Avoid the undesirable clutter of shoes, umbrellas and loose keys by making use of storage ideas in this area, and allow a proper place designated for shoes (or better yet, a shoes cabinet!). Your guests will feel the super-charge of happiness and inner serenity this way.

Let there be (shimmering) light! Crystals are wonderful Qi enhancers. They break up and disperse stale sha, or bad Qi, while at the same time encourage good Qi to meander and stay on location. Remember to cleanse them first - simply wash with purified water and dry by sunlight. Faceted crystals are the best Feng Shui enhancers, but you can also use smooth crystals, provided they are placed right in the middle of your chosen get-together spot - coffee tables or side tables are a good idea. If you're worried about little fingers getting hold of your crystals, place them in an elevated height.

Use pictures to evoke some good Qi! The time-honored practice of decorating homes with framed snapshots of family and friends are actually good Feng Shui practice too, and can nurture harmony and goodwill! Place clusters of frames together in get-together areas.

The kitchen should ideally be located in the Tien Yi, of Heavenly Doctor direction of the main breadwinner of the home. This area can be located by using our free Gua Calculator service.

If it’s not possible for you to relocate your kitchen to this corner, just make sure that your kitchen’s ‘fire mouth’ – your stove, oven or microwave – is facing the Tien Yi direction.

Keep your kitchen tidy! Especially your stove – in Feng Shui, the kitchen stove represents health for you and other dwellers of the home. A dirty stove may wreak mayhem to your well-being, and to others’ in the home as well. So, keep the countertops and stove rings clean and shiny at all times.

If your kitchen opens up to the living room or bedroom, this is not a good thing. Simply place a potted plant or screen between both locations to cut the empty space is half – this effectively stops the flow of negative Qi.

A faceted crystal is always a welcome feature in the kitchen since not only can it disperse negative Qi from an area, it’s a pretty home décor item to boot! You can hang your crystal from doorknobs or simply tuck it among your cooking implements.

Knives, ice picks and other sharp implements should be safely tucked away in drawers – one, to keep away naughty little hands from grabbing them, and two, to ensure that you minimize the effects of the poison arrows, or Shar Qi, that these tools can emit.

The Fire and Water elements of your kitchen should not be located too close together since these two elements clash if one is placed against the other. Don’t position your stove, oven or microwave to close to your sink or refrigerator.

A great Feng Shui ***** home décor idea is to hang framed pictures of food, fruit and other delectables on your kitchen walls. Pictures of oranges are especially beneficial, since the word ‘orange’ sounds very much like ‘gold’ in the Cantonese dialect of China (now you know why the humble tangerine is very popular with the Chinese!).

If you wish for stronger luck in family harmony and overall well-being, why not place the auspicious Three Luck Gods *****, Luk and Sau in the kitchen? These Gods are strong symbols of wealth, health and prosperity. Do place these venerable items far away from the cooking action, but close enough to be easily seen. Remember to place the Gods on an elevated height.

Use colors to brighten up the kitchen! The best colors for good Feng Shui are sunny Yang colors such as yellows, oranges, and reds for the kitchen and dining room. This encourages positive activity as well as promote good cheer and warmth between family and friends!

Well, that is all for this month’s Tips. Do follow our recommendations, and let me know if you feel any positive changes. The first clue to this is a sudden spark to your daily meals – they are more enjoyable and fulfilling for all dwellers.

Here’s blessings and the warmest regards for you and loves ones!

Yours truly,
Corey Tsang

-Dragon-Gate.com

by The Garden Island

Feng shui, which is growing in popularity, is the ancient art of arrangement and color usage that is presumed to promote balance and the flow of energy in a given space. Even if you don’t believe in the philosophy of feng shui, applying some of the basic principles of this practice to your home office can help you operate your virtual corporation more efficiently—and may make it a pleasant place to spend the better part of your day.

Here are some quick feng shui tips tailored to the home office space, but you can apply these techniques to any office.

• Location: Situate your home office as close to the front door of your house as possible. The first floor or higher is preferable, because energy flows upward.

• Desk placement: Position your desk so that you are facing the entrance to the room, with your back toward the wall or a corner. Even outside of feng shui considerations, sitting with your back to the door is disruptive because you won’t know who is coming into the room.

If there are windows in your office room, try to place your desk so the window is to your left if you’re right-handed, and to your right if you’re left-handed. Never position your desk in the center of the room.

• Color scheme: Feng shui recommendations for color in the home office vary according to your goals. If your business relies on selling or making deals (marketing), aggressive red is a good choice. Yellow promotes discipline and stimulates mental activity and clarity of thought—a solid color scheme for any home office. Warm colors such as orange and tan represent collaboration and cooperation. This is an excellent option for offices with more than one team member. For writing and other creative businesses, blue-green is soothing and promotes creativity. Above all, your office should be a comfortable and positive environment.

-www.kauaiworld.com

Eating and drinking is an important part of life. Without proper food or drink, our body becomes weak. Too much food, and our body grows obese and unhealthy. While we place a lot of importance in what we take into our body, the art of feng shui tells us that it is equally important where and how we position ourselves when we eat our food.

The shape of your dining table has a dominating role in creating auspicious Chi in the dining room. Dining tables placed at incompatible sectors can lead to quarrels within the family. The shape of the dining table is the first thing to evaluate for suitability. Round, Rectangle, Pakua or Square dining tables are recommended. Triangle, asymmetrical and tables with lots of pointy edges are frowned upon as they are deemed to send out poison arrows all around the room. Triangle is also the shape of fire, and is not suitable as a dining table. Traditionally, the Round-Shaped table made of solid marble placed in the Northwest of the home is is favoured - the round shape symbolises Heaven and the marble table brings solidity and strength.

Round tables represent metal and are best if made of a metal base with a marble table-top. Round tables are less auspicious when made from wood. A marble table is truly a symbol of family unity and power. If your round table is made of wood, cover it with white table cloth to convert it into a "metal" table. Round tables are suitable for the North, Northwest and West sectors of the home, and unsuitable for East, and Southeast sectors of the house

Square tables represent earth, and function best when made from any type of rock (e.g. marble) or glass. Marble tables symbolise family unity and power. Square tables are also auspicious if made from glass or metal and matched with metal bases. If your square table is made of wood, cover it with a beige table cloth to convert it into a "earth" table. Square tables are suitable for the Northeast, Southwest, Centre, Northwest, and West. Square tables clash with wood sectors (Southeast and East sectors).

Looking for Love

If you are looking for love and romance, consider these do’s and don’t based on feng shui formulas. Using the Eight Aspirations formula, the Southwest is the sector that symbolizes love and romance. So if you are down on love, consider sleeping in the Southwest corner of your bedroom. You also need to enhance the SW corner with love energizers. At the same time, do not forget your sleeping directions according to Eight Mansions. Orientate the bed headboard to your Nien Yen or Personal Relationship direction based on your date of birth.

Then enhance the Southwest with the key ingredient of yang energy derived from auscpicious lighting. How? Introduce an integrated lighting design. The use of warm downlights will improve the yang atmosphere, creating an environment conducive for love. Enhance further using decorative lampshades, preferably red textured shades that throw subtle red hues into the overall environment. Creating a ‘red’ ambiance in the bedroom sets the tone for an improved love life. This is because the energies of the Southwest come alive with the help of some fire energy. The earth element of the SW gets powerfully recharged this way.    
　

Love symbols such as the double happiness character will also help generate the right launch pad to attract romance into your life. This can take the form of paintings or figurines. For those looking not just for love but also marriage luck, the dragon and phoenix image can also be used.

Colours in the bedroom

The balance of colours in the bedroom also needs consideration. In a Southwest earth corner bedroom, use beige coloured walls to create subtle earth tones in the room. Use a solid base flooring with textured earth tone carpets to balance the ambiance. This also creates the base with which to hold together other intricate yang colours in the room.

Taboos

A significant bedroom taboo is never to have mirrors inside the bedroom as this is said to attract third parties into the relationship. But for singles, perhaps it is a good idea to use this taboo to your advantage to jump-start that non-existent love luck!
　

Would you like to make a wealth vase to benefit your family? This used to be something only the wealthiest and noblest of families of China were privy to. Today, secrets associated with the creation of a family wealth vase have become available through the teachings of contemporary Taoist and Buddhist masters. The practice has origins in these two major Chinese traditions, and if you visit some of the older family homes in Beijing, Shanghai or Xian, you might be able to view some magnificently huge wealth vases belonging to the noble families of another time, vases that have lasted through generations. These wealth vases were credited to bringing continuous wealth and power to families through the days of the Ching Emperors and Communist rulers, allowing their descendents to successfully weather political and economical changes.

For the Chinese, having a good name and reputation is probably one of the most important qualities. When you have a reputation for being honorable, honest, trustworthy, loyal and possessing great integrity, you are said to be a superior man.

Nowhere are the attributes of the Superior Man more eloquently expressed than in the I-Ching, the Book of Changes, perhaps the greatest classic to have survived the centuries in China, now being popularized int he West. Both Taoism and Confucianism derive much of their philosophy from this great text. Feng Shui also draws from the teachings of the I-Ching, and indeed, much of feng shui interpretation is based on the meanings attributed to the trigrams, the three-lined symbols which feature so prominently in feng shui analysis.

Previous articles in this section have given advice on how arrange the furniture in a student's room, whether or not certain colours are suitable for the bedroom, the significance of the Ken trigram and how to use feng shui in your garden to ensure academic success of the students in your family. In this article, I'll tell what you can do to energize the study desk, whether it is your own or your child's.

The first thing to do is to try to situate the study table in the Northeast corner of the study, or the student's bedroom. Now, before you can activate education and study luck for the student, you should know that the element of the northeast is earth.
　

Thus, the best way of energizing excellent study luck for the students in your family is to display earth-element objects like crystals and pottery or anything that symbolizes earth in the northeast corner of their rooms. This would effectively raise the chi in that area to benefit their studies. to energize the northeast corner, just use anything that symbolizes earth. Things that symbolize fire may also be used, as in the productive cycle of elements, fire produces earth.

There are quite a number of good fortune symbols you can place on the study desk. Choose one that appeals to you the most and use that. Don't use all the objects suggested here as you may overdo it and the effect would be counterproductive rather than beneficial. It is often said that with the practice of feng shui, 'less is more'.
　

A crystal globe is the perfect energizer for the Northeast corner because of its double representation of the earth element: crystals come from the earth, and the globe represents the world/earth. You may also use crystals in other shapes, but the crystal globe is especially potent for this purpose.

The Citrine crystal tree is another object that can be used to energize luck in academic matters. Although it's commonly known as the "merchant's stone", the citrine also enhances education, business and interpersonal relationships. These pale yellow stones are excellent for fostering emotional stability, especially when you embark on a new venture. In addition to the qualities of the citrine, the tree shape in which it is presented represents growth, making the crystal tree a powerful attractor of study luck!

-WOFS.com