The Importance Of Lighting In Our Homes

Hey guys welcome to the Learn Feng Shui podcast where you'll Learn Feng Shui from a classical point of view taking out the myth and Superstition so if you're interested in learning funu Chinese astrology all things Chinese metaphysics as well as the superstitions and myths that connect it all you'll enjoy learning fun with me hey guys today we're going to be covering the topic of lighting in your home the importance and the effect that lighting has on you as well as how to enhance the lighting conditions to establish an environment that can support Wellness productivity and even relaxation so I always forget to introduce myself my name is Candice Berlanga I am a certified Funway practitioner and a red RI professional with the international fun Guild um lighting is very important so we're going to talk about incor incorporating appropriate lighting into our lip living space and it really can be a simple and effective way to enhance the energy and even the Ambiance of our home and best of all it is cheap and effective so let's get into why lighting is so important in Fun Way lighting is an essential part of our life and it can significantly impact our well-being so getting good lighting and adequate lighting can help create a comfortable and safe environment while poor lighting can negatively affect our mood productivity and mental health so it is very important to understand the significance of lighting and how it can improve in our home and create a space that does promote Wellness because that's one of the cornerstones of funu like we want to thrive and we we want to create Wellness in our space so research even shows that lighting can affect our feelings sleep patterns mood energy levels and poor lighting can actually contribute to things like depression and deficiencies in our body like vitamin D deficiency we get from the sunlight and even the amount and type of lighting can directly affect our concentration our appetite and even other aspects of our life so specifically looking at the sun here um it you know kind of talking about our ancient ancestors they even understood the importance of lighting and the sunlight and as they move from being a u hunter gatherer society and moved into the Agricultural Society where they were building homes they knew the importance of the Sun and they usually orient at their homes to take advantage of the sun's natural warmth and light and I mean use it for lighting year round cuz I mean all they had was was fire you know we didn't have electricity so um in modern times of course we do need to consider a different sort of um sort of factors you know like light pollution LED lights and stuff like that which we'll get into also but kind of sticking with the sun here there's many phrases in Funway that give us a clue to the importance of sunlight in our home uh the first one is when the sunlight is absent a doctor will be present and I mean really that does denote that you know when we're not letting the sunlight into our home we can cause a whole host of issues right uh which I'm going to kind of get into all these issues in a little bit but sun is very important in uh keeping us healthy we we need that light you know um and if you kind of think about your own home you know and you think about the level of lighting you know we all have a our homes really do have a certain feeling to them but if you go to somebody else's home and it's very dark it's going to feel very oppressive you know and that could be again due to low lighting maybe they never open their drapes or blinds maybe they don't like a lot of natural sunlight but again it's just very important um it again causing things like depression and um all sorts of things again that we're going to get into um another clue to how important the sunlight is um is the saying that says where the Sun resides all evil subsides now that is relating a little bit more to timing um and funu and the position of the sun relative to the Earth uh during a specific time you know I kind of talked about this uh last uh week I think on my energy update I kind of went into um how you can actually time Renovations based on the solar cycle okay so anyway the sun is just very very important here um you know and so let's kind of get into here what are some things what are some issues that it can that can be caused by not having a lot of lighting or sunlight in your home so having minimal sunlight for an extended period of time can cause mental health issues that's the first thing so according to different studies prolonged periods of low sunlight can has have a significant impact on a person's mental health so lack of sunlight can lead to things like that um Seasonal effective disorder depression anxiety and different Sleep Disorders so exposure to Natural Light can actually help regulate our Cadian Rhythm which is responsible for that sleep and wake cycle and when we receive enough natural light during the day we tend to feel a little more energized more alert more focused and we are likely to get a better night's sleep sunlight's also essential for the production of vitamin D in the body U vitamin D is a vital nutrient that does play an important role in maintaining different things like your healthy bones muscles in immune system so a lack of vitamin D can lead to different health problems including those symptoms like depression anxiety and other mental health issues and since sunlight is essential for regulating our body's sleep cycle during the winter months when the days are shorter um people do tend to experience disruptions in that Cadian Rhythm that can lead to feelings of fatigue and just feeling kind of irritable um um yeah and so those are some of the things that can it can affect again going back to the sad or Seasonal effective disorder um that's actually depression that's associated with um things like daylight savings late autumn and winter times and they're actually thought to be caused by a lack of light um not just by the longer winter nights but also just a low Lighting in General on a daily basis so if we think about you know sometimes it's it tends to be very drewy or CL just kind of depending on where you live um we tend to get days that are interspersed with like 40° weather and sunlight and so those are really nice days I try to get out and just um do a little bit of yard work or something on those those times so um yeah so but yeah the sunlight can really play a big key in our mental health and I think that's very important especially kind of this time in society I mean we tend to you know at least I do I I want to be more focused on Mental Health you know feeling good I think if our minds are good um we can make up a lot for in our bodies you know provided you don't have like some um you know chronic health issue or something but I think if mentally we're ready to do things you know the rest of our body will kind of fall a suit so looking at the sunlight and all the factors we need to consider with that um one thing we also need to consider I think is control of the lighting so in Chinese metaphysics and fun remember we have this Yin and yangong energy and so remember that the the Yen energy is this calm Quiet Energy and the Yang energy is just active energy and so the sunlight would be considered a Yang energy and the Moonlight would be considered a Yin energy well sometimes we need a little bit more Yin energy and so if we think about things where the light is overbearing in a space we don't want that either we want to find a little bit of a happy medium so natural light is always a great addition and it can make a room appear like larger brighter and even be you know more welcoming but when the sunlight is too intense it can actually cause discomfort and damage I mean uh you know like if we think about our furniture or walls you know peeling paint right sometimes the sun is just too intense so this can be due to a number of factors like too many windows maybe lack of window treatments or ineffective window treatments so if a space have too many has too many windows can actually create an overwhelming amount of sunlight and kind of be difficult to control so again going back to the control of the lighting so it can also make the room too hot bright or even difficult to sleep in and also be just too overstimulating so in terms of lighting we want to create a balance between the two yin and yang so if it's too low it can cause the symptoms like I described earlier but if it's too bright that's not really ideal either and so like for example my my my room my house my room is actually in the west side of the house and it gets really hot in the summertime um in the evenings I don't really go in there until you know I'm not one to just like sit in my room or spend time in my room you know and so I just go in there until I'm like ready to lay down because I feel like if I spend too much time in there I don't get tired anyway besides the point the point is that it gets a lot of heat on that side of the house and I I've had to put I already have blinds there but I've had to put you know like room darkening panels because um it's just very overwhelming my husband likes to sit in the room we have a chair in there he'll sit and watch TV in there you know that's a little space so if you're going to do that make sure you do things like um put blinds blackout curtains you know um even if the the view is really nice the lighting still needs to be controlled so um if we have those window treatments you know just it can really help with the amount of light that we're able to control in the room so um sometimes if they're not really installed right uh for the type of space they're not going to be really effective um so we want to make sure when we choose window treatments that um they're not just pretty but they are also effective and and you know we're able to use those to help control the light so it is important to consider the size of the window treatment to ensure that they provide enough light without you know being too harsh also so you want to make sure you find a balance between the yin and the young some of this also does have to do with personal preference again it is important to get sunlight but sometimes the bright harsh lighting can be too overstimulating I know I tend to like a lot of bright light maybe I like the more Yang energy but my my youngest child like they don't like that really bright light like they want their room to be a little dimmer in the mornings they prefer a little bit of the dim lighting I like to kind of wake up too so I mean um I understand also that it can be a personal preference so again of course if we're making sure we're getting like sunlight we're making sure we're spending a little bit of time Outdoors you know I think if we're controlling the level in our home you know there might be a time where we want to be stimulated we want the young energy but then there's a time maybe we want that Yin energy and so to reduce the stimulation if you feel like over stimulated over anxious you can uh draw those blinds um in the evening I do like it a little bit darker again I mentioned my room is on that side I like my room to be dark honestly I like my my bedroom to be nice and calm nice and dark nice and cold like that's how I want my room I want to relax in there and so I I get that and so again I think one of some of the things we can do here is just like look at the overhead lighting we're using you know if our if our wind window aren't letting in like a you know crazy amount of light we can look at the overhead lighting um and do things like using dimmers or lower wattage bulbs you know um brighter lights do tend to raise that energy and increase wakefulness and just again be more stimulating so um room D darkening and noise cancelling and heat control panels again help greatly and I mentioned those earlier um and even filtered lighting so if you know you tend to you want the light maybe it's not a a space in your home that gets direct sunlight all day but you know just some sheer curtains to kind of help Shield some of that out and reduce the sunlight can help too so it can vary different times of the day you know uh midday it might not be the same as the evening you know um I do feel like you want to feel more secure um you know and bring the lightning levels down to increase relaxation in the evening you know warm bulbs can be very helpful so uh one of the one of the examples I like to give on this one is that uh I have a lamp by my front door um just to kind of light the entrance there so in the evenings I turn on my outdoor lighting and then I'll turn on that lamp and you know turn the other lights off that way um usually my son you know he's you know he's he's 19 or 18 so he hangs out with his all his friends right uh you know usually gone till kind of late most evenings and so you know I want him to feel safe I want him to feel like he can uh you know see his way in and so for that reason again that lamp just kind of is usually lit up in the evenings well uh looking at the coolness and the warmth of the light bulbs didn't even occur to me I just kind of bought what was whatever was on sale so I bought a really bright light it was a really white bright light and I put that in the lamp and my daughter was like I I hate that I hate that light bulb and I was like that's kind of weird you know but then my husband he was like that light bulb is is weird like it feels weird to me I was like well that's kind of weird and so I kind of noticed that it was the same bright white tone that we use in our garage because we don't have a lot of lighting in our garage and so I noticed that you know it's that same tone it was way too bright so I just went to the store and looked for a warm light and you know like a yellow lighting and I use that in the lamp instead and they were like yeah that's better but um it just goes to show us so sometimes we can change that tone of the the light bulb and it can you know help us either either feel more alert you know feel stimulated or it can bring that um that level down and kind of help us feel a little bit more secure and less stimulated so yeah so looking at the the warmth of the tones is helpful too speaking of the coolness and warmth you know tone of the lighting one of the cool things that I think is really um useful right now is those different color bulbs you know they have some that are like smart bulbs and you can control them with your phone and you know they can you can change the tone and of course they have the LED strips that can be used to um you know change the tone in your room too and so I know my kids kind of like those um one of the the things that I I did mention earlier is you know like different things like seasonal depression and stuff like that and so you can actually use colored lighting to help combat this so remember that blue light stimulat so if you think about LED lights you know it said that using those LED lights in our TV the blue light in our TV can help you know it it actually um reduces sleep sometimes it can actually make us be too awake so it is best in the morning and so to keep healthy level stay away from Blue hued Light towards the end of the day so remember if you're ready to go to sleep you want to help raise your level of a melatonin to help you get a good night's sleep and so um blue is also known as the bringer of peace and it can be used to lower blood pressure or help calm people down and so it's used for light therapy sometimes for people who have those Cadian Rhythm ISS issues and so it'll help you know keep them awake and then you know we bring it back down um to help people sleep um green so green is known as the strength provider green is the color of Nature and green light therapy can stimulate creation and growth of hormones and strengthen muscles bones and other tissue and is said to boost your immune system remember I'm not a doctor I can't claim any of this this is just what I The Source I had online I'll include all the links in the show notes okay so orange is said to be the source of creativity and orange stimulates the creative thought process and helps people come up with new ideas purple light can help reduce emotional and mental stress yellow can be beneficial in the treatment of depression and red light can help with melatonin production this is a little bit of a different aside but I I got a book and again I linked to it I think there's only a couple left in Amazon but if you have a child with autism and this is something I really want to cover is how to support um individuals with autism but colors can actually help individuals with autism and so there there is a book called um designing for on the autism spectrum disorder you know and so um it's it was actually written by a university Professor here in my town and when I found that I just had to buy it but one of the things that it it kind of talked about is that you can use different lighting for um people with Autism and it can actually help like calm or stimulate you know so I think that was a very interesting little aside so remember that the color do it does have different effect on us at least psychologically and we can kind of use like color theory and color psychology if we want to learn a little bit more about that and again I'll I'll link the book in the show notes one last thing to take into consideration is lighting for our safety so remember that lighting can help to find boundaries for people with eye issues so if you are one that doesn't see very well you do have issues I know some people with cataracts can only see shadows and lighting really is key to helping people stay safe and seeing where they're going so you want to make sure you're Illuminating the past you want to make sure that people have plenty of lighting in their homes where they don't fall a trip on things you know so lighting should actually highlight important parts of our home so if we kind of think way art is lit up at a museum you know or the way you use like a desk lamp if you need to work so you're highlighting a very important thing so likewise we want to be highlighting important areas of our home for our safety you know different and even if we look at things like outdoor lighting we want to make sure that we have enough outdoor lighting where we're able to see at night and you know you're not going to fall on trip on things if you go outside at night so um the night lights do help um around the house so just around the house in general um and the inside putting little night lights up um can be one of the easiest ways I think to kind of illuminate a little area and keep keep it safe and even keep it from feeling spooky and so I know one of the things that my kids are like in my office here U it's by my kids' rooms and one of the things that they talked about was that they didn't like my office door being open at night because I generally just leave the window open I don't really you know close it a lot cuz I'm not in here at night so I usually just shut the door at night but um if I don't um there's a couple night lights around the room and it helps you know lighten the room up a little bit and it makes it feel not so spooky so even for little kids it can hope so those are a couple things you want to take into consideration with lighting for your safety in functuay lighting can actually be used to activate the area some people use the technique of up and down lighting to either raise the chi or bring the chi up in a space so it is said if there's a corner that it seems to be very dark or oppressive or if there is um an area that has like a slope ceiling some people and some practitioners do use the lighting to actually uplift the energy in the area and so you can actually use down lighting if you feel like the energy is a little bit too um young in an area you can use lighting that points down so you can kind of think about these while you're adding lighting or if you're um wanting to do some funu design so keeping on the same theme we're going to be right back after our sponsor break with the tall tail of a Giant's quest to catch the Sun for this folklore Friday chasing light and warmth may have been an ultimate Pursuit for All Humans but there was a Chinese man who actually put it into practice he chased the sun to where it set and he left a shelter there for his inheritors today's folklore Friday is the tall tale of the Giant's quest to catch the Sun there was a vast mountain in the desolate Plains of the north and in that mountain lived a tribe of Mighty Giants they were led by kafu the grandson of the god of the Netherworld and named their tribe after the leader the Giants were strong but kind leading simple lives the leader kafu not only tall and muscular but also had strong legs which enabled him to run faster than a rabbit he often LED his people to fight with beasts for survival thus he often wore yellow snakes that he caught as earrings and swung snakes around in his hands with pride one day kofu sat on a slope watching the sun slowly setting in the west as the land was gradually covered in darkness he suddenly came with a wild idea if he captured the sun would he then bring bright light and warmth to the world forever hearing his IDE many people tried to talk him out of it don't even think about it one said the sun's too far away and you'll die from fatigue the sun's too hot and you'll be burned alive said another but kofu was determined to compete with the sun and to try to catch it and as the sunrose the next morning kofu B farewell to his tribe and chased the sun with a cane in his hand the sun just like a naughty child pranced across the sky and kofu raced across the land like a gush of wind Chasing the Sun relentlessly he chased it over the mountain and rivers shaking the land with every step he took the sun rose Higher and Higher and yet kofu kept chasing it with sweat streaming down his face he was famished and extremely thirsty and he ran to a fruit tree to quench his thirst and relieve his hunger and when he was tired kofu leaned against his Cane and took a quick rest the chase then continued and the sun began dropping in the west kafu got so agitated and shouted you keep running and Save if I don't catch you well the sun did not seem to care at all and it moved even faster into the Western Horizon kofu twirled his Cane and he sced across the plains racing thousands of miles towards the sun it seemed like he was getting closer and closer he chased all the way up to the Mount yanzi and his cood stretched his mighty arms in an attempt to catch the ball of fire a wave of heat gushed in blowing him far away for fortunately he regained his balance with his Cane kofu kept his chin up and started chasing it yet again in the cluster he got to the Sun the hotter it got his sweat drained profusely leaving his clothes soaked and his clothes uh he took them all off and exposed his dark and strong chest as he kept running kofu felt terribly thirsty his throat was so dry and sore and suddenly his eyes lit up with the Yellow River coming into his sight he rushed over and leaned into the river go up the water furiously he was so thirsty that he drank a ball of water in the Yellow River and he was still thirsty so he ran to the next River and started gulping again that River got dry as well and his thirst was still not quenched so he headed north to another big lake the big lake sat in the north of the mount Yamin the water was clean and clear and the birds were flocking and flourishing around thinking of all the fresh water cood scurried over even faster and he tried to get there before the sun set so he could keep chasing the sun after quenching his thirst however his footsteps got heavier and heavier and his intense thirst slowed him down immensely and kofu finally fell over like a mountain with a large booming sound just as he fell kofu flung his Cane with all his strength and the cane made an arc in the air and fell into the distance just then the sunset into the U Valley of the mountain yanzi leaving a golden Afterglow on cfu's Face the sun rose again the next Dawn and yet kofu had already returned into the huge mountain where he had fallen down on the Northern Side of the Mountain there was a lush peach orchard from which he turned his Cane kofu believed there would always be someone else trying to catch the sun just like he did and the peach orchard he left them would would quench their thirst and just as he had planned the orchard flourished creating shelter and shade for passers by and offering fruit to relieve their thirst and exhaust the Cofe Mountain which is said to be coffee's body is located in the lingow city of henan Province linking with the hosan mountains um in a province I can't pronounce the Ling Bal City used to be called talin or the peach Forest as commemoration of cfu's Deeds though the myths suggests that kuu chased the sun individually on the spur of the moment some Scholars conjecture that it may have been a planned action for his whole tribe searching for a water source in the drought Chasing the Sun indicated that the tribe tried migrating Westward for water all right guys well hope you enjoy today's episode if you do listen on Spotify there's a little section there that can it's like says like tell me what you think about the show or something like that you can just leave a little comment in that section to let me know what you thought so I'll catch you guys next week and hope you have an amazing weekend for a free energy mapping of your floor plan please check the link in the show notes to support today's podcast go to learnfengshui.com sign up for emails leave a review and share with your family and friends