Have you reached a point where it feels as though your practice is stagnant, but you can’t identify the cause?
You seem to have all the right elements for a dynamic practice – a mix of regular and new patients, a varied menu of services, and a good referral network. Yet, despite having all the elements in place for what should be a successful practice, you keep having the nagging feeling something is not quite right, but you can’t put your finger on the source of the problem. Perhaps you’ve tried a few things, such as a new marketing tactic or changing your logo, but something still feels off.
What you may find is that your office could use its own form of a chiropractic adjustment to get back into proper alignment. Feng shui, which is a way of rearranging your office, based on ancient Chinese philosophy, may help stir things up for your practice in a good way.
What is feng shui?
Feng shui, which translates from Chinese as wind-water is a Taoist philosophical system of aligning people with their surrounding environment. In practical terms, feng shui involves the art of situating buildings and rooms in such a way as to create the best possible balance between calming yin energy and active yang energy in order to create good energy or qi (pronounced chee). Depending upon the space, you will want a different balance between yin and yang. For example, a bedroom should mostly be filled with calming yin energy to help you relax and sleep. However, you will also want a bit of yang energy so that you wake up refreshed with energy. The opposite principle would apply for your kitchen, where you would want mostly yang energy, with a small bit of yin.
Applying DIY feng shui to your office
Just as you would for a new patient, the first step to correcting the stagnant qi in your office is to diagnose the problem. Start by standing outside the door to your office and imagining yourself not as a DC, but as a first-time patient who knows nothing about chiropractic, coming to your office for the first time. Now, take a deep breath, open your office door, step inside, and look around the reception area through the eyes of that new patient. What is your first impression? How does the reception area make you feel? Is it a relaxing warm space, or is it cold and sterile? Ask yourself the same questions as you walk from the reception area to an examination room, a treatment room, and then your exercise area. The answers to these questions will help guide you in using feng shui to properly align your office.
Reception and waiting area: You will want this area to be an oasis of calming yin to soothe new patients who may be anxious and reassure returning patients. According to feng shui, green plants, particularly in corners, are excellent for helping your patients reconnect with nature. Carry over this calming atmosphere with muted, deep yin tones of purple (for richness) and blues (for health), offset with brighter yang yellow accents (for centering). A fish tank may also add to the calming atmosphere by adding a living element to the area.
Examination and treatment rooms: These areas should continue with much the same yin theme as your reception and waiting area. Japanese brushwork art would be an excellent choice for the walls in these two areas to add to the calming nature so that your patients will be more relaxed.
Exercise area: Your exercise area should be more dynamic, as you are inspiring your patients to be an active participant in their journey back toward better health. This area will want to have more yang energy, so you can reverse the color scheme from the other areas of your office. You may want to include more red in this area, as it symbolizes accomplishment, which is how you want your patients to approach their journey toward wellness.
Of course, you will also want look at using feng shui from the perspective of improving your bottom line as well. Think of it this way – if you use the principles of feng shui to realign your office to provide better qi for your patients, you will also be rewarded with more income!
