When you arrive at your home at the end of a busy day does your home say “welcome, come on in so you can rest, relax and regenerate”? Does what you see when you first drive in your driveway put a smile on your face and make you feel like you are really glad to be home? Do other homes on your street provide you more of that “welcome home feeling” but you aren’t quite sure why?
What you are responding to is the energy being projected by the front view of your home and the entrance to your front door. If it is colorful, bright and cheery you will feel good about coming home at the end of the day and you are reacting to all of the positive energy surrounding your home and front door. If it is all one color with no bright spots of flowers and mostly dried up or dead plantings you will be faced with only negative energy upon your arrival home and you will feel gloomy and down.
In the world of Feng Shui the front entrance of your home (or office) determines how the world sees you and how you see the world. It is the heart and soul of your world and provides you and your family (employees in an office setting) with that much needed new fresh positive energy on a daily basis. Positive new energy is the catalyst for new thoughts, new beginnings, new family members, new business, new friends, better health and good fortune. Positive energy is the bridge that leads you to success in all aspects of living.
Have you created your front yard and walkway to encourages positive energy to surround your home and flow in through your front entrance door? Have you created the visual impact that makes you smile every time you drive up to your front door? Does it radiate energy and say “welcome”? It is actually quite easy to create such positive energy and requires only a bit of work and some new bedding plants.
Step One outside your home is very similar to step one inside your home or office. You need to unclutter the front yard, walkway and front entrance area. There is no room for old unhealthy plants or dead plants in this or any other area of your home and yard. Dead plants provide dead energy and unhealthy plants provide unhealthy energy. Get rid of them and replace them immediately. Limit decorative items such as flags, frogs, angels etc. to small clusters or place discretely by the front door as positive energy guardians and remove all others.
Because Feng Shui is as much about safety as it is the flow of positive energy, it is important that all plantings, bushes and flowers in the front of the house are no taller than knee high with the exception of deliberately planted decorative trees and shrubs you can easily see around or behind. All low plantings should not be tall enough to allow someone to hide behind them that could bring harm to you and your family. However, be sure these lower plantings are at varying heights to guarantee that the energy meanders and lingers.
In Step Two create a slowly meandering energy path toward your front door. If you are going to do some new work with a sidewalk create a gentle S curve or an arching C so energy is definitely led to your front door and doesn’t wander off in a lot of other directions. If you are not going to do major changes with what you have, use bedding plants to create that slow movement of energy flow. You can deliberately plant flower beds providing you gentle curves or you can even use containers to slow down energy. The idea is to invite energy into your home and have it encouraged to enter by the soft shapes it likes to curve around.
Step Three is the colorful part of making you feel welcome at the end of a long day. The more cheerful the colors the happier they will make you feel every time you approach your home either by car or on foot. I encourage people to use fresh bedding plants as the seasons permit and to change them at least twice per year. White bedding plants make a great colorful contrast to a lot of green, especially on houses that face northeast, east and southeast. For the south and west use the full spectrum colors in the red and re-orange family. And, in the west, northwest and north good energy colors would be earth tones such as peach, burnt orange and gold. Fresh bedding plants do not cost a lot and can be replaced with little effort. Be sure to keep them well watered throughout the long hot summer to keep them healthy and to encourage good energy to enter your home.
Nothing says welcome home any faster than fresh healthy plants and colorful flower beds that greet you whether leaving home or returning. Remember, first unclutter your front yard and entrance way so positive energy is always encouraged to meander within and surround the outside of your property. Next, create gently flowing curves leading up to your front door and then add wonderfully colorful bedding plants. The more welcoming the energy on the outside, the better the energy will be on the inside.
Download “Does your Home say Welcome?” in PDF Format.
© Pat Heydlauff, All Rights Reserved
Pat Heydlauff, president of Energy Design, uses Feng Shui design principles to eliminate chaos and stress at home and within oneself. More than a Feng Shui expert, Pat is a consultant and speaker who helps remove clutter and negativity while encouraging personal growth, improved relationships and prosperity. Her new book, “Feng Shui: So Easy a Child Can Do It,” shows how to achieve a better tomorrow. For information on her consulting, speaking and artwork, call: 561-408-2708.