Whether you are selling your home, or improving it for your own enjoyment, Feng Shui can play an important role.

The concept of Feng Shui involves 8 different aspects of your life: 

• Wealth and Prosperity
• Fame and Reputation
• Love and Marriage
• Health and Family
• Creativity and Children
• Knowledge and Self-cultivation
• Career
• Helpful People and Travel

These 8 aspects are represented by geographical positioning in your home. Practitioners of Feng Shui use what is known as a Bagua Map.  This map is basically a large rectangle divided into 9 smaller rectangles of equal size.  The centre of this map is just that - the centre and doesn't represent any of the aspects.  This is a sample Bagua Map for your reference: 

To find out which part of your home represents each life aspect, simply lay this map over a floor plan of your home.  The correct way to overlay it is to start by locating the front door on your floor plan.  (If you use a side door as the entrance into your home, that is not considered the front door for this exercise.  The front door is always the door facing the street.)

Once you have located the front door on your floor plan, lay your Bagua Map on top with the career area overlaying your front door.  All of the other life aspects will fall into place according to your floor plan.  Not every home is a perfectly shaped rectangle.  Therefore, certain areas of your home may have a larger life aspect (extension) or be missing an aspect area.  They are dealt with differently.  A trained Feng Shui Design Professional will be able to assist you with that.

You will find if you have done any reading about Feng Shui, or are knowledgeable about it already, that I have really over-simplified this concept.  What I am doing is just giving a general overview of some of its principles.  There is much more to it than what I could write here - it would take a whole book.  Please just consider this a crash course in the very basic fundamentals.  Enough of the disclaimers, let's carry on...

In Part 1 of my Feng Shui It! series we will be taking a peak into the career area of your home.  In today's economic climate, we can all use some assistance there.  That's why I chose it as the first aspect to take a look at.  Even if your career is moving full steam ahead, there are things you can do to keep it on track or even kick it up a notch. 

You have now determined the approximate location of the career area of your home.  So what can you do to improve it?  Here are a few tips (of course there are more):

•       Keep this area of your home free from clutter and well organized;

•       Add a mirror (they add energy to a space and help the energy flow in a positive way) [make sure that the mirror doesn't reflect back at the door or the energy will flow right back out of your career area];

•       Place some cheerful artwork on one of the walls - something that makes you feel good;

I'm going to stop here, but I hope you have found this to be of some help or at least, interesting and leaving you wanting to learn more about Feng Shui.  Oh, one more thing before I end, remember, any "tips" you apply to your home must be applied with good intention.  In other words, don't perform them if you are feeling doubtful about a positive outcome.  You must have a very positive frame of mind if you want to experience the full effect of good Feng Shui. 

** Stay Tuned ** :  Part 2 - Tips to Improve the Love/Marriage Area of Your Life

Dezigner Digz does not guarantee any results from the implementation by readers of these suggestions.  The Feng Shui It! series is provided for entertainment purposes and to offer a glimpse at the principles of Feng Shui.  

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Dezigner Digz is a professional home staging and interior decorating company located in Burlington, Ontario and servicing Ancaster, Hamilton, Burlington, Waterdown, Stoney Creek, Oakville, Milton and surrounding areas.  The Owner, Charlene Storozuk, is a member of the Real Estate Staging Association and currently serves as RESA's Regional Vice-President, Canada.  For more information about us, visit our website at www.dezignerdigz.com