Living in Balance with Feng Shui

Earthbound in this incarnation, it is our birthright to be wonderfully alive, celebrating all earthly delights. Living in balance with Feng Shui is about personal evolution as you create your life as the Masters intended. The magic human that we are all capable of balanced between body, mind, and spiritual attributes.

It is about your purposeful intention to create a better and better life which is easily done with Feng Shui. It is fun too! All you have to do is put conscious thought into the "stuff" you place in your environment, and mirror Mother Nature. She is the best decorator, consciously coordinating perfect texture, color, and dimensional balance in our most valuable living environment.

Consciousness, necessary for our personal development, is the awareness of purposeful existence and combined with conscious intention can be used to manifest joy, grace, and abundance.

Mother Nature is the most perfect teacher of Chinese Earth Design: Feng Shui. Earth Design, as old as man's need for shelter, is derived from the word geomancy: geo (earth) and mancy (to measure). Depending on where cultural/spiritual traditions developed on planet earth, the ancient geomancers, elders, medicine men, shamans, or however the wise ones were described, cultivated practices, perhaps in ritual ceremony, in which their people could live in harmonious balance with the earth. These practices evolved by observing the cycles of nature and applying symbolic representations of them on their bodies (physical body and architecture), minds (creativity, ingenuity, and intuition), and spirits (connection to the earth and the cosmos). This is the triad of Feng Shui manifestation.

In the body, using physical symbolic attributes, I always recommend beginning with the Feng Shui on the interior of your home. When your home is in harmonious balance, your home truly is where your heart is as it supports your loving energy that radiates into all aspects of your life. Starting at home, all you really need to do is determine what you would like to accomplish, position only the furnishings and accessories that you find beautiful, functional, and/or symbolic in locations significant to your intention. No that doesn't sound so hard-and besides, wouldn't you like greater health, wealth, and happiness, along with a more beautiful (and less cluttered) home?

All the answers about using Feng Shui inside, are located outside. Upon observation, paying attention the same way the ancients did, you will notice perfect harmony in nature. One of the components of Feng Shui you will easily recognize is how Mother needs all of the elements to stay in balance. (Something is definitely askew with the devastating floods, fires, hurricanes, and tornados. Perhaps we need give some Feng Shui back to the earth by being more nurturing to Her and to each other.) For one of the many examples of how the elements are balanced, consider a forest. Trees (the Wood element), need Water, minerals (the Metal element), and a solid foundation (the Earth element) to grow. Sometimes trees grow so tall with their huge canopies that they block out nurturing sunlight and precipitation where smaller plants, and in turn animals, cannot live. Thank Mother Goddess for lightning (the Fire element) to burn away the denseness and to open up the seeds creating new beginnings.

Feng Shui uses symbolic representations of the creative and regenerative cycles of the elements to make modifications in your home. Based upon the metaphorical analogies of the elements, when used decoratively in your home, you can make changes in your life. Sounds complicated? Nah!

If representations may be obvious to you, just think how intuitive you already are at Feng Shui! Here they are:

Wood: growth, beginnings, freshness, nurturing
Water: flowing, clear, clarity, sensitivity, emotions
Metal: riches, abundance
Earth: stability, grounding, security
Fire: action, activity, motivation

If you want to add some energy for new creativity, decoratively add some of the Wood element. If you are bored, add some Fire, want some sensitivity, add some Water, and so on. You are only limited to your decorative imagination. Here's some ideas to get started with the five element theory.

Wood: Furniture, Floors
Color/Material/Shape: Green/Wood/Columnar
Water: Water features, big picture windows, Crystal Chandeliers,
Color/Material/Shape: Blue/Water/fluid, no shape
Metal: Furniture, light fixtures

Color/Material: red/animal and products from chemical or heat processing/pointy, angular

Got twenty bucks? Adding something new in your home brings in new energy. Do you want new: Motivation (Fire), Joy in experiencing all of life's riches (Metal), Opportunity (Wood), Stability (Earth), or Clarity (Water)? With cash in hand, go to your favorite modestly-priced home-accessory store (Pier One, Bombay, Pottery Barn-type), with the purposeful intention to purchase an item to bring ------- (energy) into your life. Select an accessory that you love and within budge. When you come home, place it in an area of importance relative to what you want to accomplish and where you see it everyday as you move toward your goals. Here's some ideas: If your desire relates to business: put your new energy accessory of your desk, Love Relationship: on your night stand, Family Communication: by the stove where you prepare loving food for them.

I always recommend having a balanced bag of all of the elements represented for two reasons. One: when you have all the materials and shapes, in good decorative scale and proportion, you have an interestingly decorative environment; it looks nice and you are happy to be home. And two, you have the perfect balance of the energies to create balance in your life.

Now lets say because your home's shape, color, and/or material, you have too much of one element, your energy could be imbalanced. If you live in a very square, flat roofed, ceramic/marble floored home, you are really living in a very Earth home, and you may be too grounded, stuck, or worse yet, bored! If you live in a very modernistic home with too many angles, you may be a work-a-holic burning yourself out with motivation, or with too much glass, you may go with the flow so much that your life washes away.

The solution is easy to recognize if you consider the natural laws. Use the element that takes away, mitigates, or softens the one you have too much of. If there is too much Earth, "plant some trees" by adding some Wood, to nurture the barren landscape. If you live in that angular home or are too hot with work, put out the Fire with the Water or Earth element.

There are personality imbalances, too. Do you notice your Fire if you are easily agitated? Personality imbalances can also be modified by adding the softening element to your environment and even to your clothing. (No one needs to know that you are wearing motivating red undies under your conservative suit if you want to professionally shake and move!) Take a look at rigid/disciplined Metal, wimpy/passive Water, dull/predictable Earth, or impatient/extreme Wood energies. Consider what good elemental undies will be good for you!

I live in a very woody home, and am a very wood personality-type. I love learning something new, beginning new projects, and experiencing new things. But as everything and everyone needs balance, sometimes I completely need to "regerminate" and be restful in the quite of my very dark bedroom, Feng Shui-ly analogous to regenerating in the womb of Mother Earth.

The mind of Feng Shui is to recognize your needs, graciously allowing them to be met, along with developing your intuition to make good Feng Shui (and life) decisions. My Wood-self needs to be aware that when I am tired, Fire will ignite my Wood, and I'll burnout if I don't take time to recharge. My karmic mind-stuff requires the inner strength and disciple to say, it is OK, take a day off, and lighten up. The mind of your Feng Shui is to take a look at your mind-stuff, with realistic clarity, firstly to ascertain what you need, and once satisfied, what do you desire? These are life-long questions, ever evolving, as you evolve into a more and more living-in-grace person. Intuition, the most important skill to develop in Feng Shui (and again, Life) is the key to the Mind, as it flows with your needs and desires.

Conscious intention is also mind stuff necessary to enhance Feng Shui and manifestation. Doesn't Mother Nature hold the intent to greet each day after a long dark night, the dry after the storm, and the first warm day after the cold Winter. You know without hesitation that the darkness will pass with the hopefulness and conviction of intention. Hers is the shared power and commitment of intent. So, you really want to manifest?

Go around your home and select an item you love, in the element of the new energy you would like to bring into your life. Let's say you've been job hopping for a while and would like professional stability and job security. The neat-looking rock (Earth) you found (that didn't even cost anything!) on your last vacation would be perfect to place on your desk. Now, for the double-whammy, add conscious intention. As you place the rock, say something while engaging your purposeful desire and belief: "With this beautiful rock, that holds such wonderful memories, I set the intent that it will provide job stability and stable growth. All papers temporarily placed underneath (might as well make it functional too) are charged with secure transaction to not only benefit me, but also my associates, the company, and clients. (Always include well intentions for all those involved)."

Whether you buy a symbolic item, make one, or use one that you already have, always make sure it is special to you in some way. Remember to take a minute to use visualization and your spoken affirmation to set the intent which will magnify your Feng Shui results. That one minute is your Feng Shui ceremony.