Feng Shui and Energy Flow, Part 2

The Feng Shui of Abundance
by Suzan Hilton

(Page 2 of 2)

The goal of feng shui is to create alignment and flow in all areas of your life. If your home office is in your Relationships Area, or if you have romantic pictures and flowers in your Wealth or Ancestors areas, those parts of your life will not be as harmonious as they could be until you realign some things and create more harmony. Even more revealing is where your Wealth Area is located in your living environment. It may be your bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, or another room; each holds a different energy and a different message about what you think, feel, and experience about abundance.

One businesswoman shared with me that a good relationship with her clients was more important to her than making a lot of money. I wasn't surprised to see a bathroom in the Wealth Area of her business space. The lidless toilet and open floor drain both allowed water, a symbol of the flow of money, to go down the drain, indicating its lack of importance in her business life. True to form, she made very little money with her business. I'll address cures and enhancements in Chapter 3.

To produce the best results, my focus is on what is efficient and effective. Many times the most effective method, that which results in the most positive outcome, starts with an indirect approach. The ability to see more than what is in front of your nose, more than the obvious, is the gift of the indirect approach, of metaphors and poetic language.

Three questions that lead to results you can count on are:

1. Am I breathing (full, deep breaths)? 2. Is my body moving and flexible, even in a subtle manner? 3. Am I emotionally and mentally ready to take the next step?

Creating abundance requires "yes" answers. Realizing that you are frozen or stuck in some way begins to release the blockages you are experiencing.

Feng shui may seem indirect as we begin this journey. It is a language of symbols and energy flow. These two things are not commonly associated with our Western education and experiences with money — unless you watch the stock markets. There the stock quotes are noted by symbols, in various combinations. The fluctuations in stock prices and number of shares changing ownership represent huge amounts of energy being added to or withdrawn from that moneymaking activity.

Rivers are currents of moving energy. Feng shui is a current of moving energy. Living in harmony with abundance requires that you move with the flow of all aspects of the current, mentally and physically, and stay flexible and alert so you can accept what you truly want when it comes into view.

Here is another indirect approach: Top salespeople are using their Creative Current when they post pictures of their career goals in plain view — vacation destinations, a new home or vehicle, whatever their heart desires. When they have placed that picture in the correct feng shui area, their Career Area of their work space, they can literally see the abundance that lies ahead. Salespeople who use this technique have consistently better results than those who don't use it. Try it out for yourself.

Robert, a computer programming consultant, found an old goal list one Saturday, while cleaning out his files. "I had been wondering when I would meet my current income goal when I came across this list. I realized that I now had twice the number of clients and more than twice the income I had when I created the list only two years earlier. I had to laugh as I noticed that I had passed that 'finish line' without any acknowledgment on my part. I then wrote in my calendar a semiannual goal of check-ins and a week's vacation with my wife as well." Goals have both due dates and celebrations. The journey can be fun!

Some Fundamentals

Here are some concepts that are fundamental to understanding both feng shui and flow. They are immediately useful and essential to your understanding of metaphors as the book progresses. Feng shui is the language of symbols. Think "symbols" and see pictures in your mind. The symbols are not the thing itself, but they are how we communicate with written and spoken words.

Ch'i. Ch'i is energy and breath to the Chinese. It is the life force, the cosmic energy that is around and in everything, the energy that moves water and creates waves, that causes things to grow, the sun to shine, and the earth to turn. To the Western mind, it is often attributed to God or the Creative energy of the Divine Spirit. I use it in both ways, combining the Eastern feng shui with the Western approach to creativity and movement. For both traditions, ch'i is what is unseen and yet causes movement and growth in all areas, humans, plants, animals, businesses . . . wealth and abundance.

Ch'i circulates and pulsates on the earth, and in humans, plants, and animals. Healthy ch'i flows harmoniously and is in dynamic balance. Too much ch'i, too much energy and movement, and you can have a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, or flood. Too little ch'i, too little breath and flow, and things stagnate and die, as in a desert or swamp. Focusing on your own breath and on the movement of air in your environment are ways of tuning in and sensing the flow of ch'i.

Yin and Yang. The Chinese concept of yin and yang (yin and yawng) represents the two energies that govern the movement of energy, the ch'i. From the circle, the oneness, they emerge as opposites that compliment each other and are held in dynamic balance. These energies flow from one to the other to create movement and the beginning of patterns. In the West we call them polar opposites. Yet nothing is truly totally the opposite. The Eastern approach recognizes this with the dot of the opposite within the main body of each. Each is found within the other, interdependent and interrelated. And when they are balanced they easily create flow.

While yin and yang originated in Asia, there are Western counterparts. In a text that is esteemed by many people in the West, we have "the Spirit, breath or wind, moving upon surface of the deep waters," (Genesis 1:1 and 2), and from that movement an enormous creativity flowed. So the symbol also works for a very basic Western concept of something intangible, Spirit or breath, moving or touching something tangible, water. Again, "wind and water" interact in a Western context. In the West we are beginning to recognize that nothing is ever truly black and white. There is always something else to consider when things appear to be cut and dried. Both the Eastern and the Western approaches include the mystical and transcendental, that which cannot be totally explained by the rational, the logical.

Copyright © 2001 by Suzan Hilton, CPA. Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

About the Author

Suzan Hilton is a former certified public accountant who worked her way up from small accounting firms to large international ones. She now works with people to transform their homes and office spaces. Hilton lives just outside of Portland, Oregon.