The Big Rug: Why Feng Shui Works
By Becky Iott, WSFS Instructor
I help my clients and myself create beautiful environments that we love to live and work in. I don’t promise more.
But I remember that when I first heard about Feng Shui and I took that sad picture of two beached boats out of the part of our home associated with Fame and Reputation, and replaced it with an image of a serene woman wearing a freakishly beautiful headdress, a huge misunderstanding about my family swiftly corrected.
I remember when a client cleaned out a storage room filled to overflowing and untouched for 20 years, and within weeks found the perfect house she had wanted for decades.
I remember the woman who gave away all the clothes that made her feel less than her best (almost all of them) and bought a few nice things she loved, and received a significant promotion and salary raise.
I know about 1000 stories like these.
I also know it doesn’t always work this way. Sometimes Feng Shui works more like a novel than a blurb. That’s why I don’t guarantee Feng Shui at all; but, I have a lot of confidence in it. I don’t know what will happen when you clean out your closets or make your front door beautiful and welcoming or arrange your furniture for comfort and conversation. But I can imagine what might happen. You can too.
People sometimes say that Feng Shui is “only psychological”. But human nature is psychological and Feng Shui is about humans as a part of nature. And things go better for humans psychologically when we live and work in safe, beautiful environments surrounded by what we love and value. We feel better. We look better. We make better decisions. We work smarter. We think more clearly. We behave better. Please, give me “only psychological” every day of my life!
If Feng Shui were only psychological that would be enough for me, but, something else happens when we enhance our environment. I can understand that the amazing headdressed woman in my house made us feel better about ourselves and that affected others’ thoughts about us too, but the correction of the misunderstanding came fast–I would use the term automatic–one thing followed the other seemingly as cause and effect.
Cleaning out the old stuff from storage helped one client lighten her load psychologically and she easily found the house she wanted. Getting rid of the old wardrobe propelled another woman to move forward professionally. But the changes in these circumstances were also swift and unexplainable.
For me, this is synchronicity, a deep form of intelligent coincidence where things come together in one’s Feng Shui, one’s feelings and one’s circumstances that are simultaneous or nearly so.
That brings me to the big rug. I’m a slow jammin’ kind of Feng Shui practitioner in my own home. I take my time, girls, to find the right thing, the deep and sexy thing. The wall is blank until I find the image I really want to see. And the living room floor didn’t have a rug for years because I couldn’t find just the one I wanted to see every day and wanted to feel under my feet.
This year I found it. A luscious wool oval with big gardenias, free flowing as if they were painted with a gigantic wet brush. No repeat in the pattern so it looks like art, a pale beauty against the dark wood floor, soulful partner with the pear colored sofa, piquant contrast to the dark purple chair. I’m feeling the happy only psychological effect of it right now.
It makes the room feel like a room, a whole thing with an identity, and a gracious, spacious welcomeness. It is a happy elegant rug and as soon as I installed it in our Wealth and Prosperity gua big happy elegant things began to happen. My husband is a musician and was offered a gig for too little money so he asked for double thinking they would find someone else, and they found the money for him instead. I had wanted to start a particular writing project for 15 years, and it started coming out of me without strain. And, the really big thing, I had one of those personal insights you don’t get often, a big internal shift in my understanding of my identity that life circumstances continue to rearrange themselves to accommodate.
I could have found a rug years ago, but not this rug. This rug is synchronous, the big rug that ushers in big transformations. Did the big beautiful rug bring us big beautiful circumstances and clarity? Or did big beautiful circumstances and clarity require a rug to match? I don’t know, but I see it all the time. Good Feng Shui, deep feelings, and life circumstances align for transformation and we move forward.
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I love the concept of Feng Shui. I just think that I mind think it to death. I have a very small house. My health sector is in a closet and my fame sector is in my kitchen sink. I really would like to work on both of those first especially the health. Our relationship sector and so is the wealth sector are working well. I don’t know if I should include our garage in our bagua. Please help.
Thank you,
Linda
Love the feeling you got from your rug.
This is the first time of have heart of Feng Shui. I have been doing this and I didn’t know it had a name. (ha). In short, I am surrounded by only things in my home which bring me joy and peace. The rest had to go.. As far as clothes, I have died all of my clothing in my favorite 4 colors. Everything matches. All of the cream colored and white shirts are a lavender, pale rose pint, cool mint green and touch of light royal blue. I teach Yoga and it has really helped me to look inward and listen to that still, calm, inner voice. I live around the Gulf with beautiful water and I love my life. I understand about what you were saying about your husband and music. My husband is a romantic jazz musician – and he gets “gigs” that seem to come out of nowhere. Have a great day and thanks for sharing. Namaste’ Marlene
Thank you Marlene,
Love hearing about your Feng Shui “knowing” Many people just know how to make home a beautiful place to live.
Becky
Hi Linda, In Feng Shui house size does not matter! in fact it is sometimes easier to love and keep a modest sized home. Since every part of the house is important, your closet can be lovingly cared for, arranged for your convenience and contain what you really need and want. Bring some fire element to your sink: ideas….red dish washing implements, a jazzy cover for your dish soap, and sing while you wash dishes!
Normally, if there’s a connecting door between your house and your garage, include the garage in the the bagua.
Becky
Love hearing the examples of others’ feng shui results. And oh my gosh… me too, Becky!… I have not had a living room rug in 5+ years — I have not found one that speaks to me yet. After reading this though, I have hope that I will find one now. Thanks for sharing your story!
Christine, great to hear from you!
Here’s some more about the big rug. I looked online at rug patterns for HOURS !! It was a real investment of time and energy but I felt my life could wait no longer 🙂
Becky
Beautiful article Becky! You really passed the space of Feng Shui and the magic of synchronicity and connection to the bigger parts of ourselves and our life’s journey.
Thanks! Wenndi
Thank you, Wenndi !
I LOVE this article Becky! And I love that you wait for the perfect thing to come your Way….. such a practice of patience and trust…
I lived without a coffee table for months and one day, I had an overwhelming feeling that my coffee table was in the local consignment store. I drove right over and there it was – Voila!
I LOVE when that happens!!
Love this article Becky, it has happened to me as well, waiting for that perfect item to come into your life is worth the wait!
Great article… so honest and I relate and agree completely.
I too have been waiting patiently for the right home furnishings and décor to come my way. As of now most of my living room walls are bare due to the fact that I haven’t found just the right art… It is super frustrating now that I am learning so much and wanting to redesign everything NOW to perfection, however, I am not willing to settle. I need my pieces to have a soul and heart beat… it needs to summon me forward and express the true authentic me. I know all the right elements will come together in perfect time, but damn, I am so ready to experience a complete home that reflects the me that I am stepping into. Yet whether the chicken or the egg comes first… whether I find my art first, or whether I just continue shining bright and stepping more and more into complete authenticity first, some sort of magic will happen sparking shifts and aligning syncronicities that will leave me feeling a sense of blessed wonder and gratitude. That’s the fun of working with energy I suppose… it really doesn’t matter which comes first 🙂
Thanks again for the post.
Meredith