The Chinese believe that there is a rhythm to the universe, which is expressed by the Five Elements.  The Five Elements are wood, fire, earth, metal and water.  In Feng Shui design, the object is to use all of the elements to balance each other.  When they are balanced in your living quarters, your life is better balanced and you are more likely to have what you want in life.  

There is a Nourishment Cycle and a Control Cycle  for the Five Elements: In the Cycle , wood feeds fire, fire is found in the center of the earth , in the earth we find metal, metal liquefies and produces water, and water nurtures and feeds wood.

In the Control Cycle, fire melts metal, metal cuts wood, wood draws from the earth, earth overpower water, and water put out fire. 

The elements of Feng Shui are gifts of nature for us to use in all aspects of our life from how we dress to how we decorate our homes.  We tend to our body needs using the elements all of which are good for us which must be balanced in our life.  Without proper balance, our homes are not balanced, and don't have harmonic flow in either look or atmosphere.  Thats way it is important to balance our use of the elements all year long.  As there are parts of the year when nature has supplied excess heat to the earth, we will need to balance the temperament with more water.  And in the winter time, when the water elements are chilling our environment, we need to bring some more fire elements into the home.  And in those cases, we much endeavor to guard watch to how those elements might need to be subdued.