DIY Feng Shui, Part 5: A Guide to Designating Your Room and Area Usage

Today, take a moment to look at your floor plan (as we mapped it out yesterday in this post), and assess how you use the space based on the nine life areas.

For some of you – especially those of you in smaller spaces like studios or one bedroom apartments – this will not take long because you don’t really have that many options for what to do with the space. Others might have a number of guest rooms, or just a lot of options with how you can position your life within the walls of you home. But everyone can benefit from considering where you do what.

Please remember: I subscribe to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy school of feng shui, meaning I always suggest NOT PANICKING. If one of your life areas is in your bathroom, or lies outside your house or in your garage, this is totally, 100% fine and workable! (We’ll talk more about how to work with these conditions later.) Feng shui is just about doing the best you can with what you have and where you are. There is always something that you can do to improve your harmonious flow, and the idea is to get into a harmonious life momentum and then to let it carry you along to more and more positive situations and conditions.

In other words, whether or not you can change how you use a certain area, and whether or not that area lies within your floor plan, you can still activate the associated energies in your life. Today, we just happen to be talking about what you do where, and how you designate the rooms (if you happen to have that option).

All that being said, as you assess your floor plan and think about how you use the space and the feelings it gives you, consider the activities/energies that are ideal for each area. Namely:

The serenity/self-love area has a very meditative, yet alert and active energy. Associated activities are exercise, meditation, and study.

The career/life path area has an inward, solitary, authentic, self-exploring energy. Associated activities are rest, meditation, and connecting with your inner joy.

The synchronicity area has to do with travel and connections in the seen and unseen world. Associated activities are connecting with others, scheduling, and giving and receiving hep in the world.

The creativity area has to do with playfulness, laughter, joy, and the artistic/creative spirit. Associated activities are nurturing projects, children, inner children, and animals, as well as playing and creating things of all kinds.

The love/marriage area has to do with receptivity and romantic love. Associated activities are love, sex, intimacy, and companionship.

The radiance area has to do with how you shine your light in the world. Associated activities are dancing, performing, “showing off,” getting ready to go out into the world, spending time with others, and entertaining.

The prosperity area has to do with receiving blessings and being in the natural flow of abundance. Associated activities include relaxing and experiencing luxury, vacationing, enjoying the finer things such as food and music, and receiving wealth.

The health/family area has to do with ancestors, physical health, family relationships, past lives, and deep issues from the past. It also has to do with one’s sense of community and social support network as well as one’s ability to whether the challenges of life in a resilient, healthy way. Associated activities include spending time with family and friends, supporting one’s physical health through things like food and exercise, honoring ancestors and the past, and actively working to heal from past challenges and issues.

The center is about grounding, and it’s where all the other areas merge and mix. Ideally it’s as open and clutter-free as possible so that each area can interact with and support each other area in a holistically supportive way.

So, as I mentioned, there is no need to panic about any of this. It’s just a good framework to be aware of when you’re considering how to best make use of the space in your home. I wouldn’t want you to inconvenience yourself by, say, going out of your way to meditate or exercise in the kitchen (if that happens to be your serenity area) for example, as it’s of utmost importance that you flow with your home’s layout in a natural and efficient way. That’s not what this is about. It’s simply about being aware so that when you take everything into account (convenience and common sense included), you can be informed about what is what, from a feng shui perspective.