Episode 116: Ask Anjie & Laura

HOLISTIC SPACES PODCAST

EPISODE 116: ASK ANJIE & LAURA

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Welcome to the very first Ask Anjie & Laura episode of the Holistic Spaces Podcast! In this episode, we answered questions submitted by our newsletter subscribers about going back to school, crystal and essential oil recommendations, plants with pointy leaves, and how to boost confidence with feng shui.

We cover:

  • Feng shui suggestions for an adult going back to school part-time

  • The best position for your desk or home workspace

  • An overview of each of the bagua areas

  • A recommended crystal to activate each area of the bagua

  • Our favorite essential oil and how we work with it in our spaces

  • Whether or not a listener should get rid of a plant with pointy leaves

  • Feng shui adjustments to cultivate self-esteem and confidence

Mentioned in this episode:

Thanks so much for listening to the Holistic Spaces Podcast brought to you by Mindful Design Feng Shui School!

Episode transcript:

You’re listening to the Holistic Spaces Podcast brought to you by Mindful Design Feng Shui School.

Episode 116 Ask Anjie and Laura

Welcome to Episode 116 of the Holistic Spaces Podcast where we hope to inspire, educate, and empower you to create your own holistic spaces that nurture and resonate with you.

Anjie Cho and Laura Morris are the founders of Mindful Design Feng Shui School. Together they have over three decades of experience designing harmonious spaces. Anjie and Laura have guided thousands of people to shift their energy and revitalize their lives. Mindful Design School offers feng shui courses and certifications. Be sure to check us out at mindfuldesignschool.com and holisticspaces.com.

So we have a fun episode today. We’re actually recording this live, streaming it live on Instagram. So if you want to see it on Instagram you can visit our account @mindfuldesignschool. And we also have one of our listeners with us on Zoom. So she’s going to be with us to ask her question. But we have this fun episode which we’ll try to do more often which is called Ask Anjie and Laura.

So what we did is for those who are on our newsletter list, you have the opportunity to receive a link and submit a question. We got quite a few questions. We picked the top that are most helpful for everybody and the ones that made the most sense. We tried to keep it broad and most helpful for the listeners. So we selected a few and we’ll go over a few today.

Jennifer is one of the people who asked a question and she’s here with us live on the zoom so she’ll be able to ask us out loud.

Before we get into that, we wanted to let people know about our upcoming info sessions.

We’re going to have different info sessions in April for our certification that starts May 1st. So if you’re interested in learning more about the Mindful Design Spaces Certification program, you can go to mindfuldesigntraining.com or just find us on Instagram.

L: Go to our website, there’s a button that can take you right there. We’re running them through April. If you’re interested in the program, it really is the best opportunity for you to come and learn all of the details. We’ll walk you through all of the modules, what the requirements are, dates, and all that stuff.

If you’re interested, our next class session starts the first weekend of May. So join us and ask questions. We always do them live and online. This isn’t a recording, it’s actually us walking you through the program.

A: And one more thing too, there’s certainly a lot of people who join the certification program who don’t necessarily want to be Feng Shui consultants, but who also really love feng shui and are ready to dive deep and not just do it kinda half-way, but to really study with Laura and myself, and we keep the class group really small. It’s a small cohort. We want to make sure we know everybody and it’s very personalized. Laura and I do every single student’s feng shui consultation on their home and you have access to us for the full certification. Also we know you, you are our students, our grads, and our colleagues for life. So check it out. And you can learn more at mindfuldesignschool.com.

So yes let’s start with Ask Anjie and Laura. We’re doing this for the first time. Jennifer, thanks for being our guinea pig. I’m going to unmute you.

J: Can you hear me? I’m looking at you through my phone. How are you??

A: We’re good. We’re good.

J: My question for you is: do you have any suggestions for creating a supportive environment for an adult returning to school for part time?

A: We’re going to mute you to keep the audio nice. Laura, do you want to go first?

L: So the question..supportive environment. Returning to school part time. Yeah, I would say, the first thing I would look at is your desk. Or your workspace. Where are you going to start this new part of your life. Because it’s a big deal. You’re going back to school as an adult. Also you’re going to want to be more focused. Because as an adult, when you’re an adult you wanna do this right. You want everything lined up and ready to go. So I’m gonna say carve out a space somewhere in your home that is your dedicated work space, that you can study in, focus in and wherever you find that. It doesn't have to be its own little room. That’s a luxury if you can have that. But if you don’t, it can just be an area that you carved out as your spot that stays as your spot. It’ll be good if you marked that as your territory. So you know when you go there that that is when you go into that study mode or focus.

You also want to make sure in that area you have a really good solid chair, preferably one with a high back, supportive, to give you that mountain feeling, that support, cradling and nurturing feeling.

And then the work space itself, where it’s positioned, sometimes you may be limited. So i don’t know if you have heard of this before, Jennifer, but we talk a lot about the commanding position. So where are you in relation to the energy coming at you? Let's say you’re sitting at the dining table, when you’re looking up, maybe your back is to the front door, or you’re in your bedroom and you set up your work area, and your back is to your bedroom door.

You really wanna be able to have it if you can position your desk or work area if you can see what’s coming at you, and that's generally the main door.

It could be the front door, it could be the door to whatever room. It could be the open space that if you turn it's the main main open space and your back is preferably if you can to a wall, so it's supportive and that's the ideal position. Now if you can’t do that, what we recommend you do is that you can just use a mirror.

Really simple. Small mirror. If you have a desktop computer, you can put a little rearview mirror. You can find it online. It’s 2-3inches wide. It’s convex generally so it can capture more of the space behind you. So you position that somewhere maybe on the wall, maybe on your desktop, on your monitor so you can capture what’s behind you so you have a vision of the qi that’s coming in.

You want to be in control of your space. And if you're learning and starting over again, you really do want to make sure that you can harness those opportunities, be in control, feel confident, so all those things go with it.

A: Great, I also have a couple things to add. By the way Jennifer, I know you follow us, it’s great that you participated and asked a question that we can work with you today. A couple of other things to consider when you’re starting something new, because your question was if you have any suggestions to create a supportive environment for an adult returning to school part time.

When you are starting something new there's also one area of the bagua map related to starting new things and another area related to your skills. Because I'm assuming if you're returning to school part time,you want to cultivate your knowledge and your skills in yourself.

The first position is called Zhen position, which is New Beginnings. That’s the family area, that’s the green area of the Feng Shui bagua map. And it relates to New Beginnings and starting new things. So that’s a great one to activate and you can look at some of our old blog posts to figure out how to lay out the bagua map for those listeners.

And Gen position is the skills and knowledge area, which is the dark blue area. So that's another area you can activate as well. You can activate it really simply by looking and seeing what’s in the area. You can bring in a living green plant. Or maybe that’s a great place to place your new desk.

Thank you Jennifer!

So let me go through the other questions. We have a question from Rita.

Rita asked, “Your podcast is a wealth of information. Would love to learn about crystals, essential oils, and the different guas please, thank you.”

Laura is going to go through some crystals, but in general, a couple of things to note when it comes to crystals and feng shui: we often talk about feng shui crystal balls, but there actually different to those natural crystals like amethyst and quartz. Feng shui crystal balls are glass crystals and they are faceted. Feng shui crystal balls are different from a naturally occurring crystal but I think Rita is talking about natural crystals.

Laura is going to go through all of the feng shui bagua areas and the crystals that connect, and you can also go with a crystal that’s the color of the gua to keep it really simple and to really enhance the gua.

Another rule of thumb is do not try to activate all the areas on the bagua map. You really want to select one or two, maximum three areas you want to activate. Otherwise you're trying to perfect everything and that’s not what feng shui is about.

L: You asked about activating areas again with natural crystals. So what I thought to do is, we will give you one crystal for each area of the bagua.

For those of you listening and watching, you need to understand the bagua. You need to know what the bagua is, where it is, etc. So if you are confused and you don’t know what this is, go to our website mindfuldesignschool.com, and go to Blog you’ll get a free download that will talk you through the bagua. [download the bagua kit here]

So bagua is a grid, for lack of a better word, it's a grid. It’s a way to look at your space and see all the elements and parts of your life. It's an energetic way to map out a space. And most commonly we use it on a house, but you can use it on many things. It’s a great way to map out your space so you can see different areas of life and what you can do to activate them. It’s like a mirror of your own life when you know how to map it correctly. Let’s assume you’ve mapped it and you know what we are talking about here.

We’ll go over the 9 areas, the first area is Family or New Beginnings and the one we will suggest will be green quartz. It speaks to the color etcetera.

The next one is Wealth. Wealth is the gua connected to prosperity and abundance, we would say amethyst. It’s purple. You know it's got the right qualities.

The next area is Helpful people, benefactors, synchronicities, all those great things, travel. The crystal to activate would be smoky quartz.

The next is Productivity and Children, this area is about completing things, your creative output, things that you have made that have come to fruition and children. And the crystal we would suggest is quartz, clear quartz.

The next area is Knowledge, the knowledge area is about your own self knowledge, the skills you need, your meditating, your self awareness in general, what you do and how you feel about it, all the skills you've come in your path. The crystal to activate we would recommend is blue sodalite.

And then we have Fame, reputation, this is how you are perceived, your visibility out in the world, what people think of you basically, how people see you. And the crystal to activate is Carnelian.

The Career Gua, really it's about your path in life but really on a deep level, the wisdom you have, the deep knowing and the wisdom that you’ve obtained on your journey, your purpose etcetera. The crystal we would say to activate is Black Obsidian.

And then Love and Partnership. It's yes, about relationships, romance, and all those things, but it's also about self care, female energy, we would say rose quartz.

And with that, and last but not least, we come to the center. It’s not a gua, because it's not a direction or an area. It is the center. But it is very important, it represents unity and well being and everything coming together. It’s the Center. The Tai qi. So the color associated with this Earth gua, Earth area, and also health and well being, the one we connect with is tiger’s eye.

So that’s all 9 areas of the bagua. One natural crystal each.

Woo!

A: Thank you Laura and just a little plug for the Holistic Space store. I do have an online store called Holisticspaces.com. And we sell all of these crystals in a kit. But don’t try to use all the crystals like we said. And the last part of Rita’s question, I’ll touch upon is essential oils.

In general one of our favorite essential oils to work with is Sweet Orange Essential Oil.

Oranges are really revered in feng shui because they are super Yang energy. They are very bright. It’s very bright and life affirming. It's like the energy of the sun. Even when you look at an orange, it looks like a little sun. So the Sweet Orange essential oil has the essence of the oil which you can use to diffuse into your home. You can mist it in your home. I also sell this on the Holistic Spaces store. It’s called Happy. And that’s kinda what orange does. It’s happy.

It brightens your space. And it's also a way of space clearing. So that’s one essential oil we love for feng shui.

So thanks Rita for your question, and we’ll move onto the third question from Adriana. And Adriana asked, “I don't have a very green thumb and the only plant I can keep alive is a snake plant, however I heard plants with spiky leaves aren't the best to keep in the house. Do I need to get rid of the snake plant?” Laura?

L: No, god no. don’t get rid of the snake plant. I love snake plants. They are beautiful plants. They are super easy to grow, like you said. If you don't have the greenest of thumbs, they are so forgiving.

They are so stately. I have a huge one, and it just makes the space. So no, don't get rid of the snake plant.

So this is the thing with feng shui and plants. There always seems to be a lot of rules, don't do this or don't do that. But it depends. There are places you can put the snake plant, and there's areas you can use it for, especially when it has brought you so much joy and you've cared for it and you’ve managed to make it thrive.

That alone for me as a feng shui practitioner, trumps and bypasses everything about “don’t do this and do that”. Because the fact that you struggled with plants and growing them and you've taken the time and you've named your plant, that in itself, I think is a feng shui adjustment. One thing about plants is it represents the wood element and wood qi, it is about compassion and flexibility and when you spend the time to really care about a plant like that, I mean you really brought some special energy into your home.

So I would say absolutely do not get rid of it. Anjie, do you agree?

A: Yes, and we also have a whole podcast episode that talks about this. It’s episode 111 and it's called Bad Feng Shui plants. But I totally agree with everything Laura has said.

So last but not least, we have one question. And remember the Ask Anjie and Laura questions are only available to those subscribed to our newsletter. So you have to sign into our newsletter and occasionally we’ll send an email saying “we’re doing another Ask Anjie and Laura and you can submit your questions” [subscribe to our newsletter here]

Otherwise you can hire one of our students if you have personalized feng shui questions. But yeah be thoughtful and respect people's knowledge and hire people for their information right? Unless they ask you to ask you for questions, which we did here.

So our last question is from Deeksha, “what are some changes I can make in my space to boost my confidence and self esteem?”

L: If you listened to what I said in the beginning to the first question, setting up your space and going back to school in the commanding position, that would be one of the things I would start with. If you think you're lacking in confidence and you're not in control, you can look at 3 areas. But I’ll give you two to focus on.

One would be your bed and two would be the desk. So we talked about the desk position in the first question. If you didn't hear that, listen back. And the next would be your bed. So make sure when you’re lying in bed you can see the door in your bedroom. And if you can’t, you would use a mirror to be able to capture that view of that door. So however you need to place the mirror, whatever you need. It doesn't have to be a giant mirror, it can be a small convex mirror that captures more of the room and sort of pulls the door and opens it up for you so you can actually see it.

That would be the first thing I would say to look at because it's really connected to confidence and being able to feel like you’re in command and in control

A: I would also add that one of the bagua areas that people are quite familiar with but they don't really know the nuances with is the wealth area, called Xun position and its related to wealth, abundance and prosperity, but it can also be related to your self work and your self esteem.

We’re not working with you specifically, I don’t know your specific situation Deeksha, but my sense is that in general when a lot of people ask for confidence and self esteem, it has to do with not valuing themselves. And value, self worth, prosperity, abundance, all those are really woven together, they are deep seeded issues that are woven together and relate to that area of the bagua map. So you can start to unpack that and work on it. That's something great to work on more in depth with a practitioner, but if we’re going to give you some general basic thing to do, then listen to the early part of this episode and find out what crystal relates to that area and use it.

And I'm not going to tell you because you have to go back and listen. So you have to do a little bit for yourself and that's part of boosting your self confidence and self esteem, to take, not control, but take responsibility for helping yourself. Don’t just ask people for advice but really unpack what it means to you to value yourself more and where is this coming from, this lack of confidence and lack of self esteem.

So how do you think it went Laura? Our first Ask Anjie and Laura?

L: Good, lot’s of technology happening here. I’m trying to work through it. But yeah, I think it was good. Good questions and hopefully people enjoyed it. And I hope we do it again.

A: Jennifer how do you think our first Ask Anjie and Laura went?

J: I think it went really well. I really got a lot of information from everybody else's questions too to help me with my path. I think it's a wonderful thing you're doing.

A: Great, thank you so much and thank you so much for following us. I see you all the time on Instagram and also good luck on your new beginning.

J: Thank you, I'm very excited. Thank you very much.

A: You're welcome.

Thank you all for listening to this episode of the Holistic Spaces podcast.

And if you guys like Ask Anjie and Laura, we’ll keep doing it. So we’ll try it again. If you tune in every Monday, we’ll have a new podcast episode. If you like our podcast and this episode, you can share it with others, you can subscribe, and even better leave a review.

And if you would like to explore the world of holistic spaces and feng shui on an even deeper level, you can visit our website, online store, and blog for more information about feng shui and holistic living. You can support the podcast by checking out our courses and certifications at mindfuldesignschool.com and the podcast is at holisticspaces.com. So thank you so much for listening and we will see you next week!