Feng Shui isn’t just about rearranging furniture or hanging wind chimes. This ancient Chinese practice focuses on creating harmony between people and their environment by balancing energy flow.
When properly applied, Feng Shui can transform your space into one that supports health, happiness, and success.
1. Chi: The Living Energy
Chi represents the invisible life force flowing through everything. Think of it as the breath of your home—it needs to circulate freely without stagnating in corners or rushing too quickly through spaces.
When chi flows smoothly, spaces feel vibrant yet peaceful. Blocked chi creates that uncomfortable feeling you get in cluttered rooms or awkward layouts.
2. The Bagua Map
Imagine an energy blueprint that divides your space into nine life areas—wealth, fame, relationships, family, health, creativity, knowledge, career, and helpful people. Each section corresponds to different aspects of your life journey.
By understanding this map, you can place meaningful objects in specific areas to enhance those life aspects. Many practitioners overlay this map onto floor plans as their first step.
3. The Five Elements
Wood, fire, earth, metal, and water form the foundation of Feng Shui’s balancing act. Each element brings different energy—wood for growth, fire for passion, earth for stability, metal for focus, and water for wisdom.
These elements aren’t just literal materials but qualities of energy. Too much of one creates imbalance, while the right mix brings harmony to your space and life.
4. Command Position
Power positions matter! Placing your bed, desk, or stove where you can see the door without being directly in line with it creates security and control. This arrangement stems from ancient survival instincts—seeing potential threats while feeling protected.
Furniture in command positions supports decision-making and confidence. When you can’t achieve this placement, mirrors can help you see entryways from seated positions.
5. Balance of Yin and Yang
Yin (passive, soft, dark) and yang (active, hard, bright) energies need to dance together in your space. A room with too many bright lights and angular furniture feels overwhelming, while an overly dark, cushioned space can feel draining.
Creating balance might mean softening a modern office with plants or adding a statement mirror to brighten a dim bedroom. The goal is harmony, not extremes.
6. The Power of Color
Colors aren’t just decorative choices—they’re energy tools. Red stimulates excitement and passion, while blue calms and promotes thoughtfulness. Yellow brings cheer to gathering spaces, and green nurtures growth and healing.
Strategic color placement can activate specific life areas according to the Bagua. Even small color accents can shift a room’s energy without requiring major renovations.
7. Clutter Clearing
Clutter isn’t just unsightly—it’s energetically suffocating. Those piles of unfinished projects, unworn clothes, and unnecessary papers block fresh chi from entering your life.
Regular clearing makes room for new opportunities. Start small with one drawer or surface if feeling overwhelmed. Many practitioners consider this the most powerful (and affordable!) Feng Shui adjustment anyone can make.
8. Front Door Prosperity
Your front entrance serves as the mouth through which all good energy enters your home or business. A neglected, blocked, or rarely-used front door starves your space of vibrant chi.
Enhance this area with good lighting, remove obstacles, fix squeaky hinges, and consider adding plants or a water feature nearby. Many successful businesses regularly maintain their entrances based on this principle.
9. Mirrors as Remedy Tools
Mirrors multiply everything—light, energy, and even abundance when properly placed. They’re considered the aspirin of Feng Shui, able to remedy many energy problems when strategically positioned.
A mirror facing your stove “doubles” your abundance. One reflecting cluttered areas multiplies chaos. Avoid mirrors facing beds as they can disturb sleep by bouncing too much energy around during rest time.
10. Water Features and Wealth
Flowing water symbolizes flowing prosperity in Feng Shui. Small fountains, aquariums, or even images of gentle water scenes can activate wealth energy when placed in your abundance area (typically the southeast).
The key is movement—stagnant water creates stagnant finances. Ensure water flows toward the center of your home, not toward the door where opportunity might “drain away.”
11. Plant Placement
Living plants bring vibrant wood energy that promotes growth, vitality, and healing. Sharp-leaved plants (like snake plants) can protect against negative energy, while round-leaved plants (like jade) attract prosperity.
Strategic placement matters—plants with upward growth stimulate progress in career areas. Avoid placing them in bedrooms where their active energy might disturb sleep unless they’re particularly calming varieties.
12. Bedroom Harmony
Your bedroom influences health and relationships more than any other space. Feng Shui recommends equal nightstands on both sides of beds (even for singles) to create energetic balance and partnership readiness.
Remove work materials, exercise equipment, and electronics which bring competing energies. Soothing colors promote rest, while family photos might intrude on intimate energy—consider keeping them in hallways or living areas instead.
13. Kitchen As Nourishment Center
Your kitchen represents how you nourish yourself and others, directly influencing family health and prosperity. A stove with all working burners symbolizes your ability to create multiple income streams.
Keep this space bright, clean, and joyful. Many practitioners recommend against knife blocks on counters (representing cutting energy) and favor round tables over angular ones to promote conversation and connection during meals.
14. Bathroom Energy Containment
Bathrooms present unique challenges since water and wealth energy can “drain away” through pipes. Keep drains closed and toilet lids down when not in use to prevent prosperity from escaping.
Adding earth elements (stone accessories, earthy colors) helps absorb excess water energy. Always keep bathroom doors closed, and if a bathroom opens to your prosperity area, use plants or crystals as energetic buffers.
15. Art and Intention
Images surrounding you affect your subconscious daily. Choose art representing what you want more of—peaceful landscapes for stress reduction, abundant nature scenes for prosperity, or romantic imagery for relationship enhancement.
Avoid distressing images regardless of artistic value. A beautiful shipwreck painting might be masterful, but its sinking energy isn’t helpful in your home’s energy field. Intention matters more than aesthetic trends.
16. Electronic Energy Management
Modern devices create electromagnetic fields that can disrupt natural energy flow. The ancient masters couldn’t have predicted our digital world, but contemporary practitioners recommend creating tech-free zones, especially in bedrooms.
Covering screens when not in use helps reduce their dominance. Balancing with natural elements like plants, crystals, or wooden items helps neutralize electronic intensity. Many successful people now keep phones out of bedrooms entirely.
17. Space Clearing Ceremonies
Spaces hold energetic imprints from arguments, illness, or previous occupants. Regular clearing using sound (bells, clapping), smoke (sage, incense), or intention refreshes your environment’s energy field.
Many practitioners perform clearings seasonally or after significant events. Even opening all windows for nine minutes while setting positive intentions can shift stagnant energy. Hotels and hospitals with high occupant turnover benefit greatly from these practices.