Feng Shui for Healthy Work-Life Balance

by | Aug 23, 2011 | Social Wellness, Stress Management, Wellness Tips & Information, Workplace Wellness

by Yvonne Phillips

We’re all striving for more balance in our lives, as the alternative leads to stress, anxiety and disease. An unbalanced life is an unhealthy life. Whether you’re a recent grad or a seasoned professional, maintaining equilibrium between your working life and personal time is critical to maintaining balance.

Feng Shui is all about balance and intentionally creating it in your own everyday reality. Ancient yet innovative, this 5,000 year old practice from the east provides tools to allow healthy energy to flow through all areas of your life. By taking command of your space, your surroundings won’t take command of you, freeing up energy, focus and time in subtle and obvious ways. Simply being organized at both the office and home, and establishing clear boundaries will help you feel less scattered and stressed.

Feng Shui Your Lifestyle

Are you living to work, or working to live? Excessive hours spent at the office takes away precious time from your personal life, relationships, exercise and play, and deep relaxation of body and mind. Setting clear boundaries to avoid your work life creeping into your home life is the first step to establishing balance. The art of disengaging from the workplace is different for everyone depending on your profession, but leveraging your personal “me” time is the first step. For example, disabling your work email on your smart phone when you get home, signing up for recreational activities that get you outdoors and exercising, or saying “no” more often to unrealistic demands.

Feng Shui Your Office

A relaxing, calming and orderly work environment is not only easier on the nerves, but a pleasure to spend time in. Be sure your work space is supporting you, not draining you!

• Clearing clutter is essential to the healthy flow of energy, as excessive piles of papers and debris are disorderly and scattering. Cleaning out your work space will allow fresh chi to flow smoothly;

• Invest in organizational tools and workplace practices that promote efficiency and time management;

• Replace glaring fluorescent lights with softer lighting, full-spectrum lights, sun lamps or crystal salt lamps;

• If possible, lighten up any dark and drab wall colours with brighter tones such as yellow, green or blue, which boost happiness, creativity and calmness;

• Place inspirational pictures of happy occasions, which promote self confidence and empowerment;

• Healthy potted plants will disperse negative chi, as well as playing soft and uplifting music.

Feng Shui Your Home

Although invisible, the energy that flows around your home greatly impacts the quality of your well being, and if energy becomes blocked or stagnant, this imbalance can lead to symptoms such as lethargy, irritability, depression and poor sleep.

Applying the Feng Shui Bagua Map to your home, (as pictured below), the front entrance represents your Career area, so be sure this is clear of all clutter, allowing fresh energy to flow. Having a healthy family and/or friends is vital to a happy and balanced life also, so be sure to pay attention to these areas of the home, by placing positive pictures, crystals and other intentional objects to promote health in your personal life.

Along with a good cleaning of your home of old and useless objects and fresh paint with bright, calming colors, there are five elements to incorporate into your environment to promote balance:

• Earth – Stones, plants and healthy soil to enhance the grounding balance of the earth element. Colors representing earth include brown or yellow.

• Wood – Wooden planting boxes, or decorative wooden pieces such as a carving, bench or bamboo pieces. The color representing wood is green.

• Metal – Wind chimes, planters or copper decorative pieces. Colors representing metal are white, gold or silver.

• Water – Still or slow flowing water such as an indoor fountain, bird bath, pond or pooled water from a stream. Colors representing water are black or blue.

• Fire – Candles, lanterns, fireplaces or an outdoor fire pit. The color red represents fire.

Applying a few changes to your work space, home and overall lifestyle choices will naturally promote more work-life balance and uplift your energy and well being.

About the author

Feng shui expert Yvonne Phillips is certified with Master Nancilee Wydra of Feng Shui Institute International.  FSII’s training is an interdisciplinary version of Feng Shui. It combines biology, physics, psychology and architecture.  She has also has been trained with Master Lillian Too on Flying Stars Feng Shui. Both disciplines are used to explain how human beings filter information and how their environment can support or stop them from moving forward. Visit Yvonne’s website for more information or to arrange a consultation.

About Manifest Excellence, LLC

Manifest Excellence, LLC supports people in optimizing personal wellness by addressing the five key areas that impact health. They combine over 20 years traditional medical experience with a comprehensive & holistic wellness philosophy to provide innovative and effective wellness strategies.

Donna Hamilton, MD, MS, FAAP
Follow Me
Latest posts by Donna Hamilton, MD, MS, FAAP (see all)