Q&A Sunday: A Kickstart for My Kickstarter

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How can I expand the mouth of qi for my Kickstarter? Anything, actually, to make it more successful!

Christy P., West Tisbury, MA

Hi Christy,

Thank you for your question about how to make your Kickstarter more successful. Kudos to you for using some feng shui terminology! The mouth of qi is the front door, or a portal, to a space and is an entry for energy to come into your life or home, or in this case, your Kickstarter. So really, this is a question of how to get more energy for your Kickstarter and make it more successful. 

In feng shui, we use the bagua map, and there are three different areas that can help create a more successful Kickstarter project. Kickstarter is a place for you to attract Benefactors, so this would be one area for you to work on and improve: your Benefactors area. Next is the Recognition area, so that people know the Kickstarter even exists. And if you look at the bagua map above, we can create a triad (a triangle) including the areas of Benefactors, Recognition and Knowledge. These are the three ideal bagua areas for you to focus on. We actually refer to this as the Three Harmonies of Fire, and it can create a lot of recognition and fire for support. 

In order to get helpful people to support this project, you, of course, need to attract more people, but to do this, you need to be seen, which is where Recognition, Fame and fire come in. The last area is Knowledge, which includes skills and self-cultivation. Here, I encourage you to consider if you've done enough research and looked into ways to get your Kickstarter noticed. There is a lot of help available through feng shui, but my teachers have always said that the mundane solution is more important than the transcendental solution. So the magic will work, but you also need to do some heavy lifting yourself. 

Start with researching how to improve your Kickstarter (which you may have already done! But do it thoroughly). That, in correlation with the feng shui adjustments, can create success for you. Feng shui-wise, you can create more recognition by activating the three harmonies of fire in your office and/or on your desk. It can be as simple as, in the whole office space, adding a green plant. A living green plant can add fuel to the fire. If you're working with your desk and there isn't room for plants, you can use instead one nine-inch red ribbon in each of the three areas to activate them. The desk and/or office are spaces that connect to your career and business. 

Your product, electronic cases that protect us from EMFs, seems to be really interesting, and I hope that making these adjustments draws more attention to your campaign so that we can see these come to fruition!

by Anjie Cho

Thanks for reading our "Q&A Sunday".  We will be answering questions submitted by our readers. Click here to submit any Feng Shui or Green Design questions!

Power Houseplants: The Golden Pothos

Adding plants to your space is one of the easiest, most common feng shui adjustments. Plants of all types can be added for many reasons, whether it be to bring more Wood element into a home, provide a healing atmosphere, welcome prosperity, improve air quality or more. There are thousands of types of houseplants and indoor trees, but some are more symbolic than others, and some are more effective at accomplishing certain goals.

The Golden Pothos is one of the most popular of all houseplants and is easily a great choice. I recently mentioned Dr. B.C. Wolverton's book, How to Grow Fresh Air, and the Golden Pothos is one of the top 50% in his list of houseplants for purifying air. Not only does it remove a large amount of chemicals and vapors due to its high transpiration rate, it is also very resistant to insects and is arguably the easiest plant to grow and maintain. 

This plant is actually a vine, with heart-shaped leaves that range in color from golden (thus the name) to lush green and maintain color even when low on sunlight. Though the Golden Pothos is a vine and can be trained to climb, it is often grown in hanging pots (like this one) and can actually be cultivated in almost any potting medium. It's a great plant for cuttings, as these take root easily in water, and overall, it's an ideal houseplant for beginners or those with forgetful watering tendencies. I have a Golden Pothos I was given when I moved to the city over a decade ago! It's survived through basement apartments, cold winters and much more. 

To Grow Successfully:

- Maintain temperatures between 65 - 75 degrees, and do not let it get cooler than 50 degrees.
- Let the soil dry slightly between watering.
- If possible, feed your plant weekly during its growing season.
- Clean the leaves occasionally with a damp cloth. 

Keep an eye on the blog, as I'll be sharing some of the best options for houseplants, one by one!

by Anjie Cho

Q&A Sunday: Interior Doors - Should They Open Out or In?

I'm looking at an office space where the door opens out, rather than into the space. I have the option to change the door swing. But someone told me once that if the door opens it is "bad feng shui". It is confusing to me! Also, is it ok that the doors of office 1 and 2 (on my plan) are facing each other?

Teri G., New York, NY

Hi Teri, 

This is a great question. It all depends on the person and their floor plan, but in general it is better feng shui to have the door swing into your office. 

In feng shui, doors represent the "mouth of qi", where the life force energy comes into the space. If the door swings into your space, the flow of qi is smoother. For an office or business this is important, because you want clients and opportunities to be attracted and easily connect with you. When you open the door towards you as you walk into any room, there is a feeling of pulling back rather than a natural movement forward.

In your case, since you have the option, DEFINITELY change the door swings of the neighbor and #2. Besides attracting more clients and opportunities, you have a situation where your doors are hitting each other. When the doors hit in this situtaion, it may cause or exacerbate possible conflict between you and your neighbor. And we don't want that if we can help it. Based on your floor plan, if you can put the hinge opposite side even better (so when you open the door it covers the closet).

It's actually not as easy as it would seem to reverse the door swing of an existing door. It is always best if you can change the door swing, so I would recommend talking to a contractor. If this is not possible for whatever reason, unfortunately it's not really correctable. It's best just to accept the door as is with its faults and work with a feng shui consultant to compensate for this and improve the feng shui in other ways. Again though, if possible change the door swing!

Finally, the doors of office 1 and 2 are aligned but that's not a problem. Let us know how it goes!!!

by Anjie Cho

Thanks for reading our "Q&A Sunday".  We will be answering questions submitted by our readers. Click here to submit any Feng Shui or Green Design questions!