What is Feng Shui?
Feng Shui (‘wind water’, pronounced in Mandarin as fung shway) is the ancient but dynamic Chinese art and science of placement and manipulation of our surroundings for therapeutic effect; allowing us to harmonise the energy patterns of our environments to improve our health and wealth.
What is it?
According to Taoist theory, our destinies are determined by our ‘heaven luck’ (karma and birthday/time), ‘man luck’ (education, lifestyle, actions, diet, etc.) and ‘earth luck’ (environment and surroundings). A Feng Shui consultation primarily focuses on improving and enhancing a client’s earth luck, while the grander practice of Feng Shui is really focused on improving our man luck and understanding our heaven luck too.
Incorporating elements of architecture, interior design, astrology, colour therapy, geomancy and common sense, the practice of Feng Shui aims to bring a natural balance to our manmade environments. While the energy-balancing techniques and philosophy used are ancient and timeless, psychology and cultural tradition drives the more aesthetic aspect.
How does it work?
Feng Shui shows how to use your surroundings to improve your quality of life. This is achieved through strengthening beneficial (sheng) qi/chi (accumulating healthy (yin) qi and allowing prosperous (yang) qi to flow), whilst weakening detrimental (sha) qi.
Qi has no direct translation from Chinese, on a basic level representing breath, life force, energy. It is the (motivating) force behind matter, as E in E=mc2,, and is inherent in everything in the universe – the animate and the inanimate.
Just as acupuncture uses careful placement of needles to holistically correct imbalance or disease within the body (by manipulating qi), when there is a problem in our lives, there is a corresponding reflection of that in our daily surroundings, and with simple and effective techniques we can manipulate our surroundings to change our behaviour and our focus, and therefore our health and fortune.
Just as the food we eat affects our health, and the clothes we wear affect our posture and self-image, so too everything around us affects our fundamental quality of life. Today there is more stress and less time for us than ever before, making Feng Shui so useful to society and the individual.
History and development
Feng Shui, in a wider sense, is the study of nature and change – ie. space and time. In ancient times, we mastered agriculture through studying the movement of heavenly (star) constellations, most notably the Plough or Big Dipper, as we learnt when to plant, when to water, and when to harvest. This provided mankind with an evolution in civilisation, as we mastered the seasons, mastered the land and maximised our yields by charting the cycles of nature. From this and the basic Taoist philosophy of Yin and Yang and the 5 Elements, the ancient Chinese sages learned how mastery of placement and timing are essential, not just for plants but for humans too, for a long, healthy and prosperous life. When ‘qi’ flows naturally and harmoniously, no stress appears.
What happens during a consultation?
Through a consultation, we can make conscious improvements to our daily lives in areas such as:
- Health
- Love, & harmony in relationships
- Career progression
- Financial stability & security
- Self development
- Creativity & recognition
- Travel
- Buying & selling a property
A consultation will show you how to provide yourself, your family, home and/or business, with creative inspiration for those things you want most in life, inviting the best from situations, as well as implementing steps to correct and avoid unfortunate situations and poor health; leaving us with more energy to accomplish what really matters in life. Restoring balance to the environment aids harmony between people, and in the mind.
Information provided by George Monkhouse