The Spiritual Feng Shui newsletter Issue 15 March 2008 Spring Has Sprung Every Flood Starts With? Also: Feng Shui Tip Inspirational Quotes Dear Friend, Welcome to The Spiritual Feng Shui newsletter for March 2008; it is good to have your company, as always! This month we get out of the house after the long cold winter, and bring the practice of Feng Shui into the fresh spring air. The outside of our house is not often thought about, as it isn?t constantly seen ? but there are many ways you can improve your life by improving the chi of your outdoor areas. What better time of year to start thinking about it, too?! Now that the ice on your pet?s water bowl has cracked, we look at the best sorts of water features to use in your yard, and Feng Shui guidelines. We also have inspirational quotes and Feng Shui tips, as usual. May peace and harmony reign for you in March. 0x Feature Article: Spring Has Sprung - The sun is shining and the birds are singing ? and you are in the garden, working on your home?s Chi! 0x Q&A: Every Flood Starts With? - Feng Shui?s perspective on the best water features to use 0x Feng Shui Tip ? Eating Your Greens, Your Yellows, Your Reds? 0x Inspirational Quotes Enjoy! Mike Z. Wang Author of The Spiritual Feng Shui Thespiritualfengshui.com Unit 616, 220 Lake Promenade, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, m8w1a9 Feature Article: Spring has Sprung! ________________________________________ You?ve been curled up in a ball on the sofa for most of the last three months ? getting very familiar with soapie characters, and up-to-date with every current event and world issue. Now, though, the sun is getting up a little earlier in the day, the thermometer is making its way lazily upwards, and there are tiny gorgeous little curled up green bits poking out of the brown earth and branches. Hurrah! Spring has sprung. There is no better time to be outside, and making Feng Shui improvements to the exterior of your home. The outside of your home has a great effect on your career success and the integrity of your reputation, but it can also have an impact on your knowledge and education, as well as your wealth and prosperity. Here we have some great ideas for outdoor Feng Shui projects, to get you some fresh air and fresh life influences. The guas most connected to the exterior of your home are your fame and reputation gua, and your career and success gua. This makes sense when you think about it ? your reputation is intimately connected to the image you project, which comes mostly from the outside of your home. This image can also have a huge impact on your work and career, where impressions can be everything, and you need to relate properly to people around you. You can also influence your wealth and prosperity by enhancing the exterior of your home though ? both indirectly, through enhancing your career success, but also directly, as your home?s plumbing and electrical wiring form part of your home?s wealth energy. And if you create an outdoor zen garden, it is your education and knowledge gua that will benefit. An easy tip to benefit the rest of your housed, before you head outside ? if it is a nice enough day to work outside, it is no doubt a nice enough day to have your windows open ? a fresh Chi injection for whatever room you do it in! On your way outdoors, head past the broom cupboard and grab something to dust away cobwebs with, a cloth for washing windows, and a rake for any remaining winter or autumn leaves ? you can add whatever enhancements you like to the exterior of your home, but if it is not clean first it will just look like you have added extra mess! The outside of your home probably gets the least cleaning attention, but you (and your career!) will definitely appreciate all the hard work once it is done. Pack away any toys or tools that aren?t constantly used, sweep the paths and rake any stray mess off the lawn. It will instantly feel like a new yard ? but this is only the beginning of the fun! Your green plants will just be starting to wake up if they are deciduous, or be unfurling baby shoots to grow throughout the year if they are evergreen. Trim your hedges and prune your trees, as well as weeding your garden beds ? this is all part of removing the clutter from the outside area, so you have a clean slate to work with in improving your reputation and your career. Then while you have your gloves on, and you?re covered in dirt already(!), you could look at taking some cuttings from suitable plants, to put in pots indoors. Placed in your whichever gua you like, living plants are always a great enhancement. There will also be plenty of flowers about at this time of year ? pick some to enjoy when you are inside, and the Chi of your home?s interior can benefit too! If you are specifically trying to improve your prospects in your career, then anything that moves or is activated by the wind is a great enhancement. Try wind chimes ? if you place them outside a window you are regularly near while you are inside the house, you can enjoy them even when the weather is not this nice! Just make sure the chime sounds nice the tenth time you hear it, as well as the first time ? the wind doesn?t stop just because your chimes are driving you batty! If you enjoy peace and quiet more than music, an alternative would be to either buy, or make flags, windsocks or banners that will wave in the wind and create a feeling of color and life in whatever corner of the yard they occupy. An outdoor Zen garden is not just a one-off project ? you can set them up to be made and then re-made. Zen gardens are one of those wonderful things that somehow make work seem like a leisure occupation! If you are making an outdoor one, remember to border it somehow ? either with logs, timber, rocks or bricks. Put down weed matting first, to keep the sand or gravel of the bottom free of unwanted intruder plants (!). Add your rocks and other ornaments, and then make sure you buy a cover for it, so that birds and cats don?t ruin it by using it as a bathroom? And above all, enjoy the fresh, warming air, the sunshine tickling your face, and the cool relief of shade in trees with newly grown leaves ? beautiful! Q&A: I?d love to use water in my garden ? so many Feng Shui remedies recommend it. But I don?t have room for a pond ? what do you recommend? ______________________________________________________________________________________ You?re right, water features are often listed as a useful enhancement, for all sorts of Feng Shui problems. Water is the ruling or producing element for 4 guas, but whatever area it is in, it can bring energy and life and balance Chi. While ponds are handy for keeping fish in, they are definitely not your only choice when it comes to adding water to your outdoor areas. In fact, if you want to enhance your career gua with your outdoor water, it is preferable not to use a simple pond ? stagnating water will make your career prospects stagnate also! Electrically powered water features are available from both home and garden stores, and hardware stores, and come in sizes to suit everybody! Larger water features, especially ones with a decent area for the water to collect in before it is pumped to the top again, can serve two purposes. They can either attract bird life to your garden and thereby increase the Chi of whatever area they are placed in; or they can be home to some fish. The positive effect is the same ? it just depends which animal you prefer! A couple of considerations though ? if you want to keep fish in your water feature, they obviously have to be fed and looked after, whereas birds do all this for themselves! Also, if you want to keep fish in your water feature, make sure it isn?t too shallow ? or your fish bowl will become a bird feeder, and won?t last long as an aquarium. If it is too shallow your fish may also be swept over the sides ? only for thrill-seeking aquatic life! You don?t need to be limited to the water features that you can buy ready made though ? just a couple of handyman skills, a water pump and a source of electricity is all you need ? along with your imagination of course! You can make waterways that traverse the length of your yard, or that completely fill up a corner, or ones that follow your ordinary walking path around the yard. It would also be a great idea to look into using solar power for your water feature ? you could either buy a ready made solar-powered feature, or the cells and the wiring to hook it up yourself. Great for Feng Shui, and great for the environment too! Your home may include an outdoor area as a gua, depending on its size and shape ? if this is the case, this is an optimum place to put your water feature, to attract Chi to the area. They are also a great way to help deal with missing guas in your home. Enjoy! Feng Shui Tip: Eating your Greens, Your Yellows, Your Reds ? _______________________________________________________________ Spring is a time when there are plenty of delicious, crispy vegetables in season, and especially cheap! Spring vegetables are great for your health, and also for your Feng Shui ? they bring the energy of bright colors and fresh life to the inside of your body as well as the inside of your home. Small vegetable or herb gardens can be started in pots ? you don?t need a huge amount of space or money. Alternatively, just spend a bit of time in the fresh produce section of your supermarket, finding brightly colored treasures to bring home! Inspirational Quotes _____________________ Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states. ~Carol Welch Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. ~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard in Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables. They probably get jet-lagged, just like people. ~Elizabeth Berry