Feng Shui for a Small Home

Guest User December 15, 2021

Have you ever wondered how to use feng shui in your small space? Even if you live in a tiny studio apartment, there are still ways that you can apply feng shui principles.

If you do live in a small home, I invite you to consider the metaphor of a plant. I used to live in a really small home, and I got a plant at the time that only had two very small leaves. Now, that plant has grown into a much bigger plant, and I’ve also taken many cuttings from it that have rooted and become bigger plants as well.

In feng shui, plants represent the wood element, which is about growth and generosity. Instead of thinking about how small your space is and coming from a place of lack, think about what you can cultivate in the space you do have. In life we have the opportunity to grow and cultivate and receive the gifts that the universe has for us. Then, you can also create many gifts to share with other people.

One way you can apply this concept in a small space is to actually find a tiny plant and bring it into your home. Learn how to take care of this tiny plant, and watch it grow. Once it gets bigger you can be generous, and create cuttings to give to other people.

You can also find a friend who you believe really exemplifies generosity, prosperity, abundance, and authentic kindness, and tell them that you admire and appreciate these qualities in them. If they have houseplants or a garden, you can also ask if they would be willing to give you a cutting of a plant. This cutting that you receive from your friend can be the tiny plant that you learn to cultivate in your home, and then share generously. In feng shui, we talk about the concept of qi, which is life force energy. When you receive a cutting from someone who genuinely embodies the qualities that you aspire to, that energy will also be in the cutting, and you can start to cultivate those qualities in your own life.

Make sure you start with a plant that you have the ability to accommodate in the space that you have. This goes for everyone, even if your space isn’t small. It’s important to do your research and make sure that the plants you bring into your space will be able to thrive in your home’s conditions. Then, take the time to learn how to take care of this other living thing, and see how you can start to cultivate your generosity, your qi, and the qualities that you admire in your friend, in your own way.

by Anjie Cho

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, Color, and the Bagua Map

Guest User October 17, 2021

I’d love to learn more about using color in feng shui.

This is a popular topic! Laura and I actually just recorded a whole podcast episode about feng shui and color. I’ll share a few ideas about this here, and if you want to dive deeper, I would encourage you to check out the episode.

One way to approach feng shui and color is to look at how colors relate to the bagua map. The bagua map, in case you aren’t familiar, is a kind of energetic map that feng shui practitioners lay over a space. It has eight areas around a center.

Something that I noticed recently is the connection between the center of a flower and the center of the bagua. The bagua is a mandala, just like a flower can be. The center of the bagua, called the Tai qi, is yellow, which is often true for the center of flowers as well. In feng shui, yellow represents the earth element. Earth is connected to stability and feeling grounded, and the center of the bagua affects all of the areas that surround it.

One of the most popular areas of the bagua is the purple area, or the abundance area. It’s called Xun position in Chinese. In addition to abundance, it’s related to the eldest daughter and your feelings of wealth and prosperity, which go beyond financial wealth. It’s also about having a feeling of abundance, a feeling of enough. It’s the opposite of a poverty mentality. Xun is also deeply related to self-esteem and self-worth.

Purple is also the combination of red, which is the fire element, and blue, which is the wood element. (There’s a misconception that blue is the water element, but it actually represents wood in BTB feng shui.) Purple brings together the kindness, flexibility and growth of wood with the inspiration, passion, and protection of fire. This makes purple a wonderful color to work with in your home, if these ideas resonate with you. Some easy ways to incorporate purple into your home are through small decor accents, like a throw pillow or blanket.

Sometimes people think that you need to paint a whole room the color that corresponds to the feng shui bagua map. The way that I teach my students at Mindful Design Feng Shui School is to realize that you don’t want to activate every single area of the bagua map. Not only is it unnecessary, but the I Ching, which is one of the foundations of feng shui, teaches that there’s no such thing as perfection. Everything is always in transition and always moving. If you try to make everything perfect, the only place to go from there is down, so aiming for perfection will actually work against you. Painting your walls according to the bagua map is also not the most skillful way to work with this tool, and it probably won’t work very well from a design perspective.

Another way to work with feng shui and color is to make your own art and explore different shades of a color. If you want to work with purple, for example, it’s really fun to get a watercolor palette and create purple with red (fire) and blue (wood), and see how these work together. Make it a fun, exploratory activity, and see how that correlates with your feelings of abundance. Once you’ve made some purple art, you might want to place it in the abundance area of your bedroom.

I hope that helps you as you’re thinking about feng shui and color, and if you want to learn more, be sure to listen to the podcast!

by Anjie Cho

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

Q&A Sunday: Purple Flowers for Abundance

Guest User August 1, 2021

Do you have any tips to bring in more abundance?

I get a lot of questions about abundance and prosperity, so I have several posts on this topic - you can read a few of them here, here, and here. I’ll also share another tip for abundance that I love: purple flowers!

On the feng shui bagua, there is an area connected to wealth and abundance, also called Xun. In addition to material wealth, it’s also connected to the feeling of abundance in other areas of your life. It’s also related to the color purple.

If you want to bring in more wealth and abundance, try bringing some purple flowers into your home. If you want, you can even place them in Xun position of your home or bedroom. You can get fresh cut purple flowers in a vase, or a houseplant with purple flowers, like African violet. I have an African violet plant that was only about two leaves a few months ago, and now it’s grown into such a beautiful, luscious plant! Watching a plant grow like this teaches you that the world and nature are generous and abundant. It also teaches you that you have the ability to cultivate whatever it is that you need; all the wisdom is within you.

If you’re wanting to welcome more abundance into your life, I encourage you to bring some purple flowers into your home!

by Anjie Cho