Expat Women - Helping Expatriate Women Living Overseas - Expat Relocation Abroad

What woman does not wish for herself and her family a smooth transition into a new home – and wish to find herself and those she loves in an environment that feels welcoming, relaxing and healthy?

Whether you have a choice in the home you move to… whether you like the place instantly upon entering, or dread returning to those four walls every day… I believe that you can benefit from using Feng Shui in your new environment.

Feng Shui means wind/water and it is a method to create harmony, prosperity and success within a living environment, by using ancient Chinese principles to direct chi, or unseen energy. A few simple habits can substantially lift the chi in a negative-feeling living space and make a positive-feeling house extra-welcoming. To make the wish of a smooth transition for yourself and your family come true, follow the guidance below and Feng Shui your way to relocation success.

One of the pre-requisites of feeling comfortable in a home is having a feeling of safety. Every environment poses a degree of risk and, as women, we are highly tuned to the different energies that make us feel uneasy. We are so highly tuned that lingering energy, left behind by previous inhabitants, can give us unexplained "spooks" or feelings of sadness or worry which are not necessarily attributed to anything going on in our own lives. Using Feng Shui in your new home space can dispel this and you should find your negative feelings diminish.

A great place to start is to clean the whole home from top to bottom, immediately upon moving in. A new mattress, or at least, new bed linen and pillows, is vital for a fresh beginning in a new home. Further, a simple space cleansing technique can ensure a positive new beginning welcomed to you.

To begin, light incense, or a candle, at all entries to your new home. This sets our intention and affirms to the universe our desire to change the energy within the house.

In the four furthest corners of the floor-plan, pour a small pile of salt.

Sweep or vacuum the salt up after seven days, when it will have absorbed all energy left behind by any previous inhabitants of the space.

When you have removed the lemons, any problematic energy will have been removed from the house, and you are free to create your new life without any hindrances.

Take two lemons, cut in half, and place a half in each corner.

Leave the lemons for another seven days (if they begin to mould, it is fine to remove them). This purifies the home space.

A comfortable home is one which balances Yin and Yang – polar energies, such as dark and light, or soft and loud – in ancient Chinese philosophy. Many expat environments lack the Yin/Yang balance, being so extreme themselves. Take, for example, the dry, flat landscape of the desert, and sand-coloured home you may be living in, or the unrelenting flow of traffic and tangle of glittering skyscrapers you may be surrounded by every day. So here is a golden Feng Shui rule: whatever is outside, recreate an opposite within. If outside is bright and busy, create a sanctuary inside the home, with a room decorated in purples and blues, low lighting and peaceful quiet. If outside is desolate and isolated, inside organise your room as your link to the world, with TV, internet and a water feature to keep you company, and keep all manner of good things flowing into your life. In a room such as this, photos of family and helpful friends displayed in metal frames strengthen the energy of communication and invite positive new interactions. Every member of your family will return to balance more easily with your creation of this polar effect at home.

Feng Shui teaches us that each family home has a "hub" – a central location where the majority of interaction takes place. Where is yours? Wherever your family tends to gather, make a note, and in your new residence, create a similar space. "As soon as we walked into the home I loved the dining room table, and pictured lots of family meals," recalls expat Dianne. "But when my husband and then, the kids, kept ducking back into the kitchen each morning, it was obvious I had underestimated just how important to our family life the breakfast bar at home had been!"

Do not feel compelled to use rooms for their designated purposes, just because they are there. If your family likes to eat in the kitchen, the dining room could suit another purpose – such as a home office or study area. A bowl of fruit, such as red and green apples, on display in the "Hub", generates positive family energy by representing the element Wood. Placing a rug on the floor adds visual warmth and invites relaxation, as well as lending the stability of the element Earth.

Good health (of your mind, body and environment) is a pillar of self-confidence, and the challenges of relocation make feeling confident especially important. When we feel good, we radiate positive energy that attracts positive people and positive experiences to us. If you are house-bound or a tad overwhelmed by your new environment, indoor friends like plants can help – especially peace lilies (botanically known as Spathifiphyllum), which absorb electromagnetic and other negative energies and their presence strengthens the element Wood – this time boosting health in Feng Shui philosophy.

So, although we might loathe the disruption, changes can actually become great opportunities for us to improve our inner and external health (and habits). A move to Germany helped expat Renee in this way: "We were not used to eating the main meal at lunch-time and all going off in our different directions in the evening. The family supper we had always enjoyed was just impractical. So when the kids arrived home for lunch, I decided we would all prepare it and make this our time together. Now, we actually eat lighter and healthier."

In the same way, every new place, offers fascinating ways of living we can adopt and gain from. Blend home accessories from your new environment with ones you have brought with you, and you may be surprised at how the successful mix will rub off in all areas of your life. "When rice bowls and chopsticks sit next to my heirloom gravy boat on the table, it reminds me how we sit happily alongside our new culture," remarked Sue, an expat living in Shanghai. Local blooms in your favourite vase on display symbolise the integration of your values with the new environment, creating a blend for living in harmony. Happy integration in the home mirrors happy integration in your life.

I hope that these Feng Shui ideas prove useful to you to Feng Shui your way to relocation success. Happy relocation to you and Feng Shui blessings on your path!

Samantha Honey is a Feng Shui expert and expat writer. Since 1999 she has consulted to homes and businesses over four continents and in all the countries she has called home as an expat woman: Austria; Trinidad & Tobago; the UK; and the US. Now based in Qatar, her business Feng Shui By The Sea in the Gulf specialises in creating harmony in expat homes. Her clients have included American Express and Cosmopolitan, and she has written for magazines and newspapers including Australian Women's Health and Body+Soul in the Sunday Telegraph.


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