Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of bed positions. No, not positions in bed. Positions of your bed. Literally translated as "wind-water," Feng Shui has been a popular yet controversial aspect of interior design globally since the 1970's. It's based around the idea that there is energy, or ch'i, moving around the world, including our bedrooms. By positioning your bed according to the principles of Feng Shui, you can supposedly ensure that the energy in your bedroom is free to flow favourably, greatly improving your life while also helping you to avoid illness and bad luck. If this sounds a little too good to be true, you're not alone.

Ever since gaining world-wide popularity in the 70's, Feng Shui has been the topic of heated debate. Considering that some Feng Shui "experts" have made millions giving home and bedroom design advice to wealthy millionaires over the years, it's understandable that people have taken a long hard look at this mystical interior design philosophy. Most people have come to the conclusion that Feng Shui is nothing more than a superstitious belief system; a remnant of a time in which life was explained in terms of magic rather than science. Yet the fact remains that most people still perk their ears up when they hear the words "Feng Shui". And there may be good reason for this, especially when it comes to positioning your bed.

As silly as it may seem, there seems to be some truth to the bed positioning principles of Feng Shui. Like many spiritual belief systems, Feng Shui can be understood at many different levels. Its overarching philosophy espouses controlling the flow of energy in your bedroom by positioning your bed in just the right way. But underlying this mystical reasoning lies a practicality that gives Feng Shui some real value when positioning your bed. Let's take a look at a couple of these principles and try to find the pragmatic explanation within the mystical rationale.

When setting up your bedroom, it seems only logical that you would want to put your bed a good distance away from your bedroom door. Not only would it be a waste of space to have the bed right close to the door, but it would be a huge obstacle that would likely lead to lots of bruised shins and stubbed toes. Feng Shui also offers up the idea that the energy in your room has more room to flow when your bed is as far from the bedroom door as possible. For example, if your bedroom door is on the left side of your bedroom then the bed should be in the far right corner of your bedroom. This is the best way to ensure proper flow of energy throughout your bedroom.

There are also practical reasons though, such as the lack of awareness you have about who is approaching through your bedroom door. While they say that this avoids imbalance and frustration, it is likely that in ancient Chinese times this avoided something much more sinister such as being murdered in your bedroom. Even though times are much more civilized nowadays, this is still a good enough reason as any to keep your bed a good distance from your bedroom door.

Every bedroom is different. The shape is different. And the placement of the bedroom door is different. Yet is unlikely that your bedroom door is perfectly centred in the middle of your room. It's more likely that your bedroom door is far to one side of the room. To make the most use of your space it only makes sense that you would want to position your bed as far away from your door, which means that there would be no risk of having to centre your bed to your door. Nevertheless, this is one of the mandates of Feng Shui when it comes to bed positioning. So let's assume you may be inclined to centre your bed to your bedroom door. What's the big deal?

While Feng Shui teaches that seeing the door to your bedroom symbolizes that you know what life is bringing, it's a big no-no to directly face your bedroom door as the energy of the door would then run directly up the middle of your bed. Supposedly this is too much energy focused on your bed. Not following this principle puts you at risk for developing diseases along the middle of your body as well as contributing to stress, irritability and other health problems. Maybe next time you're feeling a little worse for wear at work, just tell your boss you made the mistake of centring your bed to your door? Seriously, though, this is a tough one in terms of finding some practical reasoning, beyond the earlier explanation about making the most use of your bedroom space.

Herein lies the problem with Feng Shui. In some ways, it only seems logical design principles disguised as mystical fear-mongering. In other ways, such as this, it seems with any rhyme or reason, which is why it's best to take what is useful from ancient belief systems like Feng Shui, and leave it at that. In the end, common sense should always trump superstitious. Even if Donald Trump was once a devout Feng Shui enthusiast. It didn't give him any luck in the hair department.