This makes sense because Purple combines the intensity of Blue with the rich warmth of Red, two colors that bring along with them an abundance of unique and important qualities.

This lush combination gives Purple a quality that evokes everything  from the deepest mysteries to grandeur of royalty.

Appropriately then, in terms of Feng Shui Purple is the color assigned to the Wealth sector of the Bagua.

The Wealth area is about not just gathering wealth unto yourself but even more importantly having a sense of Gratitude about the abundance in your life.

So place your Purple objects, or paint your walls Purple, with a sense of Intention about the things you feel most grateful for.

The Wealth sector in Feng Shui is also associated with the Wood element, so combinations of Purple and Green do double-duty to activate your goals and dreams!

For a great example, here’s a lighthearted arrangement of purple irises that does a beautiful job evoking Wealth and Gratitude.

Have fun with Purple as it brings richness and depth into your life!

(Photo credits: clearlyambiguous and lotuspilgrim on Creative Commons)

Use these relationships to your advantage to boost your chances of happiness and success in every part of your life. Here are a few examples of how these connections work:

Example #1: Travel & Helpful People supports Wealth & Abundance. These two sectors are diagonally across from one another on the Map (lower right to upper left).

• The easiest way to generate wealth and abundance is with the help and support of other people.  And when you’re helpful to others you are much more likely to create financial and personal success.
• The inverse is also true: the more you travel and meet interesting people, the richer your life becomes.

Example #2: Self-Knowledge nourishes happy Intimate Relationships. These sectors are also diagonally related, lower left to upper right on the Bagua).

• The better you know yourself, the healthier the relationship you’ll attract.
• Intimate relationships help us know ourselves better than we could ever hope to otherwise: sometimes a scary prospect as you’re getting to know a new romantic partner!

Example #3: Your Career and Life Journey are intimately connected with your Reputation in the world. These sectors connect vertically, bottom center to top center of the Map.

• As you travel along in the journey of life, you shape the way the world sees you with every action. 
• The importance of your reputation comes into focus perhaps most clearly when you are attempting to advance your career in a job search!

One key to making these relationships work in your favor is to keep the Center area of the Bagua clear and open, which facilitates the communication and connections between the Bagua areas.

(Learn to use the Bagua in your particular space with my 40-page ebook for just $3.99! Map Your Space To Change Your Life: A Guide To The Feng Shui Bagua.)

Since fountains activate the Water element, they are best placed in three specific areas on the Bagua Map in order to nourish the Chi and avoid a clash of energies.

Water represents the Career/Life Journey sector, while it nourishes the Wood element in the New Beginnings/Family and Wealth/Abundance sectors.

Let’s look at the impact of a fountain in each of these areas.

(Click here to learn more about this handcrafted Moonshadow Fountain.)

1. A fountain in the Career/Life Journey sector:
This is the only Bagua area that’s associated with the Water element, so placing a fountain here powerfully strengthens your intention about the direction of your career or the journey of your life. 

The moving water brings a sense of activity to the sector, signifying your intention for “smooth sailing” as you move your life forward.

2. A fountain in the New Beginnings/Family sector:
The Wood element – sturdy, mature wood – represents this area, which is all about putting down roots and drawing strength from them. 

Placing your Water fountain here nourishes your intention when your goal is to commence successfully on a new project, or wish to strengthen or heal family relationships.

(Click here for more information about this beautiful Calming Bamboo fountain.)

3. A fountain in the Wealth/Abundance sector:
This area is also associated with Wood – flexible young wood in this case, such as new plants and waving grasses. 

It’s said that as the wind wafts through these young plants they gather abundance into your life.  Place a water fountain here to nourish your abundance and enhance your sense of gratitude for your blessings.

(Click here to learn more about this Sacred Fish fountain.)

The fountains I’ve selected for this article come from Serenity Health, my new affiliate partner. You can click through to get a better look at them and purchase one if you like – if you do I’m happy to say that I’ll receive a small percentage from the sale

From a money point of view the year culminates in mid-April when income taxes are due, so early spring means a financial house-cleaning for most folks I know.

If you’re concerned about money and looking for support in your financial world, here are five ways Feng Shui can help:

1.    Attend to your Wealth corner.
It’s time for a “Chi-Check” in this key part of your home and your office. Take a look at what’s accumulating in the back left-hand corner of your space, the area of Feng Shui’s Bagua Energy Map that represents Wealth and Abundance in your life.  Give it a good cleaning and place an item there that has real value to you

2.    Start a Gratitude journal.
This is one of my favorite ways to start accumulating Wealth – by showing your appreciation and gratitude for the Abundance you already have in your life.  Keep your journal in the Wealth corner of your private space – your bedroom perhaps – to stay in close contact with your intentions for abundance.

3.    Get in touch with your money by paying cash.
Feng Shui is equal parts physical and transcendental, visible and invisible, Yin and Yang.  Using cash – actually touching your money — makes it that much more “real,” getting to the heart of the physical aspect of Feng Shui, and bringing your awareness to how much you actually spend each day.

4.    Enhance your Travel & Helpful People sector.
Activate your intention to get the financial help you need by sprucing up your Travel/Helpful People sector (located in the inside right corner of your space, diagonally opposite Wealth). Place items here that symbolize the types of help you need to get your financial house in order.

5.   Streamline your financial clutter.
Throw out and/or shred outdated paperwork: taxes from more than seven years ago, monthly financial statements, automate as much as possible by paying bills online, and streamline as much as possible to create good Chi flow for your money.

If you need support or more specific ways to use Feng Shui to your financial advantage, don’t hesitate to let me know.  

I would love to help you move forward into a life of new possibilities!  

(photo courtesy of zillowblog.com)

Let’s take a look at activating “love energy” in a two more sectors on the Feng Shui Bagua map.

Rich & Sensual Abundance Energy!

The Wealth sector symbolizes much more than a simple desire for Wealth: this area also reminds you to express your gratitude for abundance in your life.

• In terms of activating romance, “Wealth colors” like deep purples and golds create a sensual, rich atmosphere that looks and feels great.
• Place photos and art here that remind you of the abundance you feel in healthy relationships you already have; this is the kind of energy to activate when you wish to attract a new love.

Now let’s turn our attention to the Travel & Helpful People in your life. This sector represents Heavenly Yang energy — you definitely want Heaven on your side as you attract and kindle romance in your life!

• Great Feng Shui romance enhancements for this area include symbols of exactly the type of “helpful person” you’re looking to attract.  Make a list of the characteristics of your ideal love partner and post it here, for starters. 

For example when I was looking for romance a decade ago I attracted the man who eventually became my husband by posting some of the characteristics I hoped he would embody — funny, smart, adventurous, empathetic (and tall!) were just a few of the words I had on my list. 

It can really work!

Most apartment kitchens have very tight layouts, where the cook can stand in just one place and reach everything he or she needs.

I love to cook, so my kitchen gets a lot of use.

Here’s a photo; even though it’s small it’s still larger than any of my past apartment kitchens

My apartment kitchen.

From a Feng Shui perspective the kitchen symbolizes Health and Wealth: if you don’t have good health, it is much more difficult to create wealth and abundance in your life.

So your kitchen needs to have excellent Feng Shui, which comprises three essential criteria no matter what size it is:

1. Elemental balance. The kitchen is a naturally “Fire-y” place because of the stove.

• Balance Fire’s strong energy with the elements that control it: Earth (seen here in the yellow walls and countertops), and Water (seen here in dark-colored accessories).

2. Good Chi flow. Healthy Chi energy needs clean, clear surfaces to do the best job of nourishing you and your loved ones.

• Keep your counter-tops as clear as possible. Store there only the things you use every day. For example, I’ve gotten rid of our toaster altogether because we used it so infrequently. (I broil toast in the oven if I must!)

Kitchen abundance.

3. Artwork that exudes abundance and good health. No matter how small your kitchen, there’s always a way to anchor and activate your positive intentions through artwork.

• Find a piece of art that really “speaks” to you and hang it up. It may be a painting of fruit like the one I have in my kitchen, or a picture of something else that reminds you of abundance: a family photo, instance. Use your imagination!

How are you creating good Feng Shui in your kitchen?

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions for 2012?

Give them an extra boost — and get your year off to a powerful start — by activating your resolutions with Feng Shui.

Is this is the year for taking off some extra pounds? Turn your attention to your kitchen.

This room, the source of your health and wealth, also has major implications when it comes to your weight. Create an environment that supports your efforts best: when your kitchen is completely clutter-free, your personal Chi cannot get stuck.

Will you be focusing on your Wealth this year, getting out of debt, or building your bank account?

If Wealth Chi is in your sights, attend to the Abundance and Prosperity corner of your home, according to Feng Shui’s Bagua Energy Map. Also known as Fortunate Blessings, this sector draws a parallel between our Gratitude and our Abundance.

The more grateful we are for what we already have, the more room we create for prosperity to come into our lives. Starting a Gratitude Journal and storing it in the Wealth area of your space is a powerful way to anchor your intention to bring health to your finances this year.

What are your plans for the year ahead? And how are you planning to anchor your intentions in your space?

(Photo courtesy of the What’s Cooking blog.)

Feng Shui offers several ways to compensate for the missing sector, activating your Wealth energy and anchoring your intentions for abundance.

Let’s look at three key ways you can do this right away.

1. Complete the shape of the Bagua by going outside of your space.

Click to enlarge.

For example, activating items such as a bright light or lively flag placed in the correct position completes the Bagua shape here, lifting the energy of this important Bagua area.

2. Activate Wealth energy within the individual rooms in your space. Lay the Bagua Map over the floorplans for the rooms in your home or office to locate all of the Wealth areas in your environment, and activate them with appropriate enhancements.

3. Focus on the Travel & Helpful People sector. The diagonal relationships on the Bagua Map provide strong support for one another, so to activate Wealth & Prosperity, enhance its diagonal opposite, the Travel & Helpful People sector.

In addition to enhancing this area, you’ll need to apply your intention by getting out in the world (traveling) to meet the people who can best support your intentions for abundance (helpful people)!

Each of these three actions gives you a powerful way to enhance your Abundance, even if the area is physically missing in your environment.

If you’ve been looking for solutions like these, please share which one (or more) you choose to use, and how it works out for you.

But what if the Bagua offered more than one way to enhance some of these important areas — like your Wealth/Prosperity sector, for instance?

You’ll be happy to know that there is a “back door” to prosperity in the sector that’s opposite Wealth on the map: Travel & Helpful People.

Click to enlarge.

I recently talked about enhancing your Relationship by focusing on your Knowledge & Self-Cultivation.

Similarly, focusing on Travel & Helpful People has the power to enhance your Wealth.

If your Wealth needs a boost, take a look at what’s going on in the opposite corner of your space, the Travel/Helpful People sector.

Is a bathroom located there, taking healthy Chi energy down the drain? Is the area cluttered, dirty, or disorganized?

Do you really love the art and objects you keep there — or is it time to refresh the whole area?

When you anchor healthy energy in Travel & Helpful People, you show that you understand this sector’s role in wealth-building activities:

• travel that increases your opportunities
• business networking
• getting — and appreciating — high-quality help
• “paying things forward”
• paying back through philanthropy and volunteerism

How can you enhance your Prosperity through Travel & Helpful People?

Now in our final look at this luxury apartment, let’s evaluate its Bagua layout and the placement of the Master Bedroom.

1. Bagua Layout

Two Bagua sectors are missing: Wealth & Prosperity in the upper-left corner, and most of Fame & Reputation in the center-top. (Learn more about the Feng Shui Bagua Map here.)

The residents of this home need to make serious Feng Shui adjustments to make up for these missing sectors.

A strategic Feng Shui use of mirrors could symbolically expand the space, while Chi-energizing objects may also be necessary to create positive energy here.

2. Master Bedroom Placement
Situated at the very front of the home next to the front door, the location of this Master Bedroom is also inauspicious from a Feng Shui perspective.

This is considered the least safe bedroom location in the home from a Feng Shui point of view. It ought to be remedied right away.

Master bedrooms belong at the back of a home, ideally in the Relationship sector of the Bagua.

When your bedroom is in the back of your home, you feel the most safe, secure and relaxed. Read why this is so in my post about why the Bagua is set up the way it is.

One essential Feng Shui adjustment these residents can make to improve their sense of safety and intimacy immediately is to hang bells on their front door which alert them when anyone enters or leaves the apartment.

This is the last installment in my series about how to evaluate a floor plan from a Feng Shui perspective.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this important Feng Shui skill.