feng shui – Career Life Institute

Feng Shui with Style – Working with Your Element Type

When you begin to study feng shui, you quickly realize the importance of the qualities and characteristics of the five feng shui elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. This knowledge is essential to selecting appropriate colors, furnishings, and accessories for your home. You can also use your understanding of the five elements to develop a personalized feng shui strategy, based on the element that is reflected most strongly in your own style of living.

Metal energy is clean, simple, and detail-oriented. Earth is lush, nurturing and comfortable. Water is free-flowing, expressive, and intuitive. Wood is ambitious, forward-thinking, and practical. Fire is passionate, excitable, and changeable.

Each of us has a unique combination of these five energies in our own personality, usually with one element dominating. This is reflected in how we decorate and use our homes.

Some of us developed a strong style preference at a very early age, which continues to serve and suit us well. Others go through different phases as they progress through life. You may once have covered anything that didn't move in chintz and ruffles, but now find yourself appreciating the clarity of a more sparsely decorated space – or vice versa. During an earlier phase you may have been happy with few possessions and a minimalist lifestyle, only to find greater comfort now in the abundant colors and textures of a more lavishly decorated home.

The element that is strongest in your personality right now will influence your current decorating style, housekeeping habits, and your approach to feng shui. Your experience will be more fun and more comfortable when you tailor your feng shui strategies to your element style. Let's begin by seeing which of the five descriptions below most closely describes you:

Neat Freak (METAL): I hate clutter! My home is always immaculate, with everything tidy and well-maintained, and I am very thoughtful about what I bring into my space.
Pack Rat (EARTH): I love my stuff, and can't get rid of anything. My house is so full of clutter that when something is broken I can't even get to it to fix it.
Free Spirit (WATER): I'm too busy being me to clean up! If something's a mess, I just toss a shawl over it. People say my home has lots of personality, and I am constantly redecorating and moving things around.
Go-Getter (WOOD): Housekeeping? Home décor? Don't ask me; that's what the maid and decorator are for. I just want things functional and practical, and I need a quiet place to come home to at the end of a busy day.
Whirlwind (FIRE): Enough of the quiz already! I have a million things to do and a short attention span-just tell me how to feng shui my house!

Many people are a combination of styles, so it may be hard to choose just one answer. If you're not sure, ask a few relatives or close friends for feedback; if you're a true Neat Freak, you may think your house is a mess even when it's immaculate by other people's standards!

You may also find that you live one style, but secretly crave another. As a dyed-in-the-wool Free Spirit, for example, I regularly break the feng shui rules of good housekeeping because I'm just too busy creating, writing, and living to keep things as clean and organized as I would like them to be. But whenever I visit a Neat Freak's home, my soul goes "ahhhhhh."

The trick is to be aware of what type of space you are really, truly most comfortable in. As much as I like visiting pristine, zen-like spaces, I know that I don't really want to live in one — that if I did it would soon look just as lived-in as my current home.

Here are some guidelines, based on the element-affinities described above, to help you develop a personalized feng shui strategy:

NEAT FREAK –
Your home is so neat and tidy that it may be a little rigid, sterile, or monochromatic. You tend to like the minimalist look, and are the most likely type to have all-white decor. If your furniture has been in the same position for years, look for ways to get chi moving without making more change than you'll feel comfortable with.

Live plants and flowers will bring natural energy and color to your space. You may also need to add more personal touches here and there. Find a place to display a few favorite photographs of friends and family members, so there are some human images around you.

Your love for clean, simple spaces and attention to detail mean you are probably on top of any maintenance or clutter issues, so focus on creating a good flow of chi through your home, counteracting any negative influences, and activating your power spots. Your clean and tranquil home is a wonderful environment for self-nurturing methods such as meditation and qigong.

PACKRAT –
Your biggest problem is clutter! Closets are overflowing, you have three sets of everything, books are stacked two deep on every shelf, you've saved every greeting card you ever got, and all the flat surfaces in your home are piled with stuff. You might still be able to breathe, but your space isn't getting any chi at all!

Create some breathing room in your home before you do anything else, or you'll just activate all your clutter into even greater chaos. Chances are you've been feeling a little stuck lately, so focus on getting rid of the old to make room for the new before you do anything else.

Once you've cleared out enough stuff to get a good look at your house, make sure you've got a good flow of chi through the space and address any maintenance issues before making other feng shui changes. Your own chi will shift a lot as you clean out your home, so be sure to practice some grounding and balancing techniques as you go along.

FREE SPIRIT –
You've been feng shui-ing your space since the day you first got your own bedroom, even if you didn't know to call it that.

You are the type most likely to want to work on everything at once, so be sure to define some priorities before jumping into making changes.

Your enthusiasm for creative décor may lead you to overlook basic maintenance issues and allow clutter to pile up. Take care of those first, then make sure that you are applying your individuality to your power spots rather than scattering it randomly about the place.

Of all the types, you are boldest in your use of color, so get out the brush and roller and have some fun with feng shui color-theory.

Make sure that you haven't overlooked any negative influences that should be corrected, and use your creativity to develop your own unique feng shui enhancements. You've probably tried a lot of different personal renewal methods over the years, but may not have kept up a consistent practice. Make a commitment to pay as much attention to the inner you as you do to your surroundings.

GO-GETTER –
Your house is probably beautifully furnished and well maintained, but you may have delegated so many of your home-maintenance chores that you no longer have a strong energetic attachment to your space.

Make sure you don't delegate all your feng shui tasks, too, or they won't have much power behind them. Find small, simple things you can do yourself and be sure to put some of your own energy into enhancing your key power spots. If you arrange for someone else to take care of other feng shui chores, it will be especially important to perform the body-speech-mind empowerments on each one when the work is done.

Throw practicality out the window for a moment and choose one unique and unexpected item for your home that expresses the inner you others so rarely see.

Chances are good you've been pushing yourself pretty hard for a long time, so be sure to make time for balance and renewal. A candle-lit aromatherapy bath will help you relax so you can enjoy your beautiful home.

WHIRLWIND –
You're usually moving too fast to pay much attention to your house, but once you get into feng shui you'll want to get it all done in one afternoon.

Do some planning before you begin, or you'll jump from one unnecessary embellishment to another without getting to the important stuff before you're distracted by the next exciting idea. You want to start with the wind chimes and water fountains because they look like the most fun, but if you skip over locating your personal power spots you won't know where to place them. And leaving the household maintenance tasks for later could sabotage your other efforts.

You'll benefit from the discipline of empowering your changes with a daily ritual-it's an essential part of the process, and the thing you're most likely to skip! Promise yourself a massage when you're done, and splurge on a big bouquet of flowers as a centerpiece for your home, so you remember to stop and smell the roses from time to time.

About The Author

Stephanie Roberts is a feng shui consultant in Maui, Hawaii, and the author of the best-selling Fast Feng Shui: 9 Simple Principles for Transforming Your Life by Energizing Your Home (rated 5-stars by Amazon.com readers) from which this article is adapted. To find out how you can use contemporary Western feng shui to help you achieve greater success and happiness in your life, please visit the Fast Feng Shui website. stephanie@fastfengshui.com

Enhancing Your Business With Feng Shui

Most of us want our businesses to be "powerhouses", where there is a great deal of energy, activity and production, in perfectly manageable doses. Even in the "quieter" healing professions, a steady flow of energized clients is desired. Achieving this takes a variety of efforts on many different levels–professional training, advertising, networking, accounting, etc. Yet many of us overlook the very real impact that our actual physical work space can have on our goals.

Beyond the common sense basics, like having a clear and organized desk space, well-kept records and files, and up-to-date equipment, there are numerous spatial remedies and enhancements that Feng Shui offers for business success. Looking at your workplace through "Feng Shui eyes" will show you exactly where to apply a change to achieve more success in your business.

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art which uses the balanced placement of everyday objects to harmonize both our inner and outer environments. Furniture placement, specific objects and decorations, colors, textures and room energetics are all scrutinized and balanced. For example, in a business or home office, Feng Shui will suggest you place your desk in the "power position" in the room. This position will have your chair facing the door or entry opening, with a solid wall directly behind you. Windows should be at your sides rather than directly behind you if possible, but curtains or a blocking plant can provide a solid wall feeling if needed.

When situated this way, you will feel protected at your back and ready to encounter safely anything that is coming your way. The effect this has on your energy, and even on your health, is much greater than one would expect–our primitive "fight or flight" readiness response is calmed and we gain energy.

Feng Shui works in a similar manner to address the location of your business, the approach and entryway(s), retail or service situations, the actual layout of merchandise, and all other aspects that promote sales. Feng Shui also looks at enhancing the well-being of the employees–making sure that their comfort in the workspace translates into increased productivity and generally raised energy levels for the entire business.

Whether you want to increase your client flow, change your customer base, increase your efficiency at work, bring overdue projects to completion, or any other business goal–applied Feng Shui techniques can assist you with uncanny accuracy.

Feng Shui uses the map of the "Bagua" to identify eight areas in a space which best holds specific energies such as Career, Wealth, Helpful People, Creativity, etc. Careful enhancements of these areas will allow more Ch'i, or life force, to flow through those areas of your life. For example, placing an abundantly healthy green plant in the Health area of an office will have an immediate positive effect, as will the colors red, blue and purple when placed in the Wealth area. A skilled Feng Shui practitioner will be able to discover your main business concerns and suggest physical changes to create an environmental affirmation of your specific goals.

Usually the initial simple remedies of Feng Shui prove so successful that business owners continue with the larger improvements as their profits and positive life changes increase. As both a practical science and an intuitive art, Feng Shui can transform your work environment into the place where all of your true talents can blossom and prosper.

By Karen Carrasco, Essential Feng Shui ™ Consultant
fengshui@humboldt1.com

Deeper Well-being with Feng Shui

Feng Shui is the practice of healing one's exterior environment to bring about a major shift, and healing, of one's interior environment. So profound is this ancient art at accomplishing this, that most Chinese acupuncturists refer their patients to a Feng Shui practitioner who will follow up on their treatments by making corresponding adjustments in the patient's home.

Our homes and businesses hold our entire psyche, for good or ill, in a complex pattern of spatial, visual and sensual dynamics. The secrets of Feng Shui are now flooding into our western world, revealing the practical ways with which we can heal ourselves through changes we are willing to make in our daily living spaces.

Feng Shui wisdom instructs us to unclog the home of all of the stagnant clutter and excess objects which drag our energy down and stop the "Ch'i", or vital life energies, from flowing smoothly. If done well, this can have the same healing effect as a giant colonic, removing years of toxic psychological residue from our lives. The next step is to switch to living surrounded only by what we love, with a healing effect on us that is similar to the effect of eating healthier, more nourishing foods.

Feng Shui's remedies for structural no no's, such as slanted ceilings, oppressive overhead beams, etc., will give an immediate chiropractic benefit to us. Finally, placing visual cues throughout our environment which affirm our new healing visions for ourselves will hold those visions in as gentle, subtle and powerful a manner as hypnotherapy does. These are just a few of the healing modalities which precision Feng Shui can complement and reinforce.

If the essence of well-being is to heal the whole body and whole mind together, we can no longer overlook the great power for healing which lies in our homes and work spaces. Let your spaces hold your highest visions of harmony and abundance, becoming spatial affirmations of your goals with Feng Shui.

Karen Carrasco is an Essential Feng Shui consultant. You can contact her at fengshui@humboldt1.com, or call (707) 825-8859, with your questions or interests.

Using Feng Shui to Create a Vibration of Abundance

Your prosperity is directly related to the flow of energy in your environment. Clutter creates stagnant energy flow and prevents abundance from flowing to you.

Clutter is anything unfinished, unused, unresolved, tolerated or disorganized. Clutter is emotional constipation!

Letting go of something that no longer makes your heart sing, can mean letting go of a person, or something no longer relevant in your life. It can be part of a process of grieving, enabling you to move into your present and future.

Everyone has their own patterns of attracting abundance and blocking it. Do you recognize any of these?

Physical Clutter – Clutter is dead, stagnant energy and will block the flow of energy in your life. The energy that flows around your home and office is like a river, bringing abundance and fortunate blessings in all areas of your life. When it comes across a pile or something you are tolerating it will get bogged down.
Ask yourself: Do I love it? Do I use it? Does it make my heart sing?
Purchasing clutter – If you make purchases when feeling angry, sad, stressed, fearful etc. you’re spending money to suppress those feelings rather than feeling them and letting them go. This means emotional energy will attach itself to the item and you will experience its vibration, even on an unconscious level whenever you look at, wear or use the item.
These items will not make your heart sing and will not support your prosperity.

Are you ready to let them go?
Are you ready to become a conscious shopper?
Growth creates clutter – As you make changes within yourself, more of your belongings will fit the definition of clutter. Having the urge to discard things in your home or office is a sign of you stepping more fully into yourself and your abundance.
If you don't address the clutter, it will hold you where you were. If you are growing and changing you are continually creating clutter!
Unconscious clutter – Do you have beliefs that create conflict? Do you think you can't be wealthy AND care about people? Do you think you can't be successful working 4 days a week? These beliefs will be affecting your prosperity. Take time to re-examine them.
Clutter Vibration – everything has a vibration. If you have a feeling of not enough time, money or love in your life, it sets up a vibration that will block abundance. And, focusing on the fear of not having enough time or money draws more of that to you. On the other hand, the vibration of gratitude is the same as the vibration of abundance.
Create an attitude of gratitude. Keep a gratitude journal and each night before you go to sleep write down 5 things you are grateful for today. Focusing on gratitude rather than lack is one of the most powerful things you can do to attract the abundance vibration.
Language Clutter – The word 'want' means to desire without having! When you say you want something you are resonating with the vibration of lack, rather than flowing with the vibration of abundance. You are also complaining, at a subtle level. The Universe responds to requests, not complaints. Try using the words 'choose' or 'desire' – they may sound strange at first, but it's worth it to create a flow of energy.
Does your prosperity area feel abundant? Ask yourself, what do I currently own that represents abundance to me now? Once you have cleaned and cleared the clutter from your prosperity area, place this object there to create the vibration you choose to attract.
To discover where the prosperity area of your home or a room is, See my website.
Try this game. Place a bowl or container you love in the prosperity area of your home or a room. Each day, take a coin, give thanks for the abundance you already have, and the abundance coming to you and place the coin in the bowl. The increasing coins represent your increasing abundance.
At some point when it feels right and the bowl is nearing full, make a decision about what to do with that money and start over. This will work best once you have cleared the clutter and cleaned the area. And remember, what you focus on expands.

Clearing clutter is an important part of Feng Shui. Before you can create something new you need to make space for it. The changes you make in your environment are mirrored in your life and support you in making emotional shifts. Feng Shui can provide a welcome boost in living the life you want.

© 2003, Vicky White. All rights reserved. May be duplicated with attribution and copyright notice intact. http://www.LifeDesignStrategies.com