Feng Shui book review

Here’s the promised follow-up to Feng Shui intro: The book review

I read the following Kindle books, but cannot recommend any of them:

- Feng Shui For Beginners: Master the Art of Feng Shui to Bring In Your Home More    Balance, Harmony and Energy Flow! by Alexander Yamashita

- Complete Guide to Mastering The Art of Feng Shui: Learn How to Create Balance,  Harmony, and Energy Flow To Optimize Your Home and Office by Mai Jun

- A simple Feng Shui guide for beginners to use at home, the office, and at work for  increased simplicity, productivity, happiness and wealth! By Amy Delosa

- Learn Feng Shui for Beginners by Aurora Miriam

If your IQ is below 90 and you've never ever heard of Feng

Shui, then by all means read one (or all) of these books -but 

do not take the advice literally. 

Feng Shui That Makes Sense: Easy Ways to Create a

Home That Feels as Good as it Looks by Cathleen

McCandless 

This is my 2nd best read so far. 

Somewhat repetitive but all advice is good and the author is

a successful Feng Shui consultant. Her main conclusion is

that if it feels good, then it is good.

I agree!

Feng Shui For Dummies by David Kennedy

This book sure is for Dummies…it was a draining read, and

the jokes were annoying. The book is based on His Holiness

Grandmaster Professor Lin Yun’s Feng Shui School, and this

school does not utilize a compass, but the entryway. Also 

referred to as the Black Sect or Black Hat (Tantric 

Buddhism) Feng Shui.

Personally, I prefer the compass method - it feels more real

than just basing your calculations on the front door. 

A 9-inch red ribbon appears perhaps 40 times in this book. 

From Wikipedia:

"Traditional Chinese units of length include the chi (尺), bu (步), and li (里). The precise length of these units, and the ratios between these units, has varied over time. 1 bu has consisted of either 5 or 6 chi, while 1 li has consisted of 300 or 360 bu."

So how on earth can one end up with 9 inches?

If you were to follow the advice given in this book you’d have

bamboo sticks, windchimes and chrystals hanging around in

odd places (with all those 9 inch long red ribbons).

Fengshui-aapinen by Anja Banks

An excellent read, very practical. My favourite, but

unfortunately only available in Finnish.

Magic Cleaning by Marie Kondo

Not really a Feng Shui book in itself, but does make some

references. The book is written by a Japanese organization

expert. It has many excellent tips and some of them are

amusing like where best to place your Sukiyaki pan, not to

mention the Bibimbab pan and the Soba sieve.

Marie Kondo's book inspired me to fold my t-shirts into little

squares.

OK, I'm still practicing here. I'm not very good with my hands.

When I wrap a present it looks as if wrapped by a 5-year old.

Then I tried what happens when socks are rolled as Marie 

Kondo instructs:

 Looks neat and takes up much less space!

Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston

Written in a clear and simple way, and really motivated me to de-clutter!

Here's an example of what this book can take credit for:

More books are on their way: 

Feng Shui Your Life by Jayme Barrett and Feng-Shui: The Ancient Wisdom of Harmonious Living for Modern Times by Eva Wong.

...and a review of those will follow.

And here's some reality. After all this reading and blogging 

my kitchen looks like this:

And yesterday our entrance looked like this:

...but at least the cats are keeping it together

Feng Shui intro

I've had misfortune and health problems in my family and felt helpless.

Feeling the need to do SOMETHING -as in ANYthing I started to clean and de-clutter my home. I felt the need to give the cleaning a meaning so I turned to the ancient Chinese tradition of Feng Shui.

I don't do things almost, when I do I really do so between the dusters, mops, vacuum cleaners (yep. I have two Dysons and one steam-cleaner), liquid soap, brushes and water fountains you could find me sitting with the umpteenth Feng Shui guide.

Now I dare call my self an advanced student of the theory, with seven books and a lot of practice under my belt.

I know where best to place the Sukiyaki pan and that I never should store spices under the sink (eh?).  

I also know I should be very worried about having the bedroom on top of the garage and there is no board behind my bed...depending on the expert I consult.

Because I truly believe there is something in Feng Shui that's worthwhile I will write a book review and then later on share my personal experiences (which probably won't be about fame and fortune, but rather moments of well-being and humorous incidents).

Humorous incidence Number 1 : A beautiful Inuit family made by my man's dear Canadian cousin, representing a Father, a Mother, an Infant and a Child all together catching fish on an ice floe had broken in such a way that the Father was separated from his family. How much worse can symbolism get?

The Newborn Feng-Me naturally took to superglue, but it was much more difficult than I had thought -gluing those ice floe pieces together so I squirted on some more glue and pressed -and pressed -with no effect so I pressed harder, against the counter top and finally it stuck -onto the counter top. 

Family re-united.

Did we have quarrels after this ornament had been put in place permanently? Yes, we sure did. Does this make symbology (or Feng Shui) less potent? No, I don't think so. 

Applying Feng Shui to your home will make you more mindful and appreciative of your immediate surrounding and of nature. And this is what we common westerners have lost in our rat-race (haven't seen that word used in the media for a long time, but the problem for sure hasn't gone away). Rodent any-negative works, like Hamster wheel. Or ....I don't know -Rabbit stuck in headlights

Basically: A living being (=rodent or human) suffering from Angst.

OK, this was a minor incidence in the Feng Shui cleaning, a book review will follow in a later post. 

As an end note, have I gone too far by even vacuuming my handbag? (Not all the dirt originates from my bag...).

The best thing about Feng Shui, in my opinion, are the following rules: Fix what is broken, only keep things you love or use. De-clutter and keep your home clean. I am a notorious procrastinator so it's been very uplifting to see how I've gained control over my surroundings.