Feng Shui to Welcome 2022

Guest User January 5, 2022

Serene bedroom with white bedding and white walls — Photo by Anjie Cho Architect PLLC

I think everyone can agree that the last couple of years have been especially challenging. As humans here on this earth, we can acknowledge that we’ve experienced some trauma during this time. We’ve been working with challenging emotions and situations, and this has activated our fight-or-flight response.

One of the most important aspects of feng shui is to look at this phenomenon of fight-or-flight. We all have a yearning to feel safe, and there are ways that feng shui can help us to cultivate feelings of safety and stability in our homes. In feng shui, we can create environments that support us, even when there are so many ups and downs in the world around us. You can start to welcome this new year by taking some time to get quiet, and just listen and connect to your home.

I would also encourage you to look at the feng shui concept called commanding position. This is a basic principle in feng shui, and the idea is to set yourself up in your home to reduce any challenges that exacerbate your fight-or-flight response. This is one way to set up your home to feel more safe, which is especially important right now since we’ve already experienced so much fight-or-flight.

To begin working with the commanding position, I recommend starting with your bedroom. You want to make sure that when you’re lying in bed, or sitting in bed with your back against the headboard, that you can see the door to your bedroom without being directly in line with the door. Usually this will put you in a position that is diagonally across from the door. You should also have a wall behind the headboard, which will help you feel more secure and supported. Being in the command position allows you to know what’s coming towards you, so that you can sleep and rest with more ease, and less fight-or-flight activation.

When your bed is set up with the door behind you, it actually creates more stress and difficulty and activates our fight-or-flight response. If you’ve been feeling especially raw or traumatized because of the happenings in the world, I would really recommend you take a look at your bedroom and set up your bed in the commanding position. If this is impossible because of the design details of your bedroom, you can instead set up a mirror so that you can see a reflection of the door while you’re laying in bed.

I hope this helps you welcome the new year in a supportive and nurturing way. First, recognize and acknowledge that this has been a very difficult time, and then find the ways in which you can create a home that supports you. Most importantly, make sure your bed is in command so you can soothe and heal yourself while you’re sleeping, which is a very healing and passive time.

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 for Friendship and Community

Guest User December 29, 2021

wooden dining table with chairs next to living room with big windows — Photo by Anjie Cho Architect PLLC

I’ve noticed that a lot of people are yearning for more friendship and community right now. The holiday season in particular brings up a lot of feelings around belonging connections with other people. It’s a time when many people are thinking about creating a greater sense of family, whether that’s with their family of origin or their family of friends.

There are a few places in your home that relate to friendships, and one important one is your dining table. A lot of people nowadays aren’t using their dining tables for the purpose of dining. Especially since the pandemic began, many people are using the dining table as a substitute desk for their work-from-home space. Even before the pandemic, I found that many people didn’t end up eating around their dining room table. While eating around the kitchen island is fine, it’s also important to eat around the dining table sometimes if you want to invite more friendships into your life. Your dining table represents how you connect to your community. It’s the place in your home where you can break bread and enjoy a meal with close friends.

If you are looking for more friendships, deeper friendships, or more community, take a look and see if your dining table is being neglected. If it is, one simple thing you can do is to just start using it. Even if you have to use your dining table for work or other purposes as well, try cleaning it off and giving it some attention. Then, start eating some of your meals there.

You can also notice whether there is enough space around your dining table for the friends you want to invite into your home. If there’s just enough room for you and your immediate family, you might want to make space for more friends by adding an extra chair.

If you live in a smaller home and don’t have room for a dining table, do the best you can with what you have. You might need to make accommodations when you do have friends over, and move some of your personal things out of the way to make space for them. You can also create smaller place settings so that there is more room for people to sit and move around. It also might be that you need to go out in the world more, and create connections with friends at restaurants or at other people’s homes.

by Anjie Cho

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

3 Common Feng Shui Misconceptions

Guest User December 22, 2021

There are a lot of feng shui misconceptions out there, and I wanted to address a few of them in this post. While the things I’m sharing here aren’t problems from the BTB feng shui perspective that I practice and teach, I want you to first consider your own feelings. If you are very concerned about something, always go with your intuition. If you’re very fearful about an object in your home, it’s not going to be a source of good energy.

Plants in the bedroom are bad feng shui

One common feng shui misconception is that you shouldn’t have plants in the bedroom. My teachers taught that plants are fine in the bedroom. I have plants in my bedroom, and my business partner Laura at the Mindful Design School does as well.

Some feng shui consultants do recommend avoiding plants in the bedroom, and this doesn’t mean they are wrong. Their teachers probably taught them that plants in the bedroom are not ideal. There are many schools of feng shui, and while their foundations are all similar, each school has different takes on certain things. If you’ve read a lot about feng shui from different sources, you may have read some conflicting information, and that’s okay. Just think about how many chocolate chip cookie recipes there are in the world; there isn’t one that is the best, unless it is the best for your needs and your taste.

The idea that plants shouldn’t be in the bedroom comes from the fact that plants and wood energy are more active, and the bedroom is more of a restful space. If you do have trouble sleeping, and you’ve already tried all the logical things and you’ve done all the bedroom feng shui adjustments, you can try taking the plants out of your bedroom to see if that feels better.

Again, from a Black Sect or BTB perspective, which is what I teach, it’s totally fine to have plants in the bedroom. That said, if you want to try removing the plants from your bedroom to see how it feels, go for it. I would encourage you to test things out and trust your own intuition.

Mirrors in the Bedroom are bad feng shui

Another common misconception is that it’s not good feng shui to have mirrors in the bedroom. Mirrors are something we use a lot in BTB feng shui because they have the ability to magnify and amplify energy. As with plants, if you feel uncomfortable with a mirror in your bedroom, then you should acknowledge and honor your own perspective. However, from the BTB perspective, mirrors in the bedroom are not a problem.

If you have a second-hand mirror that has a lot of predecessor qi, or if you don’t know where the mirror came from and what energy may be connected to it, that’s a whole different story. With anything you bring into your home, it may have picked up energies from its previous owner or on its way to you. If you do have a second-hand mirror in your bedroom, it is a good idea to clear it.

The mirror itself, however, is not a problem according to the BTB school of feng shui. Again, if you don’t feel comfortable having a mirror in your bedroom, honor that. You have to pay attention to your own personal connections to how your bedroom is set up and how it makes you feel.

Feng shui is about fixing things

The last feng shui misconception I want to address is that feng shui is about fixing things. While a lot of feng shui is remedial, I like to look at it from a different perspective. Instead of looking at feng shui as a way to fix problems, I like to ask my clients what wishes they would like fulfilled. This way, we are using feng shui with the intention of creating the life you want and manifesting your dreams.

Since I’ve started practicing feng shui, almost all the aspirations I’ve written down have come true. Feng shui can be a tool that allows you to see what is already present in your life and be in greater harmony with your space and with the people around you. Then, you can be grateful for what you have, and think about what wishes you have for your life.

by Anjie Cho