Feng Shui at Home
=> Desk Placement: At home one might have a desk in an
area where the parent is readily available during study time for
assistance and monitoring. => If you have a student who
is moving into a dorm or if you are that student, take some green with
you. Green helps with feelings of being estranged from all that is
familiar. In addition, colors in the orange family, like peach or
coral, can help bring people into your room if you are wanting to make
friends faster. Orange is the color of community and relationships.
-- Submitted by Diantha Harris, ASID, FSII, IAC of
Life Potentials Network
=> If your student is having trouble sleeping because of anxiety, try
using a small amount of yellow or orange and a larger amount of blue in
the bedroom. You can bring those colors in easily through the use of
linens and sleepwear!
-- Submitted by Diantha Harris, ASID, FSII, IAC of
Life Potentials Network |
Feng Shui at School
=> It's no accident that school pencils are yellow!
Yellow helps us all assimilate things like what we are reading and what
we are learning! A wise teacher will keep a bit of yellow in the
classroom throughout the year. But don't overdo as too much yellow can
create agitation and anxiety. Touches here and there are perfect.
-- Submitted by Diantha Harris, ASID, FSII, IAC of
Life Potentials Network
=> When there are public speaking assignments, as a
teacher, be sure to have some blue in the room to support your budding
orators! Place it across from where they are speaking so that it is
within their view as they speak. As a student, you might want to wear
blue on a day when your speech is due! Or if you have trouble speaking
up in class and feel nervous about it, wear blue. Yes, blue jeans
count! So do blue socks and other bits of clothing!
-- Submitted by Diantha Harris, ASID, FSII, IAC of
Life Potentials Network
|
A Little Feng Shui for the Classroom
By: Vladek Bednarz, FSIIThe many, many components needed for a
positive and beneficial learning environment can be enhanced by feng
shui. Let me share a few ideas with you.
Because viewing nature integrates the brain (makes it work better and
more efficiently), we must supply the children with nature if school
districts don't provide it. When this is the case, provide the
classrooms with paintings or posters of nature scenes. Another option is
to bring in live plants. It's interesting to know that in Denmark every
school (and office building) must have windows facing nature.
Lighting is hugely important also. The all-pervasive fluorescent
lights, computers, and televisions affect the brain negatively for
several reasons. For instance, their humming and flickering throw the
brain stem into an "alert" state which results in a series of
physiological stress responses. Examples of just two of these stress
responses are a tightening of the muscles and tendons on the backside of
the body and a release of adrenalin. Please remember that when the body
is in a stress response, the only information which the brain can
process relates to its safety and comfort. A large portion of the
cerebrum (the thinking brain) goes out to lunch and there is very little
or no cognitive functioning happening. Please know that in Scandinavia
fluorescent lights are banned from the classrooms. Using natural
daylight or incandescent lighting whenever possible will improve the
learning capacity of students.
Another negative aspect of fluorescent lights, computers, and
televisions is their huge, powerful electromagnetic fields (EMF's) which
jar the human body's EMF. This, in turn, disturbs the brain's electrical
activity and this affects our emotions and our capacity to learn and to
function. Interestingly, there are schools in this country (and others)
which restrict or eliminate computer/t.v. activity in concert with the
homes of the students (and wonder of wonders, reading scores then
rise!!).
EMF's (which function just like the microwaves which cook your food
by boiling the water molecules in the food) and stress also dehydrate
the body. It's very important to give students access to water. Either
allow the students to bring water bottles, or provide cups if you have
faucets in the classroom, or provide water coolers. About 75% of our
bodies consists of water. Water conducts electricity, and if you want
the bodies and brains of the students (and everybody else's!) to
communicate quickly, smoothly, and efficiently they must have water. Did
you know that even a measly 2% drop in water content will negatively
affect the way you do a simple math problem? Please note: by the time
you feel thirst, you are already in a huge water deficit. Students need
to sip frequently, but should drink more when working on a computer or
watching television.
By the way, new computers off-gas for several months. New computers
should be installed in classrooms in June, as soon as the children leave
for summer vacation. The windows should then be thrown open and kept
open until the students return in August/September. The off-gassing will
not be complete, but the worst will be over. This is better than
installing new computers in August. Also, computer placement is
important. Computers are frequently places on circular tables or in
back-to-back rows. This means the student facing the back of someone's
computer is getting zapped full-force by that computer's EMF's. Better
to have the computers lined up against the peripheral (and preferably
external) walls of the classroom.
Another off-gassing problem is found with the popular (but not very
healthy) component of classrooms: carpeting. The glue used in the
backing off-gasses. Carpeting also is a marvelous hotel for dust mites,
which can cause all sorts of allergic reactions. Of course, it's
difficult to convince the powers-that-be to tear up carpeting, but if
your school is being renovated it's wise to make that suggestion. And if
you're involved in the building of a new school, certainly this would be
a topic to raise.
Now, given that fluorescent lights, computers, and televisions are
omni-present in our classrooms, and we know that they negatively affect
brain functioning, what is it that we can do to assist the children's
brains? Besides drinking water and seeing pictures of nature, we can
make sure that the children get daily doses of music, usually in 15-20
minute maximal increments. Musicologist Don Campbell compiled excerpts
of Mozart's music to activate, or to stimulate, or to relax the brain in
his MOZART EFFECT COLLECTION (there's one set for children and one set
for adults). Gary Lamb has created several collections which also
entrain the heart to the optimal 60 beats per minute, plus others geared
for learning activities.
Furthermore, have the children do integrated movements which will
simultaneously stimulate and, paradoxically, relax the brain, which is
the state it must be in for optimal learning and functioning. An example
of integrated movements can be found in Brain GymŪ (Educational
Kinesiology). Twenty-six simple movements and/or processes called
balances and repatternings, can compensate for the above-mentioned
factors in the classroom which interfere with normal electrical
functioning of the brain. They're quick and fun to do. And, of course,
the teachers will benefit also! Brain GymŪ movements target all three
main parts of the brain to improve memory, concentration, cognitive
functioning, coordination, and release stress.
So as you can see, when we cannot overhaul our classrooms or our
teaching methods, we have tools available to us to improve the feng shui
in our classrooms. As the energy moves in a different way, the children
will be able to learn and function better. |
