How Healthy is Your Home?

Let’s face it.  From the moment you leave your driveway each morning, you are likely to encounter stressful situations.  Whether it’s trying to find the shortest line in the grocery store, interacting with co-workers, or just trying to find a parking space, stress can affect you if you’re not able to cope with it effectively. 

Increasingly, our society is experiencing anxiety, allergies, depression and fatigue. Now, more than ever before, your home needs to be your sanctuary.  You need to feel comforted and supported in your home as well as inspired to step out and make your unique contribution in the world.

Unfortunately, many of us feel depleting energy connected to our homes that leaves us feeling tired with recurrent illnesses, long term poor health, and relationship or financial issues.

The level of pollution in our homes can be high, both from the chemicals used in the household and on our carpets and furniture but also from the electro smog from the computers, wi-fi and mobile phones we use. All of these contribute to a lowering of our immune systems leading to a reduction in our vitality and zest for life.

If you’ve got a lot of clutter in your home, if your furnishings don’t inspire you, or if you just don’t feel comfortable with the way your home feels, creating a healthier home can change your life. 

Homes not only hold the patterns of our own thinking and experience of life but also can be affected by the experiences of those who have lived there before and the history of land on which they are built.

The health of your home consists of:

1. The land it’s built on.
2. The materials used to construct your house.
3. The floor plan and amount of natural light in your home.
4. The décor and furnishings.
5. The amount of clutter you have.
6. The emotional energy stored in the home from you and from the past residents. (Were past residents happy and healthy in the home?  Why did they move?)
7. Household products you use.
8. Electro-magnetic energy.

If you experience headaches, low energy, depression, stress, anxiety, allergies, digestive problems or have long term health issues such as chronic fatigue cancer you can help your health by making  positive changes in your home.

Removing toxicity, redecorating your home, and creating better energy flow by removing clutter can make a significant improvement to your health, but also your wealth and relationships.  If you’ve got questions about how to make your home healthier, please leave me a comment.  I’d be happy to help!

How Home Decorating with Feng Shui Creates More Peace in Your Life

Odds are, you’ve experienced the feeling of exhilaration when you’re in a particularly stunning place in nature.  The view from a mountain vista, hiking in a tall forest, or watching waves in the ocean can provide peace and inspiration when you’re feeling tired and knocked-around by the stressors of daily life. 

Being in nature adds a vital component to our well-being.  It allows us to get in touch with our deeper selves.  It reunites us with our soul.  Although nothing quite compares to the beauty and peace found in nature, your home can be transformed into a respite from the daily rat-race.  You can create an environment that reflects the qualities nature offers – beauty, inspiration, flow, and symmetry. 

We’ve come a long way since caveman days when a home simply met survival needs.   We have access to millions of home decorating magazines, books, and television shows.  The bottom line is the idea that a home can be a place of beauty and comfort.  A kitchen is place to nurture your body, a bedroom allows for rest and renewal, a bathroom can be a place of nurturing, and the other areas of your home support getting together with friends, or working, or pursuing hobbies. Every room in your home can be arranged to inspire you and showcase your uniqueness.   

Did you know that everything you put in a space influences the way you feel in the space?  Have you ever walked into a restaurant, hotel room, or even a friend’s home and felt uneasy and didn’t want to stay very long?  It was the energy of the space you were feeling.  It could have been the furniture arrangement or the colors or clutter that you responded to.  The bottom line is that whether you are out in nature or in your own environment, the energy affects you.

Wall colors, color palette, amount of natural light, furniture arrangement, artwork, flooring, rugs, window treatments, and arrangement of bookshelves, tabletops, and accessories create energy.  You pick up on that energy, either consciously or not.  If the space is unbalanced, you’ll feel uncomfortable.  And don’t we all need a break from feeling discomfort caused by stressors out there in daily life?  It’s vital to your well-being to be able to relax in your home.

The Chinese art and science of Feng Shui (pronounced “fung schway) explains that balancing energy allows for a richer life.  Through correct arrangement of furniture, colors, and accessories a room will feel harmonious or chaotic.  Feng Shui is derived from patterns in nature.  Feng Shui actually means “wind and water” which references the flowing nature of the elements.  Feng Shui rests on the principles of symmetry and flow.  It allows us to sort of re-create nature, indoors.  

The items you select for your home and where you place them can come together like a symphony or be disjointed and chaotic.  When a space is balanced and appealing it should comfort you.  My rule of thumb is – if you don’t feel “Ahhh!” when you walk into a room it means things are not in alignment.  Whether you know it or not, you intuitively pick up on bad Feng Shui.  A good way place to begin creating “Ahhh!” moments in a room is to break the room down into small sections – I call them vignettes.  For example, your dining table, a shelf on your bookshelves, or your bed can be a place to exercise your creatively and intuitive decorating.  Use accessories from other rooms or purchase new things – it doesn’t matter how small your budget is, what matters most is to use things you absolutely love.  Play around with the accessories until you have the “Ahhh” moment.  Creating a vignette oftentimes opens the door to create in other areas of the room.

Of course, seeking expert advice can point you in the right direction.  Most importantly, have fun and stay open to your creativity.   In Feng Shui there is no absolute right or wrong way to decorate, there are only guidelines which you can color in with your unique choices.