Qigong and Tai Chi Practice Directions Based on Feng Shui

For static practices like standing (zhan zhuang) or sitting meditation it would be worth your while to consider using the techniques of Feng Shui to establish the best direction to face. Spending a couple of moments to figure out this takes only a few moments and it will benefit your practice. The factor that determines one's favorable direction is the year of your birth. A table provided by the Eight House Feng Shui method allows you to find your gua (kua) number to find your best directions. This table can also be used to find favorable directions for prosperity, work and family relations. In the eight-sided Ba Gua of Feng Shui, half of the directions are favorable and half are not. The means of finding your gua number and best directions are given below.

Methods for calculating a gua number differ, depending on whether you are male or female.

For a male, add the last two digits of the year of your birth together. If you were born in 1993, that result would be 12. Since the answer is more than 10, then you have to add the two numbers together, so take the number 12 add 1 + 2 = 3. Lastly, you subtract this number from 10. So the gua number for a male born in 1993 is 7.

For a females born in 1987, adding the last two digits results in a total of 15. Add these two numbers together to reduce to 1 digit, to make the results 6. Then add 5 to this number to get 11. Add the two digits together since they are more than 10 making the gua number 2.

Note that the male and female gua assignments differ for the gua number of 5. The Ho Hai direction is the least favorable direction, while the favorable directions correspond to the following categories:

Sheng Chi - This direction helps bring wealth, increased personal energy, and career development. Orient your desk and conduct important business in this orientation . The front door of a house is best oriented in this direction.

Tien Yi - This direction directly relates to the practice of qigong and Tai chi. It is the direction that benefits health. It is also associated with increased confidence, beneficial relationships and developing patience. The head's sleeping position should be in this direction.

Nien Yen - This energy promotes harmony in marriage and the family. It also is associated with long life and self-sufficiency.

Fu Wei - This energy state increases tranquility, so it is good for meditation, self-reflection and self-improvement.

Ho Hai - Although this direction is related to discouragement and loss of money, it is a better choice than the Kwi, Lui Sha and Chueh Ming directions (not listed in the tables above), when given no other alternatives.

If you are doing sitting or standing meditation practices or any other practice where you are facing one direction for a while, obviously your fu wei direction will be the most favorable direction to face. If you are outdoors, facing in that direction and near a tree will even better.

If you are doing moving practices indoors, do the practice in the room that has the tien yi energy direction and orient yourself in that direction at the opening and closing part of the exercise if possible. For outdoor practice, also orient yourself in your tien yi energy direction for the opening and closing aspects of your exercise.

Find the proper practice direction gets more difficult if you do the practice in groups, but the group energy can overcome negative directional energies. If you have done qigong practice, you will know that to be true. When people work together on these practices, the experience of practice is enhanced many-fold.