The 3 "Biggies" in Feng Shui

Every room is important in feng shui, but if I had to pick three areas that impact us the most, it's these:

1.  Front Entrance

2.  Bed

3.  Stove

(...and I must mention...4. Desk, especially for a home office!)

Why these?

1.  The Front Entrance.  The main door to your home represents how you allow the good into your life.  So when spiffing up the front of your home think: Inviting.   If this part of your home isn’t up to par, (i.e. cluttered, dingy, broken, or dull), then you may be repelling the good from coming into your life.

Source: This Old House 

You must welcome it!  Imagine chi to be like a genie who will bring you whatever it is you desire, but that genie needs to be honored and invited in in order for you to get it.

2.  The Bed.  You spend 1/3 of your life in your bed.  (And you should!)  Your quality of sleep is affecting everything from how well you eat, to how well you exercise, to how well you think, and interact with people.  So yeah.  Bed needs to be up to par too.

Make sure you are sleeping on natural materials and that there is absolutely no clutter under the bed.  Electronics in the bedroom should be at a minimum, and yes, that includes the TV.  The bed should also be positioned so that you have a view of the door, but absolutely not so that your feet are aligned pointing directly out the door.  Basically, if you aren’t sleeping well, please consider the feng shui of the room!  It’s huge.

Source: Dana Casey Design.  Few too many pillows for my feng shui taste, but all and all, this is a calm, clean bedroom that should promote good sleep.

3.  The Stove.  The stove represents how you nourish yourself and your family.  If you are cooking with intention and love, it goes far!  Plus, when you have food on the stove, it means you are experiencing some abundance.  Therefore, your stove represents your finances too!  

Be sure to keep the stove clean and use each eye to bring more opportunities into your life.  Here, you should also have the “command position” so that you can see the entrance to the kitchen as to not be “surprised” while you are engaged in cooking. 

Source  The shiny surface provides a cure so that the cook can see what is behind them.

4.  The Desk.  Again, command position and a desk that is fully functioning will affect your position at work as well as your finances.

So, if you only do the minimum in feng shui, give attention to these 3 biggies -- and clutter too -- and you'll start to see the shifts immediately!  


Check out Katie's on-line Declutter & Feng Shui courses!  

The Home Office + Guest Bedroom Combo

I'm a huge fan of the guest room/home office combo!  Why have an entire room used only on the occasions that people are coming to stay with you?  While I think it's great to have guest rooms, as it symbolically "invites" in the good, it's also important to keep the chi circulating there, and what better way than to actually USE it?  The trick to pulling off the office/guest room is to get creative and to be honest with yourself with the needs for the room.  (i.e. Is it more important to function as an office or a bedroom?  Who will be visiting?  Can you surrender your office for the days that your guests are there?) 

Here are some examples below that may give you some ideas for yours:

Modern flair!  Source

Sofa beds...in purple.  Yes!  Source

Lofty  Source

Playful, fun, and functional.
Source

This is for those who need an office more than a guest room but want that option.  Clever, isn't it?
Source

IMPORTANT NOTE:  None of these rooms would be appropriate for a bedroom that someone used all the time, as it's not conducive to have an office IN your room unless you have no other choice, and even then, there would have to be some cures set in place.  These examples are ONLY for the guest room and office combo!  Also, it's important to establish the "command" position when working at a desk as well as when sleeping.  (The "command" position simply means you have a view of the doorway of the room.)  This could be taken care of with some strategically-placed mirrors.  

Thanks!  

--K

When a Feng Shui Cure is NOT a Cure (a.k.a. My Feng Shui Nod to Football Season)

It's football season!  And you know what that means in the South.

That it's football season!  And people are really happy about it.

For that reason, I thought I'd share a true story about a client and a football helmet.

To begin:
This particular client had a working knowledge of feng shui, so much so that her entire home office (which was also located in her Money section) had just about every knick-knacky feng shui cure known to man in there.

Like this:

...wealth gods?

...some kind of money tree?

...no clue...just don't go there.

And, of course, the famous lucky cat:

Hi, I'm a lucky cat...(and I'm kind of random.)

Now, if this is your style, then great.  BUT these items do not necessarily promote good feng shui.  Especially if there are so many of them that it equals the c-l-u-t-t-e-r.

When I explained to this client that
#1. clutter is not good feng shui, I don't care what the kind of luck it promises,
#2. having SO many cures actually reveals to me that she's afraid of losing her money rather than implementing a cure and trusting that the cure will work, and
#3. a lot of these gimmicky things that are labeled as good feng shui are actually just that --

gimmicks...

...so we both went to work clearing out most of these so-called cures and leaving only the really awesome ones to represent healthy wealth and finances.

It felt great!

But we weren't finished.

Now, as we were clearing out objects, it became more and more apparent what was working and what wasn't.  (You know, the ol' peeling layers from an onion analogy.)  Lo and behold, a certain something was calling out to me.  She had a large bookshelf in her office, and it was very close to her chair and desk, and on the top of that bookshelf, amongst other items, was a football helmet in a glass case.

It looked something like this:

I asked her about it.

She said, "Oh, I don't know.  It was some gift or award or something.  I just didn't know what to do with it."

Ding, ding, ding!!!  My little clutter alarm went off.  She could care less about this helmet so why the heck was it taking up space in her home?

Now, here is what happened.

We took it down.

And let me tell you, it felt like a gush of wind had come into the room. The energy shifted so much from that one item, that my client literally had to sit down because she was dizzy.  I was used to this kind of shift, but boy, she didn't know what hit her!

gush of wind   (Hey! Feng Shui is literally "wind, water")

It was BIG.  I noted that the helmet was representing a burden "hanging over her head," and that it's presence had taken on some major energy.   I explained that her money situation was "overbearing" in some way and had become a "weight on her shoulders."

By removing the helmet and shaking that energy up, we lightened the feel of the office...and therefore, her money situation.

I'm happy to say that her finances, which had been in major crisis, took a huge shift and are getting back on track.

And that football helmet has found a new home at the Goodwill. Thank goodness.