Healing your life and the world one house at a time

by Lauren Duncan

When life gets stagnant, many people turn to therapy, or exercise, or they trudge through, hoping the staleness will dissolve. Yet some of life’s problems could be solved simply by redecorating.

The practice of feng shui began in China 6,000 years ago as a way to understand the relationship between humans and the earth. It originated as a way to determine the most auspicious positioning of villages and crop land in relation to elements and geography. Thousands of years later, feng shui remains a method of creating wellness in life by shifting items around the home.

Feng shui practitioners use a tool called the Bagua map, which includes nine areas of life that clients might wish to address. The first level of the map includes Knowledge and Inner Truth, Path of Life, and Helpful Friends and Travel; the second level includes Ancestors and DNA, Health, and Children and Projects; and the third level includes Wealth, Fame and Achievement and Relationships.

“Often times people will pick two or three areas,” says Mary Hartnett, a Boulder-based feng shui consultant. “We’re always moving the energy — the chi — around in the house to try and solve any one of the issues.”

Hartnett practices the Taoist method of feng shui, which is based on Chinese theories but incorporates Western décor.

“If in one corner you need to increase energy, would you like a plant? Would you like a crystal? Would you like a beautiful picture? We’ll put something beautiful and energizing there on purpose to enhance the energy there,” Hartnett says.

Laurelyn Baker, also a Boulder-based practitioner, says she often uses animal symbols to fit in with Western décor.

“If you don’t like the idea of having a Tibetan wealth god with a bunch of swords and looking really serious, maybe you want a grizzly bear or a hawk to keep an eye out for you,” Baker says. “Or it could be an image of a person who’s really strong in your life.”

Mindful placement of objects around the home creates a flow of energy designed to address any of the areas of the Bagua map. Various corners of a house represent the various issues, and feng shui consultants advise the proper placement for ultimate improvement.

“The bedroom represents relationship,” Hartnett says. “To enhance the health of relationship, we put objects in pairs, like two matching nightstands or two candles.”

The kitchen and the dining room symbolize health, since food is consumed in those rooms. According to Hartnett’s website, hanging a mirror in the dining room may enhance health and wealth because it magnifies the abundance of good food.

Use of color is likewise powerful. Harnett says that green is the traditional healing color, particularly light green. Reds, yellows and golds are warm, positive colors.

“Some people are very high energy so they need blues and purples to slow them down,” she says. “If you’re decorating for wellness, the colors you want to avoid are grey — that’s a dead color — and black, which you’d want to use sparingly.”

Baker says that one of the reasons feng shui is so popular now in this country is because designing for wellness hasn’t been a priority.

“We design houses without comforting things in mind. Things get built that don’t make people feel good; they think it looks beautiful and once they’re living with it they don’t like it and they don’t know why,” she says.

Baker, who’s traveled across the country to feng shui homes and businesses, has noticed a difference in the local clientele. She says her Boulder clients are often more educated about feng shui and already own materials conducive to the practice.

“I have to do a lot more finessing when I’m in a different community that isn’t as familiar with Asian culture,” she says.

Sorcha Bray, a Berthoud resident and a longtime client of Baker’s, says feng shui has affected her life in profound ways.

“When things have gotten stuck or stagnant [feng shui] gets things moving in a positive direction. It lets the energies come in, it breaks down the dam and lets all these good things flow into our lives.”

In Bray’s case, these “good things” came in the form of real estate success. When Baker tweaked a number of things in Bray’s rental home, Bray was shocked when three prospective renters applied immediately afterward, without even having been inside the house.

“Things like that don’t just happen,” she says. “That’s the feng shui.”

Bray wasn’t always the avid supporter she is now. A self-proclaimed former skeptic, she changed her opinion when the home she felt unsettled in was feng shui-ed.

“After [Baker] was done I was content to be in my home, and I hadn’t been before,” she says.

Such benefits don’t come free. According to Hartnett, feng shui practitioners can charge anywhere between $60 and $200 or more per hour. Many local practitioners also charge by square footage. And while many practitioners can use materials and décor the client already owns, additional items often need to be purchased.

“The answer is it takes a lot of resources,” Baker says, and she asserts that feng shui is only one part of the solution to negative energy.

“There’s karma, luck, all those things come into play. It’s part of a holistic lifestyle,” she says. “It’s about getting the world in order one house at a time.”

Respond: info@boulderganic.com

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