What is Feng Shui and is it a real thing? Perhaps you’ve heard this term thrown around in jest, but you never understood what this is about. Feng Shui is a real concept that stems from Chinese culture and relates to your “Chi” or your life energy. Everything in life has energy, and Feng Shui is how you capture positive energy and push negative energy out of the home. One of the main ways to control your Feng Shui is how you have things arranged in your home.

Even if you aren’t into eastern religions, you can use these principles to organize your home in a way that promotes relaxation and functionality.

Location

Where you live and what you constantly look at is important to Feng Shui. Having a peaceful surrounding and a beautiful view will help you feel more at ease and promote your mental health. If your view is blocked by walls, or if you are constantly starting at cemetaries, prison, or industrial areas, then it’s hard to break free of the negative energy. We are creatures that need nature, and seeing some greenery and sky will do our minds a great service.

General Interior

How the space moves and flows is one of the critical pieces of capturing positive energy with Feng Shui. Overall, you want the floor space to be something that makes logical sense to you. Designate a specific purpose for each area, and put the appropriate furniture with that purpose. For example, You can have a living room with a corner as a office. Have the living room area tightly organized separate from you office space. Have a desk, bookshelves and other items needed to make a functioning office space near one another.

Have the furniture in a room have a central piece, or a “command piece.” It’s the largest or the item that people gather around. Organize the room around that piece. Make sure that there are generous pathways for easy flow, and have plenty of space to comfortable gather people. Keeping the space tidy and clean is another easy way to promote healthy Feng Shui.

You want a balance to the room. For example, have two nightstands on either side of the bed to create symmetry. Have artwork hanging at eye level on walls that fit the size. You want about 1 to 2 feet on either side of the frame to the outside of the walls. If you have a large space to fill, then the artwork can be loud and busy, but if you are in a smaller space, choose calming colors and a peaceful scene.

Other Tips

The colors that you put in the room either energize you or calm you down. Having bright and vibrant colors in the kitchen and dining space is a great way to rev the metabolism and make you hungry. On the other hand, having cool greens and blues in the bathroom and bedrooms are relaxing colors that calm you down or prepare you for sleep.  

Overall, you want a space that is clutter free, flows well, and is logically organized for functionality. Sometimes that might mean getting rid of things that have either run their course, or no longer have a space in your new living space. Detoxing your space from old clothes, broken items, and things that crowd out your space brings health and wellness to the soul.