Five Elements Feng Shui: How to Harmonize Clashing Elements

Core Theory: Flow Instead of Force

At beginner level, when encountering clashes (like Metal clashing Wood), the usual advice is “remove it.”

But advanced practice teaches you to use “flow through”—a more elegant energy channeling approach.

Your bedroom is in the due west (Metal element), but you really love green, so you made your bedsheets green (Wood element).

Beginner View: Metal clashes Wood—consider changing the sheets.

Advanced View: Metal and Wood in tension may affect sleep quality. But we can add “Water” as a bridge element.

Metal generates Water, Water generates Wood.

Metal (western environment) generates → Water (black/blue items or water features)
Water then nourishes → Wood (green bedsheets)

Now, the original tension transforms into a flowing cycle.

This is “Greedy for Generating, Forgetting Clashing”—the elements become too busy in their generative cycle to clash.

For example, refrigerator (Metal/Water) next to stove (Fire), or sink adjacent to the stove.

Place a green plant between them.

Water generates Wood, Wood generates Fire
Original Water-Fire tension becomes Water generating Wood (nourishment), Wood generating Fire (support)
This can actually enhance the kitchen’s energy

This is called “transforming tension into flow.”