Feng Shui is a mysterious yet practical Chinese art of working with your environment to promote harmony and balance in your life. There are many things I could share about Feng Shui. For now I thought I’d address a few common misconceptions with these 5 things to know about Feng Shui.
1. Feng Shui is over 3,000 years old but it has been adapted to our modern way of living.
Feng Shui can be applied to the wide variety of buildings and life situations we experience today. You can apply Feng Shui to your room, desk, home, property, neighborhood, business location and even your town.
2. You don’t have to move to remedy inauspicious Feng Shui.
The essence of Feng Shui is about improving the space that you have. In general I don’t tell my clients to move but make suggestions for improvement. I’ve only suggested moving to one client and that’s because the house posed a serious health hazard to her family. I suggested she consult a professional to find out if the situation could be remedied and then move if it couldn’t be resolved. Clients do consult me when they’re interested in moving. I can help them weigh the pros and cons around staying vs moving. I also go with clients to look at properties they’re considering for purchase.
3. You don’t have to remodel to remedy inauspicious Feng Shui.
In Feng Shui we emphasis making small changes. I only make remodeling suggestions when a client has specifically asked for help with their remodel.
Some of the things we pay attention to are the placement of walls, doors, hallways and other aspects of the structure of the building. But if a wall or door is in an inauspicious place we don’t have to tear down the wall or move the door. The beauty of Feng Shui is that there are often simple things we can do to adjust the energy flow in the direction of balance and harmony.
If you’re already planning to remodel this is an excellent time to consult the help of a Feng Shui practitioner. With a remodel it’s very easy to disrupt good Feng Shui and the future harmony of your home. There are often subtle changes we can make to your project to improve the overall Feng Shui. We can also prevent your project from creating bad Feng Shui.
4. If you’ve tried to Feng Shui your house from a book and found it confusing it’s not your fault.
Because it’s very difficult to Feng Shui your house from a book. Professional Feng Shui practitioners have extensive training to learn how to read the Feng Shui of a space. There are still many helpful things you can learn from books to improve your Feng Shui but there are two main reasons why you may have had trouble.
The first reason is that there are different approaches or ‘schools’ of Feng Shui and sometimes they contradict each other. So if you have books from different schools it can get pretty confusing.
The second reason is that if the layout of your house is complicated it might not be so easy. There are some floor plans that are so complicated it’s a challenge to read the ‘Bagua’ even for a trained professional. If you have a simple floor plan and a good book you may be able to apply things like the Bagua by yourself.
5. Feng Shui is much more than moving your furniture.
When you arrange your furniture according to Feng Shui principles it will make a huge difference in how you feel in your house. After my clients move their furniture, they report feeling more comfortable and at ease in their space. But moving furniture is not the only thing we look at in Feng Shui.
There are a variety of things I pay attention to when evaluating the chi flow of your space or property. Things like: the history, placement of walls, doors, hallways, the shape of the house or lot, anything related to fire (stoves, fireplaces) and anything related to water (bathroom, hot tubs), stairs and many others. The Bagua map will reveal the location of your ‘prosperity area’, ‘marriage/relationship area’ and health, career, family and other aspects of your life.
I hope I was able to answer some questions and clear up any misconceptions that you may have had about Feng Shui.
