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Repair Broken Energy
Fixing broken things around the home or updating and upgrading is a positive Feng Shui action. This is one of the many things (like reducing clutter) that you don’t need a Feng Shui practitioner to tell you because we all know that when a home needs repairs there is nothing else to do but do it.
Broken things do not get fixed by themselves. At the very best, they do not get worse but usually they do, and this can spiral into even more damage. A small leak that is not fixed can cause major water damage, a hole in the siding can lead to rot or become an entryway for rodents and other pests.
Broken things, things that do not work the way they should impact your wealth.
Our houses must be and are constantly being energized. It is our desire that this energy be a positive one. However, broken things are yin, dead energy and this brings the total energy level down — and that affects our prosperity.
So here is a vitally important Feng Shui tip:
Repair broken, draining energy.
Broken, draining energy comes from broken things. When your door scrapes against the threshold, door knobs do not turn properly or shutters clatter against the wall your home resonates with negative, irritating energy.
So continue to repair and upgrade around your house. Your house, its chi and your prosperity will thank you.
In the Classical Feng Shui tradition we recognize that every house is unique
In the Classical Feng Shui tradition we recognize that every house is unique – there are 216 house patterns and within these categories there are energy patterns unique to the home and the individuals who live there.
And beyond that, there are so many layers of Feng Shui
– from the visual where we can see furniture placement, clutter, wall colors, art work and all that is part of the decorative arts
-the individual Natal Charts of each individual living in the home which tells us what enhancing and sabotaging directions influence their lives
-the structure of the house itself
-the energy grid based on when the home was constructed
-neighborhood influences and lot shape of the house (outside environment)
- the needs of each individual
Truly, the list goes on and although it may seem confusing it is such a beautiful, unique, NOT one-of-a kind Feng Shui.
I plan to give examples of all of these layers of Feng Shui in the posts to come and I welcome questions you may have. In fact, it is my intention to turn Friday’s blog into a Q and A which we can get into even more specifics. So tune in Friday, we have a great question – What makes up a Feng Shui garden?
And thank you for being with me!!
Feng Shui Overwhelm
I am noticing a new syndrome which I call Feng Shui overwhelm. I guess it is not really new. I had it.
When I first discovered Feng Shui I read every book I could find on the subject and tried every suggestion. This included moving furniture, buying new furniture, painting the walls, hanging new art, doing strange rituals and freaking out if there was something I could not change.
My friend Mike has noticed this syndrome in his line of work. He is a reliable, creative and competent handyman. He tells me this is the busiest time of year for nurseries, hardware and paint stores. And because of this he knows he will soon be inundated with calls from homeowners wanting to hire him.
A large percentage of his jobs will not be new, rather he will be fixing or completing the jobs done by “do it yourselfers.” And often it is not that the home repairs were shoddy. Mike says that the homeowner gets tired, overwhelmed and just can’t find the time to do just one more thing.
As a novice Feng Shui-er I felt the same. I thought I tried everything. Although I saw so many parts of Feng Shui, I did not see the whole picture – meaning, I did not know what my needs were and I really did not know what Feng Shui could do. I did not know how to prioritize the areas or issues that were of concern. I was as fixated about the state of my garage as I was of the dining room. I was freaked out that the laundry room was in my romance sector… sound familiar? I really did not know where to start so I tried everything. I was overwhelmed.
One truth about Feng Shui is: to delve deep into Feng Shui is to delve into your inner self. And this can be overwhelming. What is it in your life that is not working for you- is it financial, relationships, a lack of movement, comfort or creativity? Is it all of these? Certainly a practitioner does not need to hear this from you to do an analysis of the energy patterns in your house. But believe me, we will know.
Just like hiring a professional handyman to help around the house, hiring a professional Feng Shui consultant is a wonderful thing. There are definitely good Feng Shui actions that you can do without the advice of a professional. Do them. And when you have dealt with the clutter and the obvious repairs needed around the house you may be ready for the next step.
You Dont Have To Be A Feng Shui Practitioner To Know About Clutter
It’s a funny thing actually; most people I meet are slightly obsessive about their clutter. Even those who don’t appear to have a clutter problem love to talk as if they do. I’m not sure what this is all about but I do have my suspicions. After all I have written, listened and talked about it for years. And I know that despite all the words and all the talk and all the best laid plans and solutions on how to get rid of clutter we are still a nation of people fascinated with clutter. And it is not just us – all over the globe people define their status and their place in the world by what they have. And the more we have the more of what we have is clutter.
Neither I nor most Feng Shui practitioners stand in judgment of those with clutter. After all, for years I delighted in going to The Container Store until I really got that all these fun, cute, wonderful containers were just providing more space for my clutter. My house was organized yes, but still cluttered.
I have learned to let go of most of my clutter. It was a very conscious journey and I found almost everything I read about clutter to be helpful. Every book, every magazine article, every conversation with people about their clutter seemed to shine a light on my own issues. After all, it is a complex subject.
But there is one thing that had the strongest effect on me and it may help you, too, so I am passing it along:
Feng Shui exists. Each house has its own energy blueprint, potential and nature, both for good and for bad. And with knowledge we can manage our Feng Shui so it supports rather than sabotages us. Each individual has their personal trigram based on their birth date; each house has its own ruling trigram based on its birth date and the direction it is facing. These trigrams have a direction. These directions support us. So use this support and start there – By choosing to support these directions, by keeping these respective areas in our homes clean and clutter free we are in turn supported. We get stronger, things get better and we let go of that which no longer serves. And this includes clutter.
Because, and this is my suspicion about clutter. We want, we do want. It is human nature to want to be expansive. But, it is not really things that we want. We want to feel expansive, to be creative, supportive, free, powerful and useful. We want to be more than we feel we are. We want more money, better health, relations and well being. Don’t clutter this up with clutter!
Think Of Feng Shui As A Science Not Interior Design
Feng Shui is not interior design. There, I said it. It actually feels like a relief seeing it written down on a page. I have tried to say it directly but find I have danced around the question for so long so as not to exclude or to offend. Certainly there are some interior designers who are familiar with Feng Shui and some of its basic concepts. There are even those who are well schooled in Feng Shui and incorporate interior design after using the traditional methods of reading a house. And certainly there are Feng Shui practitioners who may be interior designers or who have a good eye for design. But, it is not the same thing.
I have been called to do Feng Shui consultations in homes that have been stunningly decorated but are still in need of vital Feng Shui remedies. And I have been in homes where one may wonder about the decorating choices of the inhabitants even while recognizing that the Feng Shui is pretty good there. Feng Shui is not just about the eye. Certainly, it is a part of the equation as very basic to Feng Shui is the idea of creating aesthetically pleasing environments which provide psychological and physical comfort to the inhabitants. There is no question that people tend to feel comfortable in well decorated, clean, organized homes. But even if you home is not up for a spread in House Beautiful you can live in a home with beneficial, auspicious Feng Shui.
Feng Shui is a science. It is an ancient practice that has been around for thousands of years. It is complex and multi layered. It is not a fad or a fashion nor is it simply about painting the walls a certain color or moving a few pieces of furniture around.
Feng Shui And The Easter Bunny
Feng Shui and the Easter Bunny
My dog, Molly, brought me an Easter treat. She carefully, patiently and methodically removed four baby rabbits from their nest and brought them upstairs to our bedrooms. There were two for me and two for Margie. Safe, unhurt, sleeping peacefully, still so newly born that their eyes had not opened. I was not home at the time so I do not know how long it took or how many trips she took to align this present so perfectly for us but I can tell you how proud she was.
Of course, my first thought was how to get them home safely to their mom.
As I searched for the nest I couldn’t help thinking about Feng Shui and how it was originally – and still- used to find a location for a safe, prosperous house. There were concerns about being too high on a mountaintop, too low in the valley, which direction to face for beneficial light and, I would imagine, where not to be in the way of predators.
“Oh, rabbit,” I thought, “bad Feng Shui.”
I found the nest- in a low area in the garden that has bad drainage and gets flooded in the rains. Obviously in the way of the predator no matter how gentle she may be. Still, we can manage our Feng Shui and since I love to cure what needs to be cured… I put a border around the nest and do not water more than the area can handle with a thought to the baby bunnies. Soon they will be hopping around the yard and I will feel attached to them and then build a border around my garden so they do not eat the lettuce…
Classical Feng Shui
I love Feng Shui and have been studying it for over a decade now. My training began with a short course taught by a Chinese master who worked with a compass and spoke about trigrams and East / West schools and pre-heaven and post heaven. It was fascinating, intense and a bit incomprehensible to me. After that class I turned to the western schools that taught modern day Feng Shui: I studied from sincere, wonderful teachers who were generous in their sharing of their knowledge and experience. I became a teacher, had a successful practice and published an on-line newsletter for approximately two years. And then I stopped.
I stopped because it was no longer working for me and if it did not work for me, how could I in good faith counsel others in their Feng Shui. Still, my belief in Feng Shui was not shaken – I have seen it work, I know it worked so why was it not working now.
When you are faced with this, the best thing you can do is to go back to the source and see ‘where it all went wrong.” This I did and my path led me back to the previously incomprehensible Feng Shui.
And this I discovered: If you are not applying classical, compass based Feng Shui it is not true Feng Shui. And the proper use of classical Feng Shui is incredibly powerful because it can truly enhance the beneficial energy patterns and neutralize the energies that can and do sabotage all your efforts.
How can this happen? Think of the Feng Shui energy patterns like gravity. You cannot see gravity, but you know it exists. You cannot see the underlying energy patterns of Feng Shui, but they are there.
Modern or Western Feng Shui may touch on this but their emphasis is on what one can see. Classic, traditional Feng Shui also has eyes for what can be seen but goes way beyond to that which cannot.
Imagine this: When you observe a tree in summer, it looks large, voluminous, layered with leaves and fruit. In winter you see the same tree but without all its dressing. You see the branches, the twigs, the dead limbs and the limbs that are beginning to grow and branch out. You see the structure of the tree- you know what lies beneath the leaves. You know where to prune and how to train the tree for better growth patterns and to optimize its harvest.
Or, visualize this. You are house hunting and find what you believe is the perfect house. It is so cute, homey and feels right. And then you hire an experienced home inspector – he tells you that the new bead board walls were put up over moldy drywall and the new carpet is covering weak floorboards. Good to know- if you want this house you know you will need to replace some walls and floors and make sure the foundation is strong.
To improve the tree and to fix the house you must go beyond which is seen. This then is like classic Feng Shui.
A New Year, New Beginnings
A new year is suggestive of new beginnings: Out with the old, in with the new. Been there, done that now it’s time to do something new and different. After all, it’s a new year, a new you.
Rarely do you hear talk about a new year without conversation about resolutions. After all, the slate is clean, the calendar has turned the page and it seems like a perfect time to start anew, to strike out in a new direction, loose the weight, get a new job, change your life, be all you wanted to be.
And, Feng Shui can help you do that. Or can it?
Just as there are those people who say they never make new year’s resolution you may find that there are Feng Shui practitioners who question whether working with intentions comes under the banner of Feng Shui. And, on the other end of the spectrum, there are practitioners who will tell you it is all about intention and symbolism. So, which is which and who is right?
Classically trained Chinese masters who were taught Feng Shui orally by their masters may never speak to their clients about formulating intentions or making resolutions. To them, Feng Shui is a science with its roots in geomancy, astronomy, the positive and negative polarity of the earth’s energy, electro-magnetic waves and the natural elements and cycles of the earth. Sounds a bit overwhelming, doesn’t it?
A session with a classically trained Feng Shui master will include your four best directions and your four – let’s say – less than perfect directions. (Traditional names like Five Ghosts or Disaster Room often strike fear in the hearts of clients who do not understand the tradition.) The practitioner will want to know the sitting and facing direction of your house, your birth date, the birth date of the house, the birth date of the other inhabitants and when the last renovation or major work was done on the house.
You will learn what your best directions are in relationship to the trigrams, which come from the I-Ching and these directions and life’s lessons will be with you throughout your life. Yes, the Bagua is used but not in the same way that a non-classically trained practitioner would use it.
But will they ask you what your intentions are, what you want to be? Maybe not.
Certainly, any Feng Shui practitioner will want to know what is working and what is not working for you in your life – and then will make sure the elements are in balance and you are lined up to face your best directions to take advantage of the gifts that came with you into this life.
The majority of western trained Feng Shui practitioners are heavily influenced by Professor Thomas Lin Yun, Feng Shui Master and Grand Master of the Black Sect Tantric Buddhism (Black Hat Feng Shui.) It certainly is a beautiful and powerful form of Feng Shui but does differ from the classical Chinese tradition in some very fundamental ways. One of them is how the Bagua is used and the other is in its use of ritual and the power of intention. In the western schools of Feng Shui much emphasis is given to symbolism, intentions, clarity of goals and lining up the Bagua with the front door.
I hope it is not too confusing – and I do know it may make you ask the question: what is the correct way? Well, they both are.
Feng Shui is based on science and it is a tradition that has been passed down usually orally from teacher to student for over 4,000 years. And there are a few historical texts but until Professor Linn brought his teachings to the US in the 1960’s Feng Shui was relatively unknown in the west. He adapted Feng Shui to western sensibilities, which very much incorporate the belief that humans can affect and change their destiny by thought, deed and intention. This is not to say or suggest that the Chinese people do not also realize the potential in this but it is necessary to view Feng Shui into its cultural perspective.
China was an agrarian society and one slow to change. If your father and great-grandfather and all who came before were farmers, then that is what you would be. So, it is not likely that a person would ask how to activate or enhance their travel sector so they could explore the world. But people are people and our wants and desires are the same- which is why the Bagua represents the eight life’s virtues or desires in balance. To be blessed with family, reputation, health, children, prosperity, etc. was as important then as it is now. And living with the correct Feng Shui could bring this about.
But the sons and daughters of today are not bound to follow in their parent’s footsteps and so seek to use Feng Shui in different ways. And it works – whether you were born hundreds of years ago in China or 30 years ago in California. If you want that Paris vacation this year then activate your travel corner and if you are seeking to take advantage of the blessings brought about by your best directions, then align your beds, desks and chairs as appropriate.
As for me, I strongly believe in the power of intention and that I have directions that will make me feel like soaring and others that will make me feel more challenged.
I have been taught by both western and classically trained masters and I appreciate the strength and beauty of both systems. And yes, I did make resolutions this year:
This year I intend to get to Ecuador to study with their shamans, to give up orange soda and to reach as many people as I can with Feng Shui.
The Front Entranceway
Keep the entranceway clutter-free. Dropping keys, bags and coats on the floor near the front door is not conducive to a good flow of chi. Put up a coat rack, position a side table or just train yourself to remember there is a place for everything and then take a moment to put it away. Clutter in the entranceway blocks chi and limits opportunity flow into the house.
Make sure the door opens wide with nothing to prevent them from opening fully. Storing umbrellas, using over the door hangers or temporarily storing boxes behind the door will restrict the flow of chi. We want to think in terms of expansion rather than contraction.
Make sure the entrance way or front hallway is well lit. Besides the benefits of safety and security the light offers it is also a welcome chi enhancer. You want to come home to brightness and light and you want that visual to reflect a feeling that permeates through the whole house.
If you have windows in the front door clean them! Remember, Feng Shui is literal. We want to lighten up, cast the light, Illuminate and see things clearly. And we want to let the clear, bright light shine through!
Make sure all the doors in your home open and close easily. If the doorknob is stuck get out the WD40. In Feng Shui we believe that doors that do not readily open suggest poor communication or stuck areas that need to be examined. How do you feel every time you try to open or close the bathroom door and it sticks? Little irritants like this build up and create stresses both seen and unseen.
If any door needs paint or staining find the time to attend to it. At the very least, wipe down doors on occasion so they are as clean and welcoming as possible.
Polish the door knobs and handles. Not only will it look better but it is good for your health.
STEP IN, STEP UP AND STEP THROUGH
When we begin any project or embark on a new journey, career, challenge or direction we usually say something like –
It’s time to step up to the plate
A new door is opening and I am stepping through
I’m ready to take the next step
And, when we say that, we feel as if we are going through a vortex, an opening, a new phase. And that symbolic feeling is made physical and literal when we walk down hallways and enter and exit through doorways. We are always going somewhere.
Every time we go in or out our front door, we are transitioning to a new experience. When we exit it we open ourselves up to new adventures, contacts, communications and experiences found in the outside world. When we return, we are looking for that place of relaxation, solace and comfort we find in being at home. That doorway is the place of transition.
In the wonderful world of Feng Shui we look at the front door as “the mouth of chi,” the place where all energy and opportunity enter. Energy and opportunity enter through the front door in the same way we physically enter the house. A clean, attractive, well-lit, and well-maintained front door can create an opening where energy, love and opportunity want to enter. Your front door is the connection, the literal threshold, the portal between your inner and outer world. For more information please refer to my earlier (and first) article on front door Feng Shui.
But the exterior of the front door is not the only area of transition. To get to the other rooms of our home we walk down hallways and through doorways. We are transitioning. When we walk into the kitchen we feel different and expect different activities, interactions, feelings and experiences than we do when we enter our bedrooms, or baths or family rooms.
We want the transition to feel easy and natural. We want our home experience to refresh, rejuvenate and relax us. So we could borrow some tips from the care and feeding of the front door entrance and apply them to our hallways and doorways to other rooms in the house. This, too, will bring a positive flow of chi to other areas of our home.
Thank you for reading my blog.