As we continue to live in an ever-stressful world which is forever changing and racing ahead, many people are looking for a spiritual break away from it all, and Feng Shui gives them the peace and tranquility they seek.
Although Feng Shui may look like a learning curve for the novice, the basic principles are very easy to grasp. Based on the patterns of nature, it’s about the flow of energy in our lives. Feng Shui can help bring us good health and prosperity, along with peace of mind and improved well-being.
Literally meaning “wind” and “water,” Feng Shui is the art of creating a balanced environment in order to bring about harmony and luck to one’s surroundings. It can be practiced to create a harmonious atmosphere in your most sacred of environments – your home.
Being content and at peace in your soul brings harmony to your entire existence. It makes the hard times easier to bear and enhances every personal relationship in your life. Even if you are focused on the financial aspects in life, inner peace can make you more productive and enhance your money-making ability in an indirect way.
Releasing the Blocks
The first rule of Feng Shui is something we should be doing always. It involves creating a clean and clutter-free environment. Positive energy can’t flow through your home and life with all kinds of obstacles in its way. This doesn’t mean a quick straightening up. De-cluttering involves getting into every closet, drawer, and shelf in your home. You want to eliminate anything you no longer need or use, and get rid of any item that is broken or cannot be repaired. Don’t forget about the garage or basement either. You will be surprised to learn how much more at peace you feel with a clean home and environment.
Once you have created a clean, clutterfree environment, you want to eliminate any negative energy that may still be in your home. Using melodious sound is one of the most efficient ways to do this. You could choose a bell or chimes. Carry them with you throughout the house and ring them to discourage negative energy. Pay special attention to areas that don’t get any or enough natural sunlight. This includes closets, area under the beds, and dark corners.
Create a Soothing Environment
Another way to discourage the presence of negative chi in your home is with the use of incense. This is an important step in using Feng Shui to create inner peace. Using incense in ceremonial rites is something almost every religion in the world is familiar with. It is a great idea to focus on electrical outlets and appliances. In order to take full advantage of this practice, use incense when things go wrong, or you when you feel that events and situations in your life are out of sync.
“Once you have created a clean, clutter-free environment, you want to eliminate any negative energy that may still be in your home.”
In the quest for more peace in life, the Feng Shui practice borrowed a custom that is popular in India. The use of fresh sea salt is an amazingly effective way to restore balance and harmony. Use a small measure of sea salt in your water and soap combination while cleaning the floors. If once a day is beyond what you can do, aim for at least once a week. It is also helpful to clean the home in this manner after a death, a negative experience, or an angry encounter with a loved one. You can also place bowls of sea salt in areas that aren’t necessarily cleaned on a daily basis. Under beds, on top of shelves or dressers, and inaccessible spaces are places to look out for. Change the salt as often as possible for best results.
Bring Life into Your Home
There are very few things more pleasant than water. This element can be instrumental in enhancing peace. There are a couple of places where you should not use water under any circumstances. Don’t have pictures of water or water fixtures in your bedroom or behind the bed or your office chair. Beyond those places, the use of water is a huge benefit except in Southern zones. It represents flowing energy and is useful for washing away negative feelings and thoughts. A small water fountain in the family room is a good option. Of course it is perfectly acceptable to use symbols or paintings of water as well.
Like water, the presence of plants is great for creating peace in your life with Feng Shui. The color green, an actual growing thing, and the beauty of plants are perfect for inspiring inner peace and tranquility. If you choose to use plants in your décor, you have to keep them healthy. Living plants are always better, but if you don’t have the time to take care of them, use artificial plants instead. In both cases use of broad leaves is prohibited as it causes delays in all your endeavors. It also has a negative effect on studies, especially of girls. You will have to be sure you keep them clean and dust-free.
Creating more peace in your life with Feng Shui is an easy undertaking that results in tremendous benefits. Take the time to organize your home in the Feng Shui tradition and enjoy the feeling of comfort and relaxation.
Create the Perfect Balance
Feng Shui is partly based on the yin and yang concept and the balance it represents. It also incorporates the balancing of elements which include fire, metal, earth, water and wood. Creating the perfect balance is important when attaining peace at home. Too much of one element can throw off the entire balance of the room or house. For example, when decorating a study, it is vital for the desk to be facing the Northeast direction, with a piece of pottery placed somewhere on the desk. This is because the Northeast (the direction of Jupiter, the planet for wisdom) is the most effective direction to face when studying, reading or thinking. Since the element of the Northeast is earth, and pottery is made from clay which is derived from the earth, it makes an excellent item to represent the earth element.
“The color green, an actual growing thing, and the beauty of plants are perfect for inspiring inner peace and tranquility.”
The judicious use of five elements is essential in bringing balance to a space. Any excess or lack of fire, metal, earth, water and wood will create an imbalance. Spaces with too much wood tend to make those who live there feel overwhelmed and/or over-committed. Too little fire and people feel a coldness and lack of emotion. When each of these elements is present in the right balance, people feel comfortable. It then becomes easy to walk into a room and have that calm feeling.
Yin and yang contribute to that inner peace when they are in balance. Too much yang in a space makes it difficult to settle down and focus; whereas too much yin becomes too great a struggle to get up and move. When they are in balance, the space is balanced and supports activity with ease.
The “bagua” is not only a template or grid that is superimposed upon any space to indicate which zones correspond to which areas of your life, but it is also a reminder to pay attention to all those essential areas of health, family, prosperity, reputation, relationships, creativity, children, helpful people, travel, career, and self-knowledge. The center of the bagua represents that balance. All the other aspects of life contribute to it and they, in turn, affect all those aspects. If one is neglected or out of balance, inner peace is difficult to attain.
Power of Color
Never underestimate the power of colors in your environment. We need color, especially the seven rainbow colors, which also correspond to the colors that support the chakras or energy centers of the body. Each color is important and can be displayed in some way. One client placed balls of different colors of yarn in a basket. It was simple, inexpensive, and very effective. By making sure that all those colors are somewhere in your home, you will be supporting wholeness on another level. That wholeness supports the balance and perfect harmony we are all after.
“Never underestimate the power of colors in your environment.”
Other Important Factors for Creating Peace
- Other factors that can influence the feeling of inner peace are unseen. Places that have leftover negative energies from arguments, trauma, death, or other disturbances will feel off balance.
- Geopathic stress can also create feelings of uneasiness. Electromagnetic energy from power lines and too much technology in a small space can lead to fatigue and restlessness. Both geopathic stress and excessive electromagnetic energy are great health risks as well.
- Confusion in a space always creates indecisiveness for those who live or work there. Entrances that are not easily found or defined, rooms that don’t have clear purposes, homes with bits of office work in many different places, and awkwardly arranged furniture, all create confusion. Clarity in your space supports clarity in you, paving the way to inner peace.
By following the principles of Feng Shui to create balance in our spaces, it is much easier to have balance in our lives. Inner peace automatically comes from that balance. Our surroundings do affect us and we reflect our surroundings. We owe it to ourselves to achieve as much balance and inner peace as possible so that we can reflect it out into the world.
Born in a renowned family of Vedic scholars and spiritual healers, Pt. Gopal Sharma, an engineering graduate from the Delhi College of Engineering, is a luminary in many fields. For over a decade, he has been doing extensive research in ancient sciences like Vaastu, Feng Shui, Pyramid and numerous facets of astrology. A much-awarded person and corporate advisor to leading business houses in India and abroad, he has 37 books on various subjects to his credit. He is the Vice President of All India Federation of Astrologer’s Societies with 120 centers across the globe, and founder President of the Institute of Vaastu & Joyful Living. Pt. Sharma is also the President of Aadi Shankaracharya Vedic Education Society, engaged in the process of establishing an international university near Jaipur in Rajasthan (India), with a mission to impart world-class education in the fields of Vaastu, Vedanta, yoga, astrology and other professional courses.
