For Christmas, my son and I took a little trip to visit the sites in Moab, UT at Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. We had a hotel room for two nights and brought all our gear to campout for a third night which didn’t end up happening thanks to the snow and bad weather that rolled into town. Since I’ve already written about proper camping Feng Shui, I’d like to talk this time about hotel Feng Shui. The layout and design of the spaces we stay while on vacation are just as important as the spaces we inhabit day to day, so I am going to share some of the things that this hotel did right and the things that they did wrong.
As soon as we walked into our hotel room, I started to see the room with my Feng Shui eyes. The first task is always to just do a mental inventory of what is seen. Since most hotel rooms are going to have the basics of a bed, tv and bathroom, this process takes mere seconds. Right away, I noticed that there was a very inviting armchair with its own lamp overhead in the right hand corner of the room. I couldn’t wait to get cozy in the chair and catch up on some reading with one of the books I packed.
In case you are new to Feng Shui, the right hand corner of any room falls into the Relationship gua of the bagua as it relates to the entry door. This was a fine for a trip with my son, but if I had been with a romantic partner, a small couch or a space for two people to enjoy would have been better. A single chair in this area of a room does not promote togetherness. If there is only one chair, there is only room for one person.
Once we got unpacked and settled in though, I found an intriguing problem with this area of the hotel room. Upon further inspection, I discovered that the overhead light was unplugged and that the only outlet within reach had the most bizarre outlet plug that I had ever seen. It was literally impossible to plug anything into it! At first I thought it was just that I wasn’t plugging it in correctly, but then I got down on my hands and knees and saw that the outlet could only accept one appliance, and the much-needed heater was already using it.
From a design perspective, this is literally the dumbest thing a hotel could do. Why add anything at all if adding it is just for looks and isn’t functional? Suddenly, the chair lost all its appeal and I ended up using it to pile hiking gear instead. Strike 1.
In the left hand corner of the room was a desk. This area relates to our money, abundance and prosperity. The placement of the desk was not in command position because it was not facing the entry. It invited the user to sit and stare at the wall, it was very cramped and crowded and also not very functional. Strike 2.
The nice thing about this room was that it came with a microwave, a hidden mini-fridge and a very large flat-screen tv with cable. Free wifi was also part of the package here. When you are like me and you don’t have a typical tv setup at home, it can be fun to chill out in bed and watch tv. Once again though, if a couple had been on a romantic getaway to this location, having an exposed television in the “bedroom” is not ideal. This goes for at home as well. I am a firm believer that tv, laptops and computers should all be banned from our bedrooms.
The two queen beds were placed in a command position with a solid wall behind and a view of the front door. This is very good bed placement because it is a perfect example of the command position rule which creates a feeling of safety and security.
“Our living spaces display an external reflection of our internal lives. Using Feng Shui as a tool to discover that which is hidden within us is the great gift that this ancient wisdom provides.”
~ Logynn B. Northrhip
The bathroom was perfectly placed in the front right-hand section of the room which aligns with the travel and helpful people area of the bagua. The element for this area is metal and since bathrooms are known for all the water and draining they produce, having a metal element room is one of the best because it “holds” the water element. When a bathroom is improperly placed, say in the money area, the water can represent a potential for flushing away of income.
As I completed my brief analysis of the space we would inhabit for the next two days, I could see that it was going to provide us with the precise energy that we needed. In other words, it was an energetic match from a conscious and a subconscious perspective. Since our plan was to be out and exploring and hiking, a simple room was all we needed.
One of the more curious aspects of Feng Shui is that we are always attracting the design of any space we inhabit to provide us with the exact experience that we need. If there is deep emotional healing needed, we will fall in love with the house that can provide that healing. However, that same house can be a nightmare if we do not know how use our spaces to create the life that we are seeking. When we know how to work with the ancient concepts of Feng Shui, we can intentionally create better and better experiences for ourselves.
It is fun to practice all that you know and are continuing to learn about Feng Shui when you travel and stay in hotels. If you end up at a hotel that has bad furniture placement, go ahead and move the bed. I won’t tell!
fengshuigirlinthecity.wordpress.com 