Serene bedroom with white bedding and white walls — Photo by Anjie Cho Architect PLLC

I think everyone can agree that the last couple of years have been especially challenging. As humans here on this earth, we can acknowledge that we’ve experienced some trauma during this time. We’ve been working with challenging emotions and situations, and this has activated our fight-or-flight response.

One of the most important aspects of feng shui is to look at this phenomenon of fight-or-flight. We all have a yearning to feel safe, and there are ways that feng shui can help us to cultivate feelings of safety and stability in our homes. In feng shui, we can create environments that support us, even when there are so many ups and downs in the world around us. You can start to welcome this new year by taking some time to get quiet, and just listen and connect to your home.

I would also encourage you to look at the feng shui concept called commanding position. This is a basic principle in feng shui, and the idea is to set yourself up in your home to reduce any challenges that exacerbate your fight-or-flight response. This is one way to set up your home to feel more safe, which is especially important right now since we’ve already experienced so much fight-or-flight.

To begin working with the commanding position, I recommend starting with your bedroom. You want to make sure that when you’re lying in bed, or sitting in bed with your back against the headboard, that you can see the door to your bedroom without being directly in line with the door. Usually this will put you in a position that is diagonally across from the door. You should also have a wall behind the headboard, which will help you feel more secure and supported. Being in the command position allows you to know what’s coming towards you, so that you can sleep and rest with more ease, and less fight-or-flight activation.

When your bed is set up with the door behind you, it actually creates more stress and difficulty and activates our fight-or-flight response. If you’ve been feeling especially raw or traumatized because of the happenings in the world, I would really recommend you take a look at your bedroom and set up your bed in the commanding position. If this is impossible because of the design details of your bedroom, you can instead set up a mirror so that you can see a reflection of the door while you’re laying in bed.

I hope this helps you welcome the new year in a supportive and nurturing way. First, recognize and acknowledge that this has been a very difficult time, and then find the ways in which you can create a home that supports you. Most importantly, make sure your bed is in command so you can soothe and heal yourself while you’re sleeping, which is a very healing and passive time.

by Anjie Cho