SPRING IS HERE AND WITH IT COMES RENEWED ENERGY. Are you feeling as vibrant as you possibly can? Flowers can help!

“Flowers are one of the easiest ways to uplift the Chi in our homes. They provide us with a sampling of nature’s wonder and beauty and help us stay connected with the natural world.” — Terah Collins

The brief rains gave life to my garden, and my roses now look as if they are on steroids. I am surrounded by their beauty and fragrance. Observing the spectacle, I am also reminded of their healing power.

For centuries flowers have been used for medicinal purposes, but in Feng Shui the act alone of surrounding yourself with flowers and placing them in auspicious areas of your home is known to improve your health and increase your energy.

Flowers are living, breathing entities that offer us the balance of nature. Your home and garden reflect your personal energy; when healthy and beautiful, they can enhance and energize you — if diseased and uncared for, they can contribute to draining you.

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art that seeks to balance energies within a space to promote happiness, health and good fortune. All of us can benefit from creating a beautiful and aesthetically pleasing environment within our homes. Flowers play an important role in Feng Shui; their strong colors, beauty and life can draw powerful Chi into your home. Fresh flowers are ideal, but artificial ones work as well, as long as they are kept clean and fresh looking.

Flowers add enhancements wherever you place them, but are especially powerful in two locations:

• At your home’s entrance, called “the mouth of Chi,” to welcome the positive energy; and

• In the Health/Family/Friends area, to imbue good health.

In Feng Shui, the Bagua (Ba-gua) Map comes from the Chinese philosophy “The I Ching,” and literally means “eight trigrams,” with the center as the grounding area. The entrance quadrants are the three sectors at the front of your home, while the Health/Family/Friends area is located at the left middle side.

Enhancements for your front entrance: Welcoming of energy

The easiest way to begin shifting the energy in your home is by refreshing your front entrance and adding an abundance of healthy, flowering plants. Apply the Bagua map on your landscape footprint. You will be entering your property from Knowledge, Career or Helpful People. Enhancing the entrance to your home and garden with healthy plants, water features, greeters and curving walkways is one of the most important things you can do to invite energizing Chi to your life, and enhance any of these three areas.

The word entrance means to “En-Trance” your guests as they enter your home. Make this a beautiful area using the power of flowers.

Flowers are important for all of the three entrance locations, but specific enhancements such as the ones below promote energy to the Bagua areas.

Enhancements for entrances in Career Area

• Soft, colorful, flowering plants; reds are particularly auspicious

• Water features such as 360-degree bubbling fountains, or with water flowing toward the house

• Pots in shiny, dark colors

• Wind chimes, and curved paths or asymmetrical lines

If you’re looking for your career to take off, then you might want to keep a vase of orchids in your home to promote opportunity and success. Orchids are said to be powerful Chi enhancers, so I bring orchids as a gift for anyone moving into a new home.

Enhancements for entrances in Knowledge and Self-cultivation Area

• Colorful, healthy plants with rounded, soft leaves

• Wooden benches

• Large rocks

• Statues representing spiritual guides

• Gazing balls, and items that create a quiet, meditative feeling

Enhancements for entrances in Helpful People and Travel Area

• An abundance of white flowers

• Garden art representing spiritual guides, or desired travel locations. (We have a colorful pole with signs pointing to all the places we’ve traveled.)

• Statues of birds, sundials

• Metal items such as a metal bench

Remember that the flowers in your entrance reflect your personal energy. Look to your entrance to see what’s shifting in your life.

Enhancements for your Health/Family/Friends Area, and for improving health

The energy in your home can help you achieve better health. The Health/Family/Friends area is particularly associated with “strength and good health.” The healthier we are, the more options we have to enjoy life.

Enhancements in this area are particularly helpful if your health needs a boost, or if you’re planning or recovering from surgery. This is a very powerful area, and flowers are especially helpful.

Enhancements for enhancing the Health/Family/Friends area inside your home or business

• Fresh-cut flowers or flowering plants in all colors

• Posters, paintings, photos and/or collages of ideal body images in a healthy state (such as people exercising or being active), healthy plants and flowers, gardens and landscapes

• Items in the colors of blue and green

• All floral prints, such as floral linens, upholstery, and wallpaper

• All things made from wood, including furniture and decorations

• Quotes, affirmations and sayings pertaining to ideal health and family

Creating Vision Areas to enhance health

If someone in your home is having health challenges or is going through or recovering from surgery, activating the energy in the Health Area of your home is very important. You can do this easily by:

• Decluttering the area

• Placing near them a healthy flowering plant or a bouquet of flowers (remember, vibrant artificial flowers work just as well)

• Placing pictures of the person in a healthy state enjoying sports or exhibiting health and joy

• Burning blue or green candles

• Writing or stating affirmations of the positive outcome.

If you have a two-story house, do this in the Health Area of both stories; for a more powerful cure you can also place flowers in the Health Area of every room.

Affirmations and inner work

Remember that in Feng Shui, intent plays a significant role in enhancing any area of your home or business. That’s why all enhancements need to be made with intentionality; written or stated affirmations are very important. It is also important for them to be expressed as if they are already happening.

Examples or affirmations for health and positive energy:

“I am a vibrantly healthy person”; “My medical procedures have been successful and I am now pain-free and thriving”; “I am blessed with positive energy and good health.”

Feng Shui at work

A student in one of my classes was concerned about her health issues and lack of energy. Once she applied the Bagua to her home, she discovered that her Health Area was in her master bedroom closet. She was horrified to discover that her cluttered, messy closet was keeping her from achieving the vibrant health she desperately needed, so she began a cleaning and decluttering regimen, donating many items (thereby giving them new life) and allowing herself the luxury of an empty shelf. She placed a lovely bouquet of silk flowers on the shelf, hung a green, 30mm, round-faceted crystal, and added a floral wallpaper strip at the top of the closet. All along she stated positive affirmations.

Now she loves the changes in her life. She is nourishing her energy each time she steps into her closet. While decluttering, she found renewed energy and is now walking on a daily basis, eating better, feeling much healthier and planning on nurturing other areas of her home.

In times when we have had medical issues or procedures that require extra blessings, I add pictures of us in a healthy state (running or hiking) and bring in a small flowering plant and affirmations. Once the issue is remedied, which has always been the case, I plant it in my garden.

A client had her Health area in her garage. Each time she pulled in with her car, the first thing she saw was the hot water heater, furnace and cat box. This was draining her on a daily basis. I recommended placing a bamboo screen in front of the hot water heater and furnace, attaching posters of healthy flowers and medicinal herbs, moving the cat box and placing a large flowering orchid plant on the workbench. She did all this and also decluttered the garage. Now each time she drives in, her energy is nourished rather than drained. I see her at the gym on a regular basis and she looks great.

Feng Shui on a shoestring

Feng Shui enhancements do not have to cost a great deal. Clearing your entrance of dead or diseased plants will halt negative energy from coming into your life. Add just one beautiful, healthy, blooming plant to your Health Area, make your affirmations and watch the shift occur.

For questions or home consultations, email me at mtmccull@aol.com and put “Feng Shui” on the subject line, or visit my website at fengshuibymaria.com, where you can read past columns, or Facebook “Feng Shui by Maria,” where I post pictures as examples to enhancements.

And check out my blog! Just go to the website and click on “Blog” and you can view many pictures, and I will respond to your questions quickly.

Come to my next class through Parks and Recreation and receive $40 off a home consultation. The class, “Balancing the Elements,” will be held Saturday, July 26 from 9 a.m. to noon. The Parks and Recreation Guide is now available, if you’d like to register. Mark your calendars and invite friends.

Until then … Blessings!

Benicia resident Maria McCullough is the owner and founder of Feng Shui by Maria (www.fengshuibymaria.com). She is a speaker and educator with more than 15 years’ experience specializing in residential, landscape and business consultations.