Beauty as a Birthright: Is Beauty Impermanence?

Anjie Cho March 30, 2022

Anjie Cho in a white shirt smiling. There is text against a background that looks like a starry night sky. Text says "Beauty as a birthright: Decoding the beauty culture. Is beauty impermanence? Special guest Anjie Cho, founder of Holistic Spaces"

Anjie Cho was featured on Beauty as a Birthright

In our first guest episode, we chat with New York based architect and founder of Holistic Spaces — Anjie Cho — who combines interconnectedness and interdependence of spaces through the mastery of the art of Feng Shui.

She is the author of Holistic Spaces: 108 Ways to Create a Mindful and Peaceful Home, a book inspired by the intersection of feng shui, green design, Buddhist and Taoist philosophies, and environmental psychology. Anjie is also a teacher of dharma arts and meditation in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage and for Dharma Moon. She is the feng shui expert at The Spruce, a regular blog contributor to MindBodyGreen and has been featured in dozens of publications including: the New York Times, Domino Magazine and BuzzFeed.

In this episode, we get to know Anjie beyond her successful professional achievements to chat intimately about how she defines beauty. Anjie shares about her upbringing as a Korean-American in Los Angeles, and how being an "outsider" led her to being a Google famous goth! From grey hairs to the practice of Japanese floral design — Ikebana — we chat about the the impermanence and the imperfections of beauty.

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If you’d like to learn more about feng shui, check out Mindful Design Feng Shui School at: www.mindfuldesignschool.com

Jewelry and Art in Everyday Life

Guest User August 4, 2021

Today I wanted to talk about different types of rituals that you can incorporate to bring more art into your everyday life. Did you know you can also apply feng shui principles to your body, in addition to your spaces? The core of feng shui is about looking at your qi, which is life force energy. Your energy is not separate from your space, other people, or the cosmos.

One way that I like to enhance my qi in my everyday life is through the jewelry that I select. Sometimes, I do this by wearing representations of animals that inspire me. For instance, I have a bee necklace that was given to me by my flower teacher. I didn’t wear it a lot at first, but later I felt very called to wear it. One of my healers actually told me that the wasp was an animal I could learn from at that time. Learning from an animal doesn’t always mean you have to read about it or listen to someone speak about it. You can also learn through wearing something that symbolizes that animal.

I also received a beautiful turtle bracelet a while ago. I love the turtle, because there’s a really beautiful story from Buddhism that talks about how precious each human life is, and I think sometimes we forget that. Wearing something like this on my wrist is a constant reminder of how precious our human lives are. I wear it intentionally on my right wrist, which is for giving. The left hand is for receiving. This Buddhist story is about how each human life is as precious and rare as a blind sea turtle swimming through the ocean. Once every hundred thousand years, the sea turtle comes up to the surface and happens to pop its head up through a yoke that’s floating in the middle of the ocean. That is how rare our human lives are. This also gives me a spiritual reminder to value every single person that I interact with, and to value all that I receive in my life.

Lastly, I also like to wear my jade bracelet. In feng shui and in Asian cultures, jade represents purity, long life, and good luck. It also has a weight to it, and it reminds me of my Asian lineage. The color is quite interesting too . It’s a light green, which is connected to the wood element in feng shui. Wood is about growth and vitality. My jade bracelet also has some white, which is the metal element, and metal brings in this idea of beauty and precision. This is something I’ve been working with recently: how can I start to see more beauty in all aspects of my life?

I hope this inspires you to bring more awareness to your personal feng shui, and to invite more beauty into your life through the things you intentionally put on your body.

by Anjie Cho

If you’d like to learn more about feng shui, check out Mindful Design Feng Shui School at: www.mindfuldesignschool.com

Q&A Sunday: My Feng Shui Rubber Tree Plant

Guest User March 14, 2021

What is that plant with the big shiny leaves that’s behind you in your Instagram videos?

That’s my rubber plant, gifted to me by my friend Jill! When she left New York City and moved to the west coast, she gave me some of her plants, including this one.

I’ve been thinking about plants recently. More specifically, I’ve been curious about what information we can glean from them, as well how they can help us invite more beauty into our lives.

There’s a lot to learn just from paying attention to the plants in your home. How are they doing? Are they thriving? What is the quality of the leaves? Are they collecting dust? Are there new buds? It’s fascinating to look at the stem, too, and see what has happened over time—maybe the plant went through a difficult time, and then an easier time. A plant can tell you so much!

I think plants also can hold the qi of their previous owners. My friend Jill, for example, had very good business qi, and that rubbed off on me a little by adopting her plant.

I’ve also been working with the idea of how to invite more beauty into your life. Just spending a little time with my rubber plant and looking at it with curiosity gave me a new perspective on this plant that’s been in my home for a while. I can pay attention to how the light looks underneath each leaf, how the shadow and light all come together, and so many other details of this beautiful plant.

How can you start to look at your plants with curiosity? I encourage you to look at different parts of the plant that you may not normally pay attention to. You can even use your phone to snap beautiful images from different angles. I invite you to look with curiosity, rather than judgment, and see what you can reveal.

by Anjie Cho