Feng Shui is an ancient art and science, 5,000 years old, that began and developed in China. It is a complex body of knowledge that shows how to balance the energy of any given space, so as to ensure health and good fortune for the people who live in it.
Feng means wind and shui means water. In Chinese culture, wind and water are associated with good health, so good feng shui means good luck, while bad feng shui means bad luck.
Feng Shui is based on the flow of energy in a space and on an understanding of nature and the environment around us. It rests on the idea that the earth is alive and full of energy (which in feng shui we call chi).
The ancient Chinese believed that the earth’s energy was so powerful that it could affect people. By applying feng shui, they kept positive energy in a space and drove negative energy out.
The theories of yin and yang, along with the five feng shui elements (water, earth, air, metal, wood), are some of the basic aspects of feng shui analysis. But how is this applied in practice, and how can it affect our own lives and those of our families?
Put simply, feng shui is positive energy in our space, in the people around us and in ourselves. It is the balance between yin and yang, between positive and negative. It is the art of harmonizing the energy in our space. Positive energy is everything.
Many times we have walked into a room and simply not felt good in it, without knowing exactly why, or met someone we disliked from the very first moment, even though they had done nothing to us.
This is the result of positive or negative feng shui.
By arranging our space in such a way that we and our families can live peacefully and harmoniously, we bring prosperity, health, wealth and happiness into our lives.
Feng shui is abundance. It is health for us and the people we love. It is wealth. It is a shop full of customers. It is courtesy and hard work among the people who share an office. It is a home that, as a space, makes you feel embraced by its calm and harmony.
By arranging the objects in the space where we live and work harmoniously, we avoid illness, negative energy from the people around us, pitfalls and bad luck. Otherwise we end up unable to calm down or rest, suffering from headaches and anxiety and, in many cases, illness, with our lives in constant turmoil.
To balance positive and negative energy, we apply feng shui in our homes, but also, more broadly, in the way we think and behave. When we bring positive energy around us, we will notice the changes in our daily lives right away.
In general, it is good to know that by clearing out whatever is useless from our home and workplace, we can maintain and increase our financial prosperity and keep our finances steady, even in an unstable economy like today’s.
When we clear out the pile of accumulated old items in our storerooms, lofts or cupboards, we subconsciously open “paths” for new material goods, and with them wealth, to come to us.
That wealth may be a higher salary, more customers, more profitable business deals, or even a fatter bank account.
In feng shui, the pile of accumulated old items in our storerooms, lofts or cupboards represents the decisions we have not made and our inability to move forward.
Think of it as staring at the piles of paper on your desk, the clothes you never wear in your wardrobes and the unread magazines stacking up in your bedroom.
Remember that nothing new can enter your life until you make room for it, so you should clear out at least 25% of your pile to make room for “wealth”.
Try to take a photograph or paint a family portrait in which all the members are present and everyone looks happy.
Hang this portrait in the room where the whole family gathers, so that it symbolizes a happy and stable family life, and if possible place it on the south-west wall.
At least once a week, open two windows in two different rooms and let fresh air banish the stale yin atmosphere of the house. It is a good idea to do this on a sunny day, so that vital yang energy, which attracts joy and good luck, enters the home.
Fresh flowers bring strong yang energy into your living room and entrance hall, but they turn into depressing yin energy when they wilt. So don’t leave wilted flowers in vases; replace them with fresh ones straight away.
We should not forget that everything starts with us, so we keep calm and maintain a positive attitude to life, even when things and events seem not to be going as well as we would like.
It is up to us to feel good at every moment and, with the help of feng shui, to make the space where we live and work beautiful.
What matters most is that we are well, happy, content and healthy, and we will do everything we can to achieve that.
Efthymia A. Misirli
Feng shui consultant in favorable psychological space planning
Efthymia A. Misirli studied in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), and went on to study feng shui and geopathology at the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics in France, alongside interior architecture. She has attended seminars in psychology, self-knowledge and self-improvement in France and Greece. She has appeared on television, writes articles for magazines, and gives talks and seminars throughout Greece on favorable psychological space planning through feng shui.
