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Men (Blokes) and Feng Shui Gardening

By Ross Lamond

Recently I’ve been talking to various people about Chi Gardening and a discussion with two blokes come to mind. Both were successful, you know the big house, boat and maybe millionaire tag and both were interested in nature and their need to connect to it.

To them connecting to nature removed them from the stresses of everyday life. One of the blokes made his money buying and doing up houses and was very concerned with good presentation. He would establish free flowing, neat and healthy gardens and modeled his homes to reflect similar characteristics and was aware of good balance throughout. The product had to have that feel good image about it.

He was inadvertently practicing Feng Shui and it did him well. Both men suggested to me there was something far more meaningful in their need to reaffirm connection to nature. One suggested it may go back to when we had no alternative but to live off the land. Way back in time to when there were no cities and towns and we were basically nomadic. Living off the land was a life or death thing, food, shelter and protection from predators forming the basic needs for survival. Maybe Darwinian traits designed to expose those weaker or unable to cope with the environmental stresses of the day. The land was their saviour and they had respect for it, and the land deeply ingrained into their persona.

Subsequently urbanisation over the centuries has displaced many and those living in cities having their genetic imprints modified to living by organisation of materials and others. Maybe the world is now poorer for encouraging that trait. We’ve become consumers of what’s produced from the land and not having a need to maintain connection to it and with nature. That assumption may explain why some social groupings have no interest in gardens and prefer the confines of towns and cities.

Yet genetically modified imprints are still strong enough within many of us to enjoy nature and natural surroundings and we do so in the knowledge that our survival isn’t dependent on it as before. Could it be males seek reconnection to nature more so than females because the instinctive bond may have been stronger in males? But this point had better be left for discussion elsewhere.

If the male bonding thing is the case, Harmonious Chi Gardening can be a man’s thing as much as a woman’s thing. The bloke visiting the garden for re-connection to nature and using gardening as a new found skill to harmonise with their surroundings. Maybe growing herbs, fruit or vegetables or providing a lawn area for the kids, maybe a place for a seat and sitting down with a cool drink. Creating places of visual appeal, functional use and enjoyment could be good therapy for true blokes.

Hopefully if Harmonious Chi Gardening offers a bloke a role in the garden it will do so because they want to connect with nature and reaffirm some instinctive urge to reach out and touch the earth. They are spiritually awakened by the association.

About the Author: I hope you enjoyed reading my article as much as I enjoyed pondering over and writing it. For more related topics and complete eBook Publications, please visit my website Feng Shui Garden – a Modern and Unique Concept to Feng Shui in the Garden and Harmonious Chi (Qi) Within Our Lives. Drop by and pick up your Free Feng Shui Ebooks Sample today!! Regards, Ross Lamond

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Using Shape in Feng Shui Gardening

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By Linda Binns

If you have taken the time to learn the basics of feng shui, you know that you need to incorporate all five elements of nature – fire, water, wood, metal, and earth – to achieve and restore balance within your living space. However, incorporating these elements in their natural states can prove a bit difficult, especially if you live in an apartment or other environment where others have a significant degree of control over what you place around your living area.

Instead of using the natural elements to balance your energy, try using the shapes associated with each element to help improve the balance in your home. Shapes can be powerful substitutes for the actual elements, if they are used in an appropriate manner. Here’s how you can represent each of the elements through shape:

Fire: This element is represented by cones, pyramids, and triangles. You can use stone or ceramic pagodas, which have pyramid-shaped tops, to represent fire in your yard. Also, you may be able to convince the owner of your apartment to let you plant small pine trees, which have conical shapes that will create a warm and vibrant atmosphere.

Water: If you can’t have fountains or ponds, consider using flowing shapes to represent water. Flags, banners, and mobiles will create the flowing shapes necessary to create water-like flowing energy. Also, you can use thing like hanging plants and wind chimes, which have downward-flowing shapes, to bring water into your environment. Water shapes will help increase the flow of positive, invigorating energy into your home space, and improve the relationships within your home.

Wood: Columns and striped objects represent wood. If you can’t use plants or trees to bring the stabilizing qualities of wood into your living space, try using striped pillows on your lawn furniture, or a bamboo fence, to create this energy. You will find that this is particularly useful for bringing balance and harmony for city living environments, where cars and motorcycles may vastly outnumber trees and shrubs.

Metal: Round, octagonal, and arched objects can bring the element of metal into your environment. Gazing balls and circular stepping stones are great for adding metal to an area of your yard. Arched trellises can also help to bring in this element to balance your home’s energy. You can use these shapes in areas where wood and earth elements are dominant to bring balance to your space.

Earth: Square and octagonal shapes can help you incorporate the element of earth into your surroundings. Square stepping stones, rectangular paving bricks, and flower boxes can all help you use shape to bring the earth element to your landscaping. This is particularly important if you live in a very urban environment where natural earth is not visible in great quantities.

As you can see, there are many representational ways you can use shape to help bring the balancing effects of the elements to your living space. Find what works for you and what is pleasing to you visually, and let that be your guide for creating a harmonious, balanced space for you and your family.

About the Author: Linda Binns shows you how to be more successful in all areas of your life by working with your environment. Sign up for her free 9-step E-course at http://www.HarmoniousLifeChoices.com.

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Feng Shui And Bonsai Power

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By Brian Worley

Why not create a corner of your garden or home to express peace and harmony by combining two ancient arts forms. Feng shui and bonsai.

Feng shui is an ancient Chinese practice as old as Chinese culture itself (believed to utilize the Laws of both heaven and earth to help one improve life by receiving positive “spiritual energy” that is part of every living thing.

Feng shui literally means “wind and water,” but this is merely shorthand for an environmental policy of “hindering the wind and hoarding the waters.”

The elements, water, rain, wind, fog and sun were believed to be the energy of heaven and earth. Therefore Feng shui is frequently translated simply as “energy flow.

Most of today’s feng shui schools teach that it is the practice of arranging objects (such as the placement of furniture) to help people achieve harmony with their environment.

By manipulating our position in our environment we can control the electro-magnetic energies that surround us

Taking all that into consideration, the origins of bonsai can also be found in the classical Chinese gardens over two thousand years ago.

These creations of carefully pruned trees and rocks are small-scale rendition of the natural landscape.

Their artistic composition captures the spirit of nature and distinguishes them from potted plants. They are often referred to as living sculptures or as three-dimensional poetry.

Chinese gardens were created in the same way as a combination of landscape and paintings together with poems – this was the so-called “poetic garden.”

The design of Chinese gardens was to provide a spiritual utopia for one to connect with nature, to come back to one’s inner heart, to come back to ancient idealism

Chinese gardens are a spiritual shelter for men, a place they could be far away from their real social lives, and close to the ancient way of life, their true selves, and nature.

By joining the two cultures, Feng shui and bonsai we can create a unique ancient corner of our garden or home to relax from the frustration and stress of our modern western world

The appeal of including bonsai into the Feng shui equation is that it offers something very practical and unique.

In other words, different trees work best with certain styles and can be placed in the position according to the energy flow of that location.

Each location and environment is different too for each bonsai, and have to be considered when choosing where to place you’re Bonsai Tree.

Many garden plants have essential symbolism. Pine trees represent wisdom and bamboo represents strength and upright morality.

Plum trees are also extremely valuable to the Chinese for their beautiful pink and white blooms during winter.

By incorporating Feng Shui and bonsia in a corner of your garden or home you can create a special place to relax and live more harmoniously with nature

The living bonsai will change from season to season and from year to year … and as time goes on it will become more and more beautiful. Enjoy

About the Author: Japanese Bonsai –
For More Information on the Art of
Growing and caring for bonsai.
Go To:- http://www.go-to1.com/bonsai

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Feng Shui Your New Years Resolutions

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By Margaret S. Mathews

Every New Year brings opportunities for change and improvement for the better of yourself and your family. Feng Shui. Evaluation, analysis and improvement are the watchwords towards blocks in your path.

All lives have blocks in their paths. The key in feng shui is to find the areas where you are being blocked. Unblock and unlock those areas so that your life can proceed in a positive fruitful manner. Life will take on a new meaning and flow. Life will begin to flow smoothly. For most people feng shui holds important information on how to remove these blocks and enhance the energy within their lives and homes so that you can improve your life’s circumstances.

Because people are very similar, we also face similar challenges. For some finances are a big concern , while for others it is relationships that elude or frustrate them and yet for others matters of health are their major concern and tantamount. Whatever your frustration, there is a feng shui remedy or answer to life’s most common – and challenging problems.

Always begin with the most standard and common blocks to successful living. What might be causing these blocks in your path of life? Next work to remove these blocks and thus improve the quality of your life and the positive contributions that your can make to your family, home life and workplace. Feng Shui.

The following areas of concern may be standing in the way of your financial wealth.

What could be standing UN your way of creating more prosperity or having more to spend or save?

First of all check your front entrance to your home. Is the front door pinched and narrow? Are there dead plants at your front or rear doors to your home? Is their a tree in line with your front door? What about your actual purse or wallet? Is it messy or disorganized? Is it full of old outdated receipts, papers and documents? Clear away past disturbances affecting your current and future life. In the same way prune your financial files of old and unnecessary papers. Ensure that the south east corners of your home – the wealth corner is not devoid of support. Add a living enhancer – such as an aquarium, terrarium or even a simple live plant.

Next step for the New Year clear away the blocks in your relationships with others. Clear away photos and mementos of old relationships from which you have moved on.

This includes of course not only photographs and drawing but old love letters and notes and unwanted gifts or other items.

It is the time of year to plan to be helpful to others in your life. Open yourself to others positively. Are there overgrown shrubs limiting your view of yourself to other potential friends in your life? Is your car so messy that is will give others the wrong impression about you? Is their pile of paper at your home or workplace that needs cleaning? Similarly are there broken items littering your direct environment.

Lastly to ensure a prosperous New Year for both yourself and people you wish to include in your relationships finish final cleaning during the first month of the New Year.

Write positive wishes for the New Year. Lastly purchase bright flowers to adorn the entrance to your home. Feng Shui.

About the Author: Margaret Mathews
morgellonsresearchfoundation@yahoo.com
http://www.fortunawebs.com
http://www.sellyourmanitobacottage.com
http://www.morgellonsresearchfoundation.com

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10 Keys To Using Color With Feng Shui

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By Cucan Pemo

For those that are looking to change their lives and want to take a fresh, organic and affordable path to that goal, Feng Shui is the answer. Feng Shui is much more than just organizing your belongings in a particular way to allow for optimal chi flow, it is an entire state of mind.

Feng Shui is much more effective if used in conjunction with other aspects of your life like positive thinking, honest living and meditation. Those aspects of your life work like a magnifying glass that helps to grow and nurture your chi so that not only can it flow freer, but it can also be more powerful.

There are even more things you can do with Feng Shui than just arrange your furniture. Since Feng Shui is so closely related to one’s well being, each color is associated with a particular mood, goal or feeling. Depending on what you are trying to achieve with your Feng Shui, whether it be wealth, health or love, there are individual colors that you want to focus on to help steer your chi in the direction you want it to go in. Here is a list of what each color means to your chi and what you can do to help it.

A few tips to start with: Not everyone likes every color, so if you feel you need to add a color to an area, but it’s not a color you’re particularly fond of, try to find a shade of that color you like, or, at the very least, find an object that you feel strongly about that is colored with the chosen color. Feng Shui will be much more effective if you have a positive reaction to everything you see in your home. Don’t add a color just to add one.

-Blue – Blue is the perfect color to use in the area in which you meditate. It has a very calming affect and it is highly associated with peace and comfort. Blue is excellent to use in a bedroom situation or a place you want to get away from it all. It’s also good in any room that you seek relaxation in on a regular basis like a den or living room.

-Red – Red represents truth and power. It is a good color to use in an area where you work. The home office or den or anyplace you do work should have at least some red in it.

-Green – Not only is green the color of money, it is also associated with health and vitality. It is the perfect color for the bathroom, or anyplace where medical supplies in your home are kept. Hang a green charm in a closet that your first aid kit is kept to help your chi there. It is also good for any room where the family gathers together, like a dining room or living room.

-Purple – As it has for thousands of years, purple is related to majesty and royalty. It works closely with red to help build wealth. It works anywhere where you would put red since wealth and fame tend to go hand in hand.

-Pink – Pink isn’t just for girls anymore, since it is a combination of red (truth and power) and white (purity), pink is highly associated with love. Great for the bedroom or any other place you and a lover are intimate.

-White – The purest color stands for just that. It is also associated with spirituality and is perfect for any children’s room or any place in your home that you look to keep morally pure and clean.

-Grey – Used for transition and connection. Most followers of Feng Shui choose grey for their garage or a vestibule area that connects the inside world to the outside. Grey is also good to use if you add an addition onto your home. You can paint or hang something grey at the line where your old home ended and your new extension begins.

-Black – Not a commonly used color, but it does work in small amounts. It usually stands for negative chi, but if used in areas that have a powerful chi component, areas that are usually painted red or purple, black can work in your favor by absorbing the bad chi and keeping the good chi pure. Don’t overdue it with black, but in small amounts it can really help out.

-Yellow – Yellow isn’t for cowards, it stands for tolerance and authority. It works well on the entry way into the parents bedroom, as well as colors for any lists of chores for kids. Anyplace you feel you need to exert the family pecking order, yellow is the color to use.

-Gold – It’s no surprise that gold is associated with wealth. Use in conjunction with purple and red to help build the wealth in your home office.

Feng Shui can seem mysterious on the surface, but once you break it down, the color system becomes clear. Once you’ve added that extra Feng Shui touch here and there, you can expect to see the results sooner rather than later.

About the Author: Learn The Ancient Art and Science of Feng Shui, http://www.tarotreadingsecrets.com/categories/Feng-Shui-Secrets Feng Shui Secrets, Feng Shui Tutorials, Feng Shui Tips and Rituals for Luck, Money, Love, and discover how to use Feng Shui to make all your wishes come true! Get your Free Feng Shui tips here! http://www.tarotreadingsecrets.com/categories/Feng-Shui-Secrets

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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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Are You Interested In Feng Shui?

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By Kevin Lloyd

In the 1980s, many people’s lives were filled with things-cars, home, vacations, stressful jobs. Then in the 1990s, something wonderful happened to many of those same people. By middle of the decade, the insatiable desire for more and more stuff began to subside. People signed up for yoga classes, books on spirituality became best-sellers, and many former yuppies realized they needed more meaning in their lives. People began to analyze everything and try to improve their lifestyles by adding a better balance.

Not surprisingly, feng shui became extremely popular around the same time. Feng shui addresses the relationship between a person and his or her environment, emphasizing harmony. This ancient Chinese philosophy is said to have been around for three thousand years. Now, the masses are more than ready for it, and it has become a commonly used term.

Crucial to feng shui is the concept of ch’i. Ch’i., in Chinese culture, is an energy that’s in everything you find in an environment. If you have good feng shui, your environment is kind of like a spring breeze–everything flows nicely. But sometimes ch’i gets stuck or depleted. Ch’i also enters and leaves through doors and windows (opened or closed). So in a room with awkward corners or furniture blocking your path, the ch’i is not good because there’s no flow.

If you want to dabble in feng shui on a budget, here are a few low-cost ideas to get you started:

– Add mirrors. Mirrors are used widely in feng shui, and if used properly, they can help your environment immensely. Mirrors should be usable by the tallest member of the family and reflect at least six inches of clear space around your head.

– Clear it out. Is there a chair that people always seem to trip over? Are there corners that are so blocked off that they are rarely vacuumed and have layers of dust weighing them down? Move things around so the air (and people) can circulate effortlessly.

– Remove clutter. Clutter makes ch’i stagnate, so haul off your piles of junk by recycling or donating items, and your reward will be even greater.

– Get even. Don’t use one candlestick or three–two or any other even number will feel better and more balanced.

– Pitch it. If it makes you sad, get rid of it. (You know, like that vase your cheating ex-boyfriend gave you or that bedspread you hate but bought because it was on sale.)

For more Apartment searching and living tips visit Memphis Apartments at http://www.MemphisApartmentstv.com and Nashville Apartments at http://www.NashvilleApartmentstv.com.

About the Author: Kevin Lloyd writes Apartment searching and living tips about Memphis Apartments
Memphis Apartments at http://www.MemphisApartmentstv.com and Nashville Apartments
at http://www.NashvilleApartmentstv.com

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What Is Feng Shui?

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By Lorraine Simpson

Feng Shui means “Wind and Water” – literally it refers to the topography of our planet and the way these forces of nature have shaped our landscape. It is a mystical practice blending ancient Chinese wisdom dating back at least 4000 years with cultural superstitions. This wisdom lays down guidelines for identifying and establishing favourable and unfavourable land sites and provides instructions on designing home layouts to dramatically enhance quality of life.

In the home Feng Shui features create harmonious relationships between partners, between parents and children, promotes good health and prosperity. In the workplace good Feng Shui creates opportunities for growth, attracts customers, increases profits and elevates prestige. An aura of goodwill pervades promoting good working relationships.

Good Feng Shui exists when the winds and water surrounding your home or workplace are well-balanced. Bad Feng Shui brings disasters, accidents, illness, lost opportunities and damaged reputations. Most of all bad Feng Shui causes unhappiness.

Feng Shui promotes living in harmony with the earth and it’s energies. It contends that the environment is full of powerful invisible energy lines, usually referred to as Sheng Chi – the Dragon’s Cosmic Breath. Some of these lines are auspicious while others are hostile. Feng Shui dictates ways of arranging you living or work space so that these energy lines create harmony rather than discord. The energy lines are harnessed to ensure they travel gently through the home and then gather and settle to bring good fortune. Inauspicious energy lines, Shar Chi, represent the killing breath. Feng Shui strongly warns against living or working in places hit by these hostile energy lines.

While the theory of Feng Shui is based on the Chinese view of the Universe the fundamentals are easily understood and applied. It’s laws relate to basic concepts of harmony and balance in the environment. There are two major schools of thought in Feng Shui; the Form School which diagnoses balance in terms of the shape and form of the terrain and the Compass School which takes a more precise view and uses the Luo Pan Compass extensively. Both schools of thought are equally important and both should be used to get the best from Feng Shui.

At it’s most basic Feng Shui is about the balance of opposites described as the Yin and the Yang – terms that most of us are now familiar with. According to Chinese wisdom all things are either the female Yin or the male Yang. Together these opposites make up the Universe and give each other meaning. One cannot exist without the other, for example without the Yin of darkness there cannot be the light of Yang. Feng Shui always includes an analysis of surroundings. Rooms that are too Yin lack sufficient energies to bring prosperity. Rooms that are too Yang have too much energy causing accidents and misfortune. A home must have balanced Yin and Yang to be auspicious and will be even more so if there is balanced Yin and Yang outside the home as well.

Buildings built too near hospitals, abattoirs, graveyards or prisons are too Yin because of the associations with death these places have. Also places of worship (churches, mosques, temples) give out too much Yin because of the mourning rituals associated with them. Rooms that have little sunlight or that are decorated in blue or grey, narrow or cramped rooms or rooms which have been occupied by a long time by a sick person have too much Yin.

Buildings constantly exposed to bright sunlight or heat, too near an electrical transmitter or large factory chimneys are too Yang. Rooms which have constant noise and that are painted in bright red, orange or yellow are too Yang.

A room should have elements of both Yin and Yang but never too much of one or the other. Black and white colour schemes are an example of Yin and Yang harmony but sounds and activity are also important. A silent room is too Yin, a noisy one too Yang. Remember that Feng Shui is a subtle blend of complimentary opposite energies and that is what you should strive to create.

About the Author: By Lorraine Simpson,Director,Fifth Ace Ltd.
http://www.cleoscaveonline.com
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