Your business is up and running, your fittings and fixtures are all in place, but you feel that you’d like to add more zing to your venture.

Possibly you may be feeling a financial squeeze or you may have recurring staffing problems.  You’ve heard about this thing called Feng Shui, that you think may help, so sure, why not give it a go.  It can’t do any harm can it?  And if it works, then presto, all your worries will be over.

You book in a consultant who quotes you a fee.  A bit high, you think, but it’s a tax deduction, right?  But you’re really not sure what they are on about or what you can expect.

What are your customers going to think, let alone your staff?  But you’re feeling pretty desperate, so you just hope that any recommendations the consultant makes aren’t going to be too strange.

To be a successful collaboration, a business owner should:

1.    Check in advance what the Feng Shui consultant will offer and how they will go about it.  Check out if they have complementary skills that can benefit you, like interior design or business consulting.

2.    Determine beforehand whether you will be offered a printed or verbal report.

3.    Do not withhold key information, such as pending legal problems.  This will allow the consultant to prioritise suggestions. Be prepared to be candid with the consultant.  However, if there is no rapport, chose another consultant.

4.    Be open minded about what results may show and not be too attached to preconceived ideas about colours, layouts or fittings.  Certainly, make your preferences known, but be prepared to be offered alternatives.  Compelling reasons should be offered if alternatives are suggested.

5.    Have a refurbishment budget set aside.  After all, you have brought in the consultant to make change recommendations.

6.    Bring in a consultant before any refurbishments are made.  It’s easier – and cheaper – to prevent than fix problems.

7.    Be aware that a Feng Shui consultation does not replace the need for sound business knowledge and practices.

8.    Do not be surprised if the consultant asks for your birth date, and those of any other key players in the business.  This alone can boost your faith in the competency of the consultant, because they will be attempting to analyse how and where these people best fit in the business.

To be a successful collaboration, a Feng Shui consultant must

1.    Not put the business at risk by bringing the credibility of the business into question.  This means avoiding recommending windchimes, Bagua mirrors and similar paraphernalia in the workplace.  Keep all recommendations discrete or in keeping with the general ambience.

2.    Assure full confidentiality about what is revealed in a consultation.

3.    Not allow recommendations to be too watered down so that they are rendered ineffective

4.    Work within the limitations of their client, for example budgetary guidelines, or within the terms of the client’s lease agreement for the premises.

5.    Work within the boundaries of their training.  Let the business owner know clearly what they can and can’t do. Certainly recommend other specialists who may be helpful, such as Interior Designers or Business Coaches.

Learn more about how to work with the subtle energies in your life, home and business, so that you can achieve your goals with less effort. Go get your free vibrational synergy resources here.

A highlight of a trip into China is traveling south into the province of Guangxi and viewing landscapes seen and experienced by ancient Chinese thousand or so years before and as these ancient people we absorbing the Qi (Chi energy) of the place and wondering why is it so. I understand Feng Shui origins come in part from the landscapes of limestone peaks and adjoining rice paddies and fields of Guilin and regions including that of Yangshuo which I recently visited in May 2010.

My day arrived when I took a bus trip from Yangshuo to an ancient trading village called Huangyao which is preserved as is as a trading centre dating back well over five hundred years. My trip was on the bus was consumed as that of a camera bug pressing the shutter as I marveled at the limestone peaks jutting from the plains and the rice paddies and villages scattered within. A panorama of peaks stark and patterned against a horizon shrouded in mist and in their foreground, clusters of homes and rural villages nestled underneath and adjoining the fertile soils and streams flowing into the Li River. Soils rich in colour and texture and rewarding those who tilled them (with a hand held hoe) cultivating rice, maize, vegetables and fruits and recently fields of in ground trees for extraction as landscape features.

But to a silly person like myself, I couldn’t just admire and appreciate the landscapes as it flowed past the bus windows. I had to view it and question myself which parts are the Yin and what is the Yang. You know, this area was supposed to host the origins of Feng Shui and all that stuff. And thousand years or so, Chinese would have observed the same landscapes and lived within them and made decisions like myself or pondered over them. They knew they lived within a region with extremely high Qi energy and reasoned out the why’s and there for’s.

What represents the Yang? Is it the peaks and mountains disappearing into the mist and sit vertically above the level plains. They appear as pedestals and are hard, rock like, and masculine in appearance, unyielding, somber and permanent.

Is it the plains which are Yang and offer life, transition from what’s underneath them to life in its covering of plant life and birds? Is it the streams which ply their way winding and oscillating between peaks to gently flow past villages and fields of green?

When does Yin come into it? Is Yin the mountain peaks because from these mountains came the soils in the field? The mountain peaks, parent and host to the landscape and shielding and protecting what underneath. Maybe Yin is present in the fields?  These are flat, green, soft and yielding to the touch of mankind. Is Yin present in the streams and pond-age and within the rice paddies or crops of orchards and trees? Is Yin within the homes that take care of the people who work the land with their hoes and live off the land sustainably and have done so for so many years?

So the confusion of Yin and Yang differentiations spoil my bus trip and I subjected to confusion. I now understand why those ancient Chinese drew a circle with one part white (Yang) and the other part black (the Yin) and gently defining the two with a curved line to ensure each is equal to the other and each influence on the other as neutralised. The two parts equal and in unison with the other and that of harmony when their influences are balanced in their Qi. Maybe that’s an explanation for the circle’s existence and my confusion elapsing when the black portion contains a small circle of white (the Yang) and accepting its intrusion to suggest there’s no such thing as a pure Yin or Yang. Each is part of the other. There’s something of Yin in every Yang thing and vice versa.

Sure the Sun is representative of Yang as compared to the dark and empty space that surrounds it and Earth is Yin. It’s the heat and light from the Sun that gives Earth its life and just enough to ensure life as we know is maintained and in harmony with its surroundings, ambient in temperature and through wind and water, climate and home to life. Our planet Earth so delicately balanced in its Yin and Yang and the chance of it occurring as such elsewhere in the galaxy of stars and moons is remote.

Maybe that’s the gift of life we enjoy here on Earth so perfectly illustrated here in the landscapes outside Yangshuo and upon myself cocooned on a bus marveling at a perfectly balanced landscape of Yin and Yang and that of perpetual harmony. No wonder Feng Shui origins and testament was built from such places.

And as such, I also see the relationships between mountain peak and stream and what’s in between, the mountains acting as guardians and saviour to life underneath and that of auspicious Qi (Chi) energy presence in abundance. Qi flowing from the mountains to the streams and passing over and staying within the landscapes, ensconcing the landscapes residents including its plants, birds and people, as part of the landscape and intrusion limited by our ability to change it.

Maybe we should treat a landscape as that of Yin and its impositions from Yang and not get too lost in separating them as one or the other. I’m sure we could suggest a landscape is of a Yin or Yang nature through its dominant characteristics such as vegetation cover, soils, slopes and the built environment.

The Yangshuo landscapes I passed through to me were blessed landscapes in Qi abundance and representing that of Yin and Yang harmony. And there supported by an idyllic climate, regular and reliable rainfall patterns and very fertile soils. The land use patterns adopted by the Chinese farmers have been sustainable from the time they first learnt to cultivate the soils and as such have preserved the harmony and balance to such places.

Maybe that’s where the lesson is offered. Our inputs on our surroundings influence the natural balance of Yin and Yang and the Qi (Chi) that flows through them. Yin and Yang.

I hope you enjoyed reading my article as much as I enjoyed pondering over and writing it. For more related topics and complete eBook Publications, please visit my website Feng Shui Garden – a Modern and Unique Concept to Feng Shui and Harmonious Chi Within the Garden and Our Lives. Regards, Ross.

For thousands of years, the Chinese have used Feng Shui masters to consult on whether or not a particular space is auspicious or not recommended for a specific use. In fact, Feng Shui is not some esoteric woo-woo kind of soft science. According to this ancient culture, Feng Shui is a way of life and ingrained in their values. They would not even consider breaking ground on a new project without a Feng Shui master’s blessing. For the Chinese Feng Shui has traditionally been a way of life. It is both an art and a science that has helped determine the creation of cities, cemeteries, and even commercial complexes.

Feng Shui is not a matter of luck and is more than an amusing party trick to entertain. In the west, we consider it bad luck to walk under a ladder or to break a mirror. In the east, they consider it bad luck to plant a tree right outside your front door. The good news is that with any imbalance there is a correction that counteracts the negative effects.

So, what is Feng Shui? Quite literally Feng Shui means “wind and water.” The Chinese believe these are the main forces of nature that influence everything and affect the delicate balance between yin and yang- masculine and feminine energies. Feng Shui is about balancing complementary factors to bring about harmony in an environment. It is believed that when a space has good Feng Shui, or good energy, it will advantageously impact all major areas of our lives- health, relationships, romance, family, work, finances, creativity, fame and reputation, travel, being surrounded by supportive, helpful people, education and learning new information. As with any credible science, experimenting to prove its validity determines whether or not it is something useful in our everyday life.

There are many books and Feng Shui consultants out there that can help show us the basics. If they are experienced and well trained, they will start by asking you questions about your life to find out where the imbalances may be. Then they will assess your living or work space to discover what is in your environment that may be contributing to such imbalances. The good news is that there is always a cure. There is always a way to fix or counteract a negative influence so that it can have a positive effect on the area of your life in question.

In addition to consulting a Feng Shui master there are countless books on the subject that an avid reader could learn some basics from. Like any art or science, it requires studying and practice in order to see preferred results. Educate yourself and then experiment with your own life, home or office to find what will work best for you. Remember it is all about the flow of energy to bring about harmony and balance in your environment and life. Colors, the placement of furniture, plants, lighting, windows and doors can have a dramatic effect on your finances, reputation at work or whether or not that handsome co-worker two cubicles down from you will ever ask you out for a drink after work. Experiment and have fun practicing this ancient art and science of bringing about balance and harmony in your home, office and life! Now it’s time to move some furniture!

Deborah Brightstar-The Doggie Diva, owns and operates, Doggie Diva Pet Care, LLC, a licensed, bonded and insured, pet sitting business in Tucson, AZ. She customizes her service with a, “We take care of your pets and home as if they were our own!” approach, providing the highest quality of care and service to all of her clients. Deborah’s intention is to exceed her clients’ expectations by tending to thoughful extra details to show she cares. She shares her active, creative and fun-filled life and heart full of love with her two rescued greyhounds Kali and Dora and the love-of-her-life, Pepper, her English Springer Spaniel and Pet Therapy partner. In her spare time, she enjoys writing about pet related topics as well as a variety of other subjects. For more information, visit her website at http://www.doggiedivapetcare.com or follow her at http://www.twitter.com/doggiedivaDeb.

People often ask whether or not apartments apply the same Feng Shui principles as houses. The answer is, yes. Another popular question is whether or not apartments automatically have bad Feng Shui. The answer to that is, no.

What makes apartments more challenging to enhance or correct than houses:

· There is no land or outside environment to remedy or control. Sometimes the most effective remedies for health and prosperity are things you do to the space just OUTSIDE your home. With an apartment, the focus has to be totally with the interiors.

· There are some limits with apartment living when it comes to your neighbors. Sharing walls with people can subject you to sounds and smells that you would have an easier time separating yourself from in a house (although not necessarily!) Clients in houses have told me numerous upsetting stories about neighbor disputes from all sides.

· Some ideal Feng Shui remedies involve structural changes. These too are usually limited or not allowed at all in apartment living. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to ask. When I was married and in our first apartment, we had a very dark entrance at the top of the stairs. My husband asked the landlord if he could install a skylight at our own expense and the landlord agreed. It was easy and cheap for my husband (the architect) to do, and the landlord knew it was an improvement to the property.

APARTMENTS CAN BE MORE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND THAN HOUSES

The front and back of any structure has to be identified before complete analysis can be made. In Feng Shui, we call the front side “facing” and the back side “sitting.” This is not always obvious. In fact, most of the time, an apartment FACES its window side. The brighter, more yang side of the apartment is often looked at as the face and windows the eyes looking out.

Apartments often have less than ideal entrances. They are usually dark (coming from the building’s interior hallway). In small apartments, the kitchen is sometimes the first room you see when entering. It is generally better when the kitchen is not the first room you see because of a Pavlovian effect. It is also better when a kitchen has an exterior window.

Aside from some of the things just mentioned, apartments can have just as good or better Feng Shui than a house, depending on other compensating features. Is there a lucky floor you can choose in a multi-level building? Feng Shui numerology suggests picking a floor that matches your personal Trigram. (Based on your birth date) Since I value practicality over everything, my suggestion is to be as far away as possible from the garage entry gate or the building’s trash dumpster! The top floor will have the best views and this can make the same size apartment feel bigger. This is one reason why they are usually more expensive to lease.

Kartar Diamond has written hundreds of Feng Shui articles since she began her consulting practice in 1992. Many of those articles are just now being uploaded to the internet, but have appeared in Kartar’s on-going e-newsletter since 1996. You can join her monthly newsletter and find out more about all the services Kartar provides by going to http://www.FengShuiSolutions.net

Kartar Diamond received her education primarily from Master Larry Sang, founder of the American Feng Shui Institute and she has since become one of his most famous graduates.

The BTB Feng Shui Bagua area for skills and knowledge in a home is very popular among the younger generation looking to strive towards achievements in life. In order to set this area up I will help you identify what area needs to be used in your home for this purpose. The art of Bagua is in the proper placement of the Gua.

In BTB Bagua we do not use the compass that is used in traditional Bagua. Instead we use a map made up of 3 rows of 3 squares which forms a nine block layout of your home. We place the Bagua map so that the first row of three squares is on the same wall of the house as your entrance doorway. The BTB Bagua skills and knowledge Gua would be located in the first square on the left side of the first row of squares. If you imagine the home with a clock face and you are at 6:00 then the area we are talking about would be at 7:30.

So you now know where you want to set up your Gua for skills and knowledge. The next thing you need to do is space clearing of that area. You want to remove all the clutter and then organize what is left so that good Chi can flow into the area.

Next we need to identify things to use for the BTB Bagua skills and knowledge Gua:

* Color- The best color to use is blue (black and green are acceptable as alternatives)
* Elements- Earth and water elements or colors and items representing them should be used
* Objects- Books, a meditation area, items representing water and earth, a statue of Buddha

The first thing to ask yourself is what you want to accomplish in this area in order to personalize it to your needs. Are you looking to obtain better grades? Are you looking to become more successful in business by gaining more knowledge and skills? Are you looking to improve relationships by increasing knowledge of that individual? Once you determine your goals for establishing the BTB Bagua skills and knowledge Gua in your home you will be well on the way to identifying what you need to add to it.

Items made of or symbolizing water and earth are needed. A statue of Buddha to symbolize wisdom would be nice. Books would work as symbols of knowledge. You could even set up an area for meditation using something as simple as a pillow to sit on and a candle to light. You can use an item of art that shows great creative skills in this area. I would suggest for you to select items that represent skills and knowledge to you.

As long as you do not forget the colors and elements to be used for the area and remember to personalize it to your specific goals you should have no trouble creating a successful BTB Bagua skills and knowledge Gua.

Please experience Sheng Chi and enjoy your new Gua!

I do hope you found this article informative. I have practiced Feng Shui for over 25 years. I have many other resources published on the topic of Feng Shui. Two of the articles I think might interest you are BTB Feng Shui Aromatherapy and Chinese Art of Feng Shui. Each article has links for other articles I have published as well.

In this world of modernity we get to acquire smaller & simple abodes for our life’s busiest. We technically should consider each corners of our home to be as perfect as it can be. Our lives they say are a whole lot easier with all the modern conveniences. We have even managed to make our world smaller-connecting to someone a thousand miles away or accessing information is just a mouse click away. Despite these, we are under enormous stress more than ever. And for a lot people, going home after a hard day’s work becomes an escape from the various stresses that we have to be brave every day. How often we have heard that our home is our sanctuary? We take into considerations that we plan what we wanted our home be like or how we achieve a real good place to settle in. Revel in the surroundings and be in harmony with nature, enchanting us to savor the sights, sounds and scents-creating a freedom of enjoyment of our sense. Connect with your inner spirit. Conceiving with individual’s need for inspiration in mind. Designs that truly touches souls. Indulge in the sophisticated simplicity of your home and nurture relationships with family & friends.

Now we take closely in the bedroom and bathroom that can be considered sanctuaries for relaxation, pampering and rejuvenation. Most of our waking hours are spent here and what a better way to recharge for the next day than to be surrounded by the comforts of lovely and pleasant bedrooms and bathrooms where we can indulge in a variety of products infused with scents, herbs and other exotic ingredients to our hearts content.

In designing these areas… Plop onto these beds and get comfortable with sweet and lovely bed linen and sheets to match. Include nice pictures and prints to complement your bedroom furnishings to make this space perfect for dreaming. Make the bathroom a favorite place by making use of interesting and colorful tiles for an edgy look. Match them with streamlined contours of bathroom fixtures to complement the glow of wall sconces.

Good design should be smooth and natural. Development should always conform with nature. Space, light and nature are elements we harness to create harmonious interiors.

Our abode is where we put in and gain energy, so we somehow make effort in the best way we can creating an atmosphere and make a most conducive place to live in.

Want to find out how to improve your home with Feng Shui? Join my newsletter and get a free e-book “Feng Shui in the living room” here:

http://www.freefeng-shui.com/?ref=article

Eithan