Feng Shui Health

Are your favourite go-to foods getting your emotions out of whack? Check out Traditional Chinese Medicine’s 5 element healing method to find clues:

If you swing too much towards anger and irritability and need a bit more of a sense of humour, you need to balance the wood element which governs the liver and gall bladder. Wood is the sour taste. Chicken, liver, wheat, greens, citrus, plum, pineapple, vinegar, sauerkraut, olives and yogurt are some foods that support wood element and benefit erratic, scattered people.

Feeling sad and wish to find more joy and cheeriness in your life? Use the fire element. Fire governs the heart and small intestine and is associated with the bitter taste. Fire foods include lamb, asparagus, lettuce, leeks, strawberries, dandelion, alfalfa, citrus peel, celery, peppers, corn, cayenne, wine, coffee, and tea. These foods can benefit slow, overweight, over-heated and aggressive people according to TCM practitioners.

Worrying, blaming or feeling guilty and wish to have more compassion and empathy? Work on the earth element which governs the spleen and stomach. Sweet is the taste associated with earth element and foods that work well are beef, millet, cooked onion, watermelon, apple, cherry, dates, figs, grapes, peaches, carrots cabbage, potato, squash, almond, and coconut. Dry, nervous, and weak people are helped by the sweet taste as well as aggressive people.

A depressed outlook on life that needs to be turned positive can be helped by supporting the large intestine and lungs. This is the metal element and spicy/pungent taste. Some foods in this group are tofu, rice, garlic, radish, turnip, kohlrabi, cinnamon, mint, rosemary, scallions, horseradish, navy beans, basil, and nutmeg. These foods promote circulation and benefit sluggish, damp, lethargic, and cold people.

And finally, fearful people who would like to be more playful and have good insights could use some kidney and bladder (and reproductive organs) tonifying. This is all about the water element and salty-tasting foods. Foods in this group are fish, shellfish, pork, beans, soy sauce, miso, walnuts, black sesame seeds, duck, watermelon, eggs, pickles and butter. These foods benefit thin, dry, and nervous people and promote moisture and calming in the body.

So, what’s for dinner tonight?

 

Since many seem to take personal inventories this time of year, why not get specific and take a personal HEALTH inventory and work it the feng shui way.

If you have any condition that seems to be inherited through your genes, review the Family Gua (half way back on the left based on where you enter a home or room) of each room in the house. This is the wood element/green colour gua so see if it has at least one of these items dominating the space.

If it does not appear to be inherited, then concentrate on the Centre portion of the home or more specifically, each room. This zone is governed by the earth element (like soil versus planet Earth.) Earth tone colours work well here if you like working with colour. Also, when enhancing the “centre” of the house, it would be nice to place something like a large piece of pottery or large obelisk stone sculpture, but if that is not available, simply intend that the item you place NEAR the centre “work” for you. After giving intentions in the centre of the entire home, work on each room’s “centre.” If it is simply space, then feel where the energetic centre of the room is located: perhaps the coffee table, perhaps the bed, perhaps it is the dresser. Where do you most naturally want to pause, when walking through? That may be “the energetic centre.”

Take a look around the bagua to see if your health issues relate to what=s going on in those areas. Here are some specific ailments with their associated guas:

Colds, rheumatism, hip issues – Prosperity gua
Sight and cardiac difficulties – Fame and Reputation gua
Digestive and reproductive disorders – Love and Relationships gua
Oral, dental and chest disorders – Creativity and Children gua
Headaches and pulmonary disorders – Helpful People gua
Earache and kidney ailments – Career gua
Arthritis – Skills and Knowledge gua
Hysteria and convulsions – Family gua

If you are in-the-know about feng shui’s 5 elements (water, wood, fire, earth and metal) and want to go beyond the bagua, adjust your spaces according to the suggestions below:

Heart / Small Intestine – Fire element
Spleen / Stomach – Earth element
Lungs / Colon – Metal element
Kidney / Bladder – Water element
Liver / Gallbladder – Wood element

I’d suggest checking in with a Chinese doctor/acupuncturist who can explain to you what element is weak if you are unsure of how to approach this

If you are into affirmations and positive thinking to shift your health energy, try these statements:

1. I am one, whole and perfect.
2. I am a child of God. I did not inherit illness.