The Real Reason Feng Shui Confuses People

Hey guys, welcome to Learn Feng Shui podcast where ancient tradition meets modern wisdom. And each week I talk about a different aspect of Feng Shui or Chinese metaphysics. And this week we're looking at Feng Shui. I'm Candice Berlanga, certified Feng Shui practitioner. So we're going to talk about why Feng Shui sometimes feels confusing.

I've had quite a few people message me just over the months, over the years. And I a little bit more recently have had some discussions with a few of you listeners. And so hopefully I'll answer some of your questions. Why Feng Shui feels so confusing? It's supposed to make life easier, but instead you start second guessing everything in your house.

This episode is going to be for you, okay? I hear it a lot. People start exploring Feng Shui and they're looking for support and clarity. But somewhere along the way it really just turns into worry. And you worry about putting something in the wrong place or adding something, activating the wrong energy.

One little small thing could change or mess up your whole house. How do you set up your Feng Shui? the time Feng Shui is not the problem. Really, it's the way Feng Shui is being learned. And that's why I'm here in the Learn Feng Shui podcast.

Really, that's why I started this podcast was to help you guys bust some myths and learn what Feng Shui really is. A Feng Shui actually has an order. And when that order gets flipped around, it starts to feel overwhelming very quickly. It works in layers. And we're going to talk about those layers today.

Um some effects are felt a little bit faster than others, a little bit more immediate. Some layers are long-term structural. And unfold slowly over the years. Some are just temporary like seasonal or yearly influences. So it can be a little bit confusing like the weather versus the climate.

A rainy day doesn't mean you have to rebuild your house. Not every influence Feng Shui influence is going to be felt immediately, but some will be. [snorts] So this is where people get stuck. They start looking at charts, numbers, stars, directions, everything all at once. And they're like, "Oh my god, I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm ready to give up." And I hear that a lot. And I've actually been there. Um so let's slow down a little bit. Let's clarify. Usually when this happens, you need to step back a little bit.

Is that what you don't feel confused? It's not supposed to feel confusing or frustrating. If you're feeling confused and frustrated, that's when you start to want to give up. And we don't want you to give up. We want you to learn.

So in this episode, we're going to slow things down a little bit, talk about how Feng Shui is meant to be layered. We're going to start some foundations and what we can build on, where you can focus. So I'm not going to be teaching like advanced methods. I might be talking about some things or explaining some things. But I really want to just slow down the way you're thinking about Feng Shui in a way that feels supportive.

Again, Feng Shui is supposed to help you and feel more at home in your space, not make you afraid of it. Well, let's get into it. Let's look at Feng Shui and think about these layers, okay? One of the easiest ways to understand them is separating these energies into what is called static and what's called dynamic. Okay, static energy is long-term, slow moving or non-moving at all.

It comes from things like the structure of your home, how it sits on in a space, the features of the land around it, and your floor plan, okay? This kind of energy builds over time and creates a pattern of energy for your home. You will can set up long-term Feng Shui placement. And we'll talk about that in just a second. Just Just keep that in mind, okay?

There's this long-term unmoving energy. Then we have what's called dynamic energy. On the other hand here, it's short-term. It's changeable. It can include things like seasonal shifts, yearly influences, and temporary activity even in your home.

Dynamic energy moves. It comes and goes. It can be adjusted or corrected. The key thing is to understand the static energy that's unmoving and longer term will carry more weight over a long term, while the dynamic energy is more of a passing influence that shifts a little quicker. And this influence is felt a little faster, okay?

So just keep that in mind. Static, unchanging. Dynamic changes. And that's what I talk about with the monthly Feng Shui energy updates, yearly Feng Shui energy updates. I think where people get confused is they're looking at this dynamic energy and they're confusing it with static energy.

That's when stuff Feng Shui starts to feel stressful. And what I've noticed is that we want to look at everything at once. Well, this dynamic energy is a little shorter term, they're treating it more important than the static energy which can set your home. We're going to talk about that first. Like maybe like everything needs constant change, constant fix.

That's not necessarily always the case. Feng Shui was never meant to really work that way. It starts with the static layer first, the unchanging layer because it creates the stability that dynamic influence can be layered on top. It's the first layer. This is why the very first place to begin with Feng Shui isn't charts or calculations.

Don't even think about none of that stuff. And I think this is where people kind of will gravitate more towards what is called the BTB Feng Shui. This is where a lot of people find it easier to start with cuz you don't have to look at direction and charts and calculations and all that stuff. It is easier to apply. No matter what style of Feng Shui though you do, it always starts with something called Feng Shui forms.

This looks at the space and how it actually functions and the energy moves through it. This is a very physical or practical way to look at Feng Shui. There's a thing in Feng Shui that forms will supersede formula. Forms before formula. And really, when we get to the root of what Feng Shui is, the five arts of Chinese metaphysics, the art of Feng Shui falls into the category of physiognomy.

In the category of physiognomy there's also things like palm reading and face reading, which is the study of the appearance or shape of something. Well, Feng Shui is a study of the shape or the appearance of your home. Form Feng Shui is the best place to start because you're looking at the physical space of your home. And we're looking at the structure and how it supports you, the layout, the flow, and the placement of items. That's what the forms Feng Shui is, okay?

It's a practical way to understand forms is to think about that command position. That is the very first place to start. Because no matter what you set up in your home, if the flying stars are supportive, if you're not in a command position, if you're not backed by something solid, you can't see the entrance, there's pressure from things like beams, sloped ceilings, sharp corners, two doors facing each other, you're sleeping where your bed is above the stove underneath you, stuff like that. That means the forms are incorrect and the placement itself is not stable. You can't benefit from the flying stars and all the dynamic energies that come in, okay?

Because you're not receiving a good energy in the first place. Your bed position, your desk position, it gives you that foundation. You know, when a layout and placement feels right, everything else, charts, stars, formulas, is going to be effectively layered on top of that. So the forms is the foundation of your Feng Shui. It asks simple questions.

Is the entrance clear? Is it welcoming? Is it uncluttered? Is there support behind you when you sit or sleep? Does the layout allow energy to move through the space?

Does it feel blocked or chaotic? So these are things that matter in daily life rather than a number on a chart, especially when you're just starting out. I love to watch videos where people live in New York and they show their uh their small apartment space and they show how practically they use it. That is good form, okay? Uh having it uncluttered, having everything having a space.

Of course we get a little bit of clutter and stuff like that, but you know, clearing away that stuff, getting rid of stuff we don't need, sitting in the command position, sleeping in the command position, that is going to be the most important thing, okay? This is also why forms Feng Shui rarely contradicts itself. There's no contradiction here. It's a If it's cluttered, poor lighting, awkward layout, you're going to feel that first more than any other system of Feng Shui you're going to follow, okay? So when forms are addressed first, it's that foundation like I said, then you layer on top of that, then everything else can be considered, okay?

It also reduces the need for constant adjust- adjustment later. You know, you do not are not going to move your bed every year. I don't move my bed every year. You're not going to be You set it in a good space. My bed is in a command position.

And even though I did use some specific a Feng Shui formula to set my bed, it still has to follow that command position. So whether I adjust it a little bit to the right or left, it's still facing the door. My desk doesn't change every year. I might not use my office as much if it has a bad energy to it, but I'm not going to be moving my desk around every year, okay? That has been set with a specific Feng Shui formula that also follows Feng Shui forms.

So form first, whether I adjust it a little bit to the right or left, I'm facing my window, stuff like that. That is going to be where you're going to start out. And for this, I always recommend the Feng Shui book, Joey Yap's Feng Shui for interiors, home buyers edition. Every time. That 100% that's the best form Feng Shui.

And it does have a little bit of like the eight mansions and whatnot, okay? It has some of that stuff in there. But it really is amazing at addressing where to start out with Feng Shui, bed placement and and internal forms. So you know, what about your kitchen? It's always the forms Feng Shui.

And additionally to that, I remember reading on a blog or a Facebook post or something, one of the ladies that studied with Professor Lin Yun, who If you don't know who Professor Lin Yun is, he actually popularized the BTB style of Feng Shui in the US. It was said in this blog post that he was given a dinner to honor him, and they put him in his best position or his like his sheng qi, that life generating position, according to his gua number. But that he was getting like bumped by the servers, they were walking behind him and stuff like that. And they ignored his position in the room, the forms part of his position in the room, okay? His location.

And it was said that he used that as a lesson to say, "Hey, the position in the room is better than and will supersede my best position." Think about that. So, when you set up your forms, you set up yourself to receive a good Wi-Fi signal. Uh so, after we set up our forms, this next layer, long-term energy, the subtle patterns that unfold over decades of living in a home, systems like eight mansions or a home's natal flying star chart will track this energy. But, it kind of is important to note that it only really matters for areas you spend the most time in over a lifetime of living in a home, anywhere from 20 to 60 years. How long are you going to be in that house for?

And it's not something you need to react to every day. And only if you're living here for a lifetime, like when you're looking at buying a house, maybe it's something you're going to want to consider, you know, if you're going to live there for you know, you raise your kids and have grandkids there, it's then something you're going to want to think about, okay? Working with this long-term energy, forms will come first, the placement of furniture, beds, work spaces in the command position. And in spaces that feel supportive, always lay the foundation, the long-term energy just adds an extra layer of support to you that is going to be a long-term over the lifetime of living in a home. Now, we're going to look at short-term energies.

These are the most dynamic, you will feel these over the course of a short period of time. When we look at things like flying stars, I just did my yearly energy update. This is the year of flying stars, they will impact you over the course of using a space for the year. Okay, that's why you are going to want to avoid places like the south this year with that five star. You're just not going to want to position yourself there for the year because it only impacts it over the year, okay?

Unlike long-term energy that unfolds over decades, these flying stars can change over the the year, the month, and even the day. We don't really focus too much on that. So, let's start out a little slow here. The layer you will feel, okay? Sometimes a room feels off, maybe it feels more challenging.

That's often because of some shifting energies. Flying stars are flexible. They respond to what you do in a space, they're activated by movement and being in a space, so moving furniture, adding or removing items, or starting new activities. You don't need to get lost in calculations. It's important just to note that the energy moves and can be adjusted.

They come and go and you can work with them in the space to make you feel more supportive over the year month. One way to think about the different layers of feng shui is think about it like this, climate, season, and weather, okay? Your home, the long-term energy, the natal star charts, how you position your furniture in that space, it's going to be the climate. It's overall tone. The background pattern that unfolds over a long period of time.

Yearly flying stars, however, are like seasons, okay? They shift noticeably over the year, just like you notice spring, winter, fall, there's a shift there. It can bring a subtle change influence and affect different areas of your home separately, but you can prepare for them, you can make small adjustments and feel their effects. Monthly your daily stars are like the weather. These energies change quickly, like month to month or day to day.

But, it's important that if you're doing something in an area that actively moves or changes the space, like a renovation, moving furniture, or activating a particular area, tracking the daily flying stars can be important then. But, usually it's too much to just look at it every day. And that also creates fear. You don't want to be like, "Where's the five stars this day? Where you know, you you don't do that, okay?" It's exactly where date selection comes in though.

This helps you work with short-term energy that matters the most for that time. Only when you're doing large triggers of energy do you want to kind of track that. Now that we know the difference between long-term energy, short-term energy, we know the difference between static and dynamic energies, one thing that can change also or affect the energy of a space that you might not think about could be date and time selection. Date selection comes into play when you are choosing a project. Just like I talk about on my monthly energy updates, you're not going to want to start a renovation project on a sector that has the five flying star, like we're not doing renovations in the south this year.

It has the grand duke, it has some very negative energies there. What if you have to? What if a pipe breaks and you have to start? Well, you can negate some of those negative energies by starting on a good day. And if you can't start on a good day, you can start on a good hour.

If you think of date selection like planning a garden project, you wouldn't just plant seeds or move heavy soil on a rainy day. You're not going to want to do that, things aren't going to grow well if it gets waterlogged, right? The weather matters. So, in feng shui, this same thing applies to energy. Sometimes maybe you do important things like moving into a new home, rearranging a big part of your space, you might notice the energy feels off.

What if you ever, you know, hold a grand opening on a day that's bad energy, you might feel it instantly. I'm going to give you this example, okay? My sister, she was living in California during COVID, her husband at the time had went to work from home. You know, working in office to work at home as a lot of people did. They realized very quickly with two small children they did not have enough space.

They were like, "You know what? We're going to move back to Texas. We'll move back to our hometown." Perfect, okay. When I looked at the date they were going to move, I didn't I didn't tell her, but it was what was called a destruction day. I just told her, "Make sure you're lifting with your legs, you're doing all the things that you're not going to hurt yourself.

Uh make sure the weather's okay, it's not rainy or anything like that." It was in August, sometimes you do get those rains. Uh yeah, the next day she told me that they weren't able to get their U-Haul, all the U-Hauls were rented out. Um some of that was on on her her ex-husband. He just didn't reserve things ahead of time. They moved all of their furniture out of their apartment and had to leave it outside overnight without anywhere to put it because they didn't have a U-Haul the day to leave the next day.

So, del- delays leaving town, issues with the rental, frustration, stress with two small children. It wasn't just the home itself, right? It's it's the timing. Choosing a supportive day, quote unquote sunny day to start your garden project, and doing things like making big changes, moving, starting renovations, opening a business, you can experience a smoother, more positive, and more aligned with that space. And date selection works with the layers of energy we already talked about.

Works with forms, long-term energy, and flying stars, and it's a practical way to support the things you want also. Remember, you can use that if you have a bad flying star for the year, for the month, for the day, you're like, "Oh, no, the five stars doubled up here today." You know, sometimes that's just the way it works. It it's just the way it works. There are certain date selection formulas that can be used to find a good day and time even if the five stars are even if the grand duke is there. Another thing you're going to want to consider is your personal energy.

So, let's talk about one more factor besides forms, long-term energy, flying stars, and now we have the date selection we talked about. Let's talk about personal energy cuz we definitely have personal energy that can impact us. Even the most supportive home can feel a little bit off if your energy isn't aligned with the space or the influence of the year. You know, a lot of people, so if you have a horse, the rat might have a hard time and that definitely can be impacted by your home's feng shui also. You can think of your home as a Wi-Fi router, too.

The home has Wi-Fi signal. Some areas are strong, some are weak, but feng shui helps you boost that signal to get as much support as possible. Even when the energy feels a little laggy, you can definitely use different areas to activate, you know, just like I tell you, if you are a monkey this month, use the north area of your home. Use the area where the rat sits. Remember, rat and monkey combine, okay?

You can find all the zodiac signs within your home. You can just look up the uh 12 zodiac compass or message me info@learnfengshui.com, I'll tell you where your zodiac signs are. But, I also tell you if the five stars are don't use that area for the for the month, okay? For example, the rat has supportive energy for the month while the southwest does not. Take those into consideration, too.

All right, that personal energy will definitely interact with the layers of your home's energy. So, there's a lot to consider there. Kind of just uh have you feel a little encouraged. Um feng shui is supposed to feel supportive. If you [snorts] feel frustrated, if you feel scared, um take a little bit of a step back.

Start with those forms. Tell yourself, "It's it's supposed to support me, not scare me, not frustrate me." Just look at your space, clear some clutter away, look at the forms, and ask yourself if it feels good. Are you having a good year? Is anything dramatic happening? If that's not the case, then you're more than likely fine, okay?

You also don't need to fix everything. I do the yearly energy updates, you can set your home for that year and forget about it a little bit. You don't have to do the monthly feng shui that I talk about, you know. If you feel like you need something that needs to be changed, you're like, "I want to use this sector for the month and I want to feel supported in this area, maybe you need to find work." You're going to use that eight star, okay? You're going to move with the eight star.

Use that area. I am using the north, that's my office. You're going to want to face the three killings and sit with your back to the grand duke. I just moved to the other side of my desk if that makes sense. So, I'm facing north now, okay?

So, you don't have to change everything, you don't have to fix everything every year, whatever. You're allowed to simplify it and step back if the BTB approach feels easier, safer for you, do the BTB approach. It's not set in stone, okay? And you're not going to get in trouble. I don't use the natal chart or the eight mansions.

I do something called purple white script. That's that's what I use cuz I think it's easier. I think I'm actually going to teach a class on it. I'll probably do a future episode dedicated to only flying stars and I've done it before. Let's look at this as gaining some clarity and not having to follow specific feng shui things.

If it makes you feel anxious, though, it's okay to slow down, the energy isn't going to kill you, okay? It's just supposed to be supportive to you. I hope you found this episode more supportive, maybe clarified a little bit, and I'll catch you guys on the March energy update. You guys have a good weekend.