Feng Shui Simply
Change Your Life from the Inside Out
By Cheryl Grace
Feng shui
is the ancient Chinese system of design that works with the location and
orientation of a home, the placement of furniture, and the use of color,
artwork, and accessories to create a harmonious environment. Practiced in China
for more than 3000 years, feng shui has so successfully made the transition to
the Western world in the last several decades (especially after President
Nixon’s famous visit to the People’s Republic in 1972) that even people who’ve
never cracked a book or consulted a practitioner can be heard talking about
which way the bed should face.
Classic
feng shui places most of its emphasis on making adjustments to the physical
environment to create the free flow of energy. Practitioners work with a map
called the Bagua that divides a space
into zones, or guas, that represent various aspects of life—family, health,
career—and then they make corrections, or “cures,” to enhance each aspect, such
as placing coins or crystals in strategic spots. Many of these changes, when
based solely on the environmental applications of feng shui, do not work. For
them to fully work, we need to also focus on what is referred to as the inner
wisdom of feng shui—we have to see how these cures fit with our personal
energy.
For
instance, one conventional feng shui cure calls for placing nine coins in a row
leading up to your front door as a way to invite prosperity in. You might find
you are getting frustrated because the coins are always moving around,
especially when people came and went or someone used the leaf blower! Rather
than attracting wealth, those coins are actually draining your energy. What was
that going to do to your prosperity? Find another, more contemporary way to
improve your financial situation such as collecting lucky pennies that you find
on the ground and placing them in a piggy bank. In ancient China, those coins
probably made perfect sense to people as a way to support and enhance
prosperity, but in my modern Western home they no longer do.
While most
of the focus of feng shui lies in external changes to the environment, the
Chinese term feng shui translates
into wind and water, denoting both the unseen world and the world we can see and
touch. Even more than working with the external world, you can now get excited
about working directly with the unseen world, the world of energy, using the
tools of intuition and intention—effectively practicing feng shui from the inside
out. Most feng shui books focus only on conventional cures by paying a great
deal of attention to the “water” and not very much to the “wind!”
The
ultimate source of vital energy in feng shui resides in a space called harmony.
Harmony, located in the middle section of the Yin and Yang symbol and characterized
by the asymmetrical line, is a sacred space of peace and tranquility. By
becoming one with harmony, you have at your disposal an infinite amount of
creative ideas and peaceful solutions available to you when faced with
challenging situations or difficult people. Ultimately, one can’t live a
positive life with a negative mindset.
So many of
us ask ourselves the question, “What is
my life to be used for?” Using
the nine fundamental life aspects of feng shui called the Bagua Map—among them
health, wealth, love, and creativity—strategies exist for successfully meeting
life’s challenges and activating your fullest potential. By identifying what matters most and
removing the old emotional obstacles and limiting beliefs that stand in your
way, you’ll find you can at last live your life fully and confidently in the
face of any challenge. Let the journey to your full potential begin!
Recommended
Reading: Feng Shui Simply: Change Your Life from the Inside Out by Cheryl Grace
is available now for pre-order on Amazon. The release date by Hay House
Publishing worldwide is May 1, 2013.
Cheryl
Grace is a professional feng shui consultant and a Hay House author. For more
information on feng shui, visit www.CherylGrace.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment