Making everything in the home feel right for you and your family is so important. You’ve probably noticed, I love following fellow entrepreneurs chasing their dreams, so I was really excited when I connected with Kristina Holliger, a feng shui consultant….
Feng Shui Basics with Kristina Hollinger
Like so many of us, Kristina felt stuck even though life was going great.
“I used to live in the south loop of Chicago and my husband and I had just gotten married in 2012. At the time, I was just hired for a new teaching job, which was, at that time, a dream job. Things from the outside seemed to be going really well in my life. And yet, deep down inside, I just felt this longing for something more. I didn't know what it was, but I felt like something was off and I felt stuck. So I decided, as I looked around our apartment, that I would make it feel a little bit more welcoming. And that's when I stumbled upon Feng Shui”
That was 10 years ago and Kristina has been practicing Feng Shui for herself and her clients ever since. She is certified with the Feng Shui School of Chicago and a red ribbon professional at the International Feng Shui Guild. She is definitely an expert and has some great tips to get started in Feng Shui.
3 Basic Steps for Practicing Feng Shui
1. Get a Bagua Map- So essentially, the Bagua map is a nine square grid, like a tic tac toe board; and each of the areas of the grid represent a different area of your life. So if you visualize stand at the front door, when you walk in your front door, the far back left area of your home, that corner is your wealth area. As you stand at your front door, and you look into your home, the far back right area is the relationship area. Those are the power positions. When people can visualize where the wealth and relationship areas are, then that helps them to orient themselves. Kristina recommends printing out a Bagua map and laying it over your home’s floor plan to identify the nine areas. Keep reading for a link to Kristina’s Feng Shui 101 guide and to print your own Bagua map.
2. Add the 5 Elements- Each gua, or section of the Bagua map, is activated by a primary element. Let’s use wealth as an example. Wealth is activated by the wood element. All the elements can be represented in three different ways; shape, color, or the actual element itself. A straight, rectangular picture frame might represent the trunk of a tree. The color green represents wood and incorporating purple also activates wealth. You may add bamboo, a bonsai tree or wood furniture to your space as an actual wood element.
Set intentions in your space
Write your intentions and put them in specific areas or guas. For example, in the helpful people and travel area, the metal element is going to activate that space. Cut out a circular piece of paper to represent metal and write down 6-9 intentions for the helpful people that I wish to call into your life.
For example:
Great childcare
Colleagues who support your dreams
A plumber to fix your sink!
You write whomever you need to come into your life and place it behind a photo or a piece of furniture in that space where no one can see it. Place those words and that energy in that space, and leave it there. It’s time to set your intention and trust the universe to fill in the details. Trust the energy to work for you on your behalf.
3. Clean with Intention
Any time you are cleaning and decluttering, that's when you're opening up and making space for newness to occur. Clean each gua with the intentions that you want to bring into your life. Remove what is holding you back to welcome what you need. For example, the windows are the eyes of your home. If you're seeking clarity in your life, wash your windows while holding that intention.
“The reason why I share this so much, is it's innate within me to share something that has worked for me and I spent a lot of years being afraid and not having an abundance mindset and feeling helpless in my circumstances. So I just felt like, let me try Feng Shui and it ended up being a really fun creative outlet where I can improve my environment. And then I noticed that I was getting a lot more support. Things started to go a little bit better for me, and they continue to expand and I don't say that to brag, but I say it in the sense that I feel like it's really important for people to see that if if they feel stuck that they really can try Feng Shui to get unstuck.”
Which Feng Shui techniques will you try to bring abundance into your life?
I’ve already started incorporating some of the things I learned from Kristina. I have a wooden grandfather clock in the wealth area of my home and I hid a purple cloth in the clock. I’m so excited to see what comes into my life!
Snap a photo of the Feng Shui elements you’ve added and tag me @themeganmikkelsen
If you want some help from Kristina incorporating Feng Shui into your life, click here to get your free copy of Kristina’s Feng Shui 101 Guide at her website https://kristinahollinger.com/
You can also follow her on Instagram @kristina.hollinger and catch her on Windy City Rehab on HGTV!
