The Art of Feng Shui: Achieving Aesthetic Balance

Have you ever noticed it? The feeling you get when you walk into a welcoming home or room? This is the result of Feng Shui – or, in other words, the aesthetic balance in room. With a properly designed room, one is able to promote the free flow of positive qi.

Feng Shui, meaning “wind” and “water, is focused on promoting harmony and balance, free flowing and positive energy, and a connection to the universe.

The History and Meaning

Feng Shui originally was first employed for designing tombs, capital cities, and temples. Designers hoped to develop a sense of yin and yang in these holy places, using astronomy as a guide to connections between humans and the universe.

Feng Shui is largely based on a principle of duality: yin and yang. However, rather than opting for “good over evil,” Feng Shui looks for balance between the two. As explained by the University of Florida, “Yin and Yang is a foundation theory for Feng Shui… Yin and yang cannot survive without one another for they are mutually dependent opposites. The concept of duality, the principle that things have two states, is the root of Yin and Yang.”

This principle of Yin and Yang serves as the basis for another principle in Feng Shui: the five elements theory. Fire, water, metal, earth, and wood serve as the five elements in play with this theory. They all have both destructive and constructive sides. For instance, while water can nourish life, it can also extinguish fire, and while wood may serve as a source of fuel, it can also overgrow the earth it lives upon.

Understanding these principles become important in the organization of a temple, or for modern times, in the organization of a room. One must determine the flow of each area and develop a balance: where there is focus on family and the past, you must also have focus on children and the future. Likewise, where there is focus on wealth, there must also be focus on helping others and serving as a guide.

One may begin to coordinate this with the use of a bagua, which, according to Feng Shui gateway, “can be superimposed over a diagram of your home, office, room, desk and used as a guide. The bagua provides location specific areas for all of the aspects of your life. Enhancing a specific area might lead to an improvement in that area of your life.”

Tips for Feng Shui

With a strong understanding of Feng Shui, here are some simple tips to help create flow, balance, and harmony in your living quarters.

Keeping these tips in mind will help lead to a better balanced room that all can enjoy and will be attracted to. Remember: “through the knowledge of Feng Shui, people are believed to be able to make themselves more compatible with nature, their surroundings and their own everyday life, so that they can make an impact on their finances, health, and emotions.” This compatibility it what you should seek in creating proper Feng Shui.