3 Ways Your Entrance Could Be Hurting Your Health and Opportunities

How do you feel when you enter your home? Do you feel uplifted, yet relaxed at the sight of the first room you enter, or depressed, stifled and unmotivated?

Do you frequently welcome visitors who love “dropping by” your home? Or do people look uncomfortable when they enter and leave quickly?

How your home's entrance makes you and others feel could also reflect the effects your home's entrance has on your life, health, wealth, success and happiness.

Let's look at 3 ways your entrance could be blocking your path to success.

Dark, narrow foyer - Chokes chi, limiting opportunity. May cause respiratory problems or difficulty with childbirth. A skylight, bright light on the ceiling and painting the entry light colors will visually open the space. Hanging a mirror on the wall you see as you open the door will create a sense of depth.

Foyer wall too close to the door - Inhibits chi, causing residents to feel as if life is a constant struggle. To create a sense of depth and permit chi to flow more freely, hang a mirror on the wall.

Front door faces back door or window - Chi (as well as money and opportunity) rush through the house too quickly. To disperse the chi and permit positive energy to linger in your home, hang windchimes, a Feng Shui Crystal or plant between the two openings.

What's the First Room You See in Your Home?

The first room you see in your home can affect how guests feel when they enter your house or apartment, and also the areas which will get the greatest focus in your life.

While the three most important areas of a home are the entrance, master bedroom and kitchen, the other rooms can have significant impact, too -- especially the first room someone sees when they enter the home.

The following is a list of rooms in many houses or apartments, and how their placement near the home's main entrance can affect the home's inhabitants according to the principles of Feng Shui.

Foyer: A large, spacious foyer is a good way to welcome opportunities into your life. Foyers should be well-lighted, clean and inviting. You can make a space even more welcoming with the addition of live plants or wind chimes.

Living room: A living room is very auspicious to have near your home's entrance. Residents -- and guests -- will tend to relax and feel at home.

Study: If you have a study, den or home office near the entrance, expect residents to be focused on education, learning and fulfillment.

Kitchen: If the first room people see when they enter your home is a kitchen, your family life will be focused heavily on food. In fact, it may even encourage over-eating, especially with children. Guests, too, will come only to “eat and run.” If this is the case in your home, you can place a screen or other barrier that will obscure the view of the kitchen from the front door. This is especially important if you can see the stove from the front door.

Bathroom: It's not auspicious to have a bathroom in clear view of the front door. This can affect health and wealth adversely. You may find your money being “flushed away.” Your health may suffer, and your home's residents may spend too much time on personal care in the bathroom. They may become obsessed with their appearance. Placing a mirror on the outside of the bathroom door can deflect this negative energy. Remember to keep the bathroom door closed, too.

Bedroom: Having a bedroom in clear view of your home's entrance could be making you feel tired all the time. Hang a mirror on the bedroom door and see if your energy increases.

Would you like to know if the home or apartment you're thinking of moving into will help you achieve your goals? I can help with home selection as part of my Feng Shui consulting services. We will consider the layout of the rooms, the architecture and landscaping, the neighborhood, and the overall chi of the space in order to help you select a residence where you and your family can thrive.

Feng Shui Colors: A Room-By-Room Guide

One of the least expensive ways to give your home new life is a fresh coat of paint. Even those who live in apartments can often convince their landlord to let them paint, as long as they return the walls to plain white before they leave. The investment is minimal -- less than $80 buys three gallons of paint, rollers and brushes to do a few rooms.

But what are the best colors to paint using the principles of Feng Shui? It depends on the room. When you select colors for the floor, walls, and ceiling, make sure to employ the Five-Elemental Cycle using three colors. Also, don't think a ceiling has to be white; light beige or even brighter colors that complement the walls add depth and creativity to a room.

Entryway/Foyer - Small entryways are enhanced by lighting and light, bright colors. Off-white and shades of blue, pink or green represent hope and welcome. Green, black or red are auspicious colors for the front door. As with a fence, avoid a white front door. You can learn more about Feng Shui in your front entrance in this article.

Kitchen - The best color for a kitchen is white, the color of purity and cleanliness. White permits the food's true character and colors to show through -- bright reds, greens and yellows on a white pallet. The kitchen's basic element is fire, and metal (represented by white) overcomes fire to better balance the chi.

Avoid black and gray (water element), because it destroys fire, and avoid red, because it will make a kitchen too “hot,” literally and figuratively. A red kitchen may be prone to fires while the cook will be prone to temper flare-ups. Read more about Feng Shui in the kitchen.

Bedroom - The color of your bedroom will depend upon your age, personal goals, and whether your room is the master bedroom or not. Pink is best for a master bedroom, because the marriage position on the bagua is placed between fire (red) and metal (white), and pink is the blending of these two colors. Pink or red sheets and blankets ensure a “fiery” marriage bed.

For single people seeking a mate, pink or peach is an auspicious color for the bedroom.

For anyone else, subdued hues of greens and blues promote rest. You can learn more about how to use Feng Shui in the bedroom in this article.

Children, on the other hand, thrive in rooms of green, which create peaceful calm and serenity while encouraging learning and knowledge. This article talks about Feng Shui in a baby's nursery.

Dining Room - If you have a dining room where you eat and entertain as a family, pinks, greens and blues work best to encourage conversation and stimulate the palate. There's a reason many restaurants have green decor -- it stimulates the appetite. Avoid blacks and whites unless the goal is to lose weight.

Bathroom - The bathroom should be a sanctuary where you go to prepare yourself to face the day or retreat at night to prepare for sleep. The best colors for a bathroom include lighter shades of green, blues, pink, or white. Black or gray, which correspond to the water element, make good accent colors. Or, you can use pastels or white with bright accents to enliven the space. Remember, as one of the first rooms you visit in the morning, the bathroom is one of the three most important areas of the home in Feng Shui.  

Painting your home in pleasant, Feng Shui colors helps balance the chi within yourself, members of your family, and your home.

What Can I Expect During a Feng Shui Consultation?

If you're having problems related to your career, finances, romantic relationships or overall mood, a Feng Shui consultation might help. By altering your environment and surroundings under the watchful guidance of a professional, you'll be able to see positive changes take place in your life.

When a Black Sect Feng Shui consultant visits your home for a consultation, expect an interactive experience. Black Sect Feng Shui employs both transcendental (spiritual) and mundane (connected to everyday life) methods to improve the flow of chi (energy) through your home.

The Feng Shui Ba Gua in Your Home
Black Sect Feng Shui does not use a compass to determine the trigram positions or the direction in which to overlay the ba gua over a space. Instead, the Feng Shui consultant will determine the position by which chi enters your home (usually through a front door, but sometimes through another door), and lay the ba gua over the space with the front door in one of three front sectors of the ba gua.

He will also find the central palace (tai chi position) of your home, and assess the placement of important rooms (including the kitchen, bathroom and master bedroom) in relation to the central line and central palace.

After completing a site survey, in which he uses his knowledge of Feng Shui, observational skills, intuition and other techniques to assess the chi in the space, he will assess your Feng Shui needs in relation to your personal chi and the dynamics of your home.

Working with your Feng Shui Consultant
At the start of the consultation, the Feng Shui consultant will discuss with you the areas of your life you feel need help, where your priorities lie, and what your future goals are.

Be prepared to think -- and speak -- in depth about the areas of life covered by the eight Trigrams and the tai chi position (the central palace). You'll want to consider strong and weak areas of your life, and how your surroundings may affect these areas. It's a good idea to brainstorm your goals in regard to these eight areas. It may help to ask yourself the following questions:

- What role does money play in my life? Do I have enough? Do I spend it (or lose it) as quickly as it comes in? Is increasing my wealth a major goal right now?

- What are my goals in regard to children? Do I want to conceive right now? Do I desire better control as a parent?

- Do I feel creativity lacking in my life?

- What is my reputation at work and in my community? Is it important to me that I'm highly regarded amongst my peers?

- Am I stuck in my career or advancing quickly? What aspects of my business life would I like to improve?

- Am I looking to further my education or take part in career development? Is this a priority right now? How are my children doing in school?

- How is my love life and my relationship with my partner? Or am I seeking a romantic relationship?

- How are my relationships with others in general? Do people help me when I need it? Do my friendships have a fair amount of give and take?

- What is my overall health? Do I have any illnesses or ailments? Do I have a lot of energy everyday? Do I sleep well at night?  

- What is my overall mood? Am I typically in good spirits?

Intention in Feng Shui
Since intention plays such a large role in Feng Shui, it's important to visualize the improvements you'd like to make in your life, and to know that the Feng Shui cures an expert implements will help you to realize these positive changes.

Learn more about working with a Feng Shui consultant to experience your full potential.

How Spring Cleaning Can Improve The Feng Shui In Your Home

Black Sect Feng Shui deals in both the mundane as well as the emotional and spiritual. Feng Shui consultants use intuition to assess the flow of chi through a space, and, if we find a home unsuitable, seek ways to remedy problems. We also emphasize the importance of intention when we implement a specific Feng Shui cure.

It is with this intention in mind that it's important to talk about clearing clutter from a space -- and what better time to think about spring cleaning than the start of spring?

Benefits of Reducing Clutter
A clean and uncluttered home makes guests feel welcome and makes its inhabitants comfortable. It's often easier to think clearly in a neat and organized room -- and that includes the desk in your home office.

Clutter represents stagnant, confused chi. It may be difficult to make a decision in a cluttered home, or even to make positive moves toward growth and personal development. Our clutter also has our emotions tied to it. We may not want to let go of it for emotional reasons -- and that leads to our feeling “stuck” in our life.

Good Feng Shui is characterized by free-flowing chi -- not too fast, and not too slow. If a human being can't walk across a room because furniture is filling the space with no wide pathways or toys, books, and random clutter blocks the path, the chi can't flow freely either.

Clutter in Your Attic, Basement or Garage
When we own a home, we tend to place objects we don't use -- or intend to some day throw away -- in our attic, garage or basement. Even if we can't see it, this clutter can weigh us down.

Clutter in the Bedroom, Kitchen and Entryway
Clutter in these three areas is the worst of all when it comes to free-flowing chi and Feng Shui, because these three areas of the home are the most important in Feng Shui. Clutter in the bedroom can prevent a good night's sleep.

In Feng Shui, the kitchen represents our career success and how others perceive us -- getting rid of clutter in this area and always making sure appliances (especially the stove) are clean, can lead to increased wealth and career success.

Our entryway creates a first impression and affects the chi that flows through the rest of the house. If the chi is blocked by clutter at your front door, it can't move freely through the rest of your home in a positive, life-affirming way.

How to Clear the Clutter
Begin by sorting through your belongings. Does everything serve a purpose? That purpose may simply be that it makes you happy -- that's okay. Objects that don't serve a practical purpose or bring you joy when you see them should go. Recycle, donate or, if you truly can't find a use for it and don't think anyone else can, either, throw it away.

With the remaining objects, find a place for everything and put it there. Keep everyday items in easy to reach places. Store clothes and other objects used seasonally neatly in closets, the attic or garage, where you can find them easily when you need them.

When you're finished using something, put it back. It really is as simple as that to keep clutter at bay and let chi flow freely through your home.

Placement of the Stove to Increase Income

An island layout promotes the flow of chi through the kitchen. When the stove is placed on the island so the cook stands in the command position, a family should enjoy wealth and good relationships.

Additionally, you should not be able to see the stove from your front door, even if the view is through two doors (or through an empty door). Placing a mirror behind the stove can cure this problem.

In fact, placing a mirror behind a stove offers a number of benefits:

- If you can see the burners in the mirror, your income will increase, as the affect of the burners is doubled -- or more than doubled.

- Mirrors behind the stove help the cook see anyone entering the room. If someone sneaks up behind a cook and he becomes startled, that fright can makes it way into the meal, diminishing the quality of the food and hurting those who eat it.

- Mirrors behind the stove simulate the command position, similar to the way a mirror on the wall in front of a desk can increase that person's income and job security.

How Doors Can Affect Your Health and Wealth in Feng Shui

Do you find money leaving you as quickly as it comes in, virtually flying out of your hands? Do people in your house bicker constantly? Do you sometimes feel dizzy, nauseated or even anxious for no reason? The placement of the doors in your house could be partly to blame.

Doors facing each other across a hallway should either be completely aligned with each other, or not aligned at all. Slightly misaligned doors can lead to arguments and bickering in your home.

In a worst-case scenario, the frame of a door will coincide with the center of an opposing door. This can cause depression, nausea, dizziness, and negative effects on behavior, emotions and general health. You can balance the chi of misaligned doors by employing the five elemental colors, as well as by hanging wind chimes or a crystal between the two doors.

Misaligned doors create bad Feng Shui and ailments whether the doors are located in a single-family home or in an apartment building. If two apartment front doors are misaligned, place a photo of your child or another pleasant picture on the wall closest to the other apartment door.

Front Door Feng Shui
While fully aligned doors are good Feng Shui in most cases, one exception exists. The front door should never be completely aligned with the back door or bathroom door. If it is, crystals or windchimes hung in the space between the doors will slow the rushing chi and prevent your wealth from rushing out or, worse, down the toilet.

Let's explore some other possible door placements, how they affect the flow of chi in your home, and some common Feng Shui cures.

Long, Narrow Corridor with Doors at Either End
This placement of doors, typical in railroad-style apartments, can cause money to rush out of your life, resulting in financial trouble. It's even worse if the corridor runs along the center line of the building. That can cause liver, gallbladder and spleen problems. Placing mirrors to create a sense of wider space and hanging crystals or windchimes to slow the flow of chi can help.

Piercing Heart Doors
Three or more doors on both sides of a hallway that are in a row, aligned or partially aligned, can cause heart problems, headaches, and problems with the liver, gallbladder and spleen, as well as conflicts in the home. Hang two crystal balls or two windchimes to cure this placement. One should hang in line with the center line of the door, while the second should be in the middle of the corridor between the doors.

“Empty” doors - An empty door describes a door frame or passageway with no actual door to separate the spaces. An empty door is good Feng Shui if it is between a kitchen and dining room. An empty door to a bedroom may encourage an affair or lead to the husband or wife not being home often. To cure empty doors in Feng Shui, hang a regular curtain, beaded curtain, or a three-part curtain in the doorway. You can also add nine multifaceted, spherical glass crystals: four on each side of the door frame and one in the center.

Remember, intention plays a large role in Feng Shui remedies, so envision the space being filled and visualize the positive consequences you expect the cure will encourage.

Protect Your Health, Wealth and Family by Planting Trees

As Spring approaches, it's a good time to consider planting trees on your property to enhance your home's Feng Shui.

Trees protect us literally, from sunlight and inauspicious views, and in a spiritual sense, offer a feeling of protection. Trees beautify an area, attract other life to our property (such as birds who may build their nests there), and -- planted in the backyard -- provide a sense of support for you and your family.

Trees begin with their roots deep underground and stretch upward toward the sky, linking Heaven and Earth in Black Sect Feng Shui. 

Like most aspects of Feng Shui, trees can be good or bad depending on their location, size and overall health. Large, old trees that are still healthy offer a particular sense of security and comfort.

When Trees Offer Good Feng Shui

Plant trees to block against negative influences and sharp arrows of chi (such as from roof lines, tall buildings or T-intersections) pointed at your property.

Lush trees around your home signal health and prosperity. If trees suddenly die, it could indicate coming misfortune.

A large tree on the rear of your property provides a feeling of protection.

Trees located near your entrance -- but not so close that they block flow of chi and create a feeling of oppression -- create a sense of protection, as if the trees are guarding your home. Plant trees on your front lawn in symmetrical groups of three, six or nine trees, since these number combinations have strong positive properties. 



When Trees “Block” You

A tree that is too close to your entryway may create a feeling of oppression or being blocked. The tree should not be closer than twice the tallest residents' height. Use your instincts; does your doorway feel blocked or does the tree offer a sense of protection?

Trees planted on the path to your doorway may create a sense of narrowing opportunities. Trim these trees to produce the sense that your path widens, increasing opportunities and broadening your influence as you leave your home.

Overgrown trees in your backyard that touch your house or block windows could be draining good chi from your living space. Cut them back.

Stumps resulting from trees that have been cut down represent dead and blocked energy. Adorn them with ivy to reduce this negative influence and promote a feeling of new growth. You may also place a beautiful green potted plant on the stump.

How Do Your Trees Make You Feel?

With planting season approaching, assess how the trees on your property have been affecting your life.

Do you feel blocked in certain areas? Does your family feel safe and secure in your home? Are your family members healthy and full of life, or have you been plagued by medical problems recently?

The answers to these questions will provide insight into how to modify the trees on your property to attract health, wealth and prosperity.

7 Feng Shui Tips To Increase Your Wealth With Moving Objects

They say March goes “in like a lion, out like a lamb.” Now is the perfect time to take advantage of those March winds by adding moving objects to your property to increase the flow of chi, help wealth flow toward you, and add a sense of “life and movement” to your property.

You can use several moving objects in different ways to increase the flow of chi on your property -- indoors or out.

Windsocks and Flags
Decorative windsocks and beautifully-colored flags help activate chi on your property. You can hang a flag that represents the rainbow spectrum, or to represent the Five Element Colors. Select your favorite flag to make a powerful statement. The United States flag is a wonderful symbol to hang in front of a place of business.

Windmills
Based on the ba gua, place the windmill in the trigram position that represents the area of your life you want to improve. For instance, placing a windmill in the wealth corner of your property will impact the flow of money. If the windmill's blades turn, money will flow toward you rapidly. On the other hand, if the blades don't turn, you'll hold on to the money you have. Indoors, you can use fans in the same way.

Fountains
Fountains are used in the wealth corner of the trigram inside or outside the home. They add the water element to a space -- balancing a fire element in a living room with a fireplace, for instance -- and attract money, peacefulness and harmony.
Exterior fountains should angle slightly toward your home or front door. They may also attract native birds, raising the chi of your property by attracting living things. Just make sure to keep the fountain clean.

Waterfalls and Ponds
Like fountains, waterfalls and ponds are powerful elements to attract money when placed in the wealth position on your property. The waterfall should flow toward your house. You can increase the waterfall's power if you position it to collect in a pond or pool that embraces your house. The re-cycling nature of a waterfall is a powerful symbol, after all, chi constantly circulates, being re-used and recycled.

Weather vanes
If your home is located at the intersection of two roads or experiences another problem due to draining Earth chi, weather vanes can cure this problem. Place them on the roof in a fixed position toward the area of the ba gua you wish to activate. Or attach a weather vane so that it can move and lift the chi of the entire space.

Attract Your Desires with the Right Lighting

When someone is unaware of something, we say they are “in the dark.” On the other hand, we may talk about “the light in someone's eyes” or even declare our love by saying, “you light up my life,” as in the old song.

Light plays an important role in Feng Shui, too. We can improve a space by brightening it with the right lights.

The potential illumination when you add lighting to your home's interior or exterior is even greater than the light's actual illumination. When employed for a Feng Shui cure, the light doesn't have to be on all the time. For instance, you can leave lights on for just a few hours in the evening and see a difference.

Here are some easy ways you can use lighting to raise the chi or account for “missing” areas in your space created by an irregularly shaped house or plot of land.

- Shining a spotlight at your roof or your front door raises the chi in a space.

- A spotlight above the front door will balance the chi of your house.

- Lights on either side of your front door can act as guardians against evil and also attract positive things into your home.

- If your home is below the level of the road, a spotlight beaming from the downslope side to the highest part of your roof will raise your home's chi.

- In a small space, motion-sensing lights that turn on when someone enters encourage cogent thinking and also make the space seem larger.

- Having lights on a timer so that when you enter your home, it welcomes you.