Essential oils and Feng shui have a lot in common. Both endeavor to achieve harmony and balance in life and our environments. With essential oils, plant elements are implemented in a task to bring about inner homeostasis. Feng Shui is an art form of balancing energy and life force which is also known as qi or chi (pronounced chee). 

Qi is defined as a “vital life force” and inhabits everything around us. According to Chinese philosophy, “qi is the force that makes up and binds together all things in the universe. It is paradoxically, both everything and nothing.”[1]  Qi then could be considered as the energy that moves around and in us. As we all know energy fluctuates. Qi, therefore, is formed through the balance of yin and yang.

Feng Shui was introduced to Western cultures from China through Taoism. Its literal translation is “wind and water.” Combined with Taoism, Feng Shui becomes “the way of wind and water.”[2] By aiming to influence positive Qi or flow of energy within an environment and altering furniture, objects and even making use of color in living and work spaces, harmony and balance can be attained through the give and take of yin and yang. Yin and yang at times can have excess and deficiency of energy. In the art of harmonizing these principles, Feng shui is put in place to give positive energy that benefits health, relationships, opportunity, prosperity and success. 

Feng shui is guided by the energy flow of the 5 elements or phases that not only influence objects and life around us but also our inner selves. These natural elements include Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Each of these elements is connected and relates to direction, color, taste, emotions and seasons. Think of the elements as being cyclic where one element affects and influences another. We know that wood promotes fire and that fire replenishes the earth. The earth provides and brings forth metal. Water promotes and supplies the growth of wood. In another cycle, wood controls the earth, earth influences water, water regulates fire, fire controls metal and metal controls wood. [3]

To put into perspective the balance of yin and yang, we can look to the seasons. As the year passes, the seasons flourish and decline. The flourishing times are the height of the seasons where their energy is strongest, considered yang. When seasons ebb, their energy is weakened, therefore yin. These imbalances ebb and flow just like the tide of the ocean. This is the perpetual motion and energy of yin and yang. The chart below shows the corresponding energy of each of the elements. Earth does not have a season in this chart and this is due to the idea that earth is the controller of the 5 elements and “without the chi of the earth or soil, nothing is accomplished.”[4] 

How Do We Apply Feng Shui To Our Home? 

It is easy to be flustered by the idea of understanding elements and how to apply this knowledge to our homes. By keeping this one principle in mind you will be halfway there: how an environment is perceived can determine how we behave. Simply, Feng Shui is just a tool to help design a well-flowing space that influences, reflects and supports our interior positive energy. 

According to Everyday Health, “each element affects how you feel in the space; objects and room features can belong to one or more elemental categories. For example, when decorating with the wood element, which represents growth and is associated with wealth, you may opt to use wood furniture or living plants; when decorating with the earth element, which represents stability and is associated with relationships, you may use earthy tones, like yellows and browns.”[5]

When assessing a room or floor plan, a feng shui expert will divide a room into nine areas which come from mapping with a technique called bagua. Bagua literally means “eight areas” (9 being easier to divide a space, most Feng Shui practitioners the latter number.) Within that bagua map, life experiences, shapes, elements and colors are all factors when considering positive energy flow. By incorporating the following principles into your home, you balance the yin and yang of the five elements. 

Determine a Location

Above is a map, called a bagua. This map, though simplified, is a great way to get you started in figuring out how and where to incorporate aromatherapy into your Feng Shui. Using Edens Garden Diamond Diffuser and essential oil singles or blends, you can pick and choose which areas of your life you would like to emphasize and improve on. Fun, right? 

Simply align the bottom of the map with your front door (which is considered north) and imagine a larger version of the map laid over your home’s floor plan.

If, for instance, you would like to emphasize “family, health and community” in your life. You would then place your diffuser in whichever area of the room or home aligns with the correct section of the map, in this case the middle-left. 

Choosing the Right Diffuser Color 

To match your Feng Shui and environment, Edens Garden Diamond Diffuser is a ceramic diffuser that will match your home or work environment. Color is considered a positive enhancement in Feng Shui. The white diffuser is cooling, the tan can add some earthy warmth and our black diffuser is enduring. Aesthetic and considered the best essential oil diffuser on the market today, it is superbly versatile in any environment and will not disappoint. 

As an active ultrasonic diffuser, it has a near-silent operation that creates a fine mist moving the oil molecules into your space to complete your Feng Shui environment. Its multitude of settings can help boost a yin disposition and temper a yang inclination. In regard to the diffuser settings, if you notice sometimes an ultrasonic diffuser turns on and then off, this is called an intermittent setting. Instead of just turning the diamond diffuser on and having to remember to turn it off you can set it to run for 1, 2 or 3-hour intervals. Plus, ideal for nighttime use, there is a setting to run the diffuser for 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off which repeats continually for a full 8 hours. 

Color is considered a positive enhancement in Feng Shui. Based on the element, you can determine which color is most suited to a particular area of a house. The elements match our diffusers as follows:

• Earth: Tan 
• Fire: Tan or Black
• Metal: White
• Water: Black
• Wood: Tan 

Simply correspond the diffuser color with the area of your home you want to enhance, and voila! You’re one step closer to a Feng Shui home.

Choosing the Right Essential Oils

As natural elements, essential oils combine extremely well into the theory of five elements. According to plant type, aroma or “taste” and even color, you can define which element corresponds to an essential oil.  For example, if you are angry, your wood-yang energy is considered to be overflowing. By referring to the element chart above, find the line of emotions. To balance out the excessive yang energy, you would want to reach for an essential oil that balances the wood element and perhaps cools the anger with a Metal oil (think cooling herbs such as Peppermint, Spearmint and Basil) or a sweet oil of the Earth element such as citrus oils or even water elements floral oils. Go even further with a combination of the two! Your choices are endless!

Each of the sections in the above bagua graphic can help you choose Feng Shui aromatherapy oil or blend to use in your Diamond Diffuser depending on your frame of mind and temperament. 

Essential Oils and the Elements

1. Earth: Stability • Grounding • Balance

• Diffusing with sweet Earth aromatics such as citrus oils like Sweet Orange and Bergamot can be great choices. Combining those sweet oils with wood oils will also help plant your feet on the ground. Blends such as Healing Massage and Diffuse The Anxiety or Citrus & Cream would be spot on.

2. Fire: Passion • Emotion • Strength

• To enhance your passion and emotions and bring warmth, diffuse spicy or peppery aromas. These oils also benefit you during cold and flu season by killing off germs that can make us sick. Edens Garden Fighting Five blend is a perfect example with Cinnamon Leaf, Rosemary and Clove Bud essential oils. You can also turn up the heat with XOXO passion blend.

3. Metal: Clarity • Creativity • Independence

• When low on energy, and perhaps even sick with fever, the Metal element is perfectly complemented with its minty or camphorous, cooling aromas. Edens Garden has stimulating blends such as Deep Breath or Massage Therapy blends, which would complement areas of your home.

4. Water: Spirituality • Inspiration • Relaxation

• If the atmosphere is hectic or anxiety is prevalent, turn to calming oils when you wish to enhance the flowing energy of the water element. Diffuse The Anxiety or Lavender & Magnolia essential oil blends or a single oil such as Bulgarian Lavender essential oil and Jasmine absolute would be well-suited. You can also refer to the oils listed on the bagua chart above.  

5. Wood: Confidence • Trust • Growth

• Woody, resinous and lightly minty essential oils will help to diffuse anger and enhance calm and confidence. We recommend blends such as Tobacco & Patchouli or Frankincense & Myrrh or single oils such as Buddha Wood and Bergamot Mint.

Have Fun With It

Perhaps mapping out your apartment with bagua, rearranging furniture and decluttering are not your thing. Whether you practice Feng Shui or not, diffusing essential oils and essential oil blends with Edens Garden ultrasonic diffuser can be extremely satisfying and gratefully, there is room in every home or office setting for harmonizing aromatherapy. Creating a balanced environment with aromatics will set the ideal mood and enhance the positive energy of both yin and yang. 

SOURCES:

1. What is Qi? https://www.amcollege.edu/blog/qi-in-traditional-chinese-medicine#:~:text=In%20English%2C%20qi%20(also%20known,paradoxically%2C%20both%20everything%20and%20nothing.
2. Feng Shui https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/feng-shui/
3. The Five Elements https://www.mosherhealth.com/mosher-health-system/chinese-medicine/yin-yang/five-elements
4. Yin-yang and Wu Hsing http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/taoism/yinyang.html
5. What is Feng Shui? A Guide to Creating Good Energy in Your Home https://www.everydayhealth.com/photogallery/feng-shui-your-home.aspx
6. Clinical Application of Yin Yang Theory and the Five Elements https://www.vin.com/apputil/content/defaultadv1.aspx?pId=11343&catId=34551&id=5124188#:~:text=The%20five%20elements%20state%20to,sense%20organs%2C%20and%20body%20parts
7. How to Use Feng Shui at Home? https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/feng-shui-for-every-room-in-your-home
8. The Five Elements https://www.mosherhealth.com/mosher-health-system/chinese-medicine/yin-yang/five-elements
9. Feng Shui Design Principles https://foyr.com/learn/fengshui-design-principles/