A little way back, say 3000 years ago, while scouting the best places to plunk their palaces, Chinese Royalty began to notice something a bit peculiar. They noticed that those who lived on land and in homes that were laid out, decorated and positioned in a certain way, always seemed to attract more wealth, health, luck and love than those living in homes and on land with stifled, poorly flowing, generally mucked up arrangements.
This was probably the start of “keeping up with the Joneses.”
It was also the birth of Feng Shui.
A few millennia later, the Western world and their royalty (ahum, Meghan and Harry) caught wind of feng shui, tweaked it far more to their liking (i.e they dumbed it way down) and then, they too, started to see the same love, luck, health, wealth and happiness flow their way.
This eastern ancient practice with the new and easy to apply western approach has successfully helped people improve their love lives, their financial situations, their reputation, their family, their health, their creativity, their skills, their career, and arguably the most important to many of us – their travel experiences. If you want to use feng shui to make your travel dreams a reality – follow the seven feng shui steps and tips below, and do as much as you can from each!
Step 1: Find the Feng Shui Travel Area of the Room You Use the Most (Hint: It’s Easy)
There is a place in every room that represents the nine different life areas (love, reputation, money, family, health, children & creativity, skills, career and helpful people & travel) that feng shui supports. Think of these nine areas as equal-sized squares laid out like a big tic-tac-toe board over a room. In trying to make sure your dream trip happens (or keeps happening) locate the travel area in the room you use the most.
To do this:
- Stand in the doorway of the room you use the most
- Face into the room
- Point your right hand to the right most corner closest to both you and the doorway. This is your Travel corner (officially called your Helpful People & Travel corner). I call it the travel corner to keep things simple.
Step 2: Write Down Your Travel Wishes, Place them in a Silver Book, Put the Box in Your Travel Corner
If you don’t know where you want to go – you will never get there. Good news is there is a special feng shui tip to make your travel wishes come true. On a piece of paper write up to three wishes you have for travel. Write them as if they have already happened. For example, “I am thrilled to have spent six months of 2020 in South Africa.” Or, “I am grateful that I was able to save X amount of money for my dream vacation in the last five months.” Or, “It is great my boss is allowing me to go on an extended vacation.” Put this piece of paper in a silver box (it doesn’t have to be anything fancy, I have made them out of tinfoil before). Also, know that nothing in feng shui has to be seen to work. If having your box in this area does not work aesthetically, put it in a drawer, behind a piece of furniture, etc.
Step 3: Put Symbols of Trips You Have Taken in Your Travel Corner
The best way to make sure you get more of what you love, is to be grateful for what you already have. Show that travel gratitude by putting pictures, reminders, travel books, mementos and souvenirs of trips you have already taken and enjoyed in the travel corner of the room you use the most.
Step 4: Put Symbols of the Trip(s) You Want to Take in Your Travel Corner
In the travel corner of the room you use the most, put images, symbols, photos or reminders of the trip(s) you want to go on. This does not have to be anything fancy. Is there a hotel you have always want to stay in, a boat you have always wanted to be on or a place you are dying to see? Print a picture of it off the internet and put it in this area.
Step 5: Spruce Up Your Front Door
In feng shui, there are nine areas in every room that have a specific meaning. Similarly, every room in the house has a specific meaning as well. For example, the bedroom in feng shui is representative of restful sleep and passion, the kitchen represents health, and the front door (the door the architect of the home would consider the front door) is representative of your career and the quality of energy that enters your home.
If doing well in your career is one of the factors in helping your travel plans along, it is a good idea to take a look at it to see if you can do a bit of a feng shui tune up. The idea is to make the front door feel as welcoming as possible, in addition to making it reflect where you would like your career to go. To do this, do as many of the things below as possible.
- Get rid of your dirty old welcome mat and get a new cheerful one
- Add other welcoming features such as wind chimes, a wreath, a bright pot of flowers or a joyful statue
- Get rid of any dirt, dust, clutter, messes, mail piles, unused jackets, boots, shoes, etc.
- If there is a closet in close vicinity to the front door, make sure it is clean and decluttered
- If the door is not opening or not locking properly – get this fixed
- Remove anything from behind the door
- If there are weeds near your front door, remove them
- Add any metal objects, a water fountain and/or reminders, symbols or photos of water
- Add black, white and/or gray
- Remove yellow or orange
- Add symbols of the career you want or where you want your career to go
Step 6: Identify Your Money Corner and Do a Few Things to Get More $$ Rolling In
Not sure where the money for your travels is going to come from? Not to worry, there are some feng shui tips to help! And, with all the things feng shui is good at – it is especially good at attracting money. Here’s how.
Go stand in the doorway of the room you use the most and face into the room. Point your left arm to the upper left most corner of the room. (This is the corner that is diagonally across from the your travel corner.) This is your money corner. In this corner, do as many of these things as possible:
- Add purple, gold, green and red (the colors associated with wealth in feng shui)
- Put a bowl of change here. Ideally it would be wood or rectangular or column shaped and/or red, green, yellow or purple. Add to it often, and do everything you can to not remove money from it. You can also add jewelry (costume jewelry is just fine – this is where I always put a lone earring when I lose its match), foreign currency, gift cards with a few bucks left on it, lottery tickets and even monopoly money.
- If it would work, this is a great place for a mirror as it “doubles your money”. Make sure the mirror is not pointing out the front door, as this is thought to take good energy out of the home.
- Add a vision board
- Remove anything that is a reminder of bad or hard times
- Remove anything that is broken, torn or no longer working
- Make your money corner spic n’ span. Clean out and clean up any dirt, dust, clutter and messes
Step 7: Get Rid of the “Travel Killers”
While so much can improve your life, your home and the energy around it, there are a few major feng shui no no’s that should be avoided to the fullest extent possible – no matter where they are located. These include:
- Dead plants
- Anything broken, torn or not functioning
- Anything you no longer like or no longer use
- Anything that you associate with bad memories or bad times
- Clutter
- Dirt
- Dust
- Messes
Extra Credit Step (Or What to Do if You are Super Desperate or Crazy Motivated)
The feng shui tips above, with the exception of what you did to your front door, were all done in the room you used the most. If you really want to go the extra mile, do Step 3, Step 4, Step 6 and Step 7 in the room you use the second most, then the third most and so on. Only do as much as what feels right and fun, and most importantly – buen viaje!
Cathy says
Sounds like I have some work to do!