If you are a sceptic, recent convert, or just curious to try it out, Feng Shui is a unique way to approach a stubborn or unexpected health problem. It sits outside the conventional ways of treating disease in the west, but it is gaining many converts for its sometimes miraculous results.

It may be hard for a westerner to conceive of how moving a houseplant, or changing the positions of our beds, can affect something as ‘real’ as MS, diabetes, or other serious illnesses. One way to think of it is that we are intimately connected to our surroundings, indeed our bodies are exchanging molecules with chairs, trees, and television sets every second of our lives. Our home is also the most fundamental connection to the world around us - it is how we visualize ourselves and our place within it.

We are recent converts to the effect Feng Shui has on our health, after trying some basic cures. If you are interested in trying some basic techniques, why not try these steps:

Eastern Direction

• The major ‘direction’ fore health in Feng Shui is the east. If you were to draw a ‘noughts and crosses’ board, of nine squares (3 x 3) over your house plan - north at the top - the middle right hand side section would represent your eastern health ‘area’. It is this that we must place the majority of our attention.
• Take a look at this area. How does it ‘feel’? Does it feel cluttered, dusty, or stagnant? All of these are Feng Shui no-nos.
• How the eastern part of our house is will mirror how our bodies are doing also. Look for any broken, cracked, or worn out appliances, furniture, tiles or other house components. These should be repaired immediately.
• In Feng Shui, dust (and clutter) are almost symbolic of illness. Do a thorough sweep of your eastern quadrants, clearing all dust, grime, clutter, and unused things to make a fresh start. Move furniture to get to hard to reach areas.
• As well as applying this study to the eastern section of our house, the same rules apply to the eastern section of our whole property (including our gardens), and our most important room - our bedroom. Draw an accurate 3 x 3 grid over these plans too, and treat both areas with the same care and attention as your house quadrant.

The Elements

• In Feng Shui, individual elements either hurt or promote the part of one’s life represented by each section. For the health zones above, which have the element wood, water is particularly beneficial (as trees require water to survive). Pictures of gentle water or healthy trees are excellent here, whilst ictures of dead trees, or death or danger in any form, should be removed. Blue and black (representing water), as well as green (representing wood) are excellent colors to decorate with. However, dried plants, skeletons or shells are not conducive to good health - as these are from dead, not alive, bodies.
• The most beneficial thing in this area is obviously real, healthy, abundant indoor plants in this area. Their health will mirror your own, so take good care of them!
• The ‘enemy’ to the wood element - and to our health - is metal. For this reason, you should remove as many metal objects from your eastern quadrants as possible. All knives, metal benches and appliences, swords, and other sharp or metallic things should go. It is not always possible, but white (representing metal) should also be minimized in this area.

Poison Arrows

• Another important health consideration in Feng Shui is the effect of “poison arrows“. Particularly facing the front door or bedroom windows, a poison arrow is anything sharp, long, or representative of a spear or arrow pointing at your door. Remove any such item, or if it is unmovable (such as an external tree, telegraph pole, or church steeple), protect yourself with a feng shui mirror that you sometimes see on people’s front doors (this deflects the negative energy).
• Similar to poison arrows is the dangerous no-no of sleeping with our feet pointed at our bedroom door. It is said that this ’sucks’ the energy out of us as we sleep. Repositioning our beds will help.

Take note of any changes that occur after you make definite Feng Shui shifts as mentioned above. If you see responses, sometimes immediately after making changes, you’re on the right track. Don’t be suprised if a solution to your health problem comes up on the TV, or overheard in conversation, soon after making such a shift.

Take greater care at pivotal times, such as opening test results, or before seeing a doctor. With Feng Shui, you are actively creating your reality.

There are more advanced Feng Shui cures, that involve more individual and complicated astronomical and birthdate calculations. If you are serious about finding a Feng Shui ‘cure’, read books or consult a qualified Feng Shui professional.

If you want to take this further, there are excellent Feng Shui books (see Amazon), websites (try TaoismToday.com on for size), and professionals out there that can make a real shift in your health reality.

Have you had any experience with shifting your health using Feng Shui?