Anna Lin

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art, which works for the peace and prosperity of people by manipulating the energies in their physical space and creating balance. This almost 3,000-year-old art has worldwide popularity today. Art dealers and even the local corner-shop keepers will be able to supply you with Feng Shui pieces for strategically placing in your house in order to introduce balance within the space.

How Does Feng Shui Work?

A few things, which Feng Shui believes can be manipulated to create balance within the house, are as follows.
•    Color scheme
•    Furniture positions
•    The positions of doors, and windows
•    The way you position yourself while studying, sleeping, or eating
Learning the intricacies of this art can take ages. You will find numerous resource guides and online resource material if you want to get started with Feng Shui.

The basic principle of Feng Shui is perhaps an attempt to keep your materialistic physical settings and matter in harmony and balance with nature. ‘Feng Shui’ literally means ‘wind and water’. The art, which arises probably from the Chinese Book of Burial, somehow has the entire world interested in it now.

Feng Shui – Then and now

In the days when Feng Shui had started being seen as an art in China, the Feng Shui masters would ‘feel’ the positive energy and through this feeling build palaces, houses, tombs, offices, and even gardens. Today a number of architects are Feng Shui sensitive. This primarily due to the awareness regarding Feng Shui that has been created in the market and the demand for Feng Shui sensitive structures rising in the market. Today’s architectures and engineers though do not ‘feel’ the positive energy but instead work according to the thousands of intricate rules and laws of the art. The focus is on guaranteeing the client a feeling of positivity. Most of the Feng Shui rules if examined closely actually turn out to be based on mere common sense. For example, not having the door of the kitchen bang opposite to where the stove is, as that would make you susceptible to sudden surprises coming from behind you!

A Word of Caution

If you are thinking about using Feng Shui to bring you prosperity then there is one thing that you ought to keep in mind. The principles behind Feng Shui are extremely complex. Getting something wrong while trying to follow the art can have negative effects on your hearth and home instead of incurring anything positive. Inform yourself well and from a reliable source before you get cracking on it.

Feng Shui does not literally mend everything that needs repair but it does so at a metaphorical level. You will find a distinct difference in the quality of your life if you follow the intricate rules of Feng Shui properly in your life. That in itself is a challenge as making Feng Shui work perfectly will require a lot of knowledge as there are thousands of different rules to be followed.

Read the rest of this entry »

You may think that Feng Shui is an absurd art based on false notions, which can in no way affect, or change, or for that matter do anything about the quality of the life that you are living. If you think on these lines then you can be no farther from the truth. Feng Shui as an art is based largely on common sense. Living in an age when technology is progressing by leaps and bounds you might have certain reservations about this 3,000 years old Chinese art, which has recently gained a lot of popularity. Such reservations are understandable. However, forming a prejudice against Feng Shui without completely knowing it would be completely uncalled for.

Feng Shui Common Sense

There are a number of Feng Shui principles and rules, which, are based either partially or completely on common sense. Feng Shui advises you to get rid of all broken pieces of furniture, decoration pieces, burnt cloth, etc. To ensure that you have complete peace of mind it is important that you are not surrounded by junk and waste. Surrounding yourself with things that you do not need and can become the cause of numerous accidents is bound to bring disharmony in the house in one way or the other. Feng Shui also advises you to ensure that your surroundings are absolutely clean. This again is only common sense. An unclean house or office area is a breeding ground of different kinds of germs. This can lead to numerous illnesses.

Feng Shui and Colors

The effect of colors on a person’s mind has been acknowledged by numerous experts. It has even been scientifically proven. The fact that we believe that wearing white clothes in the summer and black in the winter can have cooling or warming effect on the body and that red arouses passion proves the point. Feng Shui plays around a lot with the effect that colors have on people. Walls that have lighter shades are bound to be more soothing than one, which has bright shades.

Your bedroom being the space where you want to soothe your worked-up nerves should never have bright colors on its walls. Your workplace on the other hand should have a lot of bright colors to liven it up with a lot of energy. Soothing colors in your workplace may have a negative effect on your work as you may land up feeling so calm that you are unable to work. This way, by manipulating colors through Feng Shui you can actually affect the way you live, adjust and relate to your surroundings.

Feng Shui believes that everything is dependent on the co-existence of opposites. It believes that opposites need to co-exist and stay in balance to retain harmony. Yin and Yang symbolize these opposites. They are the universal symbols for all that stands opposite and contradictory but are actually inherently dependent on each other.

What Are Yin And Yang?

According to Feng Shui, Yin stands for matter while Yang stands for energy. To take a few examples into consideration in order to understand the concept of Yin and Yang we can look at pairs such as earth and sky, man and woman, action and thought. In each case, the other is completely dependent on the other. If either attempts to proclaim its superiority over the other then there can only be a lack of balance and thus disharmony and lack of stability.

The Theory Of Yin And Yang Is Quite Scientific

Mathematics and for that matter even Chemistry, Physics, and Biology are based on the principle of the opposites. The entire computer language is based on the system of binary coding which makes use of merely two numbers – zero and one. The fact that any computer code can be reduced to these two numbers does not however mean that there are only a limited number of codes possible – in fact it is the contrary. Feng Shui works on the same principle.

The same thing is true for Yin and Yang. Everything can be reduced to these two categories and these two categories give rise to every other category. It is the same theory that works with the seven musical notes and the limited number of elements of which all matter comprises of. The absence of a single musical note, a single chemical element, or either of the two digits of the binary code can be disastrous and even endanger the existence of the others in their category. Feng Shui realizes that this balance is necessary. None of these elements can survive without the others. Feng Shui works on the principle of striking this balance between the Yin and the Yang.

Every human being has both Yin and Yang in his or her thoughts. If there is love, there is bound to be hate; if there is aggression there is bound to be pity and sympathy; if there is satisfaction there is bound to be some envy. None of these emotions is seen as negative by Feng Shui. This ancient Chinese art believes that each and every emotion, feeling, and action should exist in the right balance with its opposite.