Practicing Feng Shui in the office and at home

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art and in its most simplistic form, it is actually the art of placement. The definition of Feng Shui (pronounced Fung Shway) is Wind and Water. This 5000 year old philosophy has finally come to the United States and it is spreading across all ages. I know this personally because I have been in many homes and businesses throughout the country. Generally, if the family is practicing Feng Shui in the office, they are also practicing the same at home.

The technique that practitioners use is to surround themselves with "auspicious" chi energy. They do this by looking at their surroundings with a discriminating eye. You have been in these surroundings many times, there just isn't a sign in the workplace or home that Feng Shui techniques have been used to create a balanced work or home area.

Picture yourself walking into an office to meet with an advertising professional that you would like to partner with in creating a new company. You walk into the building and it is non-descript and the signage on the new door is a simple sign... In my practitioner eye, I am already evaluating the area around the door. I knock on the door and I hear a loud noise as if something has crashed to the floor.

Externally, the building wasn't one that I would choose for a successful business and the internal loud noise set me off guard. The offensive noise was "clutter" that he knocked off of his desk in his haste to answer the door. His desk had so many items on it that I could barely speak to him about the potential of a business partnership. What are the chances of him and I being in a partnership together?

The most basic Feng Shui rules are to remain clutter free in your surroundings. Clutter is piles of unread books, piles of paper, and stacks of files sitting on the hard drive. If you have not cleaned your files in years in your office, you have created "shar" energy. Shar energy is the word used for "bad" chi energy. The area is stagnant and you have not left enough space in the files to allow new business to come to you. Symbolically, you have placed a stop sign on your office door and you are not allowing any new business to come into your life.

Your office should be as streamlined as possible to create a natural balance. This balance is what can make you or break you during those stressful moments of working on a project. Your desk should be positioned facing the door way. Your phone should be in a position of easy access, preferably on the right side of your desk, and your files should be easy to reach from your desk. Most of us are working 40 hours or more a week and we need to be as comfortable as possible. Look at the pictures on your wall and analyze them for a moment. What would others think of these same pictures?