A healthy lifestyle starts at home. Our home nurtures, stabilizes, and promotes balance. When we feel good in our home, we feel good in our life. More specifically, we can improve our health by creating an environment that gives us good vibes while we are there. These positive vibrations follow us to work and support us in all aspects of our life. The idea here is to get moving, live happily, and find solace in your home! 

From a Feng Shui perspective, we honor health by including emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being, which are directly connected to the center of our homes in these ways:

Emotionally: Healthy relationships, doing what you love, nurturing yourself 

Physically: Exercise, being outdoors, movement, yoga 

Spiritually: Meditation, reading, time for yourself

We need all of these aspects to feel balanced, centered, and living our best. Feng Shui evaluates the center of the home to reveal and strengthen any health conditions and create balance. 

Creating a supportive environment is part of healthy, holistic living. As we start to incorporate a holistic lifestyle through nutrition, mindfulness/meditation, yoga, acupuncture, and other natural modalities, we feel more centered within ourselves. As we start to make continuous choices, we may feel inspired to look deeper into what improvements we can make to benefit our health and lifestyle. 

Most people, especially women, are sensitive to their environments and how a space will make them feel. We notice the energy and what surrounds us. As you look to create improvements in your home, here are some ideas that represent good health and a comfortable environment: 

- Happy pictures of the family and mementos that represent favorite memories

- Comfortable furniture that provides a place for healthy relaxation

- Uplifting artwork that provides positive affirmations

- Warm, soothing colors that comfort and “slow down” the fast-paced life

- Clean, open kitchen that inspires healthy meals and gathering together 

- Clutter-free, organized area where things have their own space and the Ch’i can flow

- Healthy plants, bowls of fresh fruit, natural lighting that all create positive living

- Relaxing living space that provides a quiet place for contemplation and feeling grounded 

The element associated with health is earth. Earth is the secure, grounded element of the spectrum that can bring comfort, balance, and ease to your life. Too much earth can slow you down, so if you find that clutter is in your way, make time to clear it out. Not having enough earth in your life can leave you feeling off-kilter and ungrounded.  

To promote a grounded comfort, look for ways to add these earth-relating items into your home: 

- Earth tones (colors of yellow, orange, terra-cotta, rich browns)

- Rocks, pottery, and substances made of earth

- Art that depicts the outdoors/mountains

- Furniture that is grounding and comfortable

- Items that create happy memories and thoughts

Our environments reflect what is going on inside of us and provides a visual idea for positive change. When we connect with our environment, we can see patterns, memories, and energy that either support or detract from our life. The objects, art, and color all reflect who we are and accentuate our feelings and life experiences.

When we recognize the ways in which our environment can help us change, we open up a whole new canvas for our life. Feng Shui is the practice of utilizing one's environment for positive change. Using your home or work space to create a balanced environment is like creating a vision board within your surroundings. You can learn to understand the energetic forces within your space and change your environment to improve the quality of your life.

Bedroom and rest:

My doctor explained to me that ample rest, 6-8 hours of sleep per night, cures many ailments, yet we often look for a pill to fix what a consistent good night's sleep can do. From a Feng Shui standpoint, this means you should ensure that your bed and bedroom promote good sleep. Reserve the bedroom for sleep and passion. Keep computers, bills, TV, exercise equipment, clutter, family photos, mirrors, and busy stuff in the active/living areas of your home. When you make updates to your home, start with the master bedroom. It may seem like other areas are more important, but take care of yourself and your spouse first. 

Mediation, reading, and quiet time: 

In our busy lives, it’s important to have one area that provides you with uninterrupted, quiet time for meditation, yoga, and/or activities that calm, nurture, and provide for spiritual growth. A special space that includes a comfortable chair, yoga mat, and bookshelves with a variety of spiritual and health related topics. 

Workout area:

An extra guest room, space in the basement, or a loft can be cleared out and made into a room for exercise equipment and working out. Then, you must schedule the time to exercise. Having a place at home makes it easier to fit a workout into your schedule. 

Do you live in a neighborhood that encourages good health? Is there a gym or hiking trails nearby? Is there a running trail or stable for horseback riding in your area? Places to mountain climb, surf the waves, or a studio to practice yoga? If you are passionate about any of these, make sure they are easily accessible so they can become an active part of your lifestyle and not just a passing thought. 

When you clean your house and rearrange furnishings it's one thing, but when you make these changes with intention and an understanding of why you are letting go of an item, moving furniture, or changing your wall color, it can be the catalyst for positive transformation. Changes to your environment can be subtle; not all Feng Shui intentions require major home improvement. Often, it's as easy as removing items that have negative memories or hanging artwork that promotes the new direction you seek.

We often keep things around us that have old memories. But the question becomes, are they supportive? Are they still relevant to my life? It’s important that our space reveal who we are today and that it remains current as we go through life’s changes.

It’s natural to keep things that have meaning to us, in fact, this is healthy especially when those things provide supportive energy. However, over time, we accumulate a lot of stuff and some of it no longer supports us, but actually holds us back. Things that we may not realize as having an impact are actually pulling energy from us. 

Even small items can have tremendous meaning when we understand what they represent to us and how they affect the energy in our homes. Look around your space to determine what feels heavy and be willing to let that go. There are also ways to potentially repurpose these items.

Creating a healthy environment inspires us to let go of that which is no longer useful or relevant to our life and to leave room for something that is supportive. It’s imperative that we keep our space up-to-date with where we are in our lives today. Holding on to old stuff keeps us trapped in past energetic patterns that are no longer positively serving us. Create space for a new flow of energy!  

When you take the time to really “see” what’s in your space, it can have a direct correlation on the flow of energy in your life. Our environment is so conducive to how we feel and it’s important that we regularly take time to review our space. 

My hope is that these ideas help you find balance and stability in your health and life.