Most of us want to ensure that the feng shui family section of our homes promotes harmony and happiness, and here are the age-old recommendations for doing just this:

I was horrified to realize that the family section of my home is a porch where I stored the garbage in the winter. It was piled with boxes, bottles, and containers that needed to be stored for recycling! I’ve since worked on it using many of the traditional feng shui fix-it recommendations. In my case, the family section of my home is outdoors on a porch and sub-freezing for many months of the year so it took some creative problem-solving.

The goal for the family center is to orchestrate your relationship with current family, your ancestry, lineage, and even a more global sense of family such as religious or political icons, if they are important to you.

Elements

Wood and Water.

Suggestions:  Photos of family members in wooden frames; fresh flowers in water; a water fountain; wooden furniture; a bowl of stones in water; a potted tree. Mirrors are considered water in feng shui, so a carefully placed mirror could benefit.

For me, because the space is outside, I put art work that family members have done on the porch, such as a sculpture done by my mother, and a stone painted by my daughter. I hung a a heart-shaped wreath in the space. The best fix was when I realized that because the porch looked out onto a beautiful black birch forest (lots of wood), that if I put a mirror on the wall facing the forest, I would bring the wood from the forest right into the space, and the mirror would represent water. In the summer I will put a water fountain there, too.

Color

Green

Second choices are black and blue.

Suggestions:  Plants! Other suggestions are green pillows, upholstery, etc.

Please contribute your family section feng shui fixes!

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The left center of my home has a wall that includes a closet/door.  Right now I have a four-paned, wooden framed window that I've recycled and painted in bright colors hanging on the wall, with a woven trunk on the floor below it.

I think that I will move my family photos there, interspersed with several small mirrors.  I've asked my recently retired Dad to teach me some woodworking - so I think one of my first projects will be a slender table to go under the photos so that I have room for my small fountain, statue of Quan Yin and collection of crystals and stones.  The statue is currently holding some dried ferns - it's the perfect time of the year to replace those with a couple of the tulips that are blooming in my yard!

I love this - I've been looking at my home with new eyes recently, and was wondering what to do with this space (among others).  My major project right now, with spring gardening delayed because of the weather, is clearing out clutter.  Even my kids are committed to helping, and we've been discussing feng shui principles!

Blessings!

Cynthia H

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imagine your house as a square, and your door

at the bottom of it. What is in the middle of the

left side on the far left? that is the family sector.

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I have a book called

FENG SHUI, The Traditional Oriental Way to Enhance Your Life.

It is pretty good. It tells you a lot from how to choose what house or apartment to buy or rent to how to arrange your furniture in each room. It talks about gardening too and also has lists of the little quick fixes. It also tells you how feng shui works and a bit of the history of it all.

It even came with a feng shui compass

~natalie~

by, Stephen Skinner

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Your family center sounds lovely-- the

real question is how does it make you feel?

Adjust according to what you really think

of it!

Best,

Annie

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Annie B. I must say I am lost to.....when I walk into my front door to the left is a window, meaning??? I would like to understand this a lot better.....thanks, Debbie  

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