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Feng Shui for the Heart of Your Home
by Stephanie Roberts

The kitchen is sometimes called "the heart of the home," and with good reason; in ancient cultures the hearth was a sacred place representing the life-giving sustenance of Earth's bounty. Feng shui recognizes the kitchen as one of the most important rooms in the house because it is where we connect with the energies that nourish us physically (food), financially (money), and emotionally (family). It reminds us to see the kitchen not just as where we put the groceries away and dish up dinner, but also as a place where we receive blessings and express gratitude for the gifts of life, health, and prosperity.

The kitchen should be bright and sunny in feeling, evoking the warmth of the sun and hearth. Reds and earth tones are good here, while green accents add wood energy to feed the stove's fire, and touches of purple help to support prosperity. Dark, cramped kitchens can be transformed with warm white or pale yellow paint, brighter light fixtures, and cheerful accessories that bring reds and yellows into the room. A kitchen with lots of black and chrome appliances and fixtures will benefit from touches of green, purple, and red to support health and prosperity.

When you come home from the store and put your groceries away, think about the health and vitality these foods will bring to you and your family. As you reach for a snack or prepare a meal, take a moment to focus on how fortunate you are to have this nourishment at your fingertips. Visualize your kitchen always filled with nature's bounty, and say a quiet "thank you" for the food that sustains you and your family. This moment of awareness and gratitude will help to keep the chi of your kitchen supportive and strong.

One easy way to improve the chi of the kitchen is to make sure that everything involved in food preparation and serving is attractive and pleasant to work with. If you are cooking with pots that you don't like, eating from dishes that you do not love, or using paper towels for napkins because the good ones are put away in the back of a closet, each seemingly minor incident is detracting from your ability to enjoy and benefit from your meals.

Get rid of the stuff you never use, start using the things you love, and fill your kitchen with accessories that you really enjoy. This is feng shui in action, and it's a wonderful way to transform the energy of your kitchen so you can receive the support and comfort that the heart of your home should provide.

Feng shui reminds us that in order to prosper, we need to be healthy. The feng shui of your kitchen - especially the stove - can have a big influence on your financial situation, even if you rarely or never cook.

In feng shui, the stove is your "wealth generator." It is the most important symbolic factor in your ability to prosper financially, so make sure it works the way it should. Any problems with the stove can indicate problems with money or limitations to your ability to bring home a good income. A burner that doesn't heat could be a sign of fruitless effort, and an oven that runs too hot could be burning up your money. Dirt and grime are also signs of negative energy, so be sure to keep your stovetop and oven clean.

One easy way to activate money chi is to use your stovetop at least once a day, rather than always relying on the microwave to boil water for tea or heat up a cup of soup. Vary which burner you use, so that all are used regularly. If you don’t use your stove, or use the same one burner all the time, symbolically you are limiting your ability to benefit from financial resources.

When the stovetop is not in use, put all pots and pans away. Unused pots stored on top of the stove can squash prosperity chi, especially when they cover the rear left burner; if you visualize the ba gua over the stovetop, with career in the center front, the rear left burner is in the Wealth position.

To support prosperity, place something that symbolizes wealth or abundance in the Wealth area of your kitchen [the back left corner of the room if you are standing in the doorway], such as a basket or bowl of fresh fruit. Purple and green grapes are especially good abundance symbols for the wealth area.

Another good feng shui tactic is to keep kitchen canisters and other containers more than half-full as much as possible. Every time you see these containers, your subconscious mind will register plenty rather than the implied lack created by an almost empty jar. Get in the habit of restocking your food supplies before you run low, and you will fill your kitchen with the energy of abundance.

Excerpted from “The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Feng Shui” by Stephanie Roberts (Alpha Books, 2004)

Copyright © 2004 Stephanie Roberts

STEPHANIE ROBERTS is the author of the popular Fast Feng Shui book series, available at Amazon.com. Receive FR(EE) Feng Shui tips in every issue when you subscribe to the Fast Feng Shui newsletter. Visit http://www.fastfengshui.com for details.

SEE ALSO:
Article: Clutter's Side Effects: How the State of Your Home Affects Your Life

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