Principle 3: Create a Path for Chi

One of the main objectives of feng shui is to create a smooth, gentle, nurturing flow of chi (vital energy) through your home.

The front door to your home is called the “mouth of chi” because it is the primary way chi enters the space. Even if you always enter your home through the garage or the side or back door, your formal front door is the symbolic mouth of chi.

Think of chi as an important guest you wish to welcome to your home, and make your formal entry — and the access to it from the street — as inviting as possible. Overgrown hedges, hidden front doors and dim lighting are all barriers to chi. If your mouth of chi has poor feng shui, the chi of your entire home will suffer.

Inside your home, chi likes to flow in gentle curves, and will exit through side doors and windows. Long straight corridors will funnel chi very quickly toward whatever is at the far end. Active spaces of your home should have a more active flow of chi. Chi should slow down and linger in the places you like to sit down and relax at the end of the day, or where you need to focus and concentrate on the work at hand.

Do a Walk-Through of Your Home

Starting at your mouth of chi, walk slowly and mindfully all through your space. Imagine that you are a gentle stream flowing through your home.
- What gets in your way?
- Where do you flow smoothly?
- Are any areas blocked off from you?
- Are there places where you become turbulent? Why?
- Where are you diverted into side pools and eddies?
- Are there any areas where you flow too swiftly, and what do you crash into at the other end?

Pay special attention to the flow of chi to your power spots. Make sure that chi can get there easily, and that it is neither too turbulent nor too strong when it arrives.

Quick Tips 16-31 in Fast Feng Shui: 9 Simple Principles for Improving Your Life by Energizing Your Home show you how to invite fresh, vital chi into your home and direct it to your power spots.

Return to Principle 2.
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