Feng shui (literally translated as wind and water) is the Chinese art and science of balancing the flow of energy in our environment so that we can live in harmony with the natural world. It is believed that when the invisible natural forces all around us are disturbed or blocked, it can cause misfortune, poor health and financial trouble. A key idea behind feng shui is that everything is connected energetically. Your thoughts and feelings, even your behavior, can be influenced by your surroundings, while the state of your home is a reflection of your mood and attitude. From a practical point of view, many feng shui principles involve common sense and intuition.

Some consider it to be superstition, but the Chinese have been using feng shui methods for more than three thousand years. For many, it is a normal part of their daily life and they wouldn't think of moving into or renovating a home, starting a new business, or planting a garden without first consulting a feng shui master to evaluate the location for maximal flow of positive chi, or energy. The results of a feng shui analysis have been known to make or break real estate transactions involving Chinese homebuyers.

Do you want to maximize your wealth potential? How about spice up your love life? Are you buying a new house? Try applying some of these simple feng shui rules to help enhance the quality of your life.

• Carry three Chinese coins (with a square hole in the center), tied together with a red string or ribbon, in your handbag or wallet to keep your income healthy, or give them as gifts in a red packet to symbolize the offering of prosperity to friends. The coins alone are not effective without the red string as this activates the yang (positive) energy of the coins.


• Bury a money box filled with coins (no pennies please, the larger the denomination the better) in the west or northwest side of your yard, the direction representing the metal element of our environment, and symbolizes the creation of a mountain of gold in your backyard. Doing this energizes the feng shui that brings prosperity.


• Place one Arrowana fish, also known as the prosperity fish, in an aquarium in the northern section of your office to activate wealth and career success. An odd number, or number in multiples of 9 for longevity, of goldfish can also be kept, with eight of them gold and one black to provide protection and absorb bad energy.


• For the single girls looking for a good husband, hang a picture of peonies or place a vase of fresh peonies in your living room or outside your bedroom. These soft pink or peach colored flowers are considered a symbol of great fortune associated with women and will help attract good men into their lives. However, once married, the peonies have to go because it creates the danger of the husband straying and seeking love interests outside the home, as in the old days when men could take concubines.


• Crystals or chandeliers hung in the southwest corner of your home will also attract romance into your life, as well as a painting of a pair of Mandarin ducks in the bedroom. Make sure there are two, one female and one male, or the wrong type of energy will become ignited. Displays of art should represent a balance in both masculine and feminine themes to balance the energy exuded, otherwise, it will be hard to attract the opposite sex.


• On a couple's wedding night, they should have a young male virgin born in the year of the Dragon roll across their bed three times to stimulate the yang energy and encourage fertility, and place a dragon next to the bed to enhance reproductive powers.


• Feng shui can affect the layout of your business card. Ideally, they should have black ink printed on white, and sharp points or angles in designs are to be avoided since they are like knives cutting into you. But if you have no say in how your company's business card is designed, then make sure the points do not directly point to your name.


• Keeping a house or office clean is good feng shui, but make sure you store the brooms and mops out of sight when you're done. The presence of exposed brooms, especially in an eating or office area, will sweep away a family's rice bowl and livelihood, or a company's business.


• Cover all exposed ceiling beams where possible. These create a rippling effect in the descending energy patterns and can create disturbances in the 'invisible winds' of a room. It creates a downward pressure on, or a 'slicing into' the person sleeping, eating, working or sitting under the beam, so this applies to all rooms of the home or office. Have the beam removed, or cover it with a false ceiling.


• Never hang your laundry, sheets or blankets outside overnight or in a dark room without windows. Feng shui experts believe that an excess of lifeless yin (negative) energy is absorbed into the clothing and this transfers to the person wearing them. It is better to hang laundry out to dry in the bright sunlight so that positive yang energy can be absorbed to boost one's spirits, and to bring it all in before dark.


• The location of a house is important due to the flow of energy around it, as well as the flow of traffic. A house should not be located at the intersection or point of a 'T', 'Y', 'V', 'L', 'U' shaped road, or in front of a body of water, bridge or overpass, because a vehicle that loses control could collide with the house, and a 'U' shaped road is like a knife slicing into the house. Dead-end streets and cul-de-sacs are also undesirable, as energy stagnates at the end of the street like water in a muddy pond, which could cause those living there a feeling of aimlessness. Energy spins around in the circular cul-de-sac, creating a vortex and spinning off spurts of energy at high speeds, bombarding the houses on the perimeter of the circle, causing disorder within those homes.


• Undesirable locations for a house - Avoid a house that faces or is adjacent to a cemetery, funeral parlor, place of worship, brothel, police station, bar or buildings in the shape of a fire element, for example, those with sharp pointed roofs. The negative energy emanating from these types of establishments are associated with spirits, homeless ghosts, unlawful behaviors, trouble, crime or violence, which can disturb a home's tranquility.