Loving your home during & after Covid-19

If you are new to Feng Shui, let me tell you, there has never been a more perfect time to get started than now!  With the majority of cities, states and countries “sheltering in place”, people are working from home, homeschooling their children and basically spending every moment inside their homes.  Therefore, it is vitally important that our spaces nourish us in every way possible.  This is actually a wonderful way to define Feng Shui. When used correctly, it brings balance to disorder and chaos.  It creates stability and wholeness.   It invites and nourishes all aspects of life.  It is our not-so secret weapon to thriving and mentally surviving this pandemic.

By now, the reality that we are not getting out of here any time soon, has set in and like it or not, we are all in this together; making the best of a situation that none of us could have predicted.  Our homes can either feel like paradise or like prison.  We have a choice.  This is the time to take stock, and make the changes that need making to create a space that you love.  Feng Shui is a tool of empowerment.  In a time when so many of us feel powerless and out of control to the things happening in our world, it is one small thing that we can all do.  We start within, and expand out.

Having all this “free time” inside our homes, without the typical distractions of life, is eliminating the excuses we often tell ourselves about being too “busy” to do this or that.  As this word loses its power over us, the opportunity to stop procrastinating and take stock of the things that matter takes precedence.  Turns out that this is a great time to organize that closet, drawer(s), garage, guest bedroom, etc. that you’ve been putting off for ages.  It is also a time to take a mental and physical inventory of the things that you see every day, but stopped noticing or appreciating when life became too full of obligations.

Life can be overwhelming, and there just isn’t enough bandwidth to always give it all the attention that it needs and deserves.  When I feel overwhelmed, I find something small that I can do that will have the biggest impact. Since I don’t have a dishwasher, and I don’t wash things immediately after using them, focusing my attention on my ‘sink full of dirty dishes’ is often my favorite place to begin.  My point is, start small.

To help you get started, I am going to share a few Feng Shui pointers that are universally true, will help you feel better in your space and don’t require any previous knowledge or understanding about Feng Shui.

The first thing that you see when you enter your home, has the biggest impact on how you feel while you are there.  From the front door, the ideal room to see is the living room.  We want to invite the chi, which is just an Eastern word for energy, to chill out and get cozy. . . . to relax.   If the room you see does not make you want to relax and unwind,  it may be creating a form of anxiety and restlessness.

Homework #1 – Walk into your home through your front door.  What do you see?  How does it make you feel? Do you feel overwhelmed?  Do you feel calm and relaxed? What can you change?  Are you willing to make changes to feel more productive and focused?  If yes, keep reading.

Homework #2 – I want you to walk around your house and look for doors that hit each other.  Now, in case you aren’t sure, let me explain.   Are there any doors in your home that either hit or have the potential to bang into each other?  It’s more common than you might think. This happens most frequently between a closet door and a bedroom door.  These are called “fighting doors” and they create an on-going, but low-level type of tension.  There are two ways to combat this, but that is something better addressed in a private consultation.

And speaking of doors, it’s best that they be allowed to open fully.  By this, I mean there should not be any furniture, shoes, or toys preventing them from opening, nor should there be any items permanently stored behind them.  This door problem is similar to doors that bang, but it is easier to fix. Homework #3 – if you have something blocking a door from opening fully, find a new place for it, or get rid of it.

There is a rule in Feng Shui called the “command position”.  This means that when you are working at your desk, lying in bed, cooking or even lounging on the couch, you can see the main door to that room.  This is a huge thing in Feng Shui.  I like to compare this rule to the Vito Corleone character in The Godfather.  He would NEVER be caught sitting with his back to any door.  Being in command position demands respect.  It creates a feeling of safety, security and support.  It is so important on so many levels, that I can’t emphasize it enough.  Homework #4 – are you in command position when you are working, sleeping, cooking and lounging? How does it make you feel? Is it possible to move your furniture or yourself in order to be in command?  Are you willing to try it?  If you absolutely hate the way it feels to be in a commanding position, you can always move your furniture back.  Why not give it a try? It’s not like you have anything better to do now that you get to stay home all day and all night.

And lastly, let’s take a look at your stove.  Do all the burners work?  Do you use all the burners?  Is it clean?  The stove, in Feng Shui, is symbolic of abundance and prosperity.  If it is dirty, or if some part of it isn’t working correctly, that will have an impact on the flow of finances. 

I do realize that these tips and homework may bring more questions than answers, but the first step is awareness.  The next step is action.  Since I cannot do in-home consultations right now, I am offering remote consultations at a discounted rate.  If you are interested in learning more or feel like you are stuck, give me a call, text or respond to this post.  I’d love to help.

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Discovering the Yoga of Your Home with Logynn B. Northrhip

I’ve been discovering everything I can about Feng Shui, and helping others do the same for over 14 years, and I’ve been discovering the joys and challenges of doing and teaching yoga for over 7 years. The thing that strikes me about both of these ancient, and thoroughly modern day practices is how well they go together.

The Merrium-Webster dictionary defines yoga as “a Hindu philosophy that teaches a person to experience inner peace by controlling the body and mind.”  When you get right down to it, Yoga is like Feng Shui for your Body; and Feng Shui is like Yoga for your Home. The difference is that the inner peace we seek through yoga, through the active participation of the body through movement and breath, is applied to the home by controlling, or supporting our surroundings based on the placement of rooms, the elements of the bagua, the 9 life areas, etc.  The common result of both Yoga and Feng Shui is inner peace, and Feng Shui, just like yoga, is always evolving for the individual.  There is always another level for us to shift out of and into.  Feng Shui and Yoga also share another thing in common.  They don’t ever end, because they are essentially a lifestyle choice.

Through the physical action of asana, we learn to quiet the mind and allow a sense of peace to pervade every area of our body.  We say in yoga that we learn to practice this peace on and off our mat.  How we handle the stress of driving in bumper to bumper traffic or a busy schedule with no gaps or breaks can become our”yoga” of the day.  It all begins with the breath and with awareness.

The way that we can apply this same principle to our homes is simple, but requires a re-envisioning of a typical flowing yoga sequence. We begin with a moment of silence and a connection to the breath and our intention process.  During a flow practice, we typically move the body gently at first to stoke the inner fire with twists, with breath-connected movement and action that resembles a wave.   In our homes, we start at the front door.  How does the house breath?  Does it take a “breath” that fills the home evenly?  Or does it take a breath like a smoker with asthma?

In yoga, we learn about our body’s chakras or energy centers.  According to Wikipedia, “Chakras are part of the subtle body, not the physical body, and as such are the meeting points of the subtle (non-physical) energy channels, called nadiis. Nadiis are channels in the subtle body through which the life force (prana), or vital energy moves.”  With this in mind, it is good to point out that Feng Shui is also a subtle energy system, and it thrives on chi as its vital energy.  Chi is a life force energy that meanders throughout nature, and when we build homes, it filters in and around our homes as well.

Using Feng Shui, our ultimate goal is to create a sense of balance in all areas of our lives.  We want our careers to be balanced with our health, our family and all our personal relationships.  We want adequate financial abundance to balance with our creativity and passions, and we want our sense of well-being to balance with the flame of our reputation.   Understanding and discovering the yoga of your home is a way of combining Feng Shui principles with yogic wisdom to create a common ground that unites these two ancient practices and philosophies, and gives us endless opportunities to evolve and manifest the life of our dreams!