Take the famous Orchard Road for example, within easy walking you can see three excellent examples of tapping the qi ( chi ) for beneficial use. Standing at the Paragon Centre you can look over and view the very successful Ngee Ann City, home to the Takishimaya Shopping Centre. In front of this building is a vast vacant area. They could have easily built another building here with land being so scarce but instead they left it open to capture the qi. This is called the “Bright Hall”. It allows the qi to accumulate at the entrance. You will notice that the building has what appear to be two gently opening arms to embrace and channel this qi. There is also a small hill structure and fountain to assist in the accumulation of this energy and prevent the passing traffic from dispersing it. These structures bring great prosperity and success to the residing businesses.

Just down the street is the Marriot Hotel, this hotel has had its entrance positioned so it can tap the qi from the “Water mouth”, in this instance the water mouth is an intersection of roads outside. Roads acts as carriers of qi in an urban environment, they are sometimes referred to as the water. The Marriot hotel has then channelled this energy into its large foyer, which again acts as an internal bright hall and they have positioned their reception area in line with this incoming qi. So the reception area is the receiver of all the beneficial qi. Which is what we want for a thriving business, as this is where the money changes hands.

Just around the corner in Scotts Road, you will find the Hyatt Hotel. This hotel was a failing hotel for many years and it was recently purchased by the Sultan of Brunei. He of course consulted with a Feng Shui practitioner and carried out some changes to the face of the Hotel. They moved the entrance, which was originally at one corner of the building to the centre and made the entrance open and grand, allowing space for a bright hall. This hotel is now one of Singapore’s most prestigious Hotels.

You may not own a hotel or shopping complex but the same principles apply to your home or business as does to these prestigious buildings. In Feng Shui there are two main factors that determine the quality of your building; the external environment and the internal environment. The external environment, starting with the greater external, includes natural landforms such as influencing mountains and hills along with natural occurring water such as rivers and lakes. The immediate external then looks at nearby structures, roads, waterways and any poison arrows. You may have noticed that some areas of a city or town are more prosperous than others. Even though you may have a building facing the same direction as one across town you will get a different result, the difference is the external features present. The external environment has up to 70% influence on the quality of a building. If you have good external Feng Shui, then whatever you do to enhance your internal is the icing on the cake.

Once these aspects are taken care of we then look at the living room, study, staircases, and paths around the house. If you work from home this should also be given special attention. Now we are not only looking for good qi flow but it also needs to be the right kind of qi that will help you in your chosen endeavour. There are many qualities of qi, some help with relationships, some with wealth; there is also health and education and so on. The type and quality of qi can be assessed with the help of a qualified Feng Shui practitioner.

Without assessing the incoming qi of a property there are still some common sense Feng Shui tips that you can put into practice to assist in your endeavours. For the entrance, make sure there is nothing blocking your entrance so as to provide for good flow. Look out for poison arrows; these harm your entrance and can be things like a tree or post directly in front of the door. Have an area just inside the door, like a foyer also known as a “bright hall”; now this doesn’t mean turning all the lights on to make it bright, rather an entrance space big enough for the qi to settle and accumulate. If the entrance can see an exit, for example, when front and back doors align, this is called “merciless qi” as the qi rushes too quickly out before it has a chance to circulate throughout the house. Try to slow down the flow by placing furniture or items in-between to redirect the flow. A house with no qi is an unproductive place.

In the kitchen, make sure the stove and sink are not situated next to each other. Have a separation of at least 1 metre between them. It is even better to have the classic triangle of sink, stove and fridge. Do not have the stove situated in a position that you are able to see it from the entrance of the house as this is said to leak wealth.

In the bedroom, the bed must have support, so a bed head is important. Do not let the bed float in the middle of the room or have a window directly behind the bed as this will make your sleep unbalanced and lack of sleep can cause health problems. Have a solid wall behind the bed as this gives support. If you have no option but to place the bed head in front of a window, then make sure you have heavy curtains that you can close at night to act as your support. Regular shaped rooms are best; if you have L shaped or sharp angles in the room you run the risk of having a poison arrow. Do not have things above the bed like air conditioners or shelves; these are also known as poison arrows and will cause sha qi to be directed at you while you sleep. Bulk heads, structural beams or uneven ceilings also act in the same way causing sha qi to be directed at you bringing negative effects to your health. Move the bed away from such structures or use a canopy or curtain over the bed to deflect the sha.

Do not have water features such as aquariums and fountains in the bedroom. These are seen as too yang or too active for a bedroom and can disturb your sleep. A glass of water by the bed is fine as it is too small to impact on you.

Perfect properties are rare. We must not dwell on things that we cannot change or have no power over but look at what we can change instead. Sometimes it takes just a few small alignments to tap beneficial energy and start receiving good effects, other times it may need extensive renovations. There are many formulas in Feng Shui that can be of benefit under the right circumstances, each house is unique along with its resident. Once you know your houses potential you can then reap the rewards.

© Cindy Coleman 2006