Feng Shui House Decoration
Like a roiling tornado tearing through the calmest of suburbs, the spiral staircase inhales and uproots energy in its path, spewing chaos in its wake.
This may seem like an extreme, confusing example of the effect decor and home layouts have on our health and energy patterns, but ancient Feng Shui practices suggest it as a simple matter of fact:
Beyond the mere spiral staircase, Feng Shui asserts that just as humans have an energy or life-force - referred to as Chi in Chinese medicine - running through their bodies, all homes and spaces also contain the same flow of energy in the form of Feng Shui. This energy can be hindered or heightened depending upon the placement of certain decor in the home, and is believed to have an impact on not only residents' emotional state and moods, but also their health. Before you start worrying that your home might be impacting your health negatively, however, know that simple changes can be made that don't require a total move or remodel.
To Begin: Discover the Bagua Map
Originating from the I Ching, the Bagua represents the nine energy centers of the home and specific rooms. These energy centers correspond to the specific areas in our lives such as health and family, wealth and prosperity and others listed on the map above. To discover which areas correspond to each aspect, stand at the "Entrance Quadrant, " aka, the front door, of your home or apartment with the map above parallel to the floor and the "Entrance Quadrant" touching your stomach. This will show where the areas in each quadrant of the map fall in your home, so you can then begin to organize and place objects in each of the spaces that magnify or correct its Chi.
In some cases, you'll want to use the Bagua Map on specific rooms; if so, simply stand at the entryway of the room of your choice, and split it up into the quadrants the same way you would the entire house. According to Care2.com:
"If your home is not a rectangle or square, you may be missing areas of the Bagua. If this is the case, you can do a mini-Bagua for each room of your home and enhance the wealth corner of each room. Treat the main entrance to the room like you would the front door of the home and lay the Bagua accordingly. This energetically brings back into the space the missing area."
Health: The Center of the Bagua
The Health section of the Bagua lies at its center (sometimes also in the center-left) and touches all quadrants, reiterating the point that without health one cannot be truly balanced in life. This area also represents a "grounded" nature and should be filled with Earth tones and stabilizing features such as paintings of landscapes and brown, yellow, or other Earth-tone paints. Care2.com also recommends avoiding placing water images and/or tones, such as mirrors, in the center area since "the floaty and unstable quality of water will destabilize the earth element."
The Elements and Health
Along with purifying and reorganizing the center Bagua, it is important to pay attention to the use and placement of the elements throughout the home, as too much of some elements can derail efforts to increase Chi in an area and increase problematic health symptoms. Feng Shui recognizes five elements: fire, water, earth, wood and metal, with each working to harness a specific energy.
Fire
Fire encourages boldness and represents enthusiasm and leadership. With a perfect balance, fire can be an extremely inspiring force, but too much fire can cause anger, irritability and aggression. Lack of fire creates an opposing effect, causing low self-esteem, lack of inspiration and coldness. Candles, incandescent lighting and sunlight add fire to an area, while water tones such as blues minimize it.
Wood
Wood represents strength, intuition, creativity and expansion. Too much wood in the form of plants, furniture and paper can create stubbornness and inflexibility, while a lack of wood can cause depression and result in a lack of creativity.
