Q&A Sunday: Bells, Chimes and Abundance

Hi Anjie! I love your five elements series. In the post My Favorite Things: 5 Ways to Bring Metal into Your Home, you mention that you have a bell on your desk to promote abundance. Is this always the case with bells and chimes? If I'm looking to promote prosperity and wealth, is adding a bell to my Abundance area a good adjustment?

Cole P., Akron, OH

Hi Cole!

I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying the podcasts and blog posts! I'd be happy to elaborate on using bells as feng shui adjustments. 

Bells and chimes are not necessarily related to abundance. Bells and chimes are metal element, but there is not a direct connection to abundance. I suggested bells and chimes for adding metal element, because they are that...the metal element!

However, the sound that bells and chimes make create vibrations that move out into the universe. Just like the butterfly theory. The butterfly effect reasons that small changes can result in big differences. In the same way, when you ring a bell or chime, it creates a sound and vibration to extend out into the world and let the universe know that you may want to attract more clients or wealth into your life. You can doubly reinforce that by doing this in the Abundance area of the bagua map.

But you could also do this in, for instance, the Benefactors area to attract more helpful people into your life and home. which actually in turn creates more abundance, though not necessarily monetary. :)  Or you could ring a bell or chime in the Relationship area to attract a partner.

Overall, ringing a bell or chime does send out a message to the universe that you are opening your space to something new, but just adding these to your space, and not ringing them with intention, is not enough to attract prosperity and abundance. 

If you're looking to increase your wealth, prosperity and abundance, take a look at some of the other posts on the blog for suggestions like adding citrine, activating the self-knowledge area of your space, adding plants and more. There are many ways to welcome abundance through feng shui!

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.

Dive deeper into feng shui to transform your life!

Mindful Design is a new way to learn feng shui. Create sacred spaces that support, and nourish.

Visit us at mindfuldesignschool.com

Thanks for reading our "Q&A Sunday".  We will be answering questions submitted by our readers. Click here to submit any Feng Shui or Green Design questions!

Q&A Sunday: Colors and Elemental Energy in Feng Shui

Hi, I’m redecorating. I’m doing two walls green and the other two walls grey. The colours are called jade jewel and subtle stone. Do the colours green for wood and grey for metal still stand or can I count them as earth colours, as they represent wonderful shades of crystals/stone? (in the context of the bagua). Am I making sense? Thanks in advance. PS I like crystals ;)

Thomas C.

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for your question. You submitted this on our feng shui Facebook group: Your Feng Shui Journey. I encourage any other readers who would like to join. Your Feng Shui Journey is managed by my partner, Laura Morris, and I, as an extension of the Mindful Design Feng Shui School. Thomas, you asked about colors and how they relate to the five elements, or if the specific shades you’re using are connected. This is actually a really good question, so thanks for asking!

Colors are an important part of feng shui, because people are very visual, so color is something we notice immediately. There is a quote I like on color from His Holiness Master Lin Yun, who started BTB feng shui:

“How does color influence our life-world? First, color defines for us what exists and what does not exist. Second, color discloses the status of one's health and fortunes... Third, color inspires emotion.”

Colors are one of the most powerful ways to work with your feng shui. There are lot of ways to look at color, and you’ve touched upon two of them here. One is the relationship to the five elements, and another is your personal relationship to colors, for example your reference to the crystals and stones you love. Your own personal conditioning is important, as are cultural associations and the relation of certain colors to nature. So to answer your question, you can use the colors in the way that makes the most sense for you. If you want to use them based on the five elements, you are correct that the color green is related to Wood and the color grey is related to Metal. If you want to associate the colors with the meanings of the crystals and stones, that’s possible too! However, in feng shui, we would not use the colors you mentioned to represent the Earth element. In the five element system, Earth colors are brown, orange, yellow and other colors that would be considered “earthy.”

If you want to think of the shades you’ve chosen as colors that you love, of course go ahead and use them with this connotation! I would not recommend using them to represent the Earth element, however, because they don’t in our system. You want to make sure to keep the element systems straight.

I’d also like to share something a teacher of mine always said. When clients asked him what color to paint their walls, his first question was “Well, what color do you like?”. The most important thing here is to use colors you love and follow your heart and intuition. From there, if you want to follow a system like the five elements, aim to do so with precision and not muddle the colors.

by Anjie Cho

Mindful Design is a new way to learn feng shui. Our a unique training program takes an holistic approach to learning the art of feng shui design. Mindful design is about becoming aware, and attentive, to the energy around you: both inner and outer qi. It is about promoting a better way of living and creating sacred spaces that support, and nourish. Visit us at mindfuldesignschool.com.

Thanks for reading our "Q&A Sunday".  We will be answering questions submitted by our readers. Click here to submit any Feng Shui or Green Design questions!

Mindful Design Feng Shui: Simple Feng Shui Tips for the Winter Blues

With the winter chill, increased darkness and isolation comes feelings of sadness, depression and loneliness. Rather than making these feelings and this energy "bad" or "negative" try embracing them by giving in to this energy for a short period of time.

Listen in for tips from Mindful Design on battling the winter blues!

Are you dreading a long, cold Winter?

Let’s start by understanding the energy of Winter.

For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, the energy of the seasons is shifting from Fall to Winter on December 21st. In Feng Shui, Autumn is connected to the metal element, the energy of inward movement, completion, and contraction. Leaves fall to the ground and the nutrients return to the soil. Trees become dormant and draw their energy inward and down to the roots. As we shift into Winter, the soil cools and hardens.

…read full post

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.

Mindful Design is a new way to learn feng shui. Our unique training program takes an holistic approach to learning the art of feng shui design. Mindful design is about becoming aware, and attentive, to the energy around you: both inner and outer qi. It is about promoting a better way of living and creating sacred spaces that support, and nourish.