Feng Shui for Your Bedroom

Guest User October 27, 2021

Photo and design by Anjie Cho Architect PLLC

If you’re new to feng shui, getting started can sometimes feel a little overwhelming. If it feels like a lot, remember that you don’t need to do the feng shui of your whole home right away! I always recommend starting with your bedroo m. Your bedroom is a great place to begin, because it represents you, and it’s the most personal, private part of your home.

One of the first things I look at in a bedroom is the position of the bed. Ideally, your bed should be in the command position, which means that you can see the main entryway to the bedroom when you’re sitting up against the headboard. A lot of times, people don’t have their bed in command, which often corresponds with poor sleep and increased anxiety. It’s a good idea for everyone to have their bed in command if possible, because it helps you feel more at ease and more in control of your life. If you can’t put your bed in a position where you can see the door, you can add a mirror to correct this. The mirror should be located so that you can see the reflection of the door from your bed.

You also want to avoid having your feet pointing directly at the door if possible. If you can move your bed to offset it from the door, that is the best thing to do. However, if you have a smaller bedroom and aren’t able to position your bed in this way, you can correct the flow of qi fairly simply by placing a feng shui crystal halfway between the foot of your bed and the door to your bedroom. To learn more about feng shui crystal balls and how to hang them, check out this episode of the Holistic Spaces Podcast.

The next thing to look at is your headboard. It’s important to have a solid headboard that’s securely attached to your bed. A headboard offers support, and it helps you to feel more grounded and secure. You can think of it like a mountain behind you, providing a solid backing. In BTB feng shui, which is the school of feng shui that I practice and teach, we are not especially concerned with what the headboard looks like, although you do want to look for something that feels sturdy and solid. Generally, I’d recommend something either upholstered or wood. So many people, especially young people, tend to forgo a headboard, but it’s really important when it comes to creating stability in your life and in your romantic relationship.

The last tip I’ll share is to take a look at your window treatments. Often, when I have a client who is having trouble sleeping, they don’t have very good window treatments. Sometimes, they don’t have any window treatments at all. I would recommend you look for good-quality curtains or blinds with a blackout capability. One reason feng shui practitioners talk a lot about window treatments and lighting is that they really affect the yin and yang of a room. Yin is restful, quiet, dark, and cool, which is the perfect environment for sleep. By adding blackout blinds or curtains, you’re bringing in yin energy to support restful nights. In the morning, you want to be able to open your window treatments and let in the bright, yang energy of sunlight as you begin your day.

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: Broken Feng Shui Objects

Guest User October 24, 2021

What should I do if a feng shui object breaks?

Have you ever hung a feng shui crystal only to have it fall and break? People often get worried when a feng shui object breaks, but I generally say that it’s not a bad thing. This means that the energy is moving through the object you’ve placed, and that the adjustment is working.

If you do place a feng shui object in your home and it breaks, I would recommend you do it again, but try something a little stronger or better quality this time. If it was a feng shui crystal ball, for example, maybe you need to hang it from a stronger string or with a more secure tack. If the crystal itself is broken, it’s best to get a new one.

If a feng shui object fell and broke, or if you received it broken, you can still reuse it for another purpose if you’d like. Not everything in your home needs to serve a feng shui purpose. If you do want to use something as a feng shui object, though, intentionally select something new to bring into the space.

The reason you want to bring in something new for a feng shui adjustment is because you want to bring in fresh qi. Be mindful of what you select. Choosing a damaged object or one that is in disrepair for a feng shui adjustment isn’t a great idea because that’s not the type of energy you want to bring in. It’s also not ideal to use a secondhand item as a feng shui object, because that isn’t really bringing in new energy. If you do choose to use a secondhand item, be sure to clear it.

Many times I’ve done consultations where I suggest adding a plant to a particular area, and people ask if they can use a plant that they already have. Usually, I recommend they get a new plant instead, so that they’re bringing new energy into the space. If you just have more of the same, you’re not really shifting the qi.

by Anjie Cho

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

Feng Shui and Sadness

Guest User October 20, 2021

We’re moving into autumn now in the northern hemisphere, which is related to the element of metal. Autumn is also related to death and things dying away as well; think about how trees shed their leaves at this time of year. While I was hesitant to talk about this on the blog, I think it’s important to recognize that not everything is all about joy and happiness and making lots of money. There are really so many aspects to feng shui practice and philosophy, and also to dharma. I also study meditation and Buddhism, and feng shui and spirituality are very interconnected.

Sadness is a part of life too, and it’s important to find a balance between yin and yang. This is something I’ve been working with personally. I think during this global pandemic we’ve all been hoping for things to stay the same or go back to how they were, and there’s an aspect of sadness to it.

I’ve been reading a lot by Chögyam Trungpa recently, who is the teacher of my dharma teachers. One of the things he wrote is a really wonderful book called Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior. Something that’s been resonating with me a lot is connecting to tenderness and sadness, which I think a lot of people don’t like to talk about. In this book, Chögyam Trungpa asks us: “How much have you connected with yourself at all in your whole life?” I would add to that: “How much have you connected with your home, your family, and all of the people in your life?” Feng shui is really about beginning to look at those details in your environment and your home, and seeing how you and your home are connected.

That’s also what the practice of meditation is about. It’s about connecting with yourself and spending time with yourself. When you do this, you may start to see that your home is empty, or that your heart is empty. With this feeling of autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s also a poignancy and a crispness in the air. We’re starting to say goodbye to summer and to the year, and there’s a feeling of endings. Just like we talk about people entering the autumn of their lives, there is also an autumn to every moment, every year, and every joy that we feel. There’s always a cycle of endings and beginnings, and we have to recognize that our lives go through transitions.

I could talk about how you could bring more joy into your home, but really I think the best way to start to do that is to include the experience of sadness and things falling away in your home as well. That might mean recognizing that it’s time to let go of a plant that isn’t doing well, trim some leaves that are no longer healthy, or change the summer bedding to the warmer bedding. We can begin to realize that things are always shifting around us, and what really leads to true joy is knowing that joy is connected to tenderness and sadness. We can see all these cycles happen in the environment around us, and then we can begin to work with them and have compassion for them in our daily lives, our spaces, and our interactions with other people. We begin to see that we’re interconnected and interdependent with our homes, our environments, the people in our lives, and all living beings.

Instead of looking at feng shui as a way to always try to make things happier, I hope that you include these feelings of sadness that may come up as part of your feng shui experience. Know that happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin, like yin and yang. I would encourage you to look at the details in your home as a metaphor for how things are going in your life, and to recognize and accept what is coming up.

by Anjie Cho