Feng Shui for Autumn

Guest User November 10, 2021

We’re well into fall here in the Northern Hemisphere, when the weather gets cooler and things start to die away. The leaves on trees start to change color and fall, and things start to get slower as we wind down for the holidays. During this season, we also have more yin time. Yang energy is related to the sunshine, while yin energy is related to nighttime and darkness. During the fall and winter, we have more dark hours of the day and less sunlight.

At its core, feng shui is really about connecting to the cycles of nature. Applying feng shui principles can be a way to engage with these cycles and the changing seasons in our homes and our lives. If you want to really embrace this time of year, here are a few ways you can do this using feng shui principles.

The metal element

First, you can work with the metal element, which is related to autumn. Metal also gives way to water, which is connected to the season of winter that we’ll be moving into next. One way to embrace the metal element is just to understand that we are moving into a time where things are falling away, and that it’s okay to let go of things. It’s okay to be going through a transition. The metal element has the feeling of a sword or scissors cutting through something. What do you need to cut through? What do you need to let go of that is no longer serving you? Once you’ve done some reflection on this, take action. Metal is about movement and taking steps to move things forward, not staying still. It’s also about contraction and becoming more compact. Think of an acorn: it has all the energy and wisdom of an oak tree, but in a smaller package.

Protect your neck

My acupuncturist always tells me to protect the back of my neck during this time of year as it’s getting colder. It’s a good idea to protect this part of your body from the wind. There’s actually an area of the feng shui bagua that’s related to your neck and head, and it’s usually near the front door. To support this part of your body and your home, make sure you have extra protection from wind and drafts.

Accept sadness

With the change in seasons, some people start to feel more sad. The metal element is connected to sadness as well. If this resonates with you, I would encourage you to recognize that it’s okay to feel sad. If there were never any sadness, you would also never feel any joy. It’s a part of life. It’s not about trying to eradicate sadness, because there is always sadness in the world. Begin to embrace all parts of you, including the sad parts.

If you are feeling very low and sad because of the waning light, there are a few practical things that you can do. You might want to bring in more full-spectrum lights to use during the day, and go out in the sun more. You can also look at how things are placed in your home. Is your bed or the artwork in your home placed especially low? If your mood feels low, and especially if you have a tendency towards depression, you might want to pay attention to this, and maybe take some time to lift the qi of your home. You might want to get a taller bed frame, or add a box spring or lifts for your bed. You also might want to carefully rehang one or more pieces of art. Take it off the wall, dust it, and place it even just an inch higher to lift your qi and raise your spirits.

I hope these tips help you to welcome autumn!

by Anjie Cho

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

Feng Shui and Sadness

Guest User October 20, 2021

We’re moving into autumn now in the northern hemisphere, which is related to the element of metal. Autumn is also related to death and things dying away as well; think about how trees shed their leaves at this time of year. While I was hesitant to talk about this on the blog, I think it’s important to recognize that not everything is all about joy and happiness and making lots of money. There are really so many aspects to feng shui practice and philosophy, and also to dharma. I also study meditation and Buddhism, and feng shui and spirituality are very interconnected.

Sadness is a part of life too, and it’s important to find a balance between yin and yang. This is something I’ve been working with personally. I think during this global pandemic we’ve all been hoping for things to stay the same or go back to how they were, and there’s an aspect of sadness to it.

I’ve been reading a lot by Chögyam Trungpa recently, who is the teacher of my dharma teachers. One of the things he wrote is a really wonderful book called Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior. Something that’s been resonating with me a lot is connecting to tenderness and sadness, which I think a lot of people don’t like to talk about. In this book, Chögyam Trungpa asks us: “How much have you connected with yourself at all in your whole life?” I would add to that: “How much have you connected with your home, your family, and all of the people in your life?” Feng shui is really about beginning to look at those details in your environment and your home, and seeing how you and your home are connected.

That’s also what the practice of meditation is about. It’s about connecting with yourself and spending time with yourself. When you do this, you may start to see that your home is empty, or that your heart is empty. With this feeling of autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s also a poignancy and a crispness in the air. We’re starting to say goodbye to summer and to the year, and there’s a feeling of endings. Just like we talk about people entering the autumn of their lives, there is also an autumn to every moment, every year, and every joy that we feel. There’s always a cycle of endings and beginnings, and we have to recognize that our lives go through transitions.

I could talk about how you could bring more joy into your home, but really I think the best way to start to do that is to include the experience of sadness and things falling away in your home as well. That might mean recognizing that it’s time to let go of a plant that isn’t doing well, trim some leaves that are no longer healthy, or change the summer bedding to the warmer bedding. We can begin to realize that things are always shifting around us, and what really leads to true joy is knowing that joy is connected to tenderness and sadness. We can see all these cycles happen in the environment around us, and then we can begin to work with them and have compassion for them in our daily lives, our spaces, and our interactions with other people. We begin to see that we’re interconnected and interdependent with our homes, our environments, the people in our lives, and all living beings.

Instead of looking at feng shui as a way to always try to make things happier, I hope that you include these feelings of sadness that may come up as part of your feng shui experience. Know that happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin, like yin and yang. I would encourage you to look at the details in your home as a metaphor for how things are going in your life, and to recognize and accept what is coming up.

by Anjie Cho

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

Sweater Weather & Feng Shui

Guest User October 7, 2020

In feng shui, we work with the five elements. Each element is related to a season, and the season of fall is connected to the metal element. Metal is also connected to metallic colors, white, circular shapes, and the bagua areas of benefactors and competition. It has the qualities of righteousness, contraction, and joy.

The five elements also work together in cycles of creation and desctruction, just like they do in nature. In feng shui, metal creates water. Think of drops of water condensing on a metal pipe. Metal also overcomes wood - think of a metal ax chopping a tree.

As we move into metal season, we can find that our metal qualities are more pronounced. Too much metal can look like being very rigid or overly focused on efficiency, speeding through things, or talking a lot without thinking. We’re all susceptible to these things, though it may be especially noticeable for people who naturally have a lot of metal energy to begin with.

If you do have an overabundance of metal, add water to deplete metal, or fire to melt and refine metal. To add more water, you can walk near bodies of water, wear black, or have undulating shapes around you. To add fire, add the color red, triangular shapes, or candles to your home.

It’s also possible to not have enough metal. If this is the case, you probably don’t talk enough and may have a hard time standing up for yourself. You can correct this imbalance by wearing white, bringing white or circular shapes into your decor, or adding metal objects, like wind chimes, to your home. You can also add more earth, which produces metal, by bringing in earthy colors or objects from the earth like natural crystals.

When metal is in balance, you are able to speak for yourself and what is right, appropriately and with thoughtful clarity and certainty. Metal also helps us to be more efficient and attract helpful people into our lives.

Do you feel that you have too much or too little metal in your life? What steps could you take to bring things back into balance?

by Anjie Cho