Have you ever felt that nothing really interesting has been happening in your life for a while? Everything is fine, but somehow you are always meeting the same people again and again, eating at the same cafes or restaurants, and at work, oh well, it’s just the way it has always been?
Your home represents your life, if your home has been the same for a while, guess what? Your life continues on the same path. Hopefully it is a very comfortable path, however sometimes sitting in your comfort zone is not that comfortable anymore. You feel ready for change! You would love to meet new people, have different opportunities at work, go to new places, read inspiring books that change your perception of the world, or just feel more alive!
Your living room is always a great place to start. Just by moving your furniture around you can get rid of stagnant energies that are locked into that area and bring some fresh energy into your relationships. Arrange the furniture in a ‘friendly’ way, with the main lounge against a solid wall, and two other seats that can ‘converse’ with it, semi-circle style. Push the TV to the corner, so it is no longer the centre of attention. WOW that feels heaps better already: with only a few moves you already expressing that YES you do have time for others in your life. To finish it off, add some new cushions with nice colours, a couple of plants (peace lilies are lovely and easy to keep) and… Voilà! You are experiencing the fresh new energy there.
Even small changes like these to your living room are able to support you in making new friends, freshening up your relationship with family and loved ones and feeling more energised.
Chi is also called life force or prana. It is what keeps us alive, truly alive, not just surviving. When we are doing things that we love, we have plenty of energy, we have a zest for life, we have plenty of chi in our body. Sometimes after an acupuncture session or a yoga class we feel happy. Both yoga and acupuncture move the stagnant energy by improving the flow of chi in the body and this immediately reflects a feeling of being more alive.
The same happens with our homes, because our homes are a reflection of who we are. For us to be feeling healthy and have plenty of energy it is important that the home has a good flow of chi. If the chi is not flowing we may eat really well, exercise well, but still feel tired or de-motivated.
Stagnant energy in the home will make us more lethargic and less lively. It also affects all other aspects of our lives.
Stagnant energy is accumulated primarily in the corners and areas where we don’t walk through. The more furniture, clutter, clothes, exercise equipment, kitchen appliances or toys we accumulate per square meter, the more stagnant energy there will be in the home. This stagnant energy represents the blockages of the flow of chi inside the home.
The main purpose of the Feng Shui consultant is to open space for a healthy flow of chi to come through the home in all areas. So it is a bit like having a massage or acupuncture in the home, letting the chi flow through those blocked areas, increasing the health of the home.
Through my years of practice I have observed many different symptoms in my clients that were related to blockages in the home. Some of these were tiredness, sleeping problems, confusion, agitation, depression, or plain disenchantment with life. And the poor circulation of chi in the home will not only affect the health of its residents, but it will also have a ripple effect into their friends, family and colleagues, eventually affecting the entire community.
The same as in the classic story about the power of one kind smile to create ripples of goodness, the home with blockages has the power to create ripples of dissatisfaction.
So for me it is not a luxury, but a necessity, that the correlation between the flow of chi and its effects on our health and wellbeing needs to be shared with the wider community.
Improving the flow of chi in the home is a very simple task most of the time. In many cases selling excessive furniture or de-cluttering the home is very efficient. Most of the time cleaning the home thoroughly is also needed, including moving all the furniture out and then back into place.
The blockages of energy in the home, those pockets of stagnant energy, also need to be removed in order for us to fall back not only into good health, but also back into the flow of life. Blockages in the bedroom may represent problems in relationships, with yourself or your partner. While blockages at the home’s entrance, may stop new opportunities and friends coming into your life.
On the spiritual level the blockages in the home will create blockages in the mind, giving rise to resistance and procrastination. People may also become more absorbed in their own ideas and less flexible and open to feedback from others. These in turn will create less peace in the mind and more agitation and will increase the belief in the delusion of separateness. In the end, these blockages in the home are truly moving people away from their intuition, their inner wisdom, and stopping them finding creative solutions for their life problems.
So if you are determined to feel more vibrancy in your life and attract more chi into your home, just check from the front door inward this visualisation:
If I am an angel and open the front of my home to let water flow through where would it go? Would it bounce straight back out the front door immediately after entering? How much would come in? Visualise the water flowing through the home and observe where would it change its course, what is blocking its way. How can I let the water flow more freely through my home? Notice the areas where the water would run fast, medium or slow. Notice if the water would arrive at the front door and leave quickly out another door. Is the water meandering through each room?
This simple visualisation will give you an idea about where the flow of chi is not happening (flow of water very slow) or where it is going through too fast, and what is in excess, affecting or blocking its free flow, which can be changed. Remove or move the pieces of furniture that you discovered are in the way, add plants to stagnant corners and check if the flow is free from the front door to the living area.
In my experience, many good things arise from improving the flow of chi in the home. I have seen families communicate better and reduce arguments, clients finding a new job, writers improving their creativity, clients finding a new partner, and unexpected wealth arising for the residents, between many other success stories.
Enjoy your experience and let me know your results!
I have a client who decided to leave her five-bedroom house interstate and moved with her family to Sydney Northern Beaches. Because they wanted to keep two homes, they first rented a small apartment, and the kids had to share a bedroom for the first time since they were very young. When I met her in the in Sydney, in the relatively small apartment, she said that the kids were getting on much better than before. And they both had to do their homework on the dining table, which brought the whole family closer together. Her conclusion was that she would never move back to a large home again!
From the Classical Feng Shui point of view, people are one of the main sources of chi or life force in the home. If the house is too large for the number of people, there will be not enough human chi to fill the place up. If the house is too small, the stress levels can rise.
If you are planning on building a new house or renovating yours, here are some ideas.
These represent an ideal Form for a house. However it is worth reminding you that Feng Shui always has simple remedies for your existing home.
Living areas
When you are planning a new home it is important to focus on the common areas. Common areas that are attractive, with plenty of natural light, North-facing (in the Southern Hemisphere) and designed to contain the chi (instead of walking-through spaces) are ideal. They can even be positioned in the centre of the home: the place where we sit together, the Tai Chi of the home, the confluence of yin and yang, where all the energies flow to and become one.
The bedrooms, kitchen and other rooms can then become an extension from that centre, like clusters around it.
The home design from bio-architect Michael Rice in Figure 1 below, called the Triple Octa, is a very good example.
http://www.holistichouseplans.com/
Figure 1 – The Triple Octa has a large living area in the centre of the house with kitchen, bedrooms and other rooms around it.
Bedrooms
We live in a society that has increased the size of bedrooms to make each family member more independent and self-contained.
My concern here is that this has the potential to create separation in the home.
If each person arrives home and retreats to his/her room, the amount of time the family spends together in the living areas, the heart of the home, decreases.
Energetically, if most human chi is spread out into bedrooms instead into the common areas, this will be highly detrimental to the energy of the home, as it becomes fragmented, without flow.
Spiritually, when family members are not communing, the idea of I, the false self or ego, is reinforced, supporting the illusion of separatedness and creating isolation.
My advice is to have bedrooms that are comfortable, but not necessarily so large that they become independent units inside the home.
Garage
Most new homes or newly renovated homes in Sydney are adding a double garage, not only attached to the house, but under the same roof as the house. Because garages are such large areas they deserve special attention in Feng Shui. My advice is to build a separate garage block or, even better, to simplify and build a carport instead.
Garages have a very different energy to homes and energetically works best if they are separate buildings. Garages are service areas that contain fumes, and often oil on the floor, and for health reasons, are best away from the house.
Also, when a double garage is attached to the house (i.e. under the same roof) the energy of the house is ‘diluted’ to include the large car ‘room’. The centre of the house is dislocated towards that area and the house becomes out of balance. And more often than not, garages become dumping grounds and have little or no natural light. So to avoid bringing the energy of the home down, it is best to keep the garage independent from the house.
Spiritually our cars are utilities, and although it is important (and good Feng Shui!) to treat our cars well, it is best not to equal our utilities to our offspring by giving the largest room in the house to the cars! This implies that subconsciously we are giving too much energy to our material possessions- energy that is best spent with our loved ones.
Garden and backyard
One more important point about the home is how the house connects with the outside environment.
If you look at Figure 1 again, you will notice how Michael did not finish his design at the front door, but placed importance in how the house is blending with the grounds around it. Although it makes the house look great, the implications are far greater from the energetic point of view.
The same way that it is good for the life force of the home to have bedrooms that communicate well and are a true part of the home, it is also important that the home communicates well with the outside world.
A home that opens up to a beautiful garden and backyard represents a family that socialises and is open and unafraid to connect with others. Also at a deeper level such house represents an understanding that we cannot live an isolated life, focusing solely on our own family (inwards). It is important to connect with homes around us, and with the larger community. It is important to realize we are all one large family!
Remember that a bigger home is not necessarily better than a small one. The important thing is to keep your relationships with loved ones in mind when planning a new home or renovating an existing one, focusing on creating inspiring communal areas: places that bring family and friends together to celebrate life’s beauty at each moment.
Space Clearing Bell, Harmony Balls and Aura-Soma Air Conditioner
Spring is here! This is the perfect time of the year to start de-cluttering your surroundings. Some of my friends mentioned to me that they already started their spring cleaning. This brings fresh energy all around us, which in turn attract those fresh opportunities you have been waiting for.
This is also the perfect time to have your home or office Space Cleared professionally. Space clearing gets rid of stagnant energies around the home/office, especially on corners, and brings the free flow of chi back. Clients report winning gifts, new jobs, new clients, getting rid of things in large quantities, reconnecting with their homes/offices and even sleeping better.
Professional Space Clearing, contrary to other forms of ‘home-made’ Space Clearing, also re-unites the energy of the home, so it’s like the home feels whole again. Many homes I visit have floors that don’t ‘communicate’ with each other, or rooms that are hardly used. This creates breakages in the flow of chi in the home and can cause stagnation. Stagnation of energy in the home, often appears as stagnation of energy in the body, and can cause diseases and/or tiredness. Professional Space clearing brings those energies together by gently weaving them back into place. After that is done, those unused rooms receive new attention, or the rumpus room, for example, receives a re-vamp. Many stories to tell about the magic of Professional Space Clearing…
I Space Clear my apartment professionally at least four times each year to bring fresh energies, new ideas, new clients, and it works each time.
In between the large Space Clearings, I use Aura-Soma products from The Colour Rose Online to keep the energy up and running. They recently also introduced the newly created Aura-Soma incense to their product list. This week I have been tired with a bad cold and I used the Green Pomander incense to clear the energy in my office. It was amazing how much fresh energy it brought back to the space. Real magic.
I also use Aura-Soma air conditioners for a quick clearing before giving a talk or meditation class. Before meditation I use St Germain Air Conditioner to bring us protection and blessings. And the delicious smell is a bonus! My students love it.
Aura-Soma personal products are really powerful as well and help in dealing with issues from health problems, anxiety and sleeping problems to even falling pregnant!
For more on Aura-Soma check The Colour Rose Online and for more detailed information about products contact Claire on claire@thecolourrose.com.au . Claire also offers personal sessions in the Northern Beaches or she can come to you at home.
For more on Professional Space Clearing ring or e-mail Ana.
