Feng Shui - CLEAN LIVING - WE ARE CLEAN

How do you arrange your home with Feng Shui for the sake of your wellbeing?

Feng Shui? You may have heard of this Chinese philosophy before. Here’s a demystification of this ancestral wisdom which can help anyone find where they belong and feel better.

How can Feng Shui be explained in simple terms? First of all, a little demystification. Feng means Wind and Shui means Water. If we go further into decoding it, Feng Shui is the art of getting a handle on space and time while respecting the forces of nature (hence wind and water), which goes back millennia. It’s about harmonising the energy in each dwelling to take care of residents’ health and wellbeing.

Qi, Chinese for energy

Like in Chinese medicine, everything is a question of Qi (pronounced “tchi”) which means energy. The energy of each person wherever they are, and also the Qi of the home environment. Feng Shui is an empirical science based on more than 5,000 years’ meticulous observation of nature, the movement of the planets and astrology. Chinese observers identified links existing between Space (orientation, siting, landscaping and layout of homes), Time (period, cycle, season) and Mankind (life and deeds).

So is Feng Shui complicated? Well in any case, it’s much more subtle, precise and personal than it might seem as first glance. Because since the 1980s, Feng Shui has very much gone mainstream. Not least thanks to Thomas Lin Yun, who came up with a sugar-coated version of traditional Feng Shui with New Age Feng Shui. This is easier for Westerners to understand, and boils down to dividing the home into nine sectors (Reputation in the South, prosperity in the South-East, career in the North, etc.). While this method has the merit of being simple, it is far removed from the technical complexity and precision of traditional Feng Shui.

Good sense front and centre

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In Feng Shui, for energy to circulate effectively, it’s important to declutter the inside of your home. So what’s the key? Tidying with empty space, as advocated by Marie Kondo, the High Priestess of sorting. The inside of your home reflects the current state of mind of those living in it. If the hallway is cluttered, the energy is going to escape. If there are messy areas, the energy is going to stagnate… So rule number one, in Feng Shui, is learning to sort and tidy. But be aware that what you don’t see (the insides of drawers and cupboards) can also be a source of bad energy. So sort your things properly!

Put your bed and desk in the right place

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Also, Feng Shui makes it possible to put each person in what is the best room for them. So what’s the idea? The home has its own ID (depending on the year when it was built). Each family, upon moving in, will bring its own energy in. Then you have to find the best rooms to spend time in, depending on the Gua of each person (the category into which they fall depending on their birth year and sex). Within each room, the location of certain pieces of furniture is primordial. A Feng Shui expert will pay particular attention to the position of the desk (especially for someone working from home), the bedhead and the sofa. The idea being to put people in the best place for them to be depending on their Gua, and also on flying stars (the year’s good or harmful energies) and their star sign.

Picking the right time

But Feng Shui takes account of another factor: time. There are periods that each give way to the next, rolling on endlessly. And according to Chinese tradition, each day holds a certain kind of energy within it. So is today a good day for you, or not? Should you move the furniture around, or not? Traditional Chinese calendars often show the favourable animal sign of the day… As if to state whether or not it’s a good day for you!

As you can see, Feng Shui, which was long the preserve of the Chinese elite, is a very subtle philosophy which still holds a great many secrets!

To find out more:

Ma Bible du Feng Shui [My Feng Shui Bible], Bruno Lecourt, (available only in French), Leduc, €26.

Encyclopédie illustrée du Feng Shui [Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Feng Shui], Lillian Too, (available only in French),Trédaniel Éditions, €29.41.

Authentique Feng Shui [The Real Feng Shui], Joey Yap, (available only in French), Le courrier du livre, €16.99.

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