“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony.” – Thomas Merton

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Now that you know about the 5 elements, you can go wild with enhancing your environment!