Feng Shui Elements - Bring Harmony And Balance To Your Home

Lots of people are confused about the feng shui elements. What are they? What do they mean? How do they relate to your home? In this article, I'll shed some light.

The feng shui elements, simply put, are the five guiding points of your life and, when used correctly, they will create the best environment for your home. Feng shui elements are about centering your home and creating harmony. In a moment, I'll give you some ideas for how to accomplish this.

But first, What are the five feng shui elements? Great question! They are Water, Fire, Wood, Metal and Earth.

And what do the elements represent from a decorating perspective? The feng shui elements stand for specific
character traits and, supposedly, they define the world in which we live. Let's examine each a bit more closely:

* Water: Learning, winter, and travel. It is represented by the color black.

* Fire: Energy, summer, and danger. It is represented by the color red.

* Wood: Creativity, spring, and change. It is represented by the color green.

* Metal: Business, autumn, and success. It is represented by the color white.

* Earth: Patience, stability and the center of all things. It is represented by the color yellow.

Now, you might be asking, "What does all this really mean?". Here's what feng shui advocates believe. When you bring the five feng shui elements into alignment then all is right with your home. When the elements are out of balance, you could experience problems. These two states are referred to as the Productive and Destructive cycles.

The Productive Cycle seeks patterns of harmony, such as these: wood fuels fire; fire turns to ash and covers the earth; earth turns to minerals and metals; metals can melt to water; water feeds wood.

When the cycle is Destructive, however, the pattern changes to something like this: wood takes from earth; earth, to feed itself, takes water; water douses fire; fire destroys metal; metal destroys wood.

Okay, okay...I know these cycle definitions sound a little like mumbo jumbo. So, let's get a little more specific and determine how this could affect your home. First remember that the Feng shui elements must come together corrctly to create a balance that is essential to making your home harmonious.

So, how do you achieve a balance? First and foremost keep in mind what each element represents. Next, remember that if a room is dominated by one color or "element" this will be destructive. For example, while you may absolutely love the color green (wood), you should not decorate your entire home in this one shade. This will ignite the destructive cycle because the wood element will be overpowering without other feng shui elements to
soften or balance it out.

What would be better is to use all the colors for your home. No, you don't have to paint the walls in each room with a different color to match the feng shui elements. Instead, you can find splashes of the colors in accessories and accents, such as knickknacks, throw pillows, etc.

Feng shui elements mean incorporating ideas of natural and harmony into your home. Its principles are not embraced by everyone. The debate span from the hardest of skeptics to the most ardent believers to those not sure of what their opinions may be. Whatever the truth, however, feng shui elements have a universal idea within them--finding harmony in your life and your home. This is something we all could use.

Michael Holland is the creator of Home Decorating Made Easy. His web sites offers lots of FREE decorating tips and ideas for decorating your home.

3 Essential Feng Shui Tips

Feng shui is the art of arranging your physical space to assist the energy (or ?chi?) to flow without hindrance. While the practice of feng shui originates from China, it has become widely popular with people who care about how their spaces look and feel ? and with what kind of life experience one has within those spaces.

Many books have been written on the topic of feng shui, especially as Westerners want and need to adapt the feng shui principles into modern Western settings of their homes, offices, and buildings. We will not address the entire feng shui system, or all of its practices. Instead, we will share with you the 3 essential steps you first need to know, to get you started.

1) The map. The Chinese call this 8-sided map the Ba Gua. It tells what kinds of activities properly belong in which parts of any given space, whether a room, an office, or an entire house. That is important information to know, if one wishes to create harmony and good energy flow within their space.

The usual kinds of activities assigned to the eight areas of your space are:

● Work/Career

● Relationships/Love

● Health

● Fortunate Blessings (Prosperity)/Wealth

● Center/Harmony

● Helpful Friends/Networking

● Creativity/Children

● Spirituality/Connection with Source

● Inner Fulfillment/Education

It is important to know where within your space each kind of activity will receive the maximum life force energy ? and what kinds of things will obstruct it. After you know that, it is simple to create an auspicious environment where what you wish to happen can easily and harmoniously unfold.

2) Clear the space. Before you even start to do feng shui work on a new or established space, you need to clear the energy that is already there. Why? Because energy attaches to surfaces, and can be held within objects. It is important to learn how to clear and cleanse the area first, to remove stale or unwanted energies, and to invite new, fresh life force into the space.

While you can burn incense or ?smudge? (Native American sacred herbs) before starting the feng shui process, there is a new product available that is even better at clearing energy from spaces. It is called Blue Eagle Invocation? Liquid Smudge. It is based on the dry herb formula and was created by traditional Native Americans in a sacred way.

The Invocation? immediately reaches the stale or trapped energy in all areas of the space, dispels negativity, and provides a clean fresh new start. Invocation? is actually more effective for feng shui than burning incense or herbs, because the properties of the ingredientds are amplified, not consumed. And it can be used in places where it is not possible to burn things (such as office spaces, clinics or hospitals.)

In any case, you must consider how to best clear the space you wish to prepare for your feng shui work. Whether you choose to burn incense, herbs, or to use the new Liquid Smudge formula, the clearing must be done.

3) Install corrective elements to enhance and balance the energy of your space. This last step is the hardest part of feng shui work, but you can easily find what you need in any of the many great books on this topic at your local library, or online.

For more information about clearing your space for feng shui, and to get a free report about how to clear your space, visit our web site at http://www.liquidsmudge.com Blue Eagle Invocation Liquid Smudge

? 2007 Nancy Boyd.

Home Staging with Feng Shui

Combining Feng Shui and Home Staging helps my clients sell their homes fast. Statistics show that staged homes sell 50% faster and for 6.9% more than homes that have not been staged. Feng Shui, which is the art of balancing the seen and unseen elements or forces, assists in this process. There are 71,000 homes for sale in the metro Atlanta area.

Home Stagers are trained professionals who know how to change an environment so potential buyers can see themselves living in it. I use Feng Shui because it is practical and makes sense. The first thing we look at with Feng Shui is safety. When this is used for the potential sale of a home then anyone entering will automatically feel safe. We?re dealing with subtle and subconscious forces and sensibilities. People can not always articulate what they feel in a particular environment but they usually know when it feels like somewhere they want to spend time or somewhere they want to leave.

The buzzword for 2007, according to Chinese Astrologers is the combination of water and fire or steam. ?This energy is going to cause big movements and big changes. Working with Feng Shui in any year means balancing all 5 elements. For instance, bring in plants as the wood element. Add mirrors to bring in the water element. Add round or oval objects as the metal element. Display animal prints for the fire element. And add earth tones as the earth element.?

There is more to Feng Shui, than the mere presence of the elements. ?The physical placement of everything causes the energy to flow or be blocked and it is the natural and powerful flow of energy that is the goal. A visually pleasing scene is a by-product of having all the elements balanced in a particular environment.

I am a very practical Stager and Feng Shui Practitioner. As much as possible I work with my clients? existing furniture and accessories. Staging is sometimes referred to as ?use what you have decorating?. Feng Shui is happening all the time. The fun and power is doing it or using it consciously and intentionally.?

Jonni Vann is a certified Feng Shui practitioner and has been practicing for more than 10 years. Home Staging was part of her practice before it was the latest ?buzz word?. For more information go to: http://www.homestagingwithfengshui.blogspot.com or jonnivann@yahoo.com

Finding True Love With Feng Shui

If true love has been eluding you, you could increase the chances of meeting someone you fancy by activating the Romance sector in your home.

Where can you find your Romance sector?

One way is by using your Chinese horoscope. We all belong to one of twelve Chinese horoscopes - Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

For those of you born in the year of the Rat, Dragon, or Monkey, your Romance sector is in the West.

For those of you born in the year of the Horse, Dog, or Tiger, your Romance sector is in the East.

For those of you born in the year of the Rooster, Ox, or Snake, your Romance sector is in the South.

For those of us born in the year of the Rabbit, Goat, or Pig, our Romance sector is in the North.

After you've located your Romance sector in your house, it's time to activate the sector.

Flowers are often used to activate the Romance sector. There are a number of things you need to pay attention:

1. The vase must be filled with fresh flowers and clear water. You should not have an empty vase.

2. Only fresh flowers should be used. No synthetic flowers. (That would have made things so much easier, wouldn't it?)

3. Ideally, display 4 stalks of flowers.

3. Choose flowers with vibrant colors and without thorns. Never use black or white flowers.

4. Pay attention to the color of the vase.

If your Romance sector is in the East or Southeast sector (belonging to Wood element), you can use a green vase.

If your Romance sector is in the South (belonging to Fire element), you can use a purple or red vase.

If your Romance sector is in the North (belonging to Water element), you can use a black or blue vase.

If your Romance sector is in the West or Northwest (belonging to Metal element), you can use a white or gold vase.

If your Romance sector is in the Southwest or Northeast (belonging to Earth element), you can use a yellow vase.

Wishing you all the best in finding the love of your life!

Logan Wong is a writer with Feng Shui Metaluck, a website offering free Feng Shui tips and resources.