Feng Shui Tips For Businesses

There are many ways that Feng Shui can help your business. The Feng Shui of your space has a big impact on your success even if your customers, patients or clients do not come to your place of business.  Here are some tips that can help you get the most out of your space and will help your business thrive.  Give them a try and let me know what happens!

Signs are one of the ways that customers and the winds of good fortune find you!  Signs not only literally direct people to your place of business, but they are an energetic invitation to the universe making it very clear that you are in business.

I have noticed that it is very challenging for people to get their signs to work for them.  More often than not a business will either have a sign that is hard to see or they have so many signs that it creates confusion.  Sometimes a business will have a nice big sign in the parking lot, but there is no sign on the building.  Make sure your signs clearly state what your business has to offer and that people can easily find the entrance to your business.  It is still important to have a sign even if your customers do not come to your place of business.  Drive around town or walk down the street and notice the signs.  Good Feng Shui is when a sign attracts your attention and invites you into the business.

If you have read my other articles in this column then you have probably figured out that taking care of clutter is always very important!  The area around the front door should be clear and open to allow customers and opportunities to easily enter your business.  Often businesses have very little room for storage.  This results in the bathroom or a back room getting piled high with boxes and stuff.  If you are familiar with this situation, notice how cluttered, crowded and unpleasant it feels in there.  Hidden places like this can have a negative impact on business.  These hidden areas of clutter are often in the back left corner of the building, which in Feng Shui is the area related to wealth.  Clutter in the wealth area of your business can inhibit the growth, success and prosperity of your business. 

Following these simple suggestions can help attract prosperity to your business.  You will find more tips on how to help your business by reading some of the articles on my blog.  The most helpful articles to read are The Mouth of Chi and Clutter Clearing From The Feng Shui Perspective.

Megan Montero 

831-420-1074

windandwaterblessings.com 

Feng Shui For Your Bedroom

We spend a large amount of our life in our beds!  This is why the Feng Shui of our bedroom is so important.  We can greatly affect our lives in a positive way just by focusing on this room.  The most important things to consider are the position of the bed, what you keep in your bedroom and the bed itself.

It is important to see the main door of the bedroom from your bed.  Having a commanding view of the door and room from our bed correlates with us having a commanding view of our lives.  Symbolically we can see our opportunities.  With our backs to the door we are aware on a subconscious level that an intruder would have the advantage.  This is not so much about fear but acknowledging that some part of us will be on guard with out a view of the door.  I have had many clients turn their beds and instantly the room feels better and people feel better sleeping in this position.  Give it a try!

Ideally keep the bed out of the pathway of a door, especially the door to the main room.  Doorways bring in the flow of energy to a room and it can be very hard on us to be directly in this flow.  The best place for a bed is against a solid wall with no window behind it, positioned so that you can see the main door to the room with out being in the path of a door.  It is not always easy to follow all of these guidelines at once because most architects did not design our bedrooms with Feng Shui in mind!  If following these principles is not easily done in your situation call a Feng Shui practitioner for the appropriate solutions.

Important things to consider about your bed:

• The strongest bed has a solid wood headboard securely attached to the bed frame.  I do not recommend foot boards because people usually end up bumping into them and find them annoying.
• Having your bed directly on the floor can contribute to “being stepped on” in life.  The strongest bed is up off the floor, with nothing underneath it, so that the chi can flow.  If you have drawers under the bed as part of the frame then keep neutral items there like sheets and blankets.

The bedroom is the most private room in the house and for this reason sometimes people neglect it or overcrowd it with stuff.  Change this perspective to the bedroom is the most important room to focus on!  Clear out the clutter, and make space for the chi to flow.  Take out stuff that has nothing to do with sleep, relaxation, intimacy and dressing.  Do what you can to keep your desk or computer (work) out of the bedroom.  What ever you do, have fun making your bedroom a nourishing place to retire to at the end of the day.

Megan Montero
831-420-1074
windandwaterblessings.com

The Mouth of Chi-Your Front Door

The Front door of a building is considered the “Mouth of Chi” from the perspective or Black Sect Feng Shui.  A building is the body of a “being” and the front door is its mouth.  The mouth is where all the nourishment of life comes in to keep the body (our home or business) healthy.  Keeping the body-building healthy helps to keep our whole lives healthy, happy and prosperous.  Good Feng Shui begins at our front door.

Our front door is the place where we connect to the world at large.  A front door that is easy to locate and welcoming is an invitation for prosperity and opportunity.  If your front door is hard to locate or neglected in some way you may not be receiving all the gifts and opportunities that life would like to bring.

Try this exercise to evaluate your front door.  Take a walk down your street approaching your home and forget for a moment that you live there.  Notice your first impressions of your home and front door.  Is the front door easy to find it?  Is the path to it clear and easy to get to?  Does your entrance uplift you and invite you in?  If you find that you have a moment of confusion as to where the front door is the Chi or life force energy that nourishes all of life may have a hard time finding you too.  Luckily there are easy solutions to remedy this.

Feng Shui Tips For Your Front Door: Using Sound, Color and Movement

• Make sure you can see your front door from the street.  Invite the “chi” to the door using color and movement if your door does not catch your attention(or even if it does).  A path lined with colorful flowers or a flag are good ways to achieve this.
• Keep the area around the front door clear and inviting.  Keep the path to the door clear.  Plants in colorful pots surrounding the door attract healthy energy but not if they are crowding the area around the door.
• Painting your front door an attractive color is a very affective way to make your door stand out.  Red is an auspicious color and good at attracting chi.  Green and black are other good colors to paint a front door.
• The movement and sound created by a wind chime or a water fountain will attract the chi to your front door.  Water represents the flow of money (which makes this solution even more auspicious) so make sure the water in your fountain is flowing towards your front door and not away from it.  A wind chime is only helpful if you like the sound of it.  Metal wind chimes are the most effective.

With Feng Shui it is always the priority to use solutions that lift your own chi and enhance the whole building or room.  All your front door enhancements should make you feel welcome and at home.

Megan Montero                         831-420-1074                        windandwaterblessings.com

Simplifying

I have been changing my relationship with my possessions and taking stock of what has value and meaning for me. I have discovered that my relationships and my work are the most meaningful parts of my life. Recognizing this is helping me pare down my material objects in an effort to simplify. In general I have been looking at how to do things more simply so I can have more time for what is meaningful.

The more I deepen my spiritual practice the more I can feel the hold my possessions have on me. The more I let go of things and work towards having space in my home for the chi to flow, the clearer my mind is and the more room there is in my heart to connect.  It is easier to do the work I am here to do.

I have been observing how having “things” requires time to take care of them. From the Feng Shui perspective it is important that we take the time necessary for the upkeep of our home and possessions. Keeping our home clean, clutter free and our possessions in good working order will help us lead healthier more prosperous lives.

Most people lead very busy lives and find they have little time to take care of their home. Usually the amount of things people have is much more than what they have time to take care of or have the room for.  This kind of relationship with home can interfere with the flow of our lives.

I often think the best thing I can do for my clients is to suggest the book, Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui, by Karen Kingston. This is such an inspiring book that will help you to see your stuff in a new way and will guide you through the process of letting go of what is no longer serving you.  I suggest reading it at least once a year because this is an ongoing process. If doing it alone feels overwhelming, call a professional organizer to help you. I recommend Shannon McGinnis at Organized 4 Success.

I feel that nature is asking us to take a look at the impact our lives have on the earth and all of life. It is time to re-evaluate what truly has meaning and value in our lives. This consciousness can start at home and will have as impact on the greater whole. Go through your drawers and closets with a new perspective and see if there is anything you are ready to let go of. Question everything to see if it has a use or makes you feel good in some way. Make each "thing" you keep a conscious choice. If something does not lift your chi, let it go.  Apply this perspective to how you spend your money and how you spend your time. Working with your home in this way will make your home a sacred space that will support you in your work and life.

For a phone or on site Feng Shui Consultation with Megan call (831) 420-1074

visit Megan's website at www.windandwaterblessings.com

Feng Shui For Real Estate

           Are you trying to sell your home? Are you wondering if it will ever sell? Applying Feng Shui to your property can increase your chances of a sale and help the process run smoothly. Feng Shui will help your property stand out and can correct energies that may be keeping buyers away.

            Feng Shui teaches us that our homes directly correlate with what is happening in our lives. When we change things in our home it can change things in our life. Some floor plans and inauspicious events like a suicide, bankruptcy or divorce can create negative energies that could keep prospective buyers away.

            One of my clients describes it best how Feng Shui can help sell a property, “My wife and I have bought and sold seven houses over the years, and working with Megan Montero brought about the easiest, quickest sale of a home ever. Our home had been on the market with little movement in a depressed market. We decided to work with Megan to make our home more appealing to prospective buyers. Through her work and completing the recommendations prescribed, we received an offer shortly for a cash purchase and a two-week closing. When we balked at the quickness of the closing (We had hoped 2 months), the buyer said that we could stay in our home rent-free for 2 and half months. The buyer did not ask for any concessions on our part.” 

Feng Shui tips that will help you find a buyer:

• Work on the entrance to the building. It will be difficult for the Chi that brings opportunities and your new buyer to find you if the front door is hard to locate. Flags, lights, painting the door red and plants in colorful pots are ways to invite the Chi to your door. If your eye is attracted to the front door, so will the opportunities and your prospective buyers. Do not crowd the space around the door, make sure it is easy to get to and that it can open all the way. Keep the entrance clean and the landscaping looking healthy.
• Clear your clutter. Really go through your stuff and let it go. You want flow and space in your rooms, around the furniture and in the closets. Flow equals wealth, opportunities and the right buyer.
• Do whatever you can to emotionally let go of your property. One of my clients was very sad about leaving his home of 20 years even though his new home was beautiful and on the water. He was holding onto it emotionally and the home was not selling. Once he said goodbye to the old home and acknowledged his excitement about his new home, he immediately received a good offer and his home sold! 

Applying these Feng Shui tips may be all the help you need to get your property sold. If you are really motivated to sell your property, call me for a thorough Feng Shui evaluation.

 (831)-420-1074. Visit Megan’s website at www.windandwaterblessing.com

A Little Change Produces Big Results

In my previous post I discussed the bagua map and how it relates our physical environment to different areas of our personal life. One of these areas is called, Helpful People and Travel and relates to our relationship with being a helpful person, having helpful people in our lives and to travel.  

Mary is a massage practitioner who contacted me for a Feng Shui consultation. She had been volunteering her massage services to people with cancer and these clients were continually canceling at the last minute or simply not showing up for the appointment. Mary loved being a helpful person by offering massage work in this way, but she was feeling frustrated with the lack of consideration for her time. The beauty in giving was becoming a burden.           

Mary lives in a small cottage that she loves and keeps it in good order. Her home has only one closet so she creatively made a closet for her broom, vacuum and other household items by using a screen next to the refrigerator. Because there really was not enough room for it, the screen was disrupting the flow of energy coming in from her front door and it created a block in the Helpful People and Travel area of her home. The position of Mary’s makeshift closet directly corresponded to her trouble with clients canceling and not showing up for appointments. I suggested that she remove her screened closet and get more creative about finding homes for these essential household items.

The results of this small change were profound and beautiful. Mary’s massage clients stopped canceling and not showing up. Mary also experienced an unexpected shift in the area of her life related to helpful people and travel. About a month after removing the screen she took a volunteer position with a nonprofit magazine published by her spiritual community. What began as a small job helping the subscriptions manager eventually grew into a creative position writing articles and interviewing people. Mary discovered that she has a gift for this type of work and she has found great joy interviewing people and writing. An added bonus to her job is the magazine paid her expenses to be a part of an important magazine meeting out of the country. The meeting was held at a place where many people in her community have been and she had always felt a longing to visit but thought she would never be able to afford to go there.  And now she was going all expenses paid! It was a huge gift and really a dream come true for her. The most recent development with her job is she was given a stipend for her work on the last issue of the magazine.

Mary’s experience with moving her makeshift closet is a profound example of how one small change in your home can bring about a positive change in your life that can continue to grow and change for the better over time.

How Our Home Reflects Our Life-The Bagua

The practice of Feng Shui recognizes that our homes mirror our personal strengths and weaknesses.  We often choose homes that reflect our individual challenges in life.  Working on the Feng Shui helps us change long standing issues and move forward with our goals.  If we don’t correct the Feng Shui then our best efforts at moving forward in life may be thwarted because our environment is holding that old pattern for us.  The mirror works both ways.  Sometimes people who are doing well in certain areas of their life find their success is reversed when they move their home or business to a place with bad Feng Shui.  This could happen quickly or slowly depending on the person.

In Black Sect Feng Shui we use a map called the bagua to show how our physical environment corresponds with our personal life.  The bagua is an arrangement of the eight trigrams.  Each trigram corresponds to different aspects of our life; Career, Self Knowledge and Cultivation, Family, Wealth, Fame and Reputation, Relationship, Children and Creative Projects and Helpful People and Travel. 

       

We take this map, the bagua, and overlay it on a building, site or room to match it with our physical environment.  The bagua will reveal the areas of strength and weakness of a site.  Bathrooms, leaky faucets, fireplaces, and clutter in certain areas of the bagua can have a negative effect.  Would you want to keep all of your clutter if you knew it was in your Wealth area inhibiting your prosperity?

            

If your home is an irregular shape then it may reveal that part of the bagua is actually outside your house or that part of your house is outside the bagua.  This would mean that you are missing an area of the bagua or one may be enhanced.  For example when a person’s home is missing the Wealth area they will usually have difficulty with their finances.  Missing any area of the bagua will correspond with having a lack of vitality and support in that area of your life because the chi is missing in the home.  Fortunately there are many Feng Shui solutions to correct missing areas and other energetic imbalances!  

            
A client of mine discovered that the side of her hundred-year-old house in her Wealth area was rotten and growing mushrooms.  As her partner was replacing the siding and laying a foundation because there was none to begin with, my clients ex-husband returned her phone call about some financial matters.  After years of saying no, he agreed to pay the back payments he owed her and was willing to create a much larger retirement account for her than she requested.  He was also willing to loan her mother the money she needed to complete her new house at a very low interest rate.  Sometimes good Feng Shui is as easy as taking good care of your house and cleaning it up!