“The highest level of performance comes to people who are centered, intuitive, creative and reflective – people who know to see a problem as an opportunity.” — Deepak Chopra

How grounded and connected to your center are you feeling right now? Are you at peace with your decisions and comfortable with you life’s flow? If not, what can you do to improve that? Feng Shui can help!
The more I delve into the world of Feng Shui the more grounded I feel. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of helping many clients enhance their homes, have met many enthusiastic learners in my classes and have enjoyed sharing the knowledge with you through my columns. Together we have learned the importance of the eight trigrams of the Bagua in our lives.
Now it’s time to address the “hub” of the wheel – the core of the Bagua. Not one of the eight trigrams, but what’s known as “The Center”. This is the most powerful area because it grounds and energizes the rest of your life’s treasures. You can nurture your ability to remain centered through life’s many changes by directly connecting with the earth element through this part of your home every day.
In the Feng Shui the Bagua comes from the Chinese philosophy, “The I Ching,” and literally means “eight trigrams.” In the “I Ching” the Center area of your home or business is a neutral place; a perfect balance of yin and yang – a place of peace. There is no trigram or any single facet of life associated with it. Life flows and circles around the center. This is a perfect place for an atrium, a meditation area, a beautiful piece of art which reminds you to stay centered throughout all your activities.

The element for the Center is Earth, suggesting the importance of arranging your life around a solid base. It is related to the color yellow and symbolized by the shape of the square or rectangle. Enhance this area when you want to cultivate the experience of being grounded and centered, or when you want to harmonize and balance different parts of life such as Love and Career, or Wealth and Creativity.
Enhancements for enriching the interior Center of your home or business: *Art, photos, collages representing the earth, landscapes in the color yellow, (fields, sunflowers, deserts etc.)

* Items in the yellow color spectrum

* Things made of ceramics or pottery

* Ceramic tiles or bricks

* Items in the shape of rectangles or squares

* Quotes, affirmations and sayings pertaining to feeling grounded and centered
Enhancements for enriching the Center area outside your home or business:
* This is an ideal area for a courtyard, patio or atrium

*Garden art and statuary in ceramics

*Ceramic tiles, fountains, pots and benches
* Items, flowers, plants in the yellow spectrum
* Square or rectangular shapes

Feng Shui at Work:

A client recently had me help create a landscape for their back yard. They felt that this yard with a gorgeous view was not inviting to their guests. Ideally this area fell in the Center and Fame areas of their property. I recommended beautiful ceramic pavers for the patio ground, and a small retaining wall with some bricks. They wanted to create a welcoming area in the center by building a fire pit in the middle of the patio. To further enhance the Fame area and feed the Earth with Fire I recommend comfortable chairs with red tone cushions, and ceramic pots all around with yellow and red plants. As I had anticipated, it has become a lively “hub” for entertaining, and new friends have entered their lives.
Many people have the kitchen in the center of their home. This is an extremely auspicious location because the kitchen is known as the “hearth” of a home and in itself can feed the soul and act as a grounding force. A client has her kitchen in this location and painted it a saffron color, enhancing it with ceramic tiles, yellow candles and art in the gold spectrum. It feels cheery and is the heart of her home.
Oftentimes a stairwell or bathroom will occupy this space. Although neither are optimum, enhancements can be made to offset negative energy. Stairwells tend to pull the Ch’i down, or flow the Ch’i out. Therefore mirrors or a round faceted crystal can be placed the bottom of the stairs to send the flow of energy back up and circulating throughout the home. Bathroom drains should be kept closed at all times when not in use, a crystal in the center of the bathroom also helps circulate the Chi. Both of these areas benefit from ceramics, art and wall colors in the yellow spectrum and rectangular and square shapes.
The Center is strengthened when we create harmonious spaces to live, work and connect with the earth; this in turn helps to cultivate a sense of being grounded and centered within ourselves. As Deepak Chopra said, this is when we can reach the highest level of performance.

Affirmations

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 as well as for them to be expressed as if they are already happening. Examples or affirmations for the Center area:
“I feel centered and grounded at all times”, “I feel am safe and secure,” I am at peace with myself and my decisions.”

Feng Shui Works – Testimonial:
After consulting with this client on both her business and her home, she was so satisfied with her results that I received three more referrals from her. Then she wrote this testimonial for my website. It works!
“Right after we moved to our new home and new office in 2012, we ran into quite a few obstacles in our business. We elt unhappy and stressed out with the negative energies and no matter how we tried, it was an uphill battle to get things in order. A friend recommended us to try Maria’s Feng Shui consultation. Maria was easy to work with and she immediately identified a few key issues in our home and our offices. She gave us a thorough report on the areas that we need to work on to achieve the results that we were looking for. Her recommendations were not radical or hard to do. My husband and I were surprised by the positive changes in our personal and professional life in just over a year’s time after we implemented the improvement Maria recommended. Our business has a big turn around and we are much more relaxed and happy in our new home. Even our daughter had much better luck in her love life. Maria is great! We are a strong believer now and I have recommended Maria’s service to several of my friends. We will consult with Maria again when we are ready to sign our new office lease! “
We now have completed the Bagua. You can review any of the areas in past columns on my website:
http://www.fengshuibymaria.com/newspaper-columns.html
For questions or home consultations email at mtmccull@aol.com and put “Feng Shui” on the subject line, or visit my website at www.fengshuibymaria.com, (where you can read past columns), or Facebook “Feng Shui by Maria”, where I post pictures as examples to enhancements.
* I have a BLOG – Just go to the website and click on “Blog”: You can view many pictures and, I will respond to your questions quickly.
Until then…Blessings!
Maria McCullough, is the owner / founder of Feng Shui by Maria (www.fengshuibymaria.com) and is a speaker and educator with over 20 years of experience. She specializes in residential, landscape and business consultations. She is a graduate of the Western School of Feng Shui and has personally trained with Terah Kathryn Collins, founder of the Western School of Feng Shui, specializing in Essential Feng Shui® and author of numerous books including “The Western Guide to Feng Shui.”

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