Healthy relationships the Feng Shui way
Detoxify and brighten your interactions with all the folks in your life.
Want less negative energy in your relationships?
First, a confession. I am not an expert in Feng Shui. Feng Sui? Fung Sui? Fung Shui? — I’m not even sure how to spell it. My expertise is in relationship skills and marriage advice, and especially in turning toxic relationships to positive ones.
At the same time, relationships, like areas in a home or office building, involve energy flows, positive and negative. Feng Shui, from my limited understanding, offers ways to keep the positive energies flowing and to minimize the presence of negative energies. Positive energies bring happiness; negative energies detract from happiness.
I’m delighted to report that the following three basic principles from About.com on how to Feng Shui your house or office can offer a useful strategy for clearing the negative energy from relationships.
These principles apply to all healthy relationships. You can clear the negative energy and augment the positive with all your loved ones–spouse, kids, elders, lovers–as well as with your friends and your co-workers.
Spreading negative energy in relationships invites depression in those with whom you interact, triggers annoyance at you and increases the odds that people will want to keep distance from you. Positive energy in your interations makes you safe and appealing to be with.
# 1. Clutter: “Clear Out Your Clutter. Get rid of everything you do not love in your house.”
Clutter in a house is easy to see; clutter on your desk at work is too. But what constitutes clutter in a relationship? As I’ve written in an earlier posting, there’s a handful of little words that make big messes. Here’s a quick list of them. The less often you use them, the better.
a. But, which deletes what came before, demoralizing the person who has just told you something.
b. Not, which puts darkness where light belongs.
c. You, when it points a critical or acusatory finger at the person with whom you are talking.
My blogpost on Clearing Emotional Clutter from Your Relationships offers futher details.
# 2. Sunshine: “Have Good Quality Air and Good Quality Light.”
Good relationships need breathing space. With colleagues, clear division of labor gives boundaries and spaces between what you do and what others do. With your boss, room to make many decisions on your own gives you space. With lovers and spouses, allowing time for each of you to be on your own, and space to each have your own viewpoints and activities, is essential.
With kids, beware of hovering over-protectively or telling them too much about what they should do. Kids need space to be creative on their own, to hear their own inner drummer, to make mistakes and learn from them.
Healthy relationships also thrive with the light of positivity. Agreement, appreciation, shared laughter, attention to each other, praise, and shared affection are essential. My post on ways to convey positive energy offers more information on this topic.
# 3. Tone: “Always be mindful of the feel of your home.”
Too few people focus sufficiently on the tone of their voice, ignoring negativity that’s quite obvious to the receiver. Any tone of “I’m right; you’re wrong,” gives what Eric Berne once termed an “I’m ok; you’re not ok” message. So does irritibility, annoyance, sarcasm, contempt or anger.
Anxiety is another emotional spoiler. While occasional anxiety can alert you to a problem that needs your attention, frequent or on-going anxious energies signal cognitive patterns you might want to change. I’ve written several posts (this one and this one) on how to minimize the extent to which anxiety clouds your relationships, plus another on decreasing performance anxiety.
Criticism is a sure way to spread negative energy to others. Offering feedback about your reactions and neutral information about the natureof a problem are fine. Criticism though, especially when it is spoken with an irritated tone of voice, conveys a You’re Not Ok message.
Telling others what to do is right up there with tone of voice and criticism when it comes to spreading negative energy. All of us want to be the captain of our own ship so beware of pressing the “Don’t control me!” button. Requests are fine, if they are genuinely questions. Demands are not, including subtle comments like “I need you to …” or “I would like you to …”
A work situation is somewhat different. There employer and employer have agreed that one will tell the other what to do in exchange for salary or wages. In other relationships though, skip the dictating.
Telling kids what to do is ususally unnecessary as well. It just engenders negative resistance. Instead of telling a child, “Wipe the milk from your face!” you’ll receive a more positive response with a cheery “Milk-mouth alert!” For more on getting kids to do what you would like them to do without telling them what to do, see my post on using play instead of discipline.
In summary, to Feng Shui your relationships:
1. Clear the clutter by being wary of the little words that make big messes.
2. Give each other air and light via plenty of space and the positive energy you emanate.
3. Be mindful of tone: Stop arguing by deleting negative energy in your tone of voice. Avoid criticizing and telling others what to do.
Then, voila! Healthy relationships and a more joyful, positive, and loving life!
Photo of Feng Shui Crystals By Takkk (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
