Apr

Successful Feng Shui

Click here to listen to the audio version of this article: successful_feng_shui

What is Feng Shui? Does it really work? How long will it take to work for me? These are questions that I am often asked – particularly the last one. I have found that there are many misconceptions regarding what Feng Shui really is and what it can do. And some people do have an idea of what it really is and how it works, but say that it doesn’t seem to work for them.

Feng Shui definitely does work, when you apply it correctly, just like anything else. Yoga works, but it won’t work if you don’t do it regularly or you don’t practice the yoga postures correctly or breathe in the right way or put your full attention on what you’re doing. It’s the same with Feng Shui, you just need to know how to use it.

So let me address the first question. What exactly is Feng Shui? Often I find when I meet someone for the first time and tell them what I do they nod and say “oh yes, I’m familiar with Feng Shui – it’s all about color and interior design and moving furniture”. And whilst Feng Shui can incorporate those things, it certainly is so much more than that.

It’s really about energy. I know that’s a hard thing sometimes for people to understand because energy is not really something you see, but we certainly all feel it. I’m sure you’ve walked into a home or a building before and immediately felt uncomfortable without being really sure why. Perhaps there was nothing visibly wrong, yet you felt uncomfortable anyway. Or you may have walked into someone’s home for the first time and immediately felt comfortable. In both cases what you’re sensing is the energy of the space. I find that realtors understand this concept very well, since they go into so many homes. You can tell the minute you walk into a home if there’s been a bad argument for example, and you can tell if the home is a happy place, full of love and positive energy.

Think of your home as a reflection of you and what’s going on in your life. The look and feel of your home is reflecting back to you (and everyone else) your life story as it is right now. It’s the same thing with an office or business space, it is a reflection of what’s happening with that business right now. So it’s not just about whether a home looks nice with expensive furnishings and accessories and it’s also not about having your home look like a Chinese gift shop.

I remember the first time a journalist came to my home to interview me for a feature article she was writing, as she arrived she said “this is not what I was expecting”. When I asked her what she was expecting she told me she thought it would be decorated in a Chinese style, and that there would be lots of red and black. That’s another common misperception, that because Feng Shui itself comes from China, that your home has to have a Chinese theme to apply Feng Shui effectively.

Your home is a reflection of you and the application of Feng Shui does not change that but enhances it. You want the energy in your home to be balanced, you want it to flow easily and smoothly. There are many things that affect the energy of a home – such as the structure and shape of the house, the location, what’s around your home on the outside, the furniture and other items you have on the inside and where those items are placed, the meaning of those items, color, materials used, locations of rooms and so on. The good news is that when the energy in your home flows well and is balanced, that’s how your life will feel. And when the energy in your home is chaotic, stuck or stagnant – that’s how your life will feel. The goal is obviously to achieve positive flow and balance, which is what Feng Shui really does. When you correct energy that is chaotic, stuck or stagnant, it will bring about a corresponding change in your life. There’s no doubt about this. There is even a lot of scientific research that’s been done on this (Professor William H. Tiller from Stanford University has done a lot of research in this area).

So why does it seem to work for some people and not for others. If changing the energy will bring about a corresponding life change, why does it seem to happen quickly for some and not for others? There are clients who apply the recommendations from our consultation immediately to find everything they wanted effortlessly falling into place for them – business owners whose business dramatically increased within just a few days, people who receive money unexpectedly, others who find the job they were looking for or who achieve the promotion they wanted, or someone who finds the ideal life partner right away, after years previously spent searching. Yet there are others who, despite doing all the right ‘Feng Shui’ things, feel that nothing has really changed for them, or at least not in the way they wanted or expected.

After years of working with clients, what I have come to understand is that for life to flow as we want it to in the direction that we want it to, there are several things that need to be in alignment. They are:

Thoughts
Beliefs
Emotions
Actions
Energy in your environment

When all of these are in alignment everything just seems to fall into place beautifully. If one of them is missing, you can feel stuck. So for the people who apply Feng Shui and then find things quickly and miraculously changing for the better, they already have the first 4 things in place. They are ready for what they say they want. Working with the energy in their environment then just provides the final piece of the puzzle that allows everything to fall into place.

The people who work only with the energy in their environment and feel that nothing really changes for them, or at least not in the way they want it to, have one or more of the other four components that are not in alignment with what they say they want. For example, you may say that you want to improve your marriage, but your thoughts are constantly focused on everything that’s wrong with the marriage, or you may have beliefs that have not been addressed that tell you that you don’t deserve love or that there’s no such thing as a happy marriage. Or you may think about what you want for the relationship – such as spending more time together and appreciating each other more, but you spend long hours at work or doing other things, which means your actions are not in alignment with what you say you want.

So for Feng Shui to be successful you need to have your thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions all in alignment. If they are not, when you apply Feng Shui principles and techniques what will happen is that you will be presented with opportunities to address these issues. For example, you say you want to improve your financial situation, so, having read something about Feng Shui, you work with your Wealth area in your home to bring in more money. As you wait for more money to arrive, a friend tells you about a great financial seminar that’s coming up, or a helpful book they just read. You decline, because you’re waiting for more money to arrive after the Feng Shui enhancements you made. In reality, what’s happening is that the seminar or the book are showing up for you as a result of the energy changes you have made. In this case, it’s clear that you need to think or act differently with your money or you need to change some limiting beliefs around money.

So now you know what Feng Shui is. Does it work? Yes, every time. How long will it take? That’s up to you. If you already have your thoughts, emotions, beliefs and actions in alignment, then not long. If not, then it will take longer. How do you know whether they are in alignment? Just look at where you are and where you want to be. How big is the gap? The bigger the gap, the more out of alignment they are. Although it may sound difficult to address all of these areas and get them into alignment, it really only takes one thing – awareness. Being aware of what you’re thinking, how you feel, what you’re doing and how the energy in your environment is affecting you is really the key. Once you are aware, and you decide you want things to change, then Feng Shui can be the tool that helps bring about the change.