Smarten Uo Your Space

Successful people are smart about what they keep around them. You will often see keepsakes of their interests and achievements, signs of projects in progress and always a well organised space. There may also be a comfortable chair to sit quietly whilst contemplating decisions. What you wont see is clutter, junk or an ailing plant, nor piles of old magazines or paperwork, dreary, uninspiring artwork or displeasing hand-me-downs.
Get your surroundings to nourish and support you to the full. It is acknowledged by behavioural psychologists that when you see things around you that uplift you, inspire you and bring you a sense of joy, you are more likely to feel well and interact positively. A tidy clear space that looks great, maybe boosted by some cheery colour accents, has a huge beneficial effect on health, mood, concentration and productivity.
When children grow up and leave home, it is an opportunity to repurpose a bedroom and create new space for yourself, for work, hobbies, exercise or tranquility; a sofa bed will suffice for occasional overnight stays. When it is time to move, it will help to sell your home faster and more successfully if you declutter all your possessions before the viewings commence. Definitely do that before moving. Taking old baggage with you will only bog you down, rather than freeing you up to enter a new phase of your life.
Here are a couple of stylish Feng Shui design solutions to manage challenging situations. Lighten up dull areas and dingy corners by placing a plant there and concealing a low-level uplighter behind it, their illuminated joint effect is magical. Turn an empty recess into a smart functional space by installing floor-to-ceiling display shelves for decor items like crystals, battery operated candles and plants or flowers, plus books and essential folders
with matching decorative covers. Placing baskets along the lower shelves is a stylish storage solution for often-used small items. Alternatively, add doors to the lower shelves to create a cupboard for toys, games and so on.
Before you give up on tarnished paintwork, try cleaning it with white spirit vinegar and washing up liquid added to warm water. Add a few drops of deodorising essential oils such as Lemon, Lemongrass, Ho leaf or Litsea to the rinse water, then buff to restore a good- as-new sparkle.
In addition to what you can see around you, this is a quick revitalising method to spruce up the unseen subtle energy in your living space. First of all open windows and remove stuck negative energy by clapping your hands or banging on a metal object whilst walking round, paying attention to the corners and beneath furniture. Then spray the air with your favourite essential oils diluted in water and have positive thoughts while you do it. Shake the spray bottle before use to blend the molecules. It can be done whenever you feel the desire or need to refresh the atmosphere.
The prime smart move is to clear your own head space by avoiding decision fatigue. Streamline your wardrobe to simplify choices. Split complex tasks into several mini-steps, making realistic achievable deadlines for each one and sticking to them. Develop the skill of delegating certain chores to give yourself spare time for doing more important things, or just use that time to relax.
An inspiring worthwhile read:
“Getting Things Done, the Art of Stress Free Productivity” by David Allen More ideas for smartening up your space: http://www.fengshui-living.com/blog/2023/4/13/innovative-clutter-clearing

Using Colour In Feng Shui design

Colour has a prominent role in aesthetic Feng Shui design and a vital influence on how our life feels.  Each colour vibrates at its own unique frequency which influences every cell of our body and arouses our senses, although for the most part we take it for granted. Every colour in existence is associated with one of the five Feng Shui elements, each of which are assigned to either one or two compass locations. But that is only the beginning of the story. There are several other considerations that we would draw on in traditional Feng Shui design to reach the most desirable and harmonious colour palette for a client.

How colour is perceived largely depends upon the quality of light it receives and, by degree, upon climate as well. For example, in the temperate Northern hemisphere, a predominance of blues or greys in a North-facing bedroom can look and feel cold, even diminishing intimacy. On the other hand, too much red in a South-facing room can transform passion into aggression. In the Southern hemisphere the reverse would happen. By contrast, the bright, clear Mediterranean light plays wonderful interactions with cool blue hues, whilst vivid warm tones dance with inspiring spirited exuberance.

Apart from orientation of a property, the window dimensions, the function of a room, its ceiling height, whether its shape is wide, long and narrow, or irregular, all play a part in how a room responds to a chosen colour scheme. So in Feng Shui design decision making, we find that the concept of assigning elemental colour choices to their corresponding compass areas is not always effective. We can be far more aesthetically aware, creative, adaptable and effective than that.

Another approach for deciding which colours would work best in a particular room is to balance its yin and yang essence. All colours have many facets, each with variations of tone and clarity, shades, hues and tints. Dynamic bright colours increase the level of yang energy in a room. Sombre, dull colours and earthy textures generate yin energy. For example fiery red is obviously yang, but a gentle pink tint is a gentler, more yin version of red. Appropriate colour balance based on yin and yang creates a space that feels calm and relaxed yet stimulating and satisfying.

Dynamic colours increase the level of yang energy in a room. Subdued colours and earthy textures generate yin energy. For instance, a touch of cheerful turquoise, orange or purple will enliven a room that feels too yin. Conversely, neutrals, taupes and greys will cool down a predominantly yang space. As a rule of thumb, active living areas and the home office space require some yang colour accents. Bedrooms and other quiet areas work better with tranquil, nurturing, more yin colour schemes.

The mood of a space can be strikingly enhanced by introducing appropriate colour accents. Wall paint choice is only one aspect that creates aesthetic colour impact. Artwork, decor accessories, soft furnishings, mood lighting, even houseplants and goldfish, can be used to bring desired colour tones into a room. This Feng Shui design approach to balancing colour energy works very effectively to help create harmonious, peaceful, welcoming and nourishing living spaces.

If you wish to learn more about Feng Shui design, “Unlocking the Key to Feng Shui” an interactive free Introduction seminar with Master Howard Choy, will be held live on Zoom on Saturday 9th September 1pm -2.30pm UK time and our six months ECOFS professional level training course commences on 20th October.

Please contact me to express interest and to join us.

More information about Howard Choy and our European College of Feng Shui courses can be found on fengshui-living.com/coursesdetails

With warm wishes

Sylvia

Sylvia BennettAccredited Feng Shui Master Practitioner

ECOFS Training Courses Coordinator

Architectural Design Consultant

Subtle Environment Surveyor

Celebrating the Qing Ming Spring Festival

The Qing Ming Festival (Remembrance of Ancestors Day or Grave-Sweeping Day) is celebrated on April 5th, the first day of the fifth solar term in the Chinese lunisolar calendar. Qing Ming literally means clear brightness. It is a day of purification, during which people deeply connect with their ancestors and with nature. One of the most ancient and significant Festivals in the Chinese year, it is similarly observed throughout Malaysia,Taiwan, Singapore, Korea and Japan.

Traditionally the most important activity at the Qing Ming Festival or just beforehand, is for people to honour deceased relatives by cleaning, weeding and beautifying their burial place (known as tomb sweeping). Then they usually place fresh flowers or food there, light incense and pray for peace, health and good luck for their family.

Qing Ming is also known as the Spring-Outing Festival. A day to take an enjoyable family trip walking and exercising in nature, tree planting and other nature associated activities. Promoting happiness and good health, it is a celebration of life after paying homage to departed ancestors. People fly kites of various bright colours during the daytime. Illuminated lanterns are attached to the kites after dark and the sky is filled with hundreds of them, all resembling twinkling stars. The kites are symbolic of good fortune.

The Qing Ming Festival day is held at the start of the Dragon month, the time when temperatures rise and nature is encountering a huge transformation. It is the sign for farmers to do their Spring planting, also a sign to do some spring cleaning at the natural transition of the seasons

Man & Nature

Chinese Wisdom that Makes Feng Shui Work

The principal aim of Feng Shui is essentially to find a harmonious balance and a supportive connection between people and the environment that they live in. From a Chinese cultural perspective there is a fundamental interactive relationship between nature and man, space and time, influenced by tangible and intangible factors that generate human reactions.

Following the changing patterns of nature, time is cyclical in Chinese thinking, not linear, and its progress is elliptical as it moves forward. It is hard work aiming for something that is not likely to be achievable at the moment. However as the season or year changes, so does the situation we find ourselves in. The opportunity will be there at the right time, and being in the right place too at the right time is even better. Shi means timeliness.

According to Chinese philosophy our lives are shaped by fate, by destiny or ‘luck’, and by free will. Only our birth is fixed, it is our Heaven fate, because we have no control over the life situation we were born into. The rest is largely up to us. We shape how we progress in life and thereby create our own destiny by our endeavours and consideration, by continuing to acquire knowledge, and by decisions we choose to make. We can also organise our environment to support our needs and desires.

Characters, images and pattern language creatively guide Chinese thinking. Recognising several possibilities or correlations for a situation, as well as analysing it to reach a definitive outcome, becomes effective as well as efficient. This fascinating and preagmatic, yet apparently opposing, blend of left and right brain integration is also used to reach purposeful Feng Shui decisions.

This is a sophisticated example of Yin and Yang, the Chinese concept of complementary opposites as the binary code of life. Everything can be related to Yin and Yang. There can be no procreation without male and female, no shadow without sunlight. It is the different Yin and Yang qualities of Qi that determine its potential to become desirable or undesirable.

To make Feng Shui right, there also has to be Qing, which means feeling or affection, so that the built space we inhabit enjoys a mutually supportive resonance with forms in the natural landscape and in combination they give us protection as well as opportunity.

The connection between nature’s form, heaven’s intangible influences, and human needs, called San Cai in Chinese, is the secret to creating balance and harmony in your home or workplace so that you will thrive and flourish, gain life enrichment and happiness. That connection is where the solutions are most likely to be found.