Feng Shui Landscape Design

It’s unbelievable that home improvement can actually benefit you in a lot of ways that you could have never thought of. The simple thing about home improvement is that you must have a firm objective on why you want to improve your home. If want to improve your home because you want to improve some parts of your life, this article is just for you.

After a long stressful and tiring day at work, do you feel relaxed and at ease when you reach home? If your answer to this question is no, I want to tell you how home improvement can change this situation. Are you wondering how you can do it? Well, you can do it with Feng Shui!

Let me start with a quick introduction on what Feng Shui is. A rough picture of Feng Shui is that everything is connected together in a way. The main aim is balance and it is always about the flow of energy that is always moving. The location of your home as well as the direction of your house points in, plays a very big part in Feng Shui.

You should consider home improvement if your home does not help you to feel relaxed. You should also consider improving your home if you feel that your home is too stuffy and hot. Well, this may sound ridiculous but juest read on. If you want to improve your love life to score more dates, Feng Shui will be able to help you with that too! Here are some ways you could do to improve your life with using Feng Shui.

By adding wind chimes, you can stop the energy from being stagnant. This is especially important if you want to improve your life . You should also get rid of sharp corners because this is considered bad. How can you counter this problem? You can try using plants to soften the corners. One thing to bear in mind; to never sit with your back facing the window. You should always sit in such a way that you are facing away from the walls.

One of the most common ways to improve your life is by adding fresh flowers. believe it or not; this can also improve your love life. The flowers should be put facing West. You can improve the energy by hanging a crystal in the room. The whole home should be kept clean. The most important part of your home that should be kept clean is your home entrance.

Another great way to improve the energy levels in your home is to use mirrors but you cannot add them anywhere you desire. Adding mirrors are tricky because you have to be very cautious about what exactly is being reflected. You have to make sure that every room is being used otherwise stagnant energy can start to build up.

So there you have it reasons to improve your home and ways for you to do it. Your goal is to start utilizing these into action. Remember, home improvement is especially important if you want to achieve more. So, what are you waiting for? Get to work!

Many people are attracted to Feng Shui and for many good reasons. While most simply believe that it is just some oriental superstitious set of ideas on interior design (but that is just part of the extensive definition for Feng Shui), the Feng Shui that we know today is actually made up of various schools of thought and incorporates the different cultures under which it was born.

The advantage to the different options available in Feng Shui is that even everday people can easily understand and apply it immediately in their homes without having to break the bank. And aside from that, there are advantages that only Feng Shui can incorporate if you can just open your mind and try it out.

Bringing balance is the key. Have you ever found yourself completely overwhelmed with unending junk and completely stressed out of your mind? It’s likely that you are suffering from a visual imbalance in your surroundings. The best way to infuse a sense of balance is by bringing together elements that provide you with a grip of control in the outer balance of things. If you can create some semblance of balance harmony in trivial things like your furniture, you are sure to find that creating balance in other aspects of your life equally manageable.

It helps you become more mindful of the little things. Mindfulness in the little things can actually be a good thing. Some of us tend to be heavily focused on the big things of life that even the minor details like home arrangement and office ergonomics no longer come to play. When these ?minor? aspects of life continue to take a backseat, they tend to accumulate and produce a very stressful environment which can add up to other problems and worries of life.

It opens more possibilities to meet new people. Meeting new people and making new friends is another advantage applying Feng Shui in your life. When you utilize Feng Shui you’ll be able to locate other persons within your social circles who enjoy similar ideas and will even help you to expand your knowledge of Feng Shui.

Feng Shui brings a fresh perspective. Everyone knows that a fresh perspective is always welcome. Often times a positive new way of looking at something can invite positive changes. A new take on home arrangement, for instance, will serve to benefit you in the long run. The new point of view that Feng Shui can bring will actually promote enrichment in one’s mind.

Applying Feng Shui invites prosperity and success. The main objective of Feng Shui is to invite all the good things to one?s life. Prosperity and success can be more easily within reach and a positive disposition may be expected if Feng Shui is practiced well.

It has aesthetic appeal. On top of all the enumerated benefits of Feng Shui, the best would probably be its beauty. The physical appeal of a well-decorated home, interspersed with good Feng Shui techniques, is actually something that you can call a personal heritage that can transcend generations and promote beauty in all aspects, including design of the home and the office.

Come back with me, dear ones, to Ancient China. No, this has nothing to do with Kung Fu Panda, though it must be said as far as talking Panda kung fu movies go, it was pretty hilarious. Did you know Dustin Hoffman does a voice in there? Anyway, Id prefer, instead, to take you back 3,000 year to the first uses of an ancient Chinese art known as Feng Shui.

The Chinese characters translate literally as wind water, but Feng Shui is essentially a guide to arranging your stuff. The working belief is that if you arranged your furniture around in just the right way, it will unlock blocked passages of energy that can affect your happiness, health, and wealth. It was the wealth part that got you interested, right?

Though most Westerners dismiss it as a system of arranging stuff, the soul of Feng Shui is rooted in the belief that our lives are deeply affected by the things around us and the by thee spaces we live in. Thats not so much of stretch, is it? We are, after al, the byproducts of our environments, what is so preposterous about the notion that our environment continues to affect us everyday?

The Western scientific community has dismiss Feng Shui as some kind of ancient magic system. But the Chinese believe practicing it ensures good health, wealth, and a more fulfilling connection to other people and the environment. This is all predicated on the Chinese belief in chi, or energy ” literally is means air or breath. They believe every object has a specific kind of chi. Therefore, you only want to have the kinds of objects in your home that have good chi. It is a delicately simple system.

A serious study of Feng Shui takes a lifetime. From simple arrangement to the intricacies of the I Ching, there is more than can be learned by one person. It is not merely the study of the things in an area, but it requires understand the people requesting your services. You must access their energy and listen to what kinds of energy they wish to attract. Further studies will take you into Lunar Cycles, chi cleansing, and the Five Phases of being. Heavy stuff for an art dismissed as little more than an ancient Chinese interior design course.

Two diagrams known as bagua (or pa kua) loom large in feng shui, and both predate their mentions in the Yijing or I Ching. The Lo (River) Chart (Luoshu, or Later Heaven Sequence) was developed first. The Luoshu and the River Chart (Hetu, or Early Heaven Sequence) are linked to astronomical events of the sixth millennium BCE, and with the Turtle Calendar from the time of Yao. The Turtle Calendar of Yao (found in the Yaodian section of the Shangshu or ‘Book of Documents’) dates to 2300 BCE, plus or minus 250 years.

Sources indicate that time, in the form of astronomy and calendars, is at the heart of feng shui.

In Yaodian, the cardinal directions are determined by the marker-stars of the mega-constellations known as the Four Celestial Animals.

• East: the Green Dragon (Spring equinox) - Niao (Bird), α Hydrae
• South: the Red Phoenix (Summer solstice) - Huo (Fire), α Scorpionis
• West: the White Tiger (Autumn equinox) - Xu (Emptiness, Void), α Aquarii, β Aquarii
• North: the Dark Turtle (Winter solstice) - Mao (Hair), η Tauri (the Pleiades)

The diagrams are also linked with the sifang (four directions) method of divination used during the Shang dynasty. The sifang is much older, however. It was used at Niuheliang, and figured large in Hongshan culture’s astronomy. And it is this area of China that is linked to Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, who allegedly invented the south-pointing spoon.

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art, developed more than 300 years ago, which believes that balancing the natural, physical and astronomical energies around us can promote happiness and well being. The words feng shui directly translate to ‘wind water.’ It is easy to imagine why this term came to be used for this art. Good wind and water, i.e. good feng shui, imply a good harvest of crop, whereas a bad feng shui could result in destruction of the crop. However, feng shui is based on the understanding that our entire environment is alive and full of energy (or ‘chi’) and balancing them can result in harmony and prosperity.

Landscape design is not just about putting up plants, trees, shrubs, bushes, adding a greenhouse or a fountain and laying the lawn. It reveals one’s mental attitude in life. The outdoor space is also full of energy and channelizing it will be of advantage to the well being of yourself and your family. Placing every object in your garden according to the principles of feng shui will not only bring about the harmony in the energies that surround, its impact will result natural, healing and prospering environment. Here are some tips to help you apply the principles of feng shui to your landscape design.

The art of feng shui divides every environment into eight directions, or trigrams. Each trigram has specific characteristics and these can be utilized for optimum advantage.

• The North characterizes creativity, inspiration and personal growth. Its influence can be heightened by using placing water i.e. waterfall, fountain, etc. in this direction.
• The Northeast is for knowledge, wisdom and spiritual growth. This place should ideally have items made from earth like stone benches or rock gardens and avoid plants and trees in this region.
• The East is characterized by new life, rejuvenation and health. Wood is the best element to use in this direction. Plants and herbs in this direction are also helpful. This place should ideally have no metal or artificial structures.
• The Southeast is for wealth and prosperity. As with the east, plant trees in this direction and avoid metal.
• The South signifies opportunities or dreams and is a great place for fire. If you were planning on having a barbeque pit, this is the ideal place for it!
• The Southwest is important for romance, marriage and motherhood. This would be a great place to place seating arrangement and avoid plant and trees.
• The West is for children. Metal in items like swings, slides, etc are good in this area. Fire should be avoided here.
• The Northwest is meant for travel, fatherhood and trade. Like the west, use metal in this region and avoid fire.

Here are some more tips for you to understand the feng shui landscape design and to help you create for yourself a feng shui garden:

• Water bodies: Water can bring positive energy into any space, as long as it is not stagnant. Avoid building pond, instead have a fountain or a waterfall installed.
• Types of plants: Avoid thorny or spiky plants. Try and maintain a multicolored flower bed throughout the year.
• Herbs: A lot of focus is placed on the use of herbs with medicinal properties.