, my guest is moni, castanada. And we're talking about using Feng Shui to get your home working with you so you can accomplish your goals 1st a bit about my guest. Moni is a Feng Shui consultant, a speaker and an author who was devoted over 2 decades to the study and practice of Feng Shui.

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Emma O'Brien: Moni blends her knowledge of Western architecture with Eastern Feng Shui to help clients turn their current homes into dream homes that support them in every area of their lives. The result of working with Moni is that you live in a home you love, and that makes you proud. Welcome to the podcast moni.

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Moni Castaneda: Thank you so much for inviting me. I'm really happy to be here.

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Emma O'Brien: I'm very excited for this, because I don't know very much about Feng Shui at all, so I'm ready to be enlightened along with the audience here. Can you start by sharing a bit about what Feng Shui is.

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Moni Castaneda: Yeah. So Feng Shui is an ancient station art of placement or space arrangement

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Moni Castaneda: to put it in simple words, Feng, Shui teaches you what to put words so that you can be happy, healthy, and successful, right? And so Feng Shui is very, very old. It's over 2,000 years old, as as some people say, probably 4,000 years old. 5,000 but the the term Feng Shui was coined about 22 200 years ago. Yeah. And so there's some.

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Moni Castaneda: not just one type of Feng Shui right? And so that's important to consider, because sometimes people tell me, oh, I know all about Feng Shui, but then, when I go to their places, their places look really strange, or desire.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah.

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Moni Castaneda: Because some of you've seen it.

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Emma O'Brien: I haven't. I could just imagine you go to. Someone says, Oh, I know all about Feng Shui, and they've got stuff in all the wrong places I can.

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Moni Castaneda: Yeah, and and things that not not not necessarily transfer from Asian culture to our Western culture and in terms of design, but also in terms of belief. So there's 3 types of function. So there's there's many schools of function. But they're kind of like in these umbrellas, right? And so the 1st umbrella of schools are function is compass, cool function.

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Moni Castaneda: That is the the kind of function where they're so worried about the compass directions. And you have to face this reference if you have to avoid these other directions. And so that is mainly based on astrology and numerology.

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Moni Castaneda: and it creates fear based

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Moni Castaneda: experiences, because they tell you, based on your year of birth, that you have 4 positive directions and 4 negative directions that doesn't translate well to the West, because what happens in the West people become obsessed with what are called their 4 negative directions, and I haven't been to the homes of people that had compass cool

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Moni Castaneda: practitioners trying to help them, and they had become terrified of their office because the office was in a bad direction for them, you know. So they just let it become clutter in the junk room. And so, because some many people react with fear to compass full function. Very early on in my career when I 1st started interested and getting interested in Feng, Shui decided. That's not what I'm gonna do. Then there's the other umbrella

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Moni Castaneda: is a black hat school of function, which has become very popular in the West, especially in the United States. And this is a school that is actually the black sect.

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Moni Castaneda: a function that is

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Moni Castaneda: Tantric Buddhism.

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Moni Castaneda: And so, for example, they have a grand master, and pretty much when you start applying this type of Feng Shui, which which I think is is really really fabulous. But you're pretty much adopting another belief system. You're pretty much joining another religion.

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Moni Castaneda: And My

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Moni Castaneda: issue is, you know, because I'm a social consultant, but I also train people to come from shay consultants. I don't want the people that are trained to be cut off of certain segments of the population, because they're worried about the religion says they shouldn't do a stroke of your numerology, and they shouldn't do Buddhist and practices right? And so my my idea is to have a type of function that anybody can do, regardless of their belief system, and that wouldn't challenge their own beliefs.

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Moni Castaneda: And so I opted to do Feng Shui as a branch of ancient Chinese medicine, just like acupuncture or chicken.

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Moni Castaneda: Everybody's in massage, you know. And so the type of function that I practice is based on the principles of ancient decision healing and actually developed a system called the nice tassel function that allows people to turn their current homes into dream phones just by following the steps in the system. And it's a system that never fails.

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Moni Castaneda: and any home can be turned into a dream. Home.

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Emma O'Brien: Amazing. And and I think this is, I've learned something very new here about 3 types of Feng shui, the only Feng Shui I've got is, I have a frog with a little coin in his mouth. He's inside the front door, that is

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Emma O'Brien: that is the that's the extent of mine, so you can tell me if that's the right place for the frog or not.

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Moni Castaneda: A, and.

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Emma O'Brien: I would.

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Moni Castaneda: An article on my website on how to place a three-legged frog.

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Moni Castaneda: Okay?

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Moni Castaneda: And that's what it's called right. But I I do not use it or recommended. Because this is another thing that doesn't transfer culturally, there is a story in East Asia

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Moni Castaneda: about what happened and why the 3 legged frog is a symbol of prosperity, right? But when you don't know that all you see is a frog missing a leg.

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Moni Castaneda: And that's not gonna Trigger. Good good feelings, good emotions, or good thoughts in your brain.

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Emma O'Brien: I hadn't noticed he had 3 legs. He's just triangular shaped, so I haven't. Actually, I've just like the frog must be by the door with the coin. That's.

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Moni Castaneda: Yeah. And but it has to point in a certain direction. It has to be kind of hidden. And so like, if if a client of my insists that they want to use a traditional cure function it I'll teach them the right way to use it. But but for most of my clients. I wanna work with their own sense of style, with their own sense of face. If they don't have one, I'll help them develop it, so that at the end they absolutely love their home, and they don't have to make excuses for their home.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah.

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Moni Castaneda: And so like some some of the queues that you recommend, you know.

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Moni Castaneda: When people come in, they go like huh! Instead of instead of saying, Wow, this is a beautiful, comfortable home. I love the energy. They're more like, you know. Why. Why do you have 3 coins hanging from a red ribbon over there, you know, over there. So my emphasis is in making sure that everything that we do the client absolutely loves, and it looks great because you want to love your home, but you also want to be proud of your home. You know you don't want to be embarrassed to have people over.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, I totally. I totally agree with you, and I think our homes should be a nurturing space for us. They should be a space where we come into, and go as opposed to like you said a space. You come in and go. Oh, look at the clutter! Oh, look at the mess. So tell me.

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Emma O'Brien: how do you use Feng Shui to bring people's home space into a alignment? What are some of the things that you do.

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Moni Castaneda: Yeah. And so

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Moni Castaneda: your we use these terms, you know. For example, you say she's in a good place right now, and you say, well, he's not in a very good place right now. And and this these phrases that we use

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Moni Castaneda: have a connection to how we see life. So then the home is the place where you live.

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Moni Castaneda: and the shape your home is in. Give shape to your life. That's why we say he's in a good place or not. Right? And so basically, the empty spaces in the home that you create with the walls and the places of the furniture. That's where you live, and if those spaces are harmonious, if your environment is in a good place, then you're gonna have a much easier time being happy, being healthy and being successful.

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Moni Castaneda: And so what you do, you know what I do is I apply the 9 steps to function that I created inspired on the 9 principles of universal law and 9 principles of healing. And so you go through a process by which you take care of the most important things. First.st So the most important thing is that you feel safe in your home.

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Moni Castaneda: Then you have to feel balance right in in Chinese medicine, and they talk about excesses and deficiencies right? If a person has an excess of something or an efficiency of something, they're gonna get ill. So your home can have also excesses and deficiencies, and a common excess that is actually really popular is, for example, the double or triple high ceiling in the great room.

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Moni Castaneda: and that is an excess of space, and people love seeing these rooms with a really high ceilings, but they rarely use them because these spaces can lose the human scale. So what we do in function is we do things

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Moni Castaneda: that you, you still get to have your high ceiling, but it feels cozy, and you use the space right? And so there's a first, st the safety, the sense of safety, sense of wholeness, then the balancing, so that you don't attract drama to your life. Then we make sure that G, which is the life force, circulates in your home in a way that it promotes vitality.

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Moni Castaneda: But then you have to look at other things. You have to look at your connection with nature. Right? What kinds of window treatments do you have? Are your windows opening and closing easily. What do you see when you open the windows, you know. Is there an eyesore? Those are the things that we address. Then we have to harmonize, call, or shares and materials. We want to make sure that

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Moni Castaneda: all the pain tools that you have are giving you good messages.

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Moni Castaneda: Sometimes people will choose

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Moni Castaneda: paintings or photographs that are terrible. So, for example, in the home of a client, I saw a beautiful black and white photograph

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Moni Castaneda: of a tree that had been struck by lightning.

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Moni Castaneda: It's a beautiful photograph. It's a beautiful piece of art, but it wasn't doing good things for the people living in that home, you know, looking at a dead tree. It's not the same as looking as a live tree.

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Moni Castaneda: And so you you look at the, at the art. You look at the mirrors, you know certain mirrors are back on Shui, so you have to make sure you don't have those and make sure that your mirrors are in a good place, where they're doing good things for you, where they're not reproducing chaos or message or eyesource. Then it comes decluttering, you know, declaring is an important part of on shave, because decluttering is not just about

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Moni Castaneda: letting go of the things that you don't need or love. The clutter happens when you don't have beauty.

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Moni Castaneda: And so when people have beautiful things, they clean and organize them.

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Moni Castaneda: And then we look at what are the most popular part of Feng Shui, which is called the 9 Life Areas. And so sometimes, people, you know you. They tell me. Oh, my home is all Feng Shui, and all. What that they have done is they have put little trinkets for each of the life areas in their home. So we use this tool called the Bagua map.

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Moni Castaneda: That is kind of like a tic tac toe that divides your home into 9 squares, and I re 9 rectangles, and then they tell you. Well, at the back left you have well, well, at the back, right? You have relationships at the front left. You have wisdom at the front right. You have travel

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Moni Castaneda: in the very middle, at the front. You have career at the very back in the middle. Then you have a fame and reputation, and on the side walls in the center you have health on the one side, and then you have creativity on the other side, and those are the 9 life areas, right? And so we help you set goals

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Moni Castaneda: that are good for you. So

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Moni Castaneda: Since you're a life coach right?

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, okay.

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Moni Castaneda: People get unstuck.

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Moni Castaneda: You probably have seen that

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Moni Castaneda: in the coaching industry there's a lot about goals right setting goals. If I opportunities to set goals, and if you write your goals every day, and if you read them every day, that

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Moni Castaneda: you are, gonna get where

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Moni Castaneda: where you want to go that you're gonna achieve those goals. But there's a huge gap. And I think here is where a life coach probably is essential.

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Moni Castaneda: because there's a huge gap between what the person wants

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Moni Castaneda: and how to get that.

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Moni Castaneda: Yeah, that's 1 thing right.

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Moni Castaneda: But choosing the right goals.

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Moni Castaneda: it should be the bridge that unites those 2 things right? Because if a person wants something, and what if that something is bad for them? Right? And so you gotta make sure that the person is choosing goals that are gonna create their highest good. So that's 1 thing that we're gonna function, too, is we help people choose the right goals for them.

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Moni Castaneda: and then we also look at furniture placement. You know we have unfortunately, something called the power position, which is when you, the the position, the spot in the room

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Moni Castaneda: where you are going to be the most productive, where you're going to feel the safest where you're not going to get distracted, and that is for the position of the bed, the position of your desk and chair, and and other places in the home, so like, for example, the positioning of the sofa is very important, the positioning of them the head of household in the dining room. But the most important are where you sleep and where you work.

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Emma O'Brien: Okay.

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Moni Castaneda: Yes, and so that is how you bring a space into alignment. You go step by step, and and you address all these principles of healing. You know, a person needs wholeness. They need balance vitality. They need to be in good relationship with nature. They have to have harmony. They need to have the home. Tell them good messages that Chinese say

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Moni Castaneda: your home is. All the things in your home are constantly talking to you. Make sure they have good things to say right then, that your home is organized and tidy, that you are living with things you absolutely love.

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Moni Castaneda: and that you're setting good goals, and that you have reminders of your goals on your walls, on your furniture, and that you have arranged your furniture in order to empower yourself, and not to put blocks to your progress.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: there's so much in there. One question I have for you. That kind of stood out. What makes a bad mirror.

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Moni Castaneda: Oh, bad mirrors, for example, mirrors that are not flat

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Moni Castaneda: or concave mirrors. Those are bad fragmented mirrors, you know, like there's this beautiful mosaics made of mirrors. And they're really bad shape, because you see yourself fragmented in every single movie about mental illness. You're gonna see, there's a scene where the person is looking at themselves in a broken mirror or a mosaic mirror. Another something, and one that is often overlooked is a flat mirror with those bevels

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Moni Castaneda: that are so beautiful and most expensive. High-end. Beautiful mirrors have those edges. That is bad function. You should have a mirror that is completely flat and doesn't have this landed edges, because if you go and stand like at the edge of a mirror and it has slanted edge, you're gonna see a split image. So you want your mirrors to give you good feedback.

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Moni Castaneda: True feedback. Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: Brilliant. I I think that that that there's some great information there again I didn't know, and it makes total sense to not have a a 1 of those mosaic mirrors that gives you well, multiple versions of yourself. And you're absolutely right. Whenever we have a creepy scary movie, there's usually somebody breaking a mirror and.

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Moni Castaneda: Yeah, exactly. That's great.

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Emma O'Brien: Usually happens.

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Moni Castaneda: Another thing typical. Typical of horror! Movies

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Moni Castaneda: is the block with a knives on the kitchen counter

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Moni Castaneda: that you see in the beginning, and as the movie progresses they show you the block and one knife is missing. Right?

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Moni Castaneda: And so that's that function.

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Emma O'Brien: That makes total sense, because there's so many connotations to being murdered. I think we're all good. So where must the knives go instead.

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Moni Castaneda: They. If you want to put them in a block, it needs to go inside a cabinet. But there's some these knife organizers that you can put in a drawer, and so your your knives go vertically like that. You know they're protecting. Of course you have children. You have to put a child's lock on the drawer.

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Moni Castaneda: Yes.

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Emma O'Brien: Of course, so the children don't murder you.

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Moni Castaneda: Right, everybody.

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Emma O'Brien: Else, you know.

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Moni Castaneda: Now it's become really popular to have these magnets behind your stuff.

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Emma O'Brien: Yes, yes.

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Moni Castaneda: So you're nice over there that terrifies children.

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Moni Castaneda: Yes, my clients have actually told me that their children were having nightmares, and they were crying about the knives.

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Emma O'Brien: Oh, wow!

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Emma O'Brien: Okay. So the knives got firmly put into a draw out of, out of sight.

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Moni Castaneda: Then he, then.

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Emma O'Brien: Hidden, hidden.

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Emma O'Brien: Can you share with us an example of a client you've worked with that's had a goal that you've helped them to achieve

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Emma O'Brien: by going into their home and working with with them and working with your Feng Shui magic to

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Emma O'Brien: adjust the home space. So it's adjusted the outcome for for your client.

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Moni Castaneda: Yeah, I I'd like to share 2 stories, one in Canada and one in Wales. And I'm in the United States, right? So I have never stepped into their phones, because all my home consultations are now done long distance, you know.

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Moni Castaneda: online. And it works just as well because I've I've been doing this for more than 20 years. So I know what base, what spaces feel like. And with not today with photos and smartphones and videos. You can do everything online. So one of my clients, she was married, and she was really happy in her marriage, and she told me

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Moni Castaneda: the only thing that she wished about her husband is that he talked more, that he was very, very, very quiet, very, very silent, and she said, if he talked more to me, we would have a perfect marriage. And so when we got to step 6 with Step 6 is about the language of the home, the language of the home right. And one of the things that I always insist is that husbands be consultant because most of my clients are women.

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Moni Castaneda: and they are used to making all the decisions. You know. The husband comes home and he finds a painting on the wall. He finds a new rug in the living room. Husband are usually not consulted, and so

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Moni Castaneda: part of what I do is, you know, make sure every family member agrees with this choice, and in the beginning it was really hard for her, but when we got to step 6, which is about the language of the home, she told me my husband and I are having intimate deep conversations

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Moni Castaneda: every single evening.

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Moni Castaneda: So that is quite an amazing result. Right? And so, yeah, the only complaint she had about her husband is. He was not very communicative.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah.

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Moni Castaneda: And then to having deep, meaningful conversations every single day. That's just amazing. And another story I wanted to share is an artist. One of my clients was an artist, but she hadn't created any new work. In 7 years she had all this art that she had started, and she hadn't finished 7 years ago.

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Moni Castaneda: and we work, you know we apply the nicest of function system to her whole home.

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Moni Castaneda: But what made the difference for her art? Her creativity was her formal dining room.

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Moni Castaneda: It was pretty chaotic, right? It wasn't like messy or clutter. It was just chaotic in the function. Sense like things were not in the right places. The colors weren't good, and because she's an artist, you know, she she wanted to have a red magenta wall

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Moni Castaneda: in the formal dining room, which is not really a color recommended for a dining room. But I'm like she's an artist. That's what she likes. I'm gonna help her do what she wants to do right. And so we made it work. And so her dining room. You can go to my website and go to the before and after.

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Moni Castaneda: It's such a transformation

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Moni Castaneda: from what it was before and and the after right, and after she was done reorganizing her dime, you know. She started. 1st of all, she started finishing the artwork that she had never finished before, and but then she started doing new art. So the art she's doing today is art that comes from her soul. That is really her that really represents her, and that makes other families happy.

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Moni Castaneda: you know, like the kind of art she's making is, and especially for families with small children is the kind of art that brightens up your day is the kind of art that makes you

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Moni Castaneda: happy. You stay home with the children, you know, or happy to come home after work is a very family, oriented. She has a very Happy Family herself, and so there are she was doing before it wasn't her. It was like more expression is the kind of thing that our teachers push you to do right. But so she started making art that came from her heart that came from her soul.

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Moni Castaneda: Those are a 2 of my my favorite transformations that I have seen, and of course they both ended up with dream phones. One of them, you know, she her.

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Moni Castaneda: She had lived in the home 15 years she had never felt confident to invite people over, and she actually had the pre prom party

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Moni Castaneda: at her house, you know, for her 17 year old daughter and all her daughter's friends were complimenting her and talking about how beautiful her home is. And I wish my phone was like this. And then her friends and family started asking her for advice on how to decorate their homes.

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Emma O'Brien: I. So there's so much in here, and the big takeaway I've got, cause I've got a bit of a bias towards it, because it's what I coach a lot of people around is that in doing

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Emma O'Brien: the work in the homes with your clients, in making the shifts in the space that they're in.

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Emma O'Brien: They found a sense of confidence. They didn't have

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Emma O'Brien: befall.

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Moni Castaneda: That's nice.

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Emma O'Brien: So powerful.

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Moni Castaneda: And I'm sure as a live coach, you know that a lot of women especially have trouble making decisions, right

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Moni Castaneda: and so the

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Moni Castaneda: the process of applying from straight to your home involves a lot of decisions. But it's decisions that come from knowledge. Right? So, for example, in the beginning, one of the 1st things that we do is if your floor plan is not a square rectangle

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Moni Castaneda: we compensate for that, and so that from the inside. It feels like it's not missing a portion, right? And so that gives women a sense of wholeness, a sense of there's a lot of potential here, you know I haven't reached the end of the road. I'm not stuck, you know. I have all the pieces for my life to be the way I want it to be.

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Moni Castaneda: And then when when people are correcting these access and excesses and balances right, they're like, Okay, you know, I don't have to leave a life of drama all the time. You know, there's.

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Emma O'Brien: And there's.

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Moni Castaneda: Here for for more. And so these are such important things, because, for example.

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Moni Castaneda: a whole way that is narrow needs to be made wider right. That means that you have to choose a mirror to make it wider.

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Moni Castaneda: But then you have to know where to place it, because in some spots you shouldn't have a mirror, because what you are reflecting is that good? Right? Or, for example, if right at when you come out of a bedroom, you shouldn't see a mirror cause that could startle you right. So you have to know where to put the mirror. You have to know what kind of mirror you need. So when I give people all this information, okay, so this is what you need to make your decision to make an informed decision. But then they go and choose the mirror. They love.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah.

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Moni Castaneda: As long as it follow certain guidelines right? And so that makes it that less. A person know that with the right information. They can make the right decisions.

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Emma O'Brien: Yes.

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Moni Castaneda: That's such a huge transformation, you know, when a woman goes from doubting herself to knowing that she's making the right decisions, there's a huge leap in self

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Moni Castaneda: esteem and confidence.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's 1 of thing. One of the things that that I coach around is when you get into action, the more action you take, the more confident you are, say, for people who struggle with decision, making the more you can practice your decision making muscle.

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Emma O'Brien: And then you have a great outcome, the the easier it is to do it. Next time, when you are faced with a decision where perhaps you don't have all the knowledge. But you think you know what I've I've done all I've made all these great decisions already.

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Emma O'Brien: I can. I can do this, and I think that's the process of moving life forwards and making progress is is being in action, and it's having the confidence to to do that. So this has been so interesting money. So what I've picked up here

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Emma O'Brien: is

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Emma O'Brien: Be mindful of the kind of mirror that you're having in your home.

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Emma O'Brien: Be careful where you're putting your knives.

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Emma O'Brien: Making sure that everybody in the house is consulted. And I think it's you you. I chuckled away to to that one. Because I think you're right. Lots of lots of husbands come home and go. Oh,

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Moni Castaneda: You've been a new thing.

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Emma O'Brien: Redecorated. Great! I'll just check my bank statement for that. And

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Emma O'Brien: it's you know, they live in the home, too, and I think sometimes we take for granted, because men aren't always very expressive about what they do or don't want, and.

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Moni Castaneda: You shouldn't. You shouldn't treat your partner like a credit card right?

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Emma O'Brien: Correct, totally agree with you, and it's something I've it's something I've been doing. My in my own marriage is and it's something my husband said to me, Do you know what could you? Could you consult me before you make a decision rather than making a decision, and then telling me. You've done it. And it's it's it has changed the relationship cause. Actually, I didn't realize I was doing it. I think sometimes you go. Oh, sorry about that

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Emma O'Brien: so so interesting. And the the other the last piece I picked up on is, be mindful with your art, especially if you have small children, and we don't want Caravaggio's up all over them.

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Moni Castaneda: Exactly right.

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Emma O'Brien: Not the artwork for, especially for a bedroom, and especially not for a home with small people living in it. Moni, could you share 3 things, somebody listening. Who's thinking, God! This is really fascinating. And they want to go trotting out into their house when they get home, or or after listening to the podcast what are 3 really easy things someone can do to transform a space

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Emma O'Brien: right now.

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Moni Castaneda: So to get started with your home to bring more positive energy. Start with your mailbox or letterbox.

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Moni Castaneda: Make sure that's in good condition, that it has a fresh coat of paint, and the numbers are super clear.

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Emma O'Brien: Okay.

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Moni Castaneda: And so that puts you in a place where you are findable, where good luck can find you. Right? And so your mailbox of letter box needs to be beautiful in good condition. Clear numbers, if possible, beautiful flowers around it

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Moni Castaneda: that invites good energy to your home. You're making a gift to your neighbors by doing that. Then make sure that there's open space in front of your front entrance, and that you put 2 planters, one on each side of the main door

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Moni Castaneda: that are colorful, or they have colorful flowers on them. So they're like your guardians for your door, right.

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Moni Castaneda: And the 3rd thing is, make sure. When you open the door it opens fully to 90 degrees or 280 degrees in a lot of homes that I've been, or that I have consulted, for you can't even open the door because there's clutter behind the door, so make sure your fire is uncluttered, because if the 1st thing that happens to you is when you try to come home, the door gets so this would apply to your front door, but also maybe the door that you use most often right.

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Moni Castaneda: And make sure that it opens smoothly, noselessly, and also that the 1st thing you see when you come home

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Moni Castaneda: it's something that you really absolutely love, because, like one of my clients, you know, very successful professional when beautiful. 4 year. But when she comes in she comes in from the garage. So she opens the door garage into her house, and she sees the extra her stash of dog food. Has. She has 2 really big dogs right?

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Moni Castaneda: And so she buys this industrial size, and so she's put them in the hallway.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah.

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Moni Castaneda: Right across, you know. So she she opened. She used to open the door to her gar from her garage into the phone, and she saw that

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Moni Castaneda: huge bags of dog food, and just like, Oh, I have to walk that off.

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Moni Castaneda: It is a

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Moni Castaneda: and so it's like, Oh, as soon as I come home chores. So, instead of having the happiness of seeing maybe a beautiful painting when you come home, and then having the happiness of seeing your dog come to you right, having that happy moment and having the wrong thing. When you see when you come inside, the home gives you the wrong attitude towards your home and towards your life.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, yeah.

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Moni Castaneda: And recommend.

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Emma O'Brien: Oh, I love those. Thank you very much, and so actionable and just brilliant, and it and it makes so much sense to me when you're sharing this. So money, I've really really enjoyed chatting to you today, you have a free class that people can access online. Could you just talk a little bit more about that for me.

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Moni Castaneda: So if you go to my website, which is 9 steps to function. But if you don't know how to spell function, you can also type space arrangementcom, and it will take you there. So on my menu at the top. You're gonna see that says free and low cost.

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Moni Castaneda: And if you click on free and low cost.

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Moni Castaneda: you're gonna find a class there that is called how to develop a sense of style in your home.

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Moni Castaneda: and you can take that class is completely free. You get instant access to it. And of course, you know, with a with a lot of freedom freebies. There's an email sequence that comes after right. And so if you do not unsubscribe right away, because, you know like. And I'm guilty of that. Sometimes you want a freebie. You get the freebie, and you unsubscribe. If you do not unsubscribe, and you can hang in there for a week.

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Moni Castaneda: you will get a chance you'll get a link to all of my freebies. I have another 15 fabulous freebies, you know, webinars, free classes, charts. I have a bow map that you can get for free. I have a class on the 5 mirrors you shouldn't have in your home. I have a class on the master bedrooms. I have so many classes right?

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Moni Castaneda: And so if you stick with me, if you get your freebie and you wait about a week, you're gonna get a link that is, gonna take you to all of my freebies. So you can just keep cycling through that page and just learn all the function that you can learn without any specific help. Right? So that will get you an idea of what I do, how I do it, and how I can help you really turn your home into a dream home, so you can live a happy life.

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Emma O'Brien: Wonderful. I'm going to pop the links both of those links in the show notes, and then people can just go and click and great, and then stay on Moni's mailing list. If you want these extras, folks don't leap off

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Emma O'Brien: because this sounds brilliant, like you've got a wonderful selection of classes there. I'm going to go and subscribe and have a look at that, because I'm very intrigued. You've piqued my interest with our chat today, so thank you very much for for joining me. I really appreciate this. This has been a really entertaining and really

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Emma O'Brien: enlightening

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Emma O'Brien: conversation.

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Moni Castaneda: Thank you for inviting me. It's been a pleasure.

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Emma O'Brien: Folks. Thank you very much for joining us for today's episode. I will see you same time next week bye, for now.