balance

The Golden Ratio and Feng Shui

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The Golden Ratio and Feng Shui

Since Feng Shui deals with balance, it is not far off to discuss the matters about the Golden Ratio. The Golden ratio is one of the precepts that govern Feng Shui. This ratio is numerically described as 1.62. The Fibonacci numbers that we know today are also directly linked to the Golden Ratio. When you divide a certain term in a Fibonacci sequence with the number prior to it, you will find that it approaches the value of the Golden Ratio.

Beauty Equals Symmetry

The beauty of objects may be measured by its closeness to the golden ratio. The symmetry of objects is the attribute that tells if a thing is beautiful or not, for the most part. People naturally love balance of elements, and for the chi to flow, the Golden Ratio must apply.

The Golden Ratio in History

The Golden Ratio is manifested in various works of art that have been lauded by the world as masterpieces. The genius in Da Vinci lies in the symmetry of his works that reflect the Golden Ratio. The drawing of the Vitruvian Man is a classic example of man who had the ratio of 1.62 all over his body and was considered as a picture of perfection.

The Golden Ratio in Famous Places

Famous places such as the pyramids of Egypt also employ the Golden Ratio. The half of the bottom layer of the pyramids of Egypt is also a factor of 1.62.

The Golden Ratio in Plants

Even plants have distinct characteristics of Golden Ratio. They establish a Fibonacci sequence in the number of leaves. Even the eyes of a pineapple follow this golden ratio. Much of the things that are viewed as beautiful by the naked eye establish the factor that possesses the Golden Ratio in one way or another. The Fibonacci sequence can be more or less seen in the beauty of nature. Even human DNA has factors that are assimilative of the Golden Ratio.

The Golden Ratio to Facial Features

If the ratio of your nose to your chin to the horizontal space between your nose and one side of your cheek is more or less the same as the Golden Ratio, you will find that the face is judged as attractive. In some experimental studies done by scientists, where they showed pictures of women to infants, the ones which had an impact were the more symmetric faces.

Applying the Golden Ratio in Your Office Space

In your office space, it is quite easy to apply the Golden Ratio for establishing balance and good Feng Shui. Just make sure that the rectangular objects in your office follow the 1.62 golden ratio. You don’t need a ruler to measure it on the dot. Just by looking at relative sizes between objects that practice the Golden Ratio will already suffice for giving good balance and Feng Shui to your office space.

Applying the Golden Ratio in Your Home

The Golden Ration may be a bit trickier to apply at home than in your office. You might have to apply the ratio to different furniture in your home. Or, if at all possible, the actual room space must at least have the Golden Ratio in it if your furnishings are round or not viable for the Golden Ratio.

Good Feng Shui is actually possible if you already have the Golden Ratio in your home or office.

Harmonizing with Feng shui

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Perhaps one of the oldest forms of geomancy in the world is Feng shui which originated from China more than 3500 years ago. This ancient practice is literally translated as wind and water and is based on the belief that life can be greatly improved with the help of Qi or energy flow. This Qi can be produced by achieving balance or harmony through the use of the laws of heaven, which pertains to the study of astronomy and earth, which is associated with the study of geography.

The purpose of the application of this practice is to locate that Qi or that vital energy in your surroundings by creating balance and harmony around you. Here are some Feng shui theories that can give you a better grasp of this concept of balance and energy.

The Power of Qi

Qi is everywhere and the key is to find it. This energy is a result of interactions in the environment like the yin and yang and the five elements of water, fire, earth, metal and wood. This theory believes that the way you arrange your surroundings and position certain objects around you can affect your energy levels. It also believes that these energy levels can even influence your health, wealth, relationships and even luck. By properly organizing your environment, qi can flow through the space freely and can create a positive effect to those who live in the area.

The Union of the Yin & Yang

The yin and the yang are two opposing forces or energies that work together creating a unity of opposites. The yin is characterized as the passive energy that is associated with the characteristics of water, cold, peace and tenderness while the yang is described as the active energy like those from heat, fire, excitement and speed. In other words if yin is matter, yang is energy and neither of them can exist without the other. The key to understanding this practice is to achieving a proper balance of yin and yang in our environment.

Balance through Bagua

The bagua is a popular Feng shui instrument that is shaped like an octagon and is divided into the eight cardinal directions of North, South, East, West, North East, North West, South East and South West. The theory of the bagua is that each of these directions corresponds to a part of our life. For instance, the North portion of the bagua pertains to one’s career while the south pertains to the fame or reputation of a person. The other categories of the bagua are family, children, prosperity, relationships, wisdom, and travel.

The theory of the bagua also believes that each of the eight directions pertain to a part of our life and in order to activate the energy or improve a certain part of our life is to find the direction it corresponds to and make the qi flow into that space positively.

Finding the Harmony

Understanding and appreciating the art of Feng shui is accepting that there is an existing relationship between you and your environment. The theories of this practice present information on how a person can achieve balance and harmony with the environment which can have a great impact in particular areas of a person’s life.

Although each person has their own potentials in the area of health, wealth, relationships and luck, what this practice really teaches is how to enhance these areas for practitioners to make the most out of their lives.

Advantages of Applying Feng Shui in Your Life

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Many people are fascinated with Feng Shui and with many good reasons. While others generally believe that it is just some oriental superstitious set of paradigms on interior design (but that is just part of the extensive definition for Feng Shui), the Feng Shui that we know now is actually comprised of various schools of learning and incorporates the different cultures under which it is housed.

The good thing about the different options pertaining to Feng Shui is that even the layman can actually be able to understand and apply it immediately in their homes without having to spend too much. And apart from that, there are other advantages that only Feng Shui can bring if you can actually open up your mind to try it.

Advantage Number 1: It brings balance to one’s life

Have you ever found yourself completely overburdened with clutter and unnecessarily stressed out of your wits? Chances are, you are suffering from a visual imbalance of some sort in your surroundings. Now, the best way to introduce some sense of balance is by incorporating elements that provide you with a sense of control in the outer balance of things. If you are able to get some semblance of balance even in things as menial as your furniture, you are bound to find balance in other aspects equally manageable.

Advantage Number 2: It helps you become more mindful of the little things

Mindfulness in the little things can actually be a good thing. Some of us tend to be heavily focused on the big things of life that even the minor details like home arrangement and office ergonomics no longer come to play. When these “minor” aspects of life continue to take a backseat, they tend to accumulate and produce a very stressful environment which can add up to other problems and worries of life.

Advantage Number 3: It opens up possibilities of meeting new people

Meeting new people is another bonus of being a Feng Shui enthusiast. When you are applying Feng Shui, chances are, you will be able to find another person within your social network who likes the same stuff and can even help you expand your knowledge on Feng Shui, no matter how limited it is to begin with.

Advantage Number 4: It gives a fresh perspective on things

At any given time, a fresh perspective is always welcome. This positive perspective can invite changes for the better. A new way of looking at home arrangement, for example, may actually serve to benefit you in the long run. The fresh perspective brought about by Feng Shui can actually bring about an enrichment of one’s mind.

Advantage Number 5: It invites prosperity and success

The main objective of Feng Shui is to invite all the good things to one’s life. Prosperity and success can be more easily within reach and a positive disposition may be expected if Feng Shui is practiced well.

Advantage Number 6: It has aesthetic appeal

On top of all the enumerated benefits of Feng Shui, the best would probably be its beauty. The physical appeal of a well-decorated home, interspersed with good Feng Shui techniques, is actually something that you can call a personal heritage that can transcend generations and promote beauty in all aspects, including design of the home and the office.

Enhancing Your Life with Feng shui

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The ancient practice of Feng shui is one of the oldest forms of geomancy in the world and can be traced back as far as 3500 years ago in ancient China. The word literally means wind and water and this practice believes in the notion that qi or vital energy can greatly influence and improve a person’s life by achieving balance and harmony in their surroundings.

To apply this practice means having to recognize the relationship between man and the environment he lives in. The key to this practice is locating the all important qi by arranging objects inside or outside of your home or even your office space so that qi continuously flows freely in the space thereby producing a positive impact in different aspects of your life. This ancient practice and belief is still being applied today and here are some methods where the art of balance and harmony can make a difference in a person’s life.

Using the Five Phases Method

The five phases method relies in the five elements or phases of fire, earth, metal, water and wood. These elements interrelate with each other through a creation cycle where fire produces earth, earth produces metal, metal produces water and water produces wood. Each element also corresponds to a particular direction where water is placed in the north, fire is the south, east is wood, west is metal and earth is the center.

The best way to apply this method is to make sure that your room or the space you live in has a balance of all these elements to produce good qi otherwise too much of a particular element might go against the other elements and produce harmful qi instead.

Using the Flying Stars Method

Probably the most difficult method to apply Feng shui is the flying star method which takes into account the date your house or office was built, a detailed floor plan and the outside environment of the place. It is similar to having a birth sign in astrology only this time it’s your property’s birth sign.

Although this method can be complex, it is the most accurate of methods and usually done by master practitioners of the craft. What this method aims to achieve is to harmonize your space by finding out the best elements to enhance it and the elements that need to be avoided.

Using the Eight Mansions Method

The most popular application of Feng shui is the eight mansions method or the Ba Zhai. This method requires you to calculate your kua number based on your birth date. This will help you determine your auspicious direction because each kua number corresponds to a particular direction.

This method aims to find out which directions are good for you and which to avoid. It also helps you find out if you are compatible with that particular area you’re living or staying in. Finding out the best direction for you and enhancing that space can help you become more productive in terms of career, relationships, health and luck.

Feng shui-Proof Your Life

Testimonies of the benefits of this ancient practice are many and its effectiveness can be traced from ancient times otherwise this practice would not have survived today. The concept is simple and everyone can benefit with some semblance of balance and harmony in their lives. It’s just a matter of recognizing the value of qi and making sure everything in your surroundings brings you peace.

The Yin and Yang of Feng Shui

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Is Feng Shui really friendly for all genders? While there is no question to the fact that it can invite some positive vibes into your home just by the mere art of rearranging your furniture and the orientations of your surroundings, it may actually reveal so much more about culture if one takes a good look at it.

For one thing, the Yin and Yang illustration is a very famous facet of Feng Shui. It simply states that opposites are necessary to be able to appreciate the beauty of things. You cannot appreciate the good without bad, light without darkness and so on. This theory of opposites and balance extends to the elements of the earth: water, wind, fire, wood and earth. These elements are also in balance if good Feng Shui is present.

Yin is often characterized with strength, viability and aggressiveness. More importantly, it is attributed to the masculine side of identity. On the other hand, weakness and femininity are interchangeably attributed to the Yang side, the softer side of things. Is this really a good thing? While it has been maintained that it is a world for the masculine, the main precepts of Feng Shui are actually more tailored to suit male, establishing them as the strong ones in the spectrum of life.

The Feng Shui concept is already organized in its scope. Any person you ask about Feng Shui may tell you its symbols: the bagua, the yin and yang diagram and the charms used by Feng Shui experts to cancel bad luck. However, the main concepts are not entirely original. The philosopher Heraclitus from Greece is credited for having first denoted the concept of having opposites. And consequently, psychology on colors and other visual media can also state some theories that are resonant with Feng Shui precepts.

Interestingly, there are more women drawn to the Feng Shui habit than men, who may or may not be conscious that they are actually supporting a form of belief system that establishes males as strong and females as weak. But other than the Yin –Yang concept, there is no other outward manifestation of this gender bias.

Is it really a good thing to believe in Feng Shui and apply it? The answer is relative. It depends on the person who is asking and the background under which he or she is raised. If you are born in an open-minded culture which holds less restrictions on what you can and cannot do, the applying of Feng Shui may be a non-issue. Meanwhile, if you are under a movement that opposes the main beliefs of Feng Shui, you may have to make a more substantial choice of lifestyle changes.

Feng Shui also has its own Yin and Yang to speak of. If you are really intent on ruminating on the deeper aspects of Feng Shui, you may have to dig deeper beyond what you see on promotional materials and even hate literature against Feng Shui. For the most part, Feng Shui is quite harmless in nature and it does not really explicitly cause major changes in one’s lifestyles or belief systems.

But if in case you choose to be more meticulous, you may find that analyzing beneath the layers of promotion of Feng Shui that there is more to it than just rearranging furniture.

The Wonderful Colors of Feng Shui

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Colors affect people in different ways. By using the right colors, you can strengthen the elements of Feng Shui. These wonderful colors are divided into cool which is Yin and warm which is Yang. There must a balance at all times because everything possesses these two components.

Aside from Yin colors being cool, it also represents healing and relaxation. To give you an idea, here are the colors.

• Blue has yin energy because it reflects love. It also creates a feeling of peace and trust. Since it is the color of both the sea and sky, Feng Shui experts associate it with adventure and exploration. Among the different shades of blue, navy blue is the color that best describes intellect and wisdom.

• Black symbolizes money and income. It is great for those who are focusing on their careers especially when this color is combined with metal. In Feng Shui, it is the color of emotional protection and power.

• Next is purple that lies at the end of the spectrum. In Feng Shui, it is associated with spiritual awareness as it is excellent for physical and mental healing.

• White represents confidence, poise and purity. Feng Shui experts use this color in combination with gold and silver as it generates a calm atmosphere.

• You also have green which is represents balancing, normalizing, nurturing and refreshing. It is the color of balance, harmony, healing and health in the emotional, physical and spiritual aspect of things.

Yang colors tend to be fire and wood elements. It is these colors that provide you with positive energy or enthusiasm and here are the colors.

• Yellow represents cheerfulness and friendliness. However, too much exposure to this color can be bad because it often leads to anxiety.

• Orange helps you strengthen your concentration especially in times when your creativity runs dry.

• Tan or being represents the colors of the earth. It portrays neatness and helps conceal emotion.

• Lavender is the color of sexual indecision. Feng Shui experts believe this color suggests an ability to be manipulated.

• Maroon is one of the shades of red. In Feng Shui, this represents indecisiveness.

There are other colors aside from those mentioned that represent Yin and Yang in Feng Shui. If you want to know more about it, do some research as this is written in books and also posted online.

As mentioned, these colors should be used in different combinations with other Feng Shui elements in order to balance the Chi. These elements are namely earth, water, fire, wind and metal.

Each of the colors above represents one of these elements and by making sure there is balance, you will be able to bring prosperity wherever you need it like in your home or for your business.

For instance, if you want balance in the bathroom, you shouldn’t add the color black as there is enough water already there. Doing so will cause an imbalance and surely you wouldn’t want that to happen.

The wonderful colors of Feng Shui can be used to your advantage depending on the energy you need. For you to achieve prosperity, you have to bring them into your home or office not only in the colors of the wall but also the furniture and décor as well.