Using feng shui for heath, wellness and beauty

The principles of feng shui for energy balancing and regeneration can be used to promote physical and spiritual beauty, health and vitality.

by Deborah Thum — 

Most people who know about feng shui think it is simply about the placement of furniture to bring harmony into one’s life. Fewer people understand these same principles can be applied to the human body to chart the relationship between inner character and outer appearance.

The principles of feng shui for energy balancing and regeneration can be used to promote physical and spiritual beauty, health and vitality. The key principles of feng shui, as it relates to governing our well-being, are yin and yang energy, chi, the five elements and our meridian system.

Yin energy is feminine and nurturing, while yang is active and masculine in nature. We are always striving for balance between yin and yang. Chi is energy, the vital force necessary for health and well-being. The meridian system is the body’s energetic system that supports the organs for vital health. The five elements are the foundation for understanding the energetic transformations within nature, and within the nature of our own being. These elements — fire, earth, metal, water and wood — each correspond to the yin and yang of an organ system, as well as a direction, season, color and emotion.

The heart and small intestines are part of the fire element. Fire is red, its direction is south, the emotion is excess joy or laughter and the season is summer. You may have noticed that during summer, when people are exposed to excess heat, there can be a tendency toward emotional excess or pressure in the heart. Examples may include irritability, heat stroke or heart attack, and a balancing of excess fire may be called for.

How does one balance too much fire? Water controls fire, and relates to the kidney and bladder. Water’s color is blue or black, its direction is north and, if these organs are out of balance, the emotion is fear. If one is balanced, he or she has an innate strength and wisdom with regard to life’s challenges.

In order to be in the flow of life, balanced in our emotions, strong in our health, and manifesting our inner and outer beauty, we may need to look at a few modalities that can help. To make sure our meridian system is in order, we can invest in acupuncture, shiatsu, yoga or tai chi. A strong organ system can help us balance or control our emotions; aromatherapy is particularly great for this.

Controlling our emotions will help us manifest our best chi or energy. When we have good chi, it is easy to emanate our inner beauty. When we emanate inner beauty, are we not manifesting our outer beauty? External beauty can always be improved and will help us express our inner character; but to have yang without yin will never last long.

Yin is the internal and yang is the external. This is where health, beauty and wellness come together through our own personal feng shui.

Deborah Thum is a licensed aesthetician and instructor, clinical aromatherapist and practitioner of the Asian healing arts in North Scottsdale, Ariz., where she combines health, beauty and wellness in all her therapies. 480-748-8602, www.thezenofbeauty.com or [email protected].

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 26, Number 2, April/May 2007.