Boost your business with feng shui

Maria Kegel, Contributor, Jakarta

When business turned sour for Sam, he consulted a feng shui expert for help. He found out that there was more involved than meets the eye. Walls were knocked down and new rooms were plotted out, but after the major renovation on his home was completed, it was his wife who suffered more than the business had.

Things did start to look up financially, but that was after they moved residence.

Sam's decision to renovate his home to better his business was not out of the ordinary, and experts in the field contend the benefits brought on by good feng shui are too many to ignore.

What does good feng shui mean for someone?

"Quite simply a better life with good health, wealth and favorable prospects for the future. And if you have any misfortune or if there is a crisis, it will not have as big an impact on your life as it could," said Dr. Mauro Rahardjo, founder of the Feng Shui School as well as a lecturer of architectural design and the history of architecture at Parahyangan University, both in Bandung.

"It's been proven that people who use feng shui have better luck, and in global terms, countries that apply feng shui are better off economically. In Asia, that would include Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore."

But one does not have to move office or knock down walls to immediately bring good feng shui into the work area. Placing certain items in your office or rearranging the furniture can also counteract any bad influences and improve some areas of your life.

The simplest way to improve feng shui is by placing a feng shui object outside the building, Mauro said.

"Normally, we use two types of mirrors, a concave one or a convex one," he said.

The concave mirror promotes prosperity in an office and is placed facing another successful establishment to attract more of the same to yours.

"But if there are threats, such as trees, a bad smell or some bad objects, in front of the office, then the convex mirror should be employed."

He pointed out that merely placing these mirrors outside one's building to neutralize any threats did not automatically guarantee good feng shui, but simply canceled out the bad.

Feng shui (moving wind and water) is the Chinese art of geomancy and it has been accepted and practiced in many parts of Asia and North America.

Farmers were the first to practice feng shui and it was based on a temperate climate's four seasons.

Autumn, winter, summer and spring were then assigned directions and one of nature's elements: winter has north and water, summer south and fire, spring east and wood, autumn west and metal and the center has earth.

Many methods have evolved since then but the most common one in practice in Indonesia is the compass, which is applicable to many places, including the office.

The direction the door of the office is facing is most important, Mauro said.

You can determine the areas in your office by using the front door as a guide and finding out where the room faces with a compass.

"Standing inside the room, looking out gives us the direction according to the compass."

For example, if the compass reads south as you face the office's front door, then the back part of the room is the north section, the left is east, and the right is west.

The building and the direction it faces can also have negative and positive influences if it conflicts with the type of industry, which is also assigned an element. Political parties are grouped under fire, law firms are metal, production services, such as agriculture and forestry, are wood and media services are water.

Fire conflicts with water as water extinguishes it, and wood is in conflict with metal.

"So if your business deals with water, it's not good to have the office building's (front doors) facing south."

Both the office building and the direction in which the office faces should be correct to optimize good feng shui in the workplace.

The next important aspect is the location of your desk. Do not sit with your back to the door, but instead position your desk so that you have a good vantage point of people coming and going out of the office.

"The point is to have control over the door," he said, adding that one should not be seated facing the front of the door, but instead off to the side.

In addition, the further away you sit from the door the better, with the optimal area being the back righthand corner of a room if you are inside the room facing the door.

Because each individual also has a personal element, according to your year of birth on the Chinese astrological calendar, the color that falls into that group will be the most beneficial for their office.

Water elements are governed by blue and black, fire by red, pink, maroon and a scarlet violet, metal by white, deep yellow and gray, earth by yellow and brown, cream and beige, wood is ruled by green and light blue.

There are no bad or good colors, simply ones that harmonize or conflict with your particular element, and elements should not be in conflict with each other, he said.

For example, a wood person would benefit from colors from the wood, water or fire groups.

Likewise, when placing objects in the room, which falls under the pyramid method of feng shui, which is in wide practice in North America, they should not conflict with the elements of the directions.

For example, do not put an aquarium in the south section of the office. Flowers and plants should be placed in the north, east or south part of the office.

"Flowers fall under wood, so don't put flowers in the west, because wood conflicts with metal," he said.

A television, stereo or other form of electronics are better placed in the west, north or the center of the room, but never in the south.

The same protection principle as the mirrors can also be applied to the areas that govern certain aspects of your life.

As wealth matters the most in business, placing an object that enhances affluence in the back righthand corner of a room will benefit this aspect of your life. The right side is determined by facing the front door again, and this location is not affected by the room's directions or elements of the person or industry.

The wealth-enhancing object should be luminous, give off sound, have some sort of movement and form of life. Small fountains or aquariums are good choices.

If you are looking for an office, it's important to pay attention to the area outside a potential workplace as much as the room's or building's interior, he said.

"It is useless to have good feng shui inside the office when the outside is not really good. We start talking about feng shui even before we enter the building," he said.

Garbage and foul smells can sabotage good feng shui. It is also important to watch for "obstacles", such as police stations, houses of worship and funeral parlors, which affect buildings that possess good feng shui.

Street layout has a significant bearing on feng shui as well.

It is good feng shui if a building is encircled by streets or on a curved road. But the opposite holds true if the house is at the end of a T-junction or in the fork of a road where it faces oncoming traffic.

He pointed out that the street which the Jakarta Design Center in Slipi area, West Jakarta, is on was advantageous, but that its feng shui turned for the worse when the flyover was built next to it.

"Business was good (there) but as soon as that flyover went up, everything got worse."

The color of the exterior of the building is important as well. Although the only hard and fast rule on which color should be chosen is to select one in harmony with a person's element, some bright colors are more suitable for certain offices, he said, adding that a person should follow their intuition when choosing a color.

Even landscape plays a part, with negative influences coming from big trees that block the view from the front door. That also applies to lampposts or sharp objects, such as the pointed roof of a building across the street, especially if an angle points to the front door.

"If you see any dead trees in the vicinity, that isn't a good sign either," he said.

Table courtesy of Dr. Mauro Rahardjo

Year of birth, Chinese Astrology sign, Element, Best direction for men, Best direction for women:

17/02/69 to 05/02/70, Chicken, Earth, East, Northwest; 30/01/68 to 16/02/69, Monkey, Earth, Northwest, South; 09/02/67 to 29/01/68, Goat, Fire, Southwest, North; 21/01/66 to 08/02/67, Horse, Fire, Northeast, West; 02/02/65 to 20/01/66, Snake, Wood, West, Northeast; 13/02/64 to 01/02/65, Dragon, Wood, North, Southwest; 25/01/63 to 12/02/64, Rabbit, Water, South, West; 05/02/62 to 24/01/63, Tiger, Water, Northwest, East; 15/02/61 to 04/02/62, Ox, Metal, Southeast, Southeast; 28/01/60 to 14/02/61, Rat, Metal, East, Northwest; 08/02/59 to 27/01/60, Pig, Earth, Northwest, South; 18/02/58 to 07/02/59, Dog, Earth, Southwest, North; 31/01/57 to 17/02/58, Chicken, Fire, Northeast, West; 12/01/56 to 30/01/57, Monkey, Fire, West, Northeast; 24/01/55 to 11/01/56, Goat, Wood, North, Southwest; 03/02/54 to 23/01/55, Horse, Wood, South, West.