What is the Bagua?
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Let’s dive in and talk about the most important tool in FENG SHUI:
The Bagua (Bah-gwa)
Every time I say this to someone new to Feng Shui,
the reaction is the same: “The Bah What?”
“Ba” means 8, for the 8 outer sections of the Ba-gua. “Gua” means trigram or section. Each Gua has its own meaning, element, color, and energy. Once we know which area of a space corresponds to which life aspiration, we can enhance our environment in such a way that our environment helps us achieve our goals (for example, using a specific color in a room to either encourage relaxation or motivation).
The Bagua Map is a tool for determining where different aspects of your life are represented in your home or office.
This map will be laid out over the floor plan of your house, apartment, office or individual room. You can even apply it to other smaller areas of your house like your desk. Or larger areas like your entire property. This amazing little map is going to help make all your dreams come true!
Each area of your life is directly related to an area within your home. Everything that happens in your life can be placed in one of these 9 categories, and the Bagua Map helps you place it:
Wealth & Abundance
Fame & Reputation
Relationships & Love
Family & Heritage
Health & Well Being
Creativity & Children
Knowledge & Self-cultivation
Career & Life Path
Helpful Friends & Travel
The Bagua directly connects your space to your life. Once you know where a specific area is located within your home or office, such as the Wealth & Abundance area or the Relationships & Love area, you can begin to enhance it with the proper colors, symbols and intentions. Then, look out! Major changes heading your way!
You’ll start to be able to answer a lot of your own questions when you see, for instance, that there is a box of old shoes in your Wealth & Abundance area, or photos of you and your ex in your Relationships & Love area!! Feng Shui teaches you to look at your living space more literally and see what signals you are sending yourself. If you are trying to move on or find your soul mate, you may want to rethink the old photos hanging in your love corner!
By removing or fixing the blocks, enlivening the energy and setting your intentions in each area, you will begin to discover a life filled with abundance, joy, balance and ease. You will be on your way to happiness once more!
I thought it was important to cover the Bagua first before we start to address the de-cluttering process, because I want this to work for you like it has worked for me and so many of my clients. I want you to be wildly successful. If I start you off de-cluttering and I don’t give you a reason for why you should live clutter-free, then where is the understanding? Where is the much needed connection? Where is the very reason that keeps you wanting to stay clutter-free? Willpower can, at times, be in short supply, so when we are feeling low and just don’t want to take the proper steps, we can remind ourselves, if I let that junk pile up in my Wealth & Abundance corner, I can kiss that pay raise goodbye. Or if I want to be seen, heard and respected, I’d better make an effort not to let the dishes pile up in my Fame & Reputation area.
Did I just see a wave of A-HA wash over your face? Are you connecting the dots? I hope so! Now, let’s get on with that life changing Bagua Map.
Draw Your Space
The first exercise is to draw your house or office. Grab a piece of paper and do a simple sketch of the floor plan of your current space. Show where there are walls, doors, stairwells and closets. It’s also helpful to locate kitchen appliances, plumbing fixtures, and large pieces of furniture.
It’s okay! Don’t panic! Your drawing doesn’t have to be pretty or perfect. In fact, if you are spatially challenged, why not ask a friend to help?
Here are three real life examples from my clients:
CLIENT #1
This client quickly sketched her floor plan from memory, took a photo of it with her phone and emailed it to me. I was able to quickly draw the Bagua Map over the floor plan and get back to her with my assessment of her space.
After looking at her floor plan, this is exactly what I told her:
“Looks like you've got a big void where your Helpful Friends & Travel area should be. I'm guessing you could use some help with things running more smoothly in your life? Finding the right teachers and people to help you? Finding yourself in the right place at the right time more consistently? Being treated more fairly and honestly by others? Basically, your team of helpers is out of whack and unassembled, which makes life incredibly difficult. I can help you find an easier way. By the way, having a void in that area can also put a large drain on your finances.”
I was not surprised to hear her response (and this is an exact quote):
“HOLY *%*#!!! How did you get into my head and figure me out when even I can't do that? Literally just made the hair on the back of my neck stick straight up and brought tears to my eyes. I’m stunned; you stopped me dead in my tracks.”
CLIENT #2
Here is another client’s floor plan. This client clearly has a grasp on architectural drawings and is very spatially aware.
I share this not to intimidate you, but instead to show you how very different floor plans that my clients draw can look. It doesn’t really matter how professional your floor plan looks. What counts is what we do with it. After looking at this client's space with her we determined that her LOVE area was missing...this realization was a profound AH-HA for her...After thinking on it for a few minutes she realized that this was the third apartment she had chosen all of which had the love area MISSING...
Our spaces are a direct reflection of the circumstances of our lives.
CLIENT #3
This one falls somewhere in the middle, and is a great floor plan that helped me do an accurate assessment of this client’s space. Walls, windows, doors, stairs, furniture, plumbing fixtures and kitchen appliances are all included, and the proportions seem more or less accurate.
This level of detail helps me do a better job of assessing your space.
Where to start?
Grid paper makes drawing your floor plan a whole lot easier because it helps you keep lines straight and also helps you count out the proportions or measurements of rooms. Grid paper is not absolutely necessary, but I recommend it.
You can get out the measuring tape if you want to be completely accurate, but it’s usually fine to eyeball and guess. Start with your front door. Draw the door at the bottom of the page. (NOTE: the front door is always on the bottom line of the Bagua Map.) You should include all attached spaces, including attached garages, 3-season rooms and screened-in porches. Include everything with a roof that is attached to the main house Map.) You should include all attached spaces, including attached garages, 3-season rooms and screened-in porches. Include everything with a roof that is attached to the main house. Once you have drawn the floor plan of your house, you can then draw the Bagua Map over the top by using a different colored pen. You will need to divide the space up into 9 equal parts.
The front door of your home (even if you don’t use it regularly) determines the layout of the Bagua. The front door will always be on the bottom line of the Bagua. So that means it will be in one of the three bottom squares of the grid. Either in the Knowledge & Self-cultivation area (which will be in the bottom left corner), the Career & Life Path area (bottom middle) or in the Helpful Friends & Travel (bottom right corner). Once you’ve figured this out, the rest is a piece of cake! Just fill in the squares with the correct names.
Here is Client #3’s floor plan with the Bagua Map superimposed over the top. Notice the front door at the bottom left in the Knowledge & Self-cultivation area.
If you are lucky enough to live in a square or a rectangular-shaped house, (shown below) then all of your 9 areas will be neatly tucked inside the structure, which means there won't be any voids or missing areas to address, and this process will be easier.
If, however, your house is a different shape, things can get a little trickier.
In this next example, you can see that the Wealth & Abundance area is outside of the building. Anytime this happens, it can cause a major strain on that particular area of your life—in this case, a strain on finances. If you don’t have a perfectly rectangular house, don’t worry. There are many solutions and enhancement that can bring these kinds of voids in line. So, don’t worry, we’re going to get you fixed up! Baby steps, baby steps!
In this example, the Career & Life Path and Helpful Friends & Travel areas are missing from the house.
When the Helpful Friends & Travel area is missing, there is a struggle to get the help we need. We weren’t meant to do this crazy thing called life all by ourselves. But it is fixable!
In the above example, which is quite common in many American homes, there is an attached garage which creates voids in 2 areas. Often, with this layout, the missing areas are the Career & Life Path area and in the Fame & Reputation area. When there is a void in your Career & Life Path area, you can lose your drive, your ambition and, often, your way. When there is a void in your Fame & Reputation area, you can struggle to gain respect from others. It’s often very hard to get the recognition you deserve, and your inspiration is squashed. These two areas work together, so when there are voids in both, it will cause a struggle with a deep sense of lacking in your life. (BUT it’s Fixable!!)
Here’s the fix!
As I mentioned before, you can lay the Bagua Map over your entire piece of property, your whole house, an individual room or even your desktop. When you are laying out an individual room, the door you use most frequently takes the place of the front door. If you lay the Bagua out over the rooms you spend most of your time in (bedroom, living room, kitchen, office), it can be very powerful.
If you have a missing area in your overall house Bagua, you can “power up” that missing area by finding that missing area in the individual rooms.
For example, if you are missing the Wealth & Abundance corner in your home, you can map out the Bagua in your bedroom or living room, or better yet, BOTH! You then find the Wealth & Abundance area in those rooms and place the proper enhancements to power up your finances! Yippee, money!
If you are laying the Bagua Map over your whole property, the “front door wall” is along the street or wherever you enter your property. If you are laying the Bagua Map over your desk, the “front door wall” is along the edge of the desk that is closest to you. (If you are sitting in the middle of the desk, you will be right in front of the Career & Life Path area.)
Need more help?
Hopefully, you’ve got a handle on this whole Bagua Map layout! If you are visually or spatially challenged, it can be tough. Please, please, please don’t get discouraged! This is so important, and so amazingly necessary, I promise if you hang in there it will change your life! Even my most skeptical clients are seeing amazing results from our work with Feng Shui.
If you get totally lost, don’t give up. Email me and I’ll be happy to help: jen@jenheilman.com
If you are ready to move forward here is an instant download of the most important tool in the Feng Shui tool box...
The Bagua Map (pronounced Bah-GWA).
Click Here to download your free Feng Shui Bagua Map!