How to Hang Mirrors For Good Feng Shui

Feng Shui is the time-tested belief, rooted in ancient Chinese legend, that Qi, an omnipresent energy, is in constant motion in the spaces around us and that it can either be directed by ‘Feng’ (or air) or collected by ‘Shui’ (or water).

Whether you believe in the specific spiritual notions of this philosophical system, in practice it amounts to an effective common-sense guide in how to arrange and order your home so that you have a happy, healthy, composed and fulfilled state of mind. These practices – which should be considered as another key aspect of managing your home along with tidying, cleaning and decorating – can even potentially increase the monetary value of your house as well as cultivating a sense of peace and harmony.

The Importance of Mirrors

The reason why it is so crucial to get your mirror placement right at home is that, according to Feng Shui, they can have both a positive and negative consequence depending on where they are placed. If they are not put in beneficial positions, then this is said to have a detrimental effect on your sleep and even your patterns of thought.

Clarity

Mirrors quite literally produce your self-image. How you see yourself every day has an impact on how you think about yourself even when you have left the house. If the mirror you use to check your reflection is dirty, dusty or scratched, then you may see yourself as distorted, blemished and fragmented due to these superimposed modifications to your reflected image being passed onto you through the mirror’s surface. It follows that, to cultivate a clear head and get rid of any thoughts about imperfection, you must ensure you have a clean and clear mirror for checking your reflection.

Mirror Size

Feng Shui is all about the individual being in harmony with their surroundings. Therefore, it is suggested that you should avoid mirrors which, instead of reflecting your whole body image in relation to what is around you, as would large and tall mirrors, cut you off by being too narrow or short to reflect your whole. If you are not reflected whole, and there is no room for the top of your head to fit into the reflection for example, you are more likely to have fragmented thoughts and even, it is said, suffer from headaches. In addition, in an entirely practical sense, if your mirror is too short or placed too low and you have to bend down to see your face, you will inadvertently get into the habit of having bad posture.

Number

If the walls of a room were covered with many mirrors, it would be difficult for anyone to relax in that room. You would probably feel disorientated or dizzy, and maybe even unsettled or disturbed to an extent. This is partly because mirrors in effect provide images of physical things having been moved from their actual location in the room. To avoid the confusion of feeling that the reality and physical actuality of the room is being jumbled up, Feng Shui proposes that you should limit the number of mirrors to a one wall per room and one mirror per wall maximum.

Reflect Beauty

Mirrors heighten the mood of the thing they are facing in that the ambience of the reflected space or object is doubled. If they are faced to reflect the trees from outside the window, then the room will contain a bit of the mood which you might associate with a pleasant rural scene. Similarly, if your book collection is something which gives you a feeling of calm contentment, then having a mirror reflect that part of the room will multiply that feeling in you by spreading the effect of the book case.

The Front Door

It is a well-known idea now that in Feng Shui you are not to place a mirror directly facing your front door. In a spiritual sense, it is said that the Qi which gives you good fortune is either repelled from entering the house, or is trapped and not able to circulate the house to transmit positive energy. However, it is also useful to consider the implications of this rule. Firstly, you are likely to feel more balanced and ordered when, on returning to your home, you are not confronted immediately by movement when you open your front door. Additionally, it will be more difficult to move your mind away from the stresses of the day if your mirror is reflecting what is behind you on entry to your home.

Rest

In order to get a peaceful and undisturbed sleep, it is advised that you should not have a mirror which reflects your bed. Once again, this has a very sensible, practical significance. If you open your eyes briefly when turning over at night, or to reach for your glass of water, then sensing movement elsewhere in the room by catching sight of the reflected image of yourself when you are not properly awake may be quite unsettling. For this reason, it is far better to have your mirror facing a different direction or at least covered whilst you sleep.