The Bagua map is used in Feng Shui to determine the different locations in your home that affect different areas in your life.
Always hold the bagua with the blue, black and gray areas next to your body, and stand on the front door of your home or apartment. Superpose this map to the layout of your home to find out where each area is. Keep in mind that not all homes or apartments are a perfect square or rectangle, so there is a chance of having missing areas.
So even if your property is L-shaped, try to fit it inside the square of the bagua map to determine what areas are missing, if any are missing at all.

But don't let a difficult floor plan deter you from your plans to start using Feng Shui. You can apply all the Feng Shui principles in a room by room basis, while you understand a bit more about the layout of your home. Choose the right colors and the right elements for each area and remember to keep a balance of all the elements as much as you can.

These are hard times for everybody... unemployment, layoffs, foreclosures. We all need money, and work, and some financial help. But you can actually make more money using Feng Shui. I am not saying that Feng Shui will cure all your woes and make you rich overnight, but you can improve the energies that influence the wealth in your life by using it.

So, how do you start energizing your Feng Shui for wealth and prosperity?

Spend some time studying the areas that might affect your wealth to decide what you need to do.

The most important areas are: Wealth and Prosperity, also known as your Feng Shui money corner, Fame and Reputation, Career and Helpful People and Travel. (Consult the Bagua map)
All these cures will apply to every room in your house, and of course, especially to the rooms where these areas fall on your house or apartment.
First thing to get rid of: clutter. Check that there's no clutter in any of these areas of any of your rooms, even the garage!!!

For your Wealth and Prosperity area:

If you don't have one by now, this is a good time to set up an aquarium.  If it's possible, make it big enough to house 3 Goldfish or more, always in odd numbers. Use rocks and plants to decorate it. Make it beautiful. A lot of people ask me what's the best placement for an aquarium, and I tell them my preference is either the Wealth area or the Career area. The only 2 places where you should not put an aquarium are the bedroom and the Fame and Reputation area. Of course, if you have money problems, maybe you can't afford an aquarium, (don't forget to check The Fish Tank Place, and Craigslist) but you can always find a picture or a painting of an aquarium or fish. If an aquarium is not something you really like, think of a table fountain. Flowing water is key. It can also be the picture of a waterfall.

Use things in shades of purple, red and blue: flowers (silk or live but never dried), candles, curtains, any decoration with these colors. Look around your house, move your furniture around, make it a comfortable corner.

Leave a lamp on in that corner 24/7. A lamp with low wattage will suffice, but keep it on. Obviously, if the wealth area of your home is in your bedroom, this would not be advisable, but do it in the wealth corner of your living room, or home office.

How about repainting that old dresser you have lying around, making it red or blue or purple and using it in the wealth corner of your living room, bedroom or den?

We all collect our pennies and other coins somewhere in the house. Well, get a nice container (a copper bowl, a purple box or something nice) and put all your change in the Wealth area. This is a great place to put valuable collections, antiques, and pictures of stuff you wish to have like a car, a boat, etc.

You have red or purple cushions lying around? Make sure you put them in this area.

If one of these areas (wealth, fame or career) happens to be a bathroom, it doesn't mean that you will forever have money problems, it just means you have to use cures to make the energy flow in the right way.

Keep the toilet lid down AT ALL TIMES. This is a rule in Feng Shui, but it's of the utmost importance if the bathroom is one of these important areas that are directly related to money.

Avoid all clutter as you would in any other part of the house.

Put a plant (silk or real, no dried flowers or herbs) in a place that is higher than the toilet.

Hang a multi faceted crystal over the toilet.

Make the bathroom a comfortable and pleasant place to be.

Use the colors related to the area to energize the Chi. Candles with these colors are perfect. Towels, bath rugs, a picture.

Keep the bathroom door closed at all times.

For your Fame and Reputation area:

Fame and Reputation Area in my Office

This area is important because your reputation is what gets you work, so you need to energize the Chi there.

Red, red and more red…. fire is key. Avoid using a lot of black (water color) in the Fame and Reputation area, since water extinguishes fire. If you already happen to have something black there, keep in mind that there always has to be a balance of all the elements, so although fire is the ruling element in that area, you need a bit of all the elements in every area, so don't forget to add earth, wood, water and metal elements.

This is another good place to put all your red cushions, flowers, and set up a nice plate with red candles and light them once in a while. A healthy plant works fine here too.

No clutter!!   Try to avoid large mirrors. No fountains, aquariums, or pictures of water in any form.

Anything that has to do with fire is good. Electronics are considered fire elements, as well as animals and animal prints.

Great place for diplomas, awards, pictures or figurines of animals, triangular and pyramidal objects.

For the Career area:

The reasons to energize this area are obvious!

Here, you can use all the black and dark colors you want.

The area is ruled by water, so a fountain is also recommended here. For wealth, I personally like to have my aquarium in the Wealth and Prosperity area, but the Career area is also a good place to put it.

You can also put pictures of oceans, rivers or waterfalls.

If your front door is in this area, you have to make it super welcoming! Nice round rug, a mirror, a healthy plant (or a healthy looking silk plant), crystals objects.

Absolutely no clutter!!

Think of ways to energize your Career area. Get your creativity flowing and if you already have a table there, maybe you can paint it black or dark brown or blue.

Remember that if you can't afford a table fountain, or a painting, you can even use a piece of paper of the color you need and lay it on a table or hang it on the wall!

Try to keep mementos related to your career in this area. Keep in mind we are doing this in every room, so if you can't keep your diplomas near the front door, maybe you can do it in the career area in your bedroom, or your home office, just make sure that the career colors and elements are represented in every room.

For the Helpful People and Travel area:

This is an important area to enhance, especially if you have lost your job and are unemployed. Helpful people here could be your boss, your potential boss, a contact that might get you a job, even a religious figure. Use colors in the shades of white, gray and black in this area.

This is the place to put any images, paintings, posters or figures of spiritual guides, gods, goddesses, saints and angels. Pictures of mentors and influential people in your life. Maybe the picture of someone that you are hoping will give you a job, or who you would like to work with. Since it's also the Travel area, this is the place to put pictures of your favorite vacation spot or a place you want to travel to.

The important thing to keep in mind is that Feng Shui works, and if you take a serious look around and make an effort to avoid the clutter in these areas of your life and energize the Chi, your situation will improve.

So, you've been hearing about Feng Shui and you are curious, but whenever you go to the bookstore to check books about it you stop on the third page because it all seems so complicated. But you have that nagging doubt that if you try it maybe something will change. I have many friends that think like that. They open the books, take a look at the compass, the Ba Gua map, North, South, all the elements…. mind boggling. Well, it's really not, but if you at least want to get your feet wet, let me give you some easy to follow guidelines that will get you started, then, if you feel a positive change, you might dare to really follow the philosophy and start living your Life With Feng Shui.

I'm not saying that Feng Shui is so easy anybody can do it, it has a certain level of complexity, but it's not unattainable. However, what I'm going to give you here is the very basics, the least you can do to start off feng shuing your life.

Clean out your clutter

This is unavoidable. And you have probably being avoiding it for weeks, months, years, but if you don't get to it, the energy in your life will really keep suffering. I cannot tell you how much your life will improve with just this little change! I'm not going to get into what areas of your house you need to clear of clutter, because the number one rule of Feng Shui is that clutter should not exist anywhere in your environment. No, not even if it's locked away in the attic or the garage.

If you get curious and decide to check out the Ba Gua map and see what area of your life that attic or garage affects, you might be surprised. One example is a friend of mine who had never done Feng Shui in her life, but one day I was talking to her about it and she had mentioned she had been trying to get pregnant for years. So I asked her to draw me a blueprint of her house and as it turned out, her garage, otherwise known as the "space to keep everything we are not using in no particular order", was smack in the middle of her Family Area. After many fights with her husband who was not in the mood to clear the garage, they finally did it… and her son is now 3 years old.

Your Plumbing

Think of water as money. Water is directly related to wealth in Feng Shui. When you say your money is going "down the drain", you might be saying an enormous truth. Every drain in your house is a possible way for you money to escape. If any of your faucets or showers have a leak, that's money going down the drain. Your plumbing is the conduit of wealth in your home. With every leak, you are losing money.
You can keep your shower drains covered when you are not using them, and pull up the drain stopper in your bathroom faucets as much as you can, but, the largest drain of energy in your home is… the toilet.  Men, you might think that this is a woman's invention to get you to keep the lid down, but the truth is that in Feng Shui, one of the most important things you can do is to keep the lid down in every toilet in your house, ALWAYS! Again, if you get curious and check the Bagua map, you might even find that your bathroom is in the Wealth Area, but an open toilet in any area, will drain the energy that corresponds to that area.

Your Bedroom

Make sure your bed does not face the door directly. You have to be able to see the door when you are in bed, but not straight ahead of you. Also try to have a headboard for support, especially if the only way to place your bed is under a window. In this case, a big headboard is advisable. You can make one with a piece of wood, some fabric and a stapler or get a cheap one at a garage sale or  a second hand store.

Mirrors

I never understood what the big deal is when you go to buy or rent a place and they tell you it has mirrored wardrobes in the bedroom! It's the worst Feng Shui! Mirrors are used to enhance energy, so if you have these huge mirrors in your bedroom at night, you will not rest. Do an experiment and for a night, cover your mirrors with a sheet or a blanket. See how you sleep that night. It's alright to have them during the day, but at night, you can install a rod so you can draw curtains and cover the closet's doors.

Broken Stuff

Anything that is not working as it should is bad Feng Shui. Your energy will always be adversely affected whenever you have something in your house that doesn't work. It can be a light bulb in the basement… change it. All those watches that are kept in a drawer and that you've been meaning to buy batteries for… the worse! That old refrigerator that's sitting in the garage… get rid of it. The broken printer that's been sitting in your home office for weeks… fix it or give it away.  This is something you can feel. Whenever you walk past something that "you've been meaning to fix", you heart skips a beat. You spend even a tenth of a second feeling the bad energy that brings to you.  So if for nothing else, fix or get rid of all the broken stuff in your home in the name of Feng Shui.

Things you Hate

This is the perfect excuse you were looking for to get rid of that awful picture your mother in law gave you last year. You have to love everything you see in your home! Everything that you posses has to bring a warm feeling to your life, or it shouldn't be there at all. If you don't love it, get rid of it. This is the best way to get rid of clutter. If you have to keep the picture because your mother in law will have a fit if she doesn't see it… well, keep it neatly in the garage or the attic and bring it out when she visits.

Cacti

Another friend of mine was a total skeptic. I saw him unloading a huge cactus from his truck and asked him what happened. He said he was bringing stuff from his office because a friend at work stabbed him in the back and he lost his job. I asked him where that cactus was placed in his office, he said, "Right behind me". Are you getting the picture? Sharp needles… stabbed in the back… He started to get intrigued by this philosophy, so, I decided to give him a few Feng Shui pointers. I explained to him how having cacti inside the home or office is really bad Feng Shui. These should go outside, by the windows or doors, they are great protection, but never inside.

Your Home Office

This same friend was now going to need a home office to start looking for a new job, so I made sure I explained to him how his back should never be towards the door. He had to make sure he could see the door from where he was sitting. If he couldn't he should place a mirror in front of him so he could see the door in the reflection. He called a few days later to tell me how impressed he was because after doing everything I told him, he started getting phone calls for jobs and he is now a very successful freelancer.

Your Front Door

Take a look at your front door from outside. Does it look inviting? Is it covered with clutter? Is it dark? Positive energy will look at your door in the same way, and if it doesn't look inviting, it won't come in. Clear your entrance of any clutter, if it's dark, add a light. Use a wind chime to create a relaxing sound and call in the good energy. A nice plant. If you can, paint your front door red!

Now take a look at the front door from inside. Does the door open freely? Is it cluttered? I think by now you are getting the idea. See? No compass, no elements, no difficult stuff. Just the basics.

So, if you are not going to do anything else, at least keep these few things in mind. You will notice slight changes in your life that will make you want more, and believe me, this will be just the beginning.

Nowadays, one of the biggest health concerns for people is stress. Stress can be the cause or mimic many other illnesses or disorders and should be avoided as much as possible.  Of course, it's easier said than done. You can't just magically say, "No more stress in my life! I'm going to relax!"

You can help yourself in many ways: meditating, doing yoga, eating better, exercising... but if you are anything like me, you don't always find the time or the energy to do all that. But, there is one thing that you can do that will help you enormously. You can actually get rid of stress using Feng Shui.

Your surroundings have a lot to do with the way you feel, therefore, if your home or office is cluttered and basically a mess, you will be stressed.  Just thinking, "Gee, I need to clean up this place, I can't find anything", drains you of vital energy. Why have that on top of the everyday stress over which we have no control? In other words, no clutter around you means no clutter in your mind. Organizing your surroundings will help you organize your thoughts. That's part of the philosophy of Feng Shui.

Start little by little and room by room. Don't think you have to dedicate a whole weekend to do this. You can start working on the area where you spend most of your time, or the Feng Shui area that interests you the most. Let's say, your home office.

That mountain of papers or books or bills has to be driving you crazy! Let's start with the papers. Go to your favorite store and get a couple of baskets, or decorative boxes. You can buy cheap gift boxes at the drugstore. Use your Feng Shui Principles and get them in the colors that correspond to an important area in your office. Maybe purple. Later, you will put it in the Wealth Area of either your desk or your office or cubicle. Now, sit down on the floor with all the papers in front of you.  Have a trash can handy. Now, sort! Throw away what you don't need. Really force yourself to get rid of everything you have no use for. Then keep what you need in the box or boxes you bought and label them.

That's how you start. You will feel some stress melting away immediately. I would be very surprised if by then, you are not inspired to go a little further and tackle the books, the bills and the rest of the mess. If you need a bookcase or drawers or something to help you, don't think you have to wait until you can buy "the perfect piece". Run to the thrift shop and get something cheap. I will tell you later about another great stress reliever. Just make sure you clean it well.

Think that if you put everything in its place once, it will be so much easier to maintain from then on.

Remember, that once you decide to introduce Feng Shui into your life, you can implement it slowly and at your own pace so you won't get overwhelmed. There is so much to learn and so much to do. But it's worth it, so just start doing it.

That is the way to start getting rid of stress by using Feng Shui.