Feng Shui is the art of how you are affected by your environment. Good Feng Shui makes you feel nourished, comfortable and secure in your space, allowing you to live a happier and more stress-free life. One great way to do this is to utilize light to help improve the energy in your home. So how does the lighting on your home or office affect your ability to be stress free?
The goal of Feng Shui is to balance the life energy, or “chi” of your surroundings. Since Feng Shui is all about energy, and light is the strongest manifestation of energy, the lighting in your home has a dominant influence on the quality of the chi in your home. Lighting is one of the “Nine essential Feng Shui adjustments” that one can make to insure that your home has good “chi” energy, or Sheng Chi. The benefits of Feng Shui include creating positive energy for your health and finances, attracting romance and healing troubled relationships, helping you get promoted, find a job you love, and much more.
In the discussion of the 5 Elements Theory, lighting represents Fire and is therefore essential to the creation of balance. The Fire element aids in the support and creation of Earth, as well as controlling an overabundance of Wood. Good lighting also balances the darkness of YIN energy (intimate, cool, quiet energy symbolized by nighttime) with YANG energy (lively, social, hot energy symbolized by daytime). Poor lighting can lead to the slow down or stagnation of the flow of good energy into your space, while stopping the outflow of the old, stagnant energy. As such, your home lighting has a dominant influence on the quality of your chi.
Natural light, emitted from the sun is the greatest source of light energy on our planet, and therefore crucial to the balance of chi in our homes. Wherever possible, invite as much natural light into your space as possible, through windows and skylights. Create a balance of different types of lighting based on the needs of your home space and the use of the rooms you are lighting. There should ideally be a balance of uplights (torchieres, sconces), and ambient lighting (table lamps, etc) that support conversation and relaxation. A poor choice is to have a single overhead light as the only light source, as it is harsh and jarring in most cases, not good Feng Shui, at all.
Lighting set up in threes around a space can create a “triangle of light” balance and is very auspicious.
Task lighting for specific purposes to allow you to read, study or work easily (next to your bed, sofa or desk) create support that removes stress, creating the feeling of safety and comfort. You should absolutely use dimmer switches! As a designer, I always insist on the installation of dimmers in every room. This allows for the control of lighting to suit different purposes at different points in time – and flexibility also brings comfort. The current crop of modern lighting options make it easier than ever to create the type of atmosphere that you want. Using bulbs with a warmer color temperature (below 3000K) create a more relaxed YIN environment (good for the bedroom), while cooler temperatures are great for more energetic parts of the home. And again, the use of dimmer switches can help to control how YANG the atmosphere becomes and give you the ability to make changes when needed.
Making these simple lighting changes will ensure that you’ll be enjoying a well-balanced space along with the many benefits of Feng Shui in no time!