feng shui bagua series: the feng shui family area of your home

Are the relationships in your life frustrating or not going as well as you’d like?

Is your family not getting along?

Is your family’s health problematic?

What about friendships and other relationships in your life?

Are they full of drama or practically nonexistent?

It’s time to work on your home’s family and legacy area!

Your home’s feng shui family area is the middle left third of your home, when you’re standing at the front door looking into your home. Here’s a picture of the bagua, so you can see what I mean:

When you use the bagua, you divide your home into 9 areas, and each one relates to a different area of your life inside and outside of your home.

Align the bagua so that the bottom edge aligns with the front door.

Click here to see more information about the feng shui bagua map and how to use it!

The feng shui family and legacy area is related to:

Relationships in your life (both family and close friends)
Family harmony
Legacy (ancestors and also life legacy – what you leave when you’re gone)
Family happiness
Developing a sense of family in your business or work
The family tree

When this area of your home is in balance, you’ll find that:

Relationships run smoothly with little drama or conflict
Relationships are healthy and balanced
Your family gets along well
Your work feels full of great relationships
Your close friends feel like family
You know what your purpose or legacy in life is
Your business or career relationships are easy and your business is full of happy clients

When the feng shui family area of your home is out of balance, you’ll find that:

Relationships are strained or frustrating
There is unfinished business between family members or friends
The home is full of arguments or no one seems to get along
Family members might get sick or generally feel unwell
Your life feels frustrating or stuck and you’re unable to move foward
Your ability to meet your family’s needs (emotionally, physically, and/or financially) is full of struggle
Relationships just feel unbalanced or “off”

Sometimes this area being out of balance can just give you a general feeling of something being “off” in your relationships, but you’re not sure what it is or why.

Decorate your home’s family and legacy area with:

Wood
Healthy plants
Greens and blues
Natural materials: pottery, wool, cotton, linen, wood
Family photos or your family tree
Art that reflects health and lush greenery/vegetation (like landscapes)
Small amounts of water or black accents can go here

Avoid these decorative items in your home’s family area:

Metal objects
Circle shapes
Lots of fire or fiery/bright colors (oranges, reds, bright yellows)

Things to look for if this area in your life or home feels out of balance:

Fireplaces.

Fireplaces in this area can cause friction in your relationships (think of it turning up the heat!)

To balance this, you can put a mirror above the fireplace.

Mirrors represent water, so they balance the fire element.

Also don’t keep family pictures on the fireplace mantel, because this can cause even more friction!

Leaks.

Leaks represent draining energy, so they are bad in every area of your home.

In the family/legacy area, they can cause relationships to feel draining or like they are always out of your grasp and don’t have a solid foundation.

Fix any leaks ASAP!

Clutter.

Clutter causes energy to get stuck, which causes confusion and frustration.

If you find a lot of clutter always building in this area of your home, you’ll notice your relationships are full of clutter as well.

Clear the clutter to make your relationships clean and balanced!

Lots of metal or stark white colors.

Metal energy is destructive for your family area.

Add some wood and remove as much of the white/metal as possible.

Dead or dying plants.

Plants represent the wood element, which means your family/business/legacy is growing and full of potential.

Dead or dying plants mean represent struggling or dying relationships, which will affect all areas of your life!

Photos of family or friends that represent strained relationships.

If you have family members you don’t get along with, or photos of people you’re no longer friends with in this area, it can cause friction in all of your other relationships.

A good rule of thumb is not to ever keep too many photos of where you’ve “been” in life and always look forward to where you’re going!

Keep photos that represent your family as healthy and whole – and constantly update your photos to current ones!

Dusty or old dried flowers or fake flowers.

These represent stagnant energy. Throw them out when they’ve reached the end of their lifespan!

Feng shui cures for the family area of the bagua:

If you want to boost your relationships, try one of the following feng shui cures:

Add a light.

Light is always a great feng shui cure, so open the curtains or place a light in this area.

This clears out the stagnant energy and adds uplifting energy to this space and all of your relationships!

It also signals to the Universe that you’re ready to bring fresh energy to this area of your life.

Add some green.

You can add green accents to this space to help strengthen relationships.

If you don’t want to display the green color, line drawers with green paper or fabric, or tape it under furniture!

You can also add landscape photos or artwork full of greens and blues to this area as well.

Add a lush, healthy plant.

Avoid cactus (you don’t want prickly relationships!) and choose plants with lush green leaves.

As you tend to the plant, you are tending to the healthy relationships in your life!

Add current, happy pictures of your family to this area.

You can also add a few pictures of your extended family or ancestors – just don’t go overboard.

Add a small mirror that is rectangular or square in shape, to add more ease and flow to your relationships.

Mirrors represent water energy – so you don’t want too much water energy, but enough that your relationships flow easily.

This is especially helpful if you find your relationships keep holding the same old patterns and you’re ready to “flow” past them!

What should you do if the feng shui family area of your home is missing?

Technically, there are NO missing areas in feng shui! Instead, the areas directly around the family area will serve double duty.

If your home happens to have a U shape, where a courtyard or some other outside space falls in this area, then you can add the feng shui enhancements directly to that area, or you can use the walls in the surrounding areas to enhance your family area.

The same is true if the family/legacy area of your home is someone’s bedroom or is otherwise inaccessible: use the surrounding rooms for your feng shui family area cures, or choose another room!

The bagua can be used for every room in your home individually, so you can choose another room in your home and use its family area for your enhancements.

Set your intentions as you place your feng shui cures and they will work just as well!

The only rooms that aren’t great for family enhancements are bedrooms, because lots of family pictures in those rooms because they can disrupt rest and intimate relationships.

What if your feng shui family area falls in a bathroom?

Bathrooms represent draining energy, which is similar to water leaks: it drains the energy of your relationships.

Definitely add plants to the bathroom if it falls in this area!

It will help balance the draining water. You should also keep the lid to the toilet closed as much as possible.

If possible, don’t paint the bathroom blue (too much water energy,) but greens and browns will work well to strengthen the earth energy and balance the water energy!