Life can often seem overwhelming, with no way to relieve the anxiety, stress, or negative situations that make up the average day. When we consider the many ways to improve our quality of life, we rarely consider a garden as a possibility, much less a specific gardening style, as the best option. However, the feng shui gardening style is a perfect opportunity to bring balance to the chaos that often surrounds us.
Introduction to Feng Shui Gardening
Feng shui is not as much an art form as a way of life, and it is not a new or modern innovation. The Chinese have been practicing feng shui in homes and gardens for thousands of years, mastering the art of allowing positive chi to flow and blocking negative chi from your life whenever possible. By balancing the elements and baguas, or zones, that are important parts of life, you can achieve harmony and peace for your home or garden.
The feng shui garden style is all about contrasts and similarities, from colors to artwork. There is no right or wrong way to design a feng shui garden, and if you have done some basic research you can represent the elements and baguas in the right places and maximize your positive chi flow in your garden area. Accessories are key to a feng shui garden, and there is room for almost anything with this unique style.
Feng Shui Terminology
In order to improve your life with a feng shui garden, start by learning how to create your feng shui garden the right way. While there are no real "rules" per se, there are some basics that you should know when you get started. You do not have to worry about the right plants, trees, or flowers, but you should understand how to lay out your baguas so as to get the right flow in your feng shui garden.
There are nine zones (baguas) in a feng shui garden, each of equal importance. Baguas have specific colors or emotions that coordinate, and these need your attention in order to be successful. If you do things correctly, you will notice drastic improvement in your decision-making abilities, improved job performance and profitability, clearer thinking, and an overall advancement to your quality of life.
The nine baguas and representing colors:
- Wealth (purple)
- Reputation (red)
- Love (pink)
- Health (green)
- Self (yellow)
- Creativity (white)
- Knowledge (blue)
- Career (black)
- Travel (gray)
Almost as important as the baguas, there are five symbols that are represented within the baguas. They are:
- Wood
- Earth
- Metal
- Water
- Fire
You can use a variety of accessories to represent each of these symbols, such as attractive water features, outdoor fireplaces, live plants, rock art, and metal works of art. For everything that you find beautiful in a garden, there is a means of representing it with the feng shui garden, and in the process, you will discover benefits to your quality of life in ways you may never have imagined before.
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