Feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of placement. The goal of feng shui is to create harmony and balance in your environment. There are five principles of feng shui, which you can use to create a more peaceful and nourishing home. Feng shui isn’t just about furniture placement in living spaces, or home decor in your entire home.
It can influence your well being, and the main principles harness energy forces and positively impact mental health and human life.
Please consider the main feng shui principles
The 5 principles of feng shui are:
- Feng shui is about finding balance
- Open pathways are crucial as they allow energy to flow
- Create the commanding position in every room
- Incorporate the five elements into your home
- Understand and utilise the Bagua map
It is helpful to look at the principles in more detail.
Feng shui helps you create balance
While it is easy to solely focus on managing yin and yang elements, there are many ways to create equity at home, including:
- Dark and light
- Soft and hard
- Masculine energy and feminine energy
- Open space and closed space
For good feng shui, try to strike the right position between yin and yang energies.
Open pathways are crucial as they allow energy to flow
Whether you call it energy or chi, it is vital in developing feng shui, and energy requires space so it can flow. You should consider the whole house when creating energy flow pathways, but each feature in the home too. Consider your walls and each individual room, ensuring there are clear paths.
A great example of this relates to doors, and the importance of not blocking a doorway. Decluttering is an essential component of feng shui, but when it comes to pathways and entrances/exits, you must avoid placing items which prevent energy from flowing directly. In short, don’t place items in front of your doors!
Create the commanding position in each room
The commanding position, or power position, is vital, and the key element in your room should take this space. Examples of items which should hold the commanding position include your bed in the bedroom, family couch in the living room, the desk in a home office, and so on.
When using the key element, the commanding position ensures you face the main entry point, without blocking it, and you have a clear line of vision to the door, and around it.
Incorporate the five elements into your home
Feng shui experts discuss the importance of the natural world, and these are seen as:
- Earth element
- Wood element
- Fire element
- Water element
- Metal element
The presence of earthly elements encourages stability, a sense of grounding and humility. With wood, you recognise the need for expansion, growth and development. With fire, you have passion, energy, excitement and transformation.
In feng shui, water relates directly to money and your career. One of the aspects of the actual water element is letting go of things you no longer need. Metal acts as a transmitter, bringing all the other aspects together in your house.
You also have colours relating to the aspects:
- Earth – Brown and beige being traditional earthy colours
- Wood – Green and purple
- Fire – Red, orange and yellow
- Water – Blue
- Metal – White, silver, grey and black
Understand and utilise the feng shui Bagua map
By combining the feng shui energy map with the floor plan of your home, you can see how areas of your property impact and direct your life. The Bagua map is divided into nine sections, and the areas relate to different aspects of your life.
The nine Bagua areas are:
- Career and life path
- Knowledge and self-cultivation
- Family, health and ancestry
- Wealth and prosperity
- Health and centre
- Fame and reputation
- Relationships (love and marriage)
- Children and creativity
- Helpful people and travels
To use the Bagua map, you will need to identify which area of your life you would like to improve. Once you have identified the area you would like to improve, you can begin to make changes in your home relating to the corresponding elements.
Your different life circumstances from others means everyone should consider the map in a unique way. You can establish harmony and positive energy relevant to you.
Dictate the space in your environment and improve your life
As an example, the wealth and prosperity section is typically located in the rear-left corner after entering your front door. If you are keen to enhance your wealth and prosperity, you should incorporate the wood element, and add plants to this part of your home.
The colours associated with the wood element are green and purple, with most people being able to find plants and flowers in these colours.
General tips for feng shui practitioners
Quick feng shui tips to consider
- Allow air and light into your home, with natural light being important
- Declutter your home as much as you can, and organise what items you keep
- Create a peaceful environment in the bedroom, if possible, removing TVs and work-related items
- Add nature to your property, with plants and ferns offering tranquillity
Your home feng shui reflect nature and natural elements
As mentioned in one of the quick feng shui tips to consider, the presence of plants, ferns or even a water feature is essential for your home. These aspects tie in with nature, they create a calming presence and as the Bagua map indicates, plants can help you improve your wealth and prosperity.
Feng shui schools advocate you allow nature, and energy, to enter your home by opening windows or even main or back doors for as little as five minutes a day. This is a simple step, but it is one which creates a flow around your home, and helps balance the inside of your home with the world around it.
Whether you are a keen feng shui practitioner or seeing a beginner’s guide, it is helpful to know the basic principles of this ancient Chinese practice.
