Feng Shui that Makes Sense: Easy Ways to Create a Home that FEELS as Good as it Looks

Preface

Would you like to create a home that looks beautiful and feels inviting, comfortable and relaxing? Do you have an interest in feng shui but have become frustrated or discouraged by confusing, conflicting, and sometimes downright silly information and suggestions? Are you searching for an approach to feng shui that’s easy to understand, easy to implement, and easy on your budget? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book was written for you!

In my twenty years as a feng shui consultant, people have often told me that they were interested in feng shui but had become turned off to the subject by the complicated, contradictory, and occasionally ridiculous concepts sometimes associated with it. This is unfortunate because, when applied properly, the system of feng shui can transform an ordinary space into an environment that relaxes our bodies, inspires our minds, and lifts our spirits.

Through experience, I’ve found that most of my clients and students are looking for a common-sense approach to feng shui—one that can be easily and inexpensively applied to their environments. This book provides just that. As much as possible, I will present the rationale behind many feng shui suggestions and dispel several of the myths and misconceptions associated with this beautiful and often misunderstood system. I will then show you ways in which you can easily integrate these concepts into your home to create a nurturing, comfortable, and inspiring living space.

Feng shui concepts range from gracefully simple to dazzlingly complex. It would be impossible to cover all aspects of feng shui in one book. This book focuses on sharing practical, basic feng shui information that you can easily apply to your home. And speaking of home, you will find that I refer to the place where you live as home, even though you may reside in an apartment or a condo. No matter where you live, when you’re returning to that place, you don’t say, I’m going apartment or I’m going condo. No, you say, I’m going home.

Whether you rent or own your home, live in a small apartment or a sprawling mansion, have a large budget or are living on a shoestring, feng shui has something to offer you. In these pages, you will discover an abundance of ways to apply feng shui principles to your home, no matter what your current circumstances may be. In order to get the most out of this book, I recommend that you read the chapters in order.

Part I introduces the fundamentals of feng shui and explains how human instinct has influenced the foundation of feng shui principles.

Part II is the first step on your feng shui journey and begins outdoors. The way you experience the area surrounding your home greatly influences how you feel when you step inside. This section offers a wealth of practical ideas and feng shui decorating tips to create comfort and beauty within each area of your home.

Part III addresses the more energetic and esoteric aspects of feng shui. This information may not be easily understood from a practical or logical point of view, but it can help improve the energy in your home.

And finally, the appendix provides a website that can help you in finding many of the items mentioned in this book.

Feng shui can lead to fascinating self-discoveries, as you begin to understand the powerful influence of your surroundings. It is an honor to help you on this segment of your feng shui journey. I sincerely hope that, once you’ve read this book, implemented its suggestions, and experienced the benefits, you will not only have created a more optimal home environment but also a more optimal life.

PART I

FENG SHUI FUNDAMENTALS

Chapter 1

An Introduction to Feng Shui

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have

said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

— Buddha

What is Feng Shui?

"Idon’t believe in feng shui." I can’t begin to count how many times I’ve heard this statement throughout my years as a feng shui consultant. Yet every time I do, it always amuses me. You see, saying you don’t believe in feng shui is like saying you don’t believe in air or gravity. Whether you believe in it or not, feng shui is all around you and affecting you all the time.

Take a moment to observe your environment right now. Are you curled up in your favorite chair or propped up against soft pillows in your bed? Maybe you’re relaxing on a tropical beach or sitting in an airplane at 35,000 feet on a long flight to London. How are you feeling right now? Relaxed or tense? Focused or distracted? No matter where you are or what you are doing, how you are feeling right now is influenced by the way you are experiencing the feng shui of that environment.

Feng shui [ pronounced fung shway] is the study of the environment and how it affects people. Contrary to what you may have heard, feng shui is not a belief system, a religion, superstition, or magic. You don’t need to believe in it in order for it to work. Feng shui has nothing to do with changing your luck and everything to do with helping you create a space that promotes feelings of happiness and well-being.

How Does Feng Shui Work?

The fundamental premise of feng shui is really quite simple and makes perfect sense: When you live and work in places that feel good to you, your attitude becomes more positive, and the quality of your life improves. Feng shui, at its most basic level, is a set of principles that you can apply to your surroundings in order to experience greater pleasure and satisfaction in whatever it is you’re doing.

Feng shui gives you specific guidelines that can be applied to any environment in order to increase your feelings of relaxation and comfort. The automotive, hotel, and airline industries all recognize that if people can afford it, they will pay more for greater comfort. These businesses know that generous seating, more legroom, and luxurious amenities are things that people want if they can get them, so companies charge more accordingly. When people are paying for luxury, they are often paying for a greater level of comfort, in other words, for better feng shui.

Similar to the modern-day fields of environmental psychology and ergonomics, feng shui is an ancient system used to identify features in your surroundings that make you feel relaxed or uneasy, calm or irritable. Sometimes these features are obvious; sometimes they are very subtle. When your environment feels nurturing and supportive, you’re better able to relax and concentrate on what you’re trying to accomplish, whether it’s working, resting, or just socializing with friends. Feng shui helps you experience your everyday surroundings in new and more meaningful ways.

In order to have an optimal life, you must have optimal surroundings. All living things practice feng shui. Plants, animals, and people have specific requirements for their respective environments in order to thrive. An unfavorable setting may bring disease and illness, causing living things to degenerate and possibly even die. Just like plants and animals, your relationship to your surroundings is fundamental to your health and well-being.

What Can Feng Shui Do for You?

Feng shui is often credited with creating miraculous changes in people’s lives. Many people attribute improvements in relationships, finances, health, and well-being to applying feng shui principles to their homes and offices. The benefits that are achieved with feng shui are not the result of magic, belief, or luck. They occur because feng shui helps people adjust factors in their environment in order to accentuate the positive and minimize the negative. When you’re happier in your surroundings, you experience greater happiness and satisfaction in your life.

In this book, you’ll find an abundance of practical, easy-to-implement feng shui tips and techniques to improve the look and feel of your home and outdoor surroundings. Feng shui may help you to:

• Create a garden or landscape that welcomes you home

• Make every room a place of beauty and relaxation

• Find more balance and peace in your life

• Increase feelings of joy and contentment

• Enjoy happier, healthier, and more loving relationships

• Arrange spaces to promote health and well-being

• Identify and improve aspects of your personal or professional life

• Relax in a home that supports your goals, wishes, and dreams

• Bring vitality and fresh energy into your life

• Become aware of the deep, instinctive relationship you have with your surroundings

A Brief history of Feng Shui

The exact time when feng shui became an organized system is shrouded in history. The earliest evidence of the practice of feng shui dates back approximately four thousand years ago to ancient China.

The early Chinese lived in a predominately agricultural society in a location subject to earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. Completely dependent on the land for their livelihood, these people lived at the mercy of nature to bring them either abundance or devastation.

In order to minimize their exposure to the destructive forces of nature and to maximize the benefits of its bounty, the ancient Chinese created basic feng shui principles as guidelines for choosing the best areas in which to plant crops and build homes.

Feng shui helped people optimize their living and working conditions in the natural world. For example, a farmer would need to be close enough to water to nurture his crops but far enough away to be protected from floods that might wipe out his harvest. Feng shui principles also helped people understand where to build their homes in order to be protected from the extremes of heat, cold, wind, and rain.

Over time, the system of feng shui evolved and was applied to a variety of circumstances. For example, early feng shui masters were schooled in the discipline of feng shui in order to determine the best locations for burial sites. It was believed that the perfect burial site would please the deceased, and in turn, they would thank their descendants by bestowing blessings upon them.¹

Interestingly, the compass (known in feng shui as the Lo Pan) was invented by the Chinese to make feng shui analysis more precise. Early compasses were made from magnetic stones carved in the shapes of fish or spoons and oriented toward the south instead of the north. South was considered a more favorable direction because the warmth of the sun came from the south, while cold winds and extreme weather came from the north.²

Feng shui techniques were later expanded to include building guidelines for palaces and temples. There’s evidence that suggests the early Chinese Bronze Age culture of Erlitou (2100-1500 BC) used feng shui for palace architecture. Further archeological research points to evidence that the capital cities in China during this period followed feng shui principles for their layout and design.³

Because so many of the tenets in feng shui are universal, they have withstood the test of time. With slight modifications, these principles are just as pertinent to modern lifestyles as they were at their origination. While life today is obviously very different from how it was in ancient history, our instinctive reactions to the world around us are the same as they were for our ancestors.

Feng Shui Today

The popularity of feng shui in western culture today is partly a response to the development of technologies that began in the late 1800s. Beginning with the Industrial Revolution and particularly in the years following World War II, a dramatic shift took place in developed countries. People began moving from farms and open countryside to the city for its jobs and burgeoning opportunities.

In the mid-twentieth century, the invention of air conditioning gave human beings the ability to completely control a building’s environment. As they stepped out of the natural world and into a completely artificial setting, more and more people spent their days living and working indoors for longer and longer periods of time.

You wouldn’t take a wild animal from its natural habitat, put it in a windowless room, install artificial lighting, pump in recycled air, and expect the animal to live a happy and healthy life. When the people who lived and worked in these unnatural settings didn’t thrive, work productivity decreased while illness and stress levels increased. Scientists and psychologists scratched their heads and began to wonder why.⁴

Scientists in the fields of biology, psychology,⁵ and even physics conducted studies and found evidence to support what feng shui has known for centuries: that the environment directly influences emotional, mental, and physical health.⁶ Furthermore, studies by cellular biologists indicate that even body cells can be affected by the way you experience your surroundings.⁷

Technology and the Rise of Feng Shui

Technology has made home much more than just a place to retire to at the end of the day. For many, home is also a workplace where they connect electronically with coworkers instead of having to be physically present. Home entertainment systems have replaced trips to the movie theater, and the Internet allows you to shop for just about anything while sitting at home in your pajamas. Even dating is done electronically!

With greater numbers of people spending more time than ever at home and with the home serving more functions than ever before, there has been a huge interest in learning how to make it as comfortable as possible. Home improvement stores are springing up in neighborhoods all over the country, and home-and-garden television shows can be found in abundance. It’s no coincidence that the interest in feng shui has increased along with the interest people have in creating an optimal home environment.

Feng Shui Myths and Misconceptions

The misconceptions that people have about feng shui range from silly to downright absurd. A few years ago, while giving a lecture to a very large group of gardening enthusiasts, a woman sheepishly raised her hand to ask me a question. She explained that she had hired a feng shui consultant a couple of years before and was concerned about something the consultant had told her to do.

This woman’s bedroom was directly above the garage, and the consultant said that this was a very negative placement for the bedroom due to the unstable energies of the garage. The consultant’s advice? Place aluminum foil covered with a red sheet between the box spring and the mattress to deflect the negative energy emanating from the garage. As the woman told her story, a round of giggles rippled through the room. Suppressing a smile, I asked, How is that working out for you?

Well, she said, the foil is so noisy that every time we move, it wakes us up. My husband wants me to take the foil out, but I’m afraid to, in case something bad might happen. Her husband thought feng shui was ridiculous, and I can certainly understand why based upon this silly recommendation! I reassured her that there was no legitimacy to the idea that having a bedroom above a garage was a portent to catastrophe. Furthermore, not being able to sleep at night was detrimental in itself—certainly much worse than sleeping above a garage.

The woman was relieved and said she would go right home and remove the aluminum foil and red sheet from under her mattress. Weeks later, she emailed me to say thank you for putting her mind at ease on the bedroom-over-the-garage issue. She wrote that, since removing the aluminum foil, she and her husband were sleeping well once again. She was very relieved to learn that the original advice she had received was well-meaning but inaccurate. She later hired me to redo the feng shui of her home because she appreciated the practical nature of the information given in my lecture. Even her husband was happy with the results this time!

It is exactly this type of misinformation that perpetuates incorrect assumptions regarding the practice of feng shui. If it sounds like nonsense, it is nonsense and certainly not feng shui.

Sources of Misunderstanding

Many feng shui practitioners inadvertently perpetuate misinformation that was never intended to be part of the system. They accept this information at face value and unquestioningly pass it on to their clients, students, and readers without considering the source or validity of what they are communicating. Such information ranges from ineffective to absolutely comical and has done a lot of damage to the integrity of this ancient environmental system.

Centuries ago, feng shui knowledge was passed verbally from teacher to student through many generations. Over time, the original meanings for some feng shui principles were changed or lost in translation as the information was handed down from one person to the next. The end result is that some of the original feng shui principles have been misinterpreted and misunderstood.

One of my biggest challenges as a feng shui consultant has been rectifying these misconceptions. Throughout this book, I point out many of these fallacies and offer insights on how these ideas may have originated. These Reality Checks will hopefully shed some light on a few of the strange and incorrect things you may have heard about feng shui.

Reality Check

Myth: Sleeping above a garage is considered bad feng shui.

Let’s look at our first Reality Check in the context of the case mentioned earlier, where a bedroom was located above a garage. There’s a notion in some feng shui circles that it’s unfavorable to have a bedroom situated over a garage. The idea is that such a placement creates unstable, negative energy and promotes sleeplessness and/or negative experiences.

Not only is this untrue, but it also makes absolutely no sense. The time that it takes for a car to move in or out of a garage is, at most, a few minutes per day. The rest of the time, the garage is a room like any other room, whether or not it has a car in it. During sleeping hours when the bedroom above is occupied, chances are there’s no movement at all in the garage below. It’s no more active than the family room or the living room and has no more of an impact on the people sleeping above than any other room in the house.

Where did this idea come from? Remember that the original intention of feng shui was to help people live in harmony with nature. It’s possible that the issue of having a bedroom over a garage was inferred from an early feng shui principle stating that it was unwise to build a home hanging over a moving stream or a river. It’s easy to understand why this was sound advice and still is. However, the differences between building a home over a constantly flowing river and pulling a car in and out of a garage a few minutes each day are clear, and one really has nothing to do with the other.

Feng Shui Trinkets, Gimmicks, and Talismans

I once received a phone call from an excited young man telling me that he had invented feng shui dog collars. He wanted to know if I was interested in marketing them for him. They were essentially dog collars with a decoration of a Chinese character on them. The marketing angle was supposedly feng shui for dogs.

When I asked him what the point of the collars was, he replied, Well, you know, it’s feng shui. I asked him what he thought that meant.

He said, You know, feng shui ... it’s supposed to bring you good luck.

So the dogs will have good luck if their owners buy these collars? I asked, thinking that good luck for a dog might be more like finding the right fire hydrant at just the right time.

Yeah, I guess so, he offered. After a lengthy explanation on what did and what did not constitute feng shui, the man hung up, and I never heard anything about him or his dog collars again.

Unfortunately, this is not the only example of ridiculous marketing techniques based upon the exploitation of feng shui principles. As a consultant, I’ve received well-meaning gifts ranging from feng shui candles and soap to three-legged frogs and glass crystals. I was even given a pair of feng shui eyeglasses once. What they were supposed to do is still a mystery to me.

Every time I see a product marketed with a feng shui angle, I wince. It’s sad to see the concept of feng shui reduced to a cheap gimmick, a get-rich-quick scheme, or a talisman for good luck. It’s a shame that this incredible environmental system has become diminished and exploited by so many. With all the nonsense out there, it’s no wonder that people become easily confused and misguided regarding the subject of feng shui.

Reality Check

Myth: Faceted glass crystals, coins on a string,

three-legged frogs, eight-sided mirrors, and wooden flutes will improve your luck.

Let me make something very clear: feng shui has nothing to do with luck. Luck implies something that occurs randomly and accidentally, and there’s nothing random or accidental about feng shui. I’m sorry to burst anyone’s bubble, but hanging a glass crystal, an eight-sided mirror, a rope with coins on it, an ugly, plastic three-legged frog, a wooden flute, or any other trinket in your home or office does no more for your life’s circumstances than rubbing a rabbit’s foot or keeping a four-leaf clover in your pocket. None of these items has inherent mysterious powers that can dramatically improve your life or your fortune. If they could, everyone would be using them, and no one would experience loss or misfortune again! If only life were that simple!

The truth is, when you purchase these so-called feng shui items, you’re only adding to the luck and prosperity of the person who sold it to you while diminishing your own fortune.

Feng shui has nothing to do with symbolic figurines, glass crystals, flutes, or coins and everything to do with creating a space of beauty and comfort. Certainly designing an environment that feels peaceful and serene will take more time and effort than hanging a glass crystal sphere, but the effort is well worth it.

Fortunately, this book will teach you how to incorporate good feng shui without cluttering your home with a bunch of meaningless knickknacks and unsightly good luck charms.

Building Design and Feng Shui

I frequently give presentations to building industry professionals and their design teams to educate them on how crucial a proper understanding of feng shui principles is to the building process. During my presentations, I point out scientific research that indicates how the layout and design of homes and office buildings have powerful, long-range effects upon the quality of life of the people who live and work there.¹

I conclude each presentation by saying, No other industry that I can think of has more of an impact on the daily lives of people in our society than the building industry. For many of the builders, this is a sobering thought and the very first time that they’ve ever considered the long-term human consequences of what they’ve created.

I often wonder whether there would be less stress, disease, crime, and dissatisfaction if more builders, architects, and home designers considered the far- reaching effects that their creations have on people and the environment. Hopefully as feng shui becomes better understood and requested by the public at large, homes and public buildings will be designed and constructed to support and nurture body, mind, spirit, and planet.

Schools of Feng Shui and My Approach

As I mentioned earlier, feng shui has evolved and changed over many centuries. Variations in methodologies and philosophies have entered the picture, and as a result, there are now many different schools or approaches to feng shui. Some are simplistic and rely more upon intention and belief, while others are more complex, utilizing advanced mathematical and astronomical calculations in order to arrive at recommendations for a space.

This book is not intended to debate the superiority or merits of one approach over another. While I do have my personal opinions and preferences for what works in feng shui, I honestly believe that each person needs to decide which approach works best for his/her specific space. Here’s a brief overview of several well-known schools of feng shui.

Form School Feng Shui

Form School feng shui is thought to be the oldest system of feng shui. This method examines the layout of landforms (such as mountains, bodies of water, or canyons); street configurations; nearby buildings; architectural designs; and other physical factors that may affect how people experience a space. On a smaller scale, this method also considers room arrangement, décor, design, furniture placement, and flow within a building. Form School feng shui pays close attention to the physical features around and within a location that most directly impact our experience of that environment.

In my opinion, Form School feng shui is the most fundamental type of feng shui and the easiest to understand and implement. A great deal of this book will fall under the Form School approach.

Form School feng shui helps determine what it is about a space that makes it feel right to you. Without good form, the other approaches to feng shui fall short of the mark. It’s absolutely essential that you feel comfortable and safe in your surroundings, if you are going to thrive. Form School feng shui helps you do just that.

Chapters 2 through 5 explore in detail how Form School feng shui can be applied to your home environment. In fact, if you decide to put into practice only the Form School approach to feng shui, you’ll still be well on your way to creating an optimal living space. It is my hope, however, that once you’ve experienced the benefits of Form School feng shui, you’ll be inspired to explore the more energetic aspects of feng shui described in chapters 6 through 8.

Compass School Feng Shui

Compass School feng shui utilizes a compass to determine areas in a structure that pertain to aspects of our lives, including Wealth & Prosperity, Family, Fame, Love & Partnership, Creation, Synchronicity, Career, Knowledge, and Health.

These nine