Gina Speed
In my first Feng Shui overview article, I showed you the bagua. The bagua is basically like a blueprint of the nine energy centers in your home. Our living spaces are reflections of our day-to-day living – when our lives are cluttered, our homes are too. Any time you need some mental focus, clean up your area! Just like we affect our living environments, the reverse is true as well. Our living environments affect us! As I mentioned in the overview article, my first home presented me with a design challenge. I have no idea where to put things. The bagua is kind of like a guide, giving you suggestions on color choices, furniture placement, and more.
How to use the Bagua
- Draw a floor plan of your home (or room) and then divide it into nine equal sections. The original bagua I gave you was in the shape of an octagon, but since most of our spaces are square, you can just use a grid version.
- Next, determine the placement of the bagua over your blueprint. Knowledge and Wisdom, Career, or Helpful People should always be oriented over the main entrance. When you walk into a room, the Wealth and Prosperity section should always be in the back left corner. If there is a different door that you use frequently to your home, that’s not the one to use. You should always use the formal entrance for the correct positioning of the bagua.
- Now, take a look at your floor plan. Are there sections missing? These areas will need a little enhancement. Do you have a small protrusion (such as a bay window, etc.)? These are considered to be lucky extensions.
Your Living Environment Mirrors Your Life
Also, there is a correlation between what is going on in your house and what is going on in your life. Is there an area that is neglected or full of clutter? How do you feel when you’re in each room? Do you love it or do you avoid it? For example, if your Love and Relationships center is stark and neglected, what does that indicate about your current love life? If your Wealth and Prosperity center is positioned over a bathroom, could that be symbolic of your current financial situation?
Water Represents Prosperity
Pay attention to bathrooms especially located in the Wealth, Love, Career, Fame, or Health centers. Water represents prosperity and attracts energy. If your bathroom door is open, energy from the other areas of your home run to this area and into the running water. It then escapes down any drains, making bathrooms the most harmful element to your finances. Keeping toilet seats down, drains plugged, and doors closed are easy ways to prevent this from happening. Fix plumbing and add plants if you feel like you’re figuratively flushing money down the drain.
Use Mirrors to Double Energy
Likewise, adding enhancements such as mirrors or large potted plants help make up for missing spaces. Like I mentioned in the overview article, make sure the mirror reflects something you want to see more of! I have a mirror close to a window, so it doubles the outside greenery in my home visually. Mirrors also bring light into a dark space and push away negative energy. They are multi-taskers! They are not great for bedrooms however, where you need to keep things restful.
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Big, Healthy Plants Circulate Chi
Go to your local nursery and find a big healthy plant that can thrive in the area you need to help. Armstrong Garden Centers have been a great plant resource for me. I used to buy plants from the grocery store, or hardware store, but they just are not high quality and die quickly. Walking into a gardening store is like walking into heaven on earth. I highly recommend it so that at the very least, you can get a clear idea of what you home should (and can!) feel like. Here is a collage of “Feng Shui friendly” houseplants. Look for big, rounded leaves. Sharp leaves poke at you, and we got over that with Facebook.
Spacelift
Finally, energizing and stabilizing specific areas helps eliminate challenges or deficiencies in your life. Using the bagua is an easy way to transform your living space into a type of manifestation board that will uplift you and encourage you to go after your dreams. Leave a quick comment below and let us know what areas in particular you want to focus on improving. We’ll take each center and break it down for you in easy ways. It’s as simple as rearranging a few things you’ve already got, or focusing on a couple of colors that attract the right kind of chi. Just use the main menu at the top of the page and select “Feng Shui” from the list of categories, or click here.
hi, how do I over come a split level house and place the bagua. My main door opens to a center family room with kitchen and dining on this floor but splits left to go up to bedrooms and splits down to another family den. Door is on center north east facing.
Thanks
Hi Monica! You can do a couple of things: lay it over each floor individually (with the top of the stairs being your new entry point) and lay it over individual rooms. The main energy flow of a home is usually the main floor, so I would keep the focus there primarily. If you have missing segments (typical of split-level homes) enhancing the Feng Shui in each room can add additional support. Hope that helps 🙂