Using Feng Shui in Your Child's Bedroom

Lots of people use feng shui techniques to create harmony in their homes, boost their careers or have positive effects on their love lives. There are also some elements that can be applied to a child's bedroom to give them a place of peace to rest their heads every night, encourage healthy growth in every aspect of their lives, stimulate good study habits and even make teenagers happier, more communicative members of the household. A few properly placed objects in certain areas of their room can give them good luck in everything they do. A couple of color changes can relax hyper children or encourage creativity. Some furniture choices could turn your young hopeful into a literary scholar! OK - maybe that's a bit extreme.

To set up your child's bedroom begin by understanding the layout and how the bagua map works. Standing at the door looking into the room divide the room into a tic-tac-toe board. Each square in the imaginary tic-tac-toe board represents a different gua, and items and colors placed in these areas have their own separate implications. The center front square is the career or self-image gua. The square directly to the left is the Knowledge and Wisdom gua. To the right is the Helpful People and Travel gua. The square in the dead center of the room is the Health gua. To it's left is Family, to it's right is Creativity. The center of the back wall is the Fame gua. To it's left is Prosperity and Abundance, to it's right is Relationships. A very simple bagua map can aid in laying out the room properly.

Let's start with paint colors for the walls. Yellow walls in a child's bedroom can charge their creativity and imagination, but it can be a bit too stimulating for some children. You can use a pastel or lighter hue of any color to get the same effect and still keep in tune with your decorating style or that of your child. The color green is good for children who need a calming environment. Children with an especially nervous demeanor or one that is particularly sensitive benefit highly from a room with lots of green. Blue walls create a generally relaxing environment but may be a bit too relaxing for children who have their desk in their room or do a lot of studying in there. Pink is a good choice for siblings who share a room since this color encourage cooperation. Obviously this choice is fine for girls but most boys will balk at a girly pink room. In this case you can try and work a bit of pink into the Helpful People and Travel gua in the front far right of the room. Pure white walls can improve concentration. So if you have a budding young artist on your hands and would like to help foster his creativity you can put his desk up against a white contrast wall while painting the rest of the room a shade of yellow. Any combination of colors can work as long as the hues you choose go together. Try to avoid too much red and orange in a room as they are stimulating colors and not advised for rooms where people sleep.

Area rugs are great for adding harmony and unity to any room, and a child's bedroom is no exception. A brown or tan carpet or round/oval area rug can ground nervous children and calm their sensitivities. For siblings that share a room you can squelch some of the inevitable rivalry by placing a white or light colored oval rug in their room - just make sure a part of each bed is touching the rug. And speaking of siblings - due to preference or simple lack of space many parents choose to put bunk beds in their children's room. Bunk beds can be harmful to the chi of the sibling who sleeps on the bottom bunk as fresh chi, or energy, often gets stuck in the top bunk. If bunk beds are a must parents should try to hang a faceted crystal over the head of each of the beds, preferably in a way the the children cannot reach them. This should break up stagnated energy in the room.

Bed placement is another thing to consider. Beds should never be placed up against walls with windows if possible and should always face the door so the child can see out into the hallway. If your bedroom has slanted ceilings or exposed decorative beams make sure the bed is not under this area. If there is no other place for the bed but under these obstacles place a mirror or pleasant picture on the slanted wall and hanged a faceted crystal from the beam. To encourage children to sleep well use dark blue sheets and mist the room, sheets and bed clothes with lavender essential oil. Apply 9 drops of this oil to a spray bottle with water and mist the room just before bedtime. To ease stress and anxiety use vanilla essential oil for a warm and secure feeling.

Your child's desk should be placed in the Knowledge and Wisdom gua to encourage learning. All intellectual or study books should also be placed here, if not on the desk then on a small bookshelf. Place photos of the family in the Family gua to keep the lines of communication open with your child. Awards and trophies should be placed in the Fame gua. Works of art such as drawings, painting or stories they've written should be placed in the Creativity gua. To keep your teenager in tune with family and more likely to communicate with other family members place a round mirror in the Family gua.

Make sure all old toys, outgrown toys and damaged games are disposed of as soon as possible. If you're saving clothes for a younger sibling store them in an alternate area. Keeping old clothes around or toys that aren't being used does not provide your child with the tools to grow on to the next level.

With many ways to improve your child's life and health with feng shui there is sure to be some options in here for everyone's taste and decorating style!