Kitchen positions

Food is treated with great care in Chinese culture. It is sometimes referred to as a form of "post-natal Chi" - meaning that once we are born, food supplies us with the vital energy of the universe. How food is prepared and where it is prepared is all part of the process of sustaining our life force. If that process is disturbed, the energy of the food will be affected and the disturbance transmitted to all those who eat it.

As with the other rooms of the house, therefore, the position of your kitchen is extremely important. The kitchen entrance should not be directly opposite your front door, in order to protect it from any incoming harmful energies. The heat of cooking and the materials, such as grease, that it releases into the atmosphere should not be allowed to penetrate the rest of your home. So make sure that your kitchen doesn't open on to your living room or bedroom; if it does, keep the doors closed whenever cooking is in progerss.

Uneasy cooking

When you stand at the oven/stove the door is directly behind you. If it is open, your tortoise side is unprotected, which contributes to a sense of unease when you should be calm.

Exposed back

Here, too, your back is in a direct line to an open door, whether you are at the oven/stove or sink. Neither position is free from tension. The only thing you can do is close the door.

Stove by a window

The oven/stove is directly in front of the window. In Feng Shui this is a problem because the oven/stove is the modern hearth of the home and is a significant force. Its tortoise side should be protected and hence its back should be not be against a window.

A good layout

This is a good layout for your kitchen. It has none of the problems associated with the other plans. If your kitchen is arranged appropriately, your food, your health, and your family will prosper.

Your living room: taking your seat

When you arrange your living room, the key aspect to consider is the position of the main sitting area. In the Feng Shui tradition this is the place where the head or heads of the household normally sit when using the room. In many homes the sofa or settee is placed here or it could be the position for your favourite chair.

A common mistake is to leave too much space between the sofa and the wall, thus leaving you vulnerable from the rear.

If the door opens behind you - or if there is a window right behind you - this problem is made all the worse.

Similarly, it is not wise to place the sofa so that you are seated with the door to one side.

Positioning the sofa so that it is directly opposite the door should be avoided, since you will be exposed to a stream of energy entering the room which is directed at you like a beam.

The best location

The best position for the sofa is toward the corner away from the both the door and the window. Here you can sit comfortably with your back to the wall, without disturbance from the doorway, and command the entire room. The sofa need not be touching both walls of the corner, as long as the back of the sofa is against one of the walls.

Lights and colors

Light is energy in one of its most obvious forms. What we perceive as color is, of course, light as well. Its power is incalculable, yet most of us take it almost for granted. You need only reflect on the mystery of the dawn and the slow pageant of the sunset to understand how completely light and color transform the entire world, our perceptions of it, and our own lives. In the same way, light and color in our homes are an integral part of the quality of life we have there -  and a major factor in influencing the interplay of Yin and Yang. Change the colors of the walls or doors. put in new lights and your home is changed. So the Feng Shui practitioner takes lighting very seriously indeed, and also warns against inappropriate lights and colors.

Overhead lighting

An overhead lights sends a powerful shower of energy streaming down over the bed. Feng Shui experts would advise you to avoid this arrangement, especially if the light is positioned over the head of the bed. Even when the light is switched off, the electrical circuitry is in place, subtly affecting the energy movements in the area and most particularly, underneath.

Downlighting

Positioning two lights over the bed so that they shine down over the heads of the people using it may be convenient for reading, but from the Feng Shui point of view it is regarded as potentially harmful for health. Reading lights should be placed beside the bed.

Soft tones

These are ideal for your bedroom - warm pink tints and pale peach shades. You find these toward the reddish end of the spectrum and also in the off-white tints such as eggshell, magnolia, beige, and light tan. Very pale purples, light magentas, and violets are also suitable in the bedroom as long as they create a soft, relaxing effect. Strong reds, wine colors, and orange tones are too overpowering and not suitable for indoor, domestic use.

Yellow and strong earth colors

These work very well in the kitchen and are a perfect correspondence in The Five Energy system, but are not appropriate for use in your bedroom, living room, or bathroom.

Pure, brilliant white

This is not recommended for domestic walls, but cream colors, warm off-white tints, and beige tones are suitable in almost any room. The warmer tints are best suited to your bedroom, living room, and kitchen. Cooler shades may be used in your bathroom and other utility rooms.

The blue end of the spectrum

This is not recommended for use as a room color in Feng Shui. Dark blues, the colors of deep water, are particularly avoided. The use of very light blues in the living room is somethings acceptable, but the cumulative effect tends to make people withdrawn and introspective.

Light greens

These are cool colors, relaxing and easy on the eyes. You can use them in your bedroom and also in your sitting room and bathroom. Dark green tones, however, are too heavy and are not generally recommended for the home.

This is very general advice and should not be taken as a set of fixed rules. Indeed, if you engage a Feng Shui expert to assist you in arranging your home, you may be given very different instructions - follow that specialist advice, since it will be adapted to your particular circumstances and the conditions prevailing at that time.

Headaches and disturbances

Many people wake up from a night's sleep and feel awful. Often they complain about having a headache, or they may feel as if they had a headache during the night. They can't put their finger on it, but they know that they have had a disturbed night's sleep.

There may be many, many reasons for this - it is not all down to the location of their home or the arrangement of rooms and furniture. So simply rearranging things will not necessarily solve the problem. On the other hand, you can have a look around your bedroom to see if there are any possible reasons that could contribute to poor sleep.

Storage drawers

Under-the-bed storage drawers are convenient, and a good solution. These should be used for utility goods such as bedding, towels, and blankets. A low storage chest at the foot of your bed is fine, too.

Built-in storage

All-in-one storage arrangements for the bedroom often provide behind-the-bed storage, complete with wall mirror. The mirror is unsuitable and although the head of the bed is against something solid, you should try to keep the immediate area behind you free of objects and ornaments. To be tranquil, the space should be clear. Incidentally, have you spotted the problem of the window with no curtains opposite the side of the bed?

Enclosed head space

If you were to look straight down into this room so that you had a bird's eye view, you would be unable to see the heads of the sleeping occupants, because the entire head area of the bed is enclosed in the storage cupboard area. While it is good to have the solidity on the "tortoise side", the overhanging cupboards create a constant downward pressure, just like an overhead beam.

Solving the overhang problem

If you have overhanging bookshelves, on solution, apart from moving your bed, is to use the whole wall for shelving and finish it off part way down with a large storage area with sliding doors. This would avoid the problem of putting your head under the shelves.

Your bedroom style

Getting the right mix of features and materials in your bedroom is important. In deciding how to arrange any room, how to decorate it, and what to put in it, the main purpose of the room is the most important consideration.

The overall style of your bedroom, therefore, needs to reflect the importance of this area as one in which your whole being (body and mind) comes for repose. This is an indispensable aspect of the perpetual process of Yin and Yang, and if you do not respect it, an essential aspect of the balance of your life will go out of kilter.

Tombstone headboard

It doesn't take much imagination to see that the headboard of bed resembles a tombstone. Such similarities would immediately strike the eye of the Feng Shui expert and you would be advised to select a different style.

Plants in the bedroom

During the day, plants take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. So plants and flowers around a sickbed make sense in the daytime. But at night the pattern of gas exchange is reversed and they compete with us for oxygen. Don't fill your bedroom with plants and, if you're ill, remove the gifts of greenery overnight.

Uppredictable energy

From the Feng Shui point of view, bed frames shoule be made of warm materials, not metal which is cold and has unpredictable energetic qualities. Nor is the bedroom a religious sanctuary, so according to Feng Shui principles it should not be used as a place of worship. If you have nowhere else to put items of religious significance, the best arrangement is to keep them in a little cabinet that you can keep closed.