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Hotel Feng Shui
Feng Shui lessons and observations on the road...
During your last vacation or business trip, what was the first thing you noticed upon entering the hotel? The large bouquet of flowers or centerpiece was more than likely your second focus. It happened so instantly, so naturally, that your awareness was directed away from the activity of the front desk and the restless energy of people moving in every direction.
The flowers caught your eye, so you could catch your breath. You have reached your home away from home after your long flight to recharge for tomorrow's high stake negotiations.
As long ago as the need for shelter, man has been in the positive or negative effect of his surrounding space. Your home and office either support your full potential, create limiting blocks, or keep you from moving either way.
Do you want to maximize your potential? Do you want greater Health, Wealth & Happiness, along with a more beautiful home of functional office?
Use nature's perfection as a model; she is rich and abundant. Even with man's ecological disrespect, given the proper conditions, more trees will grow. As part of the natural order, you are also perfect and have the opportunity, combined with motivation and hard work, to grow many riches, just not limited to economic wealth. Riches refer to the humanness of being, which IS the joy of life: rich in respect, love, and health, generous to give to each other and back to the earth.
Greek Temples, Egyptian Pyramids, and sacred structures throughout Europe and South America (Machu Pichu in Peru) were constructed according to universal Earth Design and mythological reference. Mythology intuitively explained the workings of nature and the cycles. Joseph Campbell, who spent his life defining universal myth, could suggest that Earth Design is a tool for planning your environments so they support your personal mythology: your own success stories.
These successes are becoming a national economic and personal trend. Articles in such national publications that are not limited to, Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Business Week have validated the virtues of how geomancy or earth geometry are making a difference in people's lives.
The concepts are making an impact on real estate sales. A recent New York Times headline reads, "Ancient Craft Reshaping Building Design and Sales in the United States." The article further states, "Long a tradition in the Far East, the millennia-old craft has begun to exert a subtle influence on the hard-edged world of real estate. The use of Feng Shui (Chinese geomancy: universal Earth Design) has surfaced in the design and marketing of projects from mini-malls to skyscrapers, from Los Angeles to Manhattan. Buildings with good Feng Shui can draw mobs of buyers (or opportunity), while bad Feng Shui can break a deal in a moment. The theory behind Feng Shui is the manipulation of the force through the proper orientation of physical structures can enhance a person's luck, wealth and good health."
Now that you have accepted nature's perfect gift of greater Health Wealth & Happiness, how did the placement of flowers in the hotel lobby make a beneficial difference? What is the force? Instantaneously, you felt welcomed by the hotel by the calming effect of the floral centerpiece. It was strategically positioned to help you relax by modifying your personal energy. Replay the experience in your mind, and then watch what happens the next time you enter the hotel. Whether or not you are consciously aware, you are always in the effect of your surroundings.
"The force," through Hollywood's science-fiction mythology, has been defined and explored at great length in the "Star Wars" movies. The force or Chi (the Chinese word for energy) is the momentum of life. Scientifically, energy is the attraction of atomic partials. It is glue that holds the cycles of nature together. Like the blood that circulates through and nourishes our bodies, Chi/energy is the life force that circulates through everything including our homes and offices.
The best way to learn how to modify spatial energy is to first become aware of how it affects you.
Use your intuition, what are some ideas? You cannot simply take a traditional concept such as painting a door red, without intuitive processing. If your house is painted dusty rose or peach, how harmonious or attractive would that be with a red door?
The most important area of any home or office is the entry. Logically, it is the first impression. To allow Chi, clients, guests, or family primary access, the entrance needs to be open, unobstructed and inviting. It should be cheerful, attractive and look prosperous. Welcome!
Once you enter, Chi should be allowed to flow through your home or office. When you walk into a "brick wall" obstructing Chi, the entire space is hindered. Opportunity is choked. You can almost feel as if something were caught in your throat, or as if you are beating your head against a brick wall.
As a business owner, your office environment has you beaten before getting started. Why should employees bother when there is no room for advancement because of all the obstacles. Clients meet resistance, and the brick wall blocks them from signing your contract. Hesitantly, clients waver. They are not convinced you can deliver their expected quality of product or service.
Your home is the sanctuary where you regenerate from the stress of the outside world. A brick wall could cause headaches. You may be professionally stuck by not knowing how to pursue financial opportunities. There may be marital problems, or the children may be difficult to discipline.
The hotel flowers caught your eye to refocus your energy. Anything that catches your eye will direct Chi. When construction is not architecturally or financially feasible, hanging a mirror is a good solution to help nurturing energy pass through the block. The mirror greets you with your reflection, and who better should you think is beautiful and full of potential?
In the corporate arena, another solution is to install the company logo out of highly polished metal, which is reflective like a mirror. Good Earth Design requires that all energetic solutions be functional and aesthetic at the same time. Your logo commands presence: professionalism and stability. Using your intuition, energetically, why use metal? What does metal represent? The kings ransom! Clients will make money by trusting you.
Notice how Earth Design solutions are logical. Everything in nature is intertwined, so when you are designing a space, consider all the practical requirements. What if your entry is dark? In addition to not being able to see, how does it feel when you walk into a small dark space? Uneasy? Restricted? How can this manifest itself on professional, social or emotional levels?
You already know the answer and the practical solution; add a light fixture. In the office, direct recessed hi-hat fixtures in the ceiling toward the logo. Avoid glare, and allow your company name to shine brightly. "We are proud of who we are. We will work hard to earn your confidence."
In your home, ceiling height permitting, hang a crystal chandelier. What happens when light passes through a prism? Allow light and energy to dance throughout the entry. "Welcome home, I love my family, and I feel loved and supported." Whatever your budget or style preferences, go to a home builder's warehouse first. There are many different fixtures available.
Using nature as a guide, the traditional Chinese elements: Metal (logo), Water (mirror), Wood, Fire, and Earth are represented by the materials, shape, and color of the finishes and furniture selected. Through historic reference, they all enhance various life situations or conditions. As in nature, when all of the elements are used in balanced proportion, Chi is harmonized, life experience is balanced and coincidently, the decoration is more interesting. A client had a house full of rattan furniture. Knowing the answer, I asked if she had bought everything from the same store. We do not live in furniture showrooms. Look at any photograph in a decorating magazine, and just like nature, there is beauty because of the perfect blend of textures, form, and color.
Leaving ample area to navigate, perhaps there is enough room in the entry for a console under the mirror or the logo. To balance the elements, consider a Wood (growth & creativity) console with a curvilinear bombay front (Water shape: transmission of ideas). A stone or ceramic floor is not only elegant and practical to maintain for an entry, but it has the stability of the Earth element. Fire (motivation & intellect) can be added with a wool (animal product/blood) entry rug for warmth.
Now that your decoration is beautiful and energetically balanced, what would you like to enhance? Clients most often would like more money. Without clutter, which leaves no room for new opportunity, how can we accessorize the console? In your office, consider a Metal (wealth) brochure holder (good marketing/promotion) that is kept over full (abundance). Space permitted, a live Chi-generating plant will help you to grow your business by adding fresh life and vitality. The console in your house could be accented by a black (wealth) marble (Earth: stability) pedestal with a metal sculpture. The sculpture should be representative of wealth or the process by which you earn your livelihood. There could be fresh flowers on the console for the previously mentioned reasons.
Now that you have Earth Designed one room, what about the rest of the space? There are practical design applications to generate creativity, concentration, higher profitability, greater marketability, new clients, internal productivity, and employee comradery in the office. You can design your home to support such personal life aspects as finding a potential life-love mate, having our children become less rebellious and more studious, and sometimes, almost miraculously, making positive changes in health or attitude.
While some of the concepts are what many may consider mystical, most have a foundation in common sense and practicality. Whatever your decorating style, the concepts are easy to learn and really do make a difference in all aspects of your life.
Here are some more suggestions to help you to get started.
Always position your bed, desk, and stove to have a clear view of the door.
The principal and upper executives' offices should be located in the command areas of the office, while giving employees and clients accessibility. Everyone will benefit because the entire office will feel as if it is one body, the sum of all the functions harmoniously working toward the main objective.
Bathroom doors should be kept shut, with toilet seats down, to prevent Chi, opportunity, wealth, and happiness from being flushed.
Never sleep with a beam over your bed or put a shelf over it or your desk. Your world could fall down on you at any moment.
Throw out dead flowers or plants.
Avoid sharp pointed buildings, wall corners, furniture or accessories pointed directly at your house, bed or desk. It is reminiscent of a cutting knife edge or a disapproving finger.
Personally, the global aspects of Earth Design are the most exciting. As you begin to reap the rewards of nature's balance supported by our environments and hard work, you lighten up. You are gentler with yourself and the people around you. You become more at ease with life. With our new sensitivity, perceptions increase enabling you to make better decisions, people enter your life with a willingness to support your goals, knowing too that in turn you help them reach theirs. You work smarter, not harder, leaving more time for the other joys of life.
When life is full, all riches come with greater grace. When you are rich in your complete humanness, you set an example by inspiring others to live to their full and balanced potential. As an old Chinese proverb says, "When there is order in the house, there is order in the nation, when there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world."
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