Better Living Through Feng Shui

Have you ever walked into a house that felt like home? Ever reminisced about the best year of your life or wondered why everything came together for you? It could be Feng Shui.

The fundamental principles of Feng Shui, simply put, concerns creating a harmonious, balanced, and peaceful environment. Feng Shui is the Ancient Chinese Science and Art of Placement, intended to improve our health, harmony, longevity, career and wealth. Pronounced, “Fung Shway”, it was a jealously guarded secret for thousands of years. Now, the benefits of Feng Shui can be enjoyed by anyone. In fact, Feng Shui is a part of everyday life, worldwide, for many spiritualists, businesses, homeowners, decorators, and architects.

Feng Shui design or interior design can be simple or involved based on whatever you are comfortable with. Decorate a room or buy a home that is perfect for your family. You are seeking positive vibrations through balance and harmony, inside your home as well as the surrounding land your property (or business) sits on.

The key is Chi energy (or Qi “Chee”). Energy is the source. Feng Shui design helps you to take beneficial and effective actions in your home or living space so that your house can have an optimal flow of Chi. Like the positive and negative energies (Yin and Yang) existing in nature, every room and every home has both positive and negative areas. For example, there are many naturally occurring dualities manifested by Yin and Yang such as–negative and positive, dark and light, female and male, low and high, cold and hot, cool and warm, etc. respectively. There are strengths that already exist, just as there are weaknesses. Proper Feng Shui design and the placement of objects (e.g., furniture, doorways, etc.) that are carried out inside a home should be performed in a to help enhance the weak areas and decrease Chi that is too strong–ultimately, yielding a balanced, harmonious feeling that is the cornerstone of a contented and successful life.

Feng Shui Design and Power Areas:

A concept commonly used in a Feng Shui design is the idea of “power” areas. Feng Shui recognizes nine power areas inside buildings—some have excellent supportive energy while some are much less favorable. A power spot, for example, is an area of the home which can be as big as a room or as small as a tiny little nook, but this particular area has strong associations with your life (or parts of your life) that mean a great deal to you at a particular point in a given time frame. Feng Shui power spots are unique to each person, family, and home. They are determined not only by the things that are going on in a person’s life presently but also by the design and architecture of their particular living space. The land that you home is built upon can affect the Feng Shui energy and balance of your house. One other good example of a power area within one’s home is designated sacred space or a temple room.

Improving the Flow, Transformation, and Containment of Qi:  

1.  Remove shoes before entering a home. Don’t take your problems in with you. Don’t invite negative energy or vibes into your home or place of business.

2.  Cook at least one meal a day and eat at the table as a family.

3.  Never have knives on show–even in a block.

4.  Always sit or stand facing the door (or its reflection).

5.  Keep the toilet lid down.

6.  Keep bathroom and laundry doors closed.

7.  Don’t sleep under white blankets or doonas.

8.  Don’t sleep with your feet facing the bedroom door.

9.  Don’t sleep next to the wall that has the meter box on it.

10.  Be careful of having too many crystals in your home because crystals can be very energetic as well as transfer and transform great amounts of positive and negative energies.

11.  If your front door is in line with a tree or the door of the house opposite, place a Ba Gua mirror above the outside of the door.

12.  Never have a Ba Gua mirror in the house. They are far too powerful. Learn more about Ba Gua here.

It will come as no surprise to you that some of these tips are just mere common sense. You’ve probably been practicing Feng Shui for years without even knowing it!

There are many more practical uses for Feng Shui that will be discussed in future articles. The history of Feng Shui can be found here. And keep in mind that a few small changes can make the world of difference toward creating a peaceful, harmonious living environment!