Feng Shui For the Office

 By Erica Sofrina

Creating an inspiring work environment is an important factor in generating more abundance in your life. The more your spaces uplift and stimulate you, the more time you want to spend there and the more energy you put into what you are doing.

We spend a lot of our life at work. I don’t need to tell you how uninspiring an office full of faceless, featureless cubicles can be and how drastically that lowers morale.

Whether you work in a home office or in a big corporation, you can still do something to make your workspace more inspiring for yourself and raise your energy level or chi.

When you feel safe, comfortable and happy in your space your energy field expands. As a result people want to be around you. When people are drawn to you they naturally want to spend time with you and bring you opportunities. You thus might find doors starting to open, blockages starting to unblock and people offering you options that often translate into more money and more general abundance.

In this article we are going to investigate simple and inexpensive ways to revitalize your workspace by shifting the chi.

Safety

Our basic instinct is to be safe. It is in our DNA and a part of our genetic makeup. When you are sitting with your back to your office door you are going to feel disempowered and vulnerable. One key component in making us feel safe is to make sure your desk is placed in an empowered position facing the door. It’s also important not to sit directly in front of the door because chi flows strongly through doorways and you will never feel at ease. It would be like standing in a strong river current. It is too stimulating to sit in for long periods of time.

Here are some other ideas for how to place your desk and still be in the empowered position facing the door.

If you have a window and you want to enjoy the view, turn your desk to the side that allows you to see the door along with the view.

You can also bring a desk facing the wall out into the room and sit behind it, arranging printers and file cabinets behind you.

For those with built-in desks that can’t be moved, buy a rear view mirror with a sticky back (sold at auto supply stores) and position it onto the top of the monitor so that you can see what is happening behind you.

Another aspect of safety is physical comfort and prevention of injury. If you feel uncomfortable sitting at your desk and are straining or aching after a few minutes, hours or at the end of the day it is not set up correctly. If you are hurting as a result of working, the message your body sends to you is “don’t go in there, it is an unsafe place that will injure you.” This is why it is important that your office is set up ergonomically and that your chair, desk and computer are all at the right height for easy work.

A last area of safety is to make sure all cords are housed in safety runners so that people cannot trip and injure themselves. From the Feng Shui perspective if anything feels like it can be unsafe you won’t feel truly at ease in the space.

Besides the safety factor, clutter is also disturbing to us. A tangled snake pit of cords will disrupt our sense of serenity in the space. Roll them up, tie them up and drop them into an attractive container such a beautiful basket.

Nix the fluorescent lighting and bring in incandescent lights whenever you can. Even turning off half of the fluorescent lighting in your office and using a desk lamp will make a huge difference in your energy level at the end of the day. They may be energy saving but they are also energy sucking and are extremely draining to your energy field.

Protect yourself from EMF’s or electro-magnetic fields. This is a subject that deserves an entire article dedicated to it, but in short, studies have shown that EMF’s scramble and weaken our energy fields and are suspected to contribute to serious illnesses. However EMF’s are prevalent in our lives, especially in areas that use a lot of technology. Protect yourself by not sitting close to the back of a computer monitor and using laptops whenever possible. Use landlines rather than cell phones if you can. You can purchase devices and pendants that will help re balance your energy fields and that can be used on electronic equipment such as cell phones. Two tried and true products I recommend to clients can be found at these web sites: Gia Wellness and Omega products. Both are reputable companies that sell EMF protectors. You can find many more on- line.

Clear Clutter and Organize

I know this is always easier said than done. If you are overwhelmed by this piece, as many of us are, give yourself the gift of a professional organizer. Don’t berate yourself if this is not your forte. Hire someone who can instantly see how to arrange things in your office for maximum effectiveness. After this you will get the knack yourself and be able to continue on your own. Don’t underestimate the importance of asking for and hiring help, even for two hours. It can make a huge difference in your life. Offices are often the most disorganized spaces in hectic lives but order in this sphere is actually crucial to your success in the world. To take care of your physical environment also takes care of your mind, body and spirit.

12 Tips to End Clutter

Inspire Yourself!

Bring in art that you love. Even when your bookshelves are filled with those unattractive binders and manuals that you need for your jobs, juxtapose them with art and objects that bring you joy. Make sure your shelves reflect who you are and what inspires you in life. Make sure every object has its space so that it does not look like a haphazard arrangement of clutter.

Bring in Nature

At our essence we are ancient creatures who came from 100,000 generations of ancestors who lived in the natural world. Surrounding ourselves with objects and art depicting those origins are essential to mental and emotional well being, reminding us who we truly are. Studies have shown workspaces devoid of nature cause depression and lower productivity among workers. Commit to having beautiful plants or fresh flowers. Bring in a water feature and nature art and calendars depicting beautiful landscapes. Bringing in the five elements of wood, fire, earth, wood and metal is a key component of the Feng Shui teaching. In terms of your family pictures, a few are comforting but too many are distracting. Your workspace is for the development of who you are in the world and what your contribution to that world will be. Reserve the private spaces in your home to display images of your loved ones.

Bring in Environmental Affirmations

Use the important ‘real estate’ of your office walls for affirmations of what it is you want to bring into your work life. For more private home offices this is a great space for your career vision board. Create a collage with words and images of the true work you imagine doing, whether you are there or not. Your pictures and images create powerful environmental affirmations, sending this message continually to the conscious and subconscious mind. We must think it first in order to create it, so make it up and put it on your walls and watch it manifest in your life!

Offices are Yang Spaces

Offices are places where you want to generate energy and should be light, bright and happy spaces that by their color schemes contribute to lifting your spirits.

Remember that your office is your space for manifesting who you are in the world. Think of it as your altar to call in that energy in your life and let your imagination soar!

Yin and Yang, the Key to a Balanced Home

By Erica Sofrina

Have you ever been in a room that didn’t feel good to be in but you couldn’t figure out what was wrong? Chances are the Yin/Yang components were out of balance.

Yin and Yang is at the foundation of the Ancient Practice of Feng Shui. It has to do with the recognition that the universe is made up of opposite forces of energy, which cannot exist without each other. They are finely balanced and, like polar sides of a magnet, are innately attracted to each other.

The Yin/Yang symbol (picture at top) depicts two fish gliding together in perfect balance. Each carrying components of the other; the black fish with the white eye and the white fish with the black eye. The two swim together in perfect harmony creating a circle, the most ancient symbol depicting wholeness.

Feng Shui acknowledges that we are ancient creatures who naturally seek balance. If our living spaces are not balanced, our lives feel out of balance as well. By learning to work with the Yin and Yang components in our homes, we create supportive spaces that bring our lives back into harmony as well.

The concept of Yin refers to the feminine principle, which is passive, dark and yielding. Yang refers to the male principle, which is bright, active and extroverted.

In physical environments Yin objects would be reflected by circular shapes, darker more muted colors, lower darker rooms, upholstered furniture of soft chenille, velvet and corduroy fabrics, carpeting and area rugs, and smaller detailed prints. In building materials adobe, brick and stucco would be considered more Yin materials. In design history, the eras that incorporated Yin qualities would be the Victorian era, Louis IV and VI and the Baroque period.

In architecture the Bauhaus period in Germany from around 1919 – 1933 was the beginning of modernist design utilizing more Yang components. Slick glass and mirrors, metal and plastics, high, vast ceilings, bright angular spaces, bold stripes and geometric patterns, square, hard angular furniture without detail, flooring of hard woods, cement and tile, all reflect Yang design materials and features.

In balancing a home we want to first determine the use of the space and then incorporate the Yin and Yang qualities appropriate for it. Passive spaces should incorporate more Yin features and active spaces more Yang features. The key, however, is to make sure we always have some of both qualities and not an over abundance of either.

Yin rooms are the places you want the energy to calm down to support rest, relaxation and rejuvenation. Yin rooms would be bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, possibly family rooms and bathrooms.


In these rooms we would want to bring in more Yin features such as comfy furniture, more muted colors and lighting, plush fabrics and more detailed patterns and accessories. Having a bright, light ultra-modern bedroom with high ceilings and slick fabrics would not serve the occupants and will often translate to sleep disorders.

Yang spaces are the more active spaces such as children’s playrooms, kitchens, gyms, home offices, laundry rooms, family rooms (depending upon the use), hallways and garages. These spaces should incorporate more Yang components with brighter lighting, whites and/or bolder colors, more angular shaped furniture and accessories with less detail.

In using modern Yang qualities make sure to choose furniture with more rounded edges. Sharp-edged furniture is considered weapon-like in Feng Shui. It may be subtle, but you will never fully relax in a space that has objects that can injure you. Our homes always need to be ‘people friendly’ no matter the style of decor you are drawn to.

We also want to bring in all of the Five Elements, which include plants and things that are either from the natural world or represent nature. Ultra modern homes devoid of nature will never allow us to feel truly ‘at home’ because of our deep innate connection to the natural world.

The key is to have a balance of both Yin and Yang qualities in every room, emphasizing more Yin or Yang features depending upon the use of the room. Yang features will make the space more active and Yin features generate a more restful atmosphere. Make sure your design choices and styles are serving the people who need to occupy the space, and not the other way around.

Once we have achieved an appropriate Yin/Yang balance in each room, we will be well on our way to creating a balanced and harmonious home that supports, uplifts and nurtures our lives!