Hey guys, welcome to Learn Feng Shui podcast. For ancient tradition, it's modern living. In each week, we cover a different aspect of Feng Shui or Chinese metaphysics. I'm your host Candice Berlanga. This week's a little bit of a throwback episode.
And we're going to talk about everything from plants to bringing the outdoors inside, a little bit of biophilic design. And for our Folklore Friday segment, we're going to visit the origin of parks. A little bit more surprising than you would know actually. All right, let's get into it. What do we do to help improve the Feng Shui around our yard?
It is said that in Feng Shui, that the external environment does make up a large portion of your Feng Shui somewhere roughly from 70 to 90 percent of your Feng Shui energy. It comes from external water-called forms, mountains and water. But you know, for people who don't live around mountains and water type energy, and you might just live in a flat area like I do, really just looking around your immediate environment can be very impactful. So warm weather is here. And again, it's time to connect with nature.
Just kind of starting out here, looking at what we can do to improve that external environment and bring that energy flow into our home. When the energy around our house is stagnant, we have stuff sitting out there with leaves, trash, stuff like that. That could mean that the energy or the Qi is not coming into our home. So just cleaning outside. Like, start with cleaning up the trash and pile of leaves from the winter.
This does open up the flow of energy around the home. If you have a lot of clutter and stuff in the winter time, maybe we stash the outside, we drop stuff outside, maybe we clean up something, but we leave a pile of debris. And now it's time to start cleaning all that up to allow the energy to flow into your home. And then the next utilizing that outdoor space. So just really using the outdoor space you have, whether you're in an apartment, or you just have a small modest yard.
Again, it doesn't have to be something where you're putting a lot of plants or having to be gardening or anything like that because let's face it. Not everyone has the time nor do they really have the knowledge. I mean, raising plants really does require a little bit of effort, you know. And you know what, fake plants are okay. So in an apartment, you can put just put some plants around the main entrance or use the balcony area just for extra seating.
This does encourage the energy or the chief load to go into your space, especially if you do have a smaller spot, maybe you live in an apartment, but you're facing a long hallway. That energy is really going to be able to come in through that balcony area. If you open it up and use it a lot, there's kind of some debate around that that this isn't a main entrance. So it's not really considered. But however, just use what you have to work with and open up that small little balcony area in your apartment.
So focusing on the front door, so this is where the key enters regularly. Clean your front entrance and free it of trash and debris. Clean your front door and the glass. Make sure the doors aren't stuck and they are a good repair and they don't creak. So this is symbolic.
It's, you know, just symbolically the front door does represent welcoming opportunity. And so making your entrance welcoming and inviting is just recommended in Vung Shui and consider painting your door or making any repairs to it if needed. Give it a little oil. Again, you can use color theory and you can look up, you know, the direction your home actually faces. And you can paint your front door according to those colors.
And if you do need help either finding the facing direction of your home or picking out a color for your front door, just go ahead and shoot me a message on the website. And next, of course, if you are good with plants, pot of plants around the front door can help collect energy and occur, just float into the home. Clean out the pots with dead plants in it. Make sure there's no dead stuff sitting around there. And if you really do like to be outside, but you just have a small space and you don't really have the garden area, another good solution.
And this is for the International Function, we guild their May newsletter, which I'll like to show you. It's from innerharmonyschool.com. There's a really good article here about forest bathing. And so you don't actually have to like go to a forest or anything, but if you really just want to get out in nature, one of the solutions that I do is I go to my local Arboridam, which I have a small Arboridam here, but it really is the most pretty place here in town. And it really does make me feel like I'm outside of where I live, because I don't live in a super green or hilly area.
So I'll link to this, but there's a really good, she has like an ebook on forest bathing, but it is a Japanese term that's called Shinryunyoku. And it says here that the experience is one to have been proven to reduce the impacts of stress on your body and improve your immune system and overall well-being. She does go on to say here that not just being outside is considered forest bathing, but there's a little bit of like a process to it. And here she talks about observing what you see around you, the colors, you know, just observing who's around, what kind of trees are there, the different things of in nature, different little forest animals and stuff like that. Deep breathing is really good to do outside.
Of course, we know that trees do release oxygen. And I do feel like sometimes that deep breathing does come a little bit easier for me outside. I know what I'm outside. Especially when the winds blow and stuff like that, I feel like doing that really deep breathing in through your stomach and diaphragm and extending everything and doing like really long out breaths. It really helps to one oxygenate your body and brain.
And it does actually reduce stress. And it can lower your blood pressure and everything. There's a lot of benefits to actually doing deep breathing. And so there's different techniques and all kinds of stuff you can actually do. So take the time to do some deep breathing out there.
She also talks about kind of respecting the outdoors. You know, we're not having to take things from the outdoors or anything like that. Sometimes we might be taking from a little animal's home or food source. So she does say to consider that and taking a conscious walk. I like what she says here.
She says what is conscious walking most walking we do is for a purpose, a goal or an endpoint, whether it's to catch the bus or to go from the couch, the refrigerator or to reach a number of steps or miles that we're walking in a day. This is purposeful walking. But conscious walking is very different. It's a slow walk with all the senses turned on, being conscious of each step and what we're stepping on. It's also being aware of the movement, the air and the sounds and the shift in the light and the sky.
And this is one thing I really enjoy doing. I mean, my husband take frequent date nights on Fridays and usually we'll end up going to either one of the local university does have a greenhouse also. And outside of the greenhouse is a beautiful, beautiful landscaping. And actually when I put this up on my social media post, I'm going to put a picture of the botanical garden area around that greenhouse at our local university. It's just really, really pretty.
So that's the picture I'm going to use for this episode. The male. Finding a friend. Do you remember a tree from childhood? Maybe when you climbed or that was outside your bedroom or window or when you passed in the way to school or a tree that you felt safe around that felt like a friend?
And you know, this is really true because we don't realize these trees are actually like these living like entities in and of themselves. You know, trees have their own like ecosystem throughout the roots, especially the really old ones. There can a pee, hold all kinds of different flora and fauna's fungus, bugs, all kinds of stuff. And I know that maybe five years ago, my mom had this giant oak tree in her front yard and it shaded her entire front yard. And she just loved it.
She loved being out there and just doing all the things that you could do out with all the shade in your yard. But lightning struck the tree and it split it in a fell all the way across her driveway. They had to pull this tree out. And she actually went through a little bit of a grieving process with this tree. She felt like she lost a friend and she just thought it was so weird and she didn't understand why she felt she lost someone.
And so I think that speaks to the fact that these trees, although they're not sentient in the way we think, we do have this connection to trees and the trees of course have a connection to the environment and all these living things. I know my dad said when he went to start chainsawing, the big branches to get it out of the driveway, that there was all kinds of bugs and stuff scattering, you know, de-housed birds and all kinds of stuff. So there's definitely an ecosystem within that tree. So just makes you think. And another principle we can consider when looking in our external environment and our yard is the Yanan Yang.
So here, author Maureen Kalamyev, who specializes in biofilling design or tool touch on in a minute and is author of luminous spaces. Does talk about considering the Yanan Yang in your yard and your backyard. So here's what she has to say. We also want to consider Yanan Yang. So that's of course one of the principles of funch light.
So Yanan Yang is an eastern idea that has to do with complimentary opposites. It's all about balance. Yanan Yang are present in everything in the universe and their dynamic balance creates harmony and well-being. So it's kind of like the light to the dark of balance. A funchary home will have a Yanan Yang balance and the front of the home should be more Yang energy attracting opportunities from the quote-unquote river flowing by and the back of our property should be a more Yan or calm energy.
And she says here that a Yang environment will be one that is more vibrant, containing movement and light and it will facilitate the flow of Qi from the roadway to the mouth of Qi of the home, aka the front door. However, the front yard can be two Yang of energy and it could be harmful to the occupants of the home if there's some factors in place and she kind of gives the example of a house on a tea intersection. So this would be a house where it's facing the intersection and it's facing oncoming traffic. And which she doesn't stay here but what I've had helpful is to play some planters or some bushes to combat this really fast energy. There's a house on the corner where I live and it faces a tea intersection and without even having a Feng Shui consultant I would assume.
They put these large round planters that are kind of blocking the walkway and then they build a mailbox that actually kind of buffers all that. So they have a lot of buffering in there and I just thought that was genius. Me and my husband were remarking that they really kind of fixed the Feng Shui in that area so that the energy is flowing too fast. So plants can actually do a lot to kind of help block that energy but I digress. If the front yard is too Yen it will not attract positive energy and it will have an effect on the occupants life including careers, finances, health and relationships.
Environments that are too Yen would include a house that is sent back too far from the road with a very narrow driveway and lots of overgrown landscaping, obscuring the view of the house. And another example is a house across from a cemetery. And we've talked about all this before. This does create a overlay again energy and can actually also cause hauntings. A Yen environment in the backyard will provide the security and protection for your family.
This is in landscaping usually does the trick and a Yen yard will provide a safe haven from the exterior world and privacy from strangers and it does include a little bit quieter. A yard that is too Yen in the back will be uncomfortable for the family and can create anxiety depending on the energy of the space. A yard that's very narrow or on top of a neighbor with no visual separation in your yard can also cause a stress. And now looking indoors so say that you're just really not a gardener. You don't even like really being outside.
Maybe you don't even like to sweat. I know people like that didn't you know what that's okay. We're all different in that area. I have no love being outside but I do get overheated so I get it. But yeah, indoors bringing the design into your space.
There is something called biophilic design if you've ever heard of that. Basically, the concept of biophilic design is to bring touches of nature into your space so you feel more connected with nature. And so this is a really nice way to actually add some of those fungshway elements of you know, metal, earth, wood, water, fire. And we can do this by adding plants. So fake or faux plants are actually good alternatives.
People who aren't really good with keeping plants and they bring in the same feeling, although not really the same energy because live plants of course you're growing. But it does help to bring the feeling of the real thing into your space. And of course adding a vase of fresh cut flowers and you have your wood and your water element. You can add your different elements into this space by adding a different color plant. Your greens and your purples for the wood energy, of course the woods already in the plant and water in the vases.
The earth is the dirt that we're putting it in. You can do reds and pinks for that fire energy. You know, and you can also add a water energy by doing the flowers in the vase or adding like blue or dark colored flowers. Another good way to add in some of those design elements from nature into our space. Bringing textures and prints that may make nature like bamboo, woodcrain, landscape, prints of mountains, seasides, even forests.
And of course you can put bowls or faces out that are filled with crystal stones or sand. I think one of the most common associations that I've ever heard of fungshway is this little sand gardens that you do the little rake with it. It's a little zin garden. That could be extra little touch. And even doing things like if you are good with those plants, you can add in like a grass mat or something like that that you could actually just stick your feet on and color.
So adding accent color with fungshway elements, we just talked about the five elements. But you can add this in with pillows, blankets, curtains, and rug. So you don't have to think of adding an actual stone or an actual plant into your space. But you can definitely incorporate the five elements into your space by adding the touches of color. And then lighting.
So open up your blinds and your curtains to allow sunlight into your home, control overly hotter bright rooms with room darkening curtains. And of course color bowls or light strips can help to add color to a space. And the space can be adjusted to set the mood. There's some different color theories. But there is like light spectrums and all kinds of different stuff that you can do.
And I know I've talked about it in the episode about lighting. And we do need to let the sunlight into our home. And if it's a low light area, you can add some different lighting and different UV spectrums into those bulbs that they sell that actually will mimic sunlight. And of course, you want to make sure it's not overly bright in an area either. And you want to control that.
These are just a few ways to add nature into your space without having to go outside. And if you are one that does like indoor plants, consider these plants here from the International Function Way Guild by Lois Kramer Perez. She does talk about this wood energy and how it can keep us motivated. So if we find ourselves feeling stuck, she says, what a better way to get motivated than to get outside and walk amongst the trees, bringing the energy of the tree inside our homes and office space. We bring life.
And so keeping on the theme of indoors. If you do want plants, she says here these are the best ones to keep in. And you're space and they help keep us healthy. So the piece lily, it removes chemical vapors, including acetone and just some different kind of chemicals here. It neutralizes effects of EMF and are good to keep your computers.
I've found them impossible to keep alive, but I do love them. I don't think I was I was taking care of it. Right. So a snake plant, which I also find difficult to care, but it's supposed to be easy to care for. It doesn't move toxins in a room where no other plants will grow from photocopiers and printers.
It says, it's good for rooms that don't have a lot of ventilation. And these are supposed to all be easy to grow. A rubber plant, a great humidifier removes indoor chemicals, particularly from alohyd, and it does tolerate dim light and cooler temperatures. The next one is a tree called Janet Craig. It says here that this tree is one of her favorites.
It's great for corners and it places fifth on NASA's ranking with a 7.8 score for removing toxins. It removes from alohyd and a chemical called sionine so it helps purify the air really well. And bup palm is another great choice. It has moisture to indoor air, especially during the use of heat in the winter months. It removes chemical vapors and it does barely well in low lighting.
English ivy, it filters airborne pollutants such as fecal particles, so maybe keeping the bathroom out of hide and aerosols. But it is poisonous. It says keep away from children and pets and it likes a brighter sun. I know I've grown this outside and it does quite well. So these are some good choices.
If you want to put some good plants. Now I do always suggest piece lilies as plants to clients when they're trying to activate a space with a plant. There are certain times I recommend that and a piece of lilies usually one. Alright guys, let's take a little mid show break. Everything I talked about today of course is linked in the show notes and learn functue.com.
By website, you know, there's a monthly blog post with the newsletter which I think is pretty interesting. And if you are a spotify listener, don't forget, there is a Q&A linked below. And you can ask me functue questions or just leave a comment on the show and that also does help me to get a little feedback. Let's go ahead and go to folklore friday and we're going to talk about the origin of modern day parks. Alright guys, so looking at the forest bathing and being outside and celebrating this summertime that we're entering.
Let's talk about the history of parks, public parks, how they evolved over the centuries. I thought it'd be an interesting time to kind of look into memorial parks. So they kind of start back at least here in the US to the 1600 from a website called Trash Kands, a limited.com. They actually have a article here about the history of public parks in America. And so it kind of talks about the first official spot here in the US being made about the 1600s so 1634.
It does go on to say that the first official public park was Boston Common and it was a public space created in 1634. So the common did have many purposes over the years and it was first owned by William Blackston who sold it to Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay. It was actually used as a cow pasture and has a long story history that resulted in becoming an official public park in the 1830s. It was even a military camp used by the British before the Revolutionary War. And the first manifestation of the public park was likely a town square, which existed in civilizations and societies worldwide.
Boston Common initially served as a shared pasture later becoming an area where civic gatherings parades and other community activities were shared. Like many towns as they grow, the town square evolves into a park or plaza in front of the county courthouse or town hall. And many of these squares eventually griddled monuments, fountains and flagpoles to signify nationalities. Some of that continued to serve as a market or commercial gathering space to this day. And that's very true because I know that our courthouse here in the town where I live actually still holds a summer concert series.
And so once a week during the summer, they actually have a musician come in and do a little free public concert. So yeah, that still goes on to this day. Kind of moving on to the 1800s, looking at our sister country here of England, you know, the Botanical Gardens and the Royal Botanical Gardens were actually a large inspiration for public parks. Around the early 1800s, there were these magnificent gardens. It kind of talks about here in Englishheritage.org, Prince Albert, who laid out magnificent gardens of his own at Osborne on the Isle of White.
And these kind of evolved into these architectural gardens. It does say here that Victorian designers react to strongly against the 18th century vogue of naturalistic gardens and landscapes. And they prefer to bring houses and gardens into a stylistic unity. So they really did kind of design their gardens to be very ornamental. This kind of also signified to people like, hey, we can have a lawn that is not used for food, you know.
And that's kind of how it started in the US to the modern day lawns, which is a whole separate thing. But urban parks created response to a concern about overcrowding and the condition of the poor, brought Victorian innovations in garden design to the wider public. So echoing private gardens in their layout and planting, but with amenities such as band sands and tea houses, parks relate out by some of the greatest designers in the UK, Joseph Paxton and John Claudius Loudon. So at the same time, the first large urban cemeteries were also created, many in the form of landscape gardens. And one of the earliest at Kinsle Green in North London, open in 1831, like Victorian cemeteries, it has an extraordinary variety of sculptures and monuments.
So that brings me to my next point. The modern day park was actually also inspired by cemeteries. So believe it or not, in the 19th century, many Americans living and up and coming cities and towns often found themselves strolling through winding past and curated gardens, stopping to rest under the shade of trees and share a picnic with family and friends. But dotted along these grassy areas were headstones making burial locations for those who relate to rest. While the concept of relaxing in a graveyard does seem a bit tabooed in the present day, it was sometimes the only option for people to find a space for recreation and leisure and was one of the earliest examples of a public park.
Many of the parks we have today were actually caused by the evolution and planning of historic cemeteries. So in this era, death was more frequent as waves of disease swept over the world and people have shorter life expectancy. The emphasis on death was an idea that people were more accustomed to and comfortable with and it was actually viewed as more of a deep sleep and visitations including picnic and larger celebration at a gravesite or an accepted way to keep someone close to their family. And of course, that kind of does remind me of ancestor of interation and the dead type celebration. So until 1831, modern cemeteries really didn't exist in the US after the construction of a large burial ground in Massachusetts, many other cities actually began to create distinct separations between the world of the living and where the dead would reside.
So while still inviting that public in. So hard boundaries including landscape features and fences designated when we could enter and visit these spaces at their convenience. So it kind of gave it like a visiting hour, you know. So by the end of the 19th century, many cemeteries featured entrance gates to mark where one world ended and another began. And many people saw the benefits of this type of separation, noting that it also deliberately created large areas of grass where people could relax, extravagant statues and headstones, created picturesque views, resembling more of a sculpture garden out of museum than a final resting place.
And people began to flock to cemeteries or picnics hunting and even carriage racing. And due to their popularity, many cemeteries began creating maps, issuing guidebooks and posting rules for visitors. At the same time, burial grounds associated with churches were actually seen as unsanitary, expensive, crowded, and dangerous. So hundreds of burials took place in very small plots of land, often resulting in coffins being stacked on top of each other, sometimes as high as seven. So seven coffins stacked on top each other.
So when heavy rains came, they often broke open and spilled into the street. And this only further popularized large cemeteries that were designed more as parks. So at the turn of the 20th century, cities continued to become more crowded and land value skyrocketed and ideas began to shift about how the space should be used. And people actually began prioritizing private amenities instead. And cemeteries were seen as less of a priority, especially when pop culture began to portray the creepy side of spending time among the dead.
And I think that's kind of a disservice to us. Because again, I think we've lost so much of the kind of rituals that we brought into this country when it was first being inhabited by colonizers, we'll just say. And so we really did kind of lose some of that. We've lost our connection to kind of that space of like the ancestor of iteration. New cemeteries were planned to be located on the outskirts of town, allowing much larger spaces where burials could occur, keeping them away from where most people were living.
It was at that time that city planners and policymakers began to see a need for public parks that also didn't serve as cemeteries and began to carve out small spaces where people could participate in leisurely activities. Some burial grounds, including Washington Square Park in New York, where more than 20,000 people were laid to rest, were completely covered and transformed into public gathering spaces. And while for the most part many cemeteries don't permit large public gatherings, some have reinvented themselves as historical areas where visitors are free to rediscover their park like qualities. And newer cemeteries have even rebranded themselves to memorial parks with less emphasis on the taboo aspect and more on carrying the memories. Alright guys, we hope you enjoyed today's episode.
Maybe it'll encourage you to do some cleaning up around the yards this weekend, including some little design elements into your home or even just getting out and taking a little nature walk. If you're listening out to Spotify, don't forget to leave a comment in the comment section below.