Feng Shui & the Attached Garage - Feng Shui Consulting Services

Hi Everyone,

Earth is the main element this month. Especially since this is a time of great transition on our planet, it’s important to ground yourself and maintain any practices that enhance your personal stability.

Since I was running late in getting this month’s newsletter out, I dug into my archives and found inspiration from an old article that I wrote in 2004 with a similar title. It’s still relevant, so after several tweaks, I’m sending it out again.

FENG SHUI & THE ATTACHED GARAGE

The importance of simplicity can’t be stressed enough in Feng Shui. We live in a fast moving world; and, except for the most laid back among us, most of us value action and results more than our ancestors.

Trend watchers tell us that for over 25 years there has been a national movement toward living more simply. Yet my own observations tell me that, although we desire simplicity, our lives are actually more complicated.

The trend in home building for over 50 years has been toward more complex structures with many angles, missing pieces, extensions, and attached garages. Even multiple stories complicate a space. Many commercial buildings present similar problems. These modern “improvements” from a Feng Shui perspective have complicated rather than simplified our lives.

The attached garage is just one design feature that contributes to the lack of simplicity. It’s important to be aware that attached garages are included in the Bagua.* Often they are entirely or partly in either the Knowledge or the Helpful People area and may spill over into Career or other areas.

The Knowledge area, Career, and Helpful People symbolize the transition between our public and our personal lives, and how we experience the world and relate to our community and the people outside of our home.

Knowledge conveys to the public what we’re known for. Career is about our path through life, along with our actual career. Helpful People has a lot to do with how we relate to people and attract wealth into our life.

If your garage is in any of these positions, you and your family will have the tendency to be on the move and spend much of your time away from home— going to appointments, driving the kids to outside activities, etc. Simplicity is difficult to achieve when you’re constantly on the move. Quiet evenings and weekends that families used to regularly spend at home are becoming a thing of the past for many people. Instead most people, even children, are overly committed, rushed and feel stressed.

To remedy an attached garage position in the front of your home, try to fill your garage as much as possible with a sense of serenity (which I know is contradictory to the purpose of a garage!). You can do this by hanging soothing pictures and putting other symbols of tranquility on the walls or sitting on shelves peeking out from around your hopefully organized storage.

If your garage is in the Knowledge area, you could hang a picture of someone meditating or praying quietly or one of a mountain with a field of flowers in the foreground. You can also place a personal item affirming peace, personal growth, or tranquility on a shelf or near the entrance to your home from the garage.

In Helpful People, consider placing statuary or pictures of actual helpful people–possibly of your own family and friends. Since this area is also related to travel, you can place posters of much loved places you’ve traveled to or would like to visit.

Since Career is related to water, you can place representations of waterfalls or rivers flowing in toward the main area of your home. Seashells or other symbols of water also work.

No matter where your garage is located, make sure it’s as clutterfree as possible. Although clutter is stagnant and nonmoving, it also creates chaos and confusion in the area of the Bagua where it’s located.

May You Enjoy Peace, Joy, & Simplicity, Suzanne

To view a copy of the Bagua, go to Feng Shui Basics.