A Feng Shui Kitchen (Feng Shui’s Three Important Areas, Part 2)

Why does Feng Shui consider your kitchen to be one of the three most important areas in your home?

Because your kitchen — especially your stove — is where you cook up health, wealth and abundance for yourself and your family.

This all started in ancient China where it was key that the head of the household stay strong and healthy to ensure that his or her family would enjoy an abundant lifestyle.

Anything that went amiss in the kitchen had a direct impact on the family’s health, and therefore their wealth.

A leaky sink could cause contamination; feeling startled by unseen activity behind the cook might cause a recipe to go wrong; burners that didn’t work could cause ingredients to be undercooked … and so on.

Of course, the same kinds of things are true today, right?

Take good care of your kitchen and you’ll be taking the best possible care of your finances, career and the future prospects of your family.

You’ll come to love keeping it clean and filled with healthy things to eat since it has such a direct impact on the rest of your life.

Here’s one of my favorite posts, loaded with tips for creating great Feng Shui in your kitchen.

And for more on this topic take a look at Your Front Entry — Feng Shui’s Three Important Areas, Part 1.

Part Three to come!

Lose Weight & Get Healthy with Feng Shui

The benefits of Feng Shui extend into many parts of your life, as it brings its positive effects to your health, your wealth, your relationships and more.

You’ve learned a few Feng Shui bedroom tips for getting a good night’s sleep, but what about other health matters, like staying in shape and losing weight?

Feng Shui has excellent ideas about improving and maintaining your health. Here are a few that will help focus your intention on slimming down and getting healthy this summer.

Is your kitchen in sight when you enter your home?
The first thing you see sets the tone for your experience every time you walk through the door of your home.

A first view of your kitchen – especially your stove or refrigerator – may trigger hunger pangs even if you’re not hungry. Diminish its impact by screening it from view or disguising the appliances.

For example, clearing magnets from the refrigerator will reduce its visual impact and “magnetic attraction.” You might also cover the front of the fridge with a material that helps it blend into the background.

Are your counters clear — or crowded?
A cluttered countertop creates a sense of confusion that can distract you from just how much you’re actually eating.

Bring order to the kitchen by clearing the counters of everything but the items you use every day (that’s every day).

When Chi energy has room to flow, this sense of clarity extends to the foods you consume. You’ll be more likely to prepare only what you need, when you need it.

For more great info about tuning up your kitchen, check out these Top-Ten Kitchen Feng Shui Tips.

Is your diet aligned with the seasons?
Feng Shui extends to the particular foods you eat, keeping your body in balance by eating foods that are in season.

Summertime, for example, is the season of the Fire element, characterized by hot weather, long days, and conserving energy in the heat.

The best foods for summer refresh and cool you down – salads, fresh fruits and vegetables, light carbohydrates, and raw foods.

By contrast the best foods for winter are hot, expansive things like stews, casseroles, dried fruits and beans: food that warms and nourishes us as we expend energy in the cold.

So in summer you need to watch out for a very modern challenge: air conditioning that “fools” your body into thinking it’s winter. You may be eating heavy “winter” foods just when you need to be at your lightest.

If you’d like to know more about the Feng Shui of food, please let me know.

Do you have a “cluttered diet?”
Avoid eating between meals and drink lots of water to keep your body clear, stay energized and give yourself a feeling of fullness without calories.

Is your body’s Chi energy moving?
Finally, what would a health and weight-loss article be without a reminder about the benefits of exercise!? Chi energy reacts to your attention and intention.

Keep moving and your Chi will respond with good health and a feeling of lightness, energy and clarity.

Interview: Health & Wealth In Your Kitchen

Here’s a fabulous article giving a wonderful overview of why good Feng Shui in your kitchen can really make a difference in your life.

The kitchen is one of the most important rooms in your home because it is the foundation of your health.

And having good health means it’s much more likely that you’ll have “good wealth” as well — so it pays to have great kitchen Feng Shui

Read on for tips and guidance in my interview with Danielle Zanzarov Rodriguez of health4parents.com:

“Make Your Kitchen A Place Of Health And Wealth”

Top-Ten Feng Shui Kitchen Makeover Tips

In Feng Shui the kitchen is considered the heart of your home, symbolizing health, wealth and abundance.

The food you store and prepare there nourishes and sustains you, making it possible for you and your family to prosper in the world. Making meals and cleaning up afterward are important ways to show how much you care for yourself and your loved ones.

The kitchen should make your life easier while sending a message of health and abundance. It needs to be easy to work in and easy to clean. Above all, it needs to be appetizing!

Here are my Top-Ten Feng Shui Tips for making your kitchen into the “healthy heart” of your home.

A Top-Ten Kitchen Makeover

1. Clean everything inside & out. This includes drawers and cabinets, appliances, walls and counters. Line shelves with new liner paper, and give the floor a good scrub. This step requires that you take everything out of the cabinets, leading naturally to step 2,

2. Assess what you really use. Feng Shui asks that you keep only what you use, need, or love. As you remove things from cabinets and drawers, ask yourself when you last used this item, and what the likelihood is of using it. If you want to keep an item you seldom use, consider deep storage, or make room for it on a higher shelf.

3. Clear the counters. Many appliances and other seldom-used items can take up permanent residence on counters, preventing you from having the space you need to work comfortably. Remove everything, wipe down the surfaces, and replace only the things you use on a daily basis.

4. Put like with like. As you sort through your cabinets, make your life easier by putting like things together. For example, separate sweet baking spices from savory ones, and store coffee filters near your coffee mugs.

5. Adjust shelves to maximize storage space. Most cabinet shelves are adjustable. As you put things back into the cabinets, separate tall items from shorter ones and adjust your shelf-height accordingly.

6. Use “shelf helpers” for convenience and efficiency. Items like tray racks, lazy susans, and stacking shelves don’t cost much, and they can change your life. (Don’t forget to measure your cabinets before you browse through your local organizing store!)

7. Get good Chi energy flowing by making sure everything works. Fix things that are broken. Check that doors swing freely. Replace chipped bowls and sharpen your knives.
In Feng Shui this is a crucial step – things that are well-cared-for signify your intention to take the very best care of yourself, too!

8. Recognize the importance of your stove. The stove, a powerful Feng Shui symbol of Wealth in your life, is the centerpiece of this “Heart of Your Home” and must be treated with particular respect. Keep it clean and use all the burners to draw more positive Chi into your life.

9. Use mirrors to create more wealth. Since stove burners symbolize wealth, multiply the effect it by placing a mirror behind the stove to reflect the burners. This mirror also reflects activity behind you, placing you in the Command Position as you cook.

10. Balance the elements. Your kitchen already contains four of Feng Shui’s Five Elements: Fire, Water, Metal and Earth. The element that’s usually missing, Wood, can be brought in with a bowl of fruit or a small plant – or even a picture of one of these. When the elements are balanced, a space feels great.

Is your kitchen everything it could be? Take a look and make the changes — you’ll notice the uplift immediately!

The Wood Element: Growth, Vitality & Flexibility

Feng Shui’s Five Elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water — bring the harmonies of nature into your environment.

The question I get asked is, “How do I do it?” So this is the start of a short series showing ways to add each element to your space, starting with Wood.

Add Wood to your space when you want to encourage growth, flexibility and family harmony in your life.

Here are three ways to do it:

Green is the color for Wood, so the most straightforward thing to do is paint the walls a beautiful, subtle shade of green. Here the Wood is well-balanced with the Red table that brings in the Fire element.

The Metal element (the color White) is very strong in this kitchen, but the Wood in the plants and green-striped rug bring it into balance.

Vertical stripes are another way to add Wood to a space — but it’s a little overdone here, don’t you think?

Let me know how you’re adding Wood to your space and I’ll post the photos!