Feng Shui Your Child’s Room for Back to School Success
by Ken Lauher
A child’s room is similar to other bedrooms in a home or apartment, because it should promote rest and rejuvenation. However, it should also be a place of mental stimulation for your little one.
As warm summer days (and this August gives the phrase “the Dog Days of Summer all new meaning) turn to fall, thoughts and budgets turn to back-to-school. As you hunt down the latest school supplies and clothing for your children, think, too, about their room. Is it organized and laid out to give your children their greatest chance at success in school?
The placement of a child’s bed, the colors in the room, the decor, and the layout all contribute to the flow and state of chi in the space and can contribute to your child’s grades, status and the enjoyment they derive from school.
Follow these tips to use simple Feng Shui principles to align your child’s bedroom — the space where, if they are like most children, they spend the most time — with their life goals.
Even if your child has a few years before starting school, the changes you make to the environment today can give him or her a head start on success in life. It’s never too early to start using Feng Shui to your advantage.
As you Feng Shui your child’s room, answer these questions:
Where is the bed located?
As in any bedroom, the crib or child’s bed should be placed in the command position of the room. That is, the bed should have a view of the door but not be directly in line with the door or on the same wall as the door.
What sort of bed is it?
Many cribs today are also designed to convert to daybeds for toddlers. These day beds (or any day bed) do not feel restful or offer a sense of permanence and stability. Consider a real toddler’s bed or just step your child up to a twin or full-size bed when they outgrow the crib. Use bed rails if you are concerned about a 2- or 3-year-old child falling out of bed.
Similarly, if you’ve converted your child’s crib to a full-size bed for them to use well into the teen years, an option on many of today’s cribs, wrap colored ribbons around the slats to soften the effect. This will keep your child from feeling “trapped” in bed, (a crib can look like a prison) and hamper a good night’s sleep.
A child’s headboard, just like an adult Feng Shui headboard, should be all one piece, solid wood or fabric and firmly attached to the bed. This will give your child a sense of stability that will help him be more confident, make friends at school, and earn better grades because he will feel secure.
Trundle drawers and captain’s beds are common for children. It’s convenient to store soft linens and blankets in these spaces. Do not store any hard objects, metal or even mementos and books beneath a crib or bed, as these may interfere with a good night’s sleep.
What sort of atmosphere does the room have?
The best colors for many bedrooms are light greens, blues and pinks. You can also use bright primary colors, which will help stimulate your child’s mind. Using a rainbow of primary colors in a child’s room will give them the benefit of all the virtues associated with the different elements.
Consider your children: Are they easily excitable and often have trouble calming down to sleep? Then a light, soothing room is best. If your child could use a boost in energy or you want to encourage fast learning, use primary colors.
Middle school age children thrive in black and green clothing, and these colors can be incorporated into a bedroom, too. They will promote wisdom and encourage benevolence.
Older children in high school will benefits from red to encourage reasoning and logic. To temper a teenager’s aggressive or impulsive and irrational behavior, light green, light blue and dark green provide a calming, serene and wise influence.
If you have a child who has trouble focusing, is hyperactive, or even has been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, incorporating black and brown will calm the child down, help him focus, and also enhance loyalty. The color yellow for any child will bring out loyalty, honor and honesty.
Here are a few more colors and the traits that they will encourage:
Red and green: athletic ability and coordination White or black: Intelligence Green or blue: benevolence or liveliness Black: calmness, focus Rainbow colors: spirituality
Feng Shui Lighting in the Bedroom
A child’s bedroom should have a variety of lighting for day and night. Often, parents keep a nursery too dark, which can be dangerous if you have to comfort a crying baby in the middle of the night. I personally recommend Himalayan Salt Rock lamps for the perfect night light. It produces soft shades of pink, peach and orange, warmly lighting a room while infusing the space with negative ions to remove pollutants and adding chi or life energy.
These are also great for older children who may not want to sleep in pitch black.
Teenagers love their tech gadgets, but be cautious about adding too much electrical energy to a bedroom; first and foremost, a bedroom is a place for sleep.
Experts in child-rearing recommend against keeping a computer in a child’s bedroom for a number of reasons. Finding another place in the home for the computer — ideally, a common area — is also good Feng Shui. Computers, televisions, and large sound systems create too much active energy to promote a soothing sleep environment. And, as with adults, a good night’s sleep is the foundation for a child’s success.
Feng Shui Bedroom for Confidence
Self-confidence is also critical for success in school. The pre-teen and teenage years can be a brutal time for kids. You can use Feng Shui to provide your children with many advantages.
It’s a Feng Shui myth that mirrors in a bedroom are bad luck. In fact, hanging mirrors in a bedroom can help promote self-confidence and give children a great place to try on clothes and make sure they look good so they feel better about themselves before they leave the house.
If a mirror directly in front of a bed creates a startling image or eerie glow at night, don’t hang one there. But otherwise, mirrors in the bedroom are fair game; just make sure they are hung at the correct height. Mirrors that cut off the top of your head because they are hung too low can contribute to feelings of low self-esteem. Place a mirror high enough that you have plenty of room to view your entire face without having to look up or down. Feng Shui mirrors should be one complete panel and not cut into pieces, which also distorts or cuts your image and, consequently, your self-image.
A child’s room, to encourage self-esteem, should reflect who they are. Placing trophies they’ve earned, pictures they’ve drawn, and other things that make a child feel good about him or herself creates a nurturing, positive environment.
You can lay the Feng Shui ba gua over your child’s room to place anchoring objects — trophies, medals, specific toys or posters — in the right areas, drawing tons of positive chi into the space.
Encourage your child to hang pictures on the walls of people who are positive role models. While most kids want to hang a poster of the “celebrity du jour” in their room, steer them toward celebrities who are making a positive impact in the world. Of course, it’s your child’s room and there are more important battles to fight than how they decorate a bedroom (within reason), but encourage them to surround themselves with positive symbols and, in life, positive people.
Remember, when you bring your space into alignment with who you want to be, the Universe will fall into alignment to make that vision a reality — it works for kids, too!
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Feng Shui Consultant to the stars, Ken Lauher advises individuals, businesses and organizations on how to implement practical Feng Shui solutions to help you achieve your goals & live a more fulfilling life.
His inspiring and transformational work with well-known actors, actresses, TV Hosts, singers, songwriters, CEO’s and business owners makes him a sought after speaker.
His new eBook, Feng Shui Secrets: What Everyone Should Know about How to Be Successful with Feng Shui, is available risk-free at www.kenlauher.com/FengShuiSecrets.
