Tag Archives: Feng Shui Design that causes conflict

Kitchen Design Starts With Feng Shui

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“My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple for me. It is a place where the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odors carry meaning that transfers from the past and bridges the future.”
– Pearl Bailey

Growing up the smell of cornbread stuffing buttered the air at Thanksgiving. White flakes of coconut and red cherries buoyed among bits of fruit and cream in Mom’s prized crystal bowl. Good china served up turkey, browned buns from the oven and fresh cooked string beans from the stove. The love poured into this meal made the kitchen hum and warm conversations wafted throughout the house. The kitchen is the hub for all of life’s happenings. We prep our meals and plan our lives here. It is the sacred space where we quietly listen to our thoughts over morning coffee and console the hurts of family members after dinner. We celebrate milestones and receive endearing hugs among the pots and pans and crockery. It is the domaine for all our life’s stories.

Kitchen design has a profound effect upon our emotions, our hopes and our successes. The nature of this room offers opportunities for closeness and having real conversations. The strength of this bonding time creates a feeling of safety and helps us to gather our confidence and walk with our heads held high across the threshold and into the world. To modern sensibility it’s influence is seemingly imperceptible, but it has the power to influence our choices and destiny.

If your past holidays have been peppered with tension, I encourage you to try the following Feng Shui adjustments that, I believe, will help bolster any troubled waters and in the process help you uncover levity too. Not all may pertain, but I still encourage you to note, “the kettle is singing even as it pours you a drink”. Choose what fits your home’s design and decor. I wish for you a very happy holiday.

The best placement for the kitchen is behind the midline of the house. Too close to the front door and a parent may be eating in someone’s kitchen. This placement threatens the family’s stability. If you have this arrangement, a convex mirror placed on a wall behind the front door will pull the kitchen back into the house and your partner will come home. Be sure to use a strong visualization.

Select pleasing colors according to your home’s palette and your personal aesthetics but keep these Feng Shui and Five Element principles in mind while choosing. According to Professor Lin Yun white is the best color for the kitchen. It shows off the colors of the food. White, the color of the Metal element, is compatible with the kitchen’s basic element fire (fire overcomes or melts metal). Avoid all black kitchens because black, the water element, destroys fire. Do not choose red or there will be too much heat and the cook will always be hot tempered. Red and black accents are fine. Apple green is a color that signifies hope and the vitality of spring.

Contrary to what you may have read or heard, the refrigerator has a motor that generates heat, it is not a cooled water element. This does not present a problem to the stove. Best placement for the sink is across from the stove not adjacent.

The stove is the key to family prosperity and harmony. It has a significant role as wealth generator, creating family unity and keeping us free from legal trouble. When we lovingly prepare our food it nurtures us, our lives become fuller and we manage what life delivers with ease and grace.

If you stand at the stove and face a wall then you either turn your head left or right to see what is going on behind you. This takes you off balance. Over time your body will conform to this unconscious posture that influences your attitude where you may feel out of control and ill at ease. You may experience a downturn in finances or plain bad luck. In regards to the stove placement, you want to see what is going on behind you by placing a mirror on the wall in front of you. It should be the width of the stove and ideally doesn’t cut off the top of the tallest person in the household when you look into the mirror. Some stoves have a microwave above, if this is your arrangement then place a convex mirror (which takes in a 160 degree view). Visualize your heart trouble resolving and an upswing in your finances.

When the stove is under a microwave or collection of pots, this not good kitchen design. The ability to make money will be oppressed. Either remove the microwave and pots or place a wind chime over the position where the cook stands at the stove. For the microwave alone, place a three inch round mirror under it with the reflective side facing down towards the burners. It will transcendentally lift the Ch’i.

If members in your family argue a lot, especially about money, you may see your finances diminish. There is a kitchen design detail that influences this conflict: the stove is in line with two doors on either side. Adjust this inauspicious placement by hanging a 40 mm faceted crystal or wind chime on both sides of the stove between the door and the stove.

When there are two levels to a home, there is the possibility that a bathroom can be built over the kitchen, this is typical in older homes. When a toilet sits over the stove, the family’s health and finances are in jeopardy. You can place a mirror, facing down, on the floor behind toilet. It will lift the image of the stove, transcendentally removing the toilet.

If you see a kitchen as you step through the front door there will be digestive upset. This can cause money problems. You can have strange, odd or unexplained diseases/illnesses. Draw the eyes elsewhere with color, art, sound or greenery. Or divert the eyes traveling directly into the kitchen by placing a 40mm crystal hung on a red cord between the front door and the kitchen to lift the Ch’i and the life of the family members affected. To ease the symptoms of a stomach ache: wear the colors red and/or yellow (the colors of Fire and Earth in the Chinese Five Element System).

If the kitchen door is overwhelming the door of the bedroom of a person who is struggling with an eating disorder, that’s a problem. The kitchen can swallow that bedroom and, in a sense, swallow that person’s resolve to get better. That eating disorder can get even worse. The cure may seem odd but it is a mirror on the big door to pick up the image of the smaller door so that you have two bedrooms. Instead of a kitchen swallowing up a bedroom or a bathroom swallowing up a bedroom. If there is no door in the kitchen. Hang a crystal ball. if the larger door is on the bedroom there is not a problem.

A bathroom across from a kitchen is difficult kitchen design. I worked with a client who had this inauspicious kitchen design. She called me because she knew the Feng Shui was “off”  in her home. A bathroom is symbolic of a family’s expenses, so it should not face a kitchen which is symbolic of a family’s wealth. The result is money loss of all kinds. Money drains away as if going down the toilet.

My heart is smiling because you give life your best. May love and joy continue to surround you everyday. And keep creating beauty! It feeds our souls in a myriad of ways.

Allow me to help you arrange your home where you feel fully supported. I am available for a full consultation service or for an hour telephone conversation. Details are at this link Feng Shui A La Carte. Think of it as a fairy godmother for your house.

What I have discovered about our homes is that creating a heart healthy space leads to peace and contentment. The bedroom is where it begins. Start with my complimentary pdf: 27 Bedroom Concepts To Maximize Your Health, Happiness and Peace of Mind. Design your space to your best advantage. Subscribe to my blog and special offers. You’ll receive this valuable Feng Shui Guide as a thank you gift.

COVID And Divorce. Feng Shui for Pandemic Friction.

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“If there is light in your heart, you will find your way home.”
– Rumi

According to The National Law Review’s October 16, 2020 article, the divorce rate among Americans is rising. “… (the) lockdown has exposed issues that run deeper and offered ample time for reflection, leaving couples to wonder about their options for pursuing separation during the pandemic.” This statement compels me to ask, Have you struggled within your relationship more than once this past year? Have you sought help but arguing continues? COVID and divorce are on a lot of couples’ minds. If conflict has exhausted your ability to cope, take courage, your home could hold the secret. The following Feng Shui details are underlying to marital strife and relationship problems. My hope is you receive benefit from these alternative solutions to replenish love in your relationship.

The Mouth of Ch’i
Let’s start at the front entry. The front door represents your career, your future, your reputation, your head, Helpful People and your health. You may suddenly develop a headache here or become confused. You might speak before you think which can incite anger. Possibly you’ve lost your job due to COVID and you are struggling to make ends meet. You and your partner likely have careers and this doubles your stress if your attention is on a career that is not going well. Here are some possible causes.
• A split view at the front door can adversely affect all eight guas, including Family. As the brain is stimulated unevenly, the two sides begin to lack coordination. An imbalance like this can create illness, confusion, and an inability to make decisions. There may be nonstop arguing even violence. Divorce within three to five years. A career downturn. Correcting the Feng Shui can “turn a life around.” You want “both eyes should hit the same target.” (H. H. Lin Yun). If possible place a large mirror then both eyes will be focused on the same thing. Or use real money ($100 bill ). This is a simple yet effective solution because we all need money and we can never have too much. Or hang a faceted crystal from the ceiling on a red cord. This will lift your head and your countenance may brighten watching the rainbow reflect the sunlight.
• Mandarin Duck Stairway is a type of split where one set of stairs go up to the main floor and the other go down. Use the same principal to focus the eyes on one object at the entry. Hang a faceted crystal on a red cord from the ceiling. The two hemispheres of the brain will then work together, accommodating an equitable and useful response to any situation.

Doors Talk
COVID and divorce seem to follow you from room to room? To keep two way communication open look at the doors in your home. In the Feng Shui metaphor a door is a mouth. The following door types can prevent or distort communication especially when they are in the bedroom.
• Arguing Doors are doors which bump up against one another when they are opened. The bumping creates conflict. The mundane solution is to re-hang the door or doors so that they do not touch.
• Biting Doors doors that are misaligned, they bite at each other. It is an imbalance in perception. It is headaches and other problems in the head. It is opinions that are deadlocked. It is situations that cannot be resolved. The effect is the same as a split at the front door.
• Double Doors – Partnership Ch’i can leak out of one of the doors and allow private matters to escape into the community, magnifying and/or distorting any problem.
• Empty Doors – no actual door at the bedroom entry or there isn’t an actual door between the bedroom and the bathroom. A partner may be lost due to an affair, divorce or an accident that leads to death. On the mundane level, hang a door. If not possible then a transcendental cure will work. Hang a faceted 40 mm crystal ball from a red cord at the entry. Use a red (represents power, protection and good luck) cord and you have created a more powerful adjustment.
• Door Leading To Your Bedroom At The End Of A Long Hallway. Chi might be building and coming down the hallway and it might be really hard to focus, especially if your bed is in line with that. You can easily misinterpret a simple comment from a family member or friend and it might set off a reaction that is out of proportion to the situation. Hang a faceted 40 mm crystal ball or wind chime in the hallway.
• French doors can be viewed as two doors. If there are too many French doors in a house, the occupants may often bicker and argue. Minds will be closed, prejudiced and biased. Use the ousting mudra and visualize there is harmony in the house and arguing and bickering are at an end.
• Piercing Heart Doors are where three or more doors line up and you can walk through them a straight line. These create an invisible barrier through the house, which in turn, can create a barrier between partners. As the schism widens over time, it becomes exceedingly difficult to connect with your significant other. Hang one or more crystal balls or wind chimes in the center of the rooms between the doors to slow down the Ch’i, and break down the invisible wall. Or paint a different color in each room along the path to break down the barrier.

Design for Conflict
Does the stress from thinking about COVID and divorce catch you looking askance when your beloved says hurtful words because they are frightened?
• Run Through Kitchen. There is arguing between partners and loss of money for the household. Hang two 40 mm crystals from a red cord, one at each door to slow down the rapid movement of Ch’i.
• A Kitchen In Front Of The Front Door will drive a partner out of the house to eat in someone else’s kitchen. Or they will be distracted by events, activities or hobbies outside the house. Pull the kitchen to the back of the house with a convex mirror.
• A Bedroom In Front Of The Front Door, a partner will find love outside the house, perhaps leaving entirely.
•A Detached Garage in Partnership is when the garage or any enclosed detached building is set close to the Partnership gua of the house. One or both partners may seek attention, perhaps begin an affair outside the home.
• Extension In Knowledge suggests someone is not listening, they think they know more. Balance the house with an adjustment at the corner of Helpful People (in the yard) to complete the imbalance in the shape of the house.
• An Uneven House Shape, whether it favors either the male or the female will give one of the partners the advantage and the disadvantaged partner will harbor hard feelings and feel resentment.
• Beam Running Down The Center Of The Bed, the pressure can split a couple apart.
• Home at the end of a Cul-de-Sac, or near the end, the energy pools and does not circulate back out. Life may feel like a dead end. A couple’s luck, good fortune will diminish and communication will feel stuck in a loop.

The feedback from clients who have adjusted the Feng Shui in their homes say they love the spirit of cooperation when performing the cures. The process helps them feel more compassion for the needs of their partner, their communication improves and it engenders a deeper connection. Love resurfaces when couples make adjustments with the intention to cre