05 Apr 10 Feng Shui Tips to Harmonize Your Home

Feng shui (say “fung shway”) is the art of creating a home environment that supports the life you wish to live.

A key element of feng shui is creating a smooth flow of chi (positive energy) through your space. Chi likes to move through your home as though it were a gentle breeze or a meandering stream.

Where it’s blocked, the energy becomes stagnant – like a pond choked with algae and fallen leaves. You’re likely to feel blocked in life, and your energy and enthusiasm for matters of the heart will be low.

Balancing and correcting the chi of your home helps encourage and invigorate energy, positivity, and flow.

Before we dive into some powerful ways you can improve the energy of your home, let’s take a look at what feng shui is really all about.

What is feng shui?

Feng shui is an ancient art and science developed over 3,000 years ago in China. It’s a complex body of knowledge that reveals how to balance the energies of any given space to assure health and good fortune for the people inhabiting it.

Feng shui is based on the Taoist vision and understanding of nature, particularly on the idea that the land is alive and filled with Chi, or energy.

It embodies a belief that we as humans are energetically connected to the spaces we inhabit. Feng shui sees sacred purposes behind design – not just artistically appealing or superficially pretty surroundings. It views the world in terms of cosmic energy.

Feng means wind and Shui means water – both of which embody flow, movement, and passage.

Feng shui encourages us to transform our physical environments into energized, harmonious spaces that flow freely, like the wind and the water.

It’s important to understand that there are several different schools of feng shui, and just like traditional Chinese medicine, feng shui knowledge is deep and complex. The more you know about feng shui, the more there is to explore!

To keep things simple, we’ll only cover the basics here. But if it resonates, feel free to deepen your own knowledge and practice of Feng Shui.

After implementing only a few simple feng shui tips you are sure to start seeing some powerful results in your home and your life.

Ready to dig in?

Here are 10 Feng Shui tips to harmonize your home:

1. Remove The Clutter

This may sound obvious, but it’s a non-negotiable first step without which all other steps become irrelevant. Clutter causes stress on both conscious and subconscious levels, it perpetuates our insatiable desire for more (because we have an unfulfilling experience with what we have), and it blocks positive energy flow in our bodies, our homes, and our relationships. “Wherever the eye goes, the chi goes.”

Imagine this: You step into your home after a long day and everywhere you look fills you with a sense of peace, joy and gratitude. No matter where your eyes land, you are met with order, simplicity, and purity. Pure bliss!

If you have clutter anywhere in your home, it’s time to clean, organize and/or purge it. Here are some fun tips for decluttering once and for all:

• Read this month’s LifeNote The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up!
• Stop the flow of stuff coming in. For real. Your kids really don’t need that brand new toy, and long-term gratification is a good practice for everyone.
• Declutter daily. If you see something that you know you’ll eventually get rid of, don’t put it off. Seize the moment. Be ruthless. Make a “giveaway pile” so you can continuously add to it and keep everything organized.
• Don’t keep things out of guilt, obligation, or scarcity. Period.
• Don’t be afraid to let go. Just because something is technically useful doesn’t make it practical to your own unique self, home or wellbeing.
• Don’t over-equip your home. You don’t need enough linen, cutlery, or pantry supplies to serve as a hotel. Be realistic about your true needs, and remember that you can always borrow from others for large, unexpected events.
• Remember that gifts don’t have to be material. For spouses, children, and others that we live with, get creative with your gifts… try new experiences, homemade crafts, and other powerful ways to express your love without inviting an avalanche of new “stuff” into your home.

2. Make Your Entryway Inviting and Beautiful

One of feng shui’s most important lessons is in the power of your front door. Feng shui identifies the main entryway to a building as the source of all chi (or energy) into the home. It’s the gateway to positivity, wealth and abundance. And the two best ways to invite powerful new energy into your life are:

• To USE your front door. Make it a habit to utilize this power center. Don’t enter through your garage everyday and step directly into your kitchen or laundry room. Step into beauty when you arrive home as often as possible.
• Make it a beautiful experience. Your entryway should be inviting – to people and to positive energy. Make it beautiful and design it so that it comes alive. Infuse it with color and fragrance. Use plants, lights, wind chimes, flags, fountains, crystals – whatever energizes you and makes you smile.

3. Maintain A Visible Address

Make sure you have visible, clean house numbers and your name is clearly identified at your home’s entry. If people can’t locate you easily and effortlessly, universal abundance will have a hard time as well. Ensure that positive energy always knows exactly where to find you.

4. Ensure Everything Works Properly

All doors and drawers should open effortlessly without sticking or getting jammed. Remotes should have batteries, leaks should be fixed, light bulbs should be working, and everything should be functioning at its fullest capacity. Don’t put up with little aggravations, because they will bring down the energy of your home, and your self, every time you interact with them.

5. Use ALL Of Your Fixtures

Feng shui encourages us to use all of our fixtures to spread our energy and invite multiple avenues of prosperity into our lives. So take turns using each of your stove’s burners, and spread your usage out over all of your multiple fixtures (e.g. multiple fireplaces, sinks, toilets, etc.)

6. Don’t Exercise, Watch TV, Or Work In The Bedroom

If we want to experience wellbeing in our bodies and our relationships, our bedrooms should have two (and ONLY two) purposes… Sleep and Sex. Don’t invite the energies of hard work, exertion, or mindlessness into your relaxed sacred space.

7. Put Your Bed In The Commanding Position

If possible, place your bed so there is equal space on either side, so you and your partner can find equal enjoyment in the relationship. The ideal position of the bed will be on the opposite side of the room from the entry door, but not directly in line with it. If this isn’t possible, the next best option is along a side-wall, still facing the bedroom entry door. The least favorable position is on the same wall as the entry door.

8. Create Rivers Through Your Home

As it says in its name, feng shui embodies the elements of wind and water. This means that as you move through your home, you should be able to flow like water without any blatant obstacles or obstructions. Avoid placing furniture in the flow of traffic, do not enter your living room to the back of a couch, remove any objects from hallways and other narrow spaces, and create a fluidity in your home’s energy channels.

9. Clean All Your Windows

Windows symbolize your eyes to the world – and how the world views you. We want to be able to see and experience everything the world has to offer us, without being hindered by dirt, grime, and filth. Open your eyes and brighten your space with regular window cleaning.

10. Engage All 5 Senses

Sight. Sound. Touch. Taste. Smell. Every sense has the power to influence how we perceive the world. These are some of the most overtaught and yet underrated methods for improving the energy of our environment. Let’s take a closer look…

Sight

Sight can be manipulated by implementing color psychology. Brighter colors (such as reds, blues and greens) are conducive to higher focus and accuracy. Blue is associated with calm energy, promoting mental clarity, control and creative thinking. Citrus hues like yellow and orange (which are stimulating colors by nature) help people feel more alert, allow for clear decision making and encourage lively discussions. By using color strategically, and following the basic principles of color psychology, you can promote desired feelings and behaviors.

The second crucial element for engaging sight is access to natural light. There is an undeniable relationship between daylight exposure and the quality of our sleep, our activity, and our lives as a whole. And being able to see the outside world has natural restorative powers.

The final element for sight is incorporating beautiful artwork. Be careful which images you allow in certain spaces. Avoid family photographs in the bedroom, too many images of solitary or isolated individuals if you are seeking love, and be sure that each of your pieces of art are visually and energetically stimulating.

Sound

Sound in a space affects us profoundly. It changes our heart rate, breathing, hormone secretion, and brain waves, and it affects our emotions and our cognition. There is undoubtedly an invisible architecture of sound, and it’s ours to design and manipulate.

The single most important aspect of sound is to avoid noise pollution. Ensure that electronics (especially the TV) remain low or off, chaotic household noise is kept to a minimum, and as much as possible, open your windows to allow natural sounds into your environment.

And finally, our home harmonizing tips would be incomplete without the recommendation of music – one of the single most positively influencing factors in all of home energy work. Ultimately, it’s up to you to discover and seek the music that resonates, but most people typically look for relaxing, energizing sounds to carry them through they day. A whole new collection of relaxing music playlists have emerged on YouTube in the past year or so, many of them lasting 3-6 hours. Click here for an example, and see the right sidebar for related videos to further your exploration.

Touch

Our sense of touch is closely associated with the emotion of comfort and warmth (or lack thereof). We may be able to immediately pinpoint what makes a space look good, but identifying why it feels good is another story.

It’s a well-known fact that natural materials like wood and textiles (like the soft wool in a shag rug) are often associated with a “warm, cozy feeling.” On the other hand, materials like metal and plastic can convey sterility and coldness and are generally not very inviting.

Elements that can add texture to a space include textiles (rugs, carpets), furniture (tables, chairs, lamps), artwork (paintings, sculptures, wallpaper), flowers and plants. Aside from providing texture, color, and a pleasant scent, flowers and plants have also been shown to boost cognitive function and have restorative properties.

Be sure to choose warm, inviting, comfortable pieces for your room, and balance different textures out to avoid extremes (sharp vs rounded edges, rough vs smooth surfaces, dark vs bright objects, etc.).

Taste

You obviously can’t taste your home, but you can be extremely mindful and selective of the taste experiences you invite into your home. The food you eat has a direct and profound effect on your energy levels and wellbeing. Be sure to eat foods that nourish you at a deep cellular level. Be mindful of your capacity for food and only eat as much as you need. Try to avoid emotional eating by turning inward when you feel compulsive and identifying the root of your need for comfort. Mindfulness is key when it comes to inviting energizing taste into our lives.

Smell

Smell is arguably the most indirectly powerful of all the senses, as it’s directly connected to the limbic system – a complex system of nerves and networks in the brain concerned with instinct and mood. It controls the basic emotions (fear, pleasure, anger) and drives (hunger, sex, dominance, care of offspring). Smell is also famous for its strong and even subconscious ties to memory.

Pleasant, subtle scents open our awareness and lift our mood. Placing essential oil warmers, incense and candles throughout the areas of your home will have a powerfully transformative effect on your quality of life.

These 9 scents are known for working wonders on our wellbeing:

1. Lavender calms the mind and body
2. Cinnamon sharpens the mind and boosts brainpower
3. Pine alleviates stress and anxiety
4. Sandalwood induces calm and meditative states
5. Citrus boosts your energy and alertness
6. Vanilla elevates your sense of joy and relaxation
7. Peppermint increases stamina, motivation and overall performance
8. Rose calms nervous tensions and rebalances our psychic energy
9. Jasmine is linked to easing depression and lifting mood

Play around with the transformative power of feng shui and see where it leads you. Bring your awareness to the energy of your home, and set an intention to harmonize its energy even more this month.

And as always, please share your transformations with us by commenting below!

The real magic happens in the discussions, where we share our own personal experience and exchange the wisdom we’ve acquired along the way.

Here’s to harmony!