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.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

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

Are Fake Flowers Good Feng Shui?

Guest User March 23, 2022

Have you ever wondered whether it’s okay to use fake flowers for a feng shui adjustment? I get this question a lot, so I wanted to share my perspective.

In feng shui, we say that fresh, living flowers can unstick things that are stuck. They also help to lift the qi and the mood in your space. Flowers are a really important part of my life — I’m actually an Ikebana flower arrangement practitioner. Ikebana is quite a deep practice that’s about mindfulness, and it’s really a kind of meditation in action in the Zen tradition.

My teachers have taught me that fake flowers don’t impart the same qi as real flowers because they are not alive. If you want to have fake flowers in your home, that’s okay, but you wouldn’t use them for feng shui.

I also want to challenge you to think about why you would want to substitute something artificial for something real, especially in this day and age. Right now, a lot of our shared in-person experiences are being reduced, and when we do meet, we’re using online platforms instead. When this is the case, why would you also want to substitute something as beautiful and impermanent as flowers with something artificial? Usually it’s because people want their flowers to last longer, they don’t want to have to worry about taking care of their flower arrangement, or they feel that fresh flowers are too expensive.

But the impermanence of flowers is really what creates their beauty, and there are so many teachings we can receive from flowers. How can we look at life and really appreciate things that are fragile and precious, and show age? Not wanting to look at these things is like not wanting to age or show wrinkles, but this is part of the human experience, and it makes our lives so precious and rich.

I encourage you to treat yourself to some real, fresh flowers! You deserve it.

by Anjie Cho