FUN SHUI Q&A: Our Health and Our Homes
Chris writes:
"I LOVE YOUR SHOW! I need help with the health area of my house. I have lived here 3 years and my family is having a great deal of trouble staying well. I then looked at my floor plan. The center of my house is nothing but stairs. They go up to the 2nd floor, and under them, they go down to the basement. I feel like this does represent our health - up and down! How can I fix the stairs without moving me or them?"
Stephanie's Answer:
Chris, this is a VERY common problem with many houses - staircases in the middle of the home. Health issues can come from a number of different issues in life, usually stemming from more than one particular circumstance or scenario, but strengthening and grounding the center of your home can add a nice support as you heal.
If you watch the episode on December 28th, we touch on this exact situation briefly. In the meantime, go to this article on my website:
http://www.evolvingarts.com/article_5elements.html
...and look up "EARTH" - all the tips listed there can be great adjustments to help ground the center of your home.
Also consider the following when you have stains smack in the center of your space:
• If you have artwork hanging on the wall leading up the stairs, hang them in horizontal lines, not in diagonal arrangements. The diagonal visual line created by this sort of arrangement just enhances the up and down movement of the stair's energy and speeds up the already fast-moving stairway "Chi". As many ways as you can create horizontal lines in your arrangements, the better!
• Try adding a HEAVY stone, flowerpot, urn or any other extremely heavy object to the center of your home near the base of the stairs. This helps give a weight to the space, grounding that unstable stairway energy.
• Try adding still, strong images of mountains — the emotional reaction we have to these types of images is very stabilizing
• If you see the stairs immediately as you enter your home, either add something lovely and lush (perhaps a healthy plant in a large heavy vase) to draw your eye there instead of up the stairs, or create a powerful visual in another room to help draw your attention into that area instead (you can do this by using inspiring colors on the wall, adding eye-catching artwork, or inviting seating arrangements - all will help pull your attention in the direction you desire).
Another thing to consider in terms of health is the literal "healthiness" of the items within your home. As I said before, health issues can come from a number of different direction — emotional stresses, genetic dispositions, poor diets, depression, environmental toxins, lack of exercise or movement, imbalanced environments, etc. Knowing this, we can do what we can to heal in all these areas. But let's focus for a moment on solely the objects within your environment. And I'll start by telling you a brief story about my own experience in this arena...
About 8 years ago I moved into a gorgeous, BRAND-NEW renovated apartment. It has new floors, new ceilings, new walls, new cabinets, a new bathroom, new paint job — you name it, it's new! I was thrilled about this lucky turn of fate, and moved into my gorgeous new home. It was balanced, it was open... with tall ceilings, clean lines and a shiny new penny feel. From an energetic perspective, I thought this was ideal. It had none of the leftover stagnant or negative energy from the previous tenants. Being quite sensitive to energy, this was a huge plus! But within a month of moving in, my optimism started to change.
I started getting sick. Very sick. I was getting the flu every 1-2 months. This continued for over a year. Until one day I woke up sick, and I didn't get better for ONE ENTIRE YEAR. I did radical dietary adjustments, popped 10,000 vitamins, ate organic, exercised regularly. And slowly I came around. But every since then I've yet to have the energy I had before this move.
Now that I'm involved with my current Bau-Biologie studies (creating sustainable environments that are biologically healthy), I'm more and more understanding the harmful effects of the building materials contained in that newly gut-renovated apartment of mine. That "new car smell" that so many of us love are in fact deadly chemicals. The laminated cabinets contain loads of formaldehyde in the toxic glues that bind the plywood underneath. The paints contained high levels of VOC's (volatile organic compounds) that I could smell for months. The floors were treated with more toxic surface coatings and chemical-filled glues underneath. Then I filled the space with veneer-finished furniture and a new sofa and chairs.... EVERY SINGLE ONE of these items outgasses chemicals into the air, sometimes for years...or forever.
Try some of the following in your home when you're doing your next redesign or remodeling, or are struggling with environmental sensitivities:
• Use no-VOC paints — SafeCoat is a great paint product if you're looking to stick to more typical color palettes
• Get solid wood furniture — these don't contain the poisonous glues found in most all laminated or veneer furniture
• Buy used furniture — if you can't get solid wood or super-healthy furniture, buying used is a great alternative! It's had time to outgas much of it's chemicals so they are less harmful to your system (your local craigslist.com can be an invaluable resource for fabulous used furniture!)
It's important to research and educate yourself on everything you bring into your home. When you can, support companies and organizations that provide sustainable and healthy, chemical-free products, like Gaiam (www.gaiam.com) or Green Nest (www.greennest.com) or Green for Baby (www.greenforbaby.com). These and MANY more like them are becoming more readily available. The more we support products like this, the lower the prices will get and the more that will become available. For those who HAVE the financial resources, I encourage you to GO GREEN whenever possible. You pave the way for those less-financially-fortunate that will follow. And as we all know, money talks!
© 2007 Stephanie McWilliams
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