Feng Shui

Feng Shui Friday: Where To Put Your Bed

September 8, 2012

in Feng Shui

Happy weekend, my dears! Once again, I am a day late with my Feng Shui Friday, but I swear I’ll get the hang of it soon! Today I want to discuss the bedroom. From what I’ve been reading, in Feng Shui the bedroom – and specifically, where you place the bed – is very important. Upon inspecting my own bedroom, I discovered that our bed is in the worst possible position! Eegads!

Photo: Awesome DIY headboard from The Inglenook Decor, via Desire to Inspire

Our bed is on the same wall as the door, which is really bad in Feng Shui because you have the worst view of who is coming in the door, while you are laying in bed. It has something to do with feeling secure, which makes sense to me – of course you wouldn’t want to be surprised by anyone entering your bedroom! Unfortunately, it’s not practical for us to move the bed right now, but this new little tidbit of information just convinced me to go ahead with a plan I’ve been hatching for a while now…to swap bedrooms with Bixby!

You see, Bix’s bedroom is the larger of the two, and located near the front of the house with more morning sunshine. Ours is currently in the back bedroom space, which is positively tiny. It will work beautifully as a toddler room, and we will have so much more space to spread out in once we move into the front room – I am really excited! And because it is bigger, we can easily choose a more “powerful” position for our bed, too. Which brings me to the instructions for today: how do you choose the best position for your bed?

Well, I am so glad you asked? ;) First, imagine placing the above diagram (called the bagua map) over a floor plan of your bedroom, with the entry door to your room lined up with the bottom of the map. So, your door will either be located in “self-knowledge”, “career”, or “helpful people”. You will want to position your bed on the opposite wall from your door, but not directly lined up with the door. In the example shown above, the door is in the “self-knowledge” area, and the bed is positioned in the “relationships” corner, which is ideal if it works in your room. Otherwise, just keep in mind that the general idea is to be able to easily see who is coming in the door while you are in the bed.

I will certainly be coming back to the topic of bedrooms + feng shui, as there is a lot to explore here, and I see a bedroom makeover in my future! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, friends! xo Laura

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Feng Shui Friday: Enhance Your Prosperity Corner

September 1, 2012

in Feng Shui, My Home

Hello lovelies! I am back with another edition of Feng Shui Friday (albeit a day late). In this series I will be trying out small, easy tweaks to my home each week based on the principles of Feng Shui. This week I tackled a small project in the “Prosperity” corner of my home (see the first post to determine where the prosperity area of your home is), which happens to be located in my kitchen. As a stay-at-home Mama/freelance writer, goodness knows money is not spilling out of my ears! Of course, the prosperity area not only governs material wealth, but also feelings of prosperity and abundance – which are so important, because we all know it takes more than money in the bank to feel that you are living an abundant life. At first, when I took a look around this corner of my home, all looked well. But remember, Feng Shui looks not just at the objects themselves, but also at their symbolic meaning. For instance, knives stored under the bed would be seen to be “cutting” a relationship apart.

Hubba-wha!?? Knives, you say? Remembering this tidbit from my Feng Shui books sent alarm bells ringing in my head. I rushed back into the kitchen and opened the drawer beneath my counter (which is in the furthermost corner of my prosperity corner) and lo and behold, there was our entire collection of kitchen knives! And jumbled in a dangerous-looking pile of sharp points and blades, to boot! They have been sitting in this state since I lost our knife block during a move. I decided this must be terrible Feng Shui – it’s been cutting my finances to pieces, right?? Well, who knows. But I figured now that I put these little bits of information together, I could no longer ignore the symbolism. It would make me feel better to take action.

I removed every last knife from that drawer and placed them neatly in another spot (I still need to get a new knife block!). For good measure, I gave the corner a thorough cleaning and moved a small potted plant and a special heart that was a gift onto a little cake stand. Green plants are always helpful in Feng Shui, and their green color and growth is especially beneficial for enhancing wealth and feelings of prosperity. I did this just a few days before leaving for vacation. And guess what? In the past two weeks I have received two new exciting requests for work! Of course I am by no means trying to downplay the hard work it takes to pave the way for good things to come, and even if all this did was make me more open to bringing prosperity into my life, that is enough for me.

If you want to try enhancing your own prosperity area, first use the bagua map to find the corresponding zone in your house (or in a specific room if you wish). Check the area closely for anything that could be subconsciously effecting your relationship with money and feelings of abundance: sharp knives, dead plants, and anything broken, dirty, or in disrepair that is stored in this area should be fixed or moved. Next, bring in a few Feng Shui “cures” – a fresh green plant, mirror, beautiful artwork, or a crystal are all great choices. And that’s it!

If you try enhancing your own prosperity corner, I would love to hear about it! xo Laura

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Feng Shui Friday: The Bagua Map

August 17, 2012

in Feng Shui

Hello my dears, and happy Friday! I am taking off for the beach today, but first I have a new little series to introduce that I’ve been thinking of starting for a while – Feng Shui Friday! Most Fridays from here on out, I will be sharing a little corner of my home along with a few easy tips for enhancing that area of your own home using Feng Shui. Feng Shui is an ancient art that looks at how energy flows through your home, much in the same way that chi is thought to flow through the body in Traditional Chinese Medicine. By shifting your furniture and making other changes to your home, you should be able to also effect change in your life – sounds good to me!

For today, I want to share a tool we will be using, called the bagua. The bagua is an octagon with each section representing a different area of your life. By overlaying the bagua map over a floor plan, you can determine which areas of the map correspond to different corners of your home. The bagua can be used over the floor plan of an entire house as well as on individual rooms and spaces.

That’s it for this week! Next time we will be looking at the “prosperity” corner, because goodness knows I think we can all use some more of that! xoxo Laura

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