The yin-yang balance of your space

In Chinese medicine good health is read as balanced yin and yang. Illness starts when yin and yang are chronically unbalanced and blocked. Balance is dynamic, not static. The dynamic balance of yin and yang is seen in the flow your energy, or Chi, between its yin and yang phases. Yin rests; yang surges. Yin falls; Yang rises. Life undulates.

When we describe yin and yang in terms of time, yin is the fall and winter, and yang is the spring and summer. Everything that lives has yin and yang phases.

In terms of a city, yin is the middle of the block and yang is the corner. In a house yin is the back and yang is the front.Yin is the private area, yang is the public area. Yin is dark and yang is bright.

Sometimes feng shui is done from reading a person's face and body. There is a yang type face and a yin type face. A yang type face has eyes closer together and deep set, and the mouth is smaller, and the body is tightly knit. A yin type face has eyes further apart, perhaps even bulging, and the mouth is wider, and the body seems more loosely knit. A space can be arranged to complement the face type, a yang type person better suited to a yin type space, and a yin type person better suited to a yang type space. While these ideas are good and useful, any space that is overly yang or overly yin is not supportive and can contribute to poor health and declining fortunes.

A place with windows from floor to ceiling, or where the windows take up more than one third the size of the walls, and the rooms are unusually large, especially if the space is on a high floor of a building is overly yang. A person living in such an extremely yang space, especially if he or she is a yang type, may tend to become hyper-active, nervous, impatient, angry, anxious, easily distracted, indecisive and confused, and prone to insomnia.

A place that lacks sufficient light, whose windows are too small, or too close to, and facing the wall of a neighboring building, and whose rooms are too small and dark, especially if the the space is on a low floor of a building is overly yin. A person living in such an extremely yin space, especially if the person is a yin type, will tend to become lethargic, tired, sleepy, absent-minded, depressed, and stressed out.

You can treat an excessively yang space by using darker hues. Use window treatments to screen the light where possible, and create intimate areas with the furniture and lighting.

You can treat an excessively yin space by using lighter, more vibrant hues. Window treatments should not limit the light, but should let in a maximum of light. Use overhead lighting where possible. Another way of treating a very yin space is to arrange small areas of intimate beauty using art objects, while keeping the center of the space open for free movement. Cramped space means cramped life. A balanced space means a balanced life.

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Raphael is available for personal consultations in Chinese astrology and feng shui. Visit www.trs-fengshui.com

Raphael's best selling feng shui book, Feng Shui Step by Step is reprinted and available at Amazon and at www.createspace.com/3472024