What is Feng Shui? Meaning and Application

Homes throughout the world have used this ancient Chinese system to organise each room with the aim of improving the flow of positive energy. Here, we go through the main principles and explain how you can use Feng Shui in living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, and all areas of your house.

Decorate with certain colours in specific areas and use a compass to create an energy map to help improve the flow of energy in your life.

What is Feng Shui?

Before we get on to how to apply Feng Shui to you’re living space, let’s look at what it actually is. Feng Shui is a way of balancing the energies within a space to bring good fortune to those who live there. Energy is key to Feng Shui, meaning that every part of your space needs to be arranged for a favourable flow of energy, known as Chi.

Those who practice Feng Shui believe that everything is filled with Chi – even inanimate objects.

Applying Feng Shui to Home

When applying the principles of Feng Shui to your home, one of the first phrases you look for is ‘Feng Shui’ areas. You might assume that this means a Feng Shui bedroom, a Feng Shui living room or even a Feng Shui kitchen but actually, there’s much more to the practice than just applying set rules to certain rooms.

First, you need to know about Feng Shui Bagua. This is an energy map of your space which divides your physical rooms into eight areas that correspond to the most significant areas of your life like:

• Health & Family

• Wealth & Abundance

• Fame & Reputation

• Love & Marriage

• Creativity and Children

• Helpful People & Blessings

• Career & Path in Life

• Spiritual Growth & Cultivation

To begin Feng Shui home arrangement and create your energy map, you need a compass. You can use a specific Feng Shui compass, called Luo-Pan, but any accurate compass will do. By finding out the exact direction that a room faces, you will be able to apply the principles of Feng Shui to it.

Tips to remember:

1) Feng Shui Bagua:

There are two different ways to define the Bagua of a space: Classical/Traditional or BTB/Western. In the Classical approach, you take a compass reading of your front door to define the Bagua of your space.

The BTB process is considered as an easier option, as you divide the floor plan of your space into nine equal squares. Each one then corresponds to one of the eight areas, with the ninth square the Heart of the Home, relating to all other areas.

Once you have defined your Bagua energy map, you will find that each of the eight areas has a particular element and colours connected to it. You can then use these colours to help bring harmony and improve the energy in that part of your life.

2) Five elements:

There are five elements in Feng Shui. Certain colours correspond to each element, interact with each other, and help bring harmony to that space.

• Wood: brown and green

• Fire: pink, purple, orange, strong yellow and red

• Earth: light brown, light yellow, and sandy/earthy

• Metal: grey and white

• Water: black and blue

Once you have assigned colours to each area, you can use them in your decorating as an easy way to achieve a Feng Shui living room, bedroom, or kitchen.

3) Scent:

In addition to colour, the scent is also powerful in Feng Shui. Specific scents can help transform the energy of a space.

• Lavender and chamomile can bring a calming energy and aid sleep, perfect for a Feng Shui bedroom

• Rosemary and peppermint can help you stay alert and awake if you need to work in particular area of your Feng Shui home

• Citrus scents in a Feng Shui kitchen are useful for cleansing and stimulating the mind

Any pleasant fragrance can help with positive energy but it’s not just candles and room fragrances that can achieve it. Washing your clothes and soft furnishings with a long-lasting fabric conditioner like Comfort can be an easy way to introduce smells that correspond with the Feng Shui arrangement of your home.

By using a compass and Bagua map, you can transform the energy to different spaces of your home to help the flow of positivity.

Now that you have a better understanding of Feng Shui, check out ’10 Feng Shui tips for your home’ to take your knowledge to the next level.

Key Steps:

• If using the Classical approach, take a compass reading of your front door

• If using BTB, divide your space into nine areas

• Use a Feng Shui Bagua to discover which element relates to each space

• Decorate each space with its element’s corresponding colours and scents