Feng Shui Energy to Get You Going

From Rodika Tchi
March 14, 2007

Spring cleaning and clutter clearing might sound exciting when you think of the results, but not really of the process itself! Here is what you can do to bring some helping energy with feng shui:

1. Open all windows and aerate the space well to bring fresh energy.

2. Get dressed in clothing that is practical, made of natural fibers and makes you feel good!

3. Bring some Fire Element colors for an additional boost of energy to the space you are working at. In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day and spring in general, the color green belongs to the Element of Wood. Green is the color of renewal, fresh energy and new beginnings.

Green is very nourishing to your health, it calms your nerves and balances your whole body by bringing healing vibrations from Nature. When working with Green, it is important to have at least several different shades in order to maximize its energy effects.

A great way to bring color Green is with actual plants that have lush green foliage. The color of growth and healing, Green should be freely used in the East, Southeast and South areas of your space.

From fresh spring color of the newly opened leaves to the strong Green of a mighty oak tree – there are literally hundreds of greens to choose from.

4. Put on the music you love and start small, focusing on one area to give you a sense of accomplishment.

5. Finish the process before you get tired of it and treat yourself to something really nice, be it a good cup of coffee at the best cafe in town or a movie with a friend.

By following these steps you will create the energy of excitement around a process that is usually avoided, and your place will be breathing new energy in no time!

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CONDUCIVE TO CALM

Ancient feng shui principles bring harmony to home
By ALMA E. HILL
03/15/07

Balance.

For Melissa Van Rossum, a writer and stay-at-home mother with two young children, having a balanced home is essential for a peaceful, nourishing environment.

By balance she means using color and a mixture of textures and natural materials to make a home harmonious and calming.

To make sure she achieved the right balance in her new Brookhaven home, Van Rossum hired Tish Mills, an interior designer who specializes in feng shui, an ancient Chinese art that involves arranging furnishings and other elements in a home or business to create a harmonious environment by stimulating the flow of positive energy.

“I’ve been familiar with feng shui for some time,” Van Rossum says. “With every home — I’ve had three prior to this one — I would use the principles of feng shui for balance.”

Since Van Rossum works from home but doesn’t like to sit at a desk, it was important that her furniture be plush and comfortable.

“I’m very picky about where I’ll write. I’m somebody who has to move around,” Van Rossum explains. “I can’t write at a desk. I have to write on the couch or in a big chair. If my environment isn’t comfortable, then I’m distracted.”

Mills created harmony in the library and salon/family room, the rooms Van Rossum typically writes in, by mixing soft brown tones with splashes of red and by balancing natural elements such as crystal, jade and metal in key areas around the rooms.

“The overall goal for the house was a space that’s very peaceful, very balanced and very beautiful, but comfortable for her family and the way they like to live,” Mills says. “It’s interesting and soothing to the mind because everything feels so comfortable.”

HOW TO CREATE A HARMONIOUS ROOM

Balance elements such as wood, stone and metal. Don’t overdo it.

Place items that serve a purpose or are interesting to look at. Don’t buy stuff just for the purpose of filling space.

Eliminate clutter. “I tell people all the time to edit, edit, edit,” Mills says.

Don’t overaccessorize. “I’d rather have one great item than 10 things sitting out just to have them,” she says.

Be mindful of furniture arrangement. For example, sitting at a desk with your back to the door creates bad energy. Consider changing the arrangement or placing a mirror at the desk that provides a clear view of the doorway.

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Housing Guide: For A Room In Disarray, Try Feng Shui

Tess Marstaller
8 March 2007

Cramped spaces, blocky furniture, pasty walls – these characteristics of most dorm rooms can threaten to cramp the style of anyone trying to create a homey and inviting living environment. Luckily, all it takes is a bit of creativity and cash to transform any setup from bland and awkward to stylish and functional.

Elizabeth Reynolds and Kristin Yeskel, who both recently graduated from the GW fine arts program with majors in interior design, know the ins and outs of making the most of any living space. According to the designers, even those who are not artistic have many simple options for improving the organization and appearance of their room.

“People always end up sitting on their beds, so having small pillows and colorful throw blankets can help make your bed a nice place to read or relax,” Reynolds said. Coordinating bedspreads, comfy chairs and angled clip lights are other pieces Reynolds recommended for making a room look pulled together.

“Personalize your bedding in your favorite colors – jazz it up,” Yeskel said.

Since space can often be an issue when friends come to visit, Reynolds believes that every college student should have an air mattress for quick, inexpensive bedding that stores compactly. Bunking beds, putting your dresser in the closet and using bed lifts to store unneeded items under your bed can all open up space for a futon or table and more central living space.

“Clutter is a huge problem in dorm rooms, so weed out stuff as you go. Less is more in a dorm situation,” Yeskel said. “The Container Store can be your best friend.” Reynolds suggested storing anything you don’t use on your desk or other surfaces in the closet, and stacking and layering things like shelves, hanger rods, and shoe holders to maximize space.

For those looking to get creative with furniture and decorations, Reynolds recommended looking for funky furniture at flea markets and local sales, such as Eastern Market, near the Capitol and right off the Metro on the blue and orange lines. Ikea and Target also have a lot of interesting and inexpensive dorm room essentials like bulletin boards, lamps and picture frames that help personalize a room.

“Pick a style that both you and your roommate like – it looks more cohesive than if you go in two different directions,” Reynolds said.

There are now online tools for making collages, and many Web sites with original design ideas. One that Reynolds recommends is 2modern.com, where you can find removable wallpaper, stick-on borders and accent strips in funky patterns.

“Push the boundaries,” Reynolds said. “Grouped black and white photos make your place look a little more upscale, and bulletin boards are great for photos, reminders and schedules, as long as you don’t let them get too cluttered.”

Hanging up Chinese lanterns or covering the back of your desk with wrapping paper are other artsy ideas that can bring color and intrigue to a room and help offset blasé furniture. “If you’re crafty, cover an old table with decoupage magazines,” Reynolds said.

Yeskel, who studied and wrote her thesis on dorm room feng shui, suggests arranging your room in a way that will put you in a calm state and keep you secure. Feng shui, the ancient Chinese practice of placement and arrangement, is about “aligning yourself with the elements and balancing yourself with the earth’s energy instead of fighting it,” Yeskel said. Following the same artistic guidelines that Chinese restaurants use when they put a fish tank in the front of their store to bring prosperity to their customers, students can make small adjustments to bring balance to their rooms.

Yeskel has seen changes in the organization of a room make a difference in her own ability to concentrate. She recommends arranging your furniture so that wherever you are sitting or lying you never have your back to the door and can always see who is entering or leaving your space. Feng shui also suggests having something solid behind you at all times, which helps keep you grounded.

Making a distinct space for all of your activities also helps keep your mind focused on what you are doing, Yeskel said. Though students often do everything on their bed, this can make it difficult to sleep, because your mind then associates your bed with eating or working or socializing, and not just relaxing.

When decorating bare walls, Yeskel explains that putting up a large picture or poster of a vast landscape can greatly open up a space, as though the image is a continuation of the room and you are looking out into it. Overall, “put up what makes you feel good – surround yourself with your interests,” she said.

Melissa Dreyer, a sophomore living in a West End double, calls her room “a true reflection of our characters.” Though the room is small, she and her roommate Andrea Criollo feel that they have made it cozy. They store things under their beds or in cupboards so that clutter does not overwhelm the room.

As an older building, the West End already has quite a bit of character, which Dreyer and her roommate appreciate. They have covered their walls with pictures of family and friends, and though their styles complement each other, side-by-side Harry Potter and Abercrombie posters display their diverse personal preferences as well.

Said Dreyer: “As very high-energy individuals, we need something festive. We’ve definitely made this room our own.”

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Celebrate the Chinese New Year The Feng Shui Way

Feng Shui: The Chinese New Year Is The Perfect Time To Reorganize Your Home (And Your Energy)
by Marci Laehr Tenuta
February 12, 2007

Perhaps your New Year’s resolution was to organize your home, work harder to grow your business, or improve some of the relationships in your life. If over the past month you haven’t gotten very far in accomplishing your goal, don’t worry.

The Chinese New Year is almost here. That means it is the best time to put feng shui to work for you, according to Chinese tradition.

But don’t just plop a water fountain in your living room and expect big changes.

Contrary to the trendy practice popular with interior designers, traditional feng shui is actually a science, according to Niiti Gannon and Sea Daniel, who own the consulting business Wind Water Feng Shui. The process is about balancing the flow of qi (sometimes spelled ch’i and often pronounced “chee”), the energy in everything.

A science of harmony

Gannon and Daniel are hired to help enhance the energy flow in homes and businesses. They say feng shui can improve health, enhance relationships, increase creativity, help a business prosper, and promote better sleep.

It’s not a belief, but a science that has been a Chinese practice for 6,000 years. Gannon said the idea behind feng shui is that there are harmonies and non-harmonies of the Earth. You can use the harmonies to support you in your work, relationships, health, etc. so that you don’t have to work as hard. She said in Chinese philosophy, feng shui is ranked higher than individual effort, but lower than fate.

“The more difficult your environment is, the harder you have to work,” Daniel said.

The scientific process

The trendy kind of feng shui is cookie cutter, Daniel said. It treats every space the same, every North corner the same. Instead, every space should be evaluated individually, Gannon said. Balance should happen because of a harmonious flowing.

Gannon and Daniel use a traditional, or classic compass, method of feng shui. After touring a space, they make a numeric energy map of the home or business based on a number of things, including the magnetic positioning of the building and the date it was built.

They break down the space into nine parts and calculate which elements or “cures” are needed in each part, based on what the home or business owners needs are. Those cures are suggested to the client.

“A room is divided into 9 different parts, and you find out what energy is dominant or weak, and what needs to be done to balance it,” Daniel said. “Energy flows all around us. You want to manipulate the energy so it reaches every part of a space at a nice speed.”

For example, if you can walk in the front door of your home and see out the back door, the energy comes in and goes right out, she said. It doesn’t stop and linger in the house. The arrangement of furniture and cures can help to keep it flowing inside.

The five cures used in feng shui are earth, metal, fire, water and wood. Cures might be in the form of a decorative metal piece, a red lamp, or blue paint.

“Every area has some elements,” Gannon said. “Maybe one has too much water and needs more wood. Usually there is too much earth. Metal is the cure, like a shovel moving dirt. Water is also used when things are stagnate. If there is too much wood, you add fire.”

The result, if done correctly, is a home, office, shop or restaurant that is in balance and “feels nice.”

“If its done well, you can usually feel the difference in a few days,” Gannon said.

Real results

Nancy Stoewe, the owner of Elmwood Plaza Chiropractic, hired Gannon and Daniel three years ago to help her sell her condo. Then she asked them to help her at her business.

Some of the cures they suggested included a clock with a pendulum – to add moving metal, a water fountain, and a red light. They also suggested she remove a big cluttered bulletin board from behind the front desk.

“The office has been busier than ever since then,” Stoewe said. “I’ve actually had to shut down to new patients a few times. I’m as busy as I want to be.”

The cures also improved the look of the office, Stoewe said.

Which, according to Gannon and Daniel, is also a big part of feng shui. The look and feel of a home or business can make a big difference as to whether people are comfortable there.

“Some rooms make you feel at peace,” Daniel said. “There’s a feeling about it that makes you want to come back. There is something that draws people in.”

An art of aesthetics

In addition to the science of feng shui, it is also an art of placement. Setting a large fish tank in a room as a cure won’t work if the aquarium is completely out of place.

“You want cures to be part of the aesthetics,” Daniel said.

“Sometimes it’s hard to fit it in. You try to incorporate it so it doesn’t look like a cure.”

You certainly wouldn’t be able to pick out the cures in Sheepish, the specialty shop in Downtown Racine. But they are there, lending to the warm and inviting feeling in the store.

“We try to make everything as beautiful as possible,” said owner Anne Huber. “Even though we have tons of things in the shop, it doesn’t feel cluttered.”

According to feng shui, clutter is the biggest obstacle to a smooth and easy flow of qi. If qi can not flow easily it becomes stuck or stagnant, which affects one’s health and well-being.

“You want (the space) to be beautiful and organized,” Huber said.

There are very distinct areas for many of Sheepish’s specialties, such as their books, essential oils, teas, lotions and bath products, children’s products, stones, and jewelry. There may be 20 different types of lotion, but customers can see each clearly, as they are neatly stacked on shelving.

“Everywhere you look there’s something,” Huber said.

The feel of the shop has been altered by Gannon’s advice, she said, to create a more welcoming, comfortable feeling. Gannon told her the shop needed more metal in the southern part of the store. So they added some metal shelves to hold the merchandise in that area, and hung a gong. In the northeast part of the store, they also needed more metal. There they put all of their metal wind chimes.

Goldfish in the aquarium, which are supposed to absorb negative energy, were moved to the front of the shop. In other areas, Gannon said they needed some red lanterns and put them atop bookcases.

“There’s a difference in the way people view the shop,” Huber said. “It’s not unusual for people to spend an hour in here.”

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