Q&A Sunday: Hanging Artwork in Your Home

Guest User September 20, 2020

I’m curious if you have any tips about hanging art. I’m downsizing to a smaller apartment, and I’m not sure where to hang my art or if I will have space for it all.

Thank you for your question! To answer the first part of your question, it’s generally a good idea to hang paintings and other art a little higher than you think you should. This is especially important if you have a tendency towards depression. When the art in your home is placed too low, it can depress your qi. Placing your art higher, as well as choosing light fixtures that point upwards, can lift your gaze which also helps to lift your qi. After six months of a pandemic, I think all of us can probably use an extra lift!

When it comes to the size of your space and whether you’ll have room to hang all the pieces you own, I’m reminded of one of my favorite books, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chögyam Trungpa. In the first chapter, he speaks about our tendency to collect. Some of our collections are internal: maybe you are always collecting new information, or learning about yet another spiritual modality. In this internet age, people often want to collect as much information as possible rather than really receiving and working with one thing. Because your home is a manifestation of what’s going on inside, how you collect things in your home may also indicate how you collect things in your life.

Chögyam Trungpa compares our collections to a shop. We may have started out with one beautiful item, but over time, our space becomes so full of things that it becomes more like a junk shop. Even if the individual items are beautiful, too many things placed in the same space can lead to chaos.

You may have beautiful artwork, but will you be able to enjoy its beauty if your walls are completely full of things to look at? When we have too many things, life becomes oppressive. Practices like meditation and feng shui are about focusing on one thing at a time, paying attention to the details, and simplifying. What if we chose to fully appreciate individual things in each moment, rather than feeling the need to bring them home and add to our collection?

I hope this gives you some inspiration as you decide which artwork to hang in your new apartment, as well as what else you choose to bring with you!

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

Gratitude for Your Home

Anjie Cho September 2, 2020

The feng shui that I practice is a shamanic tradition, which means we believe that everything around us is alive. Not only are you and I alive, but your home is alive, your desk is alive, your bed is alive, and so on. Even our spaces, and the air we breathe, are alive, and we’re all made up of the same stardust.

I think sometimes we forget this, and we take our homes for granted. It’s important to take a moment and think about how much gratitude you have for your home, especially since many of us have been spending more time at home than usual this year. A lot of us have also lost our homes or changed homes, and it’s been a year of really considering what home means to us. For example, does the city where you’ve been living really feel like home? Have you been living somewhere that does not suit you or support you?

No matter how you’re feeling about your current home, it’s still important to have gratitude and to thank your home. I encourage you to take some time to think about all of the things you’re grateful for, and simply say thank you out loud to your home.

Make this a sacred moment of gratitude, rather than rushing to get it done between tasks or immediately going back to scrolling through Instagram. Take a deep inhale, a long exhale, hold your hands over your heart if that feels good to you, and say to your home: Thank you so much.

You can add whatever you want to add - you can even give your home a name if you’d like - but a simple thank you is enough. Your home doesn’t speak in words, it speaks in energy. When you’re humble in your gratitude, your home will know.

I hope you take some time today to thank your home. If you would like more feng shui tips along with community and accountability, I would love for you to join me for eight weeks of free feng shui challenges!

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 and Crystals

Anjie Cho July 5, 2020

Photo by Franco Antonio Giovanella on Unsplash

I really appreciate your podcast and all the work you are doing. I would love to hear your opinion about the use of crystals in Feng Shui. They seem an integral part of the practice, but I find them personally difficult to use as many are mined in deadly conditions in one of the world’s poorest countries.

- Christine T.

Hi Christine,

Thank you for your question, and thank you for listening to our podcast! First, natural crystals are actually not an integral part of feng shui. That’s a common misconception. If you look at any older feng shui books, you won’t see any crystals, except maybe jade since that was often used in Asia. A lot of feng shui practitioners do use crystals, but they’re not necessary. The use of crystals in feng shui is part of a modern version of feng shui that’s been adapted to make it relevant for the current time.

We do talk a lot about using feng shui crystal balls in BTB feng shui, which is the school of feng shui that I practice and teach. In the BTB tradition, these faceted crystal balls are very important, but they’re also not necessary. There’s always something else you could use as an adjustment instead. Feng shui is about shifting the energy in your environment. You can use many different tools, including natural crystals or crystal balls, but they’re not a must. If you’re working with a consultant, they’ll be able to give you adjustments that are appropriate for you and customized to what you’re working on, as well as substitutions if required.

In terms of the mining industry, that’s a really important thing to think about. Especially because crystals are used as a healing tool, it’s important to think about where they come from. I find that as I’m teaching more and becoming more available to the public, I have a responsibility to educate myself because what I show and model publicly has an impact. While in many areas of my life I’ve taken the time to consider the ethics involved with where things come from, I haven’t researched that much about natural crystals, so I’m really grateful that you’ve brought this to my attention.

I don’t have a great answer about the mining industry because I’m not a gemstone expert, but I think it’s an important conversation and I’m going to reach out to my colleagues who are gemstone experts to see how they address it. If this aspect of crystals does make you uncomfortable, remember that you don’t have to work with them to practice feng shui.

We all have to do the best we can and continually wake up to see more of the suffering in the world and the ways we can lessen it. Since I’m talking publicly, it’s especially important for me to up the ante and take responsibility for what I am sharing with the world.

Thanks again for your question and for bringing this to my attention!

by Anjie Cho