It’s mid-January and I’m sitting in my kitchen with the patio door open. A few days ago I was hobbling along the ice hoping not to fall and grumbling at myself for wearing heels to work. Today I’m running errands in my flip flops. In Colorado, we’re lucky our weather balances itself. Just when we think we can’t take another freezing day along comes sunshine and 60! We don’t want one thing all the time like one season, one temperature or one type of weather. We want balance – a little cold, a little warm, a little gray, a little sun.
Feng Shui teaches balance and provides practical solutions for achieving it – Yin and Yang. Chances are you know the symbol. Some things are Yin and some Yang. The moon is Yin, the sun is Yang. Night is Yin, day is Yang. Textured is Yin, smooth is Yang. Yin is dark, small, muted. Yang is light, large and bold. Yin and Yang are opposites, but so integrally aligned they don’t exist without the other. Neither is greater or less than the other. Both are equally important and equally support each other. Each holds the nature of the other to create balance and harmony.
By balancing the energy in the rooms of your home or office you can usually feel the difference in the space. When you look at your rooms, see if you can identify the Yin and the Yang. Sometimes you can easily see you have too much of one kind of energy and the room feels unbalanced. Sometimes the fix is as easy as adding or removing some of the other kind of energy. For example, a large, high-ceiling room with large furniture has a lot of Yang energy; it needs some Yin – maybe a soft throw hung over a chair with some pillows on the couch and some candlesticks on the coffee table. A cluttered desk or tabletop usually has too much Yin energy – little things like papers, pencils and bowls cover the space and clamor for attention. Putting things in their place and clearing a space can create a much needed Yang balance. Simply cleaning your desk at the end of the day is balancing all the Yin of paperwork and files and coffee cups with the Yang of an empty work space ready for the next day. These are the kinds of quick fixes you can do in your home or office daily.
The day has darkened into evening. It’s time to close the door because it’s getting cold again. I’ll be turning my flip flops in and putting on my boots to go out soon. This is the natural flow; Yang moving to Yin as day moves into night. Flip flops to boots. The quiet of writing will transition to the noise of meeting friends. I have found balance in my day and for that I am grateful. Hoping, when you look, you find some too.
