Feng Shui for Real Life

When my client Marissa e-mailed me her question about the best Feng Shui location for her husband’s military combat medals and his other military awards while he was still deployed, it made me think about all the ways that Feng Shui can be applied to support our men and women in military service, as well as help their families back home. Melissa wanted to locate the medals in the Feng Shui Area that would help assure her husband's safety while he was still overseas and a quick return home to the family.

I told Marissa that the most auspicious locations for her husband’s service medals are in the Family/Community Area of the home or in the living room. I suggested she frame the medals in an attractive display case to further honor what they represent to her husband and to the family. If his memorabilia includes a sword, avoid placing it facing the entrance, in a dining room, near a window, or in a master bedroom where it could symbolically “cut” the couple’s relationship.

Whenever a military family member is deployed, I recommend displaying two photographs of him or her in the Family Area of the home -- one in uniform and one in civilian clothes – to symbolize a speedy and safe return from combat to family life. To further help a military family cope with separation from a loved one who is deployed, it’s also useful to make some Feng Shui changes that will bring stability and attract positive energy.

Some simple things you can do include --

• Place a lamp in the Wealth/Power Area of your home to symbolically “light the way home” for your deployed family member.
• Grow healthy plants like lucky bamboo around your home and avoid sharp plants like cactus.
• Display a bowl of fresh oranges in the kitchen to represent continued good health and nourishment.
• Place a picture of your loved one near the kitchen table so you can symbolically dine in their presence.
• Decorate the kitchen or dining room table with green accents, the Wood Element color, to represent growth.
• Remove artwork or photos that have negative or depressing themes, and replace them with images of happy family gatherings.
• Place current photos of your loved one in the children’s bedrooms so they will feel less lonely.

Constant worry, loneliness, and anxiety are some of the difficulties of managing a household when a spouse is deployed, as is the need to act as both mother and father to children. That’s why it’s important to make Feng Shui changes to create a harmonious household and a sanctuary for family members. The center of a home is considered the Grounding Area of your home, which is activated by the Earth Element. If you have a bathroom in this area you could be symbolically “drowning” your family harmony. To dry up this excess Water Element, decorate the bathroom in earth tone colors like brown and yellow, and avoid the color blue in the center of your house. It’s also important to remove all clutter and unneeded items from the center of your home to help bring stability to family life while your loved one is deployed.

Clutter in Feng Shui represents “postponed decisions” and the “inability to move forward,” so it’s especially important for the military family to clear clutter from all over the home to improve positive energy flow and open up new possibilities for the future. Clutter represents stagnant energy that keeps you in the past, contributes to a lack of household harmony, and makes you feel tired, overwhelmed, stuck, and depressed. We all have to deal with some amount of clutter, but for the military family dealing with an already stressful home situation, extreme clutter holds you back and keeps you from making progress. Clearing clutter can be a key to creating harmony in a stressful home for the military family when a family member is deployed.