Turning Your Yard into a Feng Shui Paradise

Why have just a “yard,” when you can have a beautiful, nourishing “garden?” In Feng Shui your home is considered the "heart" of your property, while the garden is considered the "aura." Your garden is your personal passport into nature. It keeps you connected to the rhythms of life, while replenishing and sustaining the Ch’i that meanders throughout, whether a flower or vegetable garden, vibrant nature in your yard attracts vibrant Ch’i into your home.

The rains have finally stopped, and the following sunshine have blessed my garden with lush, shiny leaves and a multitude of buds. I am being swept away into a land of beautiful flowers, intoxicating fragrance, and an explosion of color. It is important to have an outlet where the brain can breathe, and your garden can be this natural outlet. After a long day at work or just taking a break from your home routines, a walk through our garden can relax you and help you defuse any stress you may have been dealing with.

          

Feng Shui, which has been practiced for over 3,000 years in China, is the enhancement of health, prosperity, and happiness through a connection with your environment. Flowers, with their various shapes and colors, represent all the five Feng Shui Elements. When in balance, these five elements displays help to calm and energize you at the same time.

                                       

Some examples of the elements in your garden:

Water: Water features of any kind

Wood: Blue, green items, plants of any kind

Fire: Red flowers, lighting

Earth: Yellow flowers, ceramics

Metal: White flowers, natural stone, round shapes

                                        

Gardens have many other purposes. When applicable, use gardens and landscaping to complete the shape of your home. If your home is not a complete square or rectangle anchor the missing areas with a pleasing combination of trees, flowerbeds, garden sculptures, large rocks, decks, patios, fencing, lighting, specialty gardens and/or water features. There is no end to what you can do, and the missing area becomes an enhancing outdoor area. Make sure you have an attractive view from every window and door. Be nourished by a lovely view each time you look out; camouflage or screen unsightly views with trees, trellises with climbing vines, and hanging gardens. An inspirational place to rest the eye is a gift you give yourself every day. Basic Feng Shui principles can help you nurture and strengthen your energy and yourself in all aspects of your life.

                                         

Here are some Feng Shui basics for nurturing gardens:

1) Make your entry beautiful and clutter free

2) Place water features in the Career and Wealth areas

3) Remove dead plants quickly

4) Balance the Yin/Yang of your garden with opposites (short/tall plants, bright/soft colors)

5) Keep all systems working (i.e., watering, lighting – nothing should be broken)

Your gardens are living, breathing entities offering us the balance of nature. Flowers are amongst the strongest of the Feng Shui enhancements because they are related to the Health, Friends and Family Area of your home (left middle area). If you are dealing with health issues, you want to put fresh flowers or floral representation in that area.

                                       

Whether you have a garden, a patio or beautiful pots and vases at home you can use the power of plants and flowers to enhance your life. Sow flower seeds to attract bees and beautiful birds, plant a vegetable garden, pull weeds, clean, organize and refresh your yard, or patio. If you have children, you can use this home time to teach them gardening skills and love for nature. Cut your own beautiful fresh flowers and arrange them in stunning floral art, then take pictures of your beautiful arrangements. Finally, just enjoy your garden by strolling through it, taking a nap, meditating, or sitting on a favorite bench. Inhale the fragrance and breathe the stress away.

          

Apply the Bagua map on your landscape or garden footprint. When we apply the Bagua to your front door, however for your landscape or garden we use the driveway. The entrance to your garden does not have to be the same direction or angle as your front door. Depending on where your driveway is you will be entering your property from Knowledge, Career or Helpful People. Enhancing the entrance to your home and garden with healthy plants, water features, greeters and curving walkways is one of the most important things you can do to invite energizing Ch’i to your life. The Bagua can be applied just to the back area of your home, or with your home as the center. Gardens should take on the qualities of the Bagua area in which they reside.

                                              

                               

Here are some examples of using the Bagua to enhance your garden:

Garden Enhancements in Career Area

• Soft colorful plants, reds are particularly auspicious, water features such as 360-degree bubbling fountains or with water flowing toward the house, pots in shiny dark colors, wind chimes, and curved paths or asymmetrical lines

                                                       

Garden Enhancements in Knowledge and Self Cultivation Area

• Colors of blues, greens, wooden benches, symbols of mountains or large rocks, statues representing spiritual guides, healthy plants with rounded soft leaves, gazing balls, and items that create a quiet meditative feeling

Garden Enhancements in Friends/Family/Health Area

• An abundance of healthy flowers in any color with upright growth (blooming flowers represent perfect health), sitting areas for entertaining, symbols of family, vegetable gardens, herbs, orchard

                                               

Garden Enhancements in Wealth Area

• Healthy plants in the purple color spectrum such as salvia, lavender, trumpet vines or roses, fountains or waterfalls flowing toward the home, flags or whirligigs to call in the Ch’i

                                                          

Garden Enhancements in Fame Area

• Plants in colors red, up lighting or twinkle lights, BBQs, fire pits, garden art representing suns, stars, triangles and sculptures of people or animals

                                     

Garden Enhancements in Love and Marriage Area

• Pairs of items depicting romance, including bistro tables with two chairs, two lounge chairs, loveseat or sculptures in pairs (avoid single or lonely items), plants in colors of reds, pinks and white

          

Garden Enhancements in Children and Creativity Area

• Items in metal and plants in colors of white and pastels, whimsical garden art, children’s playground or personal garden, workbench, garden bench, fairies, butterflies, nature spirit

                                     

Garden Enhancements in Helpful People and Travel Area

• Garden art representing spiritual guides, or desired travel locations (We have a colorful pole with signs pointing to all the places we’ve traveled), birds, sundials, items in metal and white plants

                                               

Garden Enhancements in Center Area

• Houses usually occupy the center of the landscape Bagua, but if they don't this is an auspicious area for ceramics, plants in yellow, earth tones, rectangle shapes, patios, bricks/pavers, table and chairs

Remember that gardens reflect your personal energy. Turn your yard into a garden that will create peaceful space to help calm your world.

“Gardening is how I relax. It’s another form of creating and playing with colors.” Oscar de la Renta

                                            

Exciting Gift Ideas

Looking for a meaningful last-minute gift?

Give something that truly makes a difference.

My Feng Shui book and Feng Shui consultation gift certificates are thoughtful holiday gifts, perfect as stocking stuffers and beautiful presents any time of year. Unlike ordinary gifts, these are gifts that keep on giving.

My book is designed to feel like a personal Feng Shui consultation in book form — guiding you step-by-step to create harmony, clarity, and positive flow in your home and life. It’s practical, empowering, and easy to use, even for beginners.

The joy of Feng Shui is that it doesn’t just decorate your space — it enhances your life. By making simple, intentional changes, Feng Shui helps open the door to new opportunities, greater abundance, improved relationships, and overall well-being.

A Feng Shui consultation gift certificate offers an even more personalized experience, making it a truly special and memorable gift for loved ones — or a meaningful treat for yourself.

✨ A thoughtful gift.

✨ A lasting impact.

✨ Positive energy that keeps unfolding all year long.

Perfect for the holidays, birthdays, housewarmings, and anyone ready to invite more balance, joy and possibility into their life.

Book can be ordered through QR Code or on my website. Text or email me for gift certificate.

                                             

Wishing Trees and Feng Shui

In our town there is a beautiful “Wishing Tree” in front of our public library. People get to write their wishes and hang them on the tree. It’s a lovely way to express your goals in a physical way. In Feng Shui wishes are stated as affirmations, and visualizations. Instead of asking for something to come true, you’re actually visualizing it as if’s already happened.

          

In Feng Shui, intention plays a valuable role in enhancing any area of your home or business, as do affirmations that strengthen the potential of any result you want to manifest. Therefore, every wish and enhancement should be made with clear intent. Written or stated affirmations expressed as if the result has already happened are powerful. Affirmations reinforce the assumption that your words and thoughts will become a reality.

                                             

Visualization is a very important Feng Shui tool for achieving one’s goals. There is a belief that when you picture what you want to have happen, the more likely it is to happen. Feng Shui is a blend of physical “seen” enhancements and mental “unseen” intentions. When you intend to bring about changes in your life by making enhancements to your home, the powers of affirmation and visualization will help those enhancements manifest your intention.

So, as you think of hanging a wish on a wishing tree think of hanging an affirmation you have visualized instead.                          

                                                        

   Sample Affirmations for Wishing Trees:

• "I have found my soulmate."
  
• "I'm thriving in my dream job."
• "I awake with joy and purpose every day."
• "The remodeling project has been completed smoothly, and withing budget."
• "Wonderful new opportunities have just come my way."
• "Our home is alive with positive energy, peace and harmony."
• "Our children are healthy and thriving."
• "Prosperity is flowing our way."
• "My positive reputation precedes me in my work."
  
                                   
  
  

Visualize Your Home’s Feng Shui Decor

We’re planning on redecorating and remodeling our guest bathroom. In this process I’m picturing and visualizing what I want it to look like. This is such a valuable step.  It’s important to spend time in a room before decorating, to feel it and picturing what it would look like enhanced, thinking about the Feng Shui Bagua area that it’s in, and the colors, shapes, and the items that will further enhance it.

When you feel the time has come to change the look or feel of a personal space, the space itself can provide you with the most useful guidance. Working with a single room allows you to unearth its potential and better understand how you want to relate to it. You want to look at it, listen to it, bond with it in a personal way. The more you know about the space you wish to change, the better equipped you are to make it beautiful and functional. 

I love the guestroom that we’ve remodeled a few years ago. It used to be a mauve color, and too busy. I never felt comfortable in it, and I’m sure our guests felt the same. Our designer helped me find a subtle mushroom color for the walls, and some barnwood style furniture. It’ quietly neutral, but the burgundy accents add to the Fire element of the Love area. It’s just as I had visualized it, and it has become my favorite room in the house. It also opens to our garden, so it makes it a very special place.                                                                                                                   

                                       

                                                                  Guest Room After

                                        

                                                                  Guest Room Before

Now I’m visualizing the adjacent bathroom. Knowing that this bathroom is in the Fame and Reputation area of our home, I intend to keep as much of the burgundy-colored tile that’s in there, because it not only goes with the decor of the guestroom, which is in the Love and Marriage area, but it also has some great fire energy for fame. We will update the wall color (remove old wallpaper), the lighting, the plumbing fixtures, the flooring, and paint the cabinets. In fact, the process of writing this blog is part of my visualization. 

                                                                                                                                                   Guest Bathroom Before

                                                                    (Stay tuned for the after)

Before you contemplate colors, and enhancements you plan on making, spend some time in the room you plan to modify, observe the way the light moves to each space at different times a day, and the course of a week, or so know those times when you feel drawn to that particular space. Visualize how you want it to feel.

By treating the layout, and decor of your personal space in a mindful way, you can honor its national rhythm, while creating a cohesive, comfortable home that uplifts your energy. When using the recommendations from the Bagua area, you’ll find that it not only brings in beauty, but it’ll also bring in quality of life. Remember that Feng Shui not only deals with beauty, but it deals with enriching your life and achieving your goals. Visualize a beautiful space which will lead you to peace, harmony, and success. 

Feeling Uncreative? Let Feng Shui Help You Retrieve that Spark

 

There are times when you can be a whirlwind or creativity, and other times you feel in the doldrums. When this happens, how do you regain that creative spark?  Did you know that just applying some easy Feng Shui principles to your home can give you the boost of motivation, and creativity you need. Your space is more than happy to help you create the life that you want; all you need to do is shift the energy, and visualize.

                                                    

Years ago, I learned of the clever acronym DRVN and saw how easily it applied to the Feng Shui Principles.

Think of the acronym – DRVN, (Driven) when you:

• Declutter 
• Rearrange (Enhance) 
• Visualize
• Nurture with Nature

Here are 4 easy ways your home can help you energize you and your creativity:

1) Declutter: Piles of old, forgotten, unused items cluttering your home will stifle your creativity. The more clutter, the less creative you can be.  Make decisions about your things and clear them up, with the intention that new energy, creative ideas, and opportunities will come your way. Decluttering is always one of the first steps in Feng Shui transformation, as it begins to move the Ch’i (the vital life force energy streaming through your home.)                                         

                                       

2) Redecorate and enhance a room or just rearrange some items in your home using Feng Shui principles; this changes the perception of your space. When you look at things differently, your brain registers the new patterns in your environment and can set up new patterns in your thinking. I call this “shaking up the Ch’i.”

                                       

3) Visualize yourself in a creative endeavor. Write, state, or picture yourself succeeding in a creative pursuit as if it is already happening. For example, “I have completed my first book”, or “I am thoroughly enjoying my flower arranging class.”

                    

4) Nurture yourself with nature: When in a creative slump seek the out of doors; go on a hike, work in your garden, enjoy a picnic, or just bring fresh flowers into your home.   By surrounding yourself with nature you relax, rejuvenate and open channels to inspiration.

                                     

                    

You are DRiVeN to creativity.  Your space is being creatively used in a new way and will in turn inspire you to creativity. Embrace this renewed energy!

                                         

Longing to Travel – Feng Shui Can Help Get You There

Where are you going this year? Do you have a travel bug? Are you dreaming of exotic faraway places, fun family vacations, or even peaceful retreats? How do you get there? How do you make it happen?  Feng Shui affirmations and visualizations can help guide you to the location of your dreams. 

We just returned from a wonderful, fun-filled family cruise, and I believe that positive affirmations and enhancements in the Helpful People and Travel area of our home played a large role.

Whether you desire to go on an exotic holiday, a local vacation, or want to ensure that everything goes smoothly during an upcoming trip, Feng Shui can help. Feng Shui is simply about living in harmony with the world around you. When your environment is harmonious, channels are open for good things to come your way. On my walk today I thought of the phrase “What you see is what you get” and remembered that I had told my Feng Shui students “Where the eye goes, the Ch’i flows.” I marveled at the connection. 

                               

In Feng Shui there is a belief that seeing things that make you feel calm, or that you regard as beautiful, helps to nourish you. When you create a place where you can see those calming and beautiful things daily, you will create a place where your dreams and goals can be nourished and ultimately manifested. 

Feng Shui Vision Boards can help you picture and realize your dreams. They are simply a collection of images, words and objects that represent a physical manifestation of your feelings and thoughts.    They are known to produce profound results, both those expected as well as unexpected.                         

 Vision boards work on many levels:                                                                                                      

• A Vision Board helps you set and prioritize your goals and intentions.
• The process of creating a vision board helps to solidify these goals in your head and sends them out to the universe.  
• Seeing your vision board regularly, with images and words representing your goals, and wishes helps remind you of what you want to do, where you want to be, and what you want to have.
• The vision board helps to ensure that you continue to move towards those things, both consciously and unconsciously.  
•  Vision boards are fun to make and tap into your creativity.

Most of all – THEY WORK! They have worked for me and for others. I can look back at past vision boards I have created and am excited to compare them against the final results.

How To Create a Travel Vision Board:

A Vision Board is a very personal, individualized representation of your hopes and dreams, so no two are alike. 

• Begin with a board (11x14 or 8 ½ by 14 are the most practical sizes, but anything goes). You can also pick up poster boards at your local Dollar Stores.  
• You can think of your life traveling to the destination of your dreams. Then close your eyes and visualize exactly what you want to happen and where you want to be. See all the details. Imagine yourself actually there. Imagine the people you are traveling with as part of the vision. What else do you see? Hear? How does your vision make you feel? 
• Cut out images from magazines, calendars, maps, postcards, photos that represent these goals. Or search online and download pictures from websites. 
• Use a glue stick, glue gun, tacks, white glue, tape etc. to adhere items to the board. 
• Add inspirational words that are very specific to your goals. Words are very powerful, they turn ideas into action, and therefore they need to be always kept in the affirmative; positive, uplifting statements only.
• Add specific affirmations that you write yourself, as if the goal has already happened. For example: “I love traveling, I’m having such a fun time in Paris” "I am lying on a sandy beach on a Greek Isle.”  “I hiked ten miles today and I’m almost at the top of this lovely mountain.”  

                             

Remember, these are guidelines; there is no right or wrong to creating a vision board. It is a personal representation of YOUR travel goals; therefore, it has to speak to YOU. 

You’re done! Display your board in a location where you will see it every day. This will keep you grounded; help you grow and remind you of what you are grateful for.  It will help you create order out of chaos. Once you have achieved the goals on the board, update it or create a new one. This is not an event – it’s a journey. Enjoy the journey and the unfolding of your life!

                              

Even when I teach Feng Shui classes, I use the Bagua to enhance the classroom to support my travel dreams. Students in my classes notice that I have pictures of France everywhere: the Eiffel Tower in the Helpful People and Travel area; the dark Seine River at night in Career; a Paris flower mart and vineyards in Knowledge and Self-Cultivation and in Health, Family, and Friends; lavender fields in Wealth and Prosperity; and red poppy fields in Fame and Reputation; colorful art in the Children and Creativity.  Every Bagua area is represented by my favorite parts of France.

          

                                           

                                 

  

Stairs and Feng Shui

Stairs can be a blessing in your home, or they can also lead to some problems. In Feng Shui, stairs are viewed as pathways for energy (Ch’i) flow, and their placement and design can significantly impact the overall energy of a home. Ideally, stairs should be positioned to promote smooth, balanced Ch’i flow, rather than disrupting it, and should be well-lit, clutter-free, and preferably with a landing to allow for breaks in the energy flow.

Some Potential Stairway Problems: 

Ideally, stairs should not be located in the center of the home, or directly facing the front door. Stairs facing a door are problematic because the Ch’i flows down them too quickly, especially if they point toward the front entrance. Picture Ch’i flowing out of your home and taking all the positive energy out with it.  The center of your home is your centering and grounding area, and stairs can lead to a feeling of not being grounded, and always on the move. 

          

Corrections for Stairways:

If your staircase points toward the front entrance of your home, it is not all lost. There are several Feng Shui cures that can help the Ch’i remain happily inside your home.  

The first is to block the Ch’i with a piece of furniture, a rug, a plant, or any other sizeable item you can place between the bottom of the stairs and the door. A second option, and the one I use most frequently with my clients, is to hang a mirror above or next to the door facing the stairs, which reflect the energy back up.  Finally, if there is room, I recommend hanging a thirty millimeter round faceted crystal somewhere between the staircase and the door. These will help redirect and balance the energy.

                                                                  

 I also advise my clients to hang any artwork horizontally along the stairs and not stair-stepped down. You don’t want to draw attention downward.

 If the stairs are in the center of your home, I recommend placing a potted plant or a decorative object around the bottom and top of the stairs to redirect the flow of energy. 

                                                    

Stairs should be kept clear of clutter and obstructions, as these can impede the flow of Ch’i, and good lighting is essential for proper energy flow on and around the staircase. 

Railings are preferred, and landings are beneficial for slowing down energy flow.  Imagine a small table with a beautiful arrangement, or a piece of art, to catch your eye as you’re walking down.

                                                    

Enjoy your stairs and help them fill your home with positive energy.