Sunday, January 27, 2008

Weekend's Special: Feng Shui, Balancing Our Energies




Human beings are subject to subtle energies that influence our attitudes, behaviour and health. These energies can be controlled and redirected for our benefit in our environment, whether at home or at work. The study and implementation of this art is called Feng Shui.

What Feng Shui Is

Literally, it means "wind and water". It refers to the Chinese art of balancing subtle energies (chi) in our surrounding environment. Feng Shui seeks to harmonise the elements of nature by establishing a balance of energies in our environment based on directional principles, seasons and colours.

Just as fresh air and clean water nourish our bodies, so does fresh, clean chi nourish our homes and our lives. When the flow of chi through our space is blocked, weak, or misdirected, our relationships, cash flow, creativity, health, and career can suffer. Chi wants to meander gracefully through a space, like a gentle breeze or a winding stream. When it flows too strongly, it becomes like a hurricane or flood. We are likely to feel tossed about by winds of change, unstable, prone to crises, struggling to "keep our heads above water." Where chi is blocked it becomes stale and stagnant, like a pond choked with algae and fallen leaves. We may feel tired, run down, depressed, unable to focus, hampered in our efforts to move forward in our lives.

In a corporate environment, poor feng shui can result in miscommunication between managers and employees, conflicts among team members, and lack of support for key initiatives. Individuals may be overlooked for promotions or deserved raises, suffer damage to their reputation in the company, or even lose their job. The company may have difficulty attracting or keeping key customers.

In a retail store, feng shui problems can block the flow of customers into and through the store, contribute to theft and staffing problems, and have a negative effect on the amount and size of sales.

Feng shui provides tools and guidelines for analyzing and correcting the flow of energy into and through our space. It uses the arrangement of rooms and the placement of furniture to create a smooth pathway for chi through a home, office, or retail location. Blockages and other forms of negative chi are removed or counteracted in order to welcome in opportunities and encourage progress. Colors and shapes associated with the five elements-wood, fire, earth, metal, and water-are used to create movement, balance, or protection, depending on the needs of the client. Imagery and objects such as paintings, photographs, statuary and other accessories are chosen and placed to enhance and reinforce the client's intention.

Feng Shui reminds us that everything is connected, and that our physical surroundings have a significant impact on our mind, body, and spirit. It teaches us to be mindful caretakers of our environments, so that we may be mindful caretakers of our lives.

Yin and Yang

Feng shui considers yin, feminine and passive energy, and yang, which is masculine and hot. It also looks at the five elements - water, fire, wood, metal, and earth, and the external environment.

The points on the compass, with eight separate directions - north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, and northwest - are also important.

A feng shui expert, known as a geomancer, will consult an individual's Chinese horoscope to figure out what is best for that person and use complicated mathematical calculations from the ancient I Ching, (Book of Changes), to determine what aspects of the house are out balance.

Bad Luck Features

Certain features in your external environment can adversely effect the feng shui of your building. These "poison arrows" can be responsible for ill-fortune in the form of robbery, legal entanglement or serious ailment. It is, therefore, necessary to identify the not so obvious poison arrows in your environment and to deal with them.

The poison arrow pointing at your main door could be a straight long road forming a T- junction. This brings dangerous chi into your house. Other locations where chi is too strong are houses on the dead end of a street or those on curved roads. The harmful effect of hitting chi can be neutralised by means of feng shui cures. The 'poison arrow' coming from a westerly direction can be set right by placing a spotlight above the door pointing towards the road. Whereas the cure for a south road is to place a large boulder between the door and the road.

An electric pole or a large single tree outside your main gate also acts as a 'poison arrow'. Flyovers and bridges with fast moving traffic can also generate negative energy around your house. Trouble can come in the form of a new building in your neighbourhood.

Deflect "Poison Arrows"

All these 'poison arrows' can be deflected by hanging an octagonal Pa Kua mirror above your front door, though this is not without its risks. This eight sided mirror has a convex or concave mirror in the centre, surrounded by trigrams on eight sides. Never hang this mirror inside the house. The Pa Kua mirror can harm your neighbours if it faces their main door. A better alternative to it is a 5-rod wind chime.

Inside a house, secret poison arrows are present in the form of pillars, overhead beams, open shelves and pointed corners of furniture. A corner can be softened by placing a plant or a sculpture in front of it. You will experience good feng shui (wellbeing from energetic balance) once you have neutralised the exterior and interior features which are responsible for bad luck.

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