I have recently fallen in love with the minimalist lifestyle. In my opinion, minimalist living refers to those who like to live with less thing. You can think of it as back to the basic. In other words, it is almost like living back to the stone age where we don’t need much materialistic stuff to stay happy. In this concept, one just need real basic stuff to live in a harmonious world i.e. one follows the lowest rank of the Maslow of Hierarchy of needs. If you can do that, I can tell you that your home would have a harmonious energy. So what is Fengshui, you asked!
Feng shui is an ancient Chinese art that tries to establish the relationship between your living space and the quality of your life. It suggests that what your living area looks like determines or depicts your life, and so tries to effectively create a balance between both. In Feng Shui, it is said that all objects possess some kind of energy called “chi” and that this chi can bring luck and opportunities to you. The whole idea is that moving things around in your home can change your life by changing the energy around it.
Use the following basic feng shui tips to improve energy of your home.
Keep the front door open:
By opening the front door, feng shui proposes that positive energy which might have been blocked by a closed door, will flow into your home. You can go a step further by putting a red flower or any red beautiful accent on front door to allow energy and fortune to flow in. Well, this would only work for those living in a quiet apartment or residential complex. So if you are living in a crowded area, consider other method as explained below.
Declutter:
My number one rule to frugal living is to live cluttered free. All items stuffed up somewhere within the home sucks up the energy, according to feng shui. Clutters can affect your physical body and mental state and so, the home should be decluttered as often as possible. This would mean removing trash often, make your bed after you wake up and donate items you no long need them.
Create Color Balance:
Wood, earth, water, fire and metal are five very important elements that should be represented in your home space. This will create a balance between your life and your environment. Examples of ways you can achieve this is to incorporate colors in your home that stand for the five elements. Black is for water, green for wood, red for fire, yellow, tan or brown represent earth and white symbolizes metal.
Incorporate Nature:
Decorate your home with natural items like bamboo, stones and rocks or simply open doors to let natural light and air in. You can use paintings of nature to decorate your walls. Nature generally brings a sense of calmness and reduces anxiety having more natural elements in a simple home will make it seem peaceful.
Trap the positive energy:
Stop runaway chi from sipping through your home and out through openings. Do this by using home furniture, cushions and doors to make chi run around the home in meandering patterns, spreading positive energy. One tip as the Chi master used to refer to is to have a round edge furniture, this include round table, round bed, curved sofa etc.
Strategize where to place family pictures:
According to the feng shui belief, family photos shouldn’t just be placed anywhere in the home. The bedroom shouldn’t have portraits of family members other than you and your spouse because it is a very intimate part of the home. It might cause you to worry about your obligations, making your mind to be uneasy. These family portraits of kids and relatives should be put in other areas of the house such as the living room or dining room.
Decorate your home with Living plants:
Use natural plants instead of synthetic ones to decorate your kitchen, dining area (to beckon on abundance), entrance space and other strategic areas of the home. A living plant in the family room will also help draw good health and connection to the family.
Use bright lightning:
Place bright bulbs and lightning sources around the home to make it look bright and lively. Objects that emanate some certain kind of light that make you feel good should be placed in visible areas around the home. Bear in mind that bright wattage directly affects the cleanliness and clarity of your veins and arteries.
Final thought
Living a minimalist lifestyle requires a lot of patience and organization skills. One needs to refrain from impulse buying and have a plan in his or her mind on how to organize their home. Using these feng shui basics outline in this post could help kick start your steps to become a minimalist.
This is really interesting. There’s a lot of Chinese influence in Thailand so Feng Shui is pretty big here too. I enjoyed reading this post so much! <3