This time I invite you to experience a feng shui consultation with my client, Danielle Jacoby, who is a freelance writer and intern at Boston Magazine. Inside a Feng Shui Consultationby Danielle Jacoby, freelance reporter Natalia Kaylin is standing on the steps to my building clutching a flat, square-shaped compass, her magenta bob haircut tousled by the breeze, her brown eyes focused on the object held in her turquoise ringed hands. "Your apartment is facing the north,” she explains in a Ukrainian accent. "The sun never shines on your building entrance.” My studio apartment is at 78 Bay State Road. I live in number one, which means I live in a basement. Its "garden view,” as student housing calls it, allows for a partial glimpse of the quaint, tree-lined street from the three little windows halfway up my wall. Given the white-painted wooden paneling and orange-brown color scheme, I would say this apartment has not been renovated since the 1970s. My place could use a little feng shui, I thought. So I called in Kaylin. For those unfamiliar with the Chinese science and art of feng shui, Kaylin, 46, describes it as a means of creating beautiful and balanced environments. She believes that a person's energy—known as chi—is reflected in his or her home, and with her experience and intuitive skill Kaylin can help her clients connect to their personal spaces. Before practicing feng shui, Kaylin left her husband and family in Ukraine to start a new life in America with her 8-year-old son. She received her master's in physics and then delved into the mechanics of feng shui in an effort to "feel aligned.” Practicing feng shui led to a raise at work and an improvement in her romantic life. Today, Kaylin says she has become the go-to feng shui expert in New England. "This is not a good situation here in the entrance,” she says, pausing in the foyer of my building and peering questionably up at the second level and down at the stairs leading to my studio. "This gives me an unstable feeling,” she admits. Kaylin moves slowly down the steep blue-carpeted staircase that leads to my studio, gripping the wooden railing. She stops in the doorway to my apartment. "This is great—a southeast entrance door means wealth,” she says. We are off to a good start. When I first moved to Boston and inquired at Boston University's graduate student housing office for a place to live, they offered me one option—78 Bay State Road #1. This place seemed ancient compared to the less than ten-year-old apartment buildings in Los Angeles. The carpet was stained, the bathroom tile was cracked and the walls were filled with clattering mice. I took decorating very seriously. "This is tastefully done,” Kaylin announces, stepping inside my small studio. I beam as I peer around the room at my painstaking efforts at design. The large brown-and-black rug at the center of the room, the black futon ornamented with brown throw pillows on one wall, and a bed dressed in black and beige on the other, display the classical, conservative décor that I was aiming to achieve.
"Don't think I am criticizing your choices, but you have chosen very neutral colors,” Kaylin says, cutting my pride down a peg. "I think you went with your mind and not your heart.” I nod and try not to frown. "Your environment needs some warmth and color to uplift the energy, because it is lower level. And it needs to better reflect your fiery and creative personality.” In the kitchen, which takes up a fraction of my apartment, Kaylin notes, "This is tiny, but it is not too bad.” The kitchen is just large enough to hold a miniature fridge, a polly-pocket-esque electric stove, and a rickety wooden food-prep island. Kaylin shrugs. "It is not very good to have a kitchen in the southwest corner,” she says. In feng shui, southwest represents relationships. My kitchen is where my bedroom should be, according to Kaylin. Given that "our environment influences us on the subconscious level,” as she puts it, I suppose food will just continue to replace men in my life. Thus concludes the brief tour of my apartment. We sit on my futon and sip hot vanilla jasmine tea out of multi-colored mugs—probably the most vibrant objects in the place. Kaylin sketches a compass onto a floor plan of my apartment and flashes her eyes to a Zi Ping astrology chart. Then she faces me with wide eyes. "I get the impression that you have loads of fire,” she says. The Chinese diagram has deemed me a "fire tiger,” based on my birthday. The "fire tiger” is the strongest and most courageous sign, according to Kaylin. "So you might want to wear colors sometimes.” I blush, glancing at my all-black ensemble and back at Kaylin's light pink, frilly blouse. "The only danger that I see in your chart is that you have zero percent water,” Kaylin says matter-of-factly. She explains to me that my lack of water combined with my tiger instincts could mean perpetual singledom and workaholism. I shudder at the thought. One more thing—"Your chart indicates that you might have a weak liver and kidneys, so not too much alcohol,” Kaylin says. I am not sure I can give up wine. "My goal is to strengthen your energy with the design and beyond,” Kaylin says. She recommends that I take karate to reinvigorate my fire power, practice yoga in order to relax, and go for hikes in the woods to reclaim my lack of wood. And since my luck changes every 10 years, according to the chart, Kaylin reassures me that I will settle into a committed relationship in 2011. It seems I have some good feng shui after all. "You are young and have already done quite a bit,” Kaylin says at the end of a three-hour session. "My advice is just continue to go for it, but remember, wherever you live, always have some fire element in your environment to support and energize you.” Electromagnetic Radiation If you read these lines from my clients' emails, you will notice that all of them have something in common:
All of these people had to move their own or their children's beds and all experienced results like more energy, improved sleep and lower blood pressure, to name a few. The one thing they all had in common in their bedrooms was high electromagnetic radiation (EMR) coming from an electrical distribution panel (fuse box). In some cases the fuse box was in the basement right underneath the bed and in others it was on a wall very close to the bed. Other sources of EMR are radio clocks and phones that are too close to your head on the night stand or electronic devices on the other side of the wall that you sleep next to. Cell phone towers that are close to your house are also worth keeping in mind. The degree of emitted radiation varies from device to device and the only way to tell if you are being influenced by it is to measure it. This is why I carry my electromagnetic meter with me to all of my consultations. From my experience I would suggest being at least 10 feet away from a fuse box to be completely safe. Please be aware of this and check your and your children's bedrooms. Questions? If you have any questions or are interested in a Feng Shui consultation please visit http://www.easternsciences.com or call (978) 392-9089. |
