Feng Shui is always encouraging us to interact with our home and its energy, explaining that its power and influence is felt no matter what. But, are you really connecting to the incredible opportunity your home provides when you see it through a Feng Shui lens?
How do you move beyond quick fixes and singular Feng Shui tips and invite your home to step out of the shadows to become an active member of your team? Let’s explore some possibilities.
In Your Feng Shui Home: Part 1, you began to perceive your home in a new light – that the home and everything in it is energy. You, and your family members, are always interacting with that energy.
Feng Shui provides the tools and wisdom to work with both your home and the items in it to create a quality of energy that more fully supports you. That is the potential and the promise of Feng Shui. Ready to get started?
Your Feng Shui Home
Let’s take this “relationship” with your home one step further.
Begin to view your home as a special friend, an integral part of your inner circle. Embrace its very important role in you and your family members’ lives. See its value and potential to support you in all your endeavors. Consider your home your new best pal.
Although you may not realize it, you already have a relationship with this special friend. Start to uncover the current level of that connection by considering and answering these questions:
- In general, how do you feel about your home?
- Are you happy to return to your home after being away?
- Does you home make you smile and feel good?
- Are you proud of your home?
- Do you feel you can relax and be yourself at home?
- Is there a sense of safety and security in your home?
- What’s your favorite part of the home?
- Which area of your home do you like the least?
- Would you like to change anything about your home?
As you may see, there are certainly a lot of emotions, interactions and perceptions you can have with your home. Now, is it telling you want your want to hear?
When we moved into our Winter house in Florida in 2015, it was totally empty. As a second home, we had very few furnishings to bring into the space. It was great fun outfitting it, and I was quite pleased with the results – until recently.
Four years into our time here I’m hearing loud rumblings about needing to add another layer of decoration, Feng Shui and personal Ch’i. It’s time to pay a lot more attention to my house.
So, irregardless of the amount of time you’ve spent in your home, your relationship can change. As with any partnership, the needs of the two parties develop over time. Listening to what your home is telling you is a lifelong affair.
Your Feng Shui Friend
Discovering Feng Shui and engaging my home with that knowledge in hand started a subtle but powerful and ongoing shift that has helped me overcome many obstacles, attract opportunities and achieve possibilities I never thought possible.
How can you begin to build a stronger connection with your Home?
Feng Shui Tip #1: Name Your Home
Start by naming your home. Identify the special attributes of its character. The name should define not only its physical features but your home’s unique personality.
Our Maine house is called The Cove. She sits atop a granite outcropping and has a breathtaking view of a small cove which connects to Penobscot Bay beyond. She is petite but sturdy, strong enough to take the North Atlantic winds but refined enough to give us that “contemporary New England” cottage vibe we love.
Bonita is the name we gave to our Florida Home. This beauty in the tropics walks her own fine line between exotic and rustic. The surrounding landscape offers a forest of palms bordering a small inlet that offers glimpses of egrets and hawks plus visits by our alligators and turtles. She is strong (having braved Hurricane Irma quite nicely) as well as refined. Her tall ceilings and multiple sliding doors to a fabulous covered lanai offer us an indoor/outdoor Southern lifestyle we cherish.
As you can see, they each have a distinctly different character which their individual names reflect. When we are speaking of them we always use their names, as though they are members of the family.
Feng Shui Tip #2: Greet Your Home
Did you ever think of acknowledging you home when you return after being away? A conscious recognition of its presence as you approach or friendly hello once inside can go a long way to strengthening your bond.
Our two cats are often walking to the door to greet us as we come home. Upon entering I offer a cheerful, “Hello girls!” along with my additional acknowledgment to the house.
This sincere gesture also helps to acclimate our Ch’i to that of our new surroundings and ease the transition from the outgoing and active Yang energy of the outside world to the more Yin, calm and tranquil Ch’i of home.
Feng Shui Tip #3: Consciously Interact with Your Home’s Energy
Remember those questions you answered above? They are a great place to start so you can begin working directly with the energy of your home. Begin to think about the things in your home you would like to improve and make a list. This will get the Ch’i for connection and improvement moving.
Your answers may have given you ideas of specific changes you could easily execute right away. Perhaps getting your bathroom faucet fixed would ease the strain of using it. Maybe you love the green color in the dining room so much you’d like to incorporate it into other spaces in the house.
As you can see, the possibilities are endless and they’re all messages your house is sending to help to modify and build healthy, harmonious Ch’i for you.
One other very important and transformative Feng Shui modification you can undertake is to Clear the Clutter. Removing stagnant, blocked, unhealthy energy (which clutter is) from any part of your home can unlock a wealth of not only fresh, vibrant energy but new opportunities in your life.
For encouragement and how to information, I offer my Free Download on Feng Shui Clutter Clearing Tips. It outlines a system for sorting and releasing unwanted items as well as advice on overcoming roadblocks to getting started.
Of course, you can certainly also contact me to schedule your own Feng Shui consultation to work with the energy and possibilities of your home.
However you move forward, know that the attention and effort you give to your home will be returned many times over.
Have fun,
Carol
Thank you for this gentle inspiration
You’re welcome Natalie! What specific information inspired you? Is there a topic you would like to see covered? Our home is such an important and meaningful part of our lives. Have fun with your Feng Shui.
This is so crazy. After spending 3 Weeks decluttering and reading feng shui books. I’ve implemented so much of the information in my home. Well! My husband and I have been swamped with terrible bad luck!! Health issues, financial issues, both our cars broke down with huge costly repairs. just awful bad luck. It’s like feng shui is a curse!! I’m so dissapointed. I feel like undoing everything I’ve done in my house.
Hi Myrna. Thanks so much for sharing your journey. Sounds like your initial Feng Shui experience was less than ideal. Here’s a couple of thoughts that might help. First, I always advise my Clients to take it slow when they first start to Feng Shui. Sometimes, moving a huge amount of energy all at once in your home can cause health issues or other latent blocked energy to activate in an unbalanced way. Next, Feng Shui is just one third, 33%, of our luck as human beings. Things do come into our lives that are influenced by other factors. Personally, I have never known Feng Shui to be a curse. Feel free to share a bit more detail on what changes you made and your intention behind them. Please give Feng Shui a second chance! What do you think?
I like the idea of naming your house we just bought a home and now renovating it and I came upon your site. I am also from Maine but now live in Arizona. My concern with our home is it is at the end of road in a cul-de-sac front door facing the West.Any suggestions on how to block some of that energy coming to use?
Thank You,
Arlene
Hello fellow Mainer (once a Mainer, always a Mainer!). Place something in the path between the cul-de-sac and your front door. Shrubbery, fencing, a statue, bird feeder or other tall item can be used to slow and divert the Ch’i. Make the response proportionate with the length of the approach to the cul-de-sac. If the road approaching is long, add more trees or a solid fencing. If there is a “center” to the circle of the cul-de-sac, add vegetation that can grow up quickly and block the flow. You can also place a convex Bagua mirror outside above the front door to divert Ch’i.
Hi can you help me fix our bedroom. Our door is facing the side of our bed. The only remedy is to move it on the other side but the headboard is in between a door and the wall of the bathroom where the sink is located. Is this good or is there any better position to place the bed? Thanks.
Karen, have you tried keeping the door closed at night? Sometimes that is enough to moderate the Ch’i for some people. I’d try that first. If there is no improvement, as long as the headboard is not on the wall with the bathroom sink on the other side, that position is worth a try as well. Every individual reacts differently so keep adjusting different features within the room to match the occupants. Be aware also of other factors of Bedroom Feng Shui in addition to the bed for improved sleep.