HEART FILLED HOME

With love definitely in the air this month, I’ve been looking at what makes a love-filled home. After all, a house is just a building, but a home conjures up something so much more personal. So, what does it take to go from a house to a heart-filled home? Well, one starting point might be the building itself with many people ‘sensing’ that houses have ‘souls’. Indeed, we’ve probably all been in a house that feels ‘soulless’ and it feels pretty uncomfortable. Somehow though, our houses do seem to absorb our energy. The walls soak up our spirit, and, for good or bad, we leave an impression on the spaces we inhabit. Choosing a home with the ‘right feel’ from the start is an important first step in creating a home that not only suits us, but also reflects something personal about us.

Creating That Loving Feeling

Another approach might be to look at your existing home to see how you can change its energy, to attract more love into your life. According to the ancient art of Feng Shui, if you want love in your life, you must create space for it in your home. For example, if you are looking for a partner, a welcoming and uncluttered front door invites in good energy and good relationships, but, if it is piled up with shoes, you block and push away new people who will likely sense the ‘running away’ energy represented in the shoes. Clearing wardrobes, freeing up empty hangers, making space on the coat rack, and leaving room at the table, are all said to create new space and intention for new love. Even hanging pictures and paintings that represent love and organising objects into pairs can raise and attract love energy into your home and life.

However, for lots of us, decisions made about our homes and interiors are based on whether they work practically, aesthetically, are within budget, or are limited to what’s available. The whims of fashion can sway us and we end up with a mish-mash of disparate objects that have no plan or meaning.

It’s easy to feel the answer lies in investing more money into our homes, but consider this, if a home feels a little unloved, just cleaning, reorganising, and tending to it can be seen as a form of self-love and self-care that extends to our families and visitors. A good spring clean can completely elevate the spirits. And, let’s not forget the simple joys of nice clean sheets on the bed, a freshly mopped floor, a flower from the garden on the mantel, and the smell of fresh coffee or baking bread.

Signature Ambiance

Just like Feng Shui, humble domestic chores are acts of mindfulness. They are simple ways to stay true to, and conscious of, our well-being, needs, and values, all of which are vital for a heart-filled home. Through these small homemaking rituals, we can impart a little of our own signature ambiance, and when our hearts alone guide our choices, we fill our homes with meaningful objects that reflect our true nature, desires, experiences, and soul. A perfect jigsaw of what makes us, us.

All that said, a heart-filled home, wherever you live, whatever your style, or means, is never really made with the things that fill it, but with the people that inhabit it. A heart-filled home is created with intention, time invested, and the love of the people that dwell there. It’s the simple gestures, the cups of tea, the chats at the table, the laughter and the tears, the friendship shared and memories created. So, along with your front door, open your heart, and let your intention be love. Michelle Fullbrook The Painted Pearl