LISTEN TO YOUR HOME

Listen to Your Home - What Is It Telling You?

Gina Lazenby

Your home is always talking to you …. maybe not in a voice that you hear with your ears, but everything about your home has the potential to message you. It can give you clues and feedback about what is happening in your life.

That is a fundamental part of Feng Shui, the ability to read patterns and messages in your home, to be in a conscious dialogue with where you live. Let me give you some ideas.

Let’s start with your front door.

I have arrived at a client’s home before now through the front door, and the first thing I have noticed was the lack of a house name or number. So the place was unnecessarily difficult to find. Then I have seen the clutter piled up behind the door so that it had not opened fully, at least not with ease. The client tells me the porch light is broken.

I think you get the idea .. a lot is going on, or NOT going on, right there in what we call the mouth of the house. What that means is that the occupant is hidden away and not easy to find by not having a visible house number. Add to that the lack of a working light, and the client is likely to have problems with visibility in life.

Sure enough, when we sat down and discussed what was going on, one of the main problems was a lack of opportunities, a need to change direction in life with a new job but a difficulty in being noticed and receiving offers. If any of that resonates with you, go check your front entrance now.

Think of your house as being able to attract what you need in life. Consider your frontage as your window to the world with opportunity coming down your street (or apartment corridor) and being able to find you, and then finding the right way in and flowing easily into your door.

When the front door is in the centre of the front of the house, as opposed to being on the left-hand side or the right, it aligns with your career and path in life. So if you want new offers, new clients and more business, that is such an important area to pay attention to.

Keep it clear, and well maintained with everything working like the doorbell and porch light, and make sure there is free access to welcome in the flow of new energy. I have seen a client’s house hidden behind an overgrown hedge and then been told that the client is lonely and wants community and friends, but they have cut themselves off.

Quite literally, they cannot be seen. The minute that hedge gets cut back, the house and entrance way is revealed; that is when the social life will pick up. Consider whether you have some impediment somewhere hiding you from the world.

Make sure your front door is smart, appealing and clear.

Balance the look of it with neat, attractive and matching plant containers outside the door. Pay attention to the path that brings energy in. What do folks have to walk past to get to the door? What is getting in the way of energy, good fortune and money being able to reach you? Walk out of your home and approach it with fresh eyes to check.

Once inside the front door, make sure that the first things that are seen are inspiring and restful. You don’t want to be agitated by jobs not yet done. When you come in and out every day, you might stop noticing the piling up of clutter and disorder. In fact, you might choose to turn a blind eye and stop noticing it all, but …. your unconscious mind never stops clocking it. So while your mind is on what is for dinner or who is at home as you remove your coat, there is still part of you that looks at the pile of opened mail and thinks, “I must get that invoice paid”. Or you see the stack of old magazines and think, “I must take those to the recycling”.

You get the drift. I know it is hard to have the whole house clutter-free; trust me, that is the Holy Grail I always hold out for and rarely achieve. But at least make your entrance one that is as clear and pristine as possible. You went to be able to come in after a day of hassle and exertion elsewhere and drop your shoulders and think. : "Ah, lovely peace and calm .. how nice it is to be home".

Now I have got you thinking about what your house is trying to tell you, let’s talk about art and ornaments. They are all symbols of something …. and symbols are an important part of our everyday lives; they help us make sense of the world. They are the language of the unconscious mind, and they are used very powerfully by the modern media to inform and persuade us. Fables, parables and stories have been used for millennia to help us understand ourselves, while icons, totems, talismans and lucky charms all potentially hold a special power or message.

They can influence you consciously or unconsciously, so the more you understand them, the more control you have.

Everything in your home carries some significance.

Your home is an extension of who you are: you have chosen it, decorated it, and whether or not you realise it, you have filled it with things that have special meaning for you. This is a highly personal process, just like choosing the clothes to wear. Our homes become metaphors for our lives and simply reflect the issues we face.

Our homes are full of symbols, and whether you know it or not, they constantly affect your energy. The art hanging on the walls can be a potent source of inspiration. Hanging abstract art where you want clarity and focus could leave you feeling fragmented and incomplete. Similarly, on a negative note, people who sometimes feel lonely will often have surrounded themselves with stark landscape paintings populated only by solitary figures. You should think twice before you hang that clever etching of a hillside in the driving rain; consider that you may well end up having to spend the money you are saving for a rainy day.

Art choices are personal and should mean something to the one who has purchased it.

Yet, I have consulted with people who have lived with art they have not chosen and not given any conscious thought to. When I have highlighted what the image might be saying, they had not really noticed until that moment when I pointed out the picture’s negative message: the sad clown, the old man laden with heavy bags struggling home, the man pushing a rock up the hill, the ship being tossed on an angry sea moving towards rocks; a forlorn-looking girl alone.

These are not happy, tranquil images. They suggest sadness, difficulty and danger, and it is not wise to have them living in your space. Every day your unconscious mind will register the image and think, “OK, that’s how the world is … lonely, difficult, dangerous.” Choose your art very mindfully. Actively seek out images that reflect your passions, your desired future and what you want to have in your life. Every time you look at them, you’ll be reminded of the goals and dreams you have associated with them.

What you repeatedly focus on will attract energy. It will become a catalyst for synchronicity, drawing in the events and people necessary to make things happen in your life. Hang pictures of places you would like to visit in the future, not just the places you have been to in the past. Watch out for the coincidences between when you place the picture and when you actually book the trip there.

Take a look at your home from a maintenance point of view.

Water leaking away through broken pipes or damp patches will probably show up as red ink on your bank statements. Any doors to rooms or cupboards that require extra effort to open will signify some level of struggle in your life. Conversely, if cracks are starting to appear in your relationships, take a look at the walls and ceilings in your bedroom. It is incredible how much your energy is drained by looking at something broken every day and saying to yourself, “I must get that fixed”... and then not doing anything about it.

So I recommend that you step back and be curious about your home. Ask yourself, “If my home is trying to tell me something, what could it be?” If you were a stranger walking in, what message would they get about you? If you have ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘Blink’, you will recall how strangers taken into student dorm rooms could accurately read all about the missing occupant .. just from the state of their room. So check around your home today .. bring in some fresh thinking. Look for cables around your desk that are all tangled up; there could be miscommunication and confusion around your projects. Spot those dark, unlit corners which might correspond to aspects of your life or self that are more difficult to understand. Look at your chosen art and ask, “Is this what I want for my life?” and if the answer is “Yes!” then well done on using your home to manifest the life you want.

Gina Lazenby

Healthy Living Activist, Feng Shui Expert

Gina’s beautiful hilltop home in the Yorkshire Dales, featured on many TV programmes and the inspiration for her Healthy Home book, is now let as a retreat house to facilitators of yoga, transformation work and wellness. It’s also a special place to hire for family gatherings and celebrations.

She has always understood the management and care of a home as a highly feminine skill set. Her work in the last twenty years has been in the exploration of the changing nature of gender roles and the value of home-making in our lives. Her feng shui skill set enabled her to teach hundreds of students the value of aligning your home for success and wellness. She has also produced and presented a radio series called ‘The Rise of the Feminine’ exploring the shift in values in the world and the unique contribution of women.

Gina is a veteran conference speaker and has led gatherings for women entrepreneurs all over the globe. Most recently, she has taken on the role of global host for Conscious Café, a consciousness-raising initiative, and hosts the northern community group based in Skipton. Gina is a born organiser and has created thousands of events since she was a small child and led birthday parties for her reluctant toddler brother. You can join her online or in-person at one of the many gatherings she creates around her passions of conscious conversation, feminine leadership, wholefood cooking, Feng Shui, living well and wisdom. Her Healthy Home podcast is about to be launched from the Retreat House with tips for making your home the foundation of your abundance and health.