What You Need to Know About Feng Shui

In home interior decorating, Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of choosing and arranging furniture in your home to promote the flow of ‘chi’, or positive energy. Feng Shui practitioners believe it’s possible to create balance within the home that will in turn bring wisdom, peace and resulting good fortune to its inhabitants. Feng Shui depends upon the balance between yin and yang, the two opposing yet complementary principles that govern the universe and everything in it. Practising Feng Shui allows chi to flow through your home and helps to keep the balance of yin and yang.

Can Feng Shui Help me to Choose a Home?

As strange as it may seem, the principles of Feng Shui can be used well before you begin to think about home interior decorating. Ancient Chinese beliefs put great importance on position of your home, both geographically and in relation to other buildings. Living near a calm, flowing river is ideal, but Feng Shui recommends you stay away from certain establishments, including casinos and hospitals, due to the attraction these buildings are said to have to crime and illness, both of which can destroy positive energy.

How Can I Apply Feng Shui Principles to my Home Interior Decorating?

To get started with Feng Shui in your home you need to create a ‘bagua’, or feng shui map which carves your home into nine areas that then link to nine different aspects of your life, for example career, love and family. Each of these revolves around the central ‘gua’, which is health. You can find a bagua online to help you map your home exactly by placing correctly in relation to the entrance to your home.

Are There Any General Feng Shui Principles I Can Adopt Without a Bagua?

Remember that Feng Shui revolves around positive energy and make simple changes that enhance your home rather than render it awkward or complicated. For example, if you like a certain colour because it makes you feel good when you see it, stick with that colour – you’re already feeling positive energy from it. As a general rule try to work within the following guidelines:

• Remove clutter and clean up – a dirty, crowded and disorganised space does not allow chi to flow freely
• To promote the flow of energy choose furniture that stands on legs and not directly on the floor
• To encourage chi into a room, place furniture facing towards to doorway, but not looking directly at it
• Bathrooms are said to radiate negative energy, so avoid sleeping in a bedroom which is near, and especially opposite, a bathroom
• Place some healthy, thriving plants around your home to bring growth and new energy into your life
• Make sure all your appliances, fixtures and fittings work properly. Dripping taps can correspond to draining finances!

Beginning with these general Feng Shui tips will get you on the right path to creating good Feng Shui in your home. From here you can discover more about how to organise and decorate each room of your home to maximise the flow of positive energy and enhance your health and happiness.