Q&A Sunday: Closet in the Career Area

Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash

Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash

Hi Anjie! I noticed that my closet is in the career area of my bedroom, and I’m wondering what that means. I do feel a little stuck in my career and am not sure what to do next, so I would like to know if that’s related.

Thanks so much for your question! Closets can be very interesting areas to look at from a feng shui perspective. Feng shui encourages us to peek in dark closets and corners of our homes and begin shifting the energy there. The area of the bagua map where a closet is can also tell us a lot, so a closet in Kan, also known as the career area, could very well give you clues about what is going on in your career.

I would encourage you to take a look at your closet and see what is going on inside. If you haven’t been using your closet, this could mean there are some issues you are not acknowledging. Sometimes closets that we ignore can represent areas of our lives that we don’t want to look at. If this is the case for your closet, maybe there is a career path that you haven’t seen yet. Are you open to seeing a new, different direction in your career?

Often closets can be magnets for clutter as well. If your closet is cluttered, you may be blocking new career opportunities. A closet full of clothes you haven’t worn in years is a source of stale, stuck energy. By going through your closet, you can shift the energy and welcome vibrant, life-affirming qi. 

A full closet could also mean that you are keeping yourself too busy to welcome new opportunities. If your closet, home, or schedule is too full, you have no room for anything new. This is true both literally and metaphorically. If you let go of some of the items in your closet and create a vacuum, the universe can fill it with something fresh and exciting. By letting go of old items, you are also encouraging your heart and mind to let go of old behaviors and beliefs that are no longer serving you. Go through the items in your closet and donate anything you haven’t worn in the last year or two. Even things that are no longer in good condition can often be recycled. 

As you start to clear out and shift the energy in the career area of your home, you may find that you have more clarity on what to do next in your career. I would also highly suggest working one-on-one with a feng shui practitioner, because they will be able to help you dig more deeply and give personalized recommendations based on your unique situation. 

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 questions!

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

Q&A Sunday: How to Set Better Boundaries

Photo by Duong Chung on Unsplash

Photo by Duong Chung on Unsplash

I have been feeling depleted and overwhelmed lately, and I think it has to do with not having strong enough boundaries. Do you have any suggestions to help with this?

Thanks for your question! Boundaries are something that a lot of people struggle with, myself included. In feng shui, boundaries are related to the earth element. Earth is about taking care of yourself while at the same time taking care of others, and being able to strike that balance. For people who tend to have too much earth, like myself, it can mean we put other people first and take care of others, often at our own expense. Earth is a heavy element, so this translates to a lot of weight and heaviness. 

One way of not honoring your boundaries is saying yes to something you don’t actually want to do. I’ve definitely experienced this before! When you say yes, but you actually mean no (or when you haven’t even thought it through fully), you’re offering without the correct balance of generosity. The other person probably doesn’t want what you are offering, because they can feel that energetically. Nobody wants to receive something from someone who’s overwhelmed and resentful. 

The biggest generosity we can offer ourselves is the gift of saying no, which creates space. Often we fill up our spaces—both our homes and our schedules—because there’s a fear of space. We’re afraid of what happens when we’re just left with ourselves.

Saying yes to everything also means you are letting everything in and depleting your energy. When I started getting aura readings, my healer told me that my energy field was very porous because I had poor boundaries and was letting too much in. 

I noticed this recently too - this spring, I was very sick and I received a lot of emails from people who needed things from me. I thought I was being clear by saying that I was sick and unable to help, but still I was getting so many requests from people. I realized that by even responding, I was being unclear. Sometimes nonresponse is the clearest way to respond. 

It’s important to be crystal clear with your boundaries. Take care of yourself, and listen to your needs. Sometimes, it means saying no. Sometimes it means not responding. You may even want to try saying no first, and then you can backtrack later and say yes if you change your mind, instead of the other way around. I hope that helps - let me 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 questions!

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

Clutter and Feng Shui

Photo by Julia Joppien on Unsplash

Photo by Julia Joppien on Unsplash

Feng shui is really about connecting to the cycles of nature. When we pay attention to what is happening in the world around us, we can harness that energy to make shifts in our homes and our lives. With Virgo season coming up, it’s a perfect time to focus on organization, decluttering, and shifting any stagnant energy in your home. 

When feng shui was developed in ancient China, there really wasn’t any clutter. People didn’t have all the stuff we have now. It’s a modern issue, and also a big issue for a lot of people. However, not all clutter is bad. As a feng shui consultant and an architect, I’ve worked very closely with many people in their homes, and I’ve heard so many apologies about clutter. Often, it’s really not that bad; people can be really hard on themselves.

There are some indications that you should look at clutter. For instance, are there areas of your home that you haven’t touched in a long time? Maybe there’s a place that’s full of stuff you haven’t even looked at in years? I recently did a consultation for a client who was aware that she had an area in her office that was full of stuff from her partner's old job. This clutter was in the relationship area of her office, which is related to business partners and clients. This area is also related to self care and self love, which turned out to be something that my client needed to work on. 

When you accumulate a lot of clutter, it also can become difficult to work with because it starts to collect yin qi, which is related to death - picture a light fixture full of dust and dead flies. Yin qi isn’t bad, but you want to have a balance of yin and yang, not too much of either. 

In my own home, there was a top shelf in my kitchen that I hadn’t touched in quite some time. There were extra plates there, and recently some of them fell and broke. It was a message that I needed to pay attention to certain areas of my life that I’ve neglected. Your home talks to you, and lets you know what needs to be worked on. If you’re not attuned to it, and you’re moving through your life really quickly, it’s easy to miss those messages from the phenomenal world.

If I ask you if there’s an area of your home that has clutter that you need to work on, there’s probably something that pops into your head. Don’t overthink it - your first thought is your best thought. Go to that area and start to stir up the qi by giving it some attention. If you need some extra help, sign up for our Virgo Season Space Activation and use the celestial energies of the cosmos to help you get a kick start. 

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 questions!

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