A question was sent to me this week wondering if radiant floor heating is a good idea or not, based on Feng Shui. Coming from a northern state (MN) where our winters can be pretty brutal, walking on a heated floor is a true gift. There is a debate about whether the heat coming from the floor heats the rest of the room or not, but I know if my feet are warm I’m okay regardless of the ambient temperature.

That said, there are some specifics that subscribe to what I’d call “good” Feng Shui. There are two ways to heat a floor—using electricity or using hot water. We prefer the latter in an effort to eliminate possible influence of electromagnets (EMFs). The water method heats up the water in a boiler and runs it through flexible tubing installed in the subfloor or on the ceiling below.

If we look at the elements involved in the water radiant system there are basically two: water and fire (the heat). Based on the Chinese 5 Elements, these two are in a destructive cycle (water controls fire), so both are energetically weak. Although we discourage people from living over moving water, this typically refers to living on stilts over a lake or having a stream run under your home, specifically under the bedroom. The small amount of water meandering under the floor would not pose a problem.

So for those of you who are suffering from cold feet this winter, go ahead—heat the floor. But do it with the heated water system.

Another consideration could be whether having the water/fire system run through areas of the house where wood or earth or metal are found might present an Element clash. In other words, if a fireplace is placed in a wood area, it compromises that area (fire destroys wood). If a fountain is installed in an earth area, there could be a challenge in the earth area (water muddies up the earth). Again, due to the fact that the heating elements are “soft” (gentle flow of water and moderate fire), there is no problem wherever this system is placed.

One observation I’ve made over the years from working with people who are integrating Feng Shui principles is that Feng Shui does not support you hiding out any longer.  You are required to face the music when it comes to the patterns of how you live, the ties to your things, and the truth about your own destiny.  It sounds pretty heavy but sometimes Feng Shui is nothing short of a call from the wild.

It’s nearly impossible to honestly consider Feng Shui as a viable way of living if you are not ready to step up to what may be holding you back.  You may change something in your environment, but, if you’re not ready to embrace what that shift entails, you will either move your space back to the way it was or try to continue living your life as though nothing has happened.  Either way, you are not stepping out—-I’d call this hiding out.

For instance, one of the hardest actions for people to take is to leave an area empty.  Not every corner of a room or every shelf has to be filled with something.  Sometimes a pause (as in music), a quiet break (as in poetry), a clearing (as in the forest) are a relief.  An empty corner is like a breath in the life of your room.  Yet, I find people struggling with having a bit of open space.  They may leave it cleared for a while but the discomfort with their feelings override the experience.  Stuff gets put back.

Feng Shui isn’t just about the physical trappings of your space although that is certainly where it all begins.  It’s also about the inner trappings. So correctly integrated, Feng Shui is about your outer and your inner space.

When a corner is left open, uncluttered, it’s asking you to breathe along with it and to expand.  It’s no longer appropriate to hide out or hide behind but to let your butterfly wings open wide—-to step out in whatever way that may mean.  It may mean taking outward action on behalf of others; it may mean moving forward with your plans; it may mean taking a risk; it may mean flying off with those new wings to great horizons.  Are you up for that?

My most recent book Conversations with Your Home is based on the simply-stated idea that your home is alive and has its own consciousness, that it should be involved during the Feng Shui process, that it can guide and lead its owners, inspire even.  From that premise, more ideas have developed—-the archetypes have emerged in artistic representation, readers are discovering the name of their home, people are fearlessly writing letters to their homes.  A gentle avalanche of new beliefs has found its way down the mountain.  Along with it, one more wave of possibility has emerged.

A circuitous and synchronistic meeting with a musician inLos Angeles(Jeff Bova) has led me to another version of “conversing with your home”—-this path involves specific harmonics, rhythm, melodic contour, orchestration and sound design—-this path involves music.  As proven by the science of cymatics, your home can be influenced by the resonance of vibration or sound.  As certain sounds are emitted into the atmosphere, the vibratory properties of a space, and of the items in the space, change to align with the source of the sound.  Called entrainment, this process is often demonstrated by the use of two tuning forks.  When one tuning fork is tapped and begins to audibly vibrate, the other one does as well with the same pitch without the interference of outside forces.  Your home can absorb the vibrational impact, whether positive or negative, of harmonic progressions.

Jeff and I have been working on a project we call “Harmonics for Your Home” which acknowledges and underscores the heartbeat of a home and offers a superb method of bringing your home to ultimate balance and bliss.  The goal is that you would play the music for your home and, whether you were present or not, the balancing would take place.  Your home would be “tuned up” in order to become a better home, a better space, a better guide and protector for you.

Until our project is completed in July, here are three ways you can enliven and contact your space using harmonics and vibration:

1.  Take a bell that you love and walk through your home adjusting and aligning its energy;

2.  Use a drum rather than a bell and walk through your home, beating the drum slowly;

3.  If you have a doorbell that you love, ring it nine times pausing between each ring to let the sound get absorbed.

Be aware that after doing any of these options, you are indeed conversing with your home, enticing it to ultimate balance, an energy which you can entrain to thereby bringing about your own balance