Being Blissful

With the multitude of books available on Feng Shui nowadays, I have collected a few and reviewed their merits. You’ll find that most Feng Shui books are well-written, and the authors are well-meaning and compassionate people, if a little off on the facts every now and then.

There are a lot of Feng Shui books available on the market today. It seems that every time I stroll through my local Barnes & Noble a new one pops up on the shelf out of nowhere. As a general rule, most Feng Shui books are pretty good – I mean, they’ve had to go through publishers, editors and the sort before appearing on your bookshelf. But it’s also because they’ve gone through so many edits and corrections that some things have been lost along the way. Often, what authors intend to write in their Feng Shui books is edited out, or changed because of an overzealous editor.

There are a few things that you should keep in mind when buying a Feng Shui book. First, length doesn’t really matter. As you already know, it’s quality, not quantity that counts when it comes to Feng Shui and Feng Shui books. The smallest suggestions and tips can make huge differences when applied properly in your life. That being said, take care when buying ‘pocket size’ guides and the sort. Some of these Feng Shui books are filled with nothing but lots of images and general suggestions repeated over and over again.

Both Feng Shui For Dummies and Feng Shui Your Life are excellent Feng Shui books.

Also, keep an eye out for Feng Shui books that spend a lot of time discussing history and tradition. Now personally I think that both are very important for any Feng Shui enthusiast to understand, but really, once you’ve heard it once, you don’t really need to hear it again. If you already have a Feng Shui book that covers history (almost any beginner’s Feng Shui book will), then try to buy a Feng Shui book that covers more practical applications.

If you want a brief and to-the-point book that covers it all, I suggest the 26 Secrets of Feng Shui e-book.

Lastly, take your time and look at reader reviews of Feng Shui books. It’s one thing to have publishers and authors tell you that their Feng Shui books are great, it’s another to hear it from someone who’s put the information to use. Go out and buy some useful Feng Shui books today!

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Feng Shui Colors are an often misunderstood area of Feng Shui. This is because each and every Feng Shui Color can have multiple meaning, and the meanings change depending on who the practitioner is. By properly understanding why this is so, you can use Feng Shui Colors to your benefit.

The use and meaning of Feng Shui colors and their symbolism is a subject that is often only lightly touched-upon in writings, and there is a great deal of confusion about how Feng Shui colors should and shouldn’t be used.

A comprehensive guide to Feng Shui colors can be found here.

To understand the meaning of Feng Shui colors, we need to look at their origins and cultural background. In traditional Taoist theory, the world is balanced between yin (negative / feminine) and yang (positive / male) energies, which govern all existence. Feng Shui colors fall on either side of this continuum of energy. On the Yin side, Feng Shui colors include blue, white, green, purple and black. On the Yang side, Feng Shui colors include yellow, orange, tan, brown, red, maroon and gold. Of course all these Feng Shui colors have particular meanings which need to be explained. Blue for example, is a calm and soothing color which is associated with intellect, wisdom, adventure and exploration. Purple is associated with healing and spiritual awareness. Black is associated with money and income. The Yang Feng Shui colors are associated with concentration, warmth, motion and vibrant energy.

The yin-yang spectrum of Feng Shui colors is only one way that Feng Shui practitioners look at color however. The colors can also be similarly sorted according to the five Feng Shui elements, or by the bagua diagram, which states that: wealth is purple, fame is red, relationships are pink, health is green, unity is yellow, creativity is white, knowledge is blue-green, the career is black and elders are gray. This is yet another explanation of Feng Shui colors.

A straightforward way to apply Feng Shui colors can be found here.

With so many different ways to consider and use Feng Shui colors, the unseasoned practitioner can often fall prey to information overload. The general advice given by most well-meaning practitioners is this: consider what colors work for you. No, this isn’t an attempt to say it’s all-too-complicated and brush the Feng Shui colors issue aside – we all seriously mean to consider things like your cultural background, your personal preferences and character. Take for example the color white. In European and Western traditions, white symbolizes purity, innocence and blessings. In Eastern cultures, white symbolizes death and stillness. It’s still the same color, but with two different meanings. Consider what colors symbolize in your culture, and what colors blend well with your personal space and lifestyle. Just remember to keep in mind the general Feng Shui principles, such as using moderation (too much of any of the Feng Shui colors is no good), and working colors together complimentarily to create a pleasant and free-flowing environment. Have fun with your Feng Shui colors!

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Feng Shui cures are often made out to be complicated and extravagant in nature, from fountains to bamboo plants to intricate displays of color. It doesn’t have to be this way! In fact, many Feng Shui cures are small and unobstructive in nature, and can be simply placed to bring luck into your life.

There are a number of simple Feng Shui cures that you can apply immediately to enhance the quality of your life and relationships. The first thing to know about Feng Shui cures, is that in Feng Shui, the primary goal is prevention, and cures are typically secondary. Feng Shui cures are normally applied when physical locations (e.g., a bathroom in the wealth sector of your home) can’t be changed. With that out of the way, let’s look at the different types of Feng Shui cures that you can use: crystals, fountains and water, lucky bamboo, mirrors and other Feng Shui cures.

Crystals may seem a strange Feng Shui cure and are probably not always associated with Feng Shui. The important thing to remember when using a crystal as Feng Shui cure, is that different types of crystals will have different properties – for example, rose quartz enhances heart healing and therefore the love and romance aspects of your life. It is also essential that when using crystal as a Feng Shui cure, that the crystal be natural and not man-made.

Less common Feng Shui cures include wealth frogs found here, and brass statues such as this one.

Water aspects and fountains are universally recognized as Feng Shui cures because of their soothing and calming nature. As a general rule, water features should not be placed in the bedroom, and should remain in the east, southeast and north parts of a given space or home. This will help to enhance your family’s health, prosperity and careers. Similarly, the lucky bamboo plant has become a well-recognized Feng Shui cure in recent years. For more information, please see my page on bamboo plants and Feng Shui.

The most powerful of Feng Shui cures available is the mirror. There are a number of theories why this is, but the most recognized one is that since ancient times, people have been fascinated with the ability of reflective surfaces to show true images – and of course, the first ever reflective surface was water. Mirrors therefore, have the energetic properties of water without being water features. Placed correctly, mirrors will expand the space in a room and draw in additional beneficial qi. They can also be used as a Feng Shui cure to shift the energy flow in a room. There are actually four types of mirrors used in Feng Shui: typical, concave, convex and bagua. The typical mirror can be four-sided (representing balance) or round (representing wholeness), and is typically used indoors. Concave and convex mirrors distort images, and therefore should only be used outdoors and with great care. The bagua mirror is an octagonal mirror that is used outdoors to protect the home from “secret arrows”. Even though mirrors are called the “aspirin” of Feng Shui cures, great care must be taken when using them to achieve optimal effect.

You can find a bagua mirror here.

“Other” Feng Shui cures describes a broad categories of things that can be done / used to enhance the flow of qi in your home, rather than specific cures as outlined above. This includes things like using round rather than square furniture, using window coverings, clearing out the clutter in your home, using indoor plants or other living qi items (such as pets) to enhance the flow of qi, utilizing artwork depicting Feng Shui elements rather than the elements themselves and making sure that our lighting is soft and comforting. From this, it is easy to see that rather than being a quick fix, Feng Shui cures are a way to help balance and improve your life.

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Of all the items in the bedroom, the Feng Shui dresser is one of the most neglected yet one of the most important for many people. There are a number of things to consider when buying a new Feng Shui dresser. There are also a number of things to consider when organizing the interior of your Feng Shui dresser.

The Feng Shui dresser is a very basic Feng Shui item and usually used in conjunction with a number of other Feng Shui items in a collection of bedroom furniture. In and of itself, the Feng Shui dresser does not represent anything in particular – it’s the elements of the dresser and how you use the Feng Shui dresser that determines its qi properties.

The Feng Shui dresser itself should be low in height, especially if it is placed in the bedroom, so that it does not threaten anyone sleeping on the bed. In applying Feng Shui principles to your bedroom, all furniture placed around the bed should be placed away a distance equivalent to the height of the furniture. This is both practical and energetic in nature – practical because any falling furniture will not harm anyone sleeping in bed, and energetic as large furniture can generate qi pressure upon anyone sleeping in bed. This also applies to your Feng Shui dresser.

Dressers such as this one are ideal for Feng Shui purposes.

Your Feng Shui dresser should also have no handles, or have indented handles (carved into the wood) in order to avoid the disruption of the flow of qi in the bedroom. The edge of the Feng Shui dresser should also be draped with a cloth, especially if the dresser has sharp corners. These corners represent what are known as “secret poison arrows” or “secret arrows”, which cut through the flow of qi in a room, generating negative qi.

A dresser such as this one is a good example of a good Feng Shui dresser.

It is also important to consider the contents of your Feng Shui dresser, especially if you are interested in using your Feng Shui dresser as an element in attracting a new love interest or partner for yourself. In order to utilize Feng Shui principles to help attract new relationship interests into your personal life, you must leave at least one drawer empty for a potential partner to fill with his / her belongings. Ideally, about 25% of the Feng Shui dresser should be left empty, to demonstrate openness at receiving someone new into your life.

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Feng Shui for Dummies is usually the first book that most people find in their library or on Amazon. It is a very thorough and straightforward book, hence the title, Feng Shui for dummies. There is however, some lack of depth as particular Feng Shui principles are brushed over quickly, and at other times, tangential topics are brought up.

Feng Shui For Dummies is a book in the Dummies series of helpful guides for the essential things in life. The book is written by David Kennedy, and at the outset appears to be extremely well researched and well informed. In fact, if you hadn’t found this website, I would recommend going to Kennedy’s book as a first-stop on your Feng Shui journey. Let’s see what Feng Shui for Dummies is made of…

Feng Shui for Dummies makes a number of ‘typical’ and interesting claims on its blurb, namely: to help bring harmony and happiness into your relationships, to increase your prosperity, to eliminate chronic patterns of failure, difficulty or stress, to energize your environment and home, and to better your health. Well, Feng Shui when applied properly certainly delivers on those things, but does Feng Shui for Dummies? We’ll see in a minute.

Let’s look first at the topics covered in Feng Shui for Dummies: the history of Feng Shui, the elements of Feng Shui, Feng Shui in the bedroom, meditation (?), the home and Feng Shui, Feng Shui and your career, Feng Shui ceremonies (?). All these topics are covered to varying degrees in Feng Shui for Dummies – most of the essential elements are there, but some such as the treatment of elements (no pun intended) are just not as complete as they could be. I personally didn’t see the overall relevance of meditation and ceremonies, except that they have been carried through in tradition and to some extent are part of Feng Shui lore and practice. From a practicality standpoint, some readers may feel comfortable and better using them and some will not. Feng Shui for Dummies does give you the choice though.

You can find multiple versions of Feng Shui for Dummies on Amazon.

So just how good is Feng Shui for Dummies? If you’re looking for a practical, common-sense and down-to-earth guide to Feng Shui, it’s a great start. It’s a very general and well-researched book on Feng Shui. I do have some criticisms however. The first is the fairly light treatments of the five Feng Shui elements (which I guess can be considered more in the ‘lore’ than ‘practicality’ part of Feng Shui). The second is the recommendation of crystals and bamboo as ‘miracle cures’ to be used everywhere. Remember that part of Feng Shui (even Feng Shui for dummies) is creating a comfortable and pleasant environment – hanging crystals, baguas and planting bamboo everywhere won’t necessarily create that effect. The third is that the book focuses primarily on Black Sect Feng Shui, which is the Western adaptation of Feng Shui practices, and therefore more reliant on ‘gut feel’ rather than tradition. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just a different approach to what most Feng Shui practitioners will tell you. Feng Shui for Dummies certainly delivers what it claims.

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The Feng Shui Fountain is found abundantly in all homes that have applied Feng Shui. What is often misunderstood by many is that the Feng Shui fountain does not always have to be a full-size outdoor fountain! Smaller Feng Shui fountains are equally auspicious, and give you all the benefits of a larger fountain.

The Feng Shui Fountain is one of the more commonly recognized symbols and household items in Feng Shui. At the same time though, the Feng Shui fountain is not commonly found in many homes, because it can often clash with décor and common decorating sense. There are a number of reasons to have and use a Feng Shui fountain.

In Feng Shui, we believe that qi, or energy, is stored in the five elements: fire, water, earth, wood and metal. The Feng Shui fountain, with its emphasis on water, obviously represents the water element. Using other components such as rounded stones, ribbons and metallic statues the Feng Shui fountain can also be crafted into representing the other elements of Feng Shui. The Feng Shui fountain typically is used to represent life as it is presented through water – the only other common household alternative is a fish tank or a fish bowl.

If you’d rather not use the fish bowl, you can take a look at this tabletop fountain here.

So what can be used in a Feng Shui fountain? It is believed that the electrical or mechanical systems of a Feng Shui fountain are beneficial, as they are representative of movement and thus active, flowing chi. Water by its very nature should be active and moving. (An interesting aside is the number of English-language associations between water and money – cash flow, slush funds, pooling money, floating a loan and income streams anyone?) At the same time, the Feng Shui fountain also represents sound because of the movement of the water. Using rounded stones can give the Feng Shui fountain a grounded element too, stabilizing the energy in the room. Feng Shui fountains also allow the savvy practitioner to incorporate other elements, such as bright objects, Feng Shui colors suited to a particular room and living elements such as plants or flowers.

To see how earth elements and a Feng Shui fountain are used together, click here.

When it comes to determining where exactly a Feng Shui fountain should be placed, it is better to consider where a Feng Shui fountain should NOT be placed and work backwards. In general, the Feng Shui fountain will bring energy and positive qi into any room of the house, except for: the bedroom, the bathroom and the area under the staircase. Under NO circumstances should a fountain be placed in these areas, as they represent bad luck and negative qi flows.

If you’d like to see an exquisite fountain made of bamboo, click here.

Have fun with your Feng Shui fountain!

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The practice of Feng Shui and Feng Shui Home Decorating is popular all around the world today. The only problem is that the multiple schools of Feng Shui, how they are combined in Feng Shui home decorating and general decorating often end up confusing people. When this happens, it is important to examine the principles behind the art of Feng Shui, and how it can be applied to your home.

Feng Shui Home Decorating and the art of Feng Shui are becoming something of a lost and poorly practiced art in today’s world. As Feng Shui and its application in Feng Shui home decorating become more and more popular, numerous offshoots arise and blur the traditional art of Feng Shui. So what is Feng Shui home decorating? It’s the application of the ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui to decorating the interior of your home, by applying particular principles that enhance the home’s décor. By properly applying Feng Shui home decorating to your home, you help to stabilize the flow of qi throughout the home, and thus help to stabilize your own life.

This can be easily achieved through the use of a living element, such as this lucky bamboo plant here.

Practitioners of Feng Shui and Feng Shui home decorating believe that one’s life is a reflection of their environment and vice-versa. By following the principles of Feng Shui home decorating, you are able to balance your environment and subsequently enhance your health, prosperity and wellbeing. As with all topics in Feng Shui however, Feng Shui home decorating is often misunderstood as a simple bundling of crystals and makeshift cures applied haphazardly throughout the home in an effort to ward off ‘evil spirits’ and the sort. Nothing could be further from the truth. Feng Shui home decorating is the systematic application of time-tested principles that enhance your life gently and carefully.

Auspicious items such as this fountain are ideal for home decorating purposes.

If you are fortunate enough to be approaching Feng Shui home decorating for a new place of residence, then you should seek to have a Feng Shui specialist look over your building plans. If you are like the rest of us however, then you should begin your Feng Shui home decorating by drawing up a sketch of your house or place of residence plans. Then take a Feng Shui bagua map (available on this site) and align each gua with its section in your home. This systematic approach to Feng Shui home decorating will help you avoid the pitfalls that most novices make.

Mirrors such as this one also make for excellent Feng Shui items when used properly.

There are a number of immediate things that can be addressed in Feng Shui home decorating that can be looked at before the Feng Shui bagua is consulted. Check that your front and back doors do not align, and if they do, place a large plant in the pathway. Ensure that your home is receiving adequate amounts of natural light. Eliminate clutter from corners and the home in general. Follow the Feng Shui bedroom principles found on this site. Afterwards, turn to the bagua and section by section examine the layout of furniture and objects in each area of your home, and continue on Feng Shui home decorating!

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Feng Shui Mirrors are capable of moving almost any flow of qi or energy in an extra direction. Because of their great power, Feng Shui mirrors are treated very carefully as a Feng Shui cure, and must be placed appropriately in the home. You should be aware of all the properties of Feng Shui mirrors, and how they should be used with care.

A Feng Shui mirror is any mirror that has been placed expressly for the purposes of enhancing the flow of qi in a room. Many Feng Shui practitioners and enthusiasts call the Feng Shui mirror a ‘miracle cure’ or ‘the aspirin of Feng Shui’ and with good reason – mirrors have profound effects upon any space in which they are placed. Of course, this may just be part of the human fascination with mirrors and reflective surfaces in general, the theory being that mirrors show the true image of a person or an area. A Feng Shui mirror is also representative of the elements of which it is comprised, which nowadays are usually wood or metal, and water. Why water I hear you ask. The first ever reflective surface known to people was water – so, in Feng Shui, Feng Shui mirrors have the energetic properties of water. When a Feng Shui mirror is placed in a room it naturally expands the space and the area in which the qi in a room can flow, and can therefore be used as a Feng Shui cure.

Wood-framed mirrors are especially beneficial in Feng Shui, combining wood, metal and water elements.

There is a lot of speculation and debate about the actual use of the Feng Shui mirror, and generally most of it can be disregarded with the caveat that mirrors should always be used with care. Used properly, for example, in a dining room to mirror a table with a full bowl of fruit on it, mirrors create a sense of ease, prosperity and wealth. Used improperly such as in a bedroom to mirror a sleeping couple, a Feng Shui mirror can bring stress and strain into a normally happy relationship. There are some principles to consider when placing a Feng Shui mirror. Apart from the dining room and bedroom examples that I’ve given above, you can use mirrors to redirect energy (positive, negative or otherwise) in another direction. You can use a Feng Shui mirror to expand a narrow hallway, or to redirect light into a dark room. The general rule with a Feng Shui mirror is that it should make the space feel more welcoming.

Traditionally styled mirrors such as this one, or mirrors that combine multiple beneficial colors and elements such as this one or this one are well-suited as Feng Shui mirrors.

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Beingblissful.com is a team of dedicated Feng Shui practitioners and enthusiasts who practice Feng Shui principles in their everyday lives. Everything we teach and encourage has been applied first in our lives, often with unexpected but pleasant results. Follow Feng Shui principles today to bring balance back into your life.

The Feng Shui principle is a concept similar to that of the Feng Shui life, in which people align all parts of their lives in with the practice of Feng Shui. Feng Shui itself actually consists of many Feng Shui principles, but the most important are undoubtedly simplicity and balance.

Here at beingblissful.com, we are dedicated to promoting correct Feng Shui principles, and advising readers to look at more than just the face-value of Feng Shui principles, and to consider how it can be applied in their daily lives. Much Feng Shui in the modern world is surrounded by new age mysticism and shrouded in mystery, a lot of which is unnecessary to the practice of proper Feng Shui principles. We believe that in returning to the roots of Feng Shui principles, and that is what we encourage here at BeingBlissful.com.

By simply keeping the Feng Shui principles of simplicity and balance in mind, you will be able to capture the bare essence of Feng Shui, and that is all that is necessary to apply it immediately to your life. We are always looking to reexamine the practice of Feng Shui with developments occurring in the modern world, such as the addition of ensuite bathrooms, computers in the home and the ever-changing tastes of interior design. We do this by sticking to the basic Feng Shui principles, and keeping our readers informed of these developments and findings.

If you would like to contact use please do so at info@beingblissful.com. We would be happy to field any questions that you may have.

Please remember that when practicing Feng Shui principles, Feng Shui is but one part of your life. All aspects of your life should be aligned and brought into focus towards what you really want. Start your journey into Feng Shui with the Feng Shui Life.

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There are numerous Feng Shui tips and tricks that can be used to instantly bring better luck into your life. This collection of Feng Shui tips here is practical, straightforward and immediately applicable to reorganizing your environment. By using and understanding the principles behind these tips, you can bring balance and harmony back into your life.

Here are some of the more useful Feng Shui tips that I have come across myself, and that I use when practicing Feng Shui tips.

Feng Shui tip 1: Get things balanced. The core of Feng Shui and any Feng Shui tip is to get things in your life balanced. Whilst Feng Shui undoubtedly focuses a lot on your environment, this doesn’t mean that you should ignore the rest of your life too – if there’s something going on that you’ve just been putting off for ages, chances are it’s affecting your life AND environment. So there’s the first non-Feng Shui Feng Shui tip.

Feng Shui tip 2: Clear your clutter! The basic fundamental of all organization and management systems is to have this looking nice, neat and compartmentalized. So why should your environment be any different? If it’s looking a little crowded in your home or apartment, apply this Feng Shui tip easily by throwing out what you haven’t used in a year. If you’re unsure about anything, ask yourself if you’re going to use it in the next 6 months. No? Donate it to charity or chuck it out.

You can find a lot of straightforward Feng Shui tips here.

Feng Shui tip 3: Feng Shui everything in your life. Your life is an interconnected jigsaw: your workplace, your bedroom, your living room and your home study are all connected. The qi in each room influences and reflects the qi in other rooms. An upset anywhere can throw it all off balance. Be sure that when you’re applying Feng Shui in your life, apply it to anywhere and everywhere you can. That’s an important Feng Shui tip.

Feng Shui tip 4: Use the bagua the way that works for you. If you’ve forgotten, the bagua can be applied two ways – either using Compass bearings, or by facing your home and aligning the Career aspect to yourself. Neither way is right or wrong, though you’ll hear people arguing about it all the time. Find which application works for you, and stick with this Feng Shui tip.

The essential reference for Feng Shui tips can be found here.

Feng Shui tip 5: I had to put in a fifth Feng Shui tip because four is an unlucky number in China. I think I’ll call this one ‘be sensible’. Don’t go overboard with your Feng Shui – trust me, I know from experience. When you get going on a roll, you tend to start to Feng Shui everything: rooms, desk, lives, your kid’s rooms, neighbors, gardens and so on… Remember to keep everything in balance and don’t go overboard.

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