Feng Shui Vision Board: How to Use the Bagua Map

A feng shui vision board is laid out on the Bagua map, a feng shui map of nine life areas. You give each area one square of a three-by-three grid, so money, love, health and the rest all get a place and nothing slips off the board. Below you'll find what goes where, the colors for each area and where to start.

I've made vision boards since my teens, dozens of them, and I've been building VISIYA, a vision board app for iPhone and iPad, since 2022. What I like about the Bagua is that it makes me look at the parts of my life I'd happily skip.

What is the Bagua map?

The Bagua map is a feng shui tool that divides a space into nine areas, each tied to one part of life. Many people use it to lay out a vision board so that every area gets some attention.

In a home, the areas follow compass directions: Wealth in the southeast, Fame in the south, Love in the southwest, Family in the east, Health in the center, Creativity in the west, Knowledge in the northeast, Career in the north and Travel in the northwest.

On a vision board you skip the compass and use the grid. Top left is always Wealth.

Each area also has its own colors and one of the five feng shui elements: wood, fire, earth, metal or water. You can use the colors when you pick pictures. They aren't required, but they make the board easy to read at a glance.

How do you lay out a Bagua map vision board?

Draw a grid of three rows and three columns, then give each square its area: Wealth, Fame and Love across the top; Family, Health and Creativity in the middle; Knowledge, Career and Travel along the bottom.

The "Door / entrance side" label only matters when you map a room, where the bottom row lines up with the door. On a board, it just marks the bottom edge.

Keep the squares separate, and give each picture one area only. On paper, all you need is a ruler and a pencil. In the app, the template already has the nine areas set up.

What goes in each area of the Bagua map?

Each area holds your goals for one part of your life, in pictures. The table has the position, the colors and the element for all nine, with three picture ideas each to get you going.

Area	Position on the grid	Color	Element
Wealth	Top left	Green, purple	Wood
Fame	Top middle	Red	Fire
Love	Top right	Pink, red and all shades of earth	Earth
Family	Middle left	Greens and teals	Wood
Health	Center	Yellow	Earth
Creativity, children	Middle right	White, silver, gold	Metal
Knowledge	Bottom left	Beige and all shades of brown	Earth
Career, business	Bottom middle	Blue, light blue, black	Water
Travel, helpful people	Bottom right	White, gold, silver	Metal

Three picture ideas per area

• Wealth: A credit card statement showing $0.00, a jar for your emergency fund, the front door of the home you're saving for.
• Fame: A mic on a stage for the talk you'll give, your byline in a magazine, a five-star review of your work.
• Love: Two coffee mugs on a slow Sunday morning, a table for two at your favorite restaurant, a handwritten note.
• Family: A Thanksgiving table full of people, a backyard cookout, a long call with your sister.
• Health: A photo of you on a good day, running shoes by the door, a bag from the farmers market.
• Creativity, children: Your kid's crayon drawing, a pottery class, a sketchbook you actually fill.
• Knowledge: A library card, the stack of books you want to read this year, a course certificate.
• Career, business: A home office with good light, your own logo, the job title you're working toward.
• Travel, helpful people: A road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway, a national parks pass, coffee with a mentor.

Use pictures that mean something to you. A jar of coins says more about your money goal than a pile of cash from a stock site. For the Wealth area, my post on the money vision board goes deeper, and there are more vision board ideas for every area.

Want words next to the pictures? Here are 180 affirmations sorted by Bagua area.

How do you fill the areas of a feng shui vision board?

Start in the center with a photo of yourself, then work your way around the grid. I go clockwise from the top left, and I stop at three wishes per area.

The center first. It's the Health area and the grounding point of the whole map. I always put a photo of myself there, one where I look like I feel good. If you aren't the main character of your own board, whose life are you planning?

Then around the board. From the center I move to Wealth in the top left and go clockwise: Fame, Love, Creativity, Travel, Career, Knowledge, and Family last. Doing one area at a time keeps you from rushing.

Up to three wishes per area. Nine areas with three wishes each is already 27 goals. That's plenty for one board.

Your own wishes. Leave off the ones your mom, your partner or Instagram wants for you. Ask yourself how you want to feel, too. "Feel strong and rested in my body" says more than a number on the scale.

Fill every area. If one stays empty, take that as a hint to look more closely at that part of your life.

Want more on building a board from scratch, with or without the Bagua? My full guide on how to make a vision board walks you through it.

When should you start a feng shui vision board?

Traditionally, you'd begin on a new moon or while the moon is waxing. What matters more is an evening you set aside for it.

I make mine with a mug of hot cocoa, music on and my phone in another room. Pick wishes for the next year or so, because that's about how long a board lasts.

Once it's done, make one small wish on it come true right away. Buy the book. Take the walk. Send the message. That's how I activate a board, and there's more on it in how to activate a vision board.

I look at my board at least once a month and update it throughout the year. About half of my wishes come true. The other half don't, or something close to them happens instead. I'm fine with that ratio.

Where can you get a free feng shui vision board template?

In VISIYA, the Feng Shui Bagua Board is one of six free templates, with all nine areas already in place. If you'd rather work on paper, there's a free printable too.

In the app you fill each area with your own photos, pictures from the image search (Unsplash photos and GIPHY GIFs), shots from your camera, notes, links and stickers.

One board is free for good: your own or one of the six free templates. More boards and the Plus templates come with VISIYA Plus, a one-time purchase. Here's how to make a vision board on your phone, step by step.

Download the feng shui vision board printable, a free A4 PDF (a little taller and narrower than US Letter), no email required. Print it as is or bigger, then glue your pictures into the nine squares. Want it bigger for the wall? There's also an A3 poster version with each area's element printed on it (A3 is about 11.7 × 16.5 in; most print shops handle it).