Feng Shui Basics: What Is Qi?
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What is qi?
If you’ve been reading about feng shui for a while, you’ve probably heard of qi. But what is it, exactly? Qi, or chi, is life force energy. Everything around us, including ourselves, is made up of qi. When you have strong qi, you move freely through life with strength and vitality. Your personal qi expresses itself in your physical being, as well as your mental and emotional states. The situations and environments you find yourself in can affect your qi, which can bring it closer to or further from balance.
Cultivating strong qi
There are many ways to improve and strengthen your qi. One of the simplest and most accessible ways to do this is through meditation. If you are new to meditation, try starting with just five minutes each day of sitting quietly and focusing on your breath, noticing each inhale and exhale. Don’t worry if you have lots of thoughts going through your head - that’s completely normal. When you notice that you’re distracted, simply bring your attention back to your breath.
Energy work on the body, like reiki or acupuncture, can also be very helpful in strengthening your personal qi. A trained practitioner can notice what is going on energetically in your body, and help to bring you back into balance.
Qi and feng shui
Another way to create strong, vital qi is through feng shui. Environments and spaces also have qi, which affects the inhabitants. In feng shui, we focus on cultivating healthy, balanced qi in our living spaces, so that they can support and nurture us.
There are many tools that feng shui practitioners use to shift the qi of a space. Many of these tools involve making physical changes to the space itself, like adjusting lighting or furniture placement, or adding plants. These changes can help qi to move more freely through a space, or add new growth and vitality to a certain area of your home.
For example, one adjustment we often make is placing the bed in the commanding position, so that you can see the door from your bed. Being out of command when you’re trying to rest can affect your qi in subtle ways. It can make you feel anxious, unsafe, or out of control on some level, which affects how you move through the world. Placing the bed in command helps you rest more deeply so that your qi can be strong and healthy.
These physical changes can have a big impact on the energy of a space and its inhabitants. Sometimes, it’s also helpful to work more directly on an energetic level. In BTB feng shui, we also use transcendental cures that can help resolve more than the physical adjustments alone. If you’re interested in learning more about these, we encourage you to work with a consultant or study feng shui more deeply!