Very recently, a friend of mine moved to a beautiful apartment, with a wonderful view and lots of space. She always does a great job decorating her homes, and this one was no exception. Her bedroom looked like a magazine. She's got elegant lamps, oriental nightstands, expensive Persian rugs, and her bed is covered with a sheer and romantic canopy.

However, since she finished decorating after her move, and was finally settled, she fell into a very deep depression. She couldn't get to sleep till the very late hours of the night, and the next morning, she would wake up with a terrible headache that would last all day.
This is how she described her feelings to me: "It's like there's a dark cloud hanging over my head, and I can't get out from under it".

The first thing I thought to do, was to check the feng shui of the new home, but everything seemed to be in place. No clutter, everything clean, plenty of light, clear spaces for the Chi to flow. Her bedroom was calm, she had a good headboard, nothing under the bed. We just couldn't figure out what was wrong. I decided to search for an answer and took out all my feng shui books. Could her bed be causing her depression? It was in a good position, in the right direction,I searched the Internet, and the first term that came to my mind to start the search was "canopy". I figured that was the only thing really "hanging over her head".

After going over at least 15 different books from all schools of feng shui, and looking at page after page of feng shui

My friend's actual bed

websites, I found that canopies are actually recommended by feng shui practitioners to have the person feel protected, to avoid the harm of having a beam above the bed, or to cure slanted ceilings. This is what I always thought and it's still very true. But this goes to show you that one never stops learning. Buried in a blog written by a Chinese practitioner, I found it. On a list of "problem beds", I found beds with mirrors, waterbeds, round beds, heart shaped beds… canopy beds… There it was. It said: "A canopy over the bed will cause insomnia, depression and illness."

I had not finished telling her about this, when she had already pulled that canopy from the ceiling. Needless to say, and this is what really inspires me about feng shui, the results were immediate. She woke up in a better mood and with no headache. The depression hasn't come back and she's finally enjoying her new place.

What I took away from this, is that not all feng shui cures and practices work for everyone. You have to test different things, read about different ideas, different schools of thought. Not all people with canopy beds are depressed, but I bet many are. So hopefully this story will at least help them to get from under that "dark cloud".