How to Feng Shui: Nine Life Areas

Feng Shui is about feeling where you are, feeling your environment. The Chi, the Life Force, is present whether we choose to be aware and interact with it or let it have its way with us. Becoming familiar with the nine life areas of the ancient Chinese art and science of Feng Shui is an easy place to start.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• An intention for the highest good for anyone and everyone who might be touched by your thoughts and actions.

1. office.microsoft.com This has happened to you. You walk into a home you have not visited before and something is not right. It looks OK – but in some way it is not comfortable. You do not want to sit down, you want to leave. That is Feng Shui. You walk into a different home you have not visited before and it is warm and welcoming. You are ready to move in! That is Feng Shui also. It is about feeling where you are, feeling your environment. The Chi, the Life Force, is present whether we choose to be aware and interact with it or let it have its way with us. Here are some basic Feng Shui ideas to get you started.
2. office.microsoft.com Feng Shui opens us to take a new and different look at our surroundings to see what works and what does not. Why do I love relaxing in the living room and avoid the family room? Why don’t I sleep as well in this new home? My hobbies do not interest me like they use to. Is my client-base really expanding? What is happening to my relationship? All of these situations can be looked at with Feng Shui eyes.
3. office.microsoft.com The Feng Shui I practice is intuitive using the octagonal Bagua to determine where the nine life areas are in your home or office, a single room, even the top of your desk. These life areas are Fame and Reputation, Relationships, Children and Creativity, Family, Helpful People and Travel, Career, Skills and Knowledge, Abundance and Prosperity, and at the center, Health. Let me explain a little about each of these areas.
4. office.microsoft.com We start with Fame and Reputation, which is not necessarily about being famous. But it is all about YOU! How do you present yourSelf? How are you perceived? What is your reputation in the community? More importantly, do you just love, love, love yourSelf? Do you see how fabulously glorious you are? If there are just a couple of things you would like to enhance about yourSelf, make bigger, better, brighter, try this: on white paper with a red marker write about who You are: I feel good! I look good! I am happy! I am kind! I am clear-thinking! I am successful! I am respected! (Yes – longer than three words is allowed.) Because this is not the Feng Shui article to explain where the different areas are (see How to Feng Shui: The Bagua, a Feng shui Map - see link in Resources below), I will suggest you fold your paper and use it as a bookmark. That way you have a constant energetic reminder of your fabulousness!
5. office.microsoft.com The Feng Shui Relationship area is about one-on-one relationships. This might be you and a lover/partner/spouse, you and an employee/employer, you and your physician, and so on.
   Romantic relationships are the most interesting. Your master bedroom always represents Relationship as does the Relationship area of your home (which may be a different place). If your mate has not yet appeared, leave a bedroom drawer empty and some closet space available. This is the place for images of you two, or a romantic representation of the two of you. This is not the place for mementos from a previous relationship – that should all be gone.
   If you have a bathroom within your bedroom, please, keep the door closed all the time. Light two candles (red, pink, or white). Sandalwood essential oil is erotic aromatherapy. Arrange cut flowers in a beautiful vase. In this space let love, romance, and fantasy reign. Express gratitude. Have fun!
6. office.microsoft.com Children and Creativity is about how we express ourSelves and have fun. What do we like to create? This area can also stimulate other areas. When you want a creative solution to an issue, enhance here.
   When you are ready to start a family, place a beautiful, silver baby rattle here – with intention, appreciation, and gratitude. If you have children this is a great place to display their art work.
7. office.microsoft.com The Feng Shui Family area is about our family of blood and that of choice. Family are those we feel close to, a kinship with, even if we don’t see them across our breakfast table. Family is foundation, and our springboard to the outside world.
8. office.microsoft.com Who are Feng Shui Helpful People and how does Travel connect? Helpful people are those that lift us up in one way or another in our daily goings-on; from the gesture of a friendly smile to placing a roof over our heads. These are the people who care about our well-being and success. We make connections to these people in matters of health, family, relationship, finance, and more. We thrive knowing loving acts and thoughts are part of the flavor of this life. When all is well, when our world feels safe, we look beyond, we look to expand. We look to travel. Let us go and see, smell, eat, feel that which is new to us. Let us communicate with people who look and speak differently than we do. Let us learn from the cultures of others and stretch our experience.
9. office.microsoft.com Career is the place where we energize our job and our work. It is frequently where the front door is located, the Feng Shui Mouth of Chi. If you have a desire to change your job with regard to the people you work with, the tasks you perform, the amount of time you spend, or you might like to make a jump to something entirely new, this is the area on which to focus. Polish the brass. Replace an old door mat. Sweep the cobwebs. Bearing in mind an intention for a transformed job or work.
10. office.microsoft.com While all the areas of the Feng Shui Bagua are important, Skills and Knowledge is about processing thought, and therefore far-reaching. Each cure you apply, every enhancement you place, every bit of clutter you cling to or release affects the entire Bagua. Our thoughts move around and about every thing - how shall we think, in a cluttered fog or clear blue skies?
11. office.microsoft.com Abundance in Feng Shui isn’t just about money. It’s about lots of everything (except clutter!): an endless supply of Love, health, harmony, friends, money, work, vacations, cars, etc. I think we can use the Abundance and Prosperity area of our homes to take far-reaching steps to affect our planet. Let us lovingly, and with an intention for Peace, place world globes there, and photos of the Earth. Gather souvenirs and mementos you brought from your travels to foreign lands and this country placing those items there with an intention for greater understanding globally. Light a red candle to illumine our way to abundant Peace and Love, food and water for all sentient beings. That is Prosperity!
12. office.microsoft.com The area at the center of the Feng Shui Bagua, and your home is Health; it touches every other part of our lives. When our Health area is tended to it can be easier to feel balanced... centered! This is a part of your home to be sure everything is clean, and it all works – repair or replace anything otherwise. This is also a great place for humor – laughter is the best medicine. On top of my refrigerator in the Health area is a photo of my then 2-year-old daughter, standing at the front door, wearing big sunglasses, purse on her shoulder, keys in her hand (pinky out) – a caption might read “Ready, Dahling?” This image always makes me feel good!
13. office.microsoft.com As you walk through your home considering Feng Shui do set an intention for the highest good for anyone and everyone who might be touched by your thoughts and actions. Conscious intention is a very powerful tool and a blessing.
    My intention is to offer Feng Shui to you in a very practical, user-friendly way that you can have fun and interact with your surroundings. I welcome your questions and comments.
    In gratitude and with an intention to serve.

Tips & Warnings

• To locate the nine life areas in your home or office, please read 'How to Feng Shui: The Bagua, a Feng Shui Map'.
• Visit my website to print a free Bagua map, your quick and easy guide to Feng Shui.
• Be mindful when using candles.