Top Five Feng Shui Tips
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If you’re new to feng shui, or even if you’ve been researching feng shui for a while, it can be hard to know where to start. In this post, we’ve gathered five of our top feng shui tips and how they can support different areas of your life. Whether you’re hoping to boost your career, enhance your finances, or just feel a little more grounded, we hope these simple tips give you some ideas to start making positive changes in your home.
Keep your stove clean
In feng shui, your stove represents your wealth, abundance, and resources. A very simple way to work with your stove is to make sure it’s clean and in working order. If any of the burners are not functioning properly, it’s important to have them repaired. Also, check to make sure your stove is in command: you should be able to see the entrance to your kitchen while you’re standing at the stove cooking. If this isn’t the way your kitchen is set up, add a small mirror that allows you to see a reflection of the entrance instead.
It’s also a good idea to use your stove regularly. If you don’t cook, we would still recommend using your stove at least once a day, even if it’s just to boil water. The stove is also the hearth of the home, which is connected to the concept of family. Using your stove often can help to make sure your family is receiving necessary nourishment and resources.
If you dislike your stove, you can do a ritual to honor this part of your home and change your mindset around it. Clean your stove mindfully, and place something beautiful nearby, like a plant or a bowl of fresh fruit. As you give your stove some love and attention, we would also encourage you to see this as an opportunity to do some personal work around how you think about money and self-worth. How might your feelings about your stove reflect your relationship to wealth or the way you think about your own value?
Activate your desk
When you want to enhance your career with feng shui, it’s a good idea to look at your desk. This can be the desk in your home office, or the desk at your workplace. When you’re sitting at your desk, do you have a good view of the door? This represents being in command of your work life. If you can’t see the door while you’re working, the best thing to do is move your desk. If this isn’t possible, you can add a mirror to put yourself back in command. The mirror should reflect the door to your office or workspace so that you can see the entrance while you are working at your desk.
If you have a smaller office space, your desk chair may be very close to the wall behind it. This can mean that you don’t have a plan B in your work life, which can leave you unprepared if things shift quickly. If you can, try to make some space around your desk so that you can pull your chair out properly.
We would also recommend resetting your desk whenever you start a new project. Declutter and organize your workspace, and put away anything that you won’t need. While you’re in the middle of a project, it’s okay for your desk to get messy — just be sure to give yourself a fresh slate when starting something new.
Declutter your entry
If you feel like your career is stalled and you’re not being heard at work, take a look at your front door. Doors represent the voice in feng shui, and your front door in particular is your voice in relation to the world — it’s the transition between your inner and outer life. You may also want to take a look at the door or entry to your office, cubicle, or home office if you have one, since these areas represent your career.
Can your front door open a full 90 degrees? If not, remove anything that may be in the way. It’s also important to make sure there aren’t a lot of obstacles blocking your entryway. If you have a hard time coming in and out of your front door and you have to maneuver carefully to get in, this means it can also be challenging for qi (life force energy) to come into your space. Declutter your entryway inside and out, remove any obstacles, and give it a good sweep.
Offer your bathroom some TLC
People often worry that their bathrooms are having a negative impact on their home’s feng shui, but we want to remind you that today’s bathrooms are very different from the places of elimination that existed when feng shui was developed thousands of years ago. Yes, there is still draining water, but if you spend some time taking care of your bathroom and turning it into a place where you can feel refreshed and revived, it can be a very positive part of your home.
An easy way to improve the qi of your bathroom is to keep it clean. Keeping the toilet seat down can do this in a very practical way, because it reduces both the amount of humidity in the air and the possibility of things falling into the toilet. It’s also a good idea to put the seat down before you flush, for both feng shui reasons and health reasons.
This is an important area of your home to maintain because leaks can develop when you don’t take care of your bathroom. This can literally drain your water and finances, whether it’s your water bill or an expensive repair. Mold and mildew can also form when a bathroom isn’t kept clean, so keep your bathroom working well and don’t neglect it!
Find your center
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and not sure where to focus your feng shui efforts, start with the center of your home. The center of your home and the center of the bagua is a place of wellbeing and grounding, and it’s the point that all other aspects of your life revolve around. If you’re new to the bagua, you can download our free bagua kit to learn more about this powerful feng shui tool. Spend some time looking at the center of your home (or bedroom) and see what’s there. First, make sure it’s clean. Then, you can also add something in this area that feels really grounding, like a rug, a solid table, a sculpture, or a big ceramic vase. Set an intention to let go of the anxiety you’re feeling about the rest of your home, and focus on the center.