I have lousy feng shui. At least that’s what the quiz I took told me.

My houseplants are a little neglected, the front door could use some help and I sometimes turn my back to the door while cooking. Now that I know I should pull my shui together, I’ll spiff up the front door and water those poor plants.

Here’s what I won’t do: paint my apparently improperly placed bathroom a vivid shade of red.

“The fire element will increase income and therefore counteract the drain on wealth,” the quiz tells me.

Sorry, no can do.

But feng shui (pronounced fung shway) doesn’t have to be extreme. As the philosophy becomes more popular, experts are emphasizing its original intent: to improve life through the placement of everyday items at home or work. Much of it is common sense.

“Feng shui does not necessarily have to cost you a lot of money,” says Mo Linquist, a feng shui consultant in Kure Beach who is president of the Feng Shui Institute International. “It’s really about the placement of your surroundings and how it makes you feel. It’s about setting up your environment, the space where you live, to support you in the best way it can to help you reach your goals in life.”

If your house or office is a mess, Linquist says, chances are your finances, health and relationships will be, too.

Dr. Karen Goldsmith knew she wanted to use the principles of feng shui when she opened her chiropractic practice in Fayetteville six years ago.

“A philosophy that is thousands of years old probably has a lot of validity to it,” she said. All of it seems to have paid off, from the warm orange and blue colors of her walls — orange is a social color, blue symbolizes healing — to the fountains, plants and photos. She even has a small frog out front that represents abundance.

“It brings an overall feeling of well-being,” Goldsmith said. “My purpose is to help patients achieve their maximum capacity the way God created them, no drugs, no dangerous surgery.”

Feng shui is a Chinese term that literally means “wind water.” There are many different schools of feng shui, each with its own following plus books, TV shows and magazine articles. Community colleges are beginning to offer classes devoted to it. The Feng Shui Institute of America will even offer courses this spring in Charlotte to help people become certified consultants like Linquist.

Linquist usually begins a home consultation by tackling clutter. One of her very first clients had so much clutter, it took the woman a year to pare down all of her belongings. The woman wanted a better social life. She wanted more friends to come spend time with her at her home. She wanted her grandchildren to visit more often. Linquist saw the feng shui problem right away.

“Even if a guest came over, they couldn’t sit down on the couch without having to move old newspapers,” she said. “She wanted these things in her life but she had no room for them.”

When Linquist returned after the decluttering, they started fresh. The woman moved everything out of her bedroom. Linquist moved in the essentials. She tells clients no TVs, computers, sewing machines or work-related paraphernalia in bedrooms.

But feng shui doesn’t stop at the bedroom. Experts provide feng shui tips for the kitchen, bathroom, office, den — you name it. They even recommend that people who are trying to sell a house begin with the for sale sign. It should be placed on the right side of the yard as you face the front door.

Feng shui is all about achieving balance, so some consultants recommend water, an aquarium or fountain, to bring harmony at home. They recommend the use of mirrors to enhance “chi,” or life flow.

Some people even use a complicated formula based on birth date that tells you what element you are — metal, water, hard earth, active wood, flexible wood, hard metal, refined metal, soft earth or fire — and its corresponding compass direction. Want a promotion at work? Point your desk in that direction.

If all of this sounds like way too much work — and let’s face it, painting my bathroom is starting to sound easy by comparison — consider this: We have all dithered over where to put the couch, the television, that new chair. Some of it sounds silly, but feng shui is about bringing peace and tranquility to our homes and offices.

Who doesn’t need more of that?
Correspondent Allison Williams can be reached at life@fayobserver.com.

source : www.fayobserver.com