Five Feng Shui Tips for Newbies
Photo by Євгенія Височина on Unsplash
If you’re new to feng shui, knowing where to start can sometimes be overwhelming. We wanted to share a few of our favorite tips for beginners that you can apply right now to start to shift the energy in your home. Even if you’ve been practicing feng shui for a while, we invite you to approach this list with the mindset of a beginner, and use it as a check-in for yourself. We often try to complicate things, especially when we know a lot about a subject, but there is a lot of power in simplicity.
What is Feng Shui?
Feng shui is a practice developed in ancient China that is centered around how we live in our environments and how they affect us energetically. The term feng shui comes from a poem, and “feng” and “shui” actually translate to “wind” and “water.” This is a good reminder that essentially, feng shui is all about working with natural cycles, and living in harmony with nature. It’s about us as humans finding our place within our environments and cultivating more ease in our spaces.
Ready to see how you can apply these principles to your own space? Here are our five simple feng shui tips for newbies:
Activate Your Front Door
Your front door is a really important part of your home, because it represents your face to the world. It’s the first thing you see when you come home, and the last thing you see when you leave. Metaphorically, the front door is how people see you.
A lot of us want to be seen and recognized by the people in our lives, and one way to activate this intention through feng shui is to add some more fire energy to your front door. To do this, you can add a new, bright lightbulb to the light fixture in your home’s entryway. While you’re up there changing the lightbulb, notice if any dust, insects, or debris have accumulated in this light fixture, and refresh your fire energy by cleaning it out.
If you don’t already have a source of light in your entryway, or if you have one that isn’t very bright, try adding some light here to bring clarity and inspiration. This will also allow people to really see you.
Activate Your Stove
In feng shui, your stove and its burners represent your wealth and resources. This makes sense, since being able to nourish your family with fresh food is one way that abundance shows up in our lives. If you’re like most people, you probably have a favorite burner that is your go-to whenever you turn on your stove. From a feng shui perspective, this corresponds to approaching life in a less than mindful way, where we are doing what is comfortable by default.
Instead, we would encourage you to rotate the use of your burners so that all of them are being turned on regularly. By changing your programming of how you use your stove, you’re also starting to reprogram how you see the world. You may find opportunities to cultivate new skills, or to see life from a new perspective.
If you don’t actively use your stove for cooking, you can activate each burner by turning it on for a few minutes and letting it warm up before turning it off again. As you do this, set the intention to activate the wealth for your household. Also, whether you like to cook or not, be sure to keep your stove clean and in good repair.
Activate Your Wealth Area
There are different areas of your home that represent different areas of life, based on the feng shui bagua. One of these areas is related to wealth and abundance. To find this area of your home, called Xun in Chinese, stand in your home’s entrance facing in and locate the far left corner. To activate Xun, try placing a plant here with the intention of cultivating slow and steady growth in your finances and your feelings of abundance. Instead of repurposing a plant from some other part of your house, it’s best to get a new plant to bring in new energy.
Plants represent wood energy, which is the element connected to Xun. Plants also teach us many valuable lessons. When it comes to money and prosperity, a plant can teach us that things need time and nurturing to grow. A healthy plant can also produce baby plants, encouraging us to be generous and share our abundance with the people in our lives.
Look Under Your Bed
Chances are, you may have some things stored under your bed, especially if you live somewhere with a smaller amount of storage space. In feng shui, your bed represents you, and it’s important for qi to be able to flow freely around and under your bed. This means it’s a good idea to avoid anything too heavy around the bed, both physically and emotionally. If you can fully clear out this space, that is ideal. However, if you do need to utilize the storage here, stick to softer items like extra bed linens, towels, or out-of-season clothes. Avoid anything that feels loaded energetically or emotionally, like old letters or items from a challenging time in your life.
Add a Rug Under Your Bed
Once you’ve cleared the area under your bed, try adding a rug here to ground and support you. In feng shui, we work with the five elements, and one of these elements is earth. Earth is all about being supported and taken care of, and a rug is a great way to bring more earth energy into your bedroom. We would recommend a rectangular or square rug (but not a runner). If you want to bring in even more earth energy, and if it works with your decor, try choosing a rug in yellow, brown, or an earthy tone. Place this rug under the bed with the intention of providing grounding, supportive energy so that you can rest and recharge while you are sleeping.
Regardless of where you are in your feng shui journey, we hope these tips support you! If you’d like even more feng shui guidance, make sure you’re subscribed to our podcast and newsletter.