The Myth of Feng Shui and Bedroom Nightstands

People desire love, romance, deep relationships, and human harmony. I think it is a fair statement to say that this is a universal need. Some may even look to enhance this aspect of life by doing a number of things, like creating personal intentions and decorating their homes with physical and visual affirmations. Surrounding yourself with these reminders, some feel, can help manifest your most desired dreams.

So how can Feng Shui help?

While Feng Shui can help articulate and offer valuable insights and guidance on how the Elements are energetically influencing and interacting within your space and in your life, unfortunately, many people misunderstand the application and end up using it in an incorrect and superficial way.

For instance, there is a very famous Feng Shui saying that recommends placing a pair of nightstands beside your bed to promote love and romance. While I agree that this idea does empower an individual to be more deliberate and intentional with their thoughts and actions, putting two nightstands beside your bed is a very one-dimensional way of assessing this dynamic, especially on a deeper level.

I have taken this quote from MindBodyGreen’s Feng Shui expert Dana Claudat, and here she states:

“In terms of bedroom feng shui, nightstands create balance in a room and security around a bed (which is why, first and foremost, you should have two!) symbolically and functionally.  In feng shui, bedrooms are not designed to do work (so, a full library in a nightstand is not needed!), but they are designed to give you the maximum feeling of rejuvenation. Plus… there’s the feng shui notion of nightstands as making room for love… and supporting that love…”

Unfortunately, this has become a common but very misguided Feng Shui “Tip.” In fact, I have addressed and included this myth in my book, The First Guidebook for Feng Shui Enthusiasts, because it is such a popular misconception.

“Myth: There should always be two bedside tables to promote love and romance. Many Black Hat Feng Shui practitioners will suggest that in order to invite the energy of romance and relationship in the bedroom, it is important to have two bedside tables rather than a single one, the latter symbolizing a ‘single’ person.

Myth Debunked: Aesthetically, the room looks more balanced when there are two bedside tables. But otherwise, this thought process has nothing to do with internal forms. The deliberate action of placing a second nightstand does enhance the mindful intention of creating a special space for love and relationship, but this practice is more spiritual and psychological than it is scientific.

Food for thought: If the dual bedside table theory was indeed true, does that mean all you have to do to fix any relationship trouble is to add an extra bedside table?”

Truthfully, Feng Shui is not magic or a fix-all to life’s messy challenges. And putting a pair of nightstands will most certainly not bring you soul-mate love, at least, not in the way that people think it could. If it were that easy and shallow, then there would be no heartbreaks and heartaches in the world. Simply put, the easiest and most logical thought is to ask yourself this question:

Can every relationship be created and repaired if everyone placed two nightstands by their bedside?

Probably not. And besides, a pair of nightstands seems to be a normal, practical decorative thing to do anyway. Does it have a deeper, energetic meaning? Maybe personally, but this kind of thinking is approached very differently from a Feng Shui perspective.

That’s why a proper, comprehensive Classical Feng Shui assessment is a very important key step to evaluating the energetic quality of the environment, because we also consider the luck cycles of the people inhabiting the space using their birthdays (“BaZi” or The Four Pillars of Destiny).

Events unfold based on the collaborative mixture of human destiny, man’s free will, and thirdly, Feng Shui. These all have cosmic influences that cannot operate singularly; hence, you cannot apply Feng Shui as one aspect without addressing and analyzing the aspects related to destiny and choice on a holistic level.

Life has an interesting balance of both simplicity and complexity and it is important to broach your examination, especially in Feng Shui, with openness and a healthy dose of skepticism. The traditional approach examines these dynamic phenomenon/cycles in a systematic way that is logical and easy to understand. Moreover, it won’t rub people off as superstitious, religious, or far-reaching that it cannot be welcomed and embraced by everyone.

And so, I highly encourage you to look around you, take stock of what’s working in your life and in your relationships, and go ahead and make your space as beautiful and as lovely as you desire. More importantly, use your environment as a way to offer support, comfort, and security, and learn how Classical Feng Shui can offer much deeper insight to what the stories are telling you in your home today.

Here’s a fun trivia for you: The year I met my soul mate and my husband, I was renting a small condominium where my bedroom was so small I could barely fit a queen-sized bed. And guess what? I didn’t even own a single nightstand!