When students do poorly in school or just feel less energetic than normal, they usually attribute it to homework, family or outside activities. However, these problems might not always be the cause. In fact, it could just be a case of bad Feng Shui.

Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese practice, is designed to improve one’s life by receiving positive energy. It directly translates to “water-wind” in Chinese and can be used to improve overall health, luck and finances.

“Feng Shui is just feeling, energy,” said Wilson Sun, a Feng Shui professional from Sunnyvale. “If something is very beautiful, it will have energy there.”

Sun, a native of China, started practicing Feng Shui 23 years ago when his uncle taught him a few tricks of the trade.

Sun said his uncle is well known as a practitioner of Feng Shui in China and is a master of the martial arts-like practice of Qi Gong.

“He taught me Feng Shui, Chinese astrology, Qi Gong, and Kung Fu. I really liked Kung Fu and Chinese medicine [when I was a child],” Sun said.

Sun agreed to come to Saratoga High and evaluate the Feng Shui of the campus. First, he gave some background information about Feng Shui.

Feng Shui in a nutshell

For a school, promoting learning is very important, and to do this, good Feng Shui in the landscape is needed.

“You must check your roads and environment,” said Sun. “Check your trees, grass, and plants. The grass is just like people’s hair. If your health is very strong, the hair is very good. If [plants] are very green and very fresh, the Feng Shui is good. Also, in [Saratoga High], there are some mountains holding your school, which is good Feng Shui.”

Mountains, according to Sun, shouldn’t be yellow, because just like green plants provide positive energy, dead plant life gives off bad energy. The mountains “hold” the school and make sure only “very few winds” can get inside.

Color matching is also very important, and different colors represent the different elements in Feng Shui. Respectively, green, red, black/blue, brown/yellow and white match along with wood, fire, water, earth, and metal.

“If you want to research something [for school], a green or blue color is good. Green with some blue is good for memory,” said Sun. “A lighter green color is good for studying.”

For music, Sun said, red would be a more compatible color. Red helps to generate ideas and feeling.

In general, he liked the what the school had done but said it could improve in some ways.

Areas to improve on

Based on these rules, Sun suggested some improvements for the campus.

“This school has few flowers,” said Sun. “If [Saratoga High] got some flowers, it would give a happy feeling. [The school] should plant more flowers. When [students] see flowers, they will feel happy. So they will like to study.”

Overall, Sun said the school has good Feng Shui for learning. Sun said, “In Chinese Feng Shui, if you get high trees and is very straight, it’s good for your learning.”

Other than this, Sun thought that Saratoga High had surprisingly good Feng Shui.

Positives

Saratoga, Sun said, has many tall trees and as a result, is a good place to learn.

Sun also said the school had good water movement which is attributed to movement and flow. In the front of the school, the busy roads bring people towards the school while in the back, the music buildings balance out the “water element.”

“For southeast area, there is music here. That is very good because music, in Feng Shui, is water,” Sun said.

Sun feels that the reasoning behind Feng Shui is measuring balance of energy and feeling.

“Feng Shui is just energy,” said Sun. “Energy cannot be measured, but Feng Shui is a device to measure the feeling. Maybe 20 or 30 years later, there will be some scientific device that can measure it. Now there is no device that can find it, but you can feel it.”