How Rearranging Your Living Room Can Make You Feel Younger

By Jon Yaneff

What we choose to have in our space is a reflection of who we are on the inside—our emotional state. It is wise to choose thoughtfully, but how can arranging items in your home and office affect your health, well-being, and ability to feel younger?

Feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of manifestation and placement. It is the study of how, through strategic arrangement, you can enhance the quality of your life and create more balance and harmony within your environment, which, in turn, can help you feel younger. Feng shui also works on an energetic level with the five Chinese elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The anti-aging secret behind these elements lies in their placement—where you place these elements in your home can influence your physical and psychological health, thereby affecting your ability to feel younger.

How Feng Shui Can Make You Feel Younger: Feng shui is full of hidden anti-aging secrets that are relatively new to western society. These practices can help you feel younger because they serve as effective stress management techniques.

Stress is one of the leading causes of aging, and psychological stress can have a detrimental impact on the body. Approximately 80% of serious illnesses and conditions can be linked to stress, including obesity, heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes, inflammatory bowl disease, high blood pressure, and seizures. There are several other ways stress can affect your health, wellness, and ability to look and feel younger, such as insomnia, headaches, memory loss, hair loss, acne, back pain, immune function, asthma, lack of sex drive, and premature aging.

When your space is balanced and organized, which can be achieved through the stress management techniques in feng shui, the world around you will run more smoothly. The better your stress management strategy is, the more likely and better equipped you are to maintain your health as you get older, and the healthier you are, the more likely you are to feel younger. Keep reading for anti-aging secrets and techniques to using feng shui to eliminate stress, bring more peace and harmony into your life, and ultimately, feel younger.

Anti-Aging Secret #1:  Remove Electronics From the Bedroom to Feel Younger

There’s no doubt that improved sleep makes you feel younger, both in the short and long term. The bedroom is a sacred space, according to feng shui practice; however, most of us populate this space with TVs, computers, and wireless devices. They could be the cause for your sleepless nights because they contain electromagnetic fields, which can cause brain and nervous system interference.

If it is necessary for them to be in your room, keep them hidden by placing them in an armoire or cabinet. If you’re really determined to use feng shui to feel younger, it’s best to have an office for your computer and work equipment, while your TV stays in the living room.

Anti-Aging Secret #2:  Declutter Your Life and Cleanse Your Home to Feel Younger

This feng shui tip to feel younger can reduce stress in your life by helping you clear through the physical clutter, which can help reduce mental strain. It’s important to notice how a chaotic and untidy room can lead to feelings of chaos in other parts of your life. Is dirty laundry piled on the floor? Are there outstanding bills and to-do lists scattered on the kitchen counter? The first step to feel younger is to clean cluttered spaces, forcing you to deal with outstanding tasks; this allows other areas of your life to be sorted out as well.

It might be time to get rid of what you no longer need or use. Aside from decluttering, a regular purging practice of old stuff can also help release any old emotions that may be weighing down on you—dealing with emotional pressure is an essential stress management technique to feel younger. Furthermore, it allows for new opportunities and relationships to manifest in your life. Try donating your old belongings to a Goodwill store, or give them to someone who you know can make good use of them.

Anti-Aging Secret #3:  Add Peaceful Feng Shui Objects to Feel Younger

Decluttering your home makes space for new things that are more effective in your efforts to feel younger. That doesn’t mean replacing everything you eliminated, but adding peaceful objects that follow feng shui guidelines can do wonders for stress management.

Try a Himalayan crystal salt lamp; place one in your bedroom and one in the living room. They help calm and neutralize the “electro-smog” in the air, helping to reduce the allergens and irritants in your home. The pictures and art you place on the walls also reflect your environment—if you want to feel younger, choose pictures that will encourage and empower you to work towards that goal.

Anti-Aging Secret #4:  Embrace the Feng Shui Elements to Feel Younger

Each of the feng shui elements is believed to influence the energy (or chi) of the space it’s in, and each one represents a particular part the body, a color, an object, a direction, a season, and a certain characteristic about your life. Knowing the influence of each of these elements can help you utilize them differently in your efforts to feel younger.

• Wood—Liver, colors green and blue, trees, west, spring season, family, growth

• Fire—Heart, color red, fire, north, summer season, fame, expansion

• Earth—Stomach, color yellow, actual earth, center, harvest season, overall health, stability

• Metal—Lungs, color white, metallic objects, west, fall season, children, communication

• Water—Kidneys, colors black and midnight blue, south, winter season, career, concentration, stillness

Placing symbolic representation of these elements in sections of a room can help you target certain things in order to feel younger. For example, putting something yellow (Earth element) in the middle of a room can help soothe your stomach and improve overall health. If you’re looking for an easy way to feel younger, making subtle and mindful feng shui changes will help you take control of your life.

Jon Yaneff, a member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, writes for Agein.com where this article originally appeared. He is currently taking his passion for holistic nutrition to the next level, studying at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition on a part-time basis.