Feng Shui, to me, has always been something that works in mysterious ways. Imagine this: the mere placement of an object could change my fortunes for the better! Dato' Joey Yap, on the other hand, works differently. He believes that "by using Metaphysics arts like BaZi and Feng Shui, you can make a change in yourself, and when you become better, the environment will also improve. It's about the individual-we can make a change."

So with this firmly in mind, I attended his wildly popular Feng Shui & Astrology for 2014 seminar on 26 January. In case you don't know who Dato' Joey Yap is, he's a world-renowned Feng Shui consultant, author, educator and founder of the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics; a global organisation devoted to the teaching of Feng Shui, BaZi, Qi Men Dun Jia, Mian Xiang and other Chinese Metaphysics subjects. He has authored over 120 books, many of which have hit the best-selling list of MPH book stores in both Malaysia and Singapore. Some of his books have even been translated to French, Polish, Russian, Thai and Indonesian and have also topped the respective countries' best-selling list. In other words, he is awesome.

When I arrived at the Raffles City Convention Centre where the seminar was to take place in the Fairmont Ballroom, the place was literally packed from top to bottom with Joey's fans. Everyone was eager to find out what was in store for them in the year of the Wood Horse. Some, like the lady seated next to me, were there for the first time but you can sense the anticipation sizzling in the air. Despite the slight delay, the seminar was chock full of information that helped us analyse the BaZi profiling chart that we have to print beforehand. (Psst, you can plot your own BaZi profiling and Life Star Chart here.)

I won't reveal much here, but apparently Fire related industries such as technology, hospitality, airline, food, telecommunication, military and electronics will perform especially well. This is followed by the Wood element industries like fashion, education, advisory services, furniture, timber, and plantation. So if you're working in these industries, then congrats to you! Otherwise, not to worry. You can still count on 3 elements in your BaZi profiling chart to see you through the year namely, Fire, Wood and Metal. And if your chart STILL doesn't contain these elements? DON'T WORRY. Just stick to friends and family members who have these elements and you'll be just fine. Remember what they say about keeping friends close, but enemies even closer?

Joey was a charismatic speaker who punctuated his presentation with well-placed witticism and doses of Cantonese humour, a language that most of the audience appeared to understand as they broke out in unsuppressed laughter from time to time. Check out one of his past presentations below and you'll know what I mean.

Participants who attended his seminar could also buy his books and score a signature from the author himself. Generous discounts as well as $200 vouchers for workshops were given out during the presentation, so Joey's fans didn't have to go home empty-handed. The seminar lasted till about 5pm, but it wasn't enough to cover all the material in the notes that we were given. Perhaps seeing the acute disappointment on his participants' faces (many of whom seemed to have travelled a long way to attend), Joey decided to extend the session slightly for the participants in another room. To be honest, I think speakers rarely do that so I thought it was really nice of Joey to do that.

I also got to speak with Joey in a very short interview and although the meeting was brief, you can tell that he is an extremely driven man who believes in accomplishing great things through doing small but achievable projects. "I believe in small plans that can be achieved," Joey said with a gleam in his eyes, "small plans executed brilliantly creates extraordinary results, that's my principle in life."

During the interview, he described an interesting project where he had to visit a presumably haunted penthouse office suite in Kuala Lumpur. It had been unoccupied for fifteen years, was locked up with chains, had a foul stench and even caused his compass to get stuck throughout (all the makings of a haunted place, if you ask me). Joey cleared the bad energies in the place by opening up all the windows and letting the sunlight in on specific dates. Now the CEO of a very large public listed company is using the suite and he is doing very well.

"I think the energy is bad and people normally associate this with hauntings, but it's not," Joey said, "when the energy is good, you feel good."

Joey then went on to recommend that basic Feng Shui literacy is important. "If you want the environment to support you...either you change yourself or you change the environment. Changing yourself...easier said [than done]...changing the environment could be easier. So the advice is to change your environment!"

And how does one go about gaining basic Feng Shui literacy? Self-education. Joey explained that while a teacher or academic centre can teach you what's in the books and how to interpret it, you have to "educate yourself enough to ask intelligent questions during the teaching and therefore find an intelligent way of applying it in practice. If you're self-taught in some way...you'll actually do much better." "There are a lot of books out there, I'll suggest to start reading. It's not hard, it's definitely easier than accounting." (Joey graduated with a Commerce degree in Accounting.)

Above all, Joey emphasised that Feng Shui is not about the placing of items in the house. "The Ancient Classics do not talk about placement of items...the Ancient Classics talk about flow and energy. And if you understand flow and energy, you'll be able to utilise Feng Shui.

...not that I'm saying you can't decorate your house...you decorate your house for the sake of beauty and aesthetics...it's fine. But that is not Feng Shui. Feng Shui is not asking you to break down walls or you need to hang stuff. It's not at all. Feng Shui...first of all...is a prescription...you need to know what the problem is, then we can prescribe what they need to do. Sometimes it can be as simple as realigning the bed and that's it. You just need to take the right medication. And people are surprised at how easy it is."

Words worth remembering indeed. Even though the interview was brief by necessity, I came away with valuable knowledge that I wouldn't have been able to receive had I stayed home that day to play my MMO. As Vince Lombardi (American football player, coach and executive) once said, "the difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of will."

Joey doesn't lack in strength or knowledge, and he certainly doesn't lack in will either!

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