If you took my five element quiz and the idea of swimming in a deep, cool, dark lake sounds really appealing, you’re nourished by the water element. Water is also related to the career area of the bagua, and the qualities of fluidity, wisdom, and intelligence. Still water (think of a lake) represents wisdom. Moving water (think of a flowing river) represents your social network and how you interact with the world.

If you’re lucky enough to have a window that looks out over a body of water, you already have the water element in your home. Water is really healing for me, so I love living near water and being able to see water from my home. I also use mirrors to reflect the water outside and bring more views of water into my life. Hanging a mirror that reflects water over your bed, desk, or stove is a great way to assist with positive cash flow and bring more wealth into your life.

If you don’t have a view of water, you can always paint or buy an image of water, or artwork that includes watery colors. The water element is related to the color black, as well as very dark blue and dark charcoal gray. To create your own watery image, you can get a canvas and paint it with those colors. In other traditions and schools of feng shui, water is related to the color blue, but in BTB feng shui (the school of feng shui that I practice), blue is actually related to the wood element.

You can also bring in water with wavy patterns (make sure the waves have soft curves if you want to invite more water; zigzags with sharp corners relate to the fire element). Mirrors are also a great way to incorporate the water element into your home, because they have the same reflective quality of still water. Before we had mirrors, humans would have looked at their reflections in bodies of water.

Adding a fountain or aquarium with actual water is another way to add the water element to your home. Just make sure that you take care of these objects and clean them regularly. If your fountain is flowing dirty water, it’s distributing qi, or energy, that is polluted rather than life-affirming. The goal is to have clean, healthy, vibrant energy in our spaces.

by Anjie Cho

If you’d like to learn more about feng shui check out the Mindful Design Feng Shui certification program. Laura Morris and I launched our program in September 2018. To get on the list about it, sign up at: www.mindfuldesignschool.com.