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.

Feng Shui, the Mountain Dragon

Importance of Mountain Dragon

In Feng Shui, there is a saying ? Mountain govern Man, Water govern Wealth

Wealth obviously refers to money and assets. Man refers to you; the health, wisdom, emotions, and human relationship of one?s. In simple, mountain refers to people luck while water, wealth luck.

Now, what is so important about mountain? To start off, we have to first understand the very relationship between mountain and water.

We have always mentioned that true Feng Shui is about the influences of ?Qi? (metaphysical forces of nature), how the ?Qi? in your residing environment actually affect you.

Surely the question to be asking, where does ?Qi? come from? And to answer you, mountain is the source of all these ?Qi?.

It has always been misunderstood by many and even some Feng Shui practitioner that ?Qi? is produced by water. Or perhaps this is human nature. Everyone greed after wealth, choosing to just incorrectly believe so. Afterall, water brings about wealth (wealth luck)

We have seen many cases, especially with self-taught practitioner. Some are in fact very good with locating wealth corner (water location). But it is a pity that when it comes to mountain location, they hardly have the knowledge.

You have to understand this. All around us, the planet is constantly changing and growing. Mighty mountains are formed by the magnetic pull of these planetary changes, generating ?Qi? that affect our lives. And these ?Qi? are carried and dispersed by the wind and preserved in the water into our environment. This is the law of Nature.

To take note, water is just a medium to help gather and distribute these ?Qi?. When there is no mountain, there is no presence of any ?Qi?. So what?s the point of having water when there is no ?Qi? present to be gathered? Nice to look at but of no use to be having. No point cheating yourself or worse, being misled by some inexpert. Without the presence of ?Qi?, the Feng Shui formation is just not going to work.

Think about it. Now, isn?t mountain a more important factor to consider?

We have seen also cases of many going just directly into the interior of the house, neglecting details of the external environment, the very external influences. Remember, true Feng Shui is never an interior decoration.

To get the best out of Feng Shui, both mountain and water locations are equally important.

A good Feng Shui master should have the expertise in both, capable of identifying good mountain in the environment; able to cleverly combine both to bring about a well-balanced Feng Shui formation for you. In Feng Shui, a balance is always sought (Yin & Yang)

What make a good mountain anyway?

In general, mountain can be of 5 types (Earth, Wood, Metal, Fire and Water) bringing about different influences. E.g. Earth mountain aid wealth and prosperity, fruitfulness offspring. Wood mountain aid fame and academic.

In general, a timely and good mountain looks green. This resembles a healthy and happy dragon, which will bring you good health and fortunes. A brown and dry one resembles a sick and angry dragon that would bring bad health and misfortunes.

Now, there is definitely nothing wrong with wanting wealth, who doesn?t want it? But just ask yourself this simple question, who is the one who want it? Surely it is you, the very man?

Without good health, wisdom and the correct attitude, how are you possibly going to achieve wealth? What is the use of having lots of wealth when you don?t have the health to enjoy it?

Picture it this way. Water is always flowing (Yin). Yes, it may bring you wealth with plentiful of riches flowing in. But without a mighty mountain (Yang) to cleverly stop and control the water, your wealth is just going to keep flowing away.

In life, a balance is always to be sought (Yin & Yang) remember, when you can earn a lot, you can also spend a lot. When you can be in good health, you can also be in ill health. Without a balance, you can be earning $10k and spending $20K. Now isn?t that instead going to bring more problem & difficulty to your life in the long run? Worst, without a good health?

Understand the true of Feng Shui, seek the correct way of life.

Jon Sim Geomancer & Feng Shui Master of http://www.art-of-fengshui.com, http://www.redappletree.com Art of Asia Classical Feng Shui.

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Feng Shui And Romance - Using The Ancient Art To Enhance Your Romantic Space

If your love life needs a quick boost, you can use the art of placement to produce the romantic results you desire. Heidi Richards

Feng Shui (pronounced fung shway) is the ancient Asian practice of object arrangement and space planning designed to bring balance, harmony and well-being to your environment. Its purpose is to enhance prosperity, creative, health and romance. Feng Shui fortifies a home with positive energy known as chi. The attainment of positive chi is both an art and a blessing to those who manifest that chi. The word feng means wind and shui means water, each one associated with a good harvest and ultimate good health or good fortune.

If your love life needs a quick boost, you can use the art of placement to produce the romantic results you desire. Relationships need the proper environment to grow. They need the balance of the five elements, too much or too little will find the romance wither. Here are some Feng Shui tips to enhance your romantic space:

1. The first thing you must do is remove clutter out of your romance area (generally this is the bedroom). That means you must remove trash, dirty ashtrays, dead plants and nothing should be stored under the bed. Dust and cobwebs on the fans, walls, light fixtures and ceilings should be cleaned away.

2. Enhance your space with romance colors, such as shades of pinks, reds and whites. Guys, this does not mean it has to be feminine. You can use maroon, grayish tones of pinks and whites to achieve the same results. The key is to not use any one color so much that it overpowers the others. Other good colors include browns, beiges, lavenders, yellows and deeper shades of those are appropriate.

3. If you keep flowers in the room (an excellent way to attract romance into your life), make sure they are always fresh. At the first sign of wilting, toss them out. Silk flowers are an okay alternative, provided they are free of dust. Absolutely no dried flowers as they signify death. Also, make sure the roses are de-thorned. Nothing prickly such as cactus, unless your goal is to break-up.

4. In Feng Shui a Relationship Alter positively stimulates a relationship. Designate a special place in your romance area in which to put items that will encourage a healthy, loving relationship. Things to include in your relationship altar can include a heart shaped pink crystal quartz, a pair of candles, mandarin ducks.

5. Use the Pairs Principle to encourage love. That means two candles, two nightstands, two lights on top, two potted plants, two pillows, two chairs, etc. The Chinese symbol for love is Mandarin ducks. They signify love, romance, fidelity, affection, and loyalty in love.

6. Your bed should be placed in the commanding position of the room. This is to permit the widest possible vision. The door or entry to the room should be easily seen from the bed. And the head of the bed should be against a wall or against a corner. If you have nightstands, make sure one is on either side (a pair) and that the bed is accessible on three sides to attract and keep a partner. The bed should not be placed under a window.

7. The bedroom is for sleep and intimacy. No one should come into your room without your invitation. There should be no distractions such as workout equipment, a television, things that would remind you of work.

8. It is good to hang pink (heart-shaped) crystals and wind chimes in a sunny window to attract good love energy (yang).

9. Pictures of you as a child, your children or other relatives should also be removed from the bedroom or romance area. This space should be reserved for couples and should only display pictures of the two of you.

10. Dim lights will give the room a warm, inviting feeling. No harsh fluorescents or high wattage lighting, here.
While this is by no means the ultimate guide to Feng Shui for Romance, it is a good start. These ten tips will give your relationship area the boost it deserves and your romance the fulfillment it requires. Altar your space and you will altar your love life.


2005 Excerpted from the book, Romance on a Budget www.romanceonabudget.net.

Heidi Richards is an Author, Professional Speaker, and Business Mentor. She is the owner of Eden Florist & Gift Baskets www.edenflorist.com and the Founder & CEO of the Womens ECommerce Association, International www.WECAI.org an Internet organization that Helps Women Do Business on the WEB. BASIC Membership is Free. She can be reached at heidi@edenflorist.com.