No matter how many hours you spend at the office or out on the town with your friends, your home should be a place you can escape to. While our busy lives make it easy for clutter to accumulate and our homes to become junk living facilities, it doesn’t take much effort to add a little zen to your space. Through the adoption of feng shui principles, every space, from the smallest apartment to the most elegant row house, can be perfectly harmonized to bring you peace of mind.
Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese philosophy dating back to around 4000 BC that seeks to attain Zen by studying the energies, or qi, of different structural elements and placing them so that they are in balance with their surroundings. While feng shui has come in many forms and traditions throughout its long history, it is widely used today to improve chaotic interiors. To easily bring a little harmony to your hectic home, follow these simple steps to bring a little zen to your space.
Reading: Zen feng shui
1. Tidy up your room.
The first step to happiness at home is obvious: get rid of your clutter and organize the rest of your belongings. Clutter is not only a visual headache, it also seriously messes up the qi in your home. “Feng Shui is a symbolic language and considers that the excessive abundance of clutter (things or an excessive collection of items) is related to the bogging down of the mind, the physical body and the emotions,” says Laura Cerrano, certified feng expert. shui and executive director/founder of feng shui manhattan. cluttered spaces make it easy for your mind and body to be “easily penetrated by the influences of stress, anxiety, burnout and, in some cases, depression,” she says. take the time you need to do a thorough cleaning of your home, and then set aside five to ten minutes each day to put things away. Small tasks like making the bed and keeping the bathroom counter clear make a big difference.
2. save the technology.
This common advice is the one suggestion no one wants to hear: get technology out of the bedroom. feng shui master pun-yin recommends “not having computers or work things around the sleeping area because this would prevent your mind from relaxing, compromising the quality of sleep [and] therefore the next day’s performance.”
Of course, this can be difficult if you live in a studio, college dorm, or any other small space, so if you can’t keep your laptop out of your bedroom, designate a desk or table as your sleeping space. work and move it as far away from your bed as possible. As for leisure, pun-yin recommends keeping the computer away from the bed at all times, since the “persistent electromagnetic field would cause excessive dreaming”, making deep sleep difficult. save web browsing and hbo go sessions for the couch.
3. brings the five elements.
See also: 15 Feng Shui Symbols to Make a Part of Your Home
The five elements are one of the most important principles of feng shui and together they help create harmony and balance in any space. it is rare to find an interior that manages to bring all the elements together, but just needs a few decorative additions to achieve this balance.
water
according to cerrano, “water represents wisdom and adaptability,” and can be brought into a room with the addition of a mini desktop fountain; just make sure the direction of the water flow is pointing towards the inside of your house. away to encourage new opportunities that come into your life instead of opportunities that flee.
fire
Lighting candles doesn’t just make your house smell amazing. “Fire can also help release stuck or stagnant energy,” Cerrano says. to maintain energy, keep a candle burning. bonus points for red candles, which are more evocative of the element with their warm color.
wood
While wood may already be present in a room in the form of furniture, it’s easy to increase the positive vibes of wood by adding plants to an interior. pun-yi suggests placing a flower or plant within sight of a workspace to encourage “clarity and productivity.”
earth
See also: Everything you need to know about Feng Shui period 9 Xuan Kong
Crystals and healing stones have been a popular tool for balancing energy across time and cultures, but they can also help harmonize interiors. cerrano recommends popular crystals such as amethyst, citrine, and rose quartz to promote healing while serving as beautiful decorative additions.
metal
This item can add a whimsical twist to any room with the addition of wind chimes, bells or metal sculptures. Cerrano explains that metal is related to communication, and musical decoration, such as bells and bells, “is related to clearing space with sound vibrations.”
4. hide sharp edges.
now you have an excuse to buy that cool tablecloth. According to Ann Bingley Gallops, Certified Open Space Feng Shui Expert, “These soft textiles cover the sharp, hard edges of the table that are called ‘poison arrows’ in feng shui. when you sit in the direct line of a poison arrow, you subconsciously take its sharp energy into your body, making you feel stressed and uncomfortable without knowing why.”
Other “poison arrows” in your home may come from the corners of paintings or other sharply shaped decorative objects and can be alleviated by aiming those objects away from places of comfort, such as beds and sofas.
5. make it mental.
for ultimate zen, use these tips together to balance, cleanse, and harmonize your home. but above all, remember that your interior can only change your life to a certain extent. For lasting change, you need to allow the philosophy behind feng shui to permeate your thoughts, actions, and feelings. “Your house is a metaphor for the life you experience today,” Cerrano says. “When you truly embrace the transformation process with feng shui, it increases your self-confidence and your understanding of the relationship dynamics you have with yourself, with others, and with your environment.”
See also: Feng Shui Lamps In Bedroom: Best 21 Home Lighting Tips