Tag Archives: Feng Shui

Decorating a Meditation Space With Feng Shui

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Are you looking to create the perfect room for meditation? If so then take these tips from the ancient Asian art of object placement known as Feng Shui for creating the perfect peaceful room.

First off, empty the room or area that you are thinking of transforming into a meditation space of absolutely all furniture and clutter. Remove all clunky or annoying looking light fixtures. If any fixtures need fixing, such a plate for an electrical socket, be sure to replace them. There should not be one single thing that is broken or annoying in a meditation space.

The mind is going to be blank and the walls should be too. This means getting out the plaster and covering up any seams or holes in the wall. The room should also be painted in a meditative color of your choice. Choose any color except for white because in Asian cultures that is the color that symbolizes death. Purples, browns, greens and blues are best for meditation rooms.
A meditation room should also be absolutely spotless. Contacting your higher power is easier without the distraction of dirt or unpleasant smells. However it is acceptable to burn incense. There are many types of Asian incenses on the market that are conducive to meditation and even manufactured specifically to facilitate it.

The meditation space itself should be decorated with bamboo mats. This is not necessary if the floor is already bamboo. Wood floors are fine as well as long as they are clean, polished and shiny.

In general there should be no distractions in the meditation space at all but you could hang pictures of Buddhas or other deities if appropriate. This really does depend if your meditation practices are wrapped up with your religious practices. No pictures at all are necessary if your meditation practice is separate from your religion.

Some meditation spaces are augmented by large gemstone rocks. A large crystal quartz or amethyst can give a meditation space a natural flare. Flowers are not really prominent in a Feng Shui’d meditation space however bamboo plants or inconspicuous greenery are allowed.

Another feature of a meditation space might be a Zen Garden. The size of a Zen garden can vary. It depends whether they are indoors or out. This type of garden consists of sand and rocks. Large gardens are made of sand and large boulders. Raking the patterns in the sand with a large or small rake is part of the meditation process. This type of meditation garden is actually Japanese in origin but you also see this type of raked sand in Chinese gardens as well.

Some meditation spaces also have fountains. One of the dangers of having a fountain in your meditation space is that you can end up focusing on the fountain rather than on meditation. However having a fountain in a sacred space is becoming more and more common and is considered acceptable in Feng Shum.

Decorating With Western Style Feng Shui

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One of the reasons that some people are reluctant to practice Feng Shui is because a lot of the “cures” and decorating tips in Feng Shui are a bit too Chinese looking for this culture. You don’t want your place to look like the lobby of a Chinese restaurant!

Thankfully there are equivalents in our culture that you can use that will bring you the same type of good fortune without looking too ethnic.

For instance it is a Feng Shui tradition to decorate with plastic or silk flowers in order to attract love and good energy into the home. To make this more contemporary looking use live flowers instead and choose modern looking vases instead of the red or green ceramic vases favored by Chinese Feng Shui enthusiasts. You can also use vases that have eight sides to attract good fortune as well.

The color red is lucky in Feng Shui but you can use different shades of it as accents all over your house. For instance to attract fame into your life you can just paint one South wall red and leave it at that. You can also use red light bulbs, which symbolize fire to light up the appropriate corners to attract love.

Pairs of ducks are used in Feng Shui to attract love. Traditionally a wooden pair would be placed somewhere in the home. You can find a more elegant answer in a work of art or you can be quite funky and use rubber ducks instead. Placing two happy looking yellow ducks in the southeast corner of your bathroom can help attract a love to you.

All things in pairs are said to strengthen the love and relationship vibe in your life. If you do not like the obvious look of some of the Feng Shui statues then consider hanging pictures of flowers that contain two buds in the Southeast corner of your home to attract love. Yet another idea is to hang pictures of birds. In your kitchen consider salt and pepper shakers that are figurines to you. Pairs of things symbolize love.

Copper vessels are used in Feng Shui to attract love. Hanging anything copper on your kitchen walls, including pots, pans and molds will help.

A remedy for bad luck in Feng Shui is to hang wooden flutes from the ceiling or from a beam that might be causing negative energy to prevail. However if you do not like the look of wooden flutes you can use any type of musical instrument that is hollow and makes noise instead.

You might find aquariums full of fish or fountains too fussy to deal with in your modern life. If that is the case then try putting lava lamps in place instead. Lava lamps symbolize the water element!

Remember that any time you want to use a lucky Asian symbol that there is probably a North American equivalent for it in art!