Feng Shui for the Home
When Home Doesn't Feel Like Home
Client: "I have a beautiful house with everything I thought I wanted, but I just don't feel happy coming home. Is that normal?"
Dr. Morris: "You're definitely not alone in feeling that way. Sometimes we don't feel happy to be home, and it can be related to the nature of the space itself or our relationships with other household members. You might struggle to find motivation to get things done, or you might have a home that's beautiful, neat, and has all the latest technology, yet you just don't love being there."
Quick Home Assessment
Client: "How can I tell if my home might be contributing to these feelings?"
Dr. Morris: "I always suggest doing a quick check by asking yourself a few key questions: Is your home conducive to marital harmony or is it creating stress in your relationship? Is finding a place for things a challenge? Is deciding what to keep or release easy? Is there a place where you feel most yourself? Do you avoid inviting guests because of your home? Is there arguing about noise, cleaning up, or decor choices?"
Client: "I answered yes to several of those. Can these issues actually be fixed?"
Dr. Morris: "All of these issues are easily addressed with feng shui. Your home can be arranged to meet the functional and emotional needs of all household residents using your own furniture, artwork, and other contents. Making your home environment more harmonious will have a positive effect on relationships in the home."
What We Overlook When Choosing Homes
Client: "I thought I was so careful when we bought our house. What might I have missed?"
Dr. Morris: "When we select a home, there's so much to think about - the price, location, the school system, parking, distance from work and family. It's easy to overlook the effects homes have on interpersonal communication, family life, love life, work life, sleeping habits, health, and peace of mind."
The Limitations of Western Design
Client: "I worked with an interior designer. Shouldn't that have addressed these issues?"
Dr. Morris: "In the Western world, we rely on architecture and interior design to layout and decorate our homes. Both offer fine tools for achieving a certain look - contemporary, traditional, country, eclectic, or French provincial styles.
Designers offer guidance on color, current design trends, and home technology. But what they don't offer is a way of understanding how a home can make those who live there happy, argumentative, depressed, creative, lonely, social, overwhelmed, less stressed, safe, or healthy."
The Eastern Approach
Client: "So where do I turn for that level of understanding?"
Dr. Morris: "For that, we must turn to the East, to an ancient tool of understanding the person-place relationship: Feng Shui. It shows us how to give our homes a 'Person-Home Check-Up' to see the obvious and less obvious problems the home is causing those living in it. It also offers simple ways to fix our home problems once we've identified them, enabling us to transform our homes into wonderful places to live."
Modern Feng Shui Approach
Client: "Are there different types of feng shui?"
Dr. Morris: "There are a few approaches or schools of Feng Shui. The most modern and American approach is 'Pyramid Feng Shui.' It gives us good tools for that 'Person-Home Check-Up' and incorporates the latest information on the person-place relationship from biology, psychology, anthropology, physics, and other social sciences."
It's Not About Chinese Decor
Client: "Does this mean I need to redecorate with Chinese furniture and art?"
Dr. Morris: "Not at all. Feng Shui comes to us from China, which prompts many to assume it means adding Chinese decor. It doesn't. Historically, ancient China provided the world with things like paper, gunpowder, the compass, and printing. We use all of those today in a very American way. The same is true for Feng Shui - we use the knowledge it provides to make our homes happier places to be, while retaining our American style."