What is on your walls?
Walk around your house and look at the walls as if you were a guest. What do they say about the person who lives here?
In feng shui the art in your home is said to speak for you. Paintings, sculptures, prints, the little things on a shelf. The tradition says they all send a message about what you hope for, and about what you are willing to let in.
If you would like company
If you are single and tired of being on your own, have a look at what you hang. Is it all solitary figures? A strong woman on a beach, a lone man on a mountain, one tree in a field? They may be beautiful. In feng shui terms they are also a picture of being alone.
If a partner matters to you, start adding pairs. Couples who look happy together. Two birds. Two flowers in a painting. A flowering bush with two blooms is said to be the perfect symbol of love. Anything with some romance or warmth in it will help.
If you already have company
Look at the mood of the room. Is the art gloomy? Moody? Cold and sterile? If your relationship has started to feel the same way, the tradition would not call that a coincidence. A painting that makes you tense is said to bring the same tension to the room and the people in it.
Add colour and vibrancy. Choose images of how you want to feel with the person you live with.
A lot of us over 50 are still living with walls we hung twenty years ago, for a different house and a different life. It is worth asking whether they still fit.
It does not have to be Chinese
People sometimes think a feng shui symbol has to come from a shop with red lanterns in the window. It does not. A symbol works because of what it means to you.
A Chinese wealth frog stands for money. So does a dish of coins, or a lovely piggy bank on the shelf. They say the same thing. What counts is the intention behind it.
So when you put a symbol in place, do it on purpose. Stand there for a moment and picture what you want it to bring you. You are giving it its job. After that it is there every time you walk past, and the tradition says it keeps working on your conscious and unconscious mind long after you have stopped noticing it.
Symbols are one of three kinds of remedy in feng shui. The others are the elements and the shape and arrangement of the space itself. Use all three together and you have the most complete approach to the energy of a home.
But the walls are an easy place to begin. Your art should show how you want to feel and where you want to go.
From the archive. First written for my journal years ago, and rewritten for life after 50.
