Danijela Šaponjić is mostly booked by companies that want to make their office furnishings more useful. The former marketing specialist has been a Feng Shui master for 20 years now. She has written numerous non-fiction books about the Chinese doctrine of harmonizing people with their environment. Šaponjić lives in Munich and often in Belgrade. She married at the age of 21, the marriage has lasted 26 years, and she and her husband have four sons. Anyone who asks Šaponjić whether more harmony can be created in love matters via Feng Shui will receive lots of tips from her just in time for Valentine’s Day. She usually tried them out herself. “I just believe in the motto ‘drink your own medicine first,'” she says.
Preparation is necessary
The blossoming of love needs to be prepared. “Whether for singles or existing couples,” says Saponjic. Your own four walls can also “help you finally find your dream partner – or get closer together again in a partnership.” To do this, it is first important to carefully go through what could literally stand in the way.
Questions of balance
Feng Shui is about balance – like in love. However, often one of the partners in a relationship takes up more space. This is often reflected in the habitats. It is therefore important to consider: Is the space in the wardrobe, kitchen and bathroom distributed fairly? Do they both have a place to retreat? Is the apartment perhaps littered with items from one partner’s passion for collecting?
Create space
It’s not possible: There’s not enough space for your partner’s things in an overcrowded closet.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
Giving the other person space, even if they aren’t there yet – that’s advice to everyone who is still waiting for their dream prince or princess. Psychology and interior design often go hand in hand. If a home is completely filled with your own things, every guest can see that there is no room for another person. And the person living there should ask themselves: Am I really ready to let someone into my life? Do I also have time for a relationship?
If the answer is yes, according to Feng Shui, it helps to free up space – in the closet, bathroom and bedroom. Because wherever a gap occurs, the Qi (the life energy that flows through rooms) automatically ensures that it is filled up again.
Letting go of the past
Love letters from past relationships should be banned from your home.
(Photo: CC-BY-SA love letter archive)
Feng Shui deals unsentimentally with the burdens that surround people. Imagine that we are connected to all the items we own via invisible threads – this also applies to gifts, photos and love letters from former relationships. What a mess! You don’t have to feel like you’re in a spider’s web, but you’re not really free that way either. That’s why: Get rid of these physical memories – including those of the digital world such as emails, photos and text messages.
Epicenter bedroom
The top tip for singles is: If you sleep in a 90 to 120 centimeter bed, you shouldn’t be surprised if you spend most of your nights alone. Together with a partner, the sleeping area must be at least 140, preferably 160 centimeters wide. Here too, it depends on the gap that needs to be filled. That’s why it’s best to get a second pillow and a duvet straight away.
No foreign gods
Pets actually have no place in bed anyway. From a Feng Shui perspective, they are absolute love killers.
(Photo: All mauritius images CHOICE/mauritius images / Caia Image)
The rule goes that if both partners don’t feel comfortable in the bedroom and can withdraw there, there will be no love. Absolute love killers are: wildly decorated clothes racks, desks, televisions, an ancestral gallery and sleeping pets.
Little, but beautiful
Less is more when it comes to decorating a bedroom. Warm light, flowing fabrics and soft shapes create a good atmosphere in the room.
Activate energy
According to Feng Shui teachings, photos of the couple together can be points of attraction in a so-called relationship corner.
(Photo: Susann Prautsch/dpa)
In Feng Shui, the apartment is divided into nine areas of life according to the so-called bagua: career, mentors, children, partnership, fame, wealth, health, knowledge. The ninth area is the resting middle, the balance. In order to be successful, it is important to direct the life energy, the Qi, there. Attractions help with this. Anyone interested should read more about how and why. For example, according to Feng Shui teachings, photos of the couple together can be such points of attraction in a so-called relationship corner. Singles should not post any pictures of ex-partners or strange couples.
Double chump
Anything arranged in pairs should also work well: candles, vases or sculptures – for example of two dolphins, which symbolize eternal love.
Stones instead of shards
According to Feng Shui teachings, rose quartz is said to increase love energy. A bowl with the semi-precious stones, placed in the relationship corner, promotes the partnership.
Fresh laundry
It has to smell fresh and invite you to snuggle up: bed linen is important.
(Photo: Ramon Espelt/imago/Westend61)
Bedding should always be inviting. For positive feng shui to encourage love, it must smell fresh, have harmonious designs, and should not appear worn.
The perfect position
The bed in particular should be placed in an ideal position: not directly against the wall, not with the foot end towards the door, not with the head end under a window.
(Photo: IMAGO/John Holcroft/IMAGO/Ikon Images)
The bed should be placed in an ideal position to increase love and marriage energy. This means not placing the head of the bed under a window. Positive Qi flows out of the bedroom. But be careful! A bed in a corner position can make the partner feel trapped. Also very inconvenient: the bed is positioned so that the feet are aimed directly at a door. This could symbolize a partner who is ready to leave at any time.
city of love
What actually makes Paris the city of love? According to Danijela Šaponjić, this is a long-standing image that is characterized by offers for couples around the Eiffel Tower.
(Photo: Eric Audras/imago/PhotoAlto)
If you ask Danijela Šaponjić whether the ideal love environment can be defined more broadly and what tricks city planners could use to make Munich a little more of a “city of love”, she says: “That’s a question that comes down to Feng Shui “It’s not that easy to answer. If you use the Feng Shui compass to locate the ‘relationship area’ of the city, we end up in the southwest of the city somewhere in Laim, which is really not that romantic.” That’s why the question arises: What actually makes Paris the city of love? This is a long-standing image that is characterized by offers for couples around the Eiffel Tower. Therefore, places or oases could be created in Munich where couples or lovers feel comfortable and seen as a couple.
More heart for the cosmopolitan city
Munich, as a self-proclaimed “cosmopolitan city with a heart,” could do more for the heart. For example, cut flower borders in public spaces into heart shapes.
(Photo: RobertSchneider via imago-images/IMAGO/Panthermedia)
According to Danijela Šaponjić, Munich, often referred to in advertising as the “cosmopolitan city with a heart”, could choose the colors white, pink and red for the areas where plants are planted in spring – or they could also plant heart-shaped flowers. A symbolic couple’s corner could be built in the courtyard garden with a park bench and symbols that represent love. A love fountain is always a good attraction for couples. “This could produce particularly stimulating drinking water,” she says. In addition, Hamburg and some cities in Scandinavia already offer good role models – for example with romantic glass houses in which couples can dine undisturbed on the Alster.