“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony.” – Thomas Merton
by Hipster Feng Shui
As human beings, we all have life aspirations. I aspire to be successful at helping others improve their well being via Feng Shui and other lifestyle tips. I aspire to have great health, so that I can do what I love with and for the people I love.
Have life aspirations that you want to achieve? One fundamental concept in Feng Shui is that different forms of energy known as the “5 Elements” impact our environments.
Here are 7 Things to Know about the 5 Elements of Feng Shui to increase harmony and boost energy in your environment:
1. Embrace the 5!
If you would like to bring more harmony and boost the energy of your environment, knowing the 5 elements is key. The 5 elements are:
Water – signifies tranquil, descending, calm, and fluid energy
Wood – translates to growth and expansion
Fire – represents upward or rising, blazing, and intense energy
Earth – symbolizes balance and harmony
Metal – represents intellectual power, shortening and tightening, and cool energy
by Hipster Feng Shui
2. Go with the flow!
Literally. To master the concept of balancing chi and increasing harmony, it’s important to know how the different elements work together in generating or reducing harmony as follows:
Constructive Cycle (Energy Generated)
Metal generates water
Water feeds wood for growth
Wood strengthens fire
Fire produces earth
Earth Produces metal
by Hipster Feng Shui
Destructive Cycle (Energy Reduced)
Earth dries up water
Water exhausts fire
Fire melts metal
Metal chops wood
Wood separates or destroys earth
By understanding the way energy flows in Feng Shui, you now have a powerful tool to enhance your environment by applying the correct colors, shapes, and symbols. For example, to activate your wealth luck, you may want to add a water feature such as a fountain in the southeast of your home or office as water helps nourish wood.
by Hipster Feng Shui
3. Bring Some Color!
Each element has colors that represent it. You can easily boost the energy of your environment and space by knowing the colors associated with the different elements. This is one of my favorite parts of Feng Shui – being able to paint and decorate my home in many different colors to activate chi.
Water – Blue or black
Wood – Green
Fire – Red
Earth – Yellow, Tans
Metal – Gray, Silver, Gold, White
by Hipster Feng Shui
For example, to activate your wealth luck, you may want to add some green to your walls in the southeast of your home or office. Or if you would like to activate the center of your home, you can use red as fire generates earth.
4. Get in Shape!
You can also activate the energy of a home, work, or landscape environment by incorporating shapes that are symbolic of a given element.
Water – Wavy
Wood – Rectangle
Fire – Triangle
Earth – Square
Metal – Circle
5. Add Symbols
One fun way I like to boost chi using the five elements concept is to add symbols to help enhance the elements associated with each direction. For example, to enhance the wood element, which is associated with the east and southeast direction of my home, I have added plants.
by Hipster Feng Shui
6. Know thy Numbers
You can also incorporate numbers into Feng Shui to boost your environment, as they too are associated with each of 5 elements. For example, the metal element is associated with the numbers 6 and 7, so you can add a wind chime with 6 or 7 rods in the Northwest sector to create harmony.
Water – 1
Wood – 3,4
Fire – 9
Earth – 2, 5, 8
Metal – 6, 7
7. Know your Directions
There is no use in knowing the 5 elements, if you don’t know which directions they are associated with on the feng shui map called the Bagua. Here are elements and the directions associated with them:
Water – North
Wood – East, Southeast
Fire – South
Earth – Northeast, Southwest
Metal – West, Northwest
by Hipster Feng Shui
Now that you know about the 5 elements, you can go wild with enhancing your environment!
It’s a fact – Many individuals spend more time at work than with their families. And with many individuals extremely dissatisfied with work and feel like their career is going nowhere, what can be done?
Here are 5 feng shui ideas for your office or work space that I have personally used myself and would like to share with you to help you boost your career and success luck!
I remember when my hubby Jeff and I first lived together we would have different preferences as to where we wanted to hang out in our home. When I preferred hanging out in the breakfast nook, he wanted to relax in the living room. He would jokingly say “when you say say east, I say west.” I guess he was right, turns out that he is a West person and I am an East person!
Do you constantly feel that your life is stagnant and that you are stuck? Career and or relationships not going well? Having a quarter or mid life crisis? If so, you may want to assess the energy of your environment via Feng Shui. Several times in my life, I have felt like I am running to a wall, but Feng Shui helped me balance my environment.
How does one quickly improve his or her environment with Feng Shui? The most essential tool to have is a positive attitude, as it too impacts the energy or “chi” of your environment. When I was first introduced to Feng Shui, I admit was I was quite impatient – I wanted to find Feng Shui remedies to improve different aspects of my life quick and fast. What it really all came down to was understanding the basic principles and tools available and applying them with a positive mind.