About the Founder:

Born and raised in Portugal and living in NYC since 2013, Marcia is a Woman, an Architect, a Designer, a Wellness Coach (and even a DJ on her spare time), whose passion for Retail Interior Design led her to become a Sales Manager for different European Furniture Retailers, and whose life experience had guided her to become a Holistic Nutrition Coach and Feng Shui Consultant. She is what she likes to call as an "Inside Architect".

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My last thoughts on 2020 and what I expect of 2021...

Hi Reader,

Although 2020 is already gone, I would like to start with a note that was my last thought about it on Facebook. I honestly thought people wouldn't read it because it was a long post but, turns out I had a lot of comments, and even messages about that... So I wanted to share it with you as well.

My last thoughts on 2020... Thursday December 31st 2020

Today, as I walked outside to the grocery store, I was offered a lesson.

I was about to head out and wishing my old neighbor Paul a Happy New Year, when the building super stopped me, looking outraged. He said “stop, be careful! This guy walking his dog didn’t pick up his dog’s poop” (and yes he didn't really use that word). I looked down and thanked him- I for sure would have stepped on it! Although in Portugal we say that stepping on it can bring you luck, I would first have a hard time taking that out of my boots- man, was that poop soft!💩

And so the super kept pointing at the guy, already at the end of the street...

I started walking towards the guy, since it was in my direction anyway and was starting to feel outraged too. 👿 I saw the guy quickly entering a building and I almost went after him... Only, I didn’t.

In my mind I kept hearing a voice saying “Marcia, you don’t know WHY this guy didn’t pick up his dog’s poop- maybe there was something about this situation you don’t know”. And I went my way. (I learned this from a Srikumar Rao seminar before- I wasn't always this mindful)

As I was coming back from the grocery store, I saw the same guy walking back from my side of the street with a black bag on his hand- he went back to pick up his dog’s poop... 😇

Reality can be indeed shaped in many different forms of perception. Know that famous sentence- “when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”? The moment I stopped to think about the situation, I was able to stop feeling angry, and allow for my own vibration to change.

And that reminded me of an analogy of 2020... I know, you might be saying-really Marcia? Are you going to compare 2020 to dog’s poop? 😂

Well, for a lot of people it was, because what you make out of it it is what you put in it... And it was a year that proved us that we cannot control everything around us. Where it was easier to blame others for- not wearing masks, not staying at home, not doing this or that... but did we learn to know their WHY? On the other hand, it was a year of lessons - teaching us to be responsible. To pick up our own s*** and learn how to survive. To take responsibility for how we want to be living 2021 and after... But did we? I know some of us did 😉

While some are still crying for the old normal, if you look at previous world crisis, did things stay the same? No! They created amazing shifts of evolution!

And that’s my hope, that really 2021 can be the beginning of making those shifts happen. I truly believe the universe is working for us, and this morning it was another small moment it was working for me... 😉 I didn't step on that poop!

And for that I say, thank you 2020 for the lessons, and welcome 2021 for the evolution you’ll bring!🥂

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So you've heard the words, but do you know what Feng Shui is?

We've all heard about Feng Shui before, but do we know what it is or why is it used nowadays? Feng Shui is not a religion but it is deeply rooted in Chinese culture. The practice has also borrowed concepts from Taoist philosophy. This Chinese philosophy focuses on the links between harmony, balanced energy and simplicity. Feng Shui uses these elements to bring tranquility and positivity into living environments and workspaces.

“Feng” translates from Standard Chinese as “wind.” “Shui” translates as “water.” The phrase “wind water” represents balance and the flow of energy. According to the principles of Feng Shui, the energy flow in each person's home or workplace reflects the circumstances in his or her life. This energy is often referred to as “Ch’i.” Ch’i translates to “air,” “life force” or “energy flow.” In the context of Feng Shui, Ch’i describes the energy you feel in a physical space.

In Feng Shui practice, everyone and everything connects through the flow of energy. Changes to your environment, including a room’s layout or color palette, will affect the balance and flow of Ch’i in the space. These changes to Ch’i flow, in turn, affect your wellbeing.

Have you ever walked into someone's space and felt a heavy/negative energy? Yes, your body can pick up on that. And in a way it is easier to explain it scientifically, more than you know - remember that approximately 70% of your body is made of water? Water can be so easily impacted by different vibrations/frequencies. If you never heard of the study by Dr. Masari Emoto, I recommend you to take a look at it.

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It is impressive how just by having thoughts that create emotions like love, hate, peace, etc you can create different crystals in the water. So you can imagine how your body, made of water, can pick up on these vibrations. That's why crystals are also used for healing therapy, as their frequency can impact you. And everything is made of energy. Yes, even that chair lying on your living room. So imagine how much impact this energy around you can have.

Feng Shui practitioners design spaces that encourage well-balanced Ch’i to flow. By creating calm and relaxed feelings in these spaces, you'll feel the positive effects of that balanced energy. Ch’i that flows too quickly can make you feel stressed or unhappy. If the Ch’i doesn’t flow, the space will have stagnant energy. Stagnant Ch’i might make you feel uneasy or tired (decluttering is so important in these cases).

As I learn more and more with this ancient practice, I realize how things are even more connected than I initially thought when I started doing this. I love how both WildFit and Feng Shui are creating wellbeing by connecting us to nature. While Feng Shui uses the 5 natural elements in a space, WildFit is all about eating a natural diet.

As a bonus, if you want to know if your space is energetically balanced, until the end of January, I am offering 5 FREE Bagua floor plan readings, to the first 5 subscribers who reply to this email (must be able to send me a scaled floor plan in a PDF format). I will identify the problematic areas and send you an explanation of the results, along with the floor plan Bagua.

You can also get 15% discount on my INSIDE CHI program, with the code 15CHI. In this program we will start with identifying the problematic areas through the Bagua reading, and then give you detailed solutions to correct them in your space. Find out more about how this program can help you, by clicking here.​

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Food is medicine but not the way that you think. Bonus - 9 Ways to boost your immune system.

If 2020 served us for something, I would say at least it brought to light how dysfunctional the way we are eating is. And how it's making us more vulnerable to diseases... Although we're still struggling with Covid-19 and mutations of the virus, never have you heard so many specialists and scientists agree about how levels of Vitamin D could impact how the virus affects you. Or how chronic illnesses like Diabetes and Obesity can be a risk factor in dealing with it.

Anecdotally or not, during the past year we had some of our WildFit clients getting "sick" with the virus, but luckily they barely had symptoms. Most of them were at a stage of the program where their nutrition was already so up, that it was easier on them. I was also barely affected by it, when I got it in the beginning of March. And what amazed me was that prior to taking the WildFit Challenge I suffered so much with sinuses episodes that would develop into a heavy cough/mucus inflammation in my chest for weeks, just out of a simple cold. And this time I only had a cough for 3-4 days - no mucus inflammation.

Do I think my change in lifestyle helped? I really do. There are many unknown factors about Covid-19 and other diseases but through my own experience and coaching others, I've seen how certain health conditions can be relieved and even reverted just by changing the way we eat.

So what do we mean with Food is Medicine? Is it that by eating certain foods you cure a disease? Not really... In WildFit we teach people to eat the way humans were intended, with a big focus on understanding their hungers and the psychology behind their eating habits. And one thing we always say is that food is not going to cure you, but the absent of certain foods might. Meaning that when you're not getting all the nutrition you should, your body starts getting deficiencies and not working properly, creating a feeling of dis-ease. The reality is that the food industry is creating all this by providing more and more foods that are full of calories and empty of nutrients, and if we don't pay attention to the ingredients in the labels of most foods, we end up eating sugar and processed food more than we would have intended. And yes, not only sugar is addictive, it is also the number 1 cause of inflammation. So when I see how people leave the door open to this because they think they can't "give up on sugar", I sometimes just want to go to them and whisper non stop "you can do it, thousands of people have done it, so you can do it too"...

Changing lifestyle is not as simple as one thinks, and it doesn't happen within just a click, but it's possible to do so in as little as 90 days, with the WildFit Challenge. And I would argue that due to all that is happening, there's no better time than this, to start doing it. Right now is Covid-19, but in the future there will be other threats. Are you going to wait for something even worse? We haven't even gone through the end of this one yet! The time has come, for you to decide if you live to eat, or eat to live... And if you have decided you eat to live and want to find out a non restricting way of keep enjoying food, I hope you try WildFit.

For now, I would like to leave you with a 30 min recording of a live streaming I did for my private Facebook group early January with 9 tips on how to boost your immune system. These are all easy tips that you can start implementing and they don't involve just food. Hope this can help you regaining back a bit of your power and to start somewhere...

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Marcia Mendes

Inside Architect | Certified WildFit Coach