My Favorite Things: 5 Ways to Bring Metal into Your Home

Welcome to My Favorite Things! Each month, we highlight products to help you create a holistic lifestyle that inspires and nurtures you, so that you can be happier and feel supported.

For April, we move forward in our series on the five elements and talk ways to bring the Metal element into your space. The Metal element is related to the Benefactors and Completion areas of the bagua map and is very helpful in balancing the ability to stand up for yourself and to remain focused and efficient. Be sure to listen to tomorrow's podcast, Feng Shui and the Metal Element, to learn more about how to balance the Metal element!

Wind Chimes and Bells

Adding a wind chime or bell to your space is one of the easiest ways to balance out the Metal element. There are so many beautiful options for wind chimes, but be sure to look for chimes or bells made of metal material, as this relates directly to the Metal element. 

This is a bell that I have on my desk to ring in more prosperity and abundance!

When you hang a bell or chime, it's also important to ensure that it has space to ring or chime. These small adjustments are powerful in many ways and can signify change and the arrival of benefactors.

Available at: Feng Shui Shopper

SAARINEN TULIP TABLE

I love the Saarinen Tulip tables, especially in white marble. They're truly a classic. They come in many sizes and are customizable in material and color. White marble is a gorgeous addition to any space in itself, but it can also help to bring in the Metal element!

I have a white Saarinen side table in my living room, which is in the Completion (yin metal) area of my home.

White, circular, marble tables add Metal to your space because of the shape and color. The Metal element is related to the color white and circular shapes, so keep this in mind when customizing! 

Available at: Design Within Reach

Benjamin Moore: Simply White Paint

We've talked about the benefits of choosing white paint in your spaces, but opting for white walls can also add the Metal elemnt to a room. 

Because the Metal element is related to the color white, going for the purest color in the color wheel can help provide balance for a space with too little metal. One of my go-to whites is Benjamin Moore's Simply White. It also happens to be the Benjamin Moore color of 2016.

Check out our other blog posts on my favorite white paints.

Available at: Benjamin Moore

Agate Non-Metal Feng Shui Rings

Everyone always wonders why I have a delicate agate ring on my middle finger on my right hand... well it's a feng shui adjustment!

Non-metal rings like these agate rings can balance out too much or too little metal. For women, wear it on your middle finger, right hand. For men, the same but on the left hand.

This personal qi feng shui adjustment can help if you talk too little or too much, as the metal element is related to the mouth. Don't fret if it breaks; it's doing its job! Be sure to listen to the podcast or read our blog post about the five elements to learn more!

Available at: Holistic Spaces

Metal Pinwheels

I have these lovely metal pinwheels in two places in my home. Not only do they add more metal element to your spaces, they're beautiful, and they can go indoors or outdoors. 

Pinwheels also have the secondary effect of stirring up the qi in your holistic spaces, to get things really moving. 

It may be beneficial to locate these in your Benefactors area to stir up and attract more helpful people in your life. Or skillfully placed in the center of the Knowledge area of your property (outside or inside), pinwheels may bring winds of change to your self-cultivation and spiritual life.

Available at: All Modern

Attract a Teacher Using Feng Shui

featured this week on Over The Moon

Growing up in a somewhat traditional Korean household, I was always taught to respect my elders and teachers. In Eastern cultures, one bows to those with experience and age, as they are held with high regard. I still agree with this point of view, however, it was not until I met my spiritual mentors and teachers that I really felt akin to this Asian custom.

“Plato says learning is remembrance. The teacher acts like a midwife, and by close communion with the student, passes a spark (of resonance) lighting a flame, resulting in the birth of the innate idea. ”
— Scott Olson

I am beyond fortunate to have a handful of wonderful teachers in my life, including my flowers teacher and four feng shui mentors, one of whom even officiated my wedding! They have become spiritual friends and guides who have taught me much more than just the “curriculum.” Each of them also has her own teachers and mentors who have passed on knowledge from the lineage. I believe that study and craft come first, then comes the knowledge. Just like one practices piano scales over and over, before he can start to truly play music.

My current favorite book is Zen in the Art of Flower Arrangement by Gustie L. Herrigel. When speaking about her teacher here, Herrigel shares that it is the sensei “who gradually imparts to the pupil his most secret and deepest knowledge of the ultimate things, and thus transfers to him his spirit... A teacher is not just an instructor. Everything that, by his conduct, serves to strengthen the pupil’s human dignity, uprightness, tact and responsibility is as important and meaningful as the learning he imparts.”

Interestingly, when working with my clients, I’ve found that many would like a teacher or mentor but have not yet found one. Even Sheryl Sandberg speaks to the importance of a mentor in her book Lean In. Since I nd teachers invaluable, helping my clients call on mentors is close to my heart. Luckily, there are some feng shui adjustments we can make to attract teachers in our lives, and I’d like to share one here! 

Activate Benefactors Area

There is an area of the feng shui bagua map that relates to benefactors and helpful people. This area is called qian in Chinese and also relates to heaven. You can think of heaven in the sense that you want help from above, from something beyond you, to support you. This concept also requires humility and understanding that there is more beyond you. To receive a teacher is to accept we are always students.

This benefactors area is related to the element of metal, so an effective way to attract a teacher is to place a metal wind chime or bell in this area of your bedroom. In a typical rectangular shaped room, locating the benefactors area is simple. Standing in your doorway, looking into the bedroom, the closest corner to your right is the benefactors area.

Be sure the chime or bell you add here is metal, as the sound can let teachers in the universe know that you’re here and ready for them! With a humble and open heart, ring your feng shui adjustment talisman nine times per day for nine days. Visualize your teacher(s), and they will present themselves to you.

The role of teachers and mentors in our lives is one that will never be obsolete. It is so important to our self-development and our impact in the world that we learn from those who were here before us and listen to their wisdom. If you are seeking a teacher, (whether you realized it before now or not!) try this feng shui adjustment to let the universe know you are ready for a mentor to guide your path. Then get ready to listen! 

by Anjie Cho

Book Review: Anjie Cho's 108 Ways to Create Holistic Spaces

featured this week on inhabitat, by Laura Mordas-Schenkein

Did you know that Feng Shui practitioners were some of the first environmentalists in the world? Many people are unaware that the basis of Feng Shui is synonymous with green design, as its essence is centered around mastering a connection with the natural world. So, when exactly does a green home become a sanctuary? We had the opportunity to review Feng Shui expert and LEED accredited Architect Anjie Cho‘s latest book for a true how-to on the subject: 108 Ways to Create Holistic Spaces: Feng Shui and Green Design for Healing Organic Homes. Read on for our review, and a glimpse inside this practical, DIY guide to creating a truly holistic space.

108 Ways to Create Holistic Spaces begins with a basic overview of Feng Shui principles, colors and elements, and demystifies the Bagua map and space clearings. Readers should not expect to become a Feng Shui expert by the end of the book, but newbies will certainly learn some terrific base knowledge, and those with some prior knowledge will be able to gain a fresh perspective on what they have already learned.

...read full article