Love Note from Anjie: Rain Water

Anjie Cho February 18, 2023

FEBRUARY 18, 2023 // love note from anjie

rain water

Tomorrow is the solar term in the Asian lunar-solar calendar that is called “Rain Water”. I see this as an invitation to contemplate the preciousness of the water element, which nourishes the wood element to bring forth healing and growth as we welcome spring soon.

from Rumi:

“You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop”

Cupped hands holding vibrant pink flower petals

Sky Lake Lodge:

Mindful Spaces Retreat

Join me for a Mindful Spaces Weekend retreat: exploring feng shui as a mindfulness practice.

April 13-17, 2023

Sky Lake: A Shambhala Meditation & Retreat Center

Rosendale, New York

WATCH MY REEL:

About the Mindful Spaces Retreat in April

Since this is my first retreat, I wanted to share my aspirations for the weekend.

It will be very intimate, there are only eight guestrooms on premises. We'll practice five element qi gong, sitting meditation, walk in the woods, and connect to feng shui as a mindfulness practice.

I recorded a reel on instagram where you can learn more.

WATCH

ON INSTAGRAM:

DAFFODILs

Watch my reel about a feng shui mindful practice with Spring daffodils. Yellow daffodils are one of my favorite flowers of early spring.

Learn more

ALSO ON INSTAGRAM:

SPACE BLESSINGS

I'm reading an excerpt from my book all about space blessing, and clearing a space with your own sound current.

Watch

Coming soon:

Mindful Homes

My new book Mindful Homes: create healing living spaces with mindfulness and feng shui is available for pre-order. It will be available wherever books are sold on April 11, 2023.

pre-order

with rain drops,

Anjie

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Q&A Sunday: The Water Element as a Precious Resource

Guest User July 25, 2021

Can you talk about how water is connected to wealth and abundance?

Water is one of the five elements, or five phases, that we use as a tool in feng shui. In addition to water, the five phases include earth, fire, wood, and metal. Water is the element related to wisdom and career, as well as wealth. Your wealth and prosperity is a resource like water, and it flows like water.

I talked recently on the podcast about how fixing a leak in your home is a way of recognizing that water is a precious resource. Even one drop of water is so precious and meaningful, and we can receive a lot of teachings from that. When we take the time to care for our home, and take care of things like leaks, we also begin to consider ourselves precious and valuable. Something as simple as acknowledging a leak in your home, rather than ignoring it, and taking the time and effort to fix it, is really a way of recognizing how precious water is. This also connects to valuing the wisdom of others and our own innate wisdom, since water is connected to wisdom.

Feng shui translates to wind and water. Feng is wind, and shui is water. These are the most important elements that we need as humans to thrive. We need our breath, which is wind, and we are made up of mostly water. We need these two things in order to thrive.

I encourage you to look at how you work with the water element in your life. It could be something as simple as fixing a leak. It could also be thanking the water that you consume. We need water so much, to cleanse and hydrate our bodies. The small gesture of thanking water and acknowledging its preciousness will trickle back to how you value your own preciousness.

by Anjie Cho

If you’d like to learn more about feng shui, check out Mindful Design Feng Shui School at: www.mindfuldesignschool.com

Q&A Sunday: Feng Shui and Crystals

Anjie Cho July 5, 2020

Photo by Franco Antonio Giovanella on Unsplash

I really appreciate your podcast and all the work you are doing. I would love to hear your opinion about the use of crystals in Feng Shui. They seem an integral part of the practice, but I find them personally difficult to use as many are mined in deadly conditions in one of the world’s poorest countries.

- Christine T.

Hi Christine,

Thank you for your question, and thank you for listening to our podcast! First, natural crystals are actually not an integral part of feng shui. That’s a common misconception. If you look at any older feng shui books, you won’t see any crystals, except maybe jade since that was often used in Asia. A lot of feng shui practitioners do use crystals, but they’re not necessary. The use of crystals in feng shui is part of a modern version of feng shui that’s been adapted to make it relevant for the current time.

We do talk a lot about using feng shui crystal balls in BTB feng shui, which is the school of feng shui that I practice and teach. In the BTB tradition, these faceted crystal balls are very important, but they’re also not necessary. There’s always something else you could use as an adjustment instead. Feng shui is about shifting the energy in your environment. You can use many different tools, including natural crystals or crystal balls, but they’re not a must. If you’re working with a consultant, they’ll be able to give you adjustments that are appropriate for you and customized to what you’re working on, as well as substitutions if required.

In terms of the mining industry, that’s a really important thing to think about. Especially because crystals are used as a healing tool, it’s important to think about where they come from. I find that as I’m teaching more and becoming more available to the public, I have a responsibility to educate myself because what I show and model publicly has an impact. While in many areas of my life I’ve taken the time to consider the ethics involved with where things come from, I haven’t researched that much about natural crystals, so I’m really grateful that you’ve brought this to my attention.

I don’t have a great answer about the mining industry because I’m not a gemstone expert, but I think it’s an important conversation and I’m going to reach out to my colleagues who are gemstone experts to see how they address it. If this aspect of crystals does make you uncomfortable, remember that you don’t have to work with them to practice feng shui.

We all have to do the best we can and continually wake up to see more of the suffering in the world and the ways we can lessen it. Since I’m talking publicly, it’s especially important for me to up the ante and take responsibility for what I am sharing with the world.

Thanks again for your question and for bringing this to my attention!

by Anjie Cho