Sometimes people ask me “what Feng Shui cure should I use in my – romance area?, – wealth area?, – career area?” The short answer is there is no short answer. Some Feng Shui books make very specific recommendations; I call this “cookie-cutter Feng Shui”. In the best Feng Shui one cure does not fit all situations.
Three factors determine the best Feng Shui cures for you:
- The energy of the space or room,
- The energy of the cure,
- The energy of the people or person using the room.
1. The Energy of the Space
Some rooms feel “calm”, some feel “upbeat”, some feel “chaotic”, and some feel “heavy.” Calm rooms are usually uncluttered and well-organized with simple decoration. Upbeat rooms are also well-organized and are abundant with decoration. “Chaotic” rooms are frequently cluttered and disorganized. “Heavy” rooms are usually crowded with unused/unloved things.
Start with de-cluttering if the room needs it. The best Feng Shui cures in the world are less effective in a cluttered or disorganized space. Then decide if you want to create a calm or energized room depending on what you want to do in that space. A bedroom should be calmer than a family room. A home office is usually calmer than a creative studio space.
2. The Energy of the Cure
Some Feng Shui books tell you to use a specific cure for a particular part of the ba-gua or compass direction. This is not wrong, but is overly literal and limiting. An unlit purple candle in the Wealth area (correct Ba-Gua color) has less energy than a healthy plant or a crystal in a sunlit window in that same Wealth area.
Chi is energy. You want to use cures that have their own energy: light, color, sound, movement and living things that bring their energy into the room. Personal mementos that remind you of the people, places and events that you love most work as cures by lifting your own energy, consciously or unconsciously.
3. The Energy of the People who use the Space – and What They Plan to Do There.
One way you can figure out your personal energy level is to note what kind of coffee shop you like to hang out in. Do you like to enjoy your latte in a café with a pulsing sound system and a lot of background noise? Or do you gravitate to a coffee shop with softer music and lighting and acoustics that dampen background noise?
Some people are very high-energy, others are mellow. Match the energy of the space to the energy of the person.
A quiet room may be experienced by a high-energy person as boring and they will become restless, while a quieter person will feel comfortable. A room with lots of stimulation (light, colors, sound, and movement) will be a great match for a high-energy person, but will be overwhelming and fatiguing for a quieter person causing them to “shut-down.”
When you are seeking to balance the energy of someone, individualized fine-tuning is necessary to create rooms to help your personal energizer bunny chill out, or motivate and activate your laid-back introvert.
Choose one of the Nine Cures which is the right fit for you and your space. Tune into your intuition to guide you. Try out a cure and see how the room and you feel. If it is not quite right, try another cure.
The bottom line: there is no one “right” cure. What may work for your best friend or the author of a book may not be the best solution for you and your space.
What kind of space works best for you?
Japan photo by Kengo Kuma and Associates. Amsterdam photo by Rien Meulma
