A small part of my Quan Yin, carved from a single piece of wood.
Hey, everyone’s on vacation, right? Let’s talk about feng shui!
So I googled something about front door colors for your house and the next thing you know, I’m knee-deep in feng shui. I started reading about the principles of feng shui- the classic compass school makes a lot more sense to me – and I figured out my house has an excellent layout. Front door is facing the right direction, I’ve more or less sorted the baguas so they’re looking good.
Biggest problem has been the bedroom, which has – count ‘em – four doors, plus windows and a radiator and a bathroom adjacent. So good luck putting the bed in the “command position.” I’ve moved my bed three times in a month and I think it’s the best I can do.
If your eyes are rolling back in your head right now – a lot of the feng shui directives, if you boil it down, is common sense. Get rid of extraneous crap. Make your environment restful. Stuff like that.
I had a fun time buying some wu lu gourds and a laughing Buddha to complement my two Quan Yins – which my ex-husband brought me back from Burma and which are fantastically beautiful. I light incense in front of them every day.
Let me recommend the incense my Chinese medicine practitioner uses for acupuncture – Morning Star Sandalwood. It’s light and not too sweet and pretty darn fantastic.
Have you ever done anything like feng shui? Do you pay attention to the “energy” in your house? Or does that just seem like a bunch of hooey?
I live in a near-shotgun shack so I try to move the energy around a bit (mirrors in strategic places, etc). Like you, our bedroom is challenging because DOORS – but I think I have the bed in the most logical place – for me. I am de-accessioning like a Mad Dawg and omgosh, it feels GREAT! There really does come a point where you look at all your stuff………
Your carved wood Quan Yin has a beautiful expression on her face. When I was quite young my grandparents traveled to many countries in Asia. When they returned from their long trips my grandmother decorated her home with souvenirs of furniture, sculpture, paintings, porcelain, and so on. Looking back I can see it was a real Auntie Mame over the top kind of thing for her. She loved it and so did I. She had a beautiful Quan Yin sculpture, life size and seated on a pedestal, that had the most lovely and serene face. I’ve never seen one like it again, but yours is very similar, and very beautiful.
Anyway, I say yes to feng shui. My happy home things are good lighting and empty space. I like uncluttered surfaces and empty off-white walls, clean visual sight lines, and clear paths around furniture and through rooms. I keep the hanging art/photos and tchotchkes within limited areas. It let’s the eyes and mind rest, also makes dusting quick and easy. 🙂
We’re a military family and we move often. Sometimes I don’t even get completely unpacked. Feng shui is way beyond my abilities but I do envy those who have an eye for how to arrange a room well. I just settle for functional.
I enjoy the concept of feng shui quite a bit, but my tiny apartment doesn’t have a lot of room to swing the layout correctly. And even though my boyfriend and I are very careful about not owning too much “crap,” we still end up with clutter all over due to the general lack of space. My goal for if/when we move to a better apartment is to feng shui the heck out of it! The best I can do temporarily is carefully placed potted plants.
Our living room had this peaceful vibe years ago. A friend said it was because the anniversary clock on the coffee table kept the energy flowing. Clock died, we have new furniture. No peaceful vibes so perhaps she was on to something. I’m sensitive to color so I focus on that. Certain shades of gray make me sad while some greens agitate me. Choosing paint colors used to be agonizing but now that I understand the whole undertone concept, it’s easier. I bought color decks from the various paint stores so at least when I go in for samples, I’m down to just 1-2 choices.
Since my daughter lived in China for a while, we researched and did feng shui on our house and yard. I think it enhanced our enjoyment of our home.
Hi March,
I do things to put our living space in balance. I don’t call it Feng Shui but it is a similar mindset. Colors have always been extremely important to me, and yes, the number and arrangement of doorways and windows, also. Of course, I have more control over things like colors, textures, fragrances, etc. than directional layout and doorways but I try to make the living space flow.
I have several Bali carvings of various entities and they are placed carefully. I think I have a tiny, laughing Bhudda somewhere–must look for him and make sure he is okay.
Yes, common sense but also sensitivity to surroundings. Some folks have more of that than others.
Gonna look for that incense. My husband is very sensitive to smells but he may like it.