Feng Shui and the Curse of the Dollar Store

by Heather Melcer.

I was doing a Feng Shui consultation follow-up for a close friend of mine. We walked through her apartment assessing all the changes I told her to make during our initial meeting. We were passing by the kitchen (which was the Relationship area of her home according to the Bagua Map) and she was pointing out a few things changes she made, as this was an area of growth she wanted to focus on. She had this big plastic platter with a pair of two flamingos on display in the corner, the most concentrated point of energy. (As a side note, pairs are good to have represented in some way in this part of the Bagua Map). And without missing a beat, she said in passing, “oh, those are just some cheap-o little things from the dollar store I just got”.

Well cut to about no more than a few weeks later she phoned to tell me about a fabulous guy she met, they had the most amazing day together, he was fawning over her, and then he just up and disappeared into thin air. It’s as if he was disposable. The whole premise in Feng Shui is that your home is a mirror reflection of who you are and what is going on in your life at any given moment.   I could not help thinking of the cheap-o “disposable” décor she had mentioned and the somewhat “disposable” incident at hand. The energy returned exactly what she put out.

For all you feng Shui enthusiasts out there, it’s important to note that a Feng Shui cure just for the sake of Feng Shui cure is not always the wisest thing to do. As tempting as a cheap trinket or something or other might be, when choosing an item to reflect some aspect of Feng Shui in your home it needs to hold some type of value to you, not just this is a cheap fix let me add this cure.  Let me be very clear here, I am not saying that you have to spend lots of money to Feng Shui your house, or that getting a good price or discount on something is not a desired outcome when buying things for your home. In fact in my consultations I am very big on clients using what they already own, simply moving things from one room to another to more properly support their Feng Shui needs. However if you pass by something in your home day after day, morning, noon and night and the first thing that pops into your mind is that you bought it at the dollar or discount store, and it’s just some cheap thing, well than that is going to be the energy you get back. I’m not saying a trip down the isle of a discount store is something to stray from ever, I’ve bought many an art and craft supply there when I am making something and need clever supplies. But if you place something in your home you have to always be mindful of the intention behind it, because that subconscious energy imprinted in that item will linger.

Let me also say, we’ve all done it, even myself, ie, putting temporary Feng Shui cures into place to help get some energy in our life moving right away, it’s so easy and very tempting.  But this is also not to say that you should not put a temporary, less expensive item in place until you can buy the real thing (as long as you really love it and it holds value to you). When we have a lot of empty space in a home, many times that signifies we have some correlating emptiness in that area of our lives. I have had many clients over the years with big gapping white space on their walls, each claiming they are waiting until they find just the right piece of artwork to buy. Yet, years go buy and 9 times out of 10, that particular wall/room happens to be in the very area they want to move forward in their lives corresponding to the Bagua. So I usually recommend something temporary. But not so temporary that it takes on the form of disposable, cheap energy. But a nice framed art print or poster that you truly, truly feel you like the image of, that can be moved to the basement or even hung in the garage or donated to worthy cause, is definitely better than nothing.

So the next time you are tempted by those discounted prices ending in .99, take a moment to think about it. Do you really love it? Or is it just a cheap substitute for what you really, truly want in your home and your life. Oh and by the way, my friend replaced the plastic and now has this beautiful, antique pair of china tea cups adorned with elegant pink flowers in gold trim in that corner now…hmm…sounds like a much more elegant and potentially flourishing relationship to me… :-)

Advertisement