A common question I am often asked is “where do I start to feng shui my home?”
Form school is about living in harmony with the environment, so we always work first with the site location. Next, we observe and analyze the form and exterior of the home, after which we move onto the interior form and flow, and lastly the decor. So, let’s analyze the best feng shui site location for your home.
The ancient Chinese practitioner’s job was to find a location that was most suitable to build a village, town, palace or even a temple. Since we are discussing the feng shui of a home, let’s use the village to make this comparison. If you were asked to look for land to build a village, what would you look for?
The ancient feng shui practitioner’s responsibility was to look for land that could sustain a large number of people. That meant the land had to be fertile so they could farm as well as find vegetation for food. An important part of searching was being able to understand and analyze to the soil. What type of plants grew in the area and were they healthy and thriving? Would this land support the needs of the people? Was it enough to sustain the number of villagers and future growth? As we know, conditions for plants differ and there are many variables, from soil conditions, amount of water and sunlight. Was there enough water? What type of animals lived and roamed the area? What were the weather conditions throughout the season? To make such educated decisions, he had to really understand ecology, geology and much more.
Today, we don’t buy our homes based on the soil conditions because we are not dependent on growing our own food. Nor do we think about our water source. Instead, our needs are based on convenience and our lifestyle. It all depends on what we do and the stages of our lives.
Some of us choose our homes to be near family or job, while others may need a hospital or school nearby. Many of us are restricted by our finances. We all have our own reasons why we chose our home and our priorities are all unique to our lives.
In our family, the first priority in choosing our home was based on the well-being and education of our children. How were the quality of elementary, middle and high schools in the area? Was the neighborhood safe? Did it have enough cultural diversity? Were there other children similar in age to our children? Could we connect to the community? Those are the kind of questions we asked. And those are the kind of questions we each have to ask ourselves. It is important to make a list of priorities that reflect who you are and your needs.
- Where do you want to live and why?
- What are the pros? the cons?
- How long do you intend to live there?
- Is it important to be near your work, family, friends or nature?
- Ask yourself as many questions as you can think of.
In this way you will find the best suitable site for you and that is important in feng shui. It is important that we can connect to the environment and the community in which we live, because we cannot live alone. We are interdependent. It is similar to following the current of the river. If you ride the current so things are easier and simplify your life, you have less stress but fighting against the current brings unnecessary hardship. Feng shui is a tool to help you find the current so you can ride it
But, we must not forget that nothing stays the same. Time always brings change and learning to be flexible with change can be a challenge for many of us. For me, in a couple years, our children will be out of the home. Who knows how this will affect our lives. I know it will be a transition that will come and it will be difficult yet necessary to let go, so we can flow with the current. Are you flowing with the current?
