5 Feng Shui Back to School Tips to Establish Stronger Cognitive Function and Reduce Stress
Laura Cerrano
1. The buzzing sound of “Declutter” will continue to be the #1 starting Feng Shui suggestion during these current times because our society has adopted somewhat of a clutter-bug lifestyle. As the saying goes, less is more. This is essential for everyone to practice.
A team of UCLA researchers in 2012 32 Los Angeles families and found that all of the mothers' stress hormones spiked during the time they spent dealing with their belongings.” Belongings included material goods, paperwork, and even their children’s toys. For the dad or father figure that lives in the home and children, please help out with keeping things tidy. This lifestyle change requires a team effort. To the best of your ability, make it a priority to establish the healthy habit of balancing routine and structure; verbally, visually, and energetically.
2. Minimize Electronics in the Bedroom. Researchers from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston conducted a study to understand the impact of electronic devices on circadian rhythms and sleep patterns. In short, the team found that those who had read LE-eBooks in the hours before bedtime reported lower subjective sleepiness and showed decreased EEG delta/theta activity.
Just about everyone uses computers daily. To negotiate this habit, the practice of Feng Shui is asking for you to find a balance. The bedroom is a place of rest, rejuvenation, and reconnection. If any room in your entire home that you could reduce or totally remove major EMF’s, it would be from inside your bedroom.
Reference for Brain Waves: Delta waves (.5 to 3 Hz) are the slowest brain waves and occur primarily during our deepest state of dreamless sleep. Theta waves (3 to 8 Hz) occur during sleep but have also been observed in the deepest states of Zen meditation
3. To give students stronger cognitive function during the day, allow natural light to filter into the classrooms. A study conducted by Productivity and Buildings Science program found “Classrooms with the most daylighting had a 20% better learning rate in math and 26% improved rate in reading compared to classrooms with little or no daylighting.” Of course use common sense with this suggestion. If your classroom requires a reduced amount of light, that is just fine. If anything, it's best that the main communal areas of the school (lobby, offices, hallways, cafeteria, library, etc) make up for the lack of light in other classrooms.
4. Establish a Commanding Position. This becomes a metaphor for the occupant sleeping, working, teaching, or studying to ‘see’ unlimited possibilities and have clearer focus while also being able to avoid unnecessary situations in daily life. In other words, its symbolic for that person to always remain in their ‘personal power.’ This position also references a protective stance and energetic support.
5. Mindfully select and display images that inspire, strike curiosity, and motivate. You could implement this suggestion at home, in the office, and in the classroom. At home you can choose more personalized imagery. Think about what strikes your curiosity and inspires you. Is it the arts, technology, engineering science, astrology, or something of your own creation? Only you can answer this.
It could be displayed through artwork, objects, books, word art, sculptures, or even instruments. At work you could establish a more professional representation of those visual inspirations. At school, the teacher could choose to display untypical posters that feature different role models, quotes, positive affirmations or imagery, thus helping to introduce new perspectives about the topic being taught, life, and the world we share. Again, for all these environments the selection will have to be customized to the function of each space.
Laura Cerrano is a Full-time Certified Feng Shui expert with 20+ years of experience. She provides bi-coastal consultations and workshops for residential, real estate developments, Fortune 500 companies, and healing facilities. She is currently conducting research for her upcoming book that focuses on bridging the gap between the ancient wisdom Feng Shui and modern day science to establish the practice of Feng Shui as a credible form of health care.