How can I become a more helpful person?

There’s an area of the bagua that has to do specifically with helpful people and benefactors, and it’s one that doesn’t get talked about as much. It’s called qian, and it’s related to the metal element. Metal governs our mouth, our voice, and our communication. There are a lot of ways you can interpret this, but something that stands out for me right now is that sometimes the best way to communicate is to do less talking and more listening.

Something that I have been thinking about recently is this quote from my root guru, Chögyam Trungpa: “The answer is the question.” Sometimes we need to take a break from talking and instead take the time to listen and receive what those around us are saying.

The benefactors area is about both giving and receiving help. The way to attract helpful people to you is to become a helpful person. And because it’s related to the metal element, it’s about learning to communicate, both in how we speak and how we listen.

This area of the bagua is also related to assistance from the heavens. If you feel like you need assistance, look at what is going on in the helpful people area of your home. Is it cluttered? Are there a lot of things there? How can you bring more clarity to this area? Since this is a metal area, you can add metal items to this area, like a metal singing bowl. The sound and vibration of metal instruments can cut through a lot of the confusion and can be a way to communicate to the world that you are available to help or that you need help.

At its core, feng shui is not really about moving furniture around in your home to attract a partner or more wealth into your life. Those are residual benefits that come from practicing feng shui, but it’s really about starting to recognize that you are not separate from your environment. On a superficial level, you affect your environment and your environment affects you. Once you understand this, you can see that you are not separate from your environment. Then, you also start to understand that you are not separate from the people around you. This concept of interdependence is at the core of feng shui, as well as many other philosophies.

Another nuance of the helpful people area is that it is directly across from the abundance area, which means they are intimately connected and work in tandem with each other. When you start to become a helpful person, you receive more. When you have more and you’re feeling abundant, you can share more and become a more helpful person. I hope that all of you can find a way to become a helpful person, take action, and offer some of your abundance and prosperity to those that need help. Since we’re all connected, we all will benefit.

by Anjie Cho

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