We did a fengshui reading for the office and I found out how to improve my luck at work

Read on to find out how you can win a personalised 'ba zi' consultation with Master David Goh from Imperial Harvest and download a free fengshui guide for 2020. 

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For many of us cubicle Rats (hello 2020!), the office is a space where we spend as much time in as our home, if not more for some.

So it probably makes sense that if we believe in fengshui for the home, then having good fengshui for the office is just as important.

Master David Goh, a third-generation fengshui master at Imperial Harvest, told AsiaOne: “Yes, home and office fengshui are critical for success for 2020, because these are the two places where we spend the bulk of our time.”

One of the basic actions he would usually advise homeowners to take is to shift their furniture around or to sleep in the direction that corresponds to their favourable elements. This is based on the Four Pillars of Destiny (destiny chart) and Home Flying Star Chart (energy chart of the house).

Said Master Goh: "The whole idea of fengshui is to make good things happen to you, then naturally you'll find success and prosperity.

"Because while you can control your effort, what you learn and what you want to apply, you cannot control things that happen to you."

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Unlike classical fengshui, which mainly studies an individual's predestined ba zi (literally 'eight characters'), the imperial fengshui method offers practical approaches for individuals to achieve specific outcomes, in spite of bad luck cycles.

For the uninitiated, the basic steps for the fengshui audit process in your home or office space are as follows:

1. Look at the exterior of your home and office. Auspicious features: big open spaces both at the front and back of your building. Inauspicious features: sharp building edges or building tops.

2. Calculate your favourable elements and auspicious directions that will be used to assess the suitable placement of furniture to attract success and benefactors.

3. Plot the flying star chart (energy chart) based on the facing direction of the house or office and the year of completion. The various energy sectors will govern your wealth, investment, academic success, romance and fertility. Your favourable ba zi elemental direction and flying star chart will determine the optimal direction for your furniture.

Unlike at home, it's not as easy to manipulate your surroundings in the office. What one can do, however, are in the second and third points above — determining the optimal position of your desk.

Having an office with good fengshui helps a company to achieve accelerated growth in sales and profitability, and attracting talented professionals, said Master Goh. It can even reduce the number of medical leave days taken by employees, he added. Master Goh also shared with us several of his clients’ personal testimonials reflected on Imperial Harvest’s social media pages. 

We asked Master Goh to demonstrate how he conducts a fengshui audit at our office. Armed with his luo pan (geomantic compass), details of our building's construction date and my ba zi (date and time of birth), the entire session took about half an hour.

First, he assessed the external surroundings of the building, taking some measurements from outside the front door of the office, before walking around indoors with his compass, then mapping out the area according to fengshui formulae.

Here were some of his analyses:

Our office in Bukit Merah attracts good fengshui due to its excellent direction, with a large "bright hall" or auspicious space in front of it and strong winds billowing in.

"One quick and easy tip: If you don't feel any wind in the office or outside the office, if it's stuffy with no air, then this is deemed as bad fengshui," said Master Goh.

Our unit was good for attracting money because it's situated in the nook of an L-shaped block.

"If you notice, from this unit, [the block] forms a 'dragon's embrace' so basically in layman's terms, this brings a benefactor to you. For a news organisation, it brings about followers or readers for example."

The level and number of your unit is not as important as where the building is situated and the external landforms surrounding it.

One doesn't have to be too concerned with "lucky numbers" for your unit, said Master Goh, "but if you occupy a very high level with an unblocked view, then the fengshui will be even more powerful."

When it came to the internal audit of our office unit, Master Goh assessed that the eastern half of our space is energetically inauspicious.

And guess what, the cubicle I occupy is not only situated in that space, I have been facing south-west, which is where a particularly inauspicious star known as "Five Yellow" has been located this lunar year.

Based on some Googling, facing the "Five Yellow" may bring "financial loss", "obstacles to success" and even "severe illness and accidents".

Good news is the disastrous effects can be mitigated by simply tilting my laptop eastwards for the remainder of the year, said Master Goh. But then come Li Chun on Feb 4, the stars would shift again and facing the south-west might not spell a particularly terrible time for me.

"In general we try not to face the inauspicious directions. To mitigate a bad area, at least sit facing the right direction. If you're able to do so, then you won't be taking the 'sickness' of the office," said Master Goh.

Specially-anointed crystals and gemstones might also be suggested as tools to turn a person's luck around, according to the practice of fengshui.

Said Master Goh: "Usually we try to make sure that the basic fengshui fundamentals are done properly first before we ask the client to do any activation or solutions (via crystal placements)."

Get a free personalised Bazi consultation with Master David Goh!

If you're concerned about maintaining good fengshui in your office, Master Goh offered several tips:

Avoid sitting facing a wall

A desk that is placed facing a wall acts as a barrier to promotion. If you cannot move, you can consider hanging pictures of scenery like an open field to symbolise your own personal "bright hall".

Refrain from sitting too near to the door

Sitting too near to the main door is a vulnerable location to occupy. However, you can try to avoid having your back facing the door. Make sure you can see the door at all times, so you have a view of people approaching. You can create a strong fengshui backing by placing a row of plants behind your seat or reposition your office chair so that you have the wall at your back.

Tidy up the clutter and keep your drawers organised

A cluttered desk is the easiest way to affect your efficiency. You should make it a point each morning to spend just five minutes tidying your workspace. Do not let documents, books and stationery mess up your desk. A clean desk leads to a clear mind and you will be surprised by how much more productive you become.

In addition, you should take time to organise your drawers and get rid of things that you don't need as messy drawers can cause a build-up of stagnant energy which will disrupt your career success.

Avoid sharp edges

Make sure you don't have sharp edges that point directly towards where you sit. Sharp edges cause harmful sha qi (negative energy). It not only disrupts your career success, it could also be detrimental to your physical and mental well-being.

This article was brought to you in partnership with Imperial Harvest.

candicecai@asiaone.com