2016 MONKEY YEAR FENG SHUI
Fire Monkey year 2016 is time to take action. Monkey correlates to the Western sign Leo, the Fire sign of passion, creativity, and children. Click here to read about the personality traits of the Monkey.
CHINESE MEDICINE
All eight limbs of Chinese medicine work together to create good health: feng shui, astrology, herbology, exercise (tai chi, chi kung), meditation, diet, massage and acupuncture, and moxibustion. (Moxibustion uses heat to stimulate points in the body, similar to how acupuncture needles stimulate points.)
Feng shui is the limb of Chinese medicine that aids health and healing. Health is restored and maintained in a calm, peaceful environment. When Monkey year arrives in February, you can jump to any branch, keep climbing, and succeed. But if you experience delays, spend slow time balancing and strengthening the weaker limbs to help you stay balanced in Fire Monkey year.
MONKEY ADVICE
I asked my neighbor if I could enter his place to check out a drain on the roof of our building. He said, “Sure, but give me a few minutes.” Then he ran around his apartment, putting away clothes, making the bed, and tidying up.
If you live like this, then do fast tidying up before you leave your home and office. Then a peaceful home awaits you as you enter into a clean, not chaotic, environment. Especially at your place of work, it is not favorable to leave a mess over the weekend. Stop mess before it builds up is my tip for good luck in Fire Monkey year.
Monkey is an active go-getter. Home is important to Monkey to provide a secure, safe place when they come home, especially for Monkey children. Some things might be out of your control in a Monkey year, but you can control how you maintain and keep clean your living space.
LUCK ENTERS
Where to start to bring in luck in Monkey year? Start at your front door. Clean your entry to welcome all the good luck that will come into your home and place of business in the new year. Wash, sweep, or vacuum the front steps, porch, entry hall, lobby –whatever the entry is where you live. Make this area clean, well lit, and inviting. Check the entry’s lighting fixtures, make sure the doorbell works, and touch up scuff marks with a fresh coat of paint, or add a new rug to welcome the New Year.
BA-GUA MAP
One of many styles of feng shui is to overlay a map of eight tri-grams, called ba-gua in Chinese.
Ba-gua focus to create abundance for Fire Monkey year is to emphasize the Fame/Reputation area. This is located in the far back wall from the entry. The more fame and recognition that Monkeys receive for their wild schemes and innovative concepts, the more inspired they are to accomplish and create.
The second area for focus in Monkey year is the Career area, located opposite the Fame/Reputation area. Monkeys apply more of their ingenious wit and dynamic energy to a career that they find personally satisfying.
When using the ba-gua map, be sure that all areas are clean with no clutter! Don’t get stuck in life by living with too much stuff. Avoid all clutter in Monkey year, or else you could experience overwhelm and confusion.
ENERGIZE YOUR LIVING ROOM
Every room of your home or office has a Fame/Reputation area to focus on in Monkey year. But the most important room this year is your living room because that is the room of the element Fire, and 2016 is the year of the Fire Monkey. Fix your living room, a major yang room. Start by standing at the entry of your living room. Then observe what is in your Fame/Reputation area. Really look at your living room to make it the living room that you want.
MONKEY LOVES EXTRAVAGANCE
Monkey 2016 is time to be fancy and treat yourself! And eat very well. Monkey, like Monkey’s buddies Rat and Dragon, adores fine dining and rich entertaining. Monkey aspire to be a dandy, and pays attention to the details of clothing. Looks matters to Monkey so upgrade your wardrobe. Monkey (and Dragon) knows how to manipulate images. What we see is not always what we get. Clever Monkey can be a trickster, and leader Dragon know how to create success with smoke-and-mirrors illusions.
If this year you feel a Monkey-like tendency to “fake it ’til you make it” that’s fine. Just do not overspend. Instead, use Fire Monkey ingenuity to make your own good food, bath salts, perfume, your own clothing, or create whatever luxuries you want in your life. In risk-taking Fire Monkey year, it’s auspicious to do something you’ve never done before. At least travel to a new place, not the same old spot.
FIRST THING SEEN
What is the first thing seen when you enter your home? Your eye goes somewhere, so direct the eye by organizing each room so that the first thing seen sets a pleasant tone. This makes the room inviting to enter. Make sure that the first thing seen in each room is clean and inspiring. You do not want to see a pile of paperwork or any type of mess. Stay tidy, especially in a Fire year that brings lots of activity.
PAY OFF DEBT
Chimp with cash
It is most fortunate to start the New Year with no debt. (A mortgage or a school loan are not in this category.) If you have personal debt on New Year, think ahead by budgeting and planning. Organize your finances to get out of debt this year. Watch out for overspending in a Monkey year, especially in autumn.
PAINT ONE ROOM
The energy of any environment can be transformed completely by adding a coat of paint. If each room of your home has white or ivory walls, all that white is too much of the element Metal which can lead to arguing and bickering. Be sure to paint at least one room with color.
The painted room can be a small room such as a bathroom. Good colors for a small room are light blue for a bathroom or light green for a bedroom. Be sure the blue or green are restful and not too bright. Yellow is good in the kitchen, or gold in the dining room.
Which room to paint? Paint the room that looks the most rundown and is in the most need of sprucing up.
PAINT COLORS
Paint colors correlate to the five Taoist elements of Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood:
FIRE/HEART/LIVING ROOM – In Chinese medicine, the element fire is represented by the heart. The living room is the heart of the home. Your living room is best in bright and lively Fire colors red, purple, and all shades of red or with bright accents to stimulate conversation and activity.
EARTH/STOMACH/DINING ROOM – In Chinese medicine, the element earth is the stomach. The dining room is where we eat and digest food. The dining room is best in earthen tones of gold, terra cotta, or other soft yin colors. Red paint in a dining area is too stimulating and people eat too fast.
METAL/LUNGS/BEDROOM – In Chinese medicine, the element metal is the lungs. The bedroom is where we sleep and breathe deeply while resting. Best bedroom colors are white, cream, and soft pastels. Avoid bright big prints on bedding and drapery, especially in a child’s room, because it’s too yang and not restful.
WATER/KIDNEYS/BATHROOM – In Chinese medicine, the element water is the kidneys, and therefore correlates to the bathroom. Paint this room in a soft, quiet, and calm color for peaceful elimination of waste and for soothing bathing or showering. Light blue is fine.
WOOD/LIVER/KITCHEN – In Chinese medicine, the element wood is the liver. Wood is used in a kitchen to feed the cooking fire. The kitchen must be kept very clean because this is where food is prepared, so white walls are best. But green accents or a plant are recommended to introduce the Wood element into this Wood room.
FLOWERS AND PLANTS
Add beautiful flowers to welcome the New Year! It’s fortunate to add plants, flowers, and healthy bamboo to your home and workplace to increase abundance. Fresh flowers bring fresh aroma that clears the air for New Year, especially if your home feels dark, over heated, or musty. The energy of a room is brightened by the addition of flowers and plants. And plants offer fresh oxygen to improve health. So be sure to add fresh cut flowers or a healthy plant to your home for New Year.
For both home and office, add green house plants with round leaves such as a lily (peace plant), jade, pothos, Chinese evergreen, or orchids with round leaves. If you do not have a green thumb, bring in fresh flowers on Monday to the office, or add silk flowers in lively colors.
If you do add a fish tank or fountain, be sure you can commit to the work involved in maintaining a tank or fountain. A fountain in this Fire year is not always fortunate because Water extinguishes Fire, although adding Water can help calm Fire energy if it gets too strong.
Lucky flowers are orchids, peonies, and lilies. Chrysanthemums have a scent that not everyone likes, so pay attention to scent. Roses are fine in a home or office, but remove them if there’s arguing (influence of the rose’s thorns.) Avoid thorny plants like a cactus, indoors or outdoors. Instead, grow lush plants that have soft round leaves like a jade plant or philodendron.
Outdoors, it is more fortunate to have plants that stay ever green and do not ever lose their leaves. Bamboo is especially lucky in feng shui because as it grows, the new growth is stronger and longer. Bamboo sways gently in the wind, meaning that it is easily adaptable to change. But be sure your bamboo does not dry out and become yellowed. If you have bamboo, keep it watered and transfer it to a larger container when it outgrows the original container.
Be sure that your plants stay healthy throughout the year. If not, recycle the withered plant and replace it with a fresh, healthy one. A bouquet of fresh flowers is excellent to add beauty, fragrance, and luck, but be sure to recycle the flowers when they lose energy and begin to wilt. No dead or dried flowers, and no potpourri.
Silk flowers are superb in feng shui because they are a wonderful way to add light and life to your environment. If you bring home a lovely orchid, after the flower wilts, cut away the dead stalk and insert a good-quality silk orchid into your container. Then your orchid seems to be always in bloom — instead of a dead stalk tied to a stake.
Perhaps you’ve seen what is referred to as a “money plant.” This potted plant usually is decorated with gold or red charms. But this type of plant tends to get leggy as it grows, with long stringy branches weighed down by the charms. So this money plant is not your best choice. A lush round jade plant is better choice than the so-called money plant.
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