NEW Feng Shui thread 2010

[LionTigerBear]

And hey, let's start it early! We haven't had a good feng shui thread in a couple years, I think. Wanna get one going again?

Here's THE old MDC Feng Shui thread


And there was this one, too

I think those were the biggest threads.

So, who's interested?

[LionTigerBear]

So, my goal is to Feng Shui ourselves into more prosperity. We are in an apartment building. Can't paint the door, can't paint anything at all. We have been here over a year, and the whole time we still haven't bought curtains for any of the windows. There isn't a lot of color anywhere, really. But I think we are going to have a little bit of money to throw at this kind of thing soon, so I am trying to brush up on my Feng Shui so that I can choose the best colors and so forth.

So, our wealth and prosperity corner of the apartment is in the master bedroom, and that corner of the room is empty. None of the colors in there are particularly good for wealth/prosperity. Sigh.

But one good thing about this apartment is that it is nearly a perfect square-- there are no missing parts, except for one tiny chunk of the marriage section. But we take pretty good care of marriage section, anyway. The porch is in the marriage section and it is all decorated with pretty twinkling lights, twin red tealight lanterns, and a cute romantic table and two chairs bistro set. I do wish I had a kissing ball or a little potted topiary or something out there, but again, it's not in the budget yet.

So I never did read any feng shui books-- I guess I should actually read some, huh?

[Theia]

Hey, I'll join, but I'll have to come back later. I've not read any books, but I did my treasure map this year according to feng shui with the colors, etc.

[LionTigerBear]

I did mine loosely based on Feng Shui too! Cool! Not with the appropriate colors (hmm, wish I'd thought of that) but just with the general thought of "that corner is abundance, that corner is relationships, the center is health," and so on.

My first step in re-Feng Shui-ing my house is to declutter and organize, which is slow going with DH working long hours and three little kids. I'm exhausted. Hmmm, I should do the health section-- my three-year-old just had a poop accident in it today. (How symbolic is that? Sigh.) I cleaned it up really well . . . but . . . there're these shelves that DH has been slowly working on putting in the boys' closet, in the health section-- they broke and now he has to fix them-- I used to keep their closet so very neat and organized and now it is just a mess because the shelves are unusable. There is very little space to put their clothes away without those shelves. But DH is hardly here so the project drags on. Blah . . . I wish I was good with that sort of thing.

Then, DH also broke too other pieces of furniture this week-- they were on their way out, anyway-- cheap stuff. So now we have to replace those, too. I'm so worried about money. At least I can (hopefully) get things that better serve those spaces and are Feng Shui appropriate.

I feel a strong need to bring more wood element into our house, but I don't know how to in a low-cost way.

[Encinalien]

http://www.manidoo.com/FengShui

I've poked around this site, signed up for the Benjamin James consultation there. *They send you emails trying to sell you trinkets like Bethea does with her astrology service, but I've been sifting through it.

Like one thing it says it to find a way to turn your bed so that you can't see directly into the bathroom from it and also so your heads not directly under a window. *Also if there's a tree who's branches would block the flow of chi to your front door hang a little mirror in it. It serves like a open window so good luck can flow unobstructed into your house. *

They keep saying flowing water in your prosperity area helps money flow to you. *Tall trees in your prosperity area helps you hold onto your wealth. *Now I understand the oriental paintings where there's just layers of waterfalls and bonsai tree branches, you know the long slender rectangle ones?
**

[CariOfOz]

subbing I loved the other feng shui threads, and I'm in a different house now so this is definitely a good time to feng my shui hehehe. We rent, so we can't paint things either. Our house is sort of an L shape, but not exactly. The garage, entry, living room are across the front.. bottom part of the L and the garage actually sticks out a little past the rest of the house so it's a mutant L hehe.

Will have to have a look at the bagua to reaquaint, and work out what's where in this new house. I *think* our wealth area is mostly the veranda.. which is sorta good as that's where my herb garden is at But I think that leaves the relationship area in the boys room

[LionTigerBear]

Originally Posted by CariOfOz

so this is definitely a good time to feng my shui hehehe.

So in your L-shaped apartment, which bagua sections are missing parts?

[Avani]

I had a feng shui practioner come and map out my home for me. I had a hard time figuring it out on my own. He used the year the building was built also. He said the placement of the building put "the mountain" in front of us as opposed to behind us which is what one would want energy wise. This creates a dynamic of feeling attacked. We have a visible stairwell outside a front window which is bad energy wise also. A flowy curtain, crystals hanging in the window, a mirror over the window or a hanging plant remedies this. Because there is little light in the home he said it creates excessive Yin energy. To pull in Yang he said to get heavy metal into the NE corner of the house and thje SE corner to ground the house. Heavy metal as in large weights, an anchor, heavy metal statues. He said it wouldn't necessarily appear attractive but it provides protection against negative energies etc. Lots of green in the prosperity sector, no computers or tv's in the master bedroom. A mirror over the front door to ward off bad energy. He actually told me i really needed to move out of my home because the placement of it is that bad for my family. It is creating a heavy. negative dynamic on all aspects of our lives and although feng shui can remedy some of it, it wouldn't be enough in the long run.

[LionTigerBear]

Wow, Avani, that's so in-depth. That's great, thanks for sharing. I wish I could get that kind of personalized counseling in our situation, but I can't justify spending the money on it right now when there are so many things we need.

[Avani]

i was lucky that he was a friend so we did a trade. I have to say though that if you ever had the $100 for someone to come in and do it, it is amazing. I don't think i ever would have learned all of that by scouring the internet and books. His knowledge was immense on the subject and it took out all of my guesswork.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by LionTigerBear

So in your L-shaped apartment, which bagua sections are missing parts?

Tis a house, so thankfully I don't have to deal with other ppls' funky chi hanging about

Our house is *roughly* rectangular if you count the large veranda on one side (which we use a lot, so it is really like part of the house If you take that into consideration, there is a sliver of baqua's 9, 6, 3 missing as well as a chunk of 1 and 4 (these two are the veranda)

#1. prosperity, the outer corner of this area is anchored by the post of the veranda and a pot of herbs and some veggies in pots all growing, healthy & well tended so I think it should be ok.

#4 is also mostly on the veranda, but slices into the family room as well. Our family pets reside in this area and there's a house plant (again not dead or anything there as well.

#9 .. the upper, outer corner of this area is missing. It's only a small section so I think the rest of the area could compensate. However this gua is a disaster area right now.. it's the garage

#6..creativity/children setion is our room and the family bath. sliver of this is missing as well.

#3 .. romance/relationship is one of the kids bedrooms and it's missing the outer anchoring corner. Doesn't seem to be manifesting any issues though but I suppose it couldn't hurt to anchor it!

suggestions welcome

[doubledutch]

i had a dream about my house last night that made me want to find this thread. in the dream, i discovered an addition that wrapped around the northeast section of the house. it started on the center of the eastern wall (so, uh, our bathroom was gone?! didn't think about that in the dream!) and then went down half a flight of stairs to wrap around the north east corner without blocking the windows in the main part of the house there. it had tons of windows with morning light coming in, making all the antiquey wood in the addition glow.

what i really have in this section of the house is our "library". it's a room we never use - we just walk through it to go upstairs (we all sleep upstairs in the finished attic). we never open the shades. the room contains a cedar chest, a piano, and a bookshelf, and has wood floors - so if we opened the shades, it would look a lot like in the dream! like i said, this is also how we get upstairs, and below it are the stairs to the basement - an area of the house i also want to use more. i felt like the dream was saying i have a lot more house than i realize, and it could be a lot more inviting than i currently allow it to be . . . it was encouraging!

also, i picked up a copper hanging pot at the thrift store yesterday. i guess it's probably intended to be a planter. it's shaped like a cauldron. does anyone know about copper in feng shui? or is it just metal? i'm not sure where in my house i want it, or what i should put in it, but it's really pretty and i have this emotional connection with it - i want to put it to good use!

[doubledutch]

oh, since i haven't posted on this thread before, i guess i should also introduce myself too! everything i know about feng shui, i learned from google. my house is a rectangle, but it's not too narrow (25x35) so i feel like everything is there. the attic, though, is long and skinny since the roof slopes down on each side - i'm not sure if i should still be dividing that space into nine, or if it's just the central three, or . . . ?

the front door of our house faces south. it's very symmetrical, with the peak of the roof, and four columns supporting the porch roof, and the door in the very center with windows on each side - i dig that. there is a creek in back - so the north windows face water, which is perfect, right?

i've been meaning to set up an altar since the autumn altar thread. i wanted it to be under a north window, but there is a bay window in the dining room (facing west) that would be pretty much perfect . . . is there a good place for an altar in feng shui?

[LionTigerBear]

doubledutch, I really liked what you posted about Feng Shui in the Treasure Mapping 2010 thread. It got me thinking about Feng Shui again. I've been kind of stuck on the cluttering and organizing aspect for the last few weeks.

I especially liked what you said about the masculine (fathering) and feminine (mothering) energies. http://www.mothering.com/discussions...3&postcount=67 This has definitely deepened my understanding of things I can do in decorating my home especially in the 3rd and 9th baguas.

[LionTigerBear]

Feng Shui for increased energy

So this is my research project this AM. Once again I woke up feeling a decided lack of energy and motivation. And this is why I haven't got very much done with my feng shui goals-- I lack the energy! What a vicious cycle. Sooo . . .

I am going to specifically feng shui for energy.

Here is what I found:

http://fengshui.about.com/od/health/qt/energylevels.htm

So I have identified two big areas that are probably energy zappers for me-- our "workspace"-- the computer desk area-- and my bedroom. I am going to focus on "feng shui-ing" them first. Incidentally, the master bedroom is also the wealth area.

So, to do today:

Take care of this computer desk area I am in right now. I am thinking of just throwing stuff away ruthlessly because I am sick of it. I think I am going to remove the whole desk-- maybe not today, but I will work intuitively and I am feeling the need for this desk to be completely gone from the dining room.

And secondly, try to fix up the bedroom. I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do in there-- the bedroom isn't cluttered. It is empty, barren, bland, cold. Picture a large, modern apartment room with white walls, old ugly beige carpets, no architectural interest whatsoever. It needs more softness, more warmth, color, comfort, character. We currently have in their a bed, dresser, and some wall art that looks too small in the huge room and it just doesn't feel good in there. I am not sure how to do that without any money to put towards it quite yet. (Will have some money soon-- tax returns!)

If I could just add curtains, paint the walls, and throw a comfy armchair and plant in the corner, it would wake up the whole room so nicely!!! Oh well, at least I can straighten it again-- so I'll start there.

[CariOfOz]

LTB, that whole energy suck thing really makes sense to me. I spend a big portion of my days either in my family room (homeschool activities with the kids) or in my computer room (MDC, fb and WOW time And my energy lvls have been LOOOOOW for a while now (I'm also investigating a borderline thyroid test that will be redone soon, so covering all bases here!)

My family room is coming right along... it's a room about.. 14x20ish feet (guestimating) I recently rearranged it to create an exercise 'nook' at one end (go Ikea expedit room divider hehe) and it really changed the whole feel of the room. It had been somewhat of a bowling alley before.. all furniture against the walls, and the dining table sorta centred in the long room. Now it has my workout nook (that I'm slowly getting into using) and a corner for reading and playing for the kids... a corner for the ratty cage and a chair for someone to sit & cuddle them . AND a spot where I'm going to put a small table & chairs for my little dude to play with playdoh, colour etc while we do schoolwork. My MIL just told me she's got a big area rug for us as an anniversary present too, which will go wonderfully in here to 'cosy' it up.

My computer room is an avg sized bedroom. On the wall with the door, is the sliding door closet and on the wall opposite the door is a largish window. Our desks, by necessity, are along the only wall long enough to house them and still be able to open the door. I don't like this because it leaves us facing away from the door.. although I sit on an angle at my desk so I CAN see who entres the room at least. This room is not overly cluttered, but there's a bit of stuff stashed here & there that could be put away. I think I might make that my project for the day

Our bedroom has come a long way, but is now taking a step backwards At after xmas sales I bought a beautiful bed in a bag set.. and less than a month later the stitching on the comforter is all coming undone! (the quilting).. It's SUMMER here, all it has done is look pretty during the day, and get folded down at night So we have to return it and start again... and I was really loving how the room was starting to feel too

[doubledutch]

ugh. i know the messy factor of my home is sapping my energy. and when it's neat (or neater than usual, because it's never completely perfect) i do have way more energy! it's just that when it's messy, like right now, i don't have the energy to make it nice . . . i look at it and just want to:
a. leave
b. go back to bed

[LionTigerBear]

I have so much more energy when my home is clean, too! Lol. How ironic. :P

Well today was better. I didn't get all of that stuff done yesterday, but I did get my bedroom straightened up.

The dining room is tricky because I still don't have anywhere to put all of the computer/desk stuff yet. We have too little shelving in general. We need some more bookcases or something similar. Our one little bookcase is overflowing (literally) and double-stacked.

I want to build these, though: http://knockoffwood.blogspot.com/200...se-drawer.html for the dining room (slash school room and also this http://knockoffwood.blogspot.com/201...spired-by.html for the living room which will be home to the new office area once we deep-six the TV. We are going TV-free-- well, sort-of. We will still watch TV on our computer, lol!

Oh, I also want to build this: http://knockoffwood.blogspot.com/200...0-or_1224.html and this: http://knockoffwood.blogspot.com/201...d-pottery.html

Okay, now I'm getting carried away . . . anyway I don't build much but my DH is a great builder so he will help me. I want to build that big storage piece first because it will help so much with organization and neatness around here. Sigh.

[maplesugar]

I have been following this thread and the other feng shui threads. They are very timely as we are moving soon. I am exited to start in a new house with feng shui right away!

Doea anyone have any thought about how feng shui applies to food gardens, especially a food garden very close to the south west side of the house.

Also one of the bedrooms has one of those attic holes on the ceiling right by the room entrance. Should I cover it with something?

One more question: would I count a garage as part of the bagua if is only attached at one corner? It will really be easier if I don't have to count it!

Thank you all for the wonderful feng shui threads! They have really been so informative.