Q&A Sunday: Making Life Easier with Feng Shui

Guest User October 10, 2021

I noticed on your podcast that you said, “Avoid creating difficulty for yourself that doesn’t need to be there.” What do you mean by that?

This is a really interesting topic! Feng shui isn’t just about adding a plant to a certain area or moving a chair or painting a wall a certain color. That’s part of it, but feng shui is really about looking at how you’ve set up your space so that it’s supportive. You want there to be a flow that is generous and full of ease.

Have you ever been to a home that feels challenging, where you hit your head, or you have to squeeze by a lot of stuff in a hallway? Maybe you can’t walk in the door easily, or it’s difficult to come in with your groceries. When a home has been designed or cared for in such a way that creates difficulty in the space, it creates difficulty in the inhabitants’ lives as well. How you move through a space is exactly how energy flows through a space. You want to be able to notice if you are creating difficulty for yourself that doesn’t need to be there.

Another way that people can create unnecessary difficulty for themselves is by getting into a “fear shui” mode, where they are really worried about having bad feng shui in their home. Sometimes, when I unpack this for people, I find that they have wired themselves to love drama, or to feel like they need drama in order to feel something. That can be reflected in their home as well.

One simple way to notice whether you’ve created difficulty for yourself that doesn’t need to be there is to look at how easy it is to get to your bed. Are there obstacles on the way to your bedroom? Do you have to push a bunch of things out of the way to get in bed? Sometimes, people have their bed in an odd position or a lot of equipment that physically gets in the way. That can indicate difficulties in your life, including challenges in intimate relationships. If you do notice anything in the way of your bed, see if there’s anything you can remove. Removing obstacles will make your life easier energetically as well as physically.

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: How to Get Started with Feng Shui

Guest User October 3, 2021

I‘m new to feng shui. How do I get started?

One of the first things I’d recommend starting with is the feng shui bagua map. In feng shui, we have this tool called the bagua, which is a conceptual map that you can overlay on a floor plan. It’s like a mandala, with eight different sections around a center. A lot of people are familiar with the bagua map, but not many people know how to lay it correctly.

According to the school of feng shui that I practice and teach, called BTB or Black Sect feng shui, we lay the bagua based on the flow of qi. We don’t use the magnetic compass directions. In BTB feng shui, the bottom of the bagua map is always aligned with the front door of your space.

It’s really great if you have a floor plan to work with. Your floor plan is a symbol for your home, and it’s one of the main tools we use as feng shui practitioners. If you’ve been following me and Mindful Design School for a while, you might know that we started doing feng shui floor plan bootcamps where we read floor plans that people have submitted. If you’d like to be notified about future sessions, make sure you’re on our mailing list!

Generally, it’s best to start with your bedroom. Your bedroom represents you. It’s usually where you spend the most time, and it’s the most private space in your home. I always spend a lot of time looking at the bedroom when I work with clients. To lay the bagua on your bedroom, stand in the doorway of your bedroom looking in. Basically, you would take the floor plan of your bedroom and divide it into a three-by-three grid with nine equal spaces, aligning the bottom of the bagua (shown below) with the entrance to your bedroom. The furthest left corner would be your wealth and abundance area, and the furthest right corner is your relationship area.

The nine areas of the bagua map relate to different areas of your life. There’s new beginnings and family, which is also related to growth and healing. Next is wealth and abundance, also connected to self-worth. The center of the bagua is the Tai qi, which represents overall wellbeing and health. Then there is the benefactors and travel area, which has to do with how people help and support you, and how you help and support the people in your life. Next is the completion area, which is related to children, offspring of any kind, and endings. Then, there’s the knowledge area, connected to your self-cultivation, skills, and spirituality. The next area is your fame, reputation, and inspiration. Then there’s career, also connected to your path in life and wisdom. The last area is relationships and partnerships, which is related to self care, the mother element, and the feminine principle.

The wealth and relationships areas tend to be the most popular areas of the feng shui bagua map, but I invite you to go a little bit deeper in how you think about them. The superficial way of looking at these areas is to think about them as money or finding a partner. That’s part of it, but they are also so much more. At Mindful Design School, we require our students to learn and use the Chinese names for each area of the bagua, because the words “wealth” and “abundance” are limited. That area of the bagua, called Xun in Chinese, can mean so many other things as well.

Laying the bagua on your bedroom is a great way to get started with feng shui. If you want to dive deeper, I recommend checking out Mindful Design’s feng shui courses or working one-on-one with a consultant!

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: Feng Shui Plants for Attracting a New Job

Guest User September 26, 2021

I would like to get a feng shui plant to help me attract a job. Where can I buy one?

People often think that some plants are feng shui plants and some are not, but in fact, any plant can be a feng shui plant. You don’t even have to buy one. You can get a cutting from a plant, or you could receive a gifted plant from a friend, and it could be a feng shui plant. What makes a plant a feng shui plant is your intention. Are you putting this plant in a particular place for a specific feng shui reason? If so, then the plant can help to shift and provide more growth and healing in that situation. Not every plant in your home needs to have a feng shui purpose.

Similarly, it’s not necessarily the type of plant that is important, but rather where you put the plant. Since you are hoping to attract a job, you might find the fame area of your desk, since your desk represents your job. I would suggest putting a plant there to activate that area and invite recognition in your work. The fame area of your desk is the center back section.

Make sure you get a plant that’s well-groomed and healthy, and place it in this area with intention. The fame area, called Li in Chinese, is connected to the fire element. Because the wood element, represented by plants, feeds fire, a plant can be very supportive here. Your intention for your plant in this area can be to provide more growth and to feed the fire of your visibility so that you can attract a job.

I hope that helps! If you want to learn more about feng shui and plants, be sure to check out Plants & Feng Shui and Bad Feng Shui Plants on the Holistic Spaces Podcast.

by Anjie Cho