A question of balance
Even if you can’t pronounce it, Feng Shui could solve some of your problems
ON MY way to meet top-class Feng Shui instructor and lecturer Georgia Kiafi, I was concerned, which is understandable considering I can neither spell nor pronounce her chosen profession. I decided that the best course of action was to avoid pronouncing the ‘F’ word and wait until Georgia herself uttered it.
Feng Shui, she told me means “fire and water, and is pronounced Fung Schway”.
It’s the Chinese art of placement – an art that has been around for over five thousand years. The Ancient Chinese believed that buildings require as much attention as our bodies, and developed this highly complex science for ‘healing the environment.’
Georgia can increase the positive and, hopefully, reduce the negative both in the home and the work place. She is a certified Feng Shui master and four pillars of destiny instructor, groomed for the role by the eminent Master Raymond Lo of Hong Kong.
“We have all heard of sick building syndrome, and some of the symptoms can be alleviated via Feng Shui,” she said. “The HSBC bank in Hong Kong needed to be modernised but instead of using existing sections and building on to the old structure, the building was totally destroyed in 1984. A new clean building went up in its place.
“This was on the advice of a respected a Feng Shui master called in to asses the situation. He told executives this course of action was the only way the bank would grow and develop into one of the world’s biggest players in its field and this has certainly happened. I have also acted for retailers who need their business improved, I do work regularly with people who feel misfortune has been their constant companion, my job is to help them change this negative pattern.”
Everything Georgia said about Feng Shui seemed eminently sensible, with the art coming across as a marriage of Jungian philosophy and quantum physics, but, the key element has to be that we should all try to live with rather than against nature.
Also related is the premise that our lives are deeply affected by our physical and emotional environs. “If we surround ourselves with negativity, with noise and various forms of ugliness, we will corrupt ourselves in the process. If we surround ourselves with beauty, gentleness, kindness and various expressions of the sweetness of life we actually ennoble ourselves and our now increasingly fragile environment.”
So what about all the building work currently going on in Cyprus? “Few developers appreciate the five elements that make a happy and successful environment. Feng Shui is not just about where the front door is positioned in relation to the staircase or the popular view that you can change all in your life by a one-time rearrangement of your sofa. It’s a more complex calculated study, primarily using the flow of good and bad energy, called Chi, this is the life force which flows through all living organisms and is generally interpreted as energy. This vital Chi is what helps harmonise the places we live and work, and my job is to ensure this vital energy flows correctly. I see so many homes and offices here in Cyprus which are sick in so many ways and in turn the occupants are also suffering.”
Georgia finished off our meeting by telling my horoscope – something that is part and parcel of her Feng Shui consultancy and once again surprised me by being spot on.
Any tips? Ditch forever the dried flower arrangements, kill the cactus outside the front door (as this causes disharmony), and remove the full length mirror from the master bedroom.
l Georgia Kiafi visits Cyprus on a regular basis. [email protected], www.fengshuilife.gr Tel: 0041 797887948. Georgia is fluent in English, Greek and German
Seven questions
What car do you drive?
A red VW Polo
Describe your perfect weekend?
A sunny weekend close to nature with good company
What is your greatest fear?
Not forgiving, not learning from my mistakes
Assuming you believed in reincarnation who or what would you come back as?
I know a lot about my past lives, but I have not decided yet who I want to be next
What is your earliest memory?
Difficult childhood
What did you have for breakfast?
A good coffee. I can’t wake up without coffee
What was the last item of clothing you bought?
A t-shirt from Zara
