What is Feng Shui? (and why it’s so much more than moving furniture!)
If you’ve ever heard of Feng Shui (sometimes pronounced Fung Shui) and thought, “Isn’t that just about moving furniture around?” - this might surprise you.
Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice, thousands of years old, that helps us understand energy and how to work with it so our homes (and lives) can flow more easily.
At its core, Feng Shui is about this: everything is energy. Your home isn’t just four walls and a roof, it’s a mirror of your life. When things feel stuck, heavy, or chaotic, your space often reflects that back to you.
A little history of Feng Shui
Feng Shui first appeared over 4,000 years ago in China, during a time when survival depended on paying close attention to nature’s cycles, especially in farming and food production.
Traditionally, Feng Shui was used by royalty to design towns, cities, and even burial sites. (In Hong Kong today, there’s a famous cemetery where a burial plot can cost over £100,000! just to show how deeply this tradition still matters.)
Over time, many schools of Feng Shui have developed (over 120 of them!), but they all fall under two main “houses”:
Yin House: focused on burial sites and how the energy of ancestors affects their descendants.
Yang House: focused on homes for the living - where most of my work (and this blog) is centred.
Within the Yang House, there are different schools again. The one I practice is Flying Stars Feng Shui, which looks not only at the space itself and uses the compass directions but also at how time influences the energy of a building.
Taoism, Yin and Yang energy
To really understand Feng Shui, we have to look at Taoism (pronounced Daoism) the philosophy it’s rooted in. Taoism teaches us that life is made up of energy (chi), and nothing exists in isolation.
Think of opposites: day and night, hot and cold, stillness and movement. This is the Yin-Yang theory. They’re different, but they need each other!
Yin energy: softer, quieter, darker, more inward (like a still forest or a quiet home).
Yang energy: brighter, active, expressive, more outward (like sunshine or a busy, bustling home).
The goal isn’t to have one or the other but it’s to create balance.
The three lucks
In Chinese philosophy, our lives are influenced by what’s called the Three Lucks:
Heaven Luck (30–40%) → what you’re born with (genetics, astrology, karma).
Earth Luck (20%) → your environment, including where you live, the land around you, and yes, the Feng Shui of your home.
Man Luck (40–50%) → what you do with it all. Your choices, your self-development, how you treat others, how you show up in the world.
Here’s the good news: you can’t change your Heaven Luck, but you can influence your Earth and Man Luck. This is where Feng Shui comes in.
Good energy vs. stuck energy
In Feng Shui, energy is everything and it comes in two forms:
Sheng Chi: nourishing, life-giving energy (think; fresh flowers, joyful gatherings, beautiful artwork, uplifting scents, flowing water, soft shapes).
Sha Chi: stagnant, draining energy (think; clutter, broken items, harsh lines, bad memories, gifts from people you don’t like, or clothes that no longer feel good).
The aim isn’t perfection or creating a “showroom” home. Feng Shui is about working with what you have to release stuck energy and invite in more flow, kind of like acupuncture for your home.
So… What really is the point of Feng Shui?
When your environment supports you, life flows easier. Opportunities open up, your health and relationships feel steadier, and things that once felt stuck begin to move again.
I like to think of Feng Shui as creating a 3D vision board you actually get to live inside.
It doesn’t matter whether you want to call in love, feel healthier, boost your career, or simply have a calmer home. Feng Shui helps align your space with your intentions.
I’d love to invite you to think about your home right now, and think whether it feels like it’s supporting you or draining you?
