Basic Concepts of Feng Shui

Feng Shui is the Chinese art of placement that is thousands of years old. In Feng Shui, your surroundings or environment can be a reflection of your life. You can thus influence your life in positive ways by making appropriate changes in your environment and surroundings. Below is an outline of several things you can do to start applying Feng Shui principles to your home.

Evaluate your home using the bagua: The bagua is the map of life's valuable qualities. Your experiences, at any given moment, can fit into one these nine areas of the bagua. These areas include: Wealth and Prosperity, Fame and Reputation, Love and Marriage, Family, Health, Creativity and Children, Knowledge and Self Cultivation, Career, Helpful People and Travel.

The bagua (map of qualities) is overlayed onto your home. Then it is possible to evaluate and analyze your home in relation to the areas of the bagua. Are there areas in your life that you would like to improve? Use the bagua to work on the areas of your home that correlate with areas of your life you would like to improve.

Clutter: One basic and important principle in Feng Shui is clearing your clutter. Clutter is our home symbolizes clutter in our lives. It can present itself as procrastination, feeling overburdened, or avoiding things or tasks that need to be addressed. It can also drain your energy, and leave your feeling fatigued.

By cleaning our clutter, we are making room for new experiences in our lives. For example, by cleaning your desk, getting rid of old papers, organizing the drawers; you are making way for new experiences in your business life.

Chi Enhancers: After evaluating your homes life areas using the bagua and then cleaning your clutter, you may consider using items known as chi enhancers. Chi enhancers are items to place in your home that will attract chi. Chi is the vital life energy. We want to attract more chi in our homes to provide harmony and balance in our lives.

Crystals are beautiful chi enhancers that can be used anywhere in your home. By placing the chi enhancer in a certain bagua area of your home that needs uplifting, it will contribute to bringing harmony and balance to that area of your life and home.

Water features are another type of chi enhancer. Water features include fountains, fish tanks, birdbaths, etc. In Feng Shui, water brings good luck and wealth. Wealth can be financial wealth, or spiritual and emotional wealth or fulfillment.

Water features can be placed inside or outside the home and can contribute to a soothing and relaxing environment. One key point, the water features, of course, must be kept clean to promote positive chi.

Plants are also good chi enhancers for the home. Plants must be kept healthy and in good shape for chi enhancement. Silk or real plants both work well. Avoid dried flowers. Since the plants have already died, they will not attract chi.

Animals and pets are also good chi enhancers. Their life and presence is a powerful attraction for chi. The animals must be well looked after and their homes or special areas kept clean and cared for.

Anything moving and flowing also contributes to bringing chi into our homes. Wind sculptures, wind chimes, flags, etc are examples of some items that can be used to encourage chi. Placed on the front porch or entrance attracts the chi though the door and into the home.

As you can see, there are many things you can do to begin applying Feng Shui principles to your home. Consider Feng Shui as a way to improve your home and life.

Amy Toplikar is the developer of alternative-stress-management.com This website offers information about Feng Shui, Qigong, aromatherapy, and meditation. To learn more please visit http://www.alternative-stress-managment.com.

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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Business Prosperity And Feng Shui

Whilst it is clear that not everyone is destined to own and run a business and certainly there are a lot of budding entrepreneurs entering the world of business today. Effort, energy, attitude, skill and knowledge are all factors that govern, at least to some degree your ability to own and run an efficient and highly profitable business. Another factor that can impact on the degree of business success that you experience is ? Feng Shui.

Feng Shui is the force that is said to be able to influence your destiny. It is able to modify the standard and level of your success. And there is an abundance of evidence from many satisfied customers, globally, that claim Feng Shui assists in changing the level of gains or losses in business.

There are two types of Feng Shui environments. The first is the physical, commonly known as ?Form School? and this refers to the actual visible surroundings. Examples of this are; the external environment such as the general landscape, mountains, rivers, roads, other buildings, the internal design and layout of the building, the position of our desk, chair and settee. Each one is considered to bestow some Feng Shui influence in your life. To this end, there are certain ?shapes? that can reduce prosperity and especially if you are searching for New Premises then you would do well to keep them in mind.

Sharp pointed objects; Sharp edges facing a building are considered a physical ?sha?. A curved blade, a road, a river, a flyover with the curved edge facing your building is considered bad Feng Shui. This is usually explained as the blade of a sword cutting through the building. However, the truth is, that it is considered to be inauspicious because your prosperity is turning away from you. Indeed the reverse configuration, i.e. when the curve of a road, a river or any of the above is embracing your building it is considered beneficial and is often called the ?jade belt?.

Water cutting the feet; a building standing right at the water front with little space between the foot of the building and the ocean or river is not particularly good. In this situation the water is considered too strong and symbolizes a lack of a strong foundation.

A building such as a police station is said to be related to violence. A Church, temple or religious building is said to absorb the beneficial influences of the surrounding environment, leaving little prosperity for its neighbours. Other sites such as hospitals, funeral parlours, prisons and graveyards are associated with sorrow and misfortune ? therefore not good neighbours to have.

Also as a part of the ?Form School? principles, there are some guidelines for placement of furniture. What is particularly important in an office environment is the placement of desks. Therefore after determining the entrance to the offices, the next step is to place the desk in the best possible location. The natural position for placing the desk should be at the corner of the diagonal line from the entrance, so that the person can face and see the entrance and has a solid wall behind you. To enhance the symbol of power, the desk should lean against a solid wall.

Sitting on a straight line towards the entrance, or with your back against the entrance, is not recommended.

It is not advised to place the desk in the middle of the room without leaning against any wall. This promotes a sense of floating and thereby a level of insecurity.

The second type of Feng Shui environment is somewhat more abstract and therefore subject to much speculation. Nonetheless, this influence is derived from the invisible, directional forces and has an impact on your life based on your buildings exact degree of orientation and the factor of time. And lets face it, if we think logically, absolutely everything changes with time and so you cannot ignore this very important factor.

So what are these invisible directional forces?? Some of us say they are magnetic waves; others suggest they are cosmic rays, celestial energies etc?.. It really doesn?t matter how you or I translate this more abstract quality ? most of us agree that there is ?something else? that influences our lives. The Ancients from China however, seem to have discovered a pattern to trace the indiscernible influences so that we can predict their movement and, just as importantly they developed theories enabling us to fully utilize these enigmatic forces. These techniques have indeed emerged from a lengthy and committed study of nature thereby providing a solid foundation of Chinese metaphysical views about the universe and nature.

With respect to the invisible Feng Shui inflluences during 2007, there are some adjustments that you can make that will be valuable, at least to some degree, through the course of the year. These modifications can also be placed in the correct sectors of your home as well as your business during the coming year.

You will find a troublesome influence coming from the Northeast bringing with it difficulties and obstacles. If this part of your business is very active such as a front, back or side entrance, a passage, the reception area, boardroom or even the directors office, then this energy needs to be dealt with by placing an all-metal wind chime or metal prayer bell in this area particularly in the months of February, August, and November. Now, this is not always easy to achieve depending on the area therefore, at the very least place a metal object such as a ?five element pagoda? in the appropriate position.

The Centre resonates with the force of sickness during 2007. Therefore you will require a string of six metal coins to be placed in this area, and this is particularly important if a major thoroughfare is located in that area of your business premises.

An energy of arguments is located in the Northwest and so it could be valuable to place a red object or the more traditional option of red paper in this area to help minimise this influence.

Another destructive influence is arriving from the North. Hence, it is best to place Four bamboo stems (only those that grow in water) in a clear glass vase within the North sector.

Finally, do not sit with your back against due West, especially whilst you are working. It is also advisable to not carry out large-scale construction work in the Northwest for the coming year, as this is the location of the ?Grand Duke?. Should your business face Northwest then place a Dragon Tortoise to face the same direction.

Juliana Abram is one of the leading Feng Shui consultants in Australia having been traditionally trained in Hong Kong by Chinese Feng Shui Master Raymond Lo.

Juliana specialises in ?Flying Star? Feng Shui and the Four Pillars of destiny.

Juliana runs her own Feng Shui consultancy ( see http://www.fengshuicentre.com.au )

and her own online Feng Shui store ( see http://www.fengshuishop.com.au ).

Gua's Attribute in Feng Shui

In Feng Shui applications, individual gua's attribute is often overlooked and some of us might not know what is the attributes of the guas as these are often the basic knowledge of metaphysics. By understanding this, one's knowledge in the application of Feng Shui can be raised to a new level.

Gua (Location): Attributes

Qian (NortWest): Strong / Firm / Progress

Dui (West): Happy / Talk

Li (South): Beautiful

Zhen (East): Move / Vibration

Xun (SouthEast): Enter / Go Into / Move

Kan (North): Sink / Downwards

Gen (NorthEast): Stop

Kun (SouthWest): Smooth / Tame / Hide

The table above only lists some of the more commonly known attributes of the guas.

How do we apply these attributes in our Feng Shui applications? For example, in a retail shop placing items or products in the NorthEast and SouthWest sector of the shop will not be ideal as they have a common attribute which is "Stop" or "Stagnant". Hence, the products place that these locations will often sell at a slower speed than the others. Products in the East and SouthEast will often sell faster since the sectors have the common attrinute of "Move". In the event there is a promotion to be held in the shop, the promotion products will be ideally placed in these 2 sectors of the shop to achieve the better sales.

When one understands these attributes in relation to the guas, one can apply this knowledge into any parts of our daily lives, not just the business area. Through correct application, the resulting effect is often surprisingly beneficial.

Experience it yourself to appreciate the beauty of Feng Shui. To know more on Bagua, please visit http://www.fengshuicorner.com.

Driven by the strong interest in Metaphysics, Ray is consistently exploring into different fields of Metaphysics. These fields include Feng Shui of different schools, BaZi (also known as 4 Pillars), I-Ching (also known as Book of Changes), Qi Men Dun Jia, etc. Ray is also the webmaster of Feng Shui portal, FengShuiCorner.com (http://www.fengshuicorner.com). Being an IT engineer for a living, he is also committed to create online tools and resources to enhance people's learning and application of these ancient arts.

Powerful Feng Shui Tips for Health & Well-Being

Do you know where the power position is for your bed? Did you know everyone who has ever slept in your bed has left some of their energy there?

Your bedroom is the most important room in your house and your bed is a crucial factor in the flow of energy there. Your bedroom affects your health and well-being more than any other room because you spend so much time in it, and when you sleep you are more open to absorbing the energy around you.

Place your bed in the power position. The beds position in relation to the door is the most important consideration for creating a good flow of energy in your bedroom.

1.The sleeper should have a clear view of the door from their sleeping position. On the deepest level we need to feel protected from unwanted surprises. If this is not possible, you can restore good Feng Shui by placing a mirror to give you a view of the door.

2.The bed should be as far from the door as possible. Ideally it should be in the opposite corner from the door. The farther you sleep from the door and the more of the room you can see while in bed, the more you will feel in control of your environment and your life.

3.Your bed should not be in a direct line with the doorway. If it is, the power of the energy coming in the door towards your bed can create illness, or can split a relationship if it runs up the center of the bed. The worst situation is if your feet point directly towards the door. If you cannot avoid this, you can hang a metal wind chime halfway between the door and bed. The sound of the chime will deflect the rushing chi. Or you can hang a faceted crystal over the foot of the bed.

Your bed holds the energy of anyone who has slept in it. Here are a list of good times to buy a new bed, linens and pillows:

1.You get married create a fresh, powerful start together.

2.After the death of someone you share the bed with this will help you move on.

3.You move to a new house if you want to leave old energy behind.

4.If anyone sharing the bed experiences a major sickness this will support you in creating good health and preventing illness.

5.A relationship ends helps clear out old energy and bring in the new.

Who are you sleeping with? It is highly recommended not to buy a second hand bed. This will be holding the energy of a previous owner and all their bedmates! It can retain sexual energy, emotions and illness.

By placing your bed in the power position and knowing who youre sleeping with you have a better chance of creating good health and romance in your life.

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

Vicky White is a Certified Feng Shui Consultant and Life Coach who works with clients both locally and internationally. Get your FREE 7-part e-course Your Secret Weapon: Powerful Feng Shui Tips To Give Your Business The Competitive Edge at http://www.LifeDesignStrategies.com/