Practicing Feng Shui Kindness for Well-Being

In these stressful times, doing everything we can to be at peace and improve our well-being is so important. Feng Shui is all about balance and positive energy.  When we make Feng Shui enhancements in our home, and expect results, we must remember that these adjustments are only 1/3 of the equation. Our destiny, and our actions make up the other 2/3 of the formula. We may have little control over our destiny, but our actions are completely within our reach.  This is where acts of kindness come in. 

Practicing Inner Feng Shui begins by being kind to yourself. For example, being kind to yourself can involve saying affirming things to yourself or focusing on what you can control, such as deep breathing, meditating, enjoying nature, or changing your situation by doing a good deed each day. This will change the course of energy. A simple act of kindness can make an impact. When one does something good, solely for the benefit of another, the reality is that they both benefit.

Kindness is important for many reasons, including improving your well-being:

•  It can deepen friendships and create safety in relationships by encouraging understanding and vulnerability.  
  
                           

•    It can help create and strengthen social connections. It can help people feel a sense of belonging, make new friends, and connect with their communities. 
  
  
•   It can reduce stress, anxiety, and worry. It can also improve feelings of confidence, optimism and well-being. 

                                        

•    It can boost the immune system, lower blood pressure, and increase the production of feel-good hormones like dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin. 
  
  
•  Kindness can make the world a happier place and encourage others to be kind as well. 

      

Begin doing an act of kindness a day and watch your Feng Shui energy change for the good!

                                      

There's Joy in Moving the Feng Shui Ch'i

Did you know that every time you declutter, redecorate, remodel, or just add another piece of furniture or art you are changing the energy of your home, which will help you achieve your goals and live your best life?

Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese art of arranging your environment, is meant to bring your life peace and harmony. To do this your environment needs to bring you joy, since in Feng Shui your environment reflects your consciousness.

In Feng Shui, “Ch’i”, or “Qi” is a vital life force or energy that powers all living things.  The goal of Feng Shui is to harness Ch’i to improve life. 

Good Ch’i is meant to nourish you, while negative Ch’i, which blocks the energy, can drain you. Feng Shui is all about adjusting your environment, by correcting, enhancing, or changing items, colors, shapes based on the Feng Shui principles, and the five elements. These elements are water, wood, fire, earth, and metal. You can improve the Ch’i flow by adding, moving, or combining these elements, based on each of the nine Bagua areas. 

                                       

Each time we make a change in our home, my husband and I say we're “Moving the Ch’i.” We say this when we clean the garage, empty closets, buy new art, a piece of furniture or undertake a big remodel. My clients say they feel an energy shift, and it’s evident in their before and after pictures.

When we remodeled our kitchen, residing in the Love and Marriage area, from green to rich wood tones and red tiles we noticed a shift in romance.

                                    

When we remodeled our bathroom in the Health, Family and Friend's area from burgundy and pink to soft greens, wood,  and florals we noticed an improvement in our health.

                                     

Our daughter just redecorated our grandkid’s bedroom in the Knowledge and Self Cultivation area from overly cluttered to clean, organized, attractive bedding, beds and furniture. They both now are calmer and love to lay in their new beds and read. 

                                      

Little changes can make a big difference. A client has a blank wall in her Fame and Reputation area. I can’t wait to see how adding a large piece of red tone, celebration, upward movement, or fame art will change the Ch’i of the room and positively affect her life. 

                                                

We are about to replace our roof with a new one. I can't wait to see what affect that will have. We're excited at the prospect. 

Do You Practice Intuitive Feng Shui?

Do you practice Intuitive Feng Shui? As I enter the homes of my friends and clients, I can quickly tell that so many of them do..

Feng Shui is all about creating  a feeling.  The goal is to enter your home after a long workday, or an exhausting experience, and say “Ahhhh, I’m home to my sanctuary.”  You should feel calmed and nurtured by your home, and not even more stressed. If you feel that your home is harmonious, with a calming effect, it’s because it probably has good energy, and you’re experiencing intuitive Feng Shui. 

                                       

Are good things happening to you, opportunities opening up, and problems easily solving themselves; or do you feel that it’s just one thing after another, you’re stuck and can’t seem to get ahead?  If good things are happening to you, and life, even with its challenges, is flowing smoothly, then you’re experiencing intuitive Feng Shui.

Do you find that you sleep better in one room over another, or enjoy sitting in one area of your home better than the rest? If so, take a close look at those rooms because they exhibit intuitive Feng Shui. 

                                       

Intuitive Feng Shui is the ability to create happy, harmonious homes naturally and from our heart, without needing to use logic. You can, with very little Feng Shui training become aware of your environment and apply intuitive Feng Shui. Without even thinking too much about it, you’re intuitively arranging areas in your home to be balanced and allow the energy to flow in a positive way.  You probably have removed the clutter. You may have added plants and flowers. You have your desk, and other seating arrangements facing the front door in the power position, and have displayed art that has positive representations.  These are small things that evoke positive energy, and represent intuitive Feng Shui. 

                                                     

You can easily develop intuitive Feng Shui skills out of your experience of being in different places. Each time you go to a new place be aware of how you feel there. Is the atmosphere fast flowing, slow, intense, settled or volatile? Then look for what it is about the building, decoration and layout that you think could contribute to that energy flow, and your current mood. This creates an inner knowing or intuition. You can later draw on your experiences to create spaces in your home that reproduce the emotional responses you are looking for.

The secret is to keep connecting your mental and emotional state to the possible influence of the home or business you are in.

Feng Shui is based on three guiding principles:

1) Everything is Alive.  Everything in your home is talking at you either positively or negatively. If you listen to the chatter and quickly do something about it (discarding, clearing, replacing, repairing or redecorating) then you’re allowing your energy to be transformed and are practicing intuitive Feng Shui. If on the other hand you live with clutter and broken items your energy will be drained. 

                                               

2) Everything is Connected. When you allow changes to be made a chain reaction in energy flow occurs. You may feel you have more energy, smile more, feel healthier, want to do nice things for others. This in turn will lead to positive opportunities. By clearing a closet and bringing clothes to a consignment store I have made new friends and business opportunities. By observing and celebrating the connections your positive energy creates you are practicing intuitive Feng Shui.

                                       

3)   Everything is Constantly Changing. Life has a way of being in a constant flow; nothing remains the same. The art of Feng Shui is to steer the flow in positive directions. One opportunity can lead to another. If you allow the energy in your home to help move you forward, you are practicing intuitive Feng Shui. 

                                                      

Black Hat Feng Shui

There are two schools of thought in Feng Shui, the Compass and Form Schools. When reading about both, some of my students and clients are confused about the difference, and which they should use.  I was trained in, and practice the Form school which is known as Western Black Hat Feng Shui. Feng Shui is over three thousand years old in Eastern cultures, but it only really came to be known in the west with the introduction of "Black Hat Feng Shui."

Traditional Compass School Feng Shui masters are more interested in the type of Ch’i (positive life force energy) that enters a site and to do this they use more than just the simple Bagua. In addition, they might also use Chinese Astrology in conjunction with Feng Shui, to determine pillars of destiny, individual charts, house charts, flying stars and much more. Special attention is placed on compass readings for compass directions.

                                   

To simplify the complex rules of traditional Chinese Feng Shui, Black Hat uses the Bagua to divide a building into eight areas, meaning “Eight Trigrams” with the center for grounding.

Black Hat Feng Shui does not use a compass, and the main door is usually in only one of three sectors. The simplicity of this system means that Black Hat Feng Shui is very popular, and easily accessible. It relies on the power of visualizations and in particular, the use of decorative "enhancers" or objects that help you arrange your home to help you live your best life, and achieve your goals. They include using general Feng Shui theories, principles, philosophies, and the correct use of color, shape and natural materials such as plants and water.

Black Hat Feng Shui is known for a more simplistic use of the Bagua. This versatility of the Bagua chart makes this form of Feng Shui more accessible to individuals. Unlike Classical Feng Shui that requires extensive studying and training, the Black Hat rules are simple to follow and almost anyone can quickly utilize the Bagua for a home enhancement.

The steps in Black Hat Feng Shui are simple:

Step One: Procure or draw the layout of your home. This drawing should indicate your front door. Other exterior doors should also be added. Be sure to scale-to-size as much as possible so that each room in your home is accurately represented, including garages and attached decks.

Step Two: Superimpose the Bagua map over your layout. In Feng Shui, the bottom of the Bagua map will fall over the front side of your home layout. Your front door may fall in the left side, middle or right side of the front, and in the case of an upside-down horseshoe shaped home sometimes in the center.

                                  

Step Three: You can now use the map to help strengthen various areas of your life, such as career, money, relationships and health according to Black Hat Feng Shui principles, and enhancements including color, shapes, art and items.  You can learn how to anchor missing areas. Begin by familiarizing yourself with each sector of the Bagua and how it relates to the room(s) of your home.

If you are experiencing any negative effects in your life from one of these nine sectors, you can use Feng Shui principles and remedies to transform the inauspicious aspects, and attract auspicious Ch’i energy.

Both schools of thought have powerful, life changing results when applied and followed correctly.  Choose the one that works best for you.

 

Enhancing Guest Rooms in the Feng Shui Love, Family and Friends Area

Do you want more love in your life?  The art and practice of Feng Shui uses the Feng Shui Bagua to help you identify and enhance each area of your home which is related to those areas in your life. A lot has been written about enhancing the Love area, the back right corner of your home, which is a perfect location for the master bedroom. Not all homes have the master bedroom in this area, for example, in our home, the main floor Love area is in our kitchen, while downstairs it’s in our guest room. Some may have it in the dining room, bathroom, living room etc. Love can reside in many rooms in your home.  But what if it happens to be a guest room?  

                           Two burgundy throw pillows, a love pillow, two nightstands and lamps, and a burgundy throw

The element for the Love, Marriage, and Relationships area is Fire which is represented by any shade in the red color spectrum, from pink tones to burgundy and purple, along with white (the color of the Metal element); the shapes of cones and triangles; any type of lighting; anything derived from animals; and art depicting people, animals, suns, stars. Because the Wood element feeds fire, adding representations of wood, such as plants or items made of wood, helps to nurture your enhancements. Think of a beautiful red or pink orchid with two stems representing romance.

                                                                                                                                                          Pair of birds and a heart

What we did when we redecorated our guest room:

                                   

Enhancements for the Love, Marriage, and Relationships Area in a Guest Room of Your Home: (Choose One or More)

• Begin by decluttering the space.

• Add shades of red, pink, and white.

• Enhance with art representing pairs (lovebirds, two hearts, two candles, etc.) and romantic   

    themes.

• Unlike the master bedroom, where you would place pictures of you and your significant other, 

   here you would hang art representing pairs, hang inspirational sayings representing romance, 

   display hearts. Create an inviting environment for your guests by displaying a vase with pink 

   or red  flowers.

• Display items in the shapes of cones or triangles, or representations of hearts.

• Add your affirmations calling in love and romance.

                                                                                                                     Pairs or artwork - hummingbirds and sea shells

What to Avoid in the Love, Marriage, and Relationships Area:

• Art that represents single people or evokes emotions of sadness or loneliness

• Too much of the color black, representing the Water element which douses fire

                                                                                                                                                Representation of hearts

 Remember that the choices are endless. Enjoy discovering them and be creative!

                              

Flowers Uplift Your Ch'i in Times of Sadness

Helping set up for my dear mother-in law's funeral service, and selecting the perfect flowers to represent her, I reflected on the significance of flowers at memorials, funerals, celebrations of life, as well as the tradition of bringing flowers to people who are ill. 

It is no wonder that flowers are chosen for these occasions, because they are known to be the quintessential Ch’i enhancers. They provide us with the beauty and wonder of nature and help us stay connected and grounded to the natural world. They are said to have a spiritual significance, and have always been used to symbolize the life cycle from birth to death. They represent not only love, and sympathy but also eternity and immortality. A person’s life is symbolized by the fragility of a flower, where proper conditions are necessary for them to grow and blossom.

 

Flowers also create a background of warmth and beauty, adding to the dignity and consolation of the funeral service.

Losing a loved one is difficult. When you wish to provide comfort to those who are grieving, sending flowers can help brighten this somber time and let them know they are not alone. It is a means of expression. Since it can be difficult for those in mourning to put their feelings into words, flowers can act as an expression of love, comfort, sympathy, and respect.

Just like everything in Feng Shui flowers can uplift the Ch’i if beautiful and healthy. My mother-in-law loved the color purple; therefore, the family chose flowers we knew she would love.  They used the beauty of nature to paint a palette of colorful enhancements for her transition.

When she was ill, friends and family filled her room with vibrant flowers, which are used to help activate good health. 

Working with flowers over the years I have felt the calming, peaceful effect they have on the nervous system.  Surround yourself, and your loved one with flowers and you’ll soon  feel the positive, uplifting effect. 

The pictures here are all the beautiful arrangements at my mother-in-law's funeral, with the exception of the last one which I had sent to my uncle's funeral in Italy. (He also liked the color purple.) 

Learn to Enhance Your Life Through Everyday Feng Shui Columns

 

I have been writing newspaper columns since 2011. Each of these can be found on my website.  Thirteen years of valuable Feng Shui information at your fingertips, as well as in this blog.                All These can be found on my website www.fengshuibymaria.com  click on “Articles”

They are listed under a table of contents under the following headings:

Feng Shui Basics

• Inner Feng Shui
• Gratitude
• Creating a Stress Free Home
• Colors
• Vision Boards
• Common Cures
• The Bagua
• Anchoring Missing Areas
• Decluttering
• The Five Feng Shui Elements
• Water
• Wood
• Fire
• Earth
• Metal

The 9 Bagua Areas

• Career
• Knowledge and Cultivation
• Health, Family, Friends
• Wealth and Prosperity
• Fame and Reputation
• Love and Relationships
• Children and Creativity
• Helpful People and Travel
• Center and Grounding
  
  

Feng Shui in the Home

• Art Placement
• Bathrooms
• Bedrooms
• Entrances
• Dining Rooms
• Garages
• Gardens
• Holiday Decorating and Gift Giving
• Kitchens
• Offices
• Selling, Buying, Energizing Homes
  
                            
  
  And also, by date

Feel free to browse and download any that will help you enhance your home to benefit your life.

You can also purchase my latest book, “Empower Your Life Through Feng Shui – An Easy Eight Step Guide to Achieving Your Goals” directly on the site.

A wealth of information at your fingertips!

Blessings