Curating Spaces for Joy

Guest User July 28, 2021

Today I wanted to talk about curating spaces for joy. I’ve been thinking about this because we recently renovated our home, and there are some special areas I created in our home that really bring me joy.

Joy is related to the Completion area of the feng shui bagua, also called Dui in Chinese. This area is also connected to children and the metal element. If you’re not familiar with the bagua, it’s a sort of map that can be laid over a home, room, or lot, with different areas corresponding to different areas of life.

In the Dui area of our recently renovated home, I have a beautiful shelf that I’m really excited about. I’m using the shelf to display my tea ceremony items, including the different seasonal items I’m using at the moment. For me, tea ceremony feels really joyful, so I’m looking forward to curating my shelf as the seasons change.

I encourage you to consider creating special areas of your home with things that bring you joy! What are the objects or practices that are joyful for you? How can you invite those things into your home?

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 Closets

Guest User July 19, 2021

What does a closet symbolize in feng shui?

There’s a lot of information you can learn from your closets. One way to look at the symbolism of a closet is to see where it is located according to the feng shui bagua. In case you’re not familiar with the bagua, it’s a three-by-three grid that lays out different areas of your home that are connected to different life aspects. If you know how to lay the bagua on your home, it can be interesting to see where the closets end up. If you’re not sure how to lay the bagua, you might want to download Mindful Design’s free bagua kit, or sign up for an upcoming session of Practical Feng Shui to get a mini feng shui consultation.

You’ll also want to notice which closets are cluttered or unused. Sometimes people have closets that they never open, or closets that they just throw a lot of things into. Closets can represent hidden or unacknowledged issues in your life. May you have a closet you’re afraid to open because you need to go through it. There might be a lot of emotional baggage connected to that closet, and it might be interesting to see which area of the bagua map it aligns with.

For instance, an unused closet in the benefactors area may represent helpful people that you’ve had in your life all along but have not yet tapped into or recognized. Noticing a closet in this area might just be a nudge to look a little more closely, and open the door that has been there all the time. It may simply mean you have to ask for more support.

A cluttered closet in your wealth or abundance area might mean that your wealth is tied up or buried under personal issues or blocks. If you have a closet in the career area, maybe there’s a path that you have not yet seen in your career. Are you open to seeing a different direction for your career or life?

I invite you to take a look at any cluttered or unused closets in your home, and get curious about what they might be telling you!

by Anjie Cho

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

Your Sudden Urge to Clean House Is Telling You Something

Guest User January 27, 2021

Anjie Cho was featured on Forge

Have you found yourself overtaken by a sudden urge to clean and reorganize every inch of your living space?

If the fresh-start feeling of the election results has you newly energized to change up your space, you’re not alone. At least according to Twitter, that mood is in the air.

If you’re stress-cleaning, you’re not alone there, either: Studies have linked “ritualized behaviors” like meticulous cleaning to periods of heightened anxiety. And, well, there’s been a fair bit of that going around lately.

So, where to begin?

Assess the stuff taking up your space

Reassess your environment, on a macro level, by looking at the objects within it. “The items we surround ourselves with carry weight,” says Anjie Cho, a New York City-based architect and feng shui practitioner. That doesn’t mean physical weight. Objects, Cho explains, are sometimes imbued with memory and purpose — a gift from an ex, or a 1,000-piece puzzle that you bought with the best intentions in March — that may no longer serve you or may be affecting your mental wellness in harmful ways.

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