Introduction To feng Shui

feng Shui is a philosophy that we create and bring what we need into our lives by following the patterns of nature, and that our homes are an extension of ourselves which when in harmony can bring a peaceful alignment with the earth and wind.

While just about every other culture has four elements-earths, air, fire, and water, feng Shui makes use of a fifth-metal. The combination of these five elementals within the home through the use of lighting, furniture placement, sounds and smells promote our well being on different levels.

In order to achieve this you must have a least a rudimentary understanding of qi. Sometimes written and pronounced Chi, as in the use of acupuncture, qi is the life force that surrounds and binds us, and is in everything. The placement of -for instance-furniture provides either a path or block for Qi to move through, and is why having energy paths through the house is so important, as important as the finding and destroying of poison arrows, or sharp corners within the house. (Poison arrows are the edges that you hardly notice, but they point right at your stomach - indigestion and ulcers- or your head-headaches-and cause irritability and blocked energy flow.)

The use of feng Shui is over 3,000 years old and literally translates to "wind-water" the two elements we can not live with out or at least the two we can not go long without. Through observation, the Chinese learned that by placing objects in a qi pleasing way around the home, within the office, even out in the garden that we achieved a better level of health in prosperity, home, career, and wealth.

feng Shui is not only a cool way to decorate the house; it is truly a preventative medicine!

To begin feng Shui you must first remove all clutter from your house. To be someone who keeps everything because some day you may have use for it again is to tell the universe that you do not trust it to provide for your needs, and can cause a blockage of good energy.

So remove what you don't need with a rigorous house cleaning. If you still are having trouble letting go perhaps giving away things to the local goodwill or Salvation Army will help you because someone will get use out of it. The existence of clutter in your home creates stagnation, and you will experience this as becoming depressed, lethargic, apathetic, and/or a sense of being stuck or incapable of moving forward with plans for your life. If you could place the Bagua map over your home it could determine the precise location and part of your life that the clutter is directly affecting, because different corners of your home affect different parts of your life, east, west, north, south, and breaking it up by sub-directions as well. You don't even need the map to see where you're stuck if you think about it, you know what areas of your home need clearing out, you just may not have put it together with the correlation to other areas of your life.

There are some great, simple to read and beginners guides to feng Shui. I personally enjoy them because I don't like a cluttered home, and these books gave me the motivation I needed to rearrange and remove. I also like the idea of sound and smell becoming part of my home, with the sound of a calming table top fountain and a good incense to greet me as I come home from work each day.