Three years ago I graduated from Feng Shui (pronounced fung shway) training as a certified practitioner and picked up more than a few Feng Shui tips.
Cathleen McCandless in La Jolla was the instructor, and she taught well how to live in harmony with the environment–and how minor changes in our home and office environments can work absolute wonders. We learned to examine how the energy flow (chi) in our personal environment can be affected by the placement of objects and materials within it.
As training progressed, my own home and those of understanding friends and real estate clients became laboratories for element and furnishing rearrangements. Entire bookshelves in my home accumulated the Feng Shui works of Lillian Too, Kartar Diamond, Karen Kingston and other wise teachers and practitioners.
Because there is so much to share, this should probably be an ongoing and periodic topic of discussion. I have found many clients who are either knowledgeable about Feng Shui–or who are curious to know more as well as why and how this ancient science works.
Where to start with Feng Shui?
Probably with a clean slate!
The most important thing one can do to enhance the chi, or life force in a home (or an article on the subject), is to clear the space and declutter. Why?
The TOP NINE reasons for space clearing are listed below:
1. Save time. How much time is wasted looking for items lost in clutter? How much time is lost in cleaning and shaking dust from from stuff? How much time is lost to disorganization? Think of the time you might add to your life!
2. Feel better about yourself. Clear the clutter and you’ll automatically feel better about yourself, and no longer feel ashamed when unexpected visitors stop by.
3. Have more energy. Clutter and junk can exhaust you. The stagnant energy that accumulates around disarray can also drain human energy by holding one to the past and blocking the arrival of new abundance.
4. Lose weight. Can clutter affect your weight? Guru Karen Kingston thinks so. She believes that both body fat and clutter are forms of self-protection. Many of her clients miraculously lose weight when they let go of their junk. Interesting! Less is more?
5. Improve your health. Kingston claims that cluttery types may suffer from various forms of congestion, including dull complections and eyes as well as constipation and respiratory problems.
6. Grow your wealth. How can new abundance come into your life, when there is no room for it? Have you ever noticed how quickly an empty closet fills? Clear the junk and make room for new abundance. I have seen this work in my own life (over and over again….)
7. Clear your brain and unfog your thinking. Clutter confuses and dirt distracts. There is nothing like a clean room and clear brain to foster good choices and decisions.
8. Attract admirers. Like attracts like. I have seen cleared and cleaned homes bring higher purchase offers because the buyers amired not only the home, but respected the seller as well. I have also seen cluttered and messy homes attract the vultures. Or no one at all.
9. Have a more adventurous life! Travel lightly. Clutter-bearers pack heavy suitcases and weigh down trucks and bank accounts when they move. As a result, they probably travel less and move less often. It is a form of entrapment and often forces people to purchase or remain in larger homes that will accommodate their stuff,” clutter and collections.