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October 02, 2008
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Workspace near the bathroom |
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Q: I work at home, and the door to the room my workspace is in is directly across from the bathroom door. Lately my finances are suffering, so I want to do something to correct this. My plan is to:
1) put red/earth carpet at the entrance to the bathroom
2) place a bowl of pebbles on the top of the toilet
3) install Japanese half-curtains on my doors, like the ones in Japanese restaurants, that you bend down to duck under when you enter
4) hang a large mirror on the bathroom door (as is often suggested) to deflect any good chi from going into the bathroom.
I’m concerned, though, that the mirror will also reflect my work area. Will this do more harm than good?
A: Sorry to stick a pin in the balloon of your feng shui plans, but I think most of these ideas are misguided. It’s important to keep in mind that most common “bathroom cures” are designed to counteract a poorly located bathroom, such as a bathroom in the wealth or marriage area. But that’s not the issue here. You’re concerned because the door to your workspace faces the bathroom door.
If you are concerned that “money chi” is somehow flowing from your work area out the door and across the hall and down the bathroom drains (as alarmist bathroom-phobes might say will happen), adding earth chi to the bathroom isn’t going to fix that.
Same is true if you are worried that nasty chi from the bathroom is seeping out across the hall and polluting your work area (another theory that I don’t buy into). A bowl of pebbles on top of the toilet isn’t going to affect that, either. Yes, according to the cycles of the elements, earth “controls” water… but the strong water chi of the bathroom is not the problem here, so you don’t need to fix it.
Where proximity is the concern the remedy is to interrupt whatever funky influence you suspect may be coming (or going) from across the hall. The best way to do this is to hang a faceted crystal ball either outside the bathroom door or midway between your desk and the bathroom. You might also place a large houseplant beside your desk on the side that’s nearest the door.
The Japanese half-curtain does create a barrier between the two spaces, which is a fine concept: but the bathroom already has a door you can keep closed, right? So the curtain goes where, on the door to your workspace? Think about this for a minute: what kind of situation are you setting up for yourself if you have to bend over and duck under an obstacle each time you enter your work area? Is that kind of movement pattern likely to make your work life or financial situation any easier? I doubt it.
As for the mirror, yes these are frequently recommended for the outside of the bathroom door, if the bathroom location is a problem. It’s not quite accurate, though, to say that the mirror is there to “delfect good chi” from getting into the bathroom area. (BTW, I disagree with the entire concept that “good chi” from your room across the hall is going to wander over to the bathroom and get flushed away.) What the mirror does is symbolically “erase” the bathroom space: when you look at the mirror you see in the reflection a space that is not the bathroom. The mirror is there to disguise the bathroom, not to deflect good chi.
If the mirror reflects your desk, then yes, it could be “moving” your desk into the bathroom, and that’s the opposite of what you want to do. Something else to keep in mind is that if the mirror reflects your desk it could symbolically be doubling your workload. Whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing is for you to decide. Perhaps twice the client load or twice the billable hours will be a dream come true for you. Or maybe you already feel overextended and any more work will overwhelm you.
What this all boils down to is that it appears you have collected a hodgepodge of generic bathroom cures from a variety of sources and traditions without really focusing in on what exactly the issue is in your situation, so you can choose strategies that are appropriate for the underlying problem.
Personally, I suspect the situation is a “no big deal” at best. The idea that bathrooms are sinkholes of pestilence dates from pre-industrial times long before the introduction of indoor plumbing, flush toilets and, more to the point, Lysol. Our modern bathrooms—if we keep them clean—are just not that nasty an influence. (Yes, the draining influence of the plumbing can be a concern, but again, that's not the issue here.)
I think it’s far more likely that you are being affected by a poor desk position within your work room and that the location of the bathroom across the hall has little to do with it.
Hope this helps you re-think your plans toward a more targeted solution,
Stephanie R.
Q+A POLICY
The purpose of this Q+A service is to clarify modern feng shui principles and remedies, and to help you make sense of contradictory teachings you’re likely to come across. If you are new to this blog, please read the Q+A Guidelines (see sidebar on left) before sending me a question. Do expect that I will edit your message for clarity and focus, and that it will be several days (often longer) before I post a reply. Keep in mind, too, that you’re getting my personal opinion on the topic. If you ask someone else, you might get a different answer.Labels: bathroom, crystals, Feng Shui Q+A
posted by Stephanie R. #
10/02/2008 02:53:00 PM
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