For those readers not familiar with Feng Shui, here’s an introduction by Carol M. Olmstead, FSAI, Feng Shui Master Practitioner, Feng Shui For Real Life. Thanks for being a guest blogger, Carol, and for helping me reconfigure my house to that I love being in it for the first time since we bought it almost 20 years ago!
Five Easy Feng Shui Power Principles
Martha felt it was time to write about Feng Shui basics, and I’m happy to be the Feng Shui maven she asked to do the job. Feng Shui came into my life 15 years ago. Martha came into my life more recently, and I’ll write about my connection to Martha, Feng Shui, and our 5-hour video shoot in a later guest blog. Today, I’ll deal with just the facts.
Feng Shui (pronounced “fung shway”) is a design system for arranging your surroundings in balance and harmony with the natural world around you. Surroundings have a powerful effect on what we attract into our lives. When the energy around us is unbalanced or blocked, our prosperity, health, and relationships can be adversely affected. When we unblock this stuck energy, the world awaits.
The words feng shui mean wind and water and refer to the way we naturally feel in nature. To understand this better, picture a beautiful May day. The sun is brilliant in a cloudless blue sky. There is a light breeze tickling your skin as you relax by a meandering clear stream. You feel wonderful and everything is in harmony around you. You use Feng Shui to make you feel the same way inside your home or workplace.
There are five Feng Shui “Power Principles,” that will help you understand how to use Feng Shui to attract wealth, harmony, love – and so much more.
Chi
Chi, pronounced chee, is the energy from nature. It’s the constantly moving, living, and changing force around you, making you feel either good or bad in a certain location. Every person, object, and environment has chi. Like Goldilocks, when you step into any interior space you know instinctively when the chi is not too strong, not too weak, but just right.
The Five Elements
The Five Elements is the collective name that Feng Shui gives to the colors and shapes around you. The goal of Feng Shui is to achieve a balance among all of these Elements in your environment.
Fire Element
Shape – Triangle
Colors – Red, Orange, Deep Purple
Attributes – Passion, Emotion
Earth Element
Shape – Square
Colors – Brown, Yellow
Attributes – Grounding, Stability
Metal Element
Shape – Circle
Colors – White, Metallic
Attributes – Strength, Independence
Water Element
Shape – Curvy, Patterned
Colors – Black, Deep Blue
Attributes – Relaxation, Inspiration
Wood Element
Shape – Rectangle
Colors – Green, Teal
Attributes – Growth, Expansion
The Bagua
The bagua, pronounced bag-wha, is a mapping chart used to divide a space and determine where to place objects. You can download at a bagua map at http://bit.ly/FSBasics.
The nine bagua areas:
- Power/Wealth/Abundance
- Fame/Future/Reputation
- Love/Marriage/Relationships
- Creativity/Children/Legacy
- Compassion/Travel/Helpful People
- Self/Career/Work
- Knowledge/Wisdom/Harmony
- Family/Health/Community
- Well-Being/Balance
Yin and Yang
Yin and yang are the opposites around you. You’ve probably seen the universal symbol for yin and yang – a circle with a curved line in the middle that divides the black and white halves of the circle, with a spot of each opposite color on the opposite side. According to the yin-yang theory, everything in the universe consists of two opposing, but interconnected, forces.
Continuity and Connectedness
These terms explain the link between what you see and what you attract into your life. Feng Shui believes that the more you surround yourself with symbols of what you want to attract into your life, the more likely you are to achieve these things. Remember that in Feng Shui “you are what you see,” so this principle applies to choosing the artwork for your home and workplace.
Carol M. Olmstead, FSIA is a Feng Shui Master Practitioner, author, and speaker. Her book, the award-winning Feng Shui Quick Guide For Home and Office – Secrets For Attracting Wealth, Harmony, and Love is available on Amazon.com. Check out Carol’s website, www.FengShuiForRealLife.com, where you can sign up for her free monthly newsletter of free Feng Shui tips. Watch the videos she shot at Martha’s house on YouTube on the FengShuiMaven channel, http://bit.ly/FengShuiVideos.
