Feng Shui Your Bedroom In 6 Easy Steps
Just a few years ago feng shui was all the rage, and it seemed like it was affecting everything from architecture to Donald Trump’s bank account. While it doesn’t have the same collective buzz it used to have, its ancient Chinese principles are just as able to transform a space as ever — including the feeling and energy in your bedroom.
If you’re interested in sleeping better and experiencing more rest and relaxation, feng shui may be able to help order your bedroom so that the flow of energy in it can be directed more favorably. From evicting electronics to clearing out clutter, here are six easy feng shui steps that can help transform your bedroom.
1. Get Electronics Out
21st century Americans have a complicated relationship with electronics, and in order to ensure the energy in your bedroom is positive and unobstructed, it’s necessary to send that complicated relationship packing. Electronics like smartphones, tablets, and televisions create high concentrations of electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) — considered by some to pose health risks.
Electronics also represent the stresses of modern life, including work and the constant communication many of us engage in that can distract from sleep, relaxation, sex, and other bedroom-appropriate activities. As much as you’re able, banish electronics from the room in which you sleep.
2. Consider Color Carefully
Color is important in feng shui, because it can affect how we and others feel in a space. For your bedroom, avoid bright, bold reds and oranges, as these stimulating colors can make relaxing difficult. Instead, choose warm, deep earth tones and soft naturally occurring colors, because they create a calming, inviting, and cozy atmosphere. Paint your walls in soft blues, lavenders, greens, peaches, coppers, and creams. Add a beautiful contemporary area rug in coral or cocoa, and you’ll create a space where calm and serenity are commonplace.
3. Get the Right Bed
The right bed can make or break your attempt to feng shui your bedroom, even if you follow all the other steps, and the whole enterprise starts with a solid headboard that can help you feel subconsciously supported while you sleep. It’s also important to avoid a bed with a footboard, since a footboard will symbolically block any forward progress you are trying to make in your life.
Be sure to get a new, firm and supportive mattress, as well. Used mattresses may have negative energy from previous owners and should, therefore, be avoided. Lastly, make sure your bed is set up above the floor and that there is nothing underneath it. In order to keep positive energy flowing freely, the area around, above, and below your bed should be without obstacles.
4. Reposition Your Bed
Feng shui principles require a bed to be as far away from the door as is possible given the space without forcing you to lose sight of the entrance to the bedroom. This alignment allows for feelings of safety and protection throughout sleep. Ideally, the corner of the bedroom that is diagonally opposite the door is the best location and will result in the best sleep and flow of chi. Other bed positioning principles to follow include:
- Don’t place your bed beneath a window.
- Don’t position your bed so that your feet point toward the door.
- Avoid placing your bed beneath a pitched ceiling or angle.
- Leave plenty of room around the bed for energy flow.
5. Open the Window
Air quality is incredibly important, because you cannot sleep well or have a good flow of energy if the air you’re breathing is stale or full of harmful pollutants. As much as you’re able, open the windows to let new air in, but if your location or room isn’t amenable to this practice, make use of an air filter or purifier.
6. Declutter
Clutter is to feng shui what kryptonite is to Superman and should, therefore, be avoided at all costs. Whether it’s piles of laundry, papers, or just an excess of furniture or books, clear your bedroom of anything messy or unnecessary immediately. Clutter, in feng shui terms, symbolizes unfinished business, and it will block forward and positive progress in your life. Keep your bedroom simple, straightforward, and free of clutter to experience a better night’s sleep and increased relaxation.
Feng shui is purported to help with everything from how you feel to how successful you are, which is why applying its principles to your bedroom makes sense. Follow these six steps, and you’ll find yourself sleeping better with renewed energy in no time.
I’ve been obsessing about clutter this spring. We even had a yard sale yesterday to try and rid ourselves of some of the extra “stuff” that seems to magically appear every year!
We declutter the entire house a few times per year so that is never an issue, but we could stand to have less electronics around. We have a TV in every bedroom!