Practical
Feng Shui –
Debunking the myths and finding
out what we can actually learn from
the ancients
by
Joey Lewitin
Most
of the information that is available concerning Feng Shui is highly
over-simplified. It often comes in the form of out-of-context eastern
principals, mixed in with basic interior design horse sense from the
west, to form a hybrid which many professional Feng Shui analysts
agree can be as harmful as it is helpful. Feng Shui is more than just
choosing certain colors, or “getting rid of clutter”, as
many books and articles will have you believe. It is actually an extremely
complex system of mathematical formulas that give highly specific
advice based on the type of home, its layout, and its time of construction.
There are no simple answers in Feng Shui, however there is something
we can learn from the methods the ancients used to derive these principals.
Real
Feng Shui is a system that has been evolving over thousands of years.
The concept behind this design form is the idea that energy or “chi”
flows through everything. Feng Shui is an attempt to maximize the
flow of positive chi through a space to benefit the lives of the people
within that setting. Feng Shui is originally based on the I Ching,
an ancient Chinese text of mystical origins. Over the years successive
schools of thought have come to dominate this decorative philosophy.
As each new movement came to power, they refined the formulas and
functions of previous schools. In this ongoing process of refinement,
every possible arrangement of objects was tested against numerous
people’s emotional and spiritual reaction to them over thousands
of years. These reactions allowed the ancients to slowly improve their
diagrams for the placement of objects.
This
ancient mathematical formula for laying out the design of a setting
does seem to be a sound method for improving the quality of a room’s
décor. While this may be due to the ancients having determined
the way chi flows, their real accomplishment might instead have been
to develop a systemized mathematical representation of a wide scale,
long term psychological study. While trying to determine the flow
of energy, they may have instead determined the basic principals of
design that elicit positive responses in humans, by experimentally
testing and recording peoples reactions to different object settings.
Real
Feng Shui is extraordinarily specific, and complex. The only way to
do real Feng Shui is either to become a student of this art, and painstakingly
learn the many principals and subtleties it requires, or to hire a
professional to do an analysis and work over of your home. Either
way, use of this design style requires a large sacrifice, and is outside
the realm of most people’s time and money budget.
However,
Feng Shui does teach us something that is very useful when decorating
your home. The ancient thinkers who developed this idea derived it
by simply paying attention to the feeling of objects in different
spaces. This is a process that every person has it within their power
to do. Everyone has taste, everyone has feelings. By simply getting
in touch with your inner critic, you can become the source for your
own personal Feng Shui. No matter how specific they were, a Philosopher
from a thousand years ago is not going to understand the spiritual
and emotional nuances of you, your family, and your home as well as
you do. By using the strategy rather than the formula of Feng Shui,
you can develop a highly personalized design that is a true expression
of yourself.
Walk
into a room, and see how it makes you feel. Notice the colors, the
objects, and their placement. What do they evoke in you? Is the room
comfortable? Is it calming or invigorating? Maybe there is something
wrong in the room, even if you can’t tell exactly what it is,
register that feeling. If you are attentive, you will start to get
sensitive to the psychological influences that placement and design
have on your own mind.
Color
Colors
have very strong and individual effects on people. Different shades
will have radically different results on people’s mental behavior.
Dark colors can either be relaxing or depressing, light colors can
be uplifting or annoying, and extreme colors can be exhilarating or
aggravating. Pay attention to how these colors make you feel. When
you visit other peoples homes, or even their shops or offices, pay
attention to the effect that walking into a room has on you. Sometimes
you will enter a space and feel naturally relaxed. Other places can
have a negative effect, making you feel uncomfortable or agitated
for no apparent reason. Remember the colors and the shades of these
rooms, especially if you have a particularly strong response to one.
Colors
also affect the nature of interactions, and when you enter a new space
you should always pay attention to the way people behave to one another.
If there is a room in your home where people tend to get into arguments,
reassess the colors in that room. Bright or extreme colors can irritate
people’s eyes and increase their metabolism, making them more
likely to fight. Darker rooms can put people in a bad mood and make
them lethargic. Color and placement are not the only things that influence
interactions, but by paying attention you may be able to understand
the subtle influence it can have.
Flow
In
traditional Feng Shui, the goal is to maximize the flow of positive
chi in an area. While you will probably not be able to detect the
essence of the energy of a space, you can increase the feeling of
flow in a room by paying attention to the way people and objects move
through the space.
The flow
you want to achieve is in the essence of the room. You want there
to be easy access for people moving through the room, as well as in
and out of it. You want objects to be able to move from their storage,
into use, and back without adding to clutter. This kind of flow is
a mixture of organization and design that focuses on removing blockages
and allowing easy movement through every area.
You will
be able to feel whether a room has flow just by walking into it. There
are tiny currents of air that run through every space. We do not generally
notice these currents, however using your intuition you can just barely
perceive this air. The difference between greater and lesser currents
will be translated into your mind as greater or lesser flow. As always,
make yourself sensitive to the subtleties of the space.
EXPERIMENT
It
is important to allow yourself to be wrong. If you don’t make
mistakes, you won’t learn anything. Pay attention to emotional
variations you feel from placing different decorations and colors
in different spaces. At a certain point, stop and simply exist in
the room, remaining attentive to the feel of the space. Occasionally,
make small changes, and observe the emotional and interactive differences.
If you
don’t have the time or strength to constantly move furnishings
and furniture around, then try visualizing different scenarios. Sit
somewhere quiet, close your eyes, and imagine the room in a different
style. Imagine yourself in the room, and try to incorporate every
detail in the room into the setting. Feel how your emotions respond
to such a setting. Pay attention to any problems you may feel. Allow
yourself access to the subconscious of your mind, and trust its natural
inclinations, as it will pick up on problems and solutions that you
won’t consciously understand. Use color charts and pictures to
help with the imagination process.
Feng
Shui is a very respectable form of interior decorating with a long
and rich history. However, it was originally based on simple trial
and error, as ancient Chinese thinkers explored the many different
ways that positioning and design can affect the most subtle workings
of the human mind. Today you can try to recreate that method, by experimenting
with yourself and your surroundings to produce a room that will affect
you and your family in a positive way. While you probably won’t
achieve the accuracy of the ancients in your first attempt, each try
will educate you as to the style and design that suites you best as
well as the way it affects you. Exploring this further can allow you
a creative outlet enabling you to get in touch with the very basic
nature of art that exists within you.
Joey
Lewitin is an author, artist, and designer of home décor accessories
made from imported stone. Original designs from him and other artisans
can be seen at The Stone
Décor Store
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