Feng Shui has been around in China for years and is an art of living. This is a Taoist Art, like Chinese medicine and acupuncture, with which it shares a common knowledge base. For centuries, the Chinese have used Feng Shui to design their cities, build their houses and bury their dead.
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This practice has become popular in the western world. In the face of stress on a daily basis, people in western countries are choosing to take up Feng Shui to overcome the anxieties and upsets of daily life. It can be considered a therapeutic art and can be practised in the countryside as well as the town. The aim is to create a user-friendly and warm habitat, where life feels good. A feeling of well-being in your own home is crucial if you are to avoid losing too much energy. Even if you only follow the basics of this art, you can easily transform your environment and improve it.
Feng Shui enables you to live in a harmonious environment, which will stimulate all your centres of energy. The flow of energy is influenced by the forms and materials that make up the environment, unbeknown to us. This art enables us to live in peace and harmony. The place where you live should be a source of well-being, if you want to feel good. People like to arrive home and find a house which is tranquil, airy and calm, where there is no shortage of good vibes. It is a place that should help us to recharge our batteries and enable us to deal with everyday concerns.
Feng Shui helps to expedite this flow of vital energy, also known as "Chi". This energy needs to be able to flow freely. "Chi" moves with fluidity, so if it comes up against obstacles, this will be felt in the home. Its occupants will feel more weary and ill at ease. "Chi" is an invisible energy, part of the cosmos and circulates throughout the world. The whole art of Feng Shui is about letting the "Chi" flow within ourselves, just as it does outside our bodies. If this energy flows well, our habitat will be pleasant to live in and this will have a knock-on effect on our health, family and professional lives.
Feng Shui has similarities with acupuncture and shiatsu, which are arts that help with the release of « Chi ». They remove blocks, and restore harmony between mind and body. The art of Feng Shui aims to balance existing forces and galvanise them through different techniques, based on the theory of the 5 elements, (Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, Fire), Yin and Yang, and stellar and time cycles.
In order to find out if your habitat complies with the rules of Feng Shui, try this small test. Draw a plan of the room you are in and add the items that are currently in there (furniture, lamps, books…). Make a note of the spaces that are full of clutter which would get in the way of the free circulation of "Chi". Then get to work and tidy up the cluttered spaces, leaving areas where the air can flow.
It is useful to know that the energy flowing round our living space can be bad for us. Feng Shui calls this negative energy "Shar Chi" or "the air that kills". You can detect it in protruding angles, L-shaped furniture, dark-coloured items, sharp objects, recesses, dark areas, and corridors that are too brightly-lit or cluttered etc. This negative energy is likely to be the cause of malaise. You could encounter health problems if your habitat does not allow "Chi" to flow correctly. The best way of harmonising everything is by placing plants or decorative objects in corners. A beautiful décor will very quickly relieve tensions.
Our interiors reveal much about the workings of our subconscious. Our home is directly linked to our ‘second body'. In acting on this through Feng Shui, we are acting positively on our psyche. The environment gives us an image of our current psychological state through the way we decorate it, and it becomes a reflection of our personality. We project our image on it every day with symbols, colours, objects, pictures etc…. If we modify these symbols with Feng Shui, it feeds our subconscious and rids us of our inner barriers much more easily.
