Is your love life boring you to tears? Do you wish you could add a little zip and pizzazz to your dates? Do you wish you had a date? Maybe it's time to get back to basics by giving your space a Feng Shui makeover and opening up the flow of love into your life.

Feng Shui Your Chi

Feng Shui, pronounced "Fung Shway," is an ancient Chinese art that shows us how to create a balanced, harmonious environment so that positive Chi energy can flow smoothly through our lives.

According to Chinese philosophy, Chi is the universal life force that can be found in us and in everything around us. There's no real word for it in the English language, but you can recognize good Chi when you walk into a room that lets you breathe easy or when you meet someone that's comfortable to talk to. In slang terms, we'd call it good energy or good vibes, man.

Chi moves around with the wind and sits still in water (Feng Shui literally means "wind and water"), and it shows its various faces in the five elements--fire, earth, water, metal, and wood. Thanks to this Chi, all aspects of our environment are connected and have a direct impact on our mind, body, spirit ...and even our love life. When Chi is fresh flowing, it nourishes us, but when it's blocked or stagnant, it can have bad effects on many areas of our lives, including relationships, career, creativity, health and money matters.

Keeping the Balance

The idea behind Feng Shui is to keep our surroundings balanced with the five elements that characterize Chi. To figure out how to do this, ancient Chinese scholars used scientific calculations to find out how the energy of the elements interacts with the magnetic field of the Earth. (Yes, all you cynics, Feng Shui is based on science, not intuition or religion.) Feng Shui also uses the principals of Yin (cool, dark, still) and Yang (warm, bright, lively) to understand the constant flux in the flow of Chi. It's quite a complex system, but you can easily get started Feng Shui'ing your love life with a few basic steps:

Lookin' for Love with Pop Feng Shui Basics

• Go crimson! Keep your bedroom painted and decorated in the colors of love-- red, pink and peach. Why? Because every color has it's own energy level, and the magnetic pull of these red shades attracts a lot of Yang energy--just the right kind to energize your love life.
• Make like Noah's Ark... two by two. If you're looking for someone to share your time with, keep things in pairs around your place—two candles, matching comfy chairs, bookends, a couple of knick-knacks, pictures of two people, two plants, two nightstands, a twin set of CD racks, a pair of funky throw pillows...
• Keep your rooms a' bloomin'. Fresh flowers bring in bright Yang energy that nourishes and invigorates your space. Keep them around and they'll also bring life to your relationships. Be sure to toss out your flowers once they start to droop because stale vase water and wilted, faded and even dried flowers in your house and garden bring in too much Yin energy.
• Get rid of clutter and bad vibes. This will not only keep the Chi flowing smoothly, but it will also make your home more inviting to any new honey that might drop by. If your neat-nik muscle is rusty, here are some basics to remember: clothes go in the hamper and dirty dishes in the sink; anything that you haven't worn in a year gets taken to a local charity; avoid over-kill on the knick-knacks and sporting memorabilia; dust and vacuum at least twice a month; make sure that you can take a few steps between each piece of furniture and that you can see the color of your walls; once a week, clear out any negative vibes by blasting some happy tunes for 10 minutes.
• Get oriented. Since magnetic forces vary from place to place, much of Feng Shui is based on direction. If you can't find north, south, east or west in your space, get a compass and figure it out before you continue.
• Brighten up your southwest corner. If you're really ready to find yourself a sweetheart, start by putting a lamp in the southwest corner of your bedroom or living room, and keep it on every night until you find your true love. The southwest corner is the most important spot for love. It's all about the earth element, which gets you grounded and gives you the solid foundation you need to build a lasting relationship. The lamp is key because it's a fire element and therefore brings out just the kind of earth energy that you need.
• Go nuts with your southwest corner. There are actually quite a few things you can do in your southwest corner to get your earth energy and your love life working for you:
  • Keep a pair of Mandarin ducks in your southwest corner to bring in the energies that attract fidelity and happiness. Make sure that the ducks aren't made of wood, because wood and earth don't go well together. Also, make sure that you have a male and a female duck and that you never have more than two. Position them nose-to-nose if you want to attract someone and side-by-side to keep a flame alive.
  • Keep natural crystals in your southwest corner. Crystal is an earth element and intensifies the powerful earth energy that's already there. If you have the lamp going, it will fire up the energy of the crystals even more. Rose quartz is a good choice. It has a very calming effect and elicits kindness, tenderness, and self-confidence in relationships.
  • Hang a round mirror in your southwest corner to attract a new love or bring unity and harmony to a current relationship.
  • Lavish your southwest corner with love symbols: something heart-shaped, something pink, something with the Chinese double happiness symbol drawn on it, love letters, poetry, candles...
  • Hang wind chimes in your southwest corner to increase your popularity and improve your social life in general. The more you get out and about and the bigger your circle of friends, the easier it is to meet someone you like. Use 2- or 9-rod chimes made of crystal or ceramics.
• Throw open your windows. At least once a week, open up two windows so that the wind can blow out any gloomy Yin energy that's sitting around and carry in the sunny Yang energy that brings good luck.
• Hang with the in-crowd. Stick close to people who have good vibes. Their cheerful energy attracts positive Chi and will send it your way. The people who have it goin' on are those who are friendly, kind, thoughtful, and optimistic. You'll recognize them because they're the ones that make you feel good about yourself and that you're always happy to see.
• Chime your way into your favorite scene. Hang a 6-rod metal chime in the northwest corner of your living room to have good luck with networking and meeting new people.
• Sit strategically. When you're on a date, don't sit at the corner of a table or bar. The corner will redirect the positive Chi away from you, making it difficult for your date to like you.
• Filter your light for love. If you and your honey are fighting excessively, you may be sitting in too much direct sunlight. Too much light brings in an overpowering amount of Yang energy that brings on irritability and the cunning desire to bicker. Try using sheer curtains, blinds or whatever fits your style to filter the light to just the right amount.
• Get a fountain. Keep a fountain outside the left side of your front door (left when you're looking out the door). The water will bring stability to your love life. Make sure it's on the left, because on the right, it will attract unfaithfulness.
• Create new opportunities with plants and sunrises. The south attracts new possibilities, and if you hang a picture of a sunrise on a southern wall, you'll bring in the energy that opens doors to new opportunities and growth. Keeping plants at work will also help you move in new directions. Plants are made of the wood element and attract the energy that nourishes and helps you grow.