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Subject: decorating
Copyright Joey Lewitin 2005 This article is free to reprint if there are no major alterations made to its content, and if the
resource box appears at the bottom of the page with a clickable link in it.
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 peoples 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 rooms dcor. 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 peoples 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 cant 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 peoples
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 peoples 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 dont make mistakes, you wont 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 dont 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 wont 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 wont 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 dcor accessories made from imported stone. Original designs from him and
other artisans can be seen at The Stone Dcor Store
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