Benefits of Black Tourmaline

Anjie Cho December 9, 2020

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Where rose quartz is known primarily for attracting love, black tourmaline is the champion crystal of providing spiritual stability and protecting against various types of negative energy. For many spiritual and metaphysical healers, black tourmaline is known to be the best protective crystal available. Black tourmaline’s prized ability comes from a tendency to decrease internal negative energy within those who wear or use it. Not only does the crystal aid in releasing self doubts, anxiety and other negative emotions, it is said to encourage good luck, optimism and happiness as well.

One of the best ways to use black tourmaline is during meditation. When meditating for the purpose of grounding oneself, black tourmaline is a perfect addition to the process because of its powerful use in providing spiritual stability. Black tourmaline can also be placed beneath a pillow for cleansing of the body’s energy field and the surrounding space. On a physical level, black tourmaline has even been said to effectively reduce the pain of arthritis and spinal/muscular problems as well as strengthen the immune system.

Black Tourmaline & Clear Quartz together are like yin and yang, providing balance. Black tourmaline grounds, protects and purifies. It is especially useful for protection from electro-magnetic forces and negative energies. Clear Quartz is a powerful healer and can be programmed to enhance and improve imbalances.

Locate these four tumbled black tourmaline pieces, available in the Holistic Spaces store, in the four corners of your bed, any room or your entire home to create a grid of protection. Place the pointed clear quartz in the center of the grid.

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: Inviting Wealth with Feng Shui

Guest User November 29, 2020

How can I create more wealth?

Feng shui practitioners talk about this a lot, because it’s a very common question. However, looking at wealth in a superficial way is more of a fast food approach to feng shui, and it’s really much deeper. To feel true abundance, we need to move out of a poverty mindset and realize that there’s really nothing that you can lose. When we start to worry and grasp tightly to things that are impermanent, we don’t feel abundant.

There’s an area of the feng shui bagua map that’s related to wealth and abundance. It’s the purple area, and it’s called xun. This area is related to yin wood, which is like a big tree. If you think about a big tree in nature, it’s very giving and abundant. If you’ve ever had a tree on your property that bears fruit, you often have so much to share, because there's more fruit than one person or one family could ever consume or enjoy. It encourages generosity, and reminds us that it doesn’t really benefit us to hoard. When you realize that there’s nothing you can lose, you can really cultivate generosity and abundance.

There’s a Buddhist practice that you can try to cultivate generosity. Take an item in your home, and see how it feels to move it from one hand to the other. How does it feel to give? How does it feel to receive?

You can also go bigger, and think about what you can let go of. It doesn’t have to be money. To tie it back to feng shui, are there things in your home that you can let go of, and offer to someone else? Can you offer help? Words of kindness? Joy? How can you become more generous and create opportunities for generosity?

Another interesting way to be generous is to give people an opportunity to ask for help. You can ask someone to lend you an ear or to get you milk for your tea, and give them the opportunity to be generous. Even if they say no, it’s still an act of generosity. You’re being generous by giving someone the opportunity to be generous to you. Or, maybe you are giving them the opportunity to be generous to themselves by saying no.

There are so many really unique and interesting ways to cultivate generosity. Whether it’s moving something from one hand to the other, letting go of an item you’re holding onto tightly, or offering a bit of your time to someone else, I encourage you to explore this area of the feng shui bagua map. How can you be giving, like a big tree? Mother nature is always giving. How can you be in that flow?

by Anjie Cho

Thanks for reading our "Q&A Sunday". If you have personal questions, we encourage you to check out Practical Feng Shui or hire one of Anjie's Grads.

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

Q&A Sunday: What Is Feng Shui?

Guest User November 22, 2020

What is feng shui?

Since we’re spending so much time at home lately, there’s been a lot of interest in feng shui. Because of this, I wanted to take the time to share a bit more about what exactly feng shui is.

Feng shui is an Asian modality, and like other practices that come from Asia, it’s really a lifelong practice. In the western medical world, people say: “See one, do one, teach one.” This isn’t really how it works in feng shui or in other Asian modalities. You can certainly do that, but it won’t get you very far, and approaching feng shui like that is really appropriating it. It’s important to recognize that feng shui is a really deep practice from Asia, and to respect the way that it was meant to be cultivated.

That said, there are so many cultures, and most have some way of looking at how to organize their living spaces in order to invite more harmony in the home. You can look back at your own personal cultural heritage and ask your parents or cultural elders to learn more about what your ancestors and elders did to make their homes more harmonious. I’m inspired by some of my students who are incorporating their own cultural practices into their feng shui studies.

The words “feng shui” translate to “wind” and “water.” The way I look at it is that we as humans are a part of nature, and we rely on the elements of wind and water to survive. We need our breath as well as hydration to live and to thrive. Without wind and water, there is no life. At its core, feng shui is about bringing life to a space. It’s more than just knowing where to put the TV or what color to paint the door. That’s really a superficial way of looking at feng shui. I challenge you to dive in a little bit deeper, and if feng shui is something you’re interested in, work with a practitioner who can really help and support you.

It’s also really helpful just to acknowledge that your home is something that supports you, and recognize that you can transform it to be a place of harmony and support rather than a place that drains you. Feng shui is really about how to be in harmony with your home, your environment, and all the things outside of you, because they’re really not outside of you.

My personal definition of feng shui is mindfulness for spaces. It’s about paying attention to all the details of your environment and recognizing that you are interconnected and interdependent with the world around you. That opens you up to feel true compassion, since you know you’re not separate from everything around you, from helpful people and beautiful spaces to challenging people and draining spaces. Feng shui gives us the tools to slow down and create a home that supports and nurtures us. The world around us is beautiful, and a little bit of mindfulness can really help us appreciate all the beauty in our homes and in our lives.

by Anjie Cho