Find your Feng Shui flow
By Heather Chandler
You know the feeling. You walk into a room and immediately feel good. Maybe it’s the colors and the flow, the way the tables and chairs and rugs are oriented. Some of us might say that the space has good energy. It’s possible that this is because the room follows the principles of Feng Shui, a centuries-old approach to organizing and designing spaces to allow an optimal flow of energy.
There are multiple schools of Feng Shui – which originated in China more than 3,000 years ago – but they all share the basic idea that a good flow of energy (or chi) leads to a happy, healthy and prosperous life.
Where to start?
Most experts recommend that the first step in organizing a room according to Feng Shui principles is to get rid of clutter. A clear space will free up energy blocks and allow good energy to flow.
Once you have de-cluttered, the next step is to select an area or two of your life that you want to focus on. Have you been longing for a life partner and want to attract love into your life? Want to get your financial house in order? Would you like to heal connections with your family? You’ll be happy to know that there are specific regions of our homes (and every room for that matter) that relate to these aspects of our lives. Using special care in selecting where we place specific objects can have a profound effect on the flow in these areas of our lives.
The Bagua map
Most Feng Shui systems use a tool called the Bagua, traditionally an 8-sided octagonal map identifying key aspects of our lives that contribute to health and happiness. Modern interpretations of the Bagua have added a ninth area in the center to represent health and balance, as shown in the diagram above.
The front door of the house is considered the mouth of chi in Feng Shui, as this is where energy is believed to flow into a house, so the Bagua map orients from the front door.
To use the Bagua map, align the front door of your house with the bottom of the Bagua map (as if you were standing at your front door and looking into your house). From this perspective, you can then identify which areas of your house correspond with aspects of the map. The back left area of your house, for example, represents wealth and prosperity, while the back right area of your house would represent marriage and relationships, and so on.
The Bagua map can be applied to a single room or an entire house or building. It also applies to all floors. So the back left corner of the second floor (or the basement) relates to the same focus area as that corner of the first floor (wealth & prosperity).
Certain colors and elements (wood, metal, earth, fire, water) correspond to each area on the Bagua map, and in turn with each area of your house. For best flow of energy, it’s recommended to place items that represent the colors and elements of each aspect in the corresponding area of your home.
For example, if you are focusing on improving your love relationships, you might place items that represent the Earth element – such as art that depicts landscape scenes; brick, tile or ceramics; as well as the colors pink, red and white – in the back right corner of your home. Images of love and pairs of items, such as two pink pillows or candles can also be helpful.
Feng Shui is a vast discipline, and this is just the beginning.
Learn more
There are many books, websites and blog posts written on various aspects of Feng Shui. You can delve deeply into each focus area, including colors and recommended types of objects for achieving optimal health in each area of your home. A simple Google search will keep you entertained for hours. A good place to start is the International Feng Shui Guild at www.ifsguild.org.
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Green & Healthy Maine is published by TheSunriseGuide, LLC. This article originally ran in the 2019 SunriseGuide.