Why You Should Care About the Helpful People Area of Your Home

‘Helpful People’ sounds like an ancillary benefit to Feng Shui until you find yourself in need of some truly reliable and helpful people in your life.  To be honest, more people become curious about Feng Shui because of the allure that it will improve their finances or love life, than for the probability that it will allow them to ‘receive it forward‘.  In fact, the Helpful People/Travel/ Service area may be one of the most overlooked areas on the Feng Shui bagua.  We all need to be able to give and receive stellar service as we move through this thing called life, and when this area is in sync, things just have a habit of going your way.

So who are these “helpful people” anyway?  Let’s run through a few scenarios where helpful people are very appreciated.  You were just in a wreck, you call your insurance company and they jump through hoops to make sure that all of your needs are met.  Need a tow truck, car rental or doctor?  Chances are that your insurance agent is acting as a very helpful person in your life in that moment.  Here’s another example; let’s say that you walk out of your apartment and your car battery is dead.  One of your neighbors has jumper cables, and offers to give your car battery a jump with their’s.  They just did a “pay it forward” and they helped you out of a frustrating start to your day.  A helpful person could be the girl taking your order in the drive-thru window or it could be the contractor in charge of your home’s plumbing needs.  Regardless, it is always a good idea to tweak this area BEFORE it becomes a issue in your life.

“When this area is in sync, things just have a habit of going your way.”

Now that I have your attention, let me give you the 411 on this area.  If you mentally visualize an imaginary tic tac toe box around your home, it will then be divided into 9 evenly placed squares (the example below is not perfectly even, but at least it gives you a visual).  The Helpful People area is located in the bottom right hand corner in relation to your front door.  Using your mental bagua, go to each room, locate the helpful people area and do an inventory of your findings. Your home is an overlay of multiple helpful people areas, and they all matter!  Once your inventory is complete, you’ll want to analyze the data.  Did you find your daughter’s collection of headless Barbies or did you find a chaotic table full of un-filed papers, bills, receipts and other symbols of overwhelm? Whether you found your meditation pillow and yoga mat, or your son’s legos scattered like land mines all over the floor, it doesn’t take a Feng Shui license to know what you need to do in order to bring some balance back into your life.

The next step is to eliminate the most obvious problems first.  If your area is filled with clutter and broken items, clean it.  Don’t wait for your kids to call Hoarders, and embarrass you on national television!  Next, remember that this area revolves around being of service.  From a Feng Shui point of view, all areas can be enhanced by balancing the elements.  Helpful People is strengthened by the metal element.  The  colors that enhance this element are obviously metal tones like silver, bronze and gold, and metal items like bells or metal Tibetan Singing Bowls as well as white and light pastels.  The shape that represents the metal element is a circle, so adding round, metal items would really pack some punch.  Obviously, whatever you add, needs to be able to fit in with the decor that already exists within your home.  Placing a Feng Shui “cure” in your home just because the store clerk assured you it will bring good luck is not nearly as powerful as finding a way to allow the cures to be blend seamlessly into your surroundings.  It is much more desirable to have your friends walk into you home and feel great about it without knowing why, than for them to walk in and be confronted by all sorts of  kitschy Feng Shui Chinese items that have no relevance to your life or culture.

Feng Shui may have its roots in some of the more esoteric and secret aspects of Chinese culture and lore, but at its most basic level, it is a very common-sense way to add a little peace and happiness into your life.  Have fun with it, and whatever you do, don’t take yourself too seriously!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Converting a Feng Shui Skeptic in 5 Easy Steps

In order to understand how to convert a Feng Shui skeptic, it is a good idea to create a definition for them.  A Feng Shui skeptic is someone who approaches life from a very analytical perspective.  They come from the school of “I need to see it before I believe it”.  If life events improve as a result of making changes that are related to Feng Shui, they will usually call it a coincidence rather than proof that it works.  If by some chance they do endeavor to practice Feng Shui, it will be on one gigantic condition . . . that they be provided with statistics, guarantees and a specific timeline as to how it will help and by what deadline they can expect these benefits.  One may wonder why anyone who is such a skeptic would even participate in a curiosity of this thing called Feng Shui, and I can say from experience that it tends to be because someone they love, be it a spouse, lover or friend, wants them to understand, participate, or at least not undermine, their use of it.

Now that we have  a basic definition, let’s get down to the nitty gritty and see what it takes to convert them, and if that is even necessary.  One reason that it can be difficult for people with analytical minds to grasp the subtitles of Feng Shui is because it is a system of things that are seen AND unseen.  The very words Feng and Shui translate to mean Wind and Water.  We can see water.  We can also feel it.  It is something tangible, and real.  However, wind is intangible.  It is something that has to be felt more than seen.  We can see the destruction of too much wind, as in the case of hurricanes and tornadoes, but we can’t actually SEE wind.  We can’t taste wind, or call it a certain color.  It slips right through your fingers if you try to catch it.  At best, the Feng Shui aspect of wind can only be guided or directed.

The qualities of Feng Shui that appeal to a skeptic involve the aspects of it that can be seen.  Here is a physical action that you can take.  They don’t really even need to know that the action has the potential to effect the non-physical energy pattern of something.  As long as we remember that everything is energy vibrating at different speeds, this scientific connection to Feng Shui makes sense to them.  Converting a skeptic for good is only possible if it doesn’t bump up against any of their other beliefs.   Fortunately, if the scientific connection doesn’t work, there is always the common sense approach.

Converting a Skeptic in 5 Easy Steps

1. Go for the common sense approach ~ “Hey Honey, I’d like to take the closet door off the hinges in the bathroom because it keeps banging into the other door and it is pissing me off!” ~ Now the logical person will tell you to just close the closet door after you use it so that it doesn’t bang into the other door, but logic and real life don’t always match.

2. Common sense approach part 2 ~ “I’m going all gangsta tonight and choosing a chair at the restaurant so that I can see my enemies before they try to off me.”  ~ In Feng Shui we call this being in command position, but they don’t need to know that.  Be ‘like a boss’.  Put your back against the wall and there will be no unexpected surprises!

3. Common sense approach part 3~ “Red sheets on the bed make me horny.” ~ Enough said.

4. When you are talking to them about Feng Shui, don’t use the words Feng Shui. Instead, appeal to their understanding, or lack thereof, of physics.  “Everything is energy so why not shift or guide the energy in this room to make it feel better?”

5. And finally, don’t try to convert them.  They may have some very strong beliefs and life experiences that prevent them from being able to see Feng Shui as a tool that assists life.  They may think that you are replacing your faith in a Higher Power for a faith in Feng Shui.  By being in your life, your Feng Shui skeptic is most likely creating a balance in you that helps to anchor all that unseen, Chinesey stuff with a sense of grounding that you need.  Perhaps you are helping them to open up to some esoteric ideas and concepts that their Soul is seeking as well.

The ultimate goal of life is to live it to the fullest.  Feng Shui is a tool that helps empower us with knowledge and action, trust and faith.  If you are traveling down a road that has led you to investigate the concepts of Feng Shui, it is likely that a part of your Higher Self and your own Higher Power is gently pushing you in that direction.  Everything in life happens for a reason.  When you trust that you are always being guided to discover the tools that are for your highest good, there is nothing to fear.

The Feng Shui Way to Buy a New House

When you know enough Feng Shui information to be slightly dangerous, you can bet that you will want to use it when you seek out your next home.  You will most likely also become your realtor’s “Most Annoying Client Ever” as well.  See, realtors are all about pointing out all the good things a house has to offer.  It’s their job.  If you are one of those people who knows what to avoid from a Feng Shui standpoint, the fact of the matter is that they are not gonna be able downplay certain major Feng Shui faux pas such as a front door that faces the back door!

On the other hand, you may be in the dubious position of knowing more about this topic than your realtor, and that can be a good thing.  Why?!  It can be a good thing because that becomes the first item on your list of things to do.  It is your job to educate your realtor.  Unfortunately, unless you have had a professional Feng Shui consultation at some point in your life, or have read numerous books on this topic, you may not know all the things to avoid, but you do know at least a few of the biggies.  So, what are the biggies?

Feng Shui Land Shapes to Avoid

• Educate your Realtor about Feng Shui by knowing what you don’t want. In relationship terms, these are the “Deal Breakers”.
• You don’t want be able to walk in through the front door and keep walking out the back door.
• You don’t want a set of steep (waterfall) stairs to be the first thing that lines up to the front or back door either.
• You don’t want the land of the backyard to slope down and away.
• You don’t want your backyard to be diamond-shaped.
• You don’t want a covered patio. ~ I know you think you want this, but trust me, you don’t.  Instead, look for a wooden deck.
• You don’t want a bathroom or set of stairs smack dab in the center of the house.
• You don’t want a big chunk missing from the back of the house  – at all. (In case you are wondering, a covered patio has the same energy as a missing chunk, especially if its roofline attaches to the main roofline of the house.)
• And one final thing to get you started on your search for Utopian homeowner’s bliss, you don’t want your house to be on the receiving end of any street.

This is by no means a complete list, but it will be a great way to keep you out of some of the most common Feng Shui house-buying mistakes that exist.  If you are interested in learning more about Feng Shui, you can sign up to have this blog delivered into your inbox each month, or you can find us on Facebook and like our Feng Shui Design Concepts page.  We are also linked to Twitter so if that is your preferred way to receive FREE Feng Shui information, find us there at FSDCbyLogynn.  If all else fails, go to our website at http://www.fengshuidesignconcepts.com

Filling Your Feng Shui Prescription

While some solutions in Feng Shui are Universal, more often than not, the solutions are like a prescription; they are specifically provided to correct your home’s symptoms.  I am a big fan of the “Do-It-Yourself” technique.  That is one reason why I became a Feng Shui consultant to begin with.  One of my very favorite quotes of all times says it best:

“If you want to learn a thing, read that; if you want to know a thing, write that; if you want to master a thing, teach that.” – Yogi Bhajan”

There is only one problem with doing it all by yourself.  Unless you want to do it for a living, it is much more simple and cost-effective to hire someone to help you.  I think everyone who originally sparks an interest in Feng Shui can admit to having at least one, if not more, books on their bookshelf that propose to teach them all the tricks of the trade.  One look inside some of these books, and it becomes abundantly clear that this Feng Shui thing is a little more complicated than originally thought!  As much as I love doing it all myself, I know my limits.  For example, when I need website work done, I don’t crack open a book and try to tackle it on my own.  I call someone to do it for me, and quick!

The real challenge in Feng Shui is not actually about discovering what is wrong with your surroundings based on 3,000 or so years of this ancient wisdom.  It is about putting it to practical use and not letting yourself get overwhelmed by what you find.  Another challenge is in piecing together a tangible plan of action that utilizes all the wisdom that is available from all the different styles of Feng Shui.  Wait . . . . you mean, you didn’t know that there is more than one style of Feng Shui.  Yep, some styles incorporate the cardinal directions and the best possible directions for you based on your date of birth.  Other’s use the Ever-Changing Mouth of Chi as a guide for finding your commanding positions.  Each Feng Shui “school”  has a different name, different rules and different meanings.  It is enough to make a person throw up their hands and give up.

The way I see it, most destinations can be reached by a wide variety of roads, and paths.  Feng Shui is no different, and in this case, the Universe has got your back.  Are you one of those skeptical folks who needs to see it before you believe it.  There’s a style of Feng Shui for you.   Or, are you an intuitive

empath type that can walk into a space and feel welcomed or rejected just by the energy of the space?  There’s a Feng Shui style for you too!  The truth is, there is no truly wrong way to find your path using Feng Shui, there are just multiple routes and some have more speed bumps than others.

So, going back to the idea that some Feng Shui solutions are as unique as you are, the question is, “how do you know?”  What are the chances that you will muck something up that you read in a book because it was a Universal solution and not a specific one?  Do I really need to answer that question?

Feng Shui could be called a study of the Macrocosm to the Microcosm.  We go from a very public perspective to a very private one.  Think of an onion, and the many layers that comprise it. Your home is an external reflection of your internal life.  As we move through the layers of your life experience, energy shifts; change occurs.  Only one thing is certain, there are times when the changes will take you way out of your comfort zone.  But just like in yoga, when you are playing your edge, when you are challenging yourself just enough to see progress, the discomfort fades, and the thrill of discovering your authentic self and your deepest strengths spurs you forward.

Your prescription today is to call me, and schedule change, growth and opportunities into your life.  If you’ve been asking to be guided to something that will change your life, this is it.  Are you ready?

 

Logynn B. Northrhip

512-496-9232

http://www.fengshuidesignconcepts.com

 

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