Start With Feng Shui

By now, everyone has heard of feng shui. Mainly people know things like putting plants around, painting their front door red or to avoid having your bed directly in line with your bedroom door. The problem with knowing "a little" feng shui is that sometimes your good intentions can actually backfire on you! While plants can certainly be helpful in certain areas of your home - did you know to keep them out of the bedroom? Especially keep them far from your bed!

I've had so many people ask me about feng shui. I've been casually practicing it for 12 years and I'm a firm believer that by moving things in your home and adding just a few things can not only change the energy of your home, but the energy of your life. I have focused on the Prosperity, Career, Creativity & Kids baguas in my homes and since I started, my husbands salary has gone up  300%. His career is going gangbusters, I've been lucky enough to do fun things on my own and I've recently started a new job I'm really excited about. I've had good luck, worked hard but I DO credit feng shui with helping us manipulate the energy of our home to promote these good things. Again, I'm an amateur follower of feng shui. I have been practicing it in my own home and giving advice to friends for a decade now, but I have never taken a class. I am not trained or accredited in any way. But, I might know more than you. I'll tell you what I know and you can take it or leave it. And please, share with me if you know more of if I have something wrong!

I approach each feng shui chart in the same way. I draw the floor plan of my home and lay the traditional feng shui bagua over it. Some people find this tricky. I'm lucky in that even in odd shaped homes I've been able to figure out our bagua pretty easily. If you're having trouble, let me know.

This shows the traditional bagua that you will use over the floor plan of the first floor of your house. While you can apply feng shui principles to every floor of your home, it's really only necessary to do the first floor.

This is how you want to lay out the floor plan of your home. Making sure your front door is situated in the center of the "Career" Gua. Sometimes if your house is laid out differently, it can be a little more difficult to figure this out. Do the best you can. This isn't an exact science. I know I haven't been 100% correct in laying everything out, but I think the intention is the most important thing. As long as every gua is represented and you're applying the principals of each area, you are still reaping the benefits of feng shui.

Once you've figured out your bagua, you can start to focus on each individual "gua" in your home. To decide which gua to focus on, I like to think about what's working and not working in my life. I write down in a notebook what I want to fix in my life. I also take into account what my family wants out of life. Therefore, I tend to focus pretty heavily on Prosperity, Creativity & Children and Travel.

Over the next few days I will spend time each day focusing on a different "gua." I'll tell you what works in these areas and what doesn't work. I'll give you simple, easy ideas of how to move or enhance things in your home to change your life.

If you have any questions along the way, please feel free to email me at nikkib_94109@yahoo.com.