Lillian Too - Lillian Too’s Smart Feng Shui For The Home - 188 brilliant ways to work with what you’ve got

Title Page Lillian Too’s Smart Feng Shui for the Home 188 brilliant ways to work with what you’ve got Lillian Too

Dedication dedication For my daughter Jennifer, and my nephew Han Jin - two beautiful people who give me much joy.

Introduction

Chapter 1 Smart Feng Shui Basics

Chapter 2 Feng Shui Makeovers for Interiors

Chapter 3 Applying the Five Elements to Enhance the Chi of the Home

Chapter 4 Personalizing Feng Shui Practice With Eight Mansions

Chapter 5 Special Feng Shui Tips for Apartments

Chapter 6 How to Use Color in Interior Feng Shui

Chapter 7 Special Feng Shui Notes for Living Areas

Chapter 8 Taking Note of Annual Afflictions to Your Feng Shui

Lunar Calendars and Index

Index

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

For my daughter Jennifer, and my nephew Han Jin - two beautiful people who give me much joy.

Feng shui does not have to be difficult for it to work. My approach to feng shui has always been based on this premise, so I always write with this in mind. I judge the success of my books not on how many copies they sell, but on how successful I have been in making feng shui easy to understand.

The key to good feng shui is of course to practice it correctly, so simplifying it means that I ensure that the essence of its concepts and fundamental theories is never sacrificed. Happily, when one’s knowledge of a subject has been tried and tested continuously, one emerges with a sharper and more accurate view of the subject; hence the task of simplification becomes easier.

In this book I have tried to create a window for you into the world of chi energy (what we Chinese call the dragon’s cosmic breath,) and share with you a fresh way of looking at the shapes and colors that surround you, and at the decorative objects and the art you hang on your walls. Hopefully, too, I can persuade you to assess the arrangement of your furniture with new feng shui eyes, and alert you to the hidden dangers in your home created by poisonous and killing energy in your space.

As you read about all the simple things you can do immediately to improve your feng shui, do not think that the Tips contained here are any less potent than those you read about in my more advanced books on feng shui. The practice of feng shui operates on many different levels. It has tremendous depth, and there are multiple layers of interpretation and subtle nuances of meaning. However, in my quest for deeper knowledge, I have discovered that the most spectacular success has been when I never forget to observe the simple guidelines of feng shui. Even when I practice the more complicated formulas, I find it is when I systematically break them down into bite-sized steps that I get things done correctly. And then feng shui seems to work for me in a most spectacular fashion.

This is what I am attempting to share with you in this book.

This book presents all the essential information you will need to feng shui your environment correctly and successfully. I have included simplified applications of formulas, arranged into manageable Tips, so you can use all of my recommendations with peace of mind. Even those of you living in the Southern hemisphere can practice the Tips as they stand – there is no need to change any of the directions given.

But do take note of some simple preliminaries. Read the first chapter carefully. Learn how to choose and use a good compass. Learn to take the directions of your house accurately. Learn how to demarcate the compass sectors of your home in the correct way. Familiarize yourself with the basic attributes and associations of the eight directions of the compass. Work through any mental blocks you may have against understanding numbers, and learn to love the Lo Shu Square. Develop a mental affinity with the eight basic trigrams so you know immediately what each stands for in terms of feng shui significance. And then you will be ready to begin.

This book highlights the most important practices and formulas that you can put to work immediately. I will show you how to make feng shui changes that are completely within your control, and which will not break your budget. This is not a book for the wealthy who can afford to completely demolish their homes and build anew from the ground up. This is a book for the majority of us who do have some physical and financial constraints, so we have to work with what we’ve got. It is especially suitable for couples who are beginning life together in a new home. I believe that things usually start to go bad in these relationships when the feng shui of their new home is out of sync.

Usually, they start out very much in love with each other. Things should not go wrong between them unless the chi energy that surrounds them causes arguments, misunderstandings, fights and, even worse, infidelity and a break-up of the relationship. So it is worthwhile getting the living space arranged in a way that is not only conducive to success, but also brings about continued happiness.

This book is also for young professionals just starting out on new careers and getting a taste of independence. For them it is a good idea to let feng shui help rather than hinder, especially when it is so easy to practice. If you live in an apartment and have little control over the larger environment around your building, you can try to do what you can to ensure that the small space represented by your home stays balanced, harmonious, and a haven from the vagaries of the outside environment. This way you make the best of what you’ve got.

Many of the Tips contained in these pages apply to the interior of your home, and to spaces that are within your control. You will, of course, come across feng shui afflictions where the cure suggested simply cannot be implemented in your situation. However, there is no need to panic when this happens. I want to assure you that no one in this world has perfect feng shui. Everyone has something or other wrong with their feng shui, so it is necessary to take a “big picture” approach. To do this, you need to consider two special feng shui concepts. These are the space dimension and time dimension.

The nature of chi is that it is continuously in a state of change. And so the chi of any living space is subject to small, but imperceptibly shifting, forces. The key to feng shui success is therefore to arrange your space as best you can, given the physical constraints of your home and the budgetary constraints of your pocket, and then to take careful note of the time taboos – the change of chi patterns that affect the energy of your home from year to year.

In Chapter 8 I have simplified the application of time dimensional feng shui forces that change each year (see Tips 182-188.) Overcoming the afflictions of time on your feng shui is not difficult to do. You simply have to observe certain annual taboos, and place specific antidotes to the afflicted sectors of your home, paying particular attention to those areas that feature strongly in feng shui manifestations of good and bad luck.