Feng Shui and Your Health

Feng Shui is the art of balancing and harmonizing the energy in your personal environment to create beneficial changes in your life. A well-balanced environment will enhance the free flow of energy in your space, which will result in better health and well being as well as more prosperity, love and happiness.

A lack of balance in your personal environment can show up as fatigue, lethargy and depression at one end of the spectrum; or as high blood pressure, tension and suppressed anger at the other end. Depression and its offshoots are symptoms of low level energy, stagnant energy, or energy that is excessively Yin. Energy that is excessively Yang, or energy that moves too quickly, will result in symptoms described at the other end of the spectrum.

Yin and Yang are complementary opposites ?polarities. In the Eastern concept of time, they are different phases of the same energy. There cannot be one without the other. For example, there is no such thing as cold. Cold is the absence of heat. You cannot experience the energy of cold without the experience of heat. It is not a matter of one energy being better than the other, the key is balance. Read the following examples of Yang energy and Yin energy and ask yourself how well these are balanced in your home and office.

Yang
Day, light, hot, hard, loud, high, straight, front, red and yellow, crowded, active, even numbers, mountains.

Yin
Night, dark, cool, soft, quiet, low, curved, back, blue and green, empty, passive, odd numbers, valleys

All things are made up of energy and our personal energy fields are strongly affected by the objects in our environment. Scientific studies of these effects are being used by advertisers and merchandisers everyday. The colors and materials and even the background music used in the stores where we shop are all carefully selected to make us feel a certain way and ultimately buy more.

If you’ve ever eaten in a fast food restaurant, you have been affected by a conscious effort to modify your behavior through the intentional selection of furnishings and d?or. The designers know that if they use slick, hard surfaces rather than soft, resilient ones, you will eat more quickly and leave sooner which results in faster turnover and greater profits. They decorate in colors from a narrow frequency range of the color spectrum, and they place the chairs very close together to enhance the effect even further. Most restaurant designers wouldn’t describe this as Feng Shui, but the principle of adjusting your environment to alter your reality is what Feng Shui is all about.

Let’s use examples from each end of the spectrum to see how this works. On one end we have depression, and its milder varieties of sadness, fatigue and boredom. All of these are examples of slow moving or stagnant energy. Energy enters our homes through the front door, and to a lesser extent, through the windows. Energy leaves through the back door, completing the process. If there are obstructions at your front entrance it reduces the amount of energy you have coming in. Windows that are blocked, broken, cracked or dirty will also reduce the amount and quality of energy you receive. If you do not have a back door in your house or apartment, the energy does not have an easy exit after it is depleted. This can cause old energy to stagnate. When the stale energy cannot move out, there is no room for fresh new energy to come in. Make sure your back door is in good repair and free of obstructions. If you do not have a back door, the depleted energy can exit through windows or you can create your own energy patterns through furniture placement, color choices and other Feng Shui remedies. If you are feeling the effects of low energy in your life, try some of the following Feng Shui remedies to lift and strengthen the energy around you.

To raise the energy of your living space, lift things up physically. If you are storing anything on the floor, try moving it to tabletop height, or put it on a shelf. Check the general direction of lines in your space. Hanging plants, trailing vines, window swags and floor length tablecloths all create low level energy because they bring your attention downward. Feng Shui teaches; “Where your attention goes; energy flows? You can introduce more light in the form of spotlights or accent lamps. Mirrors will increase energy, too; place them carefully so that they will reflect something positive. Add sound either physically or symbolically with wind chimes or artwork depicting music. Introduce movement with a mobile or a windsock. Living things like plants or pets also introduce energy. Most importantly, use the space. Often when energy is stagnating, it is because you are not using that part of your home. If you have a guest room or dining room that you seldom use, put an aquarium or a plant in that room so you will be entering the room on a regular basis to care for it.

At the other end of the spectrum we encounter frayed nerves, high blood pressure and suppressed anger. These are symptoms of too much energy, or energy that is moving too fast. In this case you need to slow down the energy that enters your space and let it collect and linger long enough to nourish you. To calm down the energy, reduce the number of Yang elements in your space and/or increase the Yin elements.

Control the amount of light in your space by covering broad expanses of glass with curtains or shades. Avoid harsh overhead lighting and use table lamps if possible. Limit the number of green plants, and make sure yours have round, broad leaves rather than spiky ones. Check to see if you have too many mirrors for the amount of space, and do not place two mirrors so that they are reflecting one another. This results in confused and chaotic energy. Cover hard surfaces with fabric or soften the harsh lines of a chair or sofa by adding a decorative pillow or afghan. Replace artwork depicting battle scenes or speeding objects with tranquil scenes. Make sure that the seating is not in a direct line with the door, as incoming energy should approach you softly and not head on.

Try some suggestions that appeal to you and see what a difference these simple changes can make in the energy of your personal space. The changes you make on the outside will soon be reflected on the inside resulting in better health and increased vitality.