I have started being active in a very popular feng shui forum to be in the `battlefield’, so to speak, to understand first-hand what struggles people are facing with aligning their way of life with the wisdoms of feng shui.

What I realize is, while observing the questions that go around in the forum, is that most of them are exactly where I was just years ago – trying to practise feng shui and improve my life based on misguidance and getting little or no results.

It dawned on me that there are many levels to practising feng shui, and the more detailed it gets the better the results will be. For this I will use the analogy of trying to lose weight to feel better about yourself.

Now I’m sure many of us have been there before.  You stand in front of the mirror and you hate how your clothes look on your body. We skim books and magazines, and tv shows such as “What Not To Wear” to get tips on what works for our body type, what hides our flaws, and what accentuates our assets. Armed with this info we go clothes shopping, maybe even go to a saloon for a hair and makeup makeover. This is addressing issue at its most superficial level. You’ll look better and maybe start having a spring in your step after the makeover, but once you take off the clothes and the makeup, the reality is the unhealthy body is still there. This is equivalent to practising feng shui based on new age feng shui that puts a lot of emphasis on the bagua where you have the relationship corner, the wealth corner, the career corner etc… You start to feel the energy shift around you… you see little bits of synchronicities popping up, and you are buoyed with confidence. That’s Level 1.

Now, in Level 2 you start to watch your diet. You cut out the sugar, the salt, the unhealthy processed foods…. you start feeling better, your pants feel a little less tight. Same thing with feng shui. If you don’t incorporate the time dimension of feng shui into your practices, you will start seeing the little bits of improvements come screeching to a halt. Why? Because nothing is stagnant. Everything around us is energy, and energy is always moving. Each of the locations are also affected by the time dimensions which not only changes yearly, but also monthly and daily. If you try to activate your wealth corner but don’t suppress the negative energy affecting it that year or month ( it’s too hard to observe it daily and personally I don’t think you need to ), your progress will be greatly hampered. That’s Level 2.

Now… Level 3. This is where you realize while it’s great that you watch your diet and you see the pounds melting off, you want to see progress much faster than it is now. As much as you hate it, you need to exercise. The analogy for this level in feng shui is equivalent to getting a practitioner to do a professional audit of your house – not just the internal environment but also the external environment as well. You see results much faster and at a more substantial level.

Level 4. This is the biggie. A lot of good looking people out there, while they look great on the outside,  they still feel lousy inside. How many times do we see celebrities confess that they have low self esteem, or are unhappy? Level 4 in feng shui is in having your bazi / paht chee chart done. Sometimes afflictions are not only in your home, it is in your birth chart as well. Once remedies are put into place after a bazi / paht chee chart, negative events that were supposed to come your way can be mitigated either partially ( or with enough lead time ) even fully, and whatever good energy in your chart can be strengthened in your favor.

I hope you see where I’m trying to get to here. Of course we do our best, with the feng shui knowledge that we have now. Doing something is better than doing nothing at all. But to quote Maya Angelou, “when we know better, we do better”.

If your feng shui practise is not giving you the result that you want, it is time to ask yourself if you’re doing it right, and if you need to take it a step further.

Please leave me with your comments, and if you feel this post has been helpful please forward it to friends and tweets!