How to Feng Shui Your Work-From-Home Space

Guest User October 6, 2021

In feng shui, different parts of your home represent different parts of life. Your home office represents your career, and it can affect how successful you are in your career and how supported you feel.

The number one thing you want to do for your home office is to make sure you have a desk. I know a lot of people aren’t set up to have room for a desk in their work-from-home space, but it’s important to carve out an area as best you can. If you don’t have a stable, steady location where you can do your work, that reflects upon how stable and prosperous your career is, and how you show up in your career. If you can, have a dedicated desk. If this isn’t possible, create a dedicated space. If you have to do your work at your dining room table, for example, make it into a nice workspace while you are working there. When you’re done working at the end of the day, put your work things away and convert it back into a dining room table.

Whether it’s an actual desk or a workspace that you’ve carved out on your coffee table, you want to put yourself in command. That means that you want to be able to see the door to the space while you’re working. If your back is to the door, your stress levels are elevated and you can’t see what’s coming to you. The metaphor in your work life is that you can’t see opportunities or possible conflicts coming your way in your career.

You also want to have a solid, stable desk that is big enough for you to work on. A glass desk is not ideal, because things can fall through, and it’s also fragile. You also want to avoid a desk that is lopsided, unstable, or too small. A tiny desk space represents a tiny space to receive opportunities and support, so you want to have a desk that’s appropriately sized for what you want to achieve. It’s also practical to make sure that your desk can accommodate your needs, to avoid creating unnecessary obstacles for yourself. If you think you may need to buy a new desk, keep in mind that this is the foundation of your career!

In setting up your desk, make sure you also have a supportive chair. In feng shui, we like to suggest that you have enough room behind you. Generally, that means at least three feet, so that you can receive support, and also have perspective and a backup plan. When you’re looking at chairs themselves, a chair with a high back is more supportive.

Lastly, one of my favorite decorative items to suggest for a home office is a desk blotter. They are generally rectangular or square in shape, which represents the earth element. A desk blotter creates some stability, and it’s a great addition to your work-from-home space, whether you have a permanent desk or not. If you’re working at your dining room table or coffee table, it helps to define a space for your work, and you can also roll it up and put it away when you’re not working.

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

Lotus History and Symbolism: What We Can All Learn from the Flawless Flower

Guest User September 29, 2021

Anjie Cho was featured on mindbodygreen

For centuries, the lotus flower has been depicted in different religions and countries around the world. Miraculously growing in the murkiest of conditions, the lotus is a lucky symbol that's revered for its resilience, and of course, its beauty.

Here, we take a closer look at the history and significance of this flower, plus how you can work with its symbolism in your own life.

History of the lotus flower.

Lotus flowers have a long, rich history spanning thousands of years. Naturally occurring in many countries in Southeast Asia and Australia, they're also found in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, as well as folklore in ancient Greece.

.…read full article