Q&A Sunday: Broken Dishes in the Kitchen

Guest User January 31, 2021

I have a lot of broken dishes in my kitchen. They’re still usable, but some have big chips in them. Is that bad?

In feng shui, your kitchen represents your nourishment, how well you do in the world, and your resources, so it’s an important place to pay attention to.

It’s also one of the most popular areas for people to work on in their homes. I do home renovations, and people spend a lot of time and money improving and updating their kitchens. We also spend a lot of time and energy cooking for ourselves and our families in the kitchen, and that translates to health and wellbeing. How we nourish ourselves also reflects on how well we can do in the world.

While I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily “bad” to have broken items in your home, it is certainly something to take note of. If you do have broken or chipped dishes or other items, that can represent some kind of broken energy, or difficulty and challenges. I invite you to repair or replace those items if you can, and I also understand that it’s not always possible to do this. You have to do the best you can with what you have, and because I’m not working with you directly, you have to be the judge and use your own intelligence and intuition to determine what is right for you.

In general, though, if you have a kitchen full of broken things that are no longer serving you, what does that say about how you care for your health and your inner environment? As I’ve said before, your inner environment and your outer environment reflect each other. Are there any broken dishes you could let go of in your kitchen?

If there’s an item in your kitchen that you absolutely love and cherish, find a way to repair it. One good example is the Japanese practice of Kintsugi, which is a way to use precious metal like gold to repair broken pottery. This makes it into something precious, rather than something damaged or fragile. Again, think about what your kitchen represents: we want to have a lot of strength and support when it comes to our health, rather than things being broken or in disrepair.

I invite you to take a look at what you can let go of in your kitchen in terms of broken or damaged items, take the time to repair any items that you really love, and begin to open up more opportunities for health, support, resources, and strength.

by Anjie Cho

Thanks for reading our "Q&A Sunday". If you have personal questions, we encourage you to check out Practical Feng Shui or hire one of Anjie's Grads.

If you’d like to learn more about feng shui, check out Mindful Design Feng Shui School at: www.mindfuldesignschool.com

Your Sudden Urge to Clean House Is Telling You Something

Guest User January 27, 2021

Anjie Cho was featured on Forge

Have you found yourself overtaken by a sudden urge to clean and reorganize every inch of your living space?

If the fresh-start feeling of the election results has you newly energized to change up your space, you’re not alone. At least according to Twitter, that mood is in the air.

If you’re stress-cleaning, you’re not alone there, either: Studies have linked “ritualized behaviors” like meticulous cleaning to periods of heightened anxiety. And, well, there’s been a fair bit of that going around lately.

So, where to begin?

Assess the stuff taking up your space

Reassess your environment, on a macro level, by looking at the objects within it. “The items we surround ourselves with carry weight,” says Anjie Cho, a New York City-based architect and feng shui practitioner. That doesn’t mean physical weight. Objects, Cho explains, are sometimes imbued with memory and purpose — a gift from an ex, or a 1,000-piece puzzle that you bought with the best intentions in March — that may no longer serve you or may be affecting your mental wellness in harmful ways.

…read full article

If you’d like to learn more about feng shui, check out Mindful Design Feng Shui School at: www.mindfuldesignschool.com

Q&A Sunday: Kickstarting a New Beginning, Energetically and Spiritually

Anjie Cho January 24, 2021

My family and I are moving into a new home, and I am looking to start it on the right path. Our current home, in my feeling, has not brought good energy, and life here has been a bit tough spiritually. I am looking to restart our life in the right direction for my children and for my husband and I.

Yuliya O., Arlington, VA

Dear Yuliya:

Congratulations on your new home! And how wonderful that you want to restart on a positive path for your family. It was brave of you to leave a home that was not supportive energetically and spiritually. Working with my clients on their homes and work spaces, I know just how important it is to have environments that nurture and nourish you. It’s really quite essential. I want to share a quote I recently re-read that sums things up exactly!

“Implicit in an understanding of the mind-body connection is an assumption that physical places that set the mind at ease can contribute to well-being, and those that trouble the emotions might foster illness”

— Esther Sternberg, Healing Spaces

This is really the first step, to realize the mind-body-space connection! I think that already by leaving your home you have embarked on a new beginning. So kudos!

In addition, I wanted to share some feng shui tips for creating a new path for your life, at any time. You don’t need to move into a new home to use these tips. There is an area of the feng shui bagua map called New Beginnings, which is also related to family and spring. I think this is a wonderful area to activate to kick start your fresh beginning. You can place a new green house plant or a water feature in this area of your entire home.

A green plant promotes growth and kindness and adds more positive life energy. A water feature adds water that feeds wood, because this area of the bagua is wood. Water feeds wood and allows it to flourish and grow. Another bonus is that this area is related to family, so by working with the New Beginnings area you can also support harmony in your family.

We also have a slew of posts you can check out that give other feng shui tips for moving into a new home!

There are so many ways, big and small, to build a fresh, positive start in a new home with feng shui, from the way you arrange your furniture to the colors you use in each room and more. As always, the intention behind your adjustments and choices will be the most important part, and since you're already making such a big change to seek a new start for your family, I'd say you're already on the right track!

by Anjie Cho