Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Feng Shui and Children

Anyone who is a parent is already aware that raising these unique, little people is a challenge unlike anything they have ever faced before. For whatever reason, nature didn’t provide new parents with instructional guides with the birth of children. This was certainly an oversight on someone’s part. While parenthood is challenging, a thoughtful parent can improve their relationship with their children, enhance their educational experience, and see to their comfort in all aspects of their lives by using the ancient practice of Feng Shui.

Feng Shui is all about creating harmony and balance in every aspect of a person’s life. How your home and personal spaces are arranged and paying careful attention to the colors and elements used in your home can make a huge difference in your child’s center of emotional balance. Feng Shui and children go well together to instill a life long harmony in your little ones lives.

Let’s take the one place where every child should feel secure, safe, and at peace, their bedroom. One of the biggest obstacles to true inner harmony for all of us, especially children, is the overabundance of electronic equipment in the bedroom. Computer monitors, alarm clocks, and entertainment devices all emit electromagnetic frequencies. These frequencies are a negative influence on Feng Shui and children. They disrupt sleep and can attribute to increased moodiness and aggression. Anyone who has a child knows that they don’t need any help being moody; they do it all on their own. So for the Feng Shui practice to benefit your children, keep electronic appliances about three to five feet away from your sleeping babies.

You are permitted a short chuckle here, but no outright laughing. Children’s bedrooms should be as clutter free as possible. They may think that having a clean room isn’t important, but all of that debris is limiting the influence of positive chi. The classic culprit in a child’s bedroom is under the beds. As you remember from childhood, that hidden space under the bed was perfect for stashing all of your treasures you don’t want mom and dad to find. Unfortunately all of those treasures cause energy to become stuck. As in all aspects of Feng Shui and children it is imperative to help them keep their rooms clutter free.

Speaking of beds, the placement of beds is important in the practice of Feng Shui and children. The best place to put a child’s bed is with the headboard against a solid wall. In other words, the wall the headboard rests against should not have a door or window sharing the space. It is also helpful to allow space to walk on either side of the bed. This helps the positive energy to flow around the little one while he or she sleeps. Mirrors aren’t beneficial in a kid’s bedroom. In the Feng Shui belief, they can make it harder to sleep.

A child’s bedroom should be a haven for them, just as your bedroom should be a comfortable, relaxing place for you. The use of color plays an important role in this Feng Shui and children arrangement. While it may be cute to paint a little girl’s room hot pink or bright yellow, those colors aren’t conducive to a relaxing environment. Consider light pink or muted tones in the room instead. Either gender would benefit from the use of blues, greens, or skin colors in their rooms. These are harmonious and comforting.

Wall decoration is important in Feng Shui and children’s bedrooms. Young children will benefit from pictures and posters of pleasant images. Puppies, kittens, and their favorite cartoon characters are good choices. With the cartoon characters, you want to be sure they are non violent and have a positive influence. Older kids love to assert their new found preferences with posters of their latest obsession. Of course, this is a normal, natural part of development, but make an effort to be sure negative images are kept to a minimum. Regardless of the children’s age, pictures of happy family events are full of positive energy and are great décor in the Feng Shui tradition.

Of course good Feng Shui and children continues to other areas besides just their bedrooms. Every child needs to study to do well in school and with the huge emphasis on education in the Chinese culture; education plays a huge role in Feng Shui. One easy thing you can do to help your child excel in school is set up a good study area. When your child is studying, make sure they can see the doorway. As with the other areas of a child’s environment, clutter should be eliminated. If they aren’t using the art supplies, then they shouldn’t be on the desk or table. You get the idea.

When you stop to consider that Feng Shui is the practice of enhancing all aspects of life through thoughtful and knowledgeable placement of objects, it is easy to see how Feng Shui and children is beneficial to the a young ones current and future success. As with the other rooms of your home, taking the time to use your Feng Shui skills for your child’s bedroom and welfare is an excellent way of starting your child down a harmonious, positive chi rich future.

Feng Shui and Interior Design

A Key to Your Success and Happiness

Every day we go into the world to create and make our way, be it to a job or a business. We enter each day with the attitude of accomplishment and achievement. However, for most people, during the day we meet some sort of obstacles or roadblocks. It could be a customer who changes the scope of the project that you just completed the night before, the bank who needs just one more piece of information to complete the loan you needed yesterday or the guy who cut us off in traffic, caused us to run off the road and miss the most important business meeting of our career. We rise to the occasion as each monster rears its ugly head. Each time, we expend just a little bit more of our energy that we had planned to use on another objective. By the end of the day we are usually one, two or even three steps behind where we wanted to be, worn out and ready to retreat to a place where we have peace and serenity. This also holds true for our children today. They encounter as much stress, be it different, in the their worlds as we adults do. They are stressed by peer pressure to act and be different than they are taught at home and by television and the media to become something that they are not. These stresses can be overwhelming and we are all looking for a place where we can escape from these pressures.

If everyday was like the one described above and you were not able to rebuild your energy, you would begin to find yourself running on reserves, feeling exhausted like you can never get ahead of the game. Running on reserves can work for a while if you are still in your 20's and maybe even your 30's but eventually your reserves can be depleted and you are as the song goes +running on empty¦. The stresses of each day are piled upon the stresses of the day before and the day before that, until you no longer have the patience and tolerance to deal with seemingly insignificant issues as they arise. These stresses also can make us feel less then capable, which makes dealing with situations even more difficult. This level of stress when not dealt with can start to impact your performance at work and your ability to nurture and grow interpersonal relationships, leaving you feeling like you are in a rut with no way out.

If your energy levels are at their peak you have a greater chance of successfully creating new opportunities and dealing with the day to day experiences and pressures. You can have the ability to clearly see and deal with each issue as it is and not through the filter of stress, frustration and feeling less than. This clarity when added to peak performance can assist you in achieving what ever you desire. We all have had those rare days when everything came together, when you were in the right place at the right time, when the answer to all of your bosses questions were on the tip of your tongue. But how did that happen? How can we create this on a daily basis?

To achieve this level of clarity and performance you must have an environment away from the demands and chaos of the everyday world, where you can go to rejuvenate, rebuild your energy and find clarity. Many people think that they can find this state of being on a vacation in Hawaii or some place similar. But, usually this state of being is only temporary. This level of being that you seek must be nurtured on a daily basis in an environment without stress, tension and conflict. A successful environment for nurturing your level of clarity, and performance will be calming, uplifting and healing.

For most, this environment will be your home. The balance and harmony in your home is a critical factor in dealing with these stresses and are important for your success and happiness. When a home feels calming and nurturing, with no distractions, you can quiet the mind and sort out what is important and what is not. You can create new ideas on how to proceed and how to handle obstacles. You can start to see clearly what actions need to be taken. When life is full of complications it is often hard to distinguish the forest from the trees. If you have clarity, you can sort out all of the issues and deal with them one at a time, making clear decisions on each issue instead of complicating each issue with other issues. This type of clarity will also give you the ability to see solutions that you could not see before.

Unfortunately because of the pressures of society to achieve at all costs, some houses today have become purely investments and places to impress clients, customers and friends. These houses have been designed strictly for the purpose of business and that is the master that they serve. In these situations the home is completely ignored, leaving no refuge for the soul to rejuvenate. Notice the usage of the words house and home. A house is just a physical structure, where a home is a physical structure that has been created for the purpose of nurturing the soul. Ironically, if the house were used for the purpose of nurturing and healing the soul, success in the outside world would come much easier. In today's fast pace world it is even more important to create homes instead of houses. Homes designed for business, investment and to keep up with the Jones's, also ignore family identity and intimacy. This loss of family identity undermines the stability of the family and the role models set for children. The loss of intimacy starts to breakdown communication and the core of family relationships. These problems just add to the stress level in the home, complicating our lives.

If we are to be successful in life we must start to address the environment where our ability to succeed is created. As many psychologists have said and most people would agree, +we are products of our environment¦. But what parts of that environment shape us? How is it that some children who come from the worst of neighborhoods are able to rise above the circumstances of their external environment of crime and poverty? How is it that some children who come from homes that are in the best of neighborhoods and have ideal external environments end up with drug or alcohol problems? Are the external factors in our environment like the location that we live in or the size of the home the factors that shape us? No, it has to do with the internal environment we live in. That child rises out of the ghetto because somewhere he/she received a nurturing environment that allowed them to rise above the circumstances.

Feng Shui and Fertility

It is common knowledge that infertility affects thousands of couples every year and the toll it takes on a relationship can be damaging. The desire to have a baby is normal when a couple is involved in a deep, meaningful relationship and if that dream doesn’t appear to be possible, the results can be catastrophic.

While medical advances in the treatment of both male and female infertility have come a long way in the last several years, many couple want to take a more proactive stance and do something to help themselves start a family. For those with the inclination, Feng Shui can help with the fertility process. This ancient practice that focuses on balance and harmony in every aspect of a person’s life and the relationship between conceiving a child and living a harmonious life are clear. The positive energies that influence the good life forces can aid in the conception of a baby if you use the Feng Shui practice to enhance your conception attempts. Feng Shui and fertility are closely related when the practice is focused on both parents.

The first place you should focus on in your home to enhance your Feng Shui and fertility practice is in the bedroom. Clear all of the clutter from the tops of the dressers, closets, and any debris on the floor. Clutter is destructive to the positive Feng Shui energies and therefore damaging to the conception attempts you and your partner are trying. Make sure your bedroom is a haven of comfort and relaxation for both of you. Cleaning up is a small price to pay for a baby of your own.

Some of the other things you can do in the bedroom include certain decorating décor and specific Feng Shui symbolism. Red paper lanterns are incredibly beneficial hanging on either side of the bed. They symbolize positive yang influence in the bedroom and will greatly aid in the conception process. Another good item to include in your bedroom décor is one hollow piece of bamboo. A dragon place strategically on the man’s side of the bed can increase the passion and potency of the union and help the couple with infertility issues. When you hang pictures or other decorations remember to always display pictures or statues that display 2 things. Two birds, two people, two fish, you get the idea. The display of two fish is the symbol of marital union and can greatly aid in the Feng Shui and fertility. Continue with the animal theme and include elephants in your decorations. In Feng Shui elephants are closely related to pregnancy and placed prominently in the room, are connected to male children. Good Feng Shui practice is a great way to aid yourself and your partner in the family starting attempts.

Unlike many other fertility practices, Feng Shui and fertility tends to focus on the man rather than the woman. In Feng Shui, the term “Descendant’s Luck” is what determines the good fortune a man will experience while trying to start a family with his partner. Trying the various ways to positively influence descendants luck is a good start to combat infertility using Feng Shui.

The rest of the house is important in providing the balance you need to conceive a child. One of the most damaging effects on Feng Shui and fertility is the occurrence of a blockage in front of the front door. In one case, a tree was blocking a childless couple’s front door. When a Feng Shui consultant recommended removing the tree, the couple followed the advice and removed the tree. As a result, the couple had a baby nine to ten months later. A blockage in front of the door prevents positive chi or energy from entering the home. Not only is this not helpful in the conception process, it also is detrimental to all other aspects of a harmonious life.

Relying on the natural, productive aspects of Feng Shui and fertility can help you achieve the dream of becoming parents. It is no secret that being at peace and harmonious within your life and yourself is one of the best ways to encourage the positive chi needed to conceive your baby. Even medical science focuses on the importance of a healthy state of mind for both parents during the conception process. When using Feng Shui to encourage fertility, the whole idea is to achieve a deep sense of harmony and balance in your life. After all, it is unlikely that the body will allow such an important event if the mind and soul aren’t prepared for the pregnancy and subsequent birth.

Feng Shui and fertility are closely linked as are all aspects of a person’s life. Using the symbolism and harmony of this ancient practice are one of the most effective, grace filling practices that can help you and your partner fulfill the dream of starting a family. Infertility isn’t something that you just have to live with.