External Holistic Health: Feng Shui

“There’s No Out There.” This distinction of the IBS* is a feng shui statement. It captures the truth that your external holistic health is really a much larger expression of who you are. Your health is on display, so to speak.

External holistic health covers Water & Land and the Home Environment. Both interact with and influence the flow and structure of circumstances and lifestyle. See the scriptural verses cited below for more about this.

You may have no relationship to the water, land or the outdoors, because you go to work in an enclosed building, come home, eat and sleep and then repeat, five or six days a week. Your home may really just be an apartment or house with a bed and you don’t pay attention to maintaining it because you cannot.

There are ways to enhance your effectiveness in these areas. Strive to read the following information with an appreciation for the oneness and interrelatedness of everything.

WATER & LAND

If you are citified, you will want to get out more, and into nature. Water revives the soul and replenishes the spirit and breathing apparatus. When you sit at a bubbling stream or visit the nearest lake or ocean, you are taking in much needed external H2O. You may have to train yourself to enjoy the solitude and sounds of silence.

Or, partaking in outdoor water may be “singing in the rain,” or not being afraid that you or your clothing will be ruined because you got “caught” in it. The holistic perspective requests that we release the automatic rejection of weather patterns. Instead, it is healthier to embrace whatever comes, because this means nature’s cycle is present.

Observing the flow of nature’s weather cycle and deciding to flow with it increases access to wholeness, wellness and oneness. Indeed, you have to catch the sunshine whenever you can in the winter months. It’s a good idea to “ground” yourself by “earthing” feet in real earth or sand whenever possible. Neighborhood walks and picnics are healing. So is gardening, outdoors and indoors.

Do these kinds of things and your above-the-line health will be supported and strengthened. This brings us to the concept of wind-water (or wind over water), which is the Chinese concept of feng shui, the art of building, design of space, and placement of things.

HOME ENVIRONMENT, where Feng Shui Begins for Most

Feng shui is an old, metaphysical science known by many names.** Its bottom line purpose is to increase good health and success, by observing the state of one’s home and removing barriers to health and success. A major aspect of the holistic lifestyle is that it incorporates past, present and future. How you live in your home at present, and how it feeds your being, including memories and aspirations, is the Reiki aspect of feng shui. 

The fundamental rule for good wind-water energy is: DECLUTTER YOUR HOME. You may have an excess of clothes, furniture and mementos. Old items that trigger negative thoughts when you look at them should be tossed or recycled.

If something reminds you of a relationship gone haywire, why not remove it? You will be amazed at how small these items may be. Silverware and club pins come to mind. Begin to look at how emotions that arise from attachment to things. Do they bring up past scenarios may not help you in the present, or going forward?

This article suggests a relationship between the astrological influence of the planet Mercury going retrograde and how you can use it to manage your space. Yes, wind-water is related to all the elements and the elemental surges in the solar system.

This Is Not About Materialism

You may be a neatnik or clean freak. Or not so extreme. Let’s say you keep things tidy as best you can, and want to enhance your options. There are myriad choices in the world of feng shui, but you do not have to buy red ribbons, gold coins or buddha sculptures to turn up “good luck.”

Just be aware of how wall colors, furniture, storage and your home’s overall energy make you feel. You want to feel inspired or relaxed in your home. Here are some tips that are really more common sense than feng shui:

• Open the windows daily if you can, especially in the bedroom and bathroom. Circulation of stale air is important, because a breath of fresh air (chi, ki or qi), freshens your spirit. Related to this — let the sun shine in. Some homes are so dark you can’t see inside the rooms.  How can chi flow without sunlight?
• Give thanks when you enter and leave your home. Be consciously reverent when entering your kitchen to prepare a meal or when you “go to work” in your home office (or workplace of course).
• Decide on the purpose for your home. It may just be a crash pad, because you get real rest at someone else’s house.
• Designate a room/area where you can meditate, center yourself and pray. 

Your external environment is a reflection of who you are, but don’t stress the physical at the expense of the human and spiritual. Make your spirit happy first, and the rest, including your application of feng shui principles, will follow. If you keep in mind that your space is an extension of the universal healing life force (Reiki) you will be fine.

–Rev. Niamo Nancy Muid

*International Black Summit (blacksummit.org)

**Other names for feng shui

Biblical references to feng shui

The Holy Quran’s story containing feng shui advice: 

“And he said, “O my sons, do not enter from one door; enter through separate doors. However, I cannot save you from anything that is predetermined by God. To God belongs all judgments. I trust in Him, and in Him shall all the trusters put their trust.

“When they went (to Joseph), they entered in accordance with their father’s instructions. Although this could not change anything decreed by God, Jacob had a private reason for asking them to do this. For he possessed certain knowledge that we taught him, but most people do not know.”  Yusuf 12:67-68

Pictured: My porch. Though I have piled fireplace wood onto it, it still has a good feeling to it.

NEXT: Internal Holistic Health