Feng Shui for your home

May 16, 2008 – 6:44 pm

By Petya Kirkova

After a very long, nerve-wracking day all you want is to go home and relax. What if for some reason your nest does not feel very relaxing? It’s something you can not put your finger on. It’s not the furniture, it’s not the lighting, and you finally had the time to put away the clothes from the last week’s laundry adventure.  Everything looks alright, but it doesn’t feel so. May be it’s not what you have in your home but the way you arranged it. You’ve probably heard  about Feng Shui before; however, you never dared to try it. It’s not as hard to do it as it is to pronounce it, so don’t give up yet.

Feng Shui, pronounced fung-shwee literary means “wind ­­- water”. Some consider it art, and others refer to it as a practice, but overall it’s an ancient Chinese practice of positioning objects, buildings, and furniture based on a belief in patterns of yin and yang and flow of positive and negative energy. The ultimate goal is achieving harmony, happiness, wealth and balance in life. Feng Shui is very much discussed in various social circles. From the trendy couple, buying a gorgeous flat on the Upper West Side to the bunch of wild friends renting their first apartment together in downtown Manhattan, Feng Shui is for everybody. Of course, the easiest thing to do is hire a professional, say good-bye to a bunch of cash, and have your place arranged without you even moving a single chair. Oh well, if only all of us were so lucky to have this alternative, life will be…boring!

Even if you can not afford to pay for a personal designer, you can always try some things yourself. For example, according to Feng Shui your bed shouldn’t be positioned so that your legs are pointing to the bedroom door. It symbolizes being carried to the “other” world. Also, as common as it is to have a mirror in the bedroom you should probably move it, if you want to keep your relationship worry-free. If you and your partner are trying to have a baby, placing an elephant figurine next to the bed might help. In case you already have children, having a double-story bed is not the best option. The child sleeping in the bottom is “compressed” and it might not perform quite well. It is also a very good idea to open all the doors and windows in your home once a month, and this is not an implication that your home smells funny, but it encourages the negative energy to leave and the positive to enter.

As it appears every-day Feng Shui is not rocket science. You can try a few minor changes in your home. See if it feels different the next time you kick up you heels and relax in your favorite sofa. If it does, and you enjoy the arranging, you can find unlimited amount of information every where from the bookstore to the Internet. Who knows, may be you’ll become the next Feng Shui master. If it doesn’t work for your habitat what do you have to loose? You will have a very good conversation starter for your next social event.