Troubleshoot Your Life with Our Feng Shui Cheat Sheet

Guest User April 14, 2021

Anjie Cho was featured on Greatist

If you’re craving a home refresh, there’s a simple low or no cost way to go about it. It’s called feng shui.

Feng shui translates to wind and water, respectively. The ancient Chinese philosophy revolves around the careful arranging of objects across our homes.

Pull it off, and you’ll channel good energy call “qi” (aka “chi” or life force). On the other hand, cluttered, unorganized homes with poor flow can have negative effects on health, wellness, relationships, and even our wallets.

So, by applying the principles of feng shui to your home, you can improve energy within the spaces, which flow into your life as well. You can think of feng shui as applying mindfulness to your home.

“We’ve become so accustomed to the status quo in our homes,” explains Anjie Cho, owner of Holistic Spaces.

“But even little things like a hard-to-open door or a cluttered entryway, add a little level of difficulty and frustration that trickle into other areas of our lives,” she says. “Your space should support you. Feng shui can help remove physical barriers to help you feel more nourished by your surroundings.”

Getting caught up all on the details can be stressful, and Cho advises against that. Since the principles can be both specific and broad, she’s sharing some of her best tips for tackling the tricky, small spaces in your home that can have the biggest impact.

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

Q&A Sunday: Feng Shui for Spring

Guest User April 11, 2021

Do you have any feng shui tips for spring?

This is very timely since we’re welcoming spring in the Northern Hemisphere, where I’m located!

There is actually an area of the feng shui bagua map that’s related to springtime: the Family or New Beginnings area, called Zhen in Chinese.

Zhen is connected to new beginnings of any kind, family matters, as well as the season and energy of spring. It’s represented by the colors blue and green, the number three, and tall, columnar shapes (like the trunk of a tree). It’s also related to the element of yang wood. To get a sense of yang wood energy, imagine a new blade of grass pushing out of the soil.

In winter, our focus is more interior and we often don’t go out a lot. In spring, we start to come out of our shells a bit more. You can visualize the energy of a sprout pushing through a seed’s shell. Another way to imagine this is a butterfly coming out of its chrysalis. It has transformed inside the chrysalis, and is now ready to emerge in its new state. This is the type of energy we’re welcoming in the spring.

This is also part of the energy of Zhen position. Zhen is a great area to activate in your home if you have trouble starting new things, if you want support in starting a new project, or if you want to invite more harmony in your family.

When I teach my students, we work with something called the Nine Star Path, which starts with the number three. Three represents new beginnings. One and two are the parents, and three is the child, the number of creation and creativity.

If you’re new to feng shui, or if you want to reset your home, you can activate this area by placing something with intention in Zhen position. This can be a green plant, a water fountain, a crystal, or anything that resonates with you and represents new beginnings.

I hope you all have a beautiful beginning to the spring!

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

This Feng Shui Expert Explains How Small Changes Can Make Your Home a Better Place to Live

Guest User April 7, 2021

Anjie Cho was featured on Health

What made you want to explore feng shui?

I studied architecture in college and worked at architect firms in New York City for years. But in my late 20s, I started feeling really unhappy and depressed, like there was something more to life than working nine-to-nine every day. In 2006, my friend and I took a trip to Thailand and were eating in a restaurant in Chiang Mai when a Reiki master offered us a session. I remember crying the whole time—releasing a lot of emotion. When I got back to New York, I started practicing yoga and meditating, and I realized that I needed to bring this spiritual practice into other aspects of my life, including my work. The first thing that came to mind was feng shui. So when I got laid off in the 2008–09 recession, I decided to jump in, study feng shui full-time, and start a business.

How would you explain feng shui in layman's terms?

It's an ancient Asian practice that I describe as the mindfulness of spaces. It's not just about moving furniture but about changing the energy around the furniture, too. In paying attention to all the details of your environment, you'll start to realize that you're all interconnected. And when you recognize that your space is a part of you and affects you, you can use feng shui to set up your home so that it supports and nourishes you, rather than drains and blocks you.

.…read full article

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