Feeling a little sluggish lately? Always seem to have a sore back or a runny nose? Perhaps your feng shui needs adjusting.
Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine believe that to feel good, you must be surrounded by good chi, or energy. The art of designing your environment to enhance your chi is called feng shui (pronounced "fung shway"), and it can be practiced in every room, building, office, neighborhood, even your desktop. Although the ideas that follow may sound mystical to those who are unaccustomed to the notions of chi, and yin and yang, feng shui—which literally means wind and water—has its origins in the earliest Taoist traditions of ancient China.
There are three basic tenets of feng shui: Everything is alive, everything is connected, and everything is changing. And it begins with the basic structure of your home. The placement of doors and windows can mean the difference between chi that is fresh and alive with energy, or stale and damaging. A room can have too much yin, or negative energy, if it has been unoccupied and dirty for a long time; cleaning, bright lights, and uplifting music can, literally, clear the air. Happy sounds are always an effective antidote to bad energy.
According to feng shui, every object, space, and living thing has chi.
"The better the quality of chi coursing through a thing, the healthier, more vibrant, or more beautiful that thing is," according to Patricia J. Santhuff, who often writes about the relationship of chi to health. "When our bodies are experiencing low or blocked chi, we experience fatigue or, if over an extended period of time, are more prone to develop health problems." The goal is to protect against negative energies and welcome those that bring health and longevity.
One of the most important places for practicing good feng shui is the bedroom, where it's easy to allow the energy to be "too yin," with lack of sunshine and fresh air—a combination that creates stagnant chi and can manifest itself in illness. Here's how the set-up of your bedroom can help your chi:
Placement of the bed is equally important. Here are some taboos offered by Lillian Too in her book, Feng Shui Fundamentals: Health (Element Books Limited, 1997):
Never sleep with a mirror facing the bed. "A mirror in the bedroom is one of the most harmful of feng shui features—[as it] creates health problems connected with the heart. Mirrors above the bed are equally harmful."
A television counts as a mirror because it also reflects; if you must have a TV or mirror in the bedroom, cover it when it's not being used.
Never sleep with a water feature behind your bed. A painting of a lake or waterfall—or, worse yet, an aquarium—has the same effect on the heart as a mirror.
Never sleep with the sharp edge of a corner pointed at you. The sharp edge of a corner is a deadly form of poison arrow that brings the "killing breath." Use furniture to disguise the sharp edge.
Never sleep under an exposed overhead beam . If the beam is directly over your head, you may suffer from migraines and headaches. If it crosses at chest level, you can usher in problems with the heart, lungs, and other respiratory problems. Beams are not a good feng shui feature in any room.
Kitchens, too, are important places to practice feng shui for health. If your kitchen directly faces a bedroom, for instance, your home's yin (bedroom) and yang (kitchen) energies could clash and bring continuous illness to family members. Nor should the kitchen door be in a straight line from either the front or back door; good energy shoots through the home without dispersing, resulting first in "annoying illness," Lillian Too writes, then progressing to more serious misfortune. Solve this layout by hanging a mirror on one of the outside doors so positive energy will not leave so quickly.
Many feng shui books (including Too's) contain tables that help readers calculate the "best health direction" for their homes. The stove should always point in that direction (as should the head of the bed). The stove, which symbolizes the fire element in feng shui, should never be located next to the sink—which would bring a clash of the fire and water elements—and should never sit in the northwest area of the room, which would be tantamount to "setting fire to heaven's gate."
"This is because the trigram chien, which stands for heaven, the source of all good luck, rules the northwest," Too warns. "Placing a cooker there will [set] fire to the source of good luck energy."
Cleaning up clutter can help you relax, and oiling doors so they don't squeak can reduce irritation. Patricia Santhuff has some tips for when you "need an extra boost of energy for a particular project, or are having trouble decluttering:"
We should remember, too, that people—as well as spaces—need fresh chi in order to feel good and perform well. A few suggestions for raising personal chi:
And don't forget the old standbys for feeling better, because they still work:
RESOURCES:
The
American Feng Shui Institute
www.amfengshui.com
Geomancy.net: Center for Feng Shui Research
http://www.3dglobe.com/fs/index.htm
CANADIAN RESOURCES:
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Health Information Organization
http://tcm.health-info.org/
Last reviewed May 2009 by Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt, MD
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
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