Читать книгу 20 MINUTES TO MASTER ... FENG SHUI - Simon Brown - Страница 11

Chinese Medicine and philosophy, the origins of Feng Shui, are based on the principles of yin and yang. These two words are used to describe everything around us and how this affects us. I assume that when these principles were being developed, people were mainly interested in farming, their basic material needs and health. Yin and yang created a system whereby they could observe what happened in the past and then use this to predict the future.

Let me give you an example. At the time of a full moon, the Chinese would say we become more yang. This means we are more active, want to go out and generally are more social. Now, centuries later, this can be confirmed by statistics; insurance companies will confirm that at the time of a full moon car accidents increase, the crime rate in New York goes up and admissions to casualty wards increase. Conversely, at the time of a new moon the ancient Chinese would say that we become more yin, that is more peaceful, more spiritual and more relaxed.

So, armed with this simple piece of yin and yang information, if we wanted to organize a really wild party when would be the best time? The full moon of course. At this time people will be more likely to want to go out and have fun.

The whole point of all this is to be able to do more with your lives with less effort. After all, each of us only has so many years left on this planet, so why not make the most of them? Imagine yourself at the age of ninety. One day you come to the point where you know you are dying and yet you feel very peaceful, relaxed and content. As you look back over the years, you know you lived your life to the full. You can’t help but think what a wonderful life you have had. Yin and yang are the tools to help you achieve that. Why be the sort of person who holds a party on a new moon, puts a lot of time and effort into it, only to find that half the people turn up and even then all they want to do is sit around and talk about themselves. The poor hosts get depressed because they think they can’t organize a decent party, yet all it was, was bad timing.

The same approach can be applied to food, exercise and our homes. Every home will have areas that will actually help you achieve your aims. Whether you wish to relax, be more inspired, or have increased energy, the secret is to find the place that has the atmosphere and environment to support you.

Yin and yang are the first of the essential points to be grasped in understanding the frameworks used in Feng Shui. To communicate and learn from experience, we need some kind of framework. For example, simple maths, like addition, provides us with the framework to do everyday activities such as shopping. We use it for counting the number of groceries we need, adding up the cost, or adding the weights of ingredients. In this context it works and we use it every day to our mutual benefit.

However, adding numbers together only works some of the time in real life and is often only an approximation. For example, if we take two drops of water and add them to another two drops of water, we only have one drop of water instead of four. If we were to weigh the drops of water, we would find that each drop is in the process of changing its weight. It may be evaporating or absorbing dust. In any case, our weighing machine will also be in a process of change, expanding or contracting, depending on variations in temperature. In the end, we can only say that if we take four drops of water, each weighing one gram, and put them all together, we will end up with approximately four grams. Yin and yang is a similar framework. By studying yin and yang, you can learn more about your environment and how it affects you, in a much shorter time than if you were to try solely by your own random experiences. Once you and a friend have a basic understanding of yin and yang, you then have the language to discuss your experiences of your environment to a much deeper level.

The point is, all the ideas in this book are here to help you understand what is going on around and within you, and to then be able to communicate with others. Once you try to think of any of these frameworks as rigid absolutes, they become difficult to understand. Just as trying to explain mathematical addition to someone who is putting drops of water together will seem ridiculous, the same is true of Feng Shui. Fortunately, the principles of Feng Shui have been around for thousands of years, plenty of time for people to try them out, question their validity and develop their practical application.

My advice is to keep an open mind, try to first understand the principles as frameworks and then test them in real life.

The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine tells us that by 2600 BC the Chinese people already had a great interest in the subjective effects of their environment. It describes how they had evolved the concept of a pair of interactive polarities present throughout nature, which they termed yin and yang. Nothing was seen to be absolutely yin or yang, but simply more yin or more yang when compared to something else. For example, resting is a more yin state than working, but more yang when compared to sleeping.

In ancient China it was observed that in the morning, as the sun comes up, people are naturally more active and alert, a more yang characteristic than resting. In contrast, during the afternoon, people generally feel more mentally orientated, physically passive and sometimes even sleepy, which is a more yin characteristic. The classic definition of yin and yang is the shady and sunny side of the mountain, the sunny side being yang. Similarly, the sunny side of your home is considered to be more yang, whereas the northern, shady side is more yin (if you live in the northern hemisphere).

I remember living in a flat near Primrose Hill, London, where the front of the house faced north and the back south. All the bedrooms were on the north side. These rooms had a dark, almost cave-like quality, that I and my family found ideal for sleeping. However, no daytime activity worked there. The children would never play in their bedroom, even though we had arranged it to be a fun playroom. During the day we all wanted to be in the southern, sunny side of the flat.

As you can imagine, when the sun is up, the southern side of a home is constantly being irradiated by the Sun’s energy. People in this side of the home will benefit from this Chi. So if you want to have more energy, to be active and inspired, place yourself in a part of your home that benefits from the sunlight. This still works on a cloudy day. Apart from heat and light, the sun radiates solar energy and Chi. Just like my example with the moon, here you will feel you can do more with less effort. However, during the course of many of my Feng Shui consultations I have found people trying to work in the shady side of a building, and not having the energy to get things done. I remember one client who could hardly stay awake in the afternoons. She would keep drifting off in front of her computer. Once I found a more energetic place for her, she soon noticed the difference. I have also met clients who themselves are of a lively nature, working in a very high energy sunny part of their building, finding it very difficult to concentrate and focus. For them, a less active place is actually more productive. Each person is different and the art is to find what really works for that individual.

Growing up in England I was fascinated by the different cultures in southern Europe. The people I met in countries like Italy, Yugoslavia, Spain and Greece were so lively and expressive. They talked quickly, gesticulated wildly and seemed very passionate. In the towns, people drove fast and there was often the sound of car horns. When it came to getting on a bus, everyone wanted to pile on at the same time, as soon as the bus arrived. All characteristics of more yang forms of expression than I was used to. When I began to study yin and yang this all began to make more sense. They were living on the sunny side of the mountain, or in this case the sunny side of Europe.

The idea of balance is fundamental to yin and yang thinking. Everything is trying to be in balance. However, to be more balanced, it may require unhealthy extremes of either yin or yang. For example, a long period of severe stress, which is more yang, might be balanced by that person having a nervous breakdown, which is more yin. We try to maintain some kind of balance all the time. If you give guests at a party or customers at a pub, dry, salty snacks, which are more yang type foods, they will tend to crave liquid or sweets which are comparatively yin. The same is true the other way around. Lots of fruits, salads and drinks, which are more yin, will create a craving for well-cooked, savoury foods. We tend to continually swing from yin to yang. Sometimes we become more yang, and we then try to find ways to become more yin. Once we have become more yin we want to feel more yang again, and so it goes on.

This cause and effect also applies to the weather. In the autumn and winter the air becomes more cold and damp, both yin qualities. This creates a need for warming foods like hot porridge, thick soups and stews, which are more yang, creating balance in the body Conversely, in the spring and summer, as the air becomes warmer and dryer, a more yang atmosphere, people then prefer yin quality foods that will cool the body, such as fruits, salads and drinks. As everything moves in a cycle of constant change yin always changes to yang and back again. This constant flow can be seen throughout our natural environment. The day (yang) changes to night (yin). After we rest (yin) we go to work (yang).

People can also be more yin or yang. A more yin person tends to be relaxed, physically supple, sensitive, creative and imaginative. However, if this person is too yin they could become lethargic, slow and depressed. The opposite is true of someone more yang. A more yang person tends to be alert, quick, more physically active, extrovert and expressive. But if the person becomes too yang they would become tense, irritable, angry or physically stiff and tight. People are a mixture of both yin and yang. With a health problem the overriding cause can frequently be attributed to an extreme of yin or yang.

All this becomes very powerful when you can actually control these natural processes to achieve certain results. For example, with a simple understanding of yin and yang one can tailor one’s diet, exercise and lifestyle to one’s own individual needs. If you have a very demanding event next week, between now and then, you would benefit from eating more yang foods and doing more yang exercises. After this event, more yin foods and exercises would be ideal to relax and unwind you.

In terms of a house, buildings that have sharp, straight lines, sharp corners and are very angular, are more yang than those that are more rounded, irregular and curved. You can make your home more yin by adding soft surfaces such as tapestries, big cushions and long curtains. In contrast, tiles, metal surfaces and glass create a more yang atmosphere.

Colours have a great influence. Bright, strong, stimulating colours make us feel more yang, whereas soft, relaxing colours make us more yin. People have their own individual reactions to colours. However, red, orange and bright yellow are examples of colours that make us feel more yang. Greens, blues and pastel shades help us feel more yin.

One of the ways I test the principles of Feng Shui is to observe the most successful restaurants and compare them with those sites that have a high turnover of restaurant failures. The successful restaurants have often applied Feng Shui by chance or by design with great accuracy. A relatively new chain of fast food restaurant opening branches throughout London, predominantly uses shiny stainless steel on their walls, along with a maroon, purple colour. The decoration gives the restaurants a strong yang impression. Purple is considered the colour of passion. This is ideal for being noticed. As you walk by, you can’t help but look in. All those bright sparkling surfaces. Once you enter and are inside and seated, you can’t wait to get out. It’s too yang. Of course, this is just what you want if you are the owner of a fast food restaurant. Lots of customers coming in, buying food and leaving quickly. You will notice that shiny plastic, bright lights, tiles and metal surfaces, are a consistent theme in fast food restaurants. Conversely, we find it hard to imagine sleeping in a room constructed from metal, tiles and glass. History has shown that we like soft yin furnishings in our bedroom.

The easiest way to decide if you are too yin or yang is to compare yourself to other people. I have a friend who consistently finds other people aggressive and pushy. To her, everyone else is too yang. She often wakes late. She daydreams and burns the porridge. Her boyfriend becomes annoyed with her. She rushes for the bus without the correct money. People in the queue become irritable as she fumbles for the change. She is late. Her boss is annoyed. Once at work she wants to relax, chat and socialize. Her colleagues push her to get on and finish things. And so it goes on. Compared to most other people she is more yin. At the same time there must be something very yang present to maintain balance. Perhaps a very yang experience from the past, something in her diet that is too yang or even working in a very yang building/environment could be the cause.

On the other hand, when I worked as an engineer, I had a colleague who found everyone else far too yin. He was constantly complaining that people were too slow. Why couldn’t they get on with their lives. He was always rushing, getting furious with anyone who slowed him down. He was great with details, but broad-ranging, imaginative discussions on a point of design would drive him mad. He did a lot of shouting. Everything seemed to be a source of irritation. Working with my more yin colleagues would have sent him into a rage. Compared with other people in the design office he was much more yang. How did he get his balance of yin? As soon as he finished work he would rush round to the pub for a couple of pints of beer before going home.

So, each person has more yin or yang characteristics and our environment has the ability to make us more yin or more yang. The idea is that if you can recognize whether you are already too yin or too yang, you can then decide if you need to become more yin or more yang in order to feel happier and more balanced. Once you know this, you can change your environment in a way that helps you become more yin or more yang.

To illustrate this, let us take the example of a man who finds he becomes irritable and angry at work. He realizes that his conduct is becoming a serious problem in terms of the success of his career. Not only that, but women find him aggressive and intimidating. The first assessment we need to make is whether his behaviour is more yin or yang. My opinion is that we can safely assume he is more yang. If he can become more yin, he will be more relaxed, calmer and have a greater feeling of peace inside himself. How can we change his home to help him become more yin?

Let us take his bedroom for this example. Here are the things I would look for to avoid. Hard shiny surfaces such as mirrors. Furniture with sharp edges. Objects with bright stimulating colours, such as a picture of a bright red racing car. Objects made of hard materials. This could include metal furniture, steel ornaments or wrought iron artefacts. Wall colours that are too stimulating. Steel blinds on his windows. Brightly-coloured bed clothes.

The next step is to advise him what to replace these yang features with. My recommendation would be to bring more of the following into his bedroom. Objects and furniture with more round, curved shapes. Colours that help him relax. Perhaps greens. Cloth wall hangings. Loose curtains. Furniture made of wood rather than metal. Plants with large, round, floppy leaves instead of wrought iron. Calming colours for his bedding.

The philosophy of yin and yang is open to many interpretations and this chapter owes a great debt to the work of the Japanese author George Ohsawa.