Feng Shui Holiday Decorating Nurtures Your Home

The holidays are upon us. It’s time to surround yourself with energizing holiday decorations. Whether you decorate with a Menorah or Christmas Tree, the objects you bring into your home for the holidays will represent positive energy. Menorahs add fire to any room, Christmas trees represent growth, and all the bright colors, lights, garlands, and traditional objects make the home’s energy flow easily and create an environment for family gatherings.  As you decorate think about using the Feng Shui Bagua to help guide you in placement. You can use the Bagua on the whole house, or for the main room where you will be entertaining. Place the Bagua over the entry of the room and use the attributes of each area to guide you in  altering  that room’s energy  by selecting the areas where you place your decorations: Green for family growth, red for action, pink for relationship, white or metal for intuition, purple for abundance, blue for knowledge and yellow for centering and florals for  good health.

The Feng Shui Bagua

The Feng Shui  Bagua (Ba-gua) Map, is represented  as a grid of nine sectors, which comes from the Chinese philosophy, “The I Ching,” and literally means “eight trigrams” with the center for grounding. Wherever you place your holiday decorations, consider the following enhancements for each area.             

Career Area (Water Element)
 Items in items in black or very dark colors, glass/crystal items, water features

Knowledge and Self Cultivation Area (Wood Element)
 Items in wood, the colors of blues, greens, plants (great location for Christmas tree)

Friends/Family/Health Area (Wood Element)
Fresh or artificial floral arrangements or art depicting vibrant flowers, the colors blue or green, place photos of yourself or your loved one in a healthy state (great for family gatherings)

Wealth Area (Fire Element)
Opulent items in the purple color spectrum, Healthy, round leaf plants (great location for presents)

Fame Area (Fire Element)
The colors red, items representing the fire element with candles and lighting 

Love and Marriage Area (Fire Element)
Pairs of items, art or photos depicting romance, reds, and pinks

Children and Creativity Area (Metal Element)
Items in metal, colors of white and pastels, whimsical art, pictures of children

Helpful People and Travel Area (Metal Element)
Art or figures pertaining to spiritual guides, angels, metal and colors of white, black or grey                                                                                                                                                                 
Center Area
Ceramics, the colors yellow, earth tones, and rectangle shapes

As you can imagine, your holiday decorations can fit easily in all these areas. Christmas trees work well in Knowledge, Family and Health, but because of all the colors, lights, garland and ornaments can represent all of the elements and act as five element displays wherever placed. This is a win – win! Menorahs representing fire enhance any of the three fire areas, but like the Christmas tree, depending on the colors and what it is made of they can also hold all of the elements. You really can’t go wrong with holiday decorations!

Have a blessed holiday season!

Turn Your Master Bedroom Into a Nurturing Boudoir With Feng Shui

In Feng Shui the bedroom is vitally important; it is where you get rejuvenated, therefore the location plays a vital role in your peace and harmony.  The front of your home is the most active; therefore, rooms such as offices, exercise rooms, and kitchens are the best here. Bedrooms need the more peaceful location at the back of the house. Unfortunately, we don’t always have control over this, and must do what we can to turn a front room into a peaceful haven.

Master Bedroom – Your Romantic Boudoir

One of the most important rooms in Feng Shui is the master bedroom.  Therefore, what you do with this bedroom has far reaching implications to your well being, harmony and relationships. The best master bedroom colors are found in the warm skin tones of all races of people; from light beige, tans, cocoas, pinks, peaches, subtle yellows, earthy reds, copper, gold, bronze among others. The colors that are too cool and do not work in master bedrooms are pure white, grey, black, blues, and greens because they create a chilly room versus a sensual one. 

In the master bedroom the art and pictures should represent the qualities of the Love and Marriage area of the Bagua: pairs of items such as figurines and candles, pictures and art reflecting couples and romantic representations, pictures of you and your significant other.  It is not recommended to put photographs of your children and family in your master bedrooms. Photographs of your family are better served in areas of your home where family is dominant, such as living rooms, family rooms, playrooms and hallways. The bedroom is a romantic oasis, not a place to display photos of mom, dad or the kids. 

Singles Bedrooms 

Whether male or female singles looking for love need to create a romantic boudoir to prepare your room for another; two nightstands, two lamps, two throw pillows on the bed. Remove exercise equipment, family pictures, excess dolls and stuffed animals. Enhance the room as you would the Love and Marriage area of the Bagua, with pairs of items, and romantic art depicting pairs of subjects such as people, animals, flowers, trees or sculptures. All these further energize your desire and intention to be romantically involved. 

Furnishings and Décor

Televisions in bedrooms tend to activate you and do not allow for restful sleep. I like many others like watching TV in bed, but I find I get better sleep when I turn off the TV, close it up, and read for a few minutes before “lights out”.  The key is to keep the TV in a cabinet or armoire so it can be closed upon retiring.  If this can’t be done, I have recommended placing a decorative drape over the TV so that the electromagnetic screen isn’t staring at you all night.

Bedrooms should be relatively free of clutter; especially avoid accumulating clutter under the bed, as it obstructs the flow of Ch’i. Also avoid keeping exercise equipment or home office items in bedrooms as they signify work. 

The rule of thumb for mirrors in the bedroom is “one or less, and not facing the bed.” Mirrors are too active for the tranquility of bedrooms. If you or your children have the misfortune of having large closet door mirrors, and find it hard to get restful sleep, you may consider curtaining them at night or adding decorative wooden or screen like panels instead. 

Enjoy the rejuvenation powers of your bedroom. Nighty night!