What should you look out for when you are house hunting? This is one of the most frequent questions relating to Feng Shui.
We all yearn for a breath of fresh air or, when this change is imposed on us, when we are house hunting, it is no longer enough for the place to be pretty, cosy, well furnished, being well located in terms of access, or price… some are also concerned about the energy matter pertaining to our new home. Do not confuse this with what the legislation in force requires, the “Energy Certification”. Our concern here is different, in another field, other types of energy that are highly relevant, as our home is an extension of our body and there is an inter-relation between the two. Although there are no perfect homes, if we can make sure certain requisites are met, so much the better. However, I’d like to point out we shouldn’t move just for the sake of it, light-heartedly, thinking this will bring miracle solutions, as we run the risk of attracting a home with the same energy features as the one before. This is because we all have our path and Feng Shui is not magic. It offers us support and knowledge for our life to be harmonious and happy and when times come that aren’t so good, it will be there to take the edge off a bit and helping us overcome them in the best and fastest way possible.
If you are in the market for a new home, if this is your expectation, then take note of the following:
These requisites are already a good start, although having help from a professional is pivotal in deciding how to organize your home, lay out your furniture, select the colours and patterns that most suit the inhabitants and their goals in life, which all depend on the property’s energy chart.
Lastly, I’d like to add that this information is general and each case is unique, as too is each home, which should be analysed by a professional in a personalized manner.
And don’t forget: A home is to be worn! And lived in!
I wish you a happy moving!
Lavoisier said that “in nature nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything changes”. When working with Feng Shui on energy and getting it flowing in a harmonious way in a home, body-wise we can harmonize this energy too and change it in our heart.
Just as in a home you have the centre, from where the energy spreads out, our body has a centre too, our heart, and this has the capacity to circulate our blood, as well as the energy of our thoughts and emotions, which then become behaviours and attitudes. However, many of us, perhaps due to what society imposes, shut ourselves off and self-block, not letting the best of us flow, leading to fear and anxiety which then manifest themselves in thoughts and behaviours.
As an analogy, when a flower is open it has the capacity to and virtue of spreading its perfume to the world. Just as a flower, our heart, when open, can spread its fragrance – our virtues and qualities.
Most of us grew up in a society that fostered reservation, defensiveness, having a closed heart in a gesture of self-protection from all the hurt and humiliation that others could inflict on us, where to have it open would be an act of bravery.
We need to have this courage and open our hearts up to the world. Spread our joy, our optimism, our virtues, and qualities.
Having a closed heart won’t protect us more. No. With a closed heart we will be even more vulnerable, as we do not allow ourselves to spread our energy to the world and feel the happiness in sharing goodness, which is what makes us strong and brimming with light.
Many of you may ask: how can I do that? How can I change my inner chip? How do we get used to operating on a different level? The answer is simple: dare to have positive thoughts and actions only! These, just like negative thoughts, have the capacity to multiply and bear fruits. So, dare to do it! When negative thoughts turn up, and they will, try to look on the positive side of the situation/emotion. I’ll share an example to help you:
Negative Heart - “There was an accident on my way to work this morning. I was in a traffic jam for hours. I was livid, as I had so much to do. While I was in the car, nervous, everything popped into my head and all I wanted to do was scream. I screamed and yelled. I yelled with my colleagues when I got into the office. The environment was awkward. When I arrived home, after a horrible day, I argued with my husband and kids and went to bed in an even fouler mood …”
And now, the positive spin.
Positive Heart: “There was an accident on my way to work this morning. I was in a traffic jam for hours. I thanked the universe that it wasn’t me and that I had been blessed with continuing to live my life. Then, I took the moment to relax and calm my mind. I was in my car for ages, so I used the time to call relatives and friends, which made me very happy. When
I got into work, although it was late and I had tonnes to do, I’d already rested so I rolled up my sleeves and was very productive. I think I got more work done in 5 hours than in the usual 8. When I got home, I kissed my family and savoured the moment.”
This is one of the many examples that happen to us in our daily lives and which we can embrace and look on the positive side of the situation or, in certain cases, try to figure out what we can learn from it.
There’s no point using the typical saying “I’m not negative, I’m a realist” because we can make our own reality!
So, open up your heart and dare to give yourself and others the best of you. You’ll see that the more you surround yourself with positive energy, the better your life will be!
Oftentimes, one of the first questions I’m asked is: “Sofia, we should always keep the toilet lid down, right?” And Sofia replies “It depends”, which triggers a lift of the person’s eyebrow.
In the olden days, bathrooms, or sanitary facilities, if you prefer, were seen as something extremely negative and were located outside the homes – it was only a hole in the ground. As time moved on, social status, comfort and developments in construction meant that bathrooms were now inside the homes and nowadays they are almost mini spas, featuring beauty and design.
Although a bathroom is a place to rid yourself of what is not necessary and to remove soiling, the truth is that it’s also a space for cleanliness, purification and energizing. For this reason, the bathroom shouldn’t be overlooked, rather it should be an area with the capacity to revitalize us.
So, when I’m asked if the toilet lid should be down and the bathroom door shut and I reply “it depends”, it’s because it does in fact depend on the type of energy the bathroom has, among other factors.
Twenty-odd years ago, as I was starting to read up on this subject, which ten years later would become my occupation, and after many vocational courses (which I still engage in today and fuel me, as they are never-ending), one of the most pressing issues I felt was a lack of understanding of some subjects that seemed contradictory.
For instance, in some books there were authors who advocated that everyone should sleep facing North because the North-South axis re-establishes us and brings more balanced sleep. In others, I read that children should sleep with their head facing East, as this favours their growth. And in others still I read that each individual’s date of birth and their gender, male or female, brought with it new variations. And lastly, there were others that placed the house and its conditions and features at the core.
At the time, this confused me and made me want to find some clarification, as my brain was trained in the field of sciences, objective and concrete thought, the absence of what couldn’t be defined.
Fortunately, when I dug deeper into the matter and studied it at a professional level, I began to understand that all these claims were indeed justified. They did not contradict, rather complemented each other and today I can claim they have varying degrees of importance and vary according to the circumstances.
VA: “Casa Organizada Vida Equilibrada” [Home Organized, Life Balanced] is your most recent project, started in January 2019. Tell us a little bit about this new project and what it entails.
SLC: “Home Organized, Life Balanced” is a Feng Shui series, where I will be uploading several videos on the subject onto my official YouTube channel throughout 2019. (https://www.youtube.com/c/SofiaLoboCeraConsultoraProfissionaldeFengShui). There will be 25 videos on Feng Shui; two or three will be uploaded every month so people can apply Feng Shui in their homes, their lives, their workplace, among others, in an accessible format with practical tips and suggestions so people can live a better life with positive energy and vibes!
My team and I produced the project in the second half of 2018, one that is unprecedented in this field in Portugal and which promises to become a basis for knowledge of and reference in Feng Shui in our country.
The videos can have captions in Portuguese for the hearing impaired or in English, as my follower community goes beyond our borders.
Several renowned entities were involved in this project, namely Hotel do Chiado in Lisbon, the Lisbon Golf Academy, Challet Fonte Nova in Alcobaça, Campo Grande Garden Centre in Lisboa, Top Atlântico, Centro Pré e Pós Parto in Lisboa, Arboretto, Linhas Direitas, Pedro de Santarém school in Lisbon, the multinational Steelcase, and Topo restaurant.
VA: How did this project come about?
SLC: It was an idea I’d had in my mind for quite a while now, but I hadn’t yet felt that “the time is right!”. Until one day, specifically from 30 June to 1 July 2018, I woke up in the morning, opened my eyes and said to myself: “this is it. This is the moment!”. I did what I had to do, and we started working on the project. I put everything together, from the script to the locations for shooting, the clothes I’d wear, the days we’d shoot and the days when the videos would be uploaded. I recall that when my producer looked at the first draft of my document, he said “it’s not through lack of organization that this project won’t move forward!” And so, on 1 August 2018, one month later to the day, we shot our first video, the video to be released exactly one year later, on 1 August 2019. Of all the videos we made, and I like them all, of course, this is my favourite; perhaps because it was the first, it has a different taste to it 😀.
From them on to the end of 2018, we shot and edited all 25 videos, so they’d be ready for the launch at the start of January 2019.
VA: What is the aim of this project?
SLC: The aim of this project is to help people and make their lives easier by offering them practical and visible solutions on how they can implement simple solutions that can change their lives. In addition to these suggestions, I also explain how things work, why they should be used and when, so the results are boosted. A professional and personal consultation is always better, of course, but for those who can’t have this for any reason, these tips already help quite a lot.
VA: Throughout these months, you began by explaining what Feng Shui is, what it’s based on, how you can get energy flowing inside a home and you also offered tips on how to have energy, drive and time to get your body in shape for summer, be healthy and use plants in our favour. What else can we expect moving forward?
SLC: In June, as many are starting their holidays, I started by making people aware of the care to take when choosing a holiday destination, because it’s not just important for it to be pretty, at a good price, near the beach, it’s also important for people to know whether they are travelling somewhere where they will feel good, as it isn’t nice to invest in holidays that turn out a fiasco. Or even when what happens after the holidays is unpleasant. I also spoke about how to stimulate travel in people’s homes, as we often hear it being said that they never travelled again since they moved into that space. Still in June, I’ll run some very practical tips on how to organize the holiday logistics. From here on we will talk about many interesting topics, namely how to make the most of this season, how to encourage romance, marriage/relationship and passion, return to work so that this runs smoothly and also how to achieve professional or financial aims, among many other subjects people want to know more about.
VA: Why the name “Home Organized Life Balanced?”
SLC: “Home Organized, Life Balanced” was a name I came up with in 2017 for my upcoming professional project, as deep down the idea was already being mulled. It’s a name that fully relates to Feng Shui, although Feng Shui is much more than organization. However, it’s with organization that it all begins.
VA: Is there any message you’d like to leave?
SLC: Yes! I’d like to thank the people following this series on our YouTube Channel and social media and to invite you to follow us, as this project was created and developed with you in mind. Having contributed and continuing to contribute to people fulfilling their dreams is sheer happiness!
in Vento e Água Magazine published on September 2019
This is the time when flowers and trees start blooming and nature’s scent is in the air! Lap Chun or Li Cun marks the start of Spring for the Chinese on 4 February.
We will now enter wood energy of the Five Elements’ cycle, defined by drive, growth, innovation, new projects, futurism, determination to head where we want to go, and exercise. Just like the plants that are now starting to wake up, we too will feel this potential energy and a healthy stirring.
This is why so many people start to think about taking up exercise at this time of the year; not just to get their bodies Summer ready, but also because their surroundings draw them to it. What can help you stay in shape, become more fit, healthier and, as such, with better energy and mood, according to Feng Shui?
The days become longer, they become prettier and more inviting and after a few months of a rigorous winter, going outside and getting fresh air is a blessing!
For those who need a nudge...
For those who need a nudge to keep up with the energy of this season, please find below a few Feng Shui tips that will lift your spirits and help you stay in shape. What to give it a try? A lot of my clients have implemented these suggestions and all of them came back to me with “amazing, Sofia, I did it!”
Let’s go, then!
First of all, I’d ask you to start by enlightening us on the Feng Shui techniques and the advantages of practicing it.
Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese art that is around 4,000 years old, studies the way in which energy flows in a space and, when this is balanced and in harmony, represents greater well-being and comfort for those who use and who move in that space. People, that’s what we’re talking about, feel better, are happier and more stable at all levels. When we refer to energy, this has nothing to do with esoterism, rather the concept of energy in science, which we know in terms of physics and chemistry.
Any space where these techniques are implemented in a studied, professional and conscious way will be more positive on all levels. At a corporate level, economic agents become stronger, they grow, consolidate, and their teams are healthy and tick together to meet their goals.
Is this concept implemented in Portugal or is it still unknown?
When I started talking about Feng Shui 21 years ago, at ISEL (Lisbon School of Engineering), where I was studying at the time, my colleagues almost doubted I was mentally sane, that I was talking about things that they didn’t understand and for some this theme seemed like something taken from a Medieval witchcraft book! However, for me, engineering and Feng Shui have always been tied, as astronomy and physics are part of Feng Shui’s structural bases, where the bodies and particles that make up space and matter are studied. The exact same thing happens in homes and companies, placing people and furniture or equipment in certain positions, acting as reagents for a physical-chemical reaction, causing chemical reactions which result, in a simplistic manner, in the circumstance of a person feeling well or not, in a given space. Who hasn’t felt well or badly immediately when walking into a space? Or how do you feel when you arrive at your workplace every day? When people feel well in a certain space, they breathe in more comfort and as such, work and live better. Today, there is increasingly more knowledge and dissemination of what Feng Shui is and it’s quite interesting to see that more and more companies take this up. In fact, the world over, there are few leading companies who don’t have a Feng Shui consultant on board. The logos of major corporations are designed following Feng Shui principles to make sure that success starts with the first impression.
Many companies now design their products following Feng Shui, selecting the colours and materials and the way in which these combine, according to the Creative Cycle of the Five Elements (you can find out more about this subject in my book “Change your Home Enrich your Life”).
Although a few companies are now implementing Feng Shui in their spaces in Portugal, there is still a long way to go. Housing wise, especially in the Greater Lisbon area, more and more families are investing in Feng Shui for their well-being.
What is the feedback you’ve been getting from the clients who have already implemented these techniques?
The feedback has been very positive, especially at corporate level. Generally, and when dealing with goals that cut more or less across the board, that is, growth, business consolidation, profits, employee productivity (more and more companies worry about their teams’ well-being) many companies have now realized that one of the keys to success is having happy and satisfied employees, not just in terms of their job but also their workplace. For the most part, in companies we have two types of situation: either companies that are already working out of a given space and want to achieve these goals with the help of Feng Shui when faced with a threat of stagnation or decline and we achieve new impetus; or they are projects from scratch, that is, when a company moves into a new space (new for it or new construction wise) and the entire space is organized, laid out, decorated or even built using thorough classic Feng Shui calculations. In these cases, we set up a team with all those in charge, ranging from the CEO to the architect, designer and others, and the Feng Shui consultant. Of all these projects from scratch I’ve been on, and please excuse my lack of modesty, the results have been excellent, which gives me great satisfaction.
How does a house come to be?
How does it turn up in our life?
A house or home is born from an intent. And this intent can stem from someone having a need, or wanting that need, or wanting to increase their family, or have more wealth, rise up the career ladder, or want more success, or health, or harmony and well-being, travelling, want to materialize something, among many other factors.
But why do people want to have all of this projected in a house or home?
Because our home is the reflection of our life and an extension of our body. We can say a home is a life project.
Well, how does it come to be, then? How does it turn up in our life? How does it come to us?
I can tell you a story of something that happened to me...
