|
Feng Shui with Style! Working
with Your Element Type
by Stephanie Roberts
Click
here to download our free e-booklet, "A Quick Guide to
the Five Elements"
When you begin to study feng shui, you quickly
realize the importance of the qualities and characteristics of the
five feng shui elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. This
knowledge is essential to selecting appropriate colors, furnishings,
and accessories for your home. You can also use your understanding
of the five elements to develop a personalized feng shui strategy,
based on the element that is reflected most strongly in your own
style of living.
Metal energy is clean, simple, and detail-oriented.
Earth is lush, nurturing and comfortable. Water is free-flowing,
expressive, and intuitive. Wood is ambitious, forward-thinking,
and practical. Fire is passionate, excitable, and changeable. Each
of us has a unique combination of these five energies in our own
personality, usually with one element dominating. This is reflected
in how we decorate and use our homes. Some of us developed a strong
style preference at a very early age, which continues to serve and
suit us well. Others go through different phases as they progress
through life. You may once have covered anything that didn't move
in chintz and ruffles, but now find yourself appreciating the clarity
of a more sparsely decorated space - or vice versa. During an earlier
phase you may have been happy with few possessions and a minimalist
lifestyle, only to find greater comfort now in the abundant colors
and textures of a more lavishly decorated home.
The element that is strongest in your personality
right now will influence your current decorating style, housekeeping
habits, and your approach to feng shui. Your experience will be
more fun and more comfortable when you tailor your feng shui strategies
to your element style. Let's begin by seeing which of the five descriptions
below most closely describes you:
- Neat Freak (METAL): I hate clutter!
My home is always immaculate, with everything tidy and well-maintained,
and I am very thoughtful about what I bring into my space.
- Pack Rat (EARTH): I love my stuff, and
can't get rid of anything. My house is so full of clutter that
when something is broken I can't even get to it to fix it.
- Free Spirit (WATER): I'm too busy being
me to clean up! If something's a mess, I just toss a shawl over
it. People say my home has lots of personality, and I am constantly
redecorating and moving things around.
- Go-Getter (WOOD): Housekeeping? Home
décor? Don't ask me; that's what the maid and decorator are for.
I just want things functional and practical, and I need a quiet
place to come home to at the end of a busy day.
- Whirlwind (FIRE): Enough of the quiz
already! I have a million things to do and a short attention span-just
tell me how to feng shui my house!
Many people are a combination of styles, so it
may be hard to choose just one answer. If you're not sure, ask a
few relatives or close friends for feedback; if you're a true Neat
Freak, you may think your house is a mess even when it's immaculate
by other people's standards! You may also find that you live one
style, but secretly crave another. As a dyed-in-the-wool Free Spirit,
for example, I regularly break the feng shui rules of good housekeeping
because I'm just too busy creating, writing, and living to keep
things as clean and organized as I would like them to be. But whenever
I visit a Neat Freak's home, my soul goes "ahhhhhh." The trick is
to be aware of what type of space you are really, truly most comfortable
in. As much as I like visiting pristine, zen-like spaces, I know
that I don't really want to live in one -- that if I did it would
soon look just as lived-in as my current home.
Here are some guidelines, based on the element-affinities
described above, to help you develop a personalized feng shui strategy:
NEAT FREAK
Your home is so neat and tidy that it may be a little rigid, sterile,
or monochromatic. You tend to like the minimalist look, and are
the most likely type to have all-white decor. If your furniture
has been in the same position for years, look for ways to get chi
moving without making more change than you'll feel comfortable with.
Live plants and flowers will bring natural energy and color to your
space. You may also need to add more personal touches here and there.
Find a place to display a few favorite photographs of friends and
family members, so there are some human images around you. Your
love for clean, simple spaces and attention to detail mean you are
probably on top of any maintenance or clutter issues, so focus on
creating a good flow of chi through your home, counteracting any
negative influences, and activating your power spots. Your clean
and tranquil home is a wonderful environment for self-nurturing
methods such as meditation and qigong.
PACKRAT
Your biggest problem is clutter! Closets are overflowing, you have
three sets of everything, books are stacked two deep on every shelf,
you've saved every greeting card you ever got, and all the flat
surfaces in your home are piled with stuff. You might still be able
to breathe, but your space isn't getting any chi at all! Create
some breathing room in your home before you do anything else, or
you'll just activate all your clutter into even greater chaos. Chances
are you've been feeling a little stuck lately, so focus on getting
rid of the old to make room for the new before you do anything else.
Once you've cleared out enough stuff to get a good look at your
house, make sure you've got a good flow of chi through the space
and address any maintenance issues before making other feng shui
changes. Your own chi will shift a lot as you clean out your home,
so be sure to practice some grounding and balancing techniques as
you go along.
FREE SPIRIT
You've been feng shui-ing your space since the day you first got
your own bedroom, even if you didn't know to call it that. You are
the type most likely to want to work on everything at once, so be
sure to define some priorities before jumping into making changes.
Your enthusiasm for creative décor may lead you to overlook basic
maintenance issues and allow clutter to pile up. Take care of those
first, then make sure that you are applying your individuality to
your power spots rather than scattering it randomly about the place.
Of all the types, you are boldest in your use of color, so get out
the brush and roller and have some fun with feng shui color-theory.
Make sure that you haven't overlooked any negative influences that
should be corrected, and use your creativity to develop your own
unique feng shui enhancements. You've probably tried a lot of different
personal renewal methods over the years, but may not have kept up
a consistent practice. Make a commitment to pay as much attention
to the inner you as you do to your surroundings.
GO-GETTER
Your house is probably beautifully furnished and well maintained,
but you may have delegated so many of your home-maintenance chores
that you no longer have a strong energetic attachment to your space.
Make sure you don't delegate all your feng shui tasks, too, or they
won't have much power behind them. Find small, simple things you
can do yourself and be sure to put some of your own energy into
enhancing your key power spots. If you arrange for someone else
to take care of other feng shui chores, it will be especially important
to perform the body-speech-mind empowerments on each one when the
work is done. Throw practicality out the window for a moment and
choose one unique and unexpected item for your home that expresses
the inner you others so rarely see. Chances are good you've been
pushing yourself pretty hard for a long time, so be sure to make
time for balance and renewal. A candle-lit aromatherapy bath will
help you relax so you can enjoy your beautiful home.
WHIRLWIND
You're usually moving too fast to pay much attention to your house,
but once you get into feng shui you'll want to get it all done in
one afternoon. Do some planning before you begin, or you'll jump
from one unnecessary embellishment to another without getting to
the important stuff before you're distracted by the next exciting
idea. You want to start with the wind chimes and water fountains
because they look like the most fun, but if you skip over locating
your personal power spots you won't know where to place them. And
leaving the household maintenance tasks for later could sabotage
your other efforts. You'll benefit from the discipline of empowering
your changes with a daily ritual-it's an essential part of the process,
and the thing you're most likely to skip! Promise yourself a massage
when you're done, and splurge on a big bouquet of flowers as a centerpiece
for your home, so you remember to stop and smell the roses from
time to time.
For details on applying these guidelines to
your home, order your copy of Fast
Feng Shui: 9 Simple Principles for Transforming Your Life by Energizing
Your Home today!
Copyright © 2002 by Stephanie Roberts
Adapted from Fast Feng Shui: 9 Simple Principles
for Transforming Your Life by Energizing Your Home by Stephanie
Roberts
(Lotus Pond Press, Kahului, HI, ISBN 1-931383-03-0).
For more feng shui tips and information, visit http://www.fastfengshui.com.
Permission is granted to reprint or circulate this article with
the condition that both the copyright notice and this paragraph
are included in their entirety, and that www.fastfengshui.com is
cited as the original source.
Back to Feng Shui Articles
Main page
Feng Shui Books & eBooks:
|
