Feng Shui: Important to Manage Energy in your Surroundings
If you look up at what “Feng Shui” means in Wikipedia, it is long and boring. But in short, when I say the word “Feng Shui”, my friends or people will automatically link the word with “Energy”, “Luck”, “Architecture”, “Yin and Yang”. In my short understanding, Feng Shui is a belief, or an art, that starts from everything has energy, and it is a knowledge of how to arrange your surrounding to give you a positive energy or a balanced Yin and Yang.
It was not a surprise to me when I said, “I hope the new office has a good Feng Shui”, and one of my friend said, “Don’t believe in Feng Shui, believe in Allah”. So to some moslems in this country, Feng Shui is believing in luck besides Allah, which is haram.
Now, if I believe in a medicine that can get rid of my headache, is that haram?
The reason why I brought this topic out is because of my new office. We just moved to a bigger office at the same building because we aquired a new company. So, here, together with Ecky, I would like to share you the picture of my office:
Looking from the inside out. Note the orange and the checker on the glass wall
My office is a small box, where 3 sides of them are made of glasses. The glasses are not entirely transparent, but it has some motives, square motives. So, everywhere I look, I see glasses with a rather distracting, strong motives around. Plus, a big chunk of an orange coloured part on one side of the glasswall that acts like a whiteboard. By the way, my office is not big, probably 2 by 4 meters with mostly white interior.
But then, there is this table, a round table, which has a totally contrast colour: brown with woody motive. In some offices, they have this table which doesn’t have a cover in front so you can see the legs (or more if she is wearing a skirt). So, something like a trolly you find in hospitals. And the brown and woody motive is another strong colour that distracts (besides the size of it).
On top of that, the carpet is quite merry as well. Relatively ugly design with dark blue colour and some yellow and some other colour per tile (and some are already worn out, some are still fresh, belang bonteng, in my language).
And tell you what: because of the glass, I can see the person next to my office and that’s another distraction.
Looking at my desk: I can see my next door neighbour. On the right there is a round, brown table.
So wherever I look, there is no calm spot. Everything is distracting. Down, sides, and if I close the sliding door, I can see more squares that distracts me.
Now, as a geoscientist, I need an office that is functional. I can care less about details, but if there is anything in my office, or home, it has to be functional. Simplicity is my concept. I would appreciate a magnetic wall or just a plain cheap wall so I can stick my maps. I don’t have that now.
Secondly, when I think (yes, I do think of how I can find oil!), I need a calm environment. It is a bit difficult with all the design that has lots of distraction: too much details and color. That’s why I got rid of some of my personal stuff, like photos and some rocks. I try to put small stuff as minimum because it will cause too much distraction.
Thirdly, I can feel that I sometimes feel too ‘overwhelmed’, like everything is vibrating towards me, towards my brain. I need to put lots of concentration to stay in the office.
A friend of mine who is an architect and a talented interior designer came to my office to see the lay out and he felt a bit of a panic inside my office.
So, I do believe that every material has it’s own energy. Have you ever felt really comfortable in one room immediately? I guess because the interior design is done with lots of thoughts. How to maximize the energy from your surrounding so that it can give you peace and balance.
Right now I’m thinking of how I can make this place the most and reduce the overwhelming energy. Put a plant? Have a fish bowl?
I do believe in Feng Shui. How about you?
February 2, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Your office looks a bit like the R&D department where I used to work. Because it was a department located on the third floor of a pharmaceutical company, there were A LOT of glass windows and doors, and everybody could see the reflections of everyone. When I asked my manager about this, she said it was to save energy for lighting purpose, and I thought that kinda made sense.
But maybe you’re right – that whole department was doomed. There were always people resigning, including me, and as soon as I did, not a few months after, the entire generation (meaning the people who got hired the same year that I did) were gone too.
I really think it was all due to the fact that there was no privacy to anything, and since it was a small department, everybody was always up for other people’s business just for some fun. We were not allowed to bring in or drink anything apart from water from the nearby water dispenser. Lunch was scheduled every 12 pm with an alarm to the sound of Fur Elise. The managers were all power-tripping crazy and that, in the end, drove the subordinates crazy.
March 20, 2009 at 8:39 am
Do NOT get a fishbowl—your entire office IS a fishbowl and unfortunately you are working in it! There is no balance to this room because all of the glass represents the element of water, the white surfaces remaining represent metal, and the orange = activating fire. What’s missing are the elements of Earth and Wood.
Are you allowed to cover up any of the glass? I see you have something taped to the window in front of your desk. It would be wise if you could cover up all the way across so when you are sitting at your desk, you not only have privacy but you don’t have distraction from the reflections on the glass. If you could use some kind of screen, maybe made of wood or faux wood grained paper, that might help create a barrier of calm.
Some of your colleagues are no doubt suffering the same problems. Maybe you can collectively go to the management and ask for curtains or other solutions so that you can be more effective at your job. Good luck!