Feng Shui for Beginners

After a long, stressful day all you want to do is relax and unwind, but if your home environment is just as hectic as the outside world, that’s nearly impossible. “Changing a person’s physical environment can change their life,” says Connie Spruill, certified feng shui consultant and co-author of “Feng Shui With What You Have.”

As a consultant, Spruill makes recommendations based on her clients’ intentions, but it’s up to the individuals to follow through. Spruill and her colleagues use different methods to decode underlying problems in a person’s life, most of which are reflected by a person’s home and/or personality. Most people don’t realize to what extent color and texture affect a person’s psyche. “ ...When we see texture in a room we can feel it just by looking at it,” Spruill explains. So, when we see a soft, fuzzy fleece blanket, our bodies can actually experience that warm, fuzzy feeling, as if we were touching it, all from memory.

Colors also have a lot to do with a person’s mood and over all well-being. For instance, Spruill says shades like orange, pumpkin and terracotta are warm, inviting colors that work well in almost every room. These colors are also beneficial when entertaining because they encourage communication. Of course, different colors can have different meanings depending on the individual. For someone who is depressed, dark blues, browns and black can make their feelings worse, but for some people, men in particular, those colors represent power, wealth and status.

One of the most important ways to achieve feng shui is to eliminate the clutter and simplify your home, which in turn simplifies your life. Spruill also recommends keeping doorways cleared, removing items like shoes away from your front door. “Tripping over things makes you feel overwhelmed,” she says.