Having pored over numerous textbooks on ancient Chinese science, we've learned several ways to lure the “bird of luck” into your office, neutralize the negative energetic influences of people, objects, or interiors, and enhance the influence of positive energy flows. Because, as feng shui practitioners believe, when the environment is harmonious, work proceeds much better.
To begin, let's try to take a journey through your office together to understand how the space is filled with energy coming through the front door.
If you have to walk through a hallway to get to the main room, it's important to create a movement toward the “goal”: for example, hang a painting with a dynamic scene (a sailing ship, a flying airplane, flowing water, etc.). Make sure the direction of movement is toward the office, but never toward the person entering. Try it – and you'll feel how the positive energy intensifies with each person entering.
If you're forced to work in a basement, consider lighting that creates the illusion of moving air currents. Incidentally, feng shui recommends lighting interior elements that you want to attract energy to, as well as the attention of clients and visitors: for example, the cash register, logo, or display cases with product samples.
Equip a staircase with steep steps with double-sided railings; they will serve a supporting function both literally and figuratively.
It will be difficult for a client to make a positive decision in favor of your company if a very low ceiling “collapses” on them when they enter the office, or if beams hang over them during negotiations.
By properly positioning doors or screens, lamps, and plants, you can direct energy to promote your prosperity and enrichment. To prevent energy from escaping through windows, place plants, screens, or any other eye-catching objects in its path: they will change the direction of energy flows.
Inside the office
And so we enter your office, your personal workspace. Avoid placing tall furniture—cabinets, shelving, and bookcases—near the door or to the sides of the window. Vertically elongated objects will visually reduce the penetration and flow of positive energy, so it's best to place them along blank walls or in the corners of rooms. Upholstered furniture should be positioned so that those sitting on it can easily see the front door.
A circular, arched, or octagonal (bagua) arrangement of furniture around the office's focal point is preferable. Firstly, this will create a “magical” protection against evil spirits in the room. Secondly (and most importantly, especially if you doubt that “evil spirits” are encroaching on your office space), it will facilitate communication between employees or guests: everyone will be able to clearly see their conversation partner.
The desktop is the center of everything
Table size is important: it's best to choose a table with a surface area of at least 120 x 80 cm. Want your opinion to be taken into account? Choose an even larger table, for example, 150 x 85 cm.
A few words about the placement of your desk, the most important element of your interior. If you're the boss, feel free to sit in the northwest corner of the office, which in Eastern philosophy is called the “master's sector” and can, in a positive sense, provoke wise, fair, and profitable ideas. Avoid placing your workstation with your back to a door or window: in such a position, a person loses energy and self-confidence. But if another location is unavoidable, cover the window with thick curtains or blinds. If this is difficult to achieve, place a small mirror on your desk so that it reflects a patch of blue sky—this will give your thoughts space. Conversely, placing your desk facing the door will attract good luck and material prosperity, as Chinese wisdom states that people and money are drawn to those who greet guests first.
Sitting with your back to a wall is considered the most favorable, as a wall in feng shui symbolizes a mountain, providing support and reliable protection. However, the opposite position, which significantly limits creativity, can also be remedied by hanging a favorite landscape or a mural depicting Mount Fuji before your eyes. It's not recommended to sit with your back to an open cabinet or shelf: horizontal surfaces symbolize knives, which intrude into your energy field and worsen your health. Avoid placing your desk near any stairs: your energy, energy, and determination risk “escaping” up or down them.
Details decide everything!
• A computer is essential IT equipment for any business, absorbing electricity from the outlet and generating a completely different kind of energy for creation and creativity. To balance and direct this powerful flow in the right direction, keep brightly colored objects on your desk – blue, red, orange – or a rock crystal; it will bring clarity to your thoughts. In the center of the desk (according to Feng Shui, this area is responsible for knowledge, competence, and inspiration), place something gray or blue, such as a computer mouse pad. This will help you utilize your abilities more fully and ensure an influx of creative energy.
• Such an indispensable item as a telephone should also be kept in a specific place. If you're right-handed, place it near the right; if you're left-handed, place it in the far left corner. This will help you attract good luck, make useful contacts, and achieve financial success. In any case, place the phone so you don't have to reach left with your right hand or right with your left. Crossing your body, the hand blocks positive energy.
• Writing instruments and office accessories. Choose folders in bright colors, preferably blue and red. Try to get rid of bulky “dossiers” and reference books and store them in the far left corner or in a desk drawer (this placement attracts good luck and promotes prosperity). Immediately throw any unnecessary piece of paper into the wastepaper basket, which feng shui recommends placing under the desk. The fact is that unnecessary papers accumulate negative energy, guaranteeing stagnation in business for the careless owner.
• Keep a glass of clean drinking water on your desk. Placing it on the right edge of the desk will stimulate creativity and ingenuity, while placing it on the left will stimulate knowledge. But remember, the water should always be fresh—stagnant water accumulates negative energy.
• Put photos of your loved ones on your desktop. Residents of the world's most populous country, China, claim that seeing your loved ones nearby will prevent you from feeling disconnected from them, and therefore, you won't subconsciously feel negative about the military service for separating you from your family.
• If you often have to use an address book, put it on the right, in the middle or near part of the table – that is, in the place that is responsible for the influx of money, it will bring maximum benefit.
• And one more universal recommendation: To strengthen your position as the head of the company and maintain your authority (both your own and that of the entire organization), place your logo symbol in all premises. It should certainly be present above the desk, at the reception desk, in the lobby, and in the treatment rooms.
…Some of the recommendations may seem strange to you. Of course, feng shui has absorbed much from ancient Chinese philosophy, which lends its teachings a certain exoticism. And yet, it is not all that difficult for a modern Westerner to understand, since it is based, above all, on universal common sense.