Expert Guest Article by Kimberley Gallagher
What is Feng Shui?
Feng Shui has been practiced for over 4000 years, and its purpose is to increase wealth, health, abundance and prosperity through the balance of space and objects. The Feng stands for wind, and the Shui stands for water. Therefore, positive Feng Shui means having a good harvest, wealth, abundance and prosperity. The purpose of Feng Shui is to release any energy blocks in your home (building or garden) to create a perfect balance of yin and yang. It’s a highly regarded practice, and there are many different schools of Feng Shui, which is why there is lots of conflicting information available. It tends to come down to how we map the house, and method I use, Flying Stars Classical Feng Shui, maps the house according to the compass direction, and when I analyse a house, I go deeper into this theory. The practice of Feng Shui is becoming more mainstream. Many banks and leading businesses worldwide have Feng Shui consultants to ensure that the workspace is balanced energetically to allow for the growth of prosperity, wealth and abundance. It’s worth noting here that I don’t believe all your furniture needs to be crisp white and arranged in a certain way. Yes, there are ideal ways of doing things, but I’m also very realistic when working with my clients and understand that feeling comfortable in your home takes precedence over how your home looks.The power of Feng Shui in selling your home
So, how can Feng Shui actually help to sell a home, I hear you ask! Consider that lovely feeling when you walk into a hotel, and your shoulders instantly relax, and you feel calm and as though all your stresses have been swept away. That’s the feeling you want potential buyers to feel as soon as they enter your home;a feeling of peace, harmony and security. And Feng Shui can absolutely do that.My Feng Shui tips
When you decide to sell your home, an analysis is an important part of the process to ensure that good energy flows throughout the house and that any bad energy is unblocked. This can all be done remotely, and contrary to belief, it doesn’t require me to sweep through your home with smoke and mirrors! Here are some tips that you can implement straight away to help you prepare for selling your home:- Gain mutual buy-in to sell – the first step is to ask yourself if you and everyone in your home are really ready to sell. If you or somebody else doesn’t want to sell, this energy will be felt, impacting the process of selling your home. Therefore, it’s important to address this with everyone before you start the sale process.
- The Cord-Cutting exercise – selling a home can be a very emotional process which is totally understandable. If this is how you feel, then you can do what’s called a ‘Cord Cutting’ exercise to help you detach yourself from your home. There are lots of videos online, but essentially, it is a visualisation exercise where you see your home in front of you with a physical cord between yourself and your home. You may have happy and also sad memories, but you have to make peace with your home. You can do this by telling your home that it’s time to move on, it’s time for a change, and thank it for looking after you. Once you've had the conversation in your mind (or out loud if you’re brave enough!), visualise cutting through the physical cord between yourself and your home. If other people in your home don’t want to sell, then it’s important to encourage them to do this exercise, too. Or at least have a conversation with them to talk through what is stopping them wanting from moving on. This is such a powerful exercise, and it has helped so many people sell their homes because it literally shifts the energy in your home.
- Visualise your future home – now it’s time to think about where you are moving to. Do you have a plan? If there is any question or doubt about your future plans, then it is very unlikely that your home will sell. You must also start the process of looking for houses, viewing houses, and visualising living in another house. You could write a list of what you want in your home, and where it will be. Have you started taking action to move? Have you started decluttering? I really encourage my clients to go up into the loft and the garage and begin the big clear-out that they probably need so that they are actually ready to move. This will also help with viewings because the home will feel so much lighter and decluttered.
- Committing to For Sale – a big part of the home selling process that people often feel very resistant to is putting up a For Sale sign. It's as if people don’t really want to sell their homes. However, you must be loud and proud about selling–you never know who is driving past your home on the off chance or looking for a new place to settle. The next step is to print off a copy of your particulars and write across it SOLD in big red letters with the amount you want to sell it for right across the front. And, most importantly, add the date you want to sell it. Place it somewhere you will see it regularly, for instance, on your fridge, so that you get that positive feeling every time you see it.
- The galloping black horse – this is a very common theory used in Feng Shui to sell homes using the power of a galloping black horse. Sometimes I tell people to print off a picture, but the most powerful item is a galloping brass horse ornament or statue (you can pay as much or as little as you like for the statues online).
Kimberley Gallagher Kimberley is often described as ‘The Modern Day Feng Shui Consultant’ and is also the Feng Shui expert on ITV’s This Morning. She works with individuals and businesses worldwide to bring peace, calm and abundance to their lives using the ancient art of Feng Shui.
If you would like more information on how Feng Shui can help you sell your home, visit Kimberley Gallagher's website 'The Feng Shui Flow'
Contact: admin@thefengshuiflow.com Instagram: @thefengshuiflow
