What is Fengshui?

Fengshui is a natural science that emphasizes the environment as an integral element in the art of living. As a Chinese mathematical system developed by scholars through observations accumulated over thousands of years, Fengshui incorporates astronomy, geography, the environment, magnetic fields, and physics. Based on the interactions among the movements of the orbiting planets of the solar system (heaven), living environment (earth), and one’s birth date (individual), Fengshui is a unique system that mathematically calculates the most favorable direction for one’s living quarters and workspace.

Feng in Chinese means wind and Shui means water.
It symbolizes the universal energy flow. Everything is energy, and energy is everything. Fengshui history is rooted in Daoism dated back to 4000BC. It is a complex system of theories that are used to promote good energy. In Fengshui, as in Chinese medicine, “Chi” is the term for the universal energy or the energy that permeates everything around us. This Fengshui term applies to the energy inside your body, as well as the energy inside and outside any man-made structures. A good flow of energy (or Chi) leads to a happy and harmonious home.

Fengshui Five Elements

Chi, or Fengshui energy, is manifested in yin and yang characteristics and in a variety of forms according to the five elements theory.

The five Fengshui elements are Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal.
In Fengshui, Chi is also expressed in different colors and shapes. Each color and shape are an expression of a specific Fengshui element. Decorating with specific colors and shapes in different areas of the home will bring specific quality of Chi into each area of life.

Here is a glance at the five elements in their colors and shapes.

Relationships of the Five Elements

There are several different ways for the five elements to interact, called cycles. The most basic cycles of the five Fengshui elements are the productive and the destructive cycles.

It is actually quite intuitive to grasp the relationships among the five Fengshui elements. For example, if I pour water into wood (a plant), it nurtures it to grow. I put wood in the fire, it makes the fire stronger. Fire produces earth and metals are found inside of earth. When metal melts, it becomes water.

Same works for the destructive cycle. Water puts out fire; fire melts metal; metal absorbs the nutrients inside the earth and competes with the wood; wood absorbs the nutrients from earth; and we can use earth to fill in water and absorb it all.

How to Practice Fengshui?

If the idea of having positive energy in your home sounds good. Here is how to implement Fengshui in a nutshell distilled from my 10 years’ experience working as a Fengshui Interior Architect. Your home can be divided into 9 squares and each square represents different areas of your life with different Fengshui elements. 

For example, if you face the front door of your home and you take a compass reading and it says North. Then you know the opposite side is south, west is on the left and east is on the right. So just fill in the boxes with all the directions. Equally, divide your home into nine squares. I understand not all houses are rectangular or square, just approximate and try your best. 

There, you have a rough Fengshui map of your home. Each direction square represents an area of your life and associates with a Fengshui element. So if you want to improve a certain area of your life, then decorate that area with that Fengshui element’s colors and shape. For example, if you want to improve your love and marriage, put a painting with earthy colors, light yellow, light brown in the southwest corner of your home. Remember since fire nurtures earth, so putting artwork in fiery colors like red, pink, orange, yellow and purple will also work wonders. However, you should try to minimize decors in wood element since wood weakens earth. Make sense?

This rule of thumb applies to a single room in your home as well. For example, if you have a home office, find the money square (southeast) of the office and put wood element decor in it. Please remember when you do the compass reading, please don’t wear any jewelry or have anything magnetic nearby.

I will share another example.

In this example, the front door is facing southeast. In this case, if you want to improve your income and earning, it would be great to put artwork with abundant wood and flowers near your front door square. All shades of green and brown are good as well as blue and black since water nurtures wood. However, you should probably try to minimize metal element (white, gray, and gold) decors since metal weakens wood.

If you've read this far, you are clearly interested in learning how to decorate your home using this theory to invite positive energy into your home. Join my Joyous Art Club and download the full guide to learn more!