Q&A Sunday: Dried Flowers and Feng Shui

Guest User October 25, 2020

Are dried flowers really bad feng shui? What about silk flowers?

Thanks for your question! This has been a hot topic with my Mindful Design students as well.

In general, dried flowers are not good feng shui. They’re dead and past their prime, so they don’t have any life energy, and are not recommended as a feng shui adjustment. They are a source of yin qi, which is related to death, and not something you want to have too much of.

That said, don’t freak out if you have dried flowers in your home, especially if you love them! Maybe you have a dried bouquet that’s meaningful to you, like your wedding bouquet. This doesn’t mean that you’ll have bad luck or bad feng shui for the rest of your life.

Not everything in your home needs to be a feng shui adjustment. People often want everything in their home to be perfect, but this shouldn’t really be the goal. As we know by looking at the cycles of nature, including seasons and moon cycles, everything waxes and wanes. Life changes, so you can’t have a perfect feng shui home, nor would you want one.

Rather than worrying about whether everything in your home is “good feng shui”, keep things in your home that you love and have meaning to you, and make sure you take care of them. Even if an item in your home isn’t ideal from a feng shui perspective, you know what’s best for yourself, and no one’s going to stop you from putting something in your home that you love and think is beautiful. This is especially true if it’s just for decoration.

If someone advises you to bring flowers into your home as a feng shui adjustment, however, that’s a time you wouldn’t want to use dried flowers. For instance, if you want to bring in more fire energy, you can do so with fresh red flowers, not dried red flowers. Dried flowers don’t have the same life energy as fresh flowers, and wouldn’t have the same impact on your home’s qi.

Artificial flowers are a bit different because they were never living or dead. If you have a preference for artificial flowers or plants, think about why. Are you choosing artificial plants out of laziness, or out of necessity—having absolutely no light, for example?

If you use something for a feng shui adjustment, it’s always better to use the real thing with living qi, because feng shui is about energy. If you take the easy way out by choosing dried or artificial flowers just because they don’t require the same care and attention as fresh ones, then that decision will be mirrored in the energetic effects that you see in your life as well.

by Anjie Cho

Thanks for reading our "Q&A Sunday". If you have personal questions, we encourage you to check out Practical Feng Shui or hire one of Anjie's Grads.

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

Feng Shui for Beginners

Anjie Cho October 21, 2020

From real estate to renovation to simply redecorating, feng shui is gaining popularity in the west as a way to consciously shift your environment in a positive way. Many people believe that feng shui is just a concept of furniture placement, but in reality, it's a deep, philosophical practice around creating a sacred space that nurtures your very being. Sounds complicated, huh? It can be, but some parts of feng shui are very simple!

If you're new to the world of feng shui or just beginning to make some much-needed changes, try these easy adjustments first. They're powerful, effective and easy for anyone to understand!

Commanding Position

This concept may well be one of the most important in the practice of feng shui. When setting up your space, place the main pieces of furniture (namely your bed, stove, sofa, etc.) so that you can see the door. The ideal placement, called the commanding position, is diagonally from the door (not directly in front of it), in the furthest position, and facing the door. This comes from ancient Chinese safety measures as well as the psychological effects, even if only long term, of not being able to see what's coming towards you. Having major furniture (bed, desk and stove) such that you are located in the commanding position enables you to be prepared for what life brings you!

Plants

Adding plants to a space is a wonderful feng shui remedy. Plants represent new life-affirming energy and growth and cultivate compassion, kindness and human-heartedness. Not only are they excellent (and easy) feng shui adjustments, adding green plants to your space can help offset the toxic VOCs found in most indoor environments. Plants can beautify your space, add the Wood element and clean your air, and many of them, like bamboo and orchids, have even deeper symbolism in feng shui. Just remember to opt for softer, rounded leaves over spiky, pointed ones!

Clean Door

One of the easiest ways to welcome positive energy into your space is to make sure the entrance is attractive and clean. Plus, who wants to come home to a dirty door or entrance? For this adjustment, just spend a few minutes assessing your entrance area and cleaning your door. Check to be sure that the door is wiped down, buzzers and doorbells work and, if you'd like, add a clean welcome mat to invite positive energy (and you!) into your sacred space.

One Good Deed a Day

This feng shui remedy may be the easiest, but most powerful of all! It's one of the first adjustments I did when beginning to study feng shui. Each day, for 27 days, do a good deed for someone else. Why 27 days? It's a multiple of nine, which is the most auspicious number in feng shui! This adjustment helps you to put positive energy out into the universe, which in turn brings it back to you!

As you look further into the practice of feng shui, you may find you want to make more adjustments. Some of these are relatively easy and can be done with guidance, like from the Holistic Spaces blog or my book, 108 Ways to Create Holistic Spaces! For others, you'll want to find a feng shui expert who suits you. No matter what, I encourage you to take a deeper look into the amazing philosophy of feng shui!

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 Abundance

Guest User October 18, 2020

Can feng shui help me with abundance?

The short answer to your question is yes, feng shui can be a tool to help you feel more abundant, financially and otherwise. However, when someone asks about feng shui and abundance, they are often looking for a quick fix. I don’t approach feng shui in this way. For me, feng shui is mindfulness for your home, and being aware of how our spaces reflect our inner world.

People tend to be very interested in the abundance area. Often, this area may not really be the problem, and there is actually another area of life that needs support. Perhaps you need to work on clarity in your career, or inviting helpful people into your life. Or maybe you need to cultivate your skills and wisdom in order to build more wealth.

If you truly need to work on wealth and abundance, you can look to the wealth area of your home. It’s called Xun in Chinese, and is related to abundance and prosperity, as well as self-worth. It’s also related to feeling abundant in other areas of your life, not just financially. To find the wealth area of your home, stand at the front entrance looking in, and find the far left corner of your house.

Usually, you feel as abundant as your subconscious mind is comfortable with, so that’s something to think about. If you want to bring in more financial abundance, that may also have something to do with how much you value yourself, and how you are able to receive from others.

Take a look at what’s happening in the wealth area of your home. Maybe you put something there three years ago, but what’s happening with it now? Have you updated it? Have you totally forgotten about it? Is it collecting dust? Think about what you’ve noticed, and what that can tell you about how you approach your self-worth and your abundance. Take some time to really contemplate this.

The wealth area is also related to the yin aspect of the wood element. Yin wood is like a big tree, which grows slowly and has deep roots. Similarly, enhancing your abundance is a slow, steady process that requires going deep. It isn’t just about adding an object to your home to make it better —that’s a shortsighted way of solving a bigger issue.

I invite you to go a little deeper. See what’s going on in your abundance area, and see how that reflects on ways that you can invite more prosperity and feelings of self-worth into your life.

by Anjie Cho