Improve your Feng Shui: Understanding Chi

First, let's say it out loud: chee. (If you've been saying "chai," don't feel bad-most of us did at one point or another!)

Easy to say, harder to understand. Chi is one of those words that, like shalom in Hebrew, has many different meanings in modern English. It can mean energy, life force, or breath. It also means vapor, a nice metaphorical variation of its basic definition. That said, we instantly see why this concept is so very important to the study of feng shui.

But chi also has a larger meaning, one that is very much more than the sum of its parts. Chi is a "breath force" of energy-unseen but very much felt-that radiates life into and through all living things.

As Such, chi is a focal point not only of feng shui and other Asian disciplines, but of Chinese medicine as well. Whereas Western doctors typically treat a symptom, Chinese doctors seek to cure or realign the body as a whole in order to have the body perform at its peak and to eliminate one or more medical issues at any given time.

Anyone who has had acupuncture or shiatsu massage already knows about chi. These practices are both based on the existence of a network of meridians running throughout the body-meridians that must flow unblocked if chi is to function maximally and we are to feel our best.

While blood carries oxygen and nutrients, chi carries thoughts, ideas, emotions, and dreams. What you think-and the way that you think - has a great deal of influence on outcomes in our lives. This goes way beyond the rather hackneyed idea of the "power of positive thinking."

How is this so? Because chi is much more than a concept; it is actually an energy force that pervades both living things and inanimate objects. Thus, manipulating our chi has everything in the world to do with the success or failure, happiness or sadness, which we experience every single day of our lives.

What are the effects of disharmonized chi? Here are three prominent examples.
• Negative chi, caused by excessive light and artificial energy (such as air conditioning), can cause mental and physical exhaustion.
• Strong chi (like that produced by dampness and drafts) can result in two polarized attitudes, depending on the person: either excessive emotion and overexcitement, or depression and lack of direction.
• Fast-flowing chi (which you can feel on very windy days) can make one over talkative and paranoid, fearful of personal attack

Just as placement and position have everything to do with achieving the best flow of chi in our physical environments, so too does our physical countenance. How we dress and wear makeup, and even the food we eat, have a direct result or our chi.

And, why, precisely, is our chi so important? In Chinese medicine it is the unencumbered flow of chi that is seen as a prerequisite to good health. Unlike Western medicine, which treats individual health symptoms, Eastern medicine treats the body as a whole Thus, doing whatever necessary to unblock our chi is of prime concern to our physical and psychological health.

What does chi have to do with Feng Shui Chic? Almost everything, as it turns out. How we dress and wear makeup, and even the food we eat, have a direct result on our chi. To learn more about how to change your life with feng shui and to buy the book Feng Shui Chic visit Carole Meltzer’s website.