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The Five Feng Shui Elements and Their Interaction

By James Brickman

The five feng shui elements (also referred to as keys) are the basis of this teaching. These primary keys are: earth, metal, water, wood and fire. The golden rule of feng shui is to achieve harmony and balance between these five keys through adjusting the space in which we live.

When the five elements are properly balanced both, indoors and outdoors, the person can expect to gain numerous benefits. These include health, wealth, abundance, and improved interpersonal relationships. Ultimately, this leads to happiness in life. If the elements are, on the contrary, in chaos and imbalance, a person may find themselves experiencing all sorts of issues, including missed opportunities, hindered interpersonal relationships, declining health, and financial hardships. In other words, it’s unhappiness.

So, let’s talk about the five feng shui elements, learn their symbols, and see how they may interact with each other (both, positively and negatively).

The keys can interact with each other in one of the three cycles: enhancing, weakening, and controlling. Some of these cycles are positive, while others are negative. Let’s take a look at the cycles:

The Enhancing Cycle: This is the most positive cycle where all of the five elements are in harmony, which results in happiness, health, and abundance. Here are the steps of this cycle: wood boosts fire, fire boosts earth, earth boosts metal, metal boosts water, and water boosts wood.

The Controlling Cycle: This is the worst cycle where all of the elements are in chaos, and clash with one another. Here are the steps of this cycle: wood controls earth, fire controls metal, earth controls water, metal controls wood, and water controls fire.

The Weakening Cycle: This is a specific cycle that is neither positive nor negative. It’s a tool that can be used to eliminate negative energy. However, if it’s used improperly it can drain the positive energy. Thus, its use requires skills and knowledge. Here are the steps of this cycle: fire weakens wood, earth weakens fire, metal weakens earth, water weakens metal, and wood weakens water.

In order to be able to match the elements into balanced and harmonious energies, we need to know the symbols, shapes, and colors of the five feng shui elements. Here they are:

Water (symbols): glass, mirrors, stained glass, crystal, aquariums, marine landscapes, roads, lakes, and waterfalls. Shapes: serpentine and wavy. Colors: blue and black.

Wood (symbols): flowers, plants, trees, wood furniture, woodcrafts, wicker chairs, rattan mats, cloth, paper, and paintings depicting nature. Shapes: cylindrical and rectangular. Color: green.

Fire (symbols): candles, lamps, incense, heating appliances, fireplaces, stoves, sun, animals, birds, children, wool, leather goods, articles made of feathers; paintings depicting fire, sunrise, and sunset; paintings depicting people and animals. Shapes: triangular and sharp edges. Color: red.

Earth (symbols): ceramics, bricks, crystal, porcelain, glazed tiles, stones, sculptures, globes, and pictures depicting terrestrial landscapes (mountains, cliffs, and desert). Shape: square. Colors: terracotta and ocher.

Metal (symbols): metal objects, bells, coins, swords, jewelry made of precious metals, and the pictures of metal objects. Shapes: oval and round. Colors: white, silver and gold.

As you can see, there is a lot that can be learned in order to harmonize the five feng shui elements, and balance your surroundings in the physical world. Balance your life, and you may become happier.

About the Author: James Brickman runs http://www.fengshuicrazy.com which teaches the ancient art of feng shui. Please visit his website to learn more about the five feng shui elements.

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Feng Shui In The Home – Is It The Right Style For You?

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By Michael Holland

The use of feng shui in the home is the source of some debate for many would-be home decorators. Some people believe in its healing powers while others think it’s nothing more than the lastest hyped up fad.

However, if you are like most people and don’t have a strong opinion either way about this subject, then allow me to shed some light. Below is an explanation of what feng shui is and what it represents. But more importantly, you’ll be able to determine if it right for you and whether you should you use feng shui in the home.

Feng shui in the home can be a source of relief for some people and disbelief for others. Some home decorators swear that balancing the five elements (wood, water, fire, metal and earth) creates warmth and harmony.

One key aspect of this balancing act consists of using colors and shapes that represent the elements and rearranging furnishings to complete the effect. Other decorators, however, are more skeptical and see feng shui in the home as just hogwash. They don’t believe it is neccessarily to have all the blancing in place to create a beautiful room.

So, which side of the fence do you come down on? Does feng shui in the home have any appeal to you? If so, are you drawn to it because you feel that you need balance in your life? Or do you simply seek a new creative twist for decorating your home? Either way, feng shui may still be worth trying.

Feng shui stresses creating an enivironment of harmony in the home. By melding the five elements together in a productive and harmonious cycle, you just might enjoy their pleasing characteristics. Feng shui advocates say that, if your home is dominated by only one or two of the elements instead of having them all represented, the home’s level of “Chi” will be weakened. This, in turn, could result in problems for those living there.

So what do you think? Does this have any appeal to you? If not, no problem, but you could be missing out on something that could also be a lot of fun.

Whether you’re looking for spiritual counsel and view feng shui as a possible answer, or if you’re simply tired of the way your home looks now and desire a more flowing design, feng shui could help. Of course, some feng shui advocates believe that, if you are not seeking balance in your life, you should bypass feng shui decorating all together.

There’s certainly no reason to take that advice. While feng shui may not serve its original intent, it can still result in absolutely beautiful rooms. The rooms in your home can flow seamlessly and seem more uniformed, instead of looking like a messy garage with items and accessories all jumbled. The great thing about feng shui is that it can help bring a finished and polished look to rooms that seemed disorganized.

So, is feng shui the right style for you? It your choice, but I think it’s more than worthy of a try.

About the Author: Michael Holland is the creator of Home Decorating Made Easy.com. His web sites offers lots of FREE decorating tips and ideas for decorating your home.

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Using Feng Shui to Redecorate

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By Heather Mitchell

In many homes around the globe, the trend of using Feng Shui to redecorate is increasing in popularity. These popular redecorating ideas involve the aesthetic arrangement of objects in a living space or home with the goal of achieving balance and harmony. As far as Feng Shui redecoration is concerned, colors and placement of objects are of paramount importance. A person’s physical and emotional state can be influenced through good harmonic colors, which help improve certain energies in aspects of his/her life.

Feng shui redecorating colors can be segregated under Yin or Yang colors. While Yang colors such as Red, Orange and Yellow is expected to promote motivation and positivism, Yin colors such as Purple, Blue and White can promote relaxation. Natural elements or nature also has a vital role to play in Feng Shui decoration. You can achieve different looks in different rooms through the use of different species of plants. According to Feng shui experts, while plants with spines such as cacti and others can be incorporated in active spaces such as the kitchen or office, those having rounded edges will work well in spaces of relaxation such as the bedroom. To start simply without doing a complete overhaul, you could consider changing the color scheme and foliage you have in an existing room.

This trend also advocates the use or placement of specific items or elements in specific places for triggering positive energy. Indoor water features can ideally be placed in the north, east or southeast portions of the room. They should not be placed in the south because this is ideally suited for fire. You must avoid placing a water feature in the bedroom as it can bring worry. You can make use of a Feng Shui energy map to get further information regarding the placement of features and interplay between the elements. The inhabitants of a house can benefit from optimal energy attraction through the ideal placement of these features in their home.

Experts in this field also recommend the use of beautiful stones and crystals near the fountains to enhance the positive energy emerging from the water source. Running water features can remove pollutants and create more positive energy irrespective of the place where they are incorporated in your home. Though a water feature in the bedroom is not recommended, there are many other places one can be used. Really beautiful water features can be found relatively inexpensively at local home stores like Pier1 Imports or even Home Depot or Lowes.

Yin and Yang energies can be balanced perfectly with the proper use of Feng Shui elements in your home. This in turn can have a positive influence on your life. You can even regain control over your life or, very simply, calm your stressed nerves by adjusting the the proper elements in your home correctly. In short, through Feng shui redecorating, you can reside in an environment that has the optimal energy to carry on activities intended for that space. If your living environment is a happy one, you will may just yourself happy too!

About the Author: Heather Mitchell is excited to be a new featured writer for www.UniqueBathVanities.com where we make sure our clients are more than satisfied with their unique bath vanity purchases.

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Feng Shui For The Outdoors

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By Karissa Claire Dupree

People landscape and decorate even the outdoor area of their residence for various reasons and purposes. Among the cogent reasons and strong forces that drive the homeowner to improve and landscape the yard is to make the idle area functional and useful. In doing so, certain specific outdoor design concepts and styles are implemented and applied in order to give the backyard its best and elegant look. This endeavor to give the outdoor space such amazing and gorgeous look is performed not only for the purpose of beauty and functionality, but also and most importantly for fortune and good luck. Although there are some non-believers of good luck and fortune coming from the harmony of nature and surrounding, one can always give it try since beside there is nothing to lose but has something to gain should it prove itself to be effective in attracting good vibes and fortunes to one’s life. This is not magic. This is called feng shui.

Doing feng shui for outdoor landscaping and decorations follow certain similar rules as those applied in interior design and decorating. Some of these rules provide that certain areas of your garden or outdoor landscape exude positive energy, good luck, and fortune to every particular aspect of your life. Hence, it is believed by feng shui experts that the southernmost corner of the outdoor space or garden attracts recognition and fame. The southwestern side governs the strong matrimonial bond and its prospects and marital happiness while the westernmost corner gives abundant offspring and fertility. Helpful people and mentors are governed by the northwestern part of the area while the northernmost corner of the garden governs those professionals who are very much concerned with their careers. Family relationships and the well-being of every family member such as their health is found on the easternmost corner of the garden while the southeast should be as green and lush as possible to effectively attract wealth and prosperity. This circular arrangement of plants, objects, and furnishings outdoor is patterned to the feng shui bagua that is believed since the ancient times to have brought great things to those who believe and apply such principles.

From the foregoing discussions, it is apparent that the placing and locations of every object, decoration, plants, and colors as part of the outdoor landscaping and decorating must be in perfect harmony with each other as well as with the wind, water, fire, and earth elements of feng shui. These elements must necessary be complete at the area since each of them feeds the other thus giving way to the perfection of the promise of feng shui, such as, good fortune, strong spirit, happy and prosperous life, both for the person and the family. Although these things remain to be a belief for some, one cannot deny the fact that their popularity and following have reached all corners of the world. Simply put, feng shui would not gain such worldwide popularity if it were not for its remarkable success and truthfulness as regards the effects of harmony of all the elements that attract positive luck and good fortune.

About the Author: Karissa Claire Dupree is a design specialist and enjoys writing about any type of home d

Feng Shui Your Homenu8

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By Brenda Williams

The principals of Feng Shui can be used to create a harmonic environment within your home, increase wealth and prosperity and increase the happiness that occurs within the four walls of your home. How do you begin the feng shui process? What rooms do you start with? Use these tips to increase the positive energy flow through the use of feng shui in your home.

Increase the positive flow in the bedroom by placing the bed with the headboard facing against the door. It is important to have the door in view at all times. There should be no electronics in the bedroom, as these can decrease the flow the positive energy levels. Electronics should be avoided in most main parts of the home, but are most important to avoid placing in the bedroom. The energy that comes from having electronics is negative and can disrupt the flow of the positive energy.

The bed should be placed in an area where it can be accessed from either side. Placing the bed against a wall or other blockage could cause an energy stoppage. Bedside tables should be placed on each side of the bed to avoid clutter that comes with a bedroom. Once this clutter is reduced within the home, the energy will be able to flow positive and naturally. Although the headboard should be able to view the door, it is important to place the bed in an area that is not in a direct line with the door. The bed is the most important place within the home where the individual is able to regain the energy lost throughout the day.

Natural light placed within certain areas in the home create a positive energy flow. We are the energy that presides within our home and natural light. Light is the second most important way that positive energy is created within the home. Using natural light, the home can be basked in the creation of positive energy. Candles without toxins are one of the chief ways that positive energy can be created within the home, especially in the bedroom. Clean burning candles are available at a variety of retail shops and specialty and health food stores.

Creating a positive energy flow in the home with the natural creation of flowing, green plants is important. Green plants have the ability to improve the air in which we breathe into our body. The air that we breathe into the body is a direct interaction with our environment. This way, it can improve our natural health and wellness within the home environment.

There are five elements of feng shui that should be present within the home. These elements are; wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Each of these elements can be used in combination with each other, in different parts of the home to create a positive energy flow.

Using air flow in combination with natural light provides a positive environment, especially in the bedroom. Allowing open windows in the home allows for positive energy to flow into the home. The same goes for negative energy, negative energy is able to flow out of open windows.

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Feng Shui for the Home

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By Larry Lim

The art of Geomancy or more commonly known as Feng Shui in the Chinese community is often debated for its facts. After years of studies, Feng Shui has been proven to have its foundation built on natural sciences and not merely based on Chinese superstitions. Feng Shui, just like the name suggests, means wind and water when translated into English. The art has been practiced since 4,500 years ago with the aim to create a harmonial balance between a home’s occupants and its surroundings.

Today, even the Western world have begun to take notice of this ancient practice, incorporating interior design with the art of Feng Shui. In the simplest form, it is divided into 5 key elements – fire, earth, metal, water and wood. All these basic elements are used to help enhance the general well-being and luck of the occupants. This is the reason why a Feng Shui master is invited to survey the house before the family moves in. The Feng Shui master attempts to bring together the natural order of Heaven, Earth and Man, blending these 3 orders with the owner’s Bazi (the birthday) to help create a perfect interior orientation for the house.

When someone buys a new property in Singapore, there are some very basic Feng Shui rules to observe, specifically rules that affect the flow of Chi into the house. For example, Singaporeans would refrain from buying a property located on cul-de-sacs or the ‘dead end’ of a street, or those facing a ‘T’ junction. The properties located at these areas are believed to be bad for Chi flows, either too much or not enough flowing into the house.

The landscape is another basic criteria in determining a Feng Shui of a house. Try imagining a house with a tree planted at its entrance. From common sense, it is bad landscaping because it blocks the walkway. From the Feng Shui point of view, it is an unfavourable because it blocks the Chi from entering the house. Having a winding walkway rather than a straight walkway heading to the entrance of the house is also favourable because it is believed that the Chi is “gentler” when it enters the house.

Another good practice when buying a house is to talk to the owner or the realtor to learn the purpose of the sale because it may affect your fortune in the future. You would prefer to buy a house from someone selling to move to a bigger home, than from an owner who is forced to sell because of bankruptcy or foreclosure.

Most of the time, a renovation is required when the family moves into a new house. Colors and shapes play an important role in determining the Feng Shui of the house. Different colors and shapes will evoke different feelings or emotions in different people. By replacing protruding shapes with sharp ends to something circular, existing relationship problems may go away.

Another useful tip to promote a good and prosperous living for the entire family, is the “pa-gua” positions. Use the “pa-gua” to tackle shortages or imperfect area in your home by literally dividing the layuout into 9 sections.

Finding a house with the perfect Feng Shui is certainly no easy task. However with such a long history and hordes of staunch believers, it is probably wise to spend a little more effort to incorporate Feng Shui into the home for the well-being for its occupants.

About the Author: Larry Lim is a Singapore-based real estate writer. He writes for iProperty Singapore and ST701 Property.

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The 7 Schools Of Feng Shui

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By Ron King

Everyone has heard of Feng Shui, but what exactly is it? Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese belief that involves the study of both the natural and the created environments. To achieve a balance between the 2 affects the energy of a room.

7 Schools Of Feng Shui

There are many different versions of Feng Shui, each influenced by culture, geography, and religion. There are 7 predominant types or schools of Feng Shui:

1. The Compass School uses the 8 trigrams of the I-Ching. They are known collectively as Pa Kua, which is based on the 8 main directions of a compass. Each direction is associated with a specific chi. For example, southern is vibrant energy.

2. The Form School, based on the landscape’s shape, uses 4 symbolic animals to identify the landscape. Easy to use, the Form School (along with the Compass School) increases chi both in and out of the home.

3. The Black Hat Sect uses a fixed entry point to determine the area. Although similar to the Compass School philosophy, it has differences. The Black Hat Sect also consists of psychology, Buddhism and basic design principles.

4. 8 Mansion School, also known as the 8 House Feng Shui, is based on the individual number of the person living in the home. That number is used to bring harmony and balance to the home. People who use this system have both lucky and unlucky numbers, with the west numbers being 2, 6, 7, and 8 and the east numbers being 1, 3, 4, and 9.

5. The 9 Star Key School uses stars to help identify lucky and unlucky days. This school of thought uses complicated math formulas to pinpoint when a person will get married and the astrological sign of the future marriage partners. It will also tell the practitioner how to live based on his house.

6. The most common form of Feng Shui, based on astrology and numerology, is the Flying Star Philosophy. Difficult to understand and learn, it is also based on mathematical principals and is used to determine a person’s fate.

7. Four Pillars, the final school of thought, is not very common. Based on astrology tied to the person’s date of birth right down to the minutes, this form of Feng Shui is also used to determine a person’s fate.

5 Elements Of Feng Shui

After determining which school of thought is best for an individual, it is important to understand the 5 elements of Feng Shui. They are: Earth, Fire, Water, Metal, and Wood. Balance and harmony can be created in a home through the use of these elements. If used incorrectly, however, the energy can be lessened or even destroyed.

Each of the 5 elements is also associated with a direction:

Earth — Southwest

Fire — South

Water — North

Metal — West

Wood — East

Beauty And Balance

In a Feng Shui home, all rooms should achieve a balance of these elements, although some items may weigh heavier than others. A chair might score 3 times more than a throw pillow, for example, because of the size difference.

Properly applied, Feng Shui brings both beauty and balance to the home or office.

About the Author: Visit http://www.fengshui4u.info to learn more. Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer, visit his website at http://www.ronxking.com Copyright 2005 Ron King. This article may be reprinted if the resource box is left intact and the links live.

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