Feng Shui House Lift
Hi Lynn,
We live in a small condo and there is only one place for the couch — on the same wall as the entrance. It feels uncomfortable. Any ideas? — Snail Mail
Dear Snail,
Put something between the door and your couch. Could be an end table with a lamp on it, perhaps a small bookcase or floor plant just a little higher than the arm of the couch, but nothing spindley. These solutions require chi to wiggle further into the room instead of dispersing limply near the couch. This creates a larger area of potential within the room for humans to occupy and it will feel much more comfortable and usable.
Dear Lynn,
I have been reading about feng shui for a while. I don’t have anything in particular about my house that I don’t like, but I wonder if there are any general all purpose uses for feng shui that would be good in any home to help give it a lift? — Georgette, Westminster, MA
Dear Georgette,
Hmm…there is something of a “flat line” in this question. It inspires me to suggest invigoration. Have a house-warming party! It could be said that creating an event is not feng shui, but changing energy is and that’s the goal here.
Uplifting an environment can be fairly easy. Start with “out with the old.” As much as your energy allows, go through every room, even closets. Discard what you perceive as offensive, draining or dull and disliked. Re-locate or dispose of these items in a way that’s helpful to you and others.
Clean the house. It’s magic medicine and centuries have proved it. Filthy rugs, especially stained or worn carpets, should be ripped out. Let that foundation, whatever it is, breathe. You will be both the agent and beneficiary of such a change. I’m a great fan of Oriental rugs; red is preferable. In general they embellish your very foundation with qualities suggestive of comfort, security, luxury and knowledge, providing an uplifting and beautiful platform for everything else in the area they occupy. Clean everything that is even partially used as a container for water: sink, toilet, fishbowl, etc. (Don’t go so far as to drain your hot water tank, though!)
Redefine and refresh your main entrance. Fresh flowers uplift us wherever they are located and can usually be made visible from at least part of the entrance. How is your lighting? Allow for spaces to be lightened up even if you don’t necessarily use them very often. In seating areas and bedrooms use warm lighting. Table lamps work well. Even minor changes can create very positive outcomes, giving you a boost of optimism that can open an entirely new door into the same house you’ve lived in for years!
Dear Lynn,
We just moved to a newly purchased house in Woonsocket, RI. We hear all sorts of noises at night in our attic (and they are not squirrels or mice) so I can only guess that our new house must be haunted! My wife and I have not seen, heard or felt anything that would frighten us, so we assume the spirits are not unhappy, just active. Is there any kind of feng shui advice we might use to help calm our “housemates” or at least encourage as much harmony as possible? Thank you! —Woonsocket Rocket
Dear WR,
Feed those spirits. Satisfy them and after they have dined ask them to part ways with your house. I suggest rice (uncooked), held and blessed by you before being served. Do this in a respectful manner by mindfully tossing this rice along the baseboards in each room, and of course, the attic. Follow this by spritzing a citrus and water-based sea of moisture in the same areas. Once fed and acknowledged they may go away satisfied.
Many techniques and traditions for dealing with various energies, entities, spirits or ghosts are helpful if this situation becomes more bothersome. The New England area has many gifted people who specialize in just this. Space clearing, dowsing and the utilization of quite a spectrum of approaches to balance and bring peaceful equanimity to all co-habitators are available.
Dear Lynn,
We recently added a sunroom onto the back of our house, but I read that if you build extensions or additions onto your house you could create a “missing corner” rather than making an addition of “good energy.” Our sunroom extension occupies our wealth sector, leaving half the fame sector and the love/marriage sector empty next to it. Is this a missing corner? Should I try to make up for this loss by increasing love/marriage feng shui influences in the room that is nearest the missing corner? — Andover, MA
Hi There Andover,
Yes, if your sunroom is attached to the back of the house, an additional category of concerns and connections need to be addressed. Proportion governs here. This requires an accurate assessment. If you add on to a house with a one-third — tops — extra footprint in a given area, that’s good. You’ve succeeded in boosting an area without diminishing another. If it’s a 50/50 call — not so good.
To remediate, begin with connecting the exterior of the dwelling by “completing the form.” You can try many methods but the objective is to create a strong and significant feature to provide balance and an outdoor presence strong enough to make the overall shape equal in significance and influence. It’s got to carry its own weight. A tree, a sculpture, a garden with year round developments, a pole lamp, a patio with a suggestion of an edge — maybe even a stone wall — as if creating a complimentary and equally significant presence in the overall schematic of the home’s features, that will ground it externally.
Inside buoy the possible “missing corner” and its category (such as love) by amplifying the significance of that aspect indoors. Pay extra attention to the corresponding life aspect in every room of the house to offset anything that may have been diminished or compromised. For instance, if your missing corner is in the love sector, place things in pairs in the far right corner of each room.
As you create and inhabit your new addition, give it a complete bagua analysis and adjust accordingly so it has its own status. Make the transition from the main building to the addition as seamless as possible. Soften entrances into each with leafy palm-like floor plants. It’s more important than ever to “mate” them, appreciating the unique aspects of each that create such benefits together.
The late Lynn Taylor was a senior feng shui practitioner, teaching and consulting in the United States and Mexico for both business and home environments.
