At this time of year our intuitive reflex is to hunker down indoors and create spaces within our homes that feel cozy and warm. Home is truly a haven as daylight hours grow shorter. We spend a lot of time indoors, and want to create healthy-feeling spaces that are inviting, soothing and uplifting. This is an ideal time to consider feng shui for help.

Feng shui is a guide to moving energy, or chi, in our homes in a way that supports our feelings and intentions. The goal of feng shui practice is to harmonize the physical energy that circulates in our homes with our personal energy—thoughts, feelings and intentions—so that whatever we desire will show up.

Translated as “wind and water,” feng shui is an ancient art and science that observes how the “unseen” forces of nature (wind) and “seen” forces (water) move within spaces; it looks at how these forces constantly interact with and influence each other. Unseen energy relates to personal desires, thoughts, intentions and feelings. Seen forces are the home, physical objects within, and all that surrounds it. 

More than 5,000 years ago, Chinese feng shui masters observed three fundamental principles of energy.

• Everything is alive with energy.

• Everything is connected by energy, thereby causing interactions. 

• Energy is constantly changing. 

The early feng shui masters observed that when energy interactions are blended and balanced, beneficial occurrences manifest, resulting in a joyful, successful, prosperous and abundant life.

Feng shui may be ancient practice, but it’s not obsolete and it’s a home practice we can apply to live life well. “Home” applies to any environment where we spend most of our personal time, including home, apartment, bedroom, dormitory room, external office, shared communal space or other areas.

Take a Quick Feng Shui Space Analysis

Feng shui is often intuitive. We may notice that the energy of a room or home feels comfortable or uncomfortable because we can “feel” the energy of a space. For example, think of one room in a home and answer these questions:

• Does it feel open and/or airy?

• Is it easy to walk around in the room? 

• Does it feel closed and/or stagnant?

• Is the room cluttered? 

• Is it sparse?

• Does it contain a lot of curved or angled furniture? 

Each of these guiding questions will point the way to the feelings we may have about the room and indicate whether the chi in the room is balanced or unbalanced. Balanced chi results in feelings of happiness, relaxation, energy, calm, cheer or protection. Unbalanced chi results in feelings of depression, distress, anxiety, discomfort, overwhelm or being unprotected. The goal of feng shui is to balance the chi of a home or workspace, and align it with our personal energy in order to manifest the life we desire. 

In complicated or long-standing difficult situations, a feng shui professional may be required to help balance the energy of the home. However, in many situations where a person’s life is generally in a healthy state, the use of a few feng shui tips can be applied to keep life going in the right direction. These tips can be applied at any time of the year, using examples from nature and the emotions that the current season brings up for us.

Tip 1: Clear clutter to bring back a healthy home and life. In feng shui, clutter is stagnant, dead energy. It can cause unhealthy feelings of depression, sadness, frustration, anger and lack of focus, to name a few. One way to immediately perk up a home and get energy moving again is to clear the clutter. When clutter is cleared, we notice immediately how refreshed, focused and centered we feel about our homes and ourselves.

TIP 2: Indoor plants are excellent healthy energy resources. They release oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide, bringing benefits of fresh air into closed-up homes. 

Why do we add live evergreens to our homes in December? People added evergreen boughs and trees to homes before Christianity in an effort to bring nature into their homes during the winter months, to ward off evil spirits, or as a reminder of the regrowth of nature in the spring. The shapes, scents and colors of plants uplift and inspire feelings of well-being, caring and comfort. 

Plants can be placed in any location where they will grow and thrive. One especially good place is in a corner where trapped energy needs to be revitalized and circulated. From the feng shui perspective, the best indoor plants are those with rounded leaves, or softly draping varieties such as philodendron, pothos, jade, croton, ivy, peace lily, fichus, dracena and palm. 

TIP 3: Color creates a mood. What mood do we want to create in a particular room during the winter months? Is it comfort, coziness, energetic, quiet, playful, creative or cheery? We can choose colors that reflect nature and pair them with colors that create the mood we want to feel. 

Start with foundational earth tones, such as brown, rust, yellow ochre and dark green for feelings of warmth, relaxation and comfort. Add accent colors such as yellow for enthusiasm, optimism and cheer. Gold is good for grounding and richness, and greens for growth. Reds add a bit of passion and stimulation. The accented colors will help to make a room feel fresh, stimulating and cheerful.

Each of these tips can be practiced immediately. They offer opportunities to balance energy in the home with personal energy that will result in the manifestation of joy. 

Mary Cipriano is a certified feng shui consultant based in Danbury. She received her feng shui design certification from the New York Institute of Art and Design. Cipriano works with individual clients in their home or office, and conducts group workshops. Connect at 860-248-0313 or [email protected].