Do you and your house feel out-of-sorts? Do you notice something is not quite right when you walk into certain rooms of your home? Do you wonder on occasion whether your house is contributing to your lack of well-being?
These are the feelings associated with the lack of balance in a home. If you want to avoid certain rooms, have re-arranged your bedroom and are not sleeping well or never sit in certain chairs in your home, something is out of balance. No matter where you are in your home you should feel comfortable, calm and contented.
Finding the problem
Pretend you are a first time visitor to your home. Walk in the front door and through your home room by room, observing with your eyes plus feeling internally what happens when you enter each room. Do you feel welcome and comfortable or do you want to leave immediately?
As soon as you notice something uncomfortable, stop and carefully analyze what is causing the discomfort. Make a note of what you have observed. Is the room cluttered everywhere or in a certain area? Are the predominant colors in the room dark and dreary; or are they bright and loud? Are the furnishings in that room extremely angular, hard and shiny or rounded, soft and dull? Is the room overcrowded with furniture or is it too sparse?
Each of the above will create an imbalance in your home and give you that out-ofsorts feeling plus limit your well-being.
The Solution
The solution to eliminating these negative out-of-sorts feelings is the use of some basic Feng Shui principles. Usually this type of imbalance is created either by clutter preventing the flow of energy throughout the house or a disproportionate usage of the five energy elements within the home.
Use the following check list to determine what the imbalance is and how to resolve it.
Check every area where you feel discomfort from clutter. Yes, it could be this simple. Get rid of stacks of magazines and newspapers, old books you will never read, boxes of pictures you never look at and closets full of clothes you never wear. Stacks of boxes filled with “stuff” are a sure sign of years of clutter. If you never look at pictures, read the books and magazines or wear the clothes, of what value are they? They’ve become stagnant negative energy. This one step of uncluttering will encourage fresh new energy to enter your home and increase its flow throughout.
If you’ve recently re-arranged the furniture in a room and it doesn’t feel comfortable but was before you moved it, put it back. If you haven’t moved furniture in a long time, move some of the pieces so energy can flow throughout more freely. Do not leave the backs of chairs or sofas exposed. If chairs do not set up against a wall or in a corner, place them so anyone sitting there can observe others entering the room. Place a long slender sofa tablewith a statue or large silk plants behind a sofa to create security for those sitting there. If you do not like sitting in a specific chair, look at how it is positioned in your room. Sitting in a chair with its back exposed or toward a door is unnerving and uncomfortable.
Now, look at the colors in each room and the shape of the furniture. Is the room dark or filled with mostly earth tone color and soft furniture with lots of curves? This may be providing you depressing, discouraging and discomforting energy. You will need to lighten it up, use a torchiere lamp that send light upward, add some brighter colors and perhaps one or two pieces of angular furniture.
If the room is primarily white or very light, the furnishings are hard with square edges or the colors are very bright, it may be too high in energy, put you on edge and make you nervous, anxious and uneasy. Over 60% of our population is not comfortable with these colors and shapes. It is just too high in energy for many. To correct this, add a few soft pillows and a throw in pastel or earth tone colors, use dim lighting and candles. Also, hang soft gently draped window treatment to create more calm and comfort.
The most important concept here is that feeling out-of-sorts is caused by an imbalance in your personal environment. Once you understand that, it is much easier to deal with the physical surroundings to improve your well-being. Be sure to unclutter first and then look for ways to improve the energy flow throughout. Move furniture if necessary and then change the colors of your rooms to make them more cheerful or tone them down. The result will be balanced surroundings that support you with calm, comfortable and contented energy.
Download “Feeling out-of-sorts…look at your surroundings” 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.