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Fung….Feng…Shumck….what?
I’ve been asked with quizzical stares, raised eyebrows and a
“WHATEVER” roll of the eyes when conducting an introductory class
or arriving at some client’s homes, when all family members are not
aware of what is about to occur. Husbands
and other male significant others who haven’t been to a workshop,
read a Feng Shui book or even heard the term Feng Shui, or taken up
their female counterparts new passion for “creating a positive energy
flow throughout their space, usually look at me like I’m “crazy.”
However, they generally give us the benefit of the doubt and
will “indulge” us. Whenever
this happens, I quickly reiterate my credentials as a designer, name
drop some clients and/or projects the I’ve worked on, and go on to
explain the “whats” and “hows” of what will be occurring in
their office, media room or bedroom.
Usually, if they don’t have to: a) move a lot of furniture; b)
buy new furniture; or c) tear down a wall, I’m usually good to go.
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while the realm of the home and its design and furniture purchases are
usually up to the woman of the house, men quickly learn that they can
benefit as much, if not more from utilizing Feng Shui principles.
These principles include: de-cluttering, proper space planning,
color scheme analysis, and accessorizing (and who couldn’t benefit
from that?). When
considering design from a man’s perspective, let’s focus on a home
office (or business office), den, garage (yes you can Feng Shui a
garage), basement, game room (AKA man cave) or even a boat!
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Before
we begin, lets take a quick review of Feng Shui history from my book,
“Designing the Life of Your Dreams from the Outside In.”
This will set up the balance of the article.
Feng Shui is the Chinese tradition that focuses on living in
harmony with your environment whether it is at home or school.
Basically, Feng Shui is how you interact with your surroundings,
which can be done through your furniture arrangement, color scheme,
accessories and collections choices.
These choices can either block or improve your energy (chi).
When the energy in your space flows freely, life is fabulous,
things get finished on time, and you feel happy and eager to learn new
things about yourself. However,
when your energy is blocked, you feel overwhelmed, unhappy and drained.
Literally
translated, Feng Shui means “wind and water”.
Feng Shui was actually started as a way to identify or select
auspicious (ideal/positive) gravesites in China over 5,000 years ago.
It was thought that the better the position of the gravesite,
the better the fortunes of the remaining family members. There are 3
schools of Feng Shui: the Form School (the oldest), the Compass School
(the one most people think of when thinking of Feng Shui and uses a
compass called a Lo-Pan) and the Black Hat Sect School or Bagua School.
I have been schooled in the latter, and that is the one I will
be discussing.
Bagua
is a Chinese word that translated means an “8-sided figure” or
octagon shaped. This
figure is then divided into segments, like a pie, with a center
piece-giving you nine areas. Think
of a tic-tac-toe board. These nine areas are then assigned names,
colors, shapes and an element that corresponds to an assigned life
area. The nine life areas
of the Bagua are: Career/Life Path, Knowledge/Spirituality, Family,
Wealth/Abundance, Success/Fame/Luck, Relationships, Creativity/Kids,
Helpful People/Travel, and Health/Well-Being.
The Bagua board can be used to space plan, accessorize and plan
the color scheme of a home, room, desk, classroom, lunchroom, bed or
garden.
In
using and applying the Bagua board to your space, you must line up the
bottom row (Knowledge/Spirituality, Career/Life Path and Helpful
People/Travel) with the entryway wall of the room.
So, first you must draw the floor plan of your room or
“bird’s eye view,” including the doorway and windows, and then
plot/draw the corresponding life areas around the perimeter.
Still a little confused? Stand
in the entryway of your room and look INTO the space.
If the door/entry is in the LEFT corner looking in, you enter
the room from the Knowledge/Spirituality area.
If you enter the room from the CENTER of the entryway wall, you
enter the room from the Career/Life Path area.
Lastly, if you enter the room from the RIGHT corner, you enter
the room from the Helpful People/Travel area.
This should help you in plotting out the rest of the room.
Then you can super-impose the Bagua over the floor plan and see
what “areas” need to be worked on, or what areas you’d like to
work on. You will analyze
furniture placement, accessories and/or piles of clutter.
Once you get the concept of the Bagua and how to properly line
up the grid, you will be able to work on any space and be able to
identify the corresponding life area.
Now
that you have the Bagua board plotted out on your floor plan, you can
then “activate” these areas by using the element, color, shape,
item or direction that is associated with that particular life area
(i.e. pink hearts can be used in the Relationship area or a coin dish
can be placed in Wealth/Abundance). See below:
Wealth/Abundance
Success/Fame
Relationships
Purple/Metallic
Red Red/Pink/Peach
Water
Element
Fire
Element
Earth Element
Wavy lines
Triangle Squares
SE
S
SW
Family
Health/Well-Being
Creativity/Kids
Green Yellow/Earth-tones
White/Metallic
Wood
Element Earth
Element
Metal Element
Rectangle
Squares
Circles
E
Center
W
Knowledge/Spirituality
Career/Life Path
Helpful People/Travel
Blue
Black
Gray
Earth Element
Water Element
Metal Element
Squares
Wavy
Lines
Circles
NE
N
NW
This
“grid” can be applied to any space, anywhere and for anyone.
So, how can you and/or the man in your life use the Bagua to
help his life? Let’s
apply Feng Shui principles to a home office and see how it can help.
One of my client’s is a busy doctor and his office reflects
that. Picture piles of
paperwork and medical books EVERYWHERE.
Although walking into the room causes me to hyperventilate, he
states that he “knows where everything is.”
(Does that sound familiar?)
It should be noted that the office is in RELATIONSHIP area of
the home’s floor plan; therefore clutter and chaos in this area can
have an impact on all romantic and business legal relationships.
The goal was not to make his office a shrine to his ROMANTIC
relationship, but rather to create a space that was designed to
facilitate work while reinforcing family relationships.
According to Feng Shui principles, adding some pictures of he
and his wife is appropriate. The office will be painted a red-orange color called Serape
(a Sherwin Williams paint color) to accent the EARTH element.
This is in contrast to the current white walls.
The current accessories that decorate the office (college
diplomas, family pictures and other souvenirs from travels) are
staying, although being moved to their appropriate areas according to
the Bagua. For example,
pictures of him and his wife are being moved to the RELATIONSHIP area
of the room. His
children’s’ photos have been repositioned to the CREATIVITY/KIDS
area, and those of his Mom to the FAMILY area of the office. This room
is graced with a huge window that aligns with the FAMILY area.
It has a wide sill and that is conducive to the placement of
photos of all family members and family group shots.
Although
we are still working on the clutter and re-organizing the office, the
whole energy in the room is different.
The pictures were re-arranged before the husband came home, so I
was curious as to his reaction. When
he walked into his office, he immediately realized the difference in
the photo placement. He
was so pleased that HE took it upon himself to move the rest of the
displayed photos, and even removed more clutter from the windowsill so
even more family photos could be displayed!
Here
are some general guidelines for the “male” spaces in the
home/office:
v
Purge all items that you
don’t LOVE, USE or NEED.
v
Use the Bagua Board as
your guide in placing your accessories and choosing colors.
v
Take into account the
function of the space and make sure accessories are appropriate.
An
“out of the box” Feng Shui project began when a client asked if I
could “Feng Shui their boat?”
Always up for a challenge, I said “of course!”
Unlike working on the office, there were specific goals to be
met. They included:
a) being more organized; b) winning some big fishing
tournaments; c) encouraging more family togetherness, as this is a 2nd
marriage and blended family. After
doing some research (and there wasn’t much that I found), it was
determined that the front, “pointy” (bow) part of the boat should
face DOWN or towards the Career area of the Bagua Board.
So, if you are going to Feng Shui any size or type of boat, this
is how you should orient the boat’s floor plan with the Bagua.
The Career area then is “where the journey starts” and shows
you “where you are going.” This
is perfect, as this area corresponds to the water element (see Bagua).
(NOTE:
Not all areas of the Bagua Board are discussed in this example.
I’ve only highlighted specific nautical examples and areas that my
client requested. However,
you can use the Bagua Board as your guide to personalize any boat.).
The
Knowledge area of the boat is the perfect place for a conch shell
filled with sand to represent the EARTH element and in nautical terms
“the time element which is associated with old age and wisdom.”
A small globe/map would also be ideal here, as it also
represents the earth and “wisdom that has been accumulated through
the ages.” This is also
an ideal area to store binoculars, as they are symbolic of the “union
of the two eyes for perfect extended vision.”
A crystal hanging here would also be ideal, as it also
represents the EARTH element and creates a positive energy movement.
A
picture of the blended family, happy and smiling, in a wood and/or
green frame to make the most of everything that activates the Family
area should be placed on the wall or in a bookcase in this area.
Photos of happy and smiling family members WITH YOU IN THE
PICTURE represent a happy family-literally.
In Feng Shui terms, what you surround yourself with and focus
your attention on, comes into your life.
Therefore, “Put your ATTENTION on your INTENTION”.
If you want better relationships with your family, look around
and see what family photos you have displayed in your home.
Do you have any? Who
is pictured in them? Do
you look happy? If you don’t have any pictures, take this opportunity to
rectify the situation. In
addition, anything related to knots and the tying of knots can be
placed here, as knots are representative of the WOOD element
The
Success/Fame area, typically where the motor is located on speed/motor
boats, is activated by FIRE element, the color RED and anything that
MOVES (i.e. the motor/rudder…).
A RED ribbon or string placed on a table can also help to
“activate” this area. Ideally,
you also need something that represents the WOOD element to
“mitigate” between the WATER and the FIRE element of this area.
If you don’t have anything to represent the WOOD element,
instead of a RED ribbon, use GREEN.
In my client’s case, I had them take pictures of themselves
with fish they had caught in past tournaments along with family photos
taken on boating trips. These
pictures were then to be hung in the cabin and in the living quarters
of the lower level.
The
Creativity/Kids area of the boat corresponds with METAL, the color
WHITE/GRAY and the shape of a CIRCLE.
Keep all METAL fixtures bright and shiny and in good working
order. A wind chime with a
ship’s wheel with 8 points, painted in blue would be excellent here.
If you can’t find that specific a chime, any nautical theme
would work. Wind chimes can stir up positive energy and disperse any
negativity.
Using
figurines/pictures of “helpful people” can activate the Helpful
People/Travel area. The
ideal object to be placed here is the MAZU goddess of the sea.
The Goddess Mazu appears in government papers, court documents
and seafaring logbooks. She
is worshipped by many in China and other countries with over 100
million devotees worldwide. She was deemed the Goddess of the Sea for her benevolence in
assisting those in seafaring mishaps.
Many people believe that when one is facing great difficulty,
one can call her by the name “Mazu,” and she will immediately come
to the rescue. A barometer
can also be placed here, as this indicates the pressure and likely sea
conditions, so that a sea journey can be planned in advance and with
care. Depending on the
size of the boat, you can also place photos of places you’ve already
sailed or would like to sail to (TRAVEL).
In
general for boat Feng Shui:
v
Keep all metal
fixtures/accessories bright and shiny
v
Keep all storage areas
clean and clutter-free
In
conclusion, whether you are trying to de-clutter an office to find
files and increase efficiency, re-design a den or media room for GAME
DAY parties or Feng Shui-ing a boat to win a big fishing tournament
using basic Feng Shui principles can help.
Upon seeing and feeling the results of using Feng Shui on their
spaces, many of my “converts” now won’t let their
wives/girlfriends move or buy anything without “DeAnna’s
permission” without rolling their eyes and now joining in the
process!
Happy
Father’s Day!!
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