Feng Shui Rules, Tips, & Meanings

As you move forward with New Year goals and action plans, keep in mind that Chinese New Year is arrives with the new moon on January 26th, 2009. These next few weeks are a wonderful opportunity for getting your physical space in order. Here's a reprinted article from a past FFS newsletter with tips on preparing your home for the Lunar New Year.

One of the things I like best about Chinese New Year is that it provides a second chance to catch up on all those things we meant to get done before the Jan. 1 New Year, but didn't quite get to. And, for those who have slipped a little on their New Year's Resolutions, it's an opportunity to refocus.

Traditional Chinese New Year celebrations focus on home and family, and on ensuring that the New Year will bring lots of good luck. Much of this activity centers on thorough house cleaning to clear out old energy and make way for the new. In the Chinese Lunar Calendar, the New Year marks the start of Spring, so it's a good time for "spring cleaning" even if the weather is still wintry in your part of the world.

If you don't have time to clean and de-clutter your entire home before the lunar New Year, concentrate on your kitchen. A clean, food-filled kitchen is the center of family life and a symbol of health and prosperity, so it is especially auspicious for the New Year. Here are some key things you can do:

- Clean out your refrigerator and freezer. Toss anything ancient, mysterious, or "iffy," and refill or replace anything that's less than half-full (such as condiment bottles and jars). Defrost the freezer and get the inside of the fridge sparkling clean.

- Clean off the outside of the refrigerator, too. If your fridge is covered with magnets, photos, take-out menus and grocery lists, clear them all off to create a clean slate (you can put any necessary ones back after the New Year).

- Declutter your pantry shelves, and use or toss anything that's been in there for months. Wipe down the shelves and clean the cabinet doors.

- Clean your oven and stovetop, and replace burner pan liners if they're no longer shiny and new-looking.

- Replace worn and/or grubby oven mitts and dish towels with new ones.

- Get out a broom and thoroughly sweep the kitchen, and then from the kitchen out the nearest door. This symbolically sweeps out the old energy and any lingering not-so-good luck, to make room for better luck to come in with the New Year. On January 26th, make sure your broom is hidden away in a closet out of sight, and don't do any sweeping on that day. This will ensure that all the new luck (especially money luck!) that comes into your home with the New Year stays in the home and is not swept back out.

- Do a big grocery shop a day or two before the New Year, so your fridge and pantry will be filled with bounty when the New Year arrives. Make sure any canisters (flour, sugar, rice, etc.) are full.

- Buy nine of the biggest, most perfect oranges you can find, and place them in a bowl on the kitchen counter or in the center of the kitchen table. Or, on New Year's day, roll the oranges one by one through your front door to symbolize luck coming in to fill your house. Then gather up the oranges and place them in a bowl in your kitchen or living room.

- Prepare some of your family's favorite foods the day before, to serve on New Year's Day. Plan ahead, because using sharp knives on New Year's Day is thought to bring bad luck, instead of good! (This is more superstitious than symbolic, but it does mean you can enjoy a good meal with the prep-work already done.)

If welcoming in greater prosperity is high on your wish list, add these steps to your New Year preparations:

- Pay all your current bills before January 26th this year, and pay off as much as possible of any debts you may have. Even a small additional payment on a credit card bill symbolizes your strong intention to prosper and become debt-free in the New Year.

- A day or so before New Year, stop by the bank or ATM and withdraw an amount of cash that's more than you usually carry around, so you enter the New Year with a fat wallet. If money's tight, fill your wallet with one-dollar bills and your change purse with pennies. Having many pieces of money around for the New Year is more important than how much it adds up to.

- In addition to the nine oranges mentioned above, place more bowls of fruit and nuts around your home and in your office, as symbols of abundance.

- Buy a new red garment and wear it on New Year's Day. You don't have to dress from head to toe in red, so long as you wear something red and new - even a small accessory will do, if that's all you can afford.

Remember that Chinese New Year is a time to celebrate family. Even if you don't bother with any of these preparations, it's a good time to pick up the phone and call your friends and loved ones to let them know they are important to you.

Wishing everyone a wonderful and joyous 2009,
Stephanie R.

Q: In my present home the stove is facing the dishwasher, which I only use a few times a year. It this the same as the sink facing the stove?

A: A dishwasher that you rarely use is much less of an issue than the kitchen sink, even if it is directly across from the stove. Yes, there’s water involved, but when in use that water is not only fully contained (vs. an open sink), but is swirling and swishing around quite vigorously during the wash cycle so there’s an active quality to the energy compared to the more draining effect of a sink.

Stephanie

Q: I am considering moving into a new place that has some Feng Shui challenges. First, the position of the bathroom is in the Family/Health bagua location. I worry that this would be a problem because I have some minor health problems and a very old sick doggie. I don't want to make things worse. [here a list of other minor issues was edited out--SR]

Do you think there are too many challenges for me to tackle if I decide to move here? I am pretty happy at my present place except for my annoying neighbors upstairs. I would really appreciate your response. I have written to you before and your answers have always been very helpful.

A: If you stay put until you can find a place with fantastic feng shui you will probably never get out of where you are now. Some feng shui issues are more difficult than others, but all of our homes have bathrooms somewhere (hooray for indoor plumbing!), plus all kinds of other stuff going on like poorly placed stairs, inconvenient doors and windows, beams of one kind or another, missing corners where you'd rather have an extension: the list goes on and on and on. EVERY place has feng shui issues of some kind: that's why there are so many different ways to correct, deflect, diffuse, or remedy them all.

If you love the new place in spite of a few feng shui challenges, and feel that you will be happy and comfortable there, go for it and plan to remedy/correct what you can.

Hopes this helps you make a decision you’ll feel comfortable with.

Stephanie R.

Q: I have a question about drains. I live in a condo complex and all along the pathway to my apartment there are drains and one of those drain sits in front of my front door. Does this affect the chi coming into my home? And if it does how do I remedy it? Thank you!

A: The drains won’t affect the chi that comes into your home, but they could be “draining off” some energy before it gets to your door. But that doesn't mean it's something that you can or should fix: the drains are not part of your individual unit or under your control, and are providing the very valuable service of keeping the walkway in front of your unit from flooding.

Pooling water in front of your unit would be just as bad (or worse) than a drain that's there for good reason. My advise is to not to worry so much about factors that are beyond your control, and to focus instead on making the feng shui within your unit as good as possible.

Stephanie

Q: When you enter my flat, there's a center hallway that leads to a bathroom. The bathroom door faces the main door. I do have a feeling this might be causing the financial problems we are facing. Nothing seems to be working out to better our finances or help me find a new job. We'll be really grateful for any cure you can suggest.

A: If your bathroom is directly opposite the door, at the end of a hallway in the center of your home, it is in the Fame/Reputation gua, not your Weatlh or Career areas. That could affect how others perceive you, which would be a factor when applying for a job, for example. While you might wish to address that (suggestions follow), I doubt it's the underlying cause of work/wealth problems. See this post for why I think feng shui bathroom phobia is often an overreaction.

Decorating your bathroom with greens, purples, reds, and some living plants, if possible, will help create a space more “friendly” to the Fire element associated with Fame and reputation.

Keep in mind that chi goes where your attention goes. If you are concerned about the bathroom placement, the first and easiest solution is to keep the door closed or just a little ajar so you don't see into the bathroom when you enter your home. Look for opportunities to place something to attract your attention away from the bathroom as you enter the apartment. For example, if space allows, you might place a console table and attractive floral arrangement (artificial flowers okay) or lamp (on a timer, so it's lit when you come home in the evening) in the foyer, or hang a beautiful tapestry or fabric panel, or an art poster, somewhere along the hallway or even on the bathroom door to catch your eye.

A faceted crystal ball halfway down the hall, or chandelier-style light fixture in the foyer or hall will also help to divert chi from the bathroom.

Although a large mirror is often recommended for the outside of the bathroom door, I would not recommend it in your case because it will visually double the length of the hallway, which will encourage chi to move too quickly in that direction.

Don't forget to examine your wealth and career areas as well: any feng shui problems in those areas will have a more direct impact on your job/money issues than the bathroom.

Hope this helps clarify things for you,
Stephanie R.

Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left) before sending me a question. Do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it will be several days (often longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.

Q: My new office is brightly lit and a corner lcoation, at the end of a long hallway. The office is small and the only way to place the desk is facing the door with my back to a wall that is all window. The location is great for me because I can see all of the comings and goings of the general office, but I understand that such direct chi flow can be overwhelming. I read that a crystal ball is helpful in adjusting this energy. Are there other adjustments that can be made to make this energy positive for my business?

A: What you want to do in a situation such as this is interrupt or deflect some of the incoming chi, so it isn’t such a strong influence. Some chi flow into your office is a good thing, and, as you’ve noticed. there may be advantages to the location (awareness of what’s going on in the larger space). It’s the too much, too fast aspect of the chi that can be overwhelming.

Also, because there’s that large window behind you, all the chi coming in may be moving right on through unless you keep blinds drawn most of the time, and that could drain your energy.

Faceted crystals are an excellent remedy for both aspects of the problem. They diffuse the chi coming down that hallway and scatter it in a multitude of directions. You still benefit from the incoming chi, but it’s now spread out more around the office in a softer way.

Although faceted crystal balls are most often recommended as the feng shui remedy for this type of situation, a Swarovski crystal figurine can be just as effective, and is the more subtle choice for an office location. Place it on your desk between you and the door. If anyone comments on it, you don’t have to get into the feng shui significance: just say “it was a gift,” and leave it at that.

You might also see if you can put a large potted plant (“lifelike” artificial is okay) in front of that large window. I think every office can benefit from the introduction of some 'natural' energy (even if the plant is a silk one), and by creating an interior focal point it will help keep your energy and attention from going out the window.

Wishing you great success in your new office,
Stephanie R.

I ran across this article today and thought it was so perfect for so many of us. I want to share it with you all: 10 Simple Ways to Live a Less Stressful Life Stress is a major problem for many people — a hectic, stressful job, a chaotic home life, bills to worry about, and [...]

Master Larry Sang has calculated the Chinese Astrology and Feng Shui for 2009. Part I of the book has the predictions for the 12 solar months of 2009 for the 12 animals. Each animal has indications for each month. Part II has the Feng Shui predictions for 2009 based on each of the 9 sections. [...]

The Mind Movies Creation Kit is a software package and tutorials that guide you through creating a completely customized slideshow of words (your personal affirmations) and images to illustrate your goals and desires.

In other words, it’s an animated collage of words and images that you create to specifically reflect your wishes and dreams. Those of you who’ve been reading my books and blog for a while know what a huge fan I am of creating a collage to reflect your feng shui goals. Mind Movies are even better, because by including movement and sound (use any song you like for your soundtrack!) it works on even more levels than a paper collage. And, because it’s in video-clip format on your computer, you can watch it anytime you want.

Is that awesome, or what!?

You have total freedom to create whatever word slides you want, and to include any images you want. Then, you set it to the music of your choice and define how you want each slide to look. You have total control over the transition style between slides, as well as pan, zoom, and rotate functions.

The tutorials are extremely detailed and easy to follow and creating a Mind Movie of your own is incredibly quick and easy (so easy, in fact, that I skipped most of the tutorials and didn't have any problems). You can easily spend several happy hours doing your photo research online and tweaking your pan/zoom/rotate settings for each image; that's the only part that takes any time at all and it’s loads of fun. Putting the pieces together into your customized video-clip is a snap!

Once your Mind Movie is done, watch it several times a day and watch how your overall mood and attitude stay bright and positive.

OUR PROSPERITY MIND MOVIE

Although I highly recommend making a “Feng Shui Mind Movie” that covers your hopes and objectives for all the areas of the ba gua (I’m creating one for myself), you can do whatever you want with the program.

With all the economic doom-and-gloom in the media the past few weeks, my husband and I have found it a little challenging lately to keep our thoughts, attitudes, and expectations about money matters and future income as optimistic as we like them to be. So, we decided to make a short Prosperity Mind Movie that we can watch any time we feel a need to boost our “money vibe.”

We had a blast putting it together, and every time we get another “oh no, the country's heading for a recession” email, or see scary financial headlines in the papers, we click on our Prosperity Mind Movie and in less than two minutes are smiling and feeling great about our financial future.

In fact, ever since we made a first rough-cut of this Mind Movie last week, our online sales -- which had taken a bit of a hit when all the financial “bad news” started dominating the headlines -- bounced right back up and have stayed strong. How great is that!

We’ve posted our Prosperity Mind Movie on our AllAboutProsperity website, so you can watch it here:

To find out more about making a Mind Movie of your own click here, to watch a video interview with program creator Ryan Higgins.

TIP #1: Your Mind Movie will be even more powerful if you include pictures of yourself in it. (Ours does, but not in the version you’re seeing. My husband is a very private person, and wanted to keep the version with our pictures in just for ourselves.)

TIP #2: Pick peppy, happy, upbeat music for your Mind Movie soundtrack. We’ve used one of Jason Castro’s goofier performances from last year’s American Idol competition for our Prosperity Mind Movie, because it makes us smile and feel good every time we hear it. What’s your favorite feel-good song?

And remember that you can make a Mind Movie on any theme you want. Next, we’re going to make one for the house we’d like to buy next year...

Watch my Prosperity Mind Move here:
… then make one of your own!

I hope you have as much fun -- and as much success with -- your Mind Movies as we've had creating ours.

Sophia Tang Shaul from 168 Feng Shui Advisors will be on TV this morning in the Southern CA TV market. Please look for her on The Ready To Market Show with Carmen Jones, which can be seen both satellite and cable connection. Cable Connection: Cable connections are carried by Charter Communications, Time Warner, Champion and [...]

Q: I just started a new job. The lady at the desk across from me and I don’t get along, don’t speak and the energy from her is horrible. What do I put on my desk between us to deflect her negative vibes from me?

A: Sorry to hear you're having to deal with a difficult colleague in your new job. Once again, we're looking at the issue of deflecting negative chi of some kind, and once again the remedy is a faceted crystal. These crystals act like a prism to refract light (and therefore chi) from a specific source, thus diffusing the influence. Most often, a faceted crystal ball is suspended from the ceiling: to put one on your desk you can either use a stand for the crystal or use a crystal figurine instead.

That’s the “by the book” approach, but there’s something important I want to add. I truly believe that there’s a risk, in taking any steps of this kind, that your intention to “protect myself from her negative vibe” only reinforces the adversarial energy. I don’t mean you shouldn’t use a crystal if you’d like to, but do make an effort as well to shift your expectations of the relationship. If you place a crystal on your desk for protection, that’s a pretty powerful way of saying “I don’t expect things to get better, and they might get worse, I’d better put this here so I’m safe from all that awful chi over there.”

A more enlightened approach is to counteract an unpleasant vibe with a more powerful positive influence from your side of the room. I’m particularly fond of a smiling and compassionate Buddha image for this. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. I’ve used a postcard in a cheap plastic frame over the inside of my front door (in several different homes) for over 15 years now, with the intention that it beam down blessings on all who enter: it looks nice and I feel happy whenever I see it.

Which is what you really want, right? You’re asking for help because you want to feel happy at work. Very probably your unpleasant co-worker is prickly because she’s not happy either. So wishing her happiness will improve things for both of you.

BTW: although I’m a big fan of smiling Buddhas, it’s possible that religious imagery of any kind might be a no-no in your workplace. If that’s the case use a more neutral image such as an angel or smiling sun face. Whatever you choose, I do suggest that you find some way to beam a lot of good vibes in your coworker's direction. If it’s not easy to do that yet yourself, then find a happy, smiling image to shower her with blessings on your behalf.

Be especially vigilant in your attempts to notice and appreciate even tiny improvements in her behavior, so you can have a moment of gratitude for the shift for the better.

You may also find this post helpful.

Wishing you success in your new job,
Stephanie R.

Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left) before sending me a question. Do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it will be several days (often longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.

Q: I work at home, and the door to the room my workspace is in is directly across from the bathroom door. Lately my finances are suffering, so I want to do something to correct this. My plan is to:
1) put red/earth carpet at the entrance to the bathroom
2) place a bowl of pebbles on the top of the toilet
3) install Japanese half-curtains on my doors, like the ones in Japanese restaurants, that you bend down to duck under when you enter
4) hang a large mirror on the bathroom door (as is often suggested) to deflect any good chi from going into the bathroom.

I’m concerned, though, that the mirror will also reflect my work area. Will this do more harm than good?

A: Sorry to stick a pin in the balloon of your feng shui plans, but I think most of these ideas are misguided. It’s important to keep in mind that most common “bathroom cures” are designed to counteract a poorly located bathroom, such as a bathroom in the wealth or marriage area. But that’s not the issue here. You’re concerned because the door to your workspace faces the bathroom door.

If you are concerned that “money chi” is somehow flowing from your work area out the door and across the hall and down the bathroom drains (as alarmist bathroom-phobes might say will happen), adding earth chi to the bathroom isn’t going to fix that.

Same is true if you are worried that nasty chi from the bathroom is seeping out across the hall and polluting your work area (another theory that I don’t buy into). A bowl of pebbles on top of the toilet isn’t going to affect that, either. Yes, according to the cycles of the elements, earth “controls” water… but the strong water chi of the bathroom is not the problem here, so you don’t need to fix it.

Where proximity is the concern the remedy is to interrupt whatever funky influence you suspect may be coming (or going) from across the hall. The best way to do this is to hang a faceted crystal ball either outside the bathroom door or midway between your desk and the bathroom. You might also place a large houseplant beside your desk on the side that’s nearest the door.

The Japanese half-curtain does create a barrier between the two spaces, which is a fine concept: but the bathroom already has a door you can keep closed, right? So the curtain goes where, on the door to your workspace? Think about this for a minute: what kind of situation are you setting up for yourself if you have to bend over and duck under an obstacle each time you enter your work area? Is that kind of movement pattern likely to make your work life or financial situation any easier? I doubt it.

As for the mirror, yes these are frequently recommended for the outside of the bathroom door, if the bathroom location is a problem. It’s not quite accurate, though, to say that the mirror is there to “delfect good chi” from getting into the bathroom area. (BTW, I disagree with the entire concept that “good chi” from your room across the hall is going to wander over to the bathroom and get flushed away.) What the mirror does is symbolically “erase” the bathroom space: when you look at the mirror you see in the reflection a space that is not the bathroom. The mirror is there to disguise the bathroom, not to deflect good chi.

If the mirror reflects your desk, then yes, it could be “moving” your desk into the bathroom, and that’s the opposite of what you want to do. Something else to keep in mind is that if the mirror reflects your desk it could symbolically be doubling your workload. Whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing is for you to decide. Perhaps twice the client load or twice the billable hours will be a dream come true for you. Or maybe you already feel overextended and any more work will overwhelm you.

What this all boils down to is that it appears you have collected a hodgepodge of generic bathroom cures from a variety of sources and traditions without really focusing in on what exactly the issue is in your situation, so you can choose strategies that are appropriate for the underlying problem.

Personally, I suspect the situation is a “no big deal” at best. The idea that bathrooms are sinkholes of pestilence dates from pre-industrial times long before the introduction of indoor plumbing, flush toilets and, more to the point, Lysol. Our modern bathrooms—if we keep them clean—are just not that nasty an influence. (Yes, the draining influence of the plumbing can be a concern, but again, that's not the issue here.)

I think it’s far more likely that you are being affected by a poor desk position within your work room and that the location of the bathroom across the hall has little to do with it.

Hope this helps you re-think your plans toward a more targeted solution,

Stephanie R.

Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left) before sending me a question. Do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it will be several days (often longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.

Q: I am moving to a new office and my bookcase will go with me. My desk will face the door. Should the bookcase be on the wall beside the door where it will face me, or should it be behind me where I won't see it while working? These are the only available locations for the bookcase. I do have constant reference to the bookcase.

A: If you need to access the bookcase frequently throughout the day then surely it would be more convenient to have it behind you, where those items are within reach. Inconvenient furniture arrangements are not good feng shui.

However, it's also not good feng shui to have anything but a solid wall behind you at your desk, so it would be a good idea to sit in a cushy "executive" style chair with a high back, so the padded back of the chair is a buffer between you and the shelves.

You'll want to take the overall size of your office into account. Top priority should be given to placing your desk so you have ample room to move around behind it and to sit there without feeling hampered or cramped. You may have to try it out to be sure: if your chair bumps into the bookcase every time you get up or pull the chair out to sit down, the space there is too small and the bookcase should go beside the door.

Wishing you success in your new office,

Stephanie

Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left) before sending me a question. Do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it will be several days (often longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.

Q: We are currently remodeling the bathroom of our Victorian house. My husband wants to close off a door to a closet with drywall in order to create new wall space in our too small bathroom. This would mean that there would be an empty space in the center of our home that is completely walled off. Imagine We do have plans to eventually open up that space into another room, but that could be a year or more in the future. In the meantime I am worried that closing off this space this could have some negative effects. I would be so thankful to have your input on this. I have not been able to find an answer for this after many months of searching.

A: In feng shui terms, closing off an area in the center of your home is a truly terrible idea. My advice: don’t do it.

Surely you can put up with the minor inconvenience of not enough wall space in the bathroom until you are ready to do more complete renovations? Closing off the bathroom access to that space at the same time as you open it on another side isn’t going to cause any problems.

Hope this helps you and your husband reach agreement on an approach,
Stephanie R.

Q: Dear Stephanie, I came across your site and was delighted to find a simple yet easy to use Feng Shui. I then bought your ebook and find it very down to earth and useful for me. However since we've moved to a new flat, with an irregular C shape, I cannot make up my mind on how to position the ba gua.

The front door of our flat is in the top side of the "C", so if I align the ba gua with the front door I will only cover the top section of the C (which contains the hall, kitchen and living room) but it leaves out the rest of the flat (2 bedrooms, a corridor, a toilet, and a bathroom).

I hope you can help cleari my confusion on how to position the ba gua, because I really want to decorate our new flat according to Feng Shui. One of my goals is to have a baby. In addition to activating the dui area of our bedroom, I would like to do something in the tai chi area as well, but am not sure how to do that because I’m not sure where that is.

A: Although I greatly prefer to use the modern “doorway” approach to the ba gua (as detailed here), it does get trickier the farther a layout strays from the tidy rectangular structures for which the modern ba gua works best. There are three ways to approach an odd-shaped layout like this:

1) Toss out the doorway ba gua and use the compass directions instead.
2) Apply the ba gua to that part of the home that lies “ahead” of the doorway as you enter (that would be just the top section of your "C"). Yes, that does leave a big area of the home “outside” the ba gua. You can see those areas as a kind of extension of the Knowledge, Career, and Helpful Friends areas, but it is literally quite a stretch to do so.
3) Don’t worry about trying to contort the ba gua sufficiently to get it stretched over your home, and focus instead on the ba guas for each room in the apartment.

If you’re wondering what I’d do, pick option 3.

When dealing with very irregular shapes such as this one, it’s a good idea to set the ba gua aside (at least temporarily) and take a look at the shape as a whole. You’ve already done that by describing it as a “C” shape, which it is.

Activating the tai chi is going to be difficult, because you don’t have one. It’s in that big empty space in the middle of your C layout, regardless of what you decide to do with the rest of the ba gua. The tai chi is the center, and this apartment doesn’t have a physical one (unless you are on the ground floor and have exclusive use of a garden or courtyard in that area, which is probably not the case). You can’t do anything about that. It is what it is. You do, of course, still have a tai chi for each of the rooms in the homes, and you can if you like designate one particular space (such as the living room) as the emotional center of the home even though the physical center is missing.

The best advice I can give you is resist the temptation to view this layout as a problem. Yes, it’s unusual. Yes, it does make working with the ba gua a bit of a challenge. But why not decide that this unique and unusual home is the perfect place for you to conceive (and birth, and raise) a child? Hey, look at that: conceive and child both start with the letter “C”. What a happy coincidence… I think we could even call that a synchronicity.

I suggest that you get a nice big piece of poster board, and in great big letters in the middle of it, put the phrase “C is for CHILD!” Surround that phrase with pictures of mothers and babies. Or, if you make the letters really big, you could make each letter a mini-collage of pictures of pregnant women and of mamas (and daddies) and their happy, healthy, charming children.

Frame your collage and put it either in the room that will be the baby’s (if you’ve got one), or on the wall wherever the baby’s crib/bassinet will go if bambino will be sharing your bedroom for a while. Spend a few minutes each day looking at your imagery (first thing in the morning or last thing at night are the best times) and feel how wonderful it will be when you are holding your child in your arms in your C-shaped apartment.

Although I like having a physical collage hanging on a wall somewhere in the home, I've recently discovered a new technology which you may enjoy. It's called MIND MOVIES (click on the banner on the right at the top of this page for details: it's a software package that makes it really quick and easy to create an inspiration slideshow of any words and imagery that addresses your dreams and desires). My husband and I have already made 3 Mind Movies (I'll post a link to a sample in the upcoming email newsletter) and are having so much fun with it. I think a Mind Move would be a phenomenal asset to you in your quest to have a baby, so if you make one be sure to let me know how it works out!

Wishing you a joyful motherhood, and much happiness in your new home,
Stephanie R.

Q. Our master bathroom is on the second floor above the kitchen, and our sink is directly above the stove. Is that a problem? Is it “fixed” because I have a microwave and a wood cabinet above the stove and other wood cabinets that cover the complete length of the kitchen?

A: Yes, it’s a problem (water-fire conflict, especially since water is overhead and likes to run downhill). Fortunately, having the sink above the stove is less serious a problem than when the toilet is directly above the stove.

And no, your wooden cabinets are not fixing this. The cabinets do create a bit of a buffer, which is better than nothing, but they don’t correct the problem.
Just because wooden furniture is made out of wood, that doesn't mean it represents the wood element. I know some people say it does, but I strongly disagree on that point. For one thing, any kind of furniture made from wood has no living wood chi left in it, and when we want to add "wood-type cures" to a space what we're looking for is that natural vitality of plants and tress. Keep in mind, too, that wooden kitchen cabinets are brown and rectangular which means they have “earth-type” color and shape.

When a bathroom is in a tricky position, such as over the kitchen , the recommended remedies are to:
1) Hang a faceted crystal ball in the center of the kitchen
2) In the bathroom, place a three- or six-inch round mirror on the ceiling directly above the toilet to visually reverse the downward flow of water (use double-sided tape to hold the mirror in place)
3) Place earth-type objects in the corners of the bathroom to stabilize the energy
4) Add an image such as a bird or tree to the downstairs area below the bathroom to help lift the energy there. For example, perhaps you can file a decorative tile with a bird or tree motif that could hang on the wall between the stove-top and the cabinet.

Thank you for your advice. I’ve enjoyed your books and web sites very much.

You’re very welcome, it’s my pleasure to help,
Stephanie R.

Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left) before sending me a question. Do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it will be several days (often longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.

Q. Our front door is on an angle at the left corner of the house. Where do we place the bagua: at the angled front door entrance or at the front path step that leads to the porch?

A: The ba gua is always determined by the door, not a path, step, or porch. But when the entry is on a corner angle, you also have to look at what side of the house is the “front.” Unless you are on a corner lot (as discussed here), that’s probably fairly obvious based on the relationship between the house and your street. You might find my discussion of a single room with angled entry, here, helpful as well.

Q (con’td): As you enter our front door and walk into a large entry hall, on the immediate right is our dining room. The dining room has 3 large arched entrances with one into the kitchen and the stove is clearly visible as you come in. I believe the kitchen view of the stove from the front entrance is a problem. Is that correct?

A: Not if the kitchen and stove are off to the right when you come in. A stove visible from the front door is only a problem if it’s directly ahead of you when you step through the door, and if you stand with your back to that door when cooking. Because your door is on an angle, you don’t have that layout. If you want to remedy this anyway, a faceted crystal in the kitchen archway will interrrupt the flow of chi between door and stove.

Hope that clears things up,
Stephanie R.

Q: My washer & dryer are in a closet in the wealth corner of the first floor of my house. I heard that plumbing in the wealth corner is not good. Do you agree? If so, is there a cure for this?

A: Please read the article here:
(Plumbing “remedies” apply to laundry room, too.)
And the blog post here:

Everyone, this is why I respectfully request that you do your feng shui homework before sending me your questions. Basic stuff has all been addressed elsewhere, either on my site or someone else’s, and certainly it’s all covered in books and classes. The more questions like this I get, the less time I have to answer the juicy ones.

Just a hint,
Stephanie R.

Q: I am moving soon and I am concerned that packing may disturb my chi. Any advice you could give me about the ideal order of packing things or which items should be moved in first would be appreciated.

A: In my opinion, worrying about how your packing process or method or sequence might "disturb your chi" is way overthinking things, and implies a reluctance to shake things up that you might want to reconsider. Moving is a big deal, it should be a disruption and upheaval. Otherwise, why bother? If the move is not by your choice, then I suggest you see it as the universe giving you a solid nudge in a new direction and accept that as a good thing.

You can't grow and prosper without change, and we have a choice to embrace that or fight it. The fact that you asked me this question implies that you see the natural stress and mess of moving as something you have to guard against. Why not embrace it as part of the process of getting from where you are to where you are going? Have you considered that maybe your chi could use a good shake up?

I do recommend, if possible, that you declutter during the packing process, so you don't take unnecessary stuff with you. Other than that, just box the stuff up and move it.

Enjoy your new home!

Stephanie R.

Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left) before sending me a question. Do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it will be several days (often longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.

Q: Dear Stephanie, I am a firm believer in Feng Shui and have read almost all of your books and have applied many of the principles you suggest. Thank you for being such a wonderful person.

(You’re welcome!)

I recently moved to London from Athens, Greece. Back home, I was living with my parents and I had made all necessary adjustments to my room to activate my love life, career and helpful people section. I met someone special who lives in London, and after a year of a long distance relationship, I moved to London to be with him. I lived with him for a few months, but since moving here things have not gone well. I have an unsatisfying temporary job, and my relationship hcollapsed a few weeks ago. I am absolutely heartbroken at this, and have moved in with my sister (who also lives London), but her space is tiny, and there is nowhere here that I can call “mine” in order to apply feng shui to my situation.

I strongly believe in feng shui and I know that once I have my own space again, things will start to improve in all aspects of my life as I will be able to apply the feng shui principles again. However, at this point, I am unable to practice feng shui.

I would really appreciate it if you could advise me what I can do in terms of feng shui to start coping with my break up and generally getting my life back on track. I am looking for a permanent job but I know I have to be patient with that. Dare I hope to get back together with the man I love?

A: I’m glad to hear that feng shui helped you meet someone appealing, and truly sorry to hear that the move to London is not working out as you had hoped. Any big move like that takes courage.

As for rebuilding something with the man you love, well, I’m a huge fan of hope, but I’m not much in favor of restricting the goal of relationship happiness to getting back together with an ex. I talk about that in more detail here.

As I mentioned in another post here, when you are in temporary borrowed quarters feng shui really isn’t available. I do encourage your intention to find a place of your own so you can apply feng shui again, but in the meantime the law of attraction/art of allowing is more useful.

It’s possible that, on your ex’s part, a long-distance relationship was enticing in ways that a day-to-day involvement was not. It’s also possible, since neither work, love, or housing has worked out well for you so far, that London is simply not supportive of your good fortune, as much as you may feel excited and happy to be there.

As you probably know if you’ve been reading my stuff for a while, I’m a follower of western astrology, and have consulted with astrological advisors on most of the key turning points in my adult life. That includes: moving to Hawaii from New York City; picking a good date and time to get married (which led to a magical sunrise ceremony when we were advised to tie the knot at 5:48 am!); and choosing an auspicious day and time to incorporate the internet marketing side of our business.

We also consulted with a “relocation” astrologer when we felt the time had come to leave Maui, so we would be sure to move to a location where we could thrive and be happy. As it turned out, the expert we consulted advised that simply moving from Maui to the Big Island would create enough significant changes in our ‘relocated” charts to be worth doing. Plus, we’d get to stay in Hawaii, which we love. So here we are in Hilo now, and so far so good.

The reason I bring all this up is that it may be that London is simply not a good place for you to find career or romantic happiness. Or perhaps you are simply going through an astrological “rough patch” (which does happen) and things will turn around for you in that location within a few months or so. Good advice does not come cheap (except right here, of course!), but if you can scrape together the funds I highly recommend a consultation with relocation expert Julian Lee. You can contact him (and learn more about his services) here.