A Personal Note from Orion

I’m so glad I got to speak to this week’s guest right before my wedding! She gave me some incredible Feng Shui tips to align the energy in my house. I do feel like the flow in my space is better. Now I can provide a more zen, beautiful nest for my love and I.

And by the way, if you are not in a relationship currently, Kathryn also gave amazing recommendations on how to prepare your space so you can attract your true love!  Something as simple as placing romantic or masculine art in your home will open up more opportunities in your love life!

Kathryn is a breath of fresh air and a powerhouse when it comes to using Feng Shui to organize your life and attract the energy you desire. While many of us think of Feng Shui as an established set of rules, she assures that it’s all about using the river of energy in your home while staying authentic to who you are.

 

 

In this Episode

• [05:21] – Kathryn tells us about herself and how she learned about feng shui while living on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She shares two stories about her early days with feng shui.
• [09:00] – We hear about how Kathryn incorporates feng shui into her identity. She explains that you don’t need to be in a constantly quasi-meditative state to use feng shui, and that energy and activity are good things.
• [10:54] – Red is an important color for women, and Kathryn explains why.
• [12:04] – What is feng shui in a nutshell? It was originally a study of time rather than space, Kathryn tells us.
• [15:09] – Kathryn describes the trinity of luck for zodiac signs. She also describes how her tiger sign fits her.
• [16:30] – We hear about how feng shui can influence your love life. If you’re a single woman, having images of single women in your home can make it more difficult to find a relationship, so Kathryn suggests including male art or imagery instead.
• [17:59] – Kathryn talks about how to use feng shui to attract a man. Hint: having a headboard is more important than you might realize. She also discusses the importance of cooking even if you’re a single woman, and the fact that the stomach is the way to the heart.
• [23:26] – Kathryn gives some suggestions for how to minimize family drama around the holidays by using feng shui.
• [25:04] – What is the ideal color for the bedroom? Kathryn says it comes down to what makes you feel comfortable, but gives some tips on what to avoid, particularly metal headboards. She also says that today’s flat-screen TVs aren’t a problem in feng shui the way older TVs were. Floral bedrooms are also a problem, she explains.
• [28:42] – Kathryn explains why we should avoid red walls in the bedroom, and says that any natural human skin colors are excellent colors for romance.
• [29:58] – We hear more of Kathryn’s history while learning about feng shui.
• [31:05] – What are Kathryn’s best tips and tools for creating abundance through feng shui? She talks about the importance of a beautiful front door, and explains that fresh paint and some plants or flowers can make a huge difference.
• [34:40] – Kathryn talks about colors for front doors, and how the ideal depends on the direction it’s facing. She goes on to talk about the color purple.
• [36:05] – Kathryn raves about oranges, especially about their symbolism of money in feng shui.
• [37:53] – What feng shui tips are there for a wedding? We hear about color options and suggestions, and she and Orion discuss the colors for Orion’s upcoming wedding.
• [40:43] – How does feng shui affect our productivity?
• [45:10] – Kathryn explains how the ancient art of feng shui can apply to modern spaces such as websites. She suggests using colors that harmonize with the kind of work you do.
• [47:32] – In relation to the quizzes available on her website, Kathryn talks about how to use a bagua to figure out how best to apply feng shui to your home.
• [49:49] – Kathryn does a forecast every year, and offers a preview of three pieces of advice for 2017.

About Today’s Show

‏‏Hi Katie, welcome to Stellar Life!

‏‏I am so excited to be here with you today, Orion. Thank you for having me.

‏‏Thank you for being here. I know you’ve been so busy because you just had your event, and you’re writing a new novel-like book for the New Year. You’re doing a lot of things, right?

‏‏Oh my gosh. Yes. This time of year, between all the holidays coming – getting to the end of the year, and we change our calendars – and all that you have going on during the holiday season. I also published my annual forecast, so everyone can have a sort of heads up on what they can expect in the coming year. Yeah, Year of the Rooster’s coming up. Can you believe that we’re already almost in November? It just shocks me.

‏‏I know, it shocks me, too. Times fly. I remember when I was a kid, an hour was a long time. Now I blink, and another year passed by. I’m like what? It’s crazy.

‏‏It is. You’re absolutely right. An hour would seem like forever, especially when school was out at [3:30], and it was [2:30].

‏‏You’re a master practitioner in Feng Shui. You teach other practitioners about Feng Shui. Let’s start with you telling and sharing a little bit about yourself and what is this mysterious Feng Shui.

‏‏I learned about Feng Shui because I lived literally in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a little tiny island, and it’s actually smack in the middle. Because I was so far over to that side of the world, I was able to travel through Asia. That’s where I learned about Feng Shui. But you know, my Western mind was kinda like, “Come on! Are you kidding me? Are you gonna tell me I’m gonna move some stuff and something’s gonna happen? Are you kidding?” But then, I moved back to the US with my husband, who I met on this little, tiny island. That’s a whole other story that I’ll share with some wine with you sometime. We moved, and we started renovating houses long before they were called “flipping houses.” If you’ve ever been in a situation where you needed to sell a house quickly, you know what, you’ll do anything to sell that house. I was ready to stick pins into wax dolls. I would have sacrificed chicken, you name it. I mean, little birds were gonna die at some point. I said, “Well, you know what? Let me try this Feng Shui stuff.” We hadn’t had anybody come to look at the house or make us an offer. Nothing. My husband – he had accepted a job all the way across the country, so here I was back in Texas trying to sell our house. I went, “Okay. No one’s coming to see it. Let me try this Feng Shui stuff,” so I moved a few things. Then boom! I got a call that afternoon with four showings. Then within two days, we had two offers.

‏‏Wow!

‏‏Yeah. I mean, it’s hard to imagine. Sometimes when I think – move something, do something, and then you affect change. It’s sort of hard, like I said, for my little Western mind to grapple with. Then I moved across the country and got there and started looking for a job and not getting anywhere fast, so I said, “Let me try this Feng Shui stuff.” I did some changes in the morning, and I got a call that afternoon with a job offer. Then I went, “Okey Dokey then. This is two times that this has happened.” Then I started doing it. It just became my normal pattern of life – was moving things around, readjusting, redecorating, clearing out, and keeping the clutter down – all that. What I did was I Feng Shuied myself into a six-figure job that I couldn’t get out of. I hated it – when you’re in a j-o-b, stuck behind the desk. My husband and I had been married 10 years about that time, and we had a little baby boy. I wasn’t getting to see him, and I went, “You know, if I can Feng Shui myself into a six-figure job that I can’t leave, I can Feng Shui myself into a six-figure-plus business.” That’s exactly what I did 16 years ago. I’ve been doing it ever since, and it’s a great life. I love it. Just like you – you’re getting to talk to people, and you know what that’s like – to be on your own and being able to be the master of your own domain.

‏‏Yeah, I know that. Yeah, very well. What I love about you is a lot of people do stuff like Feng Shui think that they have to dress a certain way and look a certain way and be very gentle and quiet, speak like that, eat chickpeas and tofu. You’re very outgoing, sexy, fiery. You’re very authentic to who you are. You are who you are, and you practice Feng Shui. You’re not hiding behind it. I like that a lot.

‏‏Yeah. I’m so glad that you brought that up, too, Orion, because a lot of people think that if you do any kind of a spiritual type of thing that you’ve gotta be floating on a lotus. Hmmmm… in this quasi-meditative state. I’m like, “No! What we need to do is be more active, more yang, more energetic!”Yeah, I’m not in a sense, airy, fairy kind of person. I think if you have that kind of a home – a lot of people have this idea, “I’m gonna make my home into a temple, a sanctuary.” They bring dead bodies to be buried into a temple or a sanctuary. You don’t want to have a house that’s as still as a tomb. It needs to be houses for the living. It needs to be a little more on the energetic side, but not where it’s crazy. We do want it to be more yin-like and relaxes in our bedroom, where we unwind and we go to recharge and revitalize our energy, but yeah – no, I’m not a chickpea and hummus kind of gal. I love it. I look at your photograph of Stellar Life – I love it! It’s red, and it’s energized. You can tell that you are a go-getter. That’s so important that we are energized for living today.

It's so important that we are energized for living today. Share on X

‏‏Right, cause red used to be my color when I was young and passionate and very courageous and nothing can stop me. Then I went to different places, and I wanted to blend in. My colors changed, and I actually didn’t know my color. I didn’t want to be red because red was too much. My color was too much, and now I’m embracing the red again.

‏‏Good for you! I think that’s wonderful. You know, red is such an important color for women in particular because men are yang, they’re energetic. Women are yin. A good example of that reminds me always of – I always tell people, “You know how at night, how if you’ve got a husband or a boyfriend, your feet are cold. You get in bed, and you rub your feet up against them. It’s like we need their fire energy.” Actually, red is really auspicious. It’s excellent energy for women to energize them. I’ve kinda been embracing my redness, too. That was my favorite color growing up. I totally understand exactly how you feel about making this sort of sequitous route around red.

‏‏Correct. What exactly is Feng Shui? For me, Feng Shui – I don’t know much about it – actually my mom does a little bit of Feng Shui. What I know is like you said, she goes into houses, and she moves stuff around. She does some of her magic, and people can sell the house. But I don’t really know what exactly the word Feng Shui means and where it originated. What is it in a nutshell?

‏‏Basically, it’s a river of energy that you’re tapping into in your home. We know through scientific fact that there are rivers of energy through the universe that’s unseen. Right now, you and I are being held to our seat, and our feet are being held to the floor by this unseen energy called gravity. We have cellphones that pick up airwaves, through the air. They’re unseen. To me, Feng Shui is just about these waves of energy that flow through every space. When they flow, your space gives you back energy. It provides income, opportunities. You have better health. You have happier relationships. Feng Shui actually originally started as a study of time. Many people think of Feng Shui, and they think of it as a study of space. But the Chinese originally started noticing how time had an influence over homes and businesses and places and so forth, so it actually began as a time-telling method. What they would see as certain houses faced whatever different directions – that from year to year, month to month, they would go through changes. It’s just like how your life is like one year, Orion – that one year is great, and the next year – “What happened? Where did it go?!” Things come to you out of the blue. There’s a saying and it’s about stars and these movements of stars, that there’s an array of energies that are constantly surrounding us. The idea is that you want to tap into those good energies that bring us opportunity, money, love, and good health. Then we wanna hold down those energies that bring us problems or accidents or misfortune or illness and that kind of thing, because we know as modern people that there’s always a plus and minus energy in the universe. Stephen Hawking talks about that. Even though this started and originated in China, actually these are very progressive ideas that are 5000 years old. I like to say that Feng Shui is really 5000 years of common sense.

‏‏Yeah. A lot of those ideas in the New Age spirituality are now being backed by science. It’s just that science is catching up to those old ideas, right?

‏‏Absolutely. That’s an excellent point. You’re exactly right. It is catching up.

‏‏Right. I went on your website. Oh my god, I love it! You have all those free quizzes, and you can go and see which Chinese year you are and all kinds of quizzes. I played around a little bit. I was born in the year of the horse. My fiance’s a dog. We are a great match.

‏‏That’s fabulous, yes! Absolutely. Tigers. There’s called a trinity of luck. The trinity of luck for zodiac signs, like your sign, a horse and – your boyfriend’s sign you said was a dog?

‏‏Yes.

‏‏I’m a tiger. We’re in that trinity. Very [00:12:26]. Yeah! How about that?

‏‏I feel so good around you. When I met you in person, you have such a great vibe. Maybe it’s our energies – they feel, they know.

‏‏Yeah, they’re very complementary. Absolutely! We’re sort of like hamburgers and french fries and a shake.

‏‏I always wanted to be a tiger, that sounds so cool.

‏‏Yeah. I think it’s pretty cool. I like being a tiger. “Oh, you’re a tiger.” Personally I think of myself as the tiger qualities are the aspects of – it’s a solitary creature. I work online, so a lot of my work is just by myself. I don’t work in an office with a bunch of people. That’s sort of my tiger quality.

‏‏Right. How can Feng Shui improve our love life? My mom told me once, “Don’t put a picture of a woman by herself above your bed. That’s not good Feng Shui.”

‏‏I love that! Your mom’s a smart lady. Maybe you should be talking to her.

‏‏No. I like talking to you. I talk to my mom all the time.

‏‏She’s absolutely right! But not just above your bedroom or your bed. It’s more important that it’s not above your bed. Obviously a bed is a symbol of a relationship, that romantic relationship, whether you’re a male and a female together, or male and male, or female and female. That’s the bed. That’s where romance is. It’s really a symbol of the relationship. She’s exactly right, especially for single women. It’s interesting how many single women have images of single women in their homes.

‏‏I noticed that actually, but I don’t wanna say anything cause I don’t wanna sound crazy.

‏‏You’re not crazy. You think about it. You need to see symbols of what – couples or groups of people or men even. A lot of single women – I’m saying, “Get a picture of a good-looking guy.” A fake statue of David, like those statues of those naked guys. Hey! Why not? If you’re looking for man energy, if you’re interested in attracting a man, you need to put that male energy in your home and symbolize it.

‏‏What will be a good Feng Shui to attract a man, and what will be a good Feng Shui for good relationships?

‏‏Good Feng Shui to attract a man and relationships. Well, actually they’re very symbiotic in both regards, but let’s talk about attracting a man. One of the things that just absolutely flabbergasts me, when I asked a room full of 150 single women. I said, “Raise your hand if you have a bed that does not have a headboard.” I am not kidding, but 75% of the hands in that room went up. I was shocked. When we look at having a partner in life, that partner in life becomes our support system. You lean on them. You’re like, “Oh, can you pick this up today? Can you help me with this?” You have somebody that you can call on. If you’re single and you’re looking to attract love, you’re looking to attract that support in your life of a relationship, it’s really important that you model that in your home, particularly in bed. The bed is so important in Feng Shui because, not only does it represent the relationship, but it’s the place where you’re the most vulnerable. One-third of everyday of your life is spent in bed. This is a point which you need to have support. Definitely, if anyone is listening and they’re single, make sure that you don’t have (I call it) “the lonely home syndrome.” It’s where they have all these things that are going on that compound loneliness. The first thing is not having a headboard on your bed. Really important. The other thing is make your bedroom look like two people live in it. If you want two people to be in that bedroom, make it look like there are two people in the bedroom. I always say, “Make it look like a hotel.” It’s not overly feminine, it has two lamps on either side of the bed usually. It’s got two nightstands. Definitely, we want to think in pairs. If you’re single, you wanna stop thinking like a single, you wanna start thinking like a paired person. Definitely make sure that the bedroom has a pair of nightstands and a pair of lamps. Yes, I like the matchy-matchy kind. The other thing is for single women, it’s really important, it kind of circles back to what we talked about earlier. Remember when we were talking about the red, wearing red. Well, red is so important because it represents fire energy. Women need that fire energy. We need that warmth. What do single women do a lot? They don’t cook. They eat salads, that’s cold. They eat yogurt. They eat cold stuff and things that they get their cuisine that they can nuke in the microwave. Make sure that you use your stove and you actually cook. Get that fire energy into your home because ain’t that interesting? This kind of goes back to your question about “what can couples do for their relationship?” This is important, too. Cooking is so important in a home because, one, it brings fire energy to the home, and it’s good for a woman in terms of having that heat and that fire energy. The other thing is the stomach is the area that is part of where we’re fed. Think about how our moms take care of us and everything. Our stomach is represented by the romance sector of the house. When you look at romance, you say, “What is the body part of romance?” It’s the stomach. If you know anything at all about men, their love organ is not below the belt. It’s above it. It’s their stomach. You make a man a good meal; he’s happy.

‏‏I know.

‏‏Yeah. Did you have a favorite meal that you like to cook for your sweetie?

‏‏Yeah, I cook all the time. My favorite food, I use a lot of spices. I eat clean foods that are organic, grass-fed protein. My honey is vegetarian. Sometimes I have to cook twice, but yeah, there’s a lot of fire in my kitchen for sure.

‏‏Good for you! It’s good for you that you cook. You know how you go to your family’s house – it’s a holiday or someone’s birthday or something going on, and where does everybody go? They go to the kitchen. Why? It represents the stomach. It represents being fed and nourished. That represents relationships and love and warm relationships. That’s what we want. We want this nice, warm, loving relationships, and a lot of it – if you can just get everybody in the kitchen, which is where everybody usually goes anyway at least in most families I know – everyone’s happier there.

‏‏Yeah. Wow. I watched one of your TV appearances. I think it was Fox 7.

‏‏Yeah.

‏‏The holidays are coming, and you were talking about the word “energy” and how when a lot of the family members are coming together, there is too much wood energy and that can create conflict. So for the holidays, you wanna decorate your table with a yellow or golden tablecloth and some red napkins.

‏‏Yeah. Have you ever been around the table, and then somebody starts arguing?

‏‏Never.

‏‏I’m sure that’s never happened. It’s never happened in my family. It’s rumored that it’s happened – some families, but not mine. When family is represented by the wood energy, and love and relationships is represented by earth, what happens is wood and earth sometimes are like at tug-o-war with each other. The way that we handle that excess wood energy – cause wood is also anger. The last thing we want is to be at the dinner table and then someone says, “Well, you got Aunt Martha’s china. She loved you more than me!” You just wanna avoid all that. So the way you handle it is by a red tablecloth. You could put red and gold on there. That’s very harmonious colors. Put some nice candles on there. That actual flame and red colors will help kinda burn through some of that negativity. If you think about restaurants like McDonald’s, what do they have a lot of in their restaurants? Red and gold. Those are actually the colors that represent relationships, food, eating, and the stomach. Those colors are very harmonious. Avoid the greens and browns in the family, or you’ll have everybody arguing around the table.

‏‏Yeah, I love it. I wanna go back to the bedroom, cause we didn’t finish that. I’m all over the place because I wanna ask you so many questions.

‏‏Go right ahead.

‏‏I just got a really nice, white bed and some nice, white furnitures. Is this a good color for a bedroom? What is the ideal color for a bedroom?

‏‏I think it really kind of comes down to what makes you feel comfortable. With that exception, there’s a couple of things that you really should avoid. I’ll give you a few tips about that. One is I think the white is fine. It’s a very yang and energetic color. If you find that you have problems falling asleep because it’s energetic, then I would just put some blue sheets on. The blue will help soften it a little bit, but what we do want to avoid are things like metal headboards, particularly like a brass bed. You know how everybody says brass beds are romantic? Well, actually those rails, because it’s not solid and because it’s these round rails, almost like a prison, it can be problematic for some people. They can have headaches, like migraines.

‏‏I was never attracted to those.

‏‏Me neither. Cause for me, I feel like a lot of enjoyment of my bed is not just sleeping. I love to sit up against the headboard with my husband and watch a movie or something like that. Now a lot of people say that TVs are an absolute no-no in Feng Shui. When this came out originally and really became popular, we had those old-style TVs with the glass tubes so they were very reflective. I would just say to everybody, “If the TV becomes the problem, it doesn’t matter what you have in your bedroom. If anything becomes a problem, then obviously don’t use it.” But today’s flat screen TVs are not as reflective. They’re not glass. They’re not that convex-type shape that pushes out. I think your standard flat, black, matte-type screens are gonna be just fine today. I wouldn’t worry about it. But let’s talk about some other things real quickly that are really are problematic, to me anyway. That is floral bedrooms. We think of flowers being romantic. We think of the madisons, a dozen roses, or something like that, and they are. But plants in your bedroom are actually negative when you’re sleeping, because when plants are in the dark, they actually give up – this was scientifically proven just recently – they give off carbon dioxide. But even symbolically, having plants in the room like on your comforter or your bedding sets or your curtains, that kind of thing. A flower is a yang expression of a plant. It’s like the male, so men many times don’t like flowers. The reason why they don’t is they also don’t like to compete. When you have flowers all around the room, that’s actually excessive male energy. Most men don’t like competition, so they’ll say, “I don’t like this floral bedroom.” If you are having problems with a relationship or a love life that’s stalled, look for those flowers. If you have dried flowers, if you have lots of images of flowers, like pictures or something or sheets or bedding or curtains with flowers – I would just remove those and put in something really nice and neutral. That will help perk up your love life and your relationship, and you might even sleep better because of it.

Plants in your bedroom are actually negative when you’re sleeping, because when plants are in the dark, they actually give up – this was scientifically proven just recently – they give off carbon dioxide. Share on X

‏‏Wow.

‏‏Kinda neat.

‏‏I have a couple of flowers in my bedroom, and they’re gonna go out the window or into the drawer.

‏‏Good for you.

‏‏Wow, that’s amazing. Any specific color for the walls in the bedroom to improve passion and connection?

‏‏Definitely, you do wanna kinda stay away from the red color. The reason why is you don’t wanna be overly energized when you get into bed. You wanna be relaxed, and that’s the one room in the house where you want it to be a little bit lower energy so that you can relax, be comfortable, fall asleep, and sleep well because we’re trying to rest and re-energize. But for relationships and for romance, definitely any of the skin colors, any of the natural human skin colors are excellent to put in your bedroom for a color scheme. That can run from yellow all the way through beige to cream and pinkish tones. You’ve got a whole array, but in that array of natural skin tones – and that can be like beiges or dark beige or even some of the brown colors – that’s all very skin tone and very friendly for romance, and it’s restful.

‏‏Wow. This is very, very interesting. I’m so happy that you’re my friend.

‏‏That makes two of us, Orion. Thank you.

‏‏Awesome, this is just lovely. You actually studied that in Hong Kong, didn’t you?

‏‏In Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur. Yeah, with Lillian Too. Yeah, 16 years ago. I can’t believe it. Time flies.

‏‏You actually traveled far, far away to study the right Feng Shui. That’s really amazing.

‏‏I did. I did. You know, to me, it was something that I had benefited for so long and in such a major way in my life. It just completely changed my life that I really wanted to go and just get it right and really do Feng Shui justice, if I was gonna be working as a consultant and advising other people in line that really wanted to have it exactly right. So I went all the way to Asia to learn Asian-style Feng Shui. It’s been a worthwhile investment to be sure.

‏‏I love it. I actually lived in Asia. I lived in Japan, and I traveled Thailand. I spent some time in Hong Kong.

‏‏That’s a great city.

‏‏Yeah. What’s the best tips and tools that you can share for creating abundance through Feng Shui?

‏‏First, everything starts at the front door – absolutely everything. You really want to be able to arrive at your home or receive visitors to your front door, even if it’s just the FedEx guy – you want your home to have curb appeal because the type of energy that you have at your front door is directly related to the type of energy you have in your home and in your life. If you have attractive, auspicious, beautiful chi and energy at your front door, that when you arrive home and you walk through the front door, you go, “Oh! I just feel so comfortable. My home is attractive to me.” Then that brings wonderful energy to you and wonderful energy to your home and your life consequently. I think the front door is so important. In fact, whenever I do Feng Shui consultations, 25% of the time I spend on that area, right there at the front door, because it’s so important that you get it right and that it’s very attractive and that it’s enhanced as much as you can make it.

‏‏I attended Louise Hay’s tribute – her 90th birthday.

‏‏Oh my gosh!

‏‏Yeah, a couple of weeks ago. They described her house, and they say that she plays music on her porch – lovely meditation music on her porch just for people to hear from the outside, as soon as they come into her house.

‏‏Oh my gosh! That’s so amazing!

‏‏As you enter, she’s got those gifts that are wrapped. Those are her calendars, so everybody that enters her house can get a gift, a present, which is her calendar.

‏‏I love it.

‏‏I know. Isn’t it amazing? That brings me to think about my front door, which is really ugly.

‏‏Oh, dear.

‏‏Oh my god! What should I put there? There’s like nothing. It’s nothing. It’s not interesting. It’s kinda boring. I really wanna change it. What should I do?

‏‏Well, definitely, repaint it. Give it a nice fresh coat of paint. That’s a terrific way to get started there. Plants are fabulous Feng Shui, and especially the front door. Blooming flowers – or you could put something pretty and blooming at the front door. That would be wonderful. Obviously right now, it’s the fall season, at least here in the Northern hemisphere – do an arrangement of pumpkins and autumn, and that abundant harvest theme is beautiful. Put in a new rug or a new carpet. You could also put a new doormat at the front door. That’s also very auspicious, especially like a black doormat, if you wanna bring more money to your house. A black doormat is a great way to do that. Put up a pretty light fixture or just really kind of dress it up a little bit, and don’t just stop at the door. Come inside and do the foyer, and put down a pretty carpet or a rug and maybe a chair and a bowl for your keys, maybe some pretty flowers. Keep it well-lit. Having that lighting in there really goes a long way toward energizing your whole home.

‏‏Right.

‏‏What color’s your door?

‏‏White.

‏‏It’s white. Okay, can you change it or can you paint it?

‏‏I don’t think so. I don’t think I can change it, but what would be an ideal color? Cause I might be moving, so…

‏‏It just depends on the direction that your door faces. If it were facing south, then I would say red, but if it were facing east or north, then I would say black. But here’s a tip for everybody. This is the color – I call it the Feng Shui beige. You even have it on your website where you have your “About Orion” section on your website. That is the color purple. Purple goes in any sector and any direction. It’s always an auspicious color because it contains both the colors of fire and water.

‏‏Wow. Glad you spent some time on my website, too.

‏‏Yeah. Well, you’re a pretty groovy chick. I must tell you. Meditating in front of a private plane – that’s pretty cool.

‏‏Yeah. It’s all for show, you know.

‏‏I’m sure that you do some awesome stuff. Look at you – wellness coaching and breakthrough coaching. You’re just a one woman go-getter.

‏‏Thank you, from one go-getter to another. Another tip that I heard you were talking about is adding oranges on the table because oranges are like gold. It’s a symbol of money, right?

‏‏Yeah. Oranges are…

‏‏They’re tasty too.

‏‏It’s my favorite fruit. It’s my absolute favorite fruit. I love an orange more than anything else. I love to eat them after a meal. I just love that citrusy, clean. I love the smell of it. When I buy housecleaning things like Pledge, it’s always orange Pledge – that kind of thing. Oranges are fantastic Feng Shui, and they’re considered to be very auspicious gifts to give especially if you have Asian clients or Asian friends at the beginning of the Chinese New Year because they’re representative of gold, and their name is a homophone for gold. One of the fun things that you do especially with kids – and I love this. When you celebrate the New Year, take a bag of oranges and just roll all the oranges into your front door. Let them roll through the house. It symbolizes the rolling in of money and gold into your life and into your home. It’s a lot of fun, and kids have the best time. It’s a great thing to do at New Year’s Eve parties and give everybody a little bag of oranges to take with them. Yeah, oranges are just fabulous Feng Shui – great gifts. A really wonderful gift, I often give clients a big box of oranges at the New Year to say thanks for their business. They’re tasty, too.

‏‏I didn’t think about asking this question up until now, but why not? I’m getting married in Costa Rica.

‏‏Congratulations!

‏‏Thank you. Is there any Feng Shui that is specific to a wedding ceremony or the wedding dinner?

‏‏Yes, absolutely. I love that you’re asking this. Yes, certainly, red and gold are very fortunate. White and gold are also very fortunate. If you just think about the classic colors of the bride and groom, the white dress and the black tux kind of colors. The yang man wears the yin black tux. The yin woman wears the yang white dress. Those are very harmonized. If you wanted to put in blue colors or gold colors, that’s also excellent Feng Shui. Have you thought of any colors? Are there any color combinations?

‏‏Yes, I already have it down. My man is actually gonna wear grey because we are – it’s 80-degree weather, and he’s gonna wear something that is lighter: a white shirt, grey vest, and grey pants. Then the table cloth’s gonna be teal. Then the flowers are gonna be roses in the colors of orange and red – teal, orange, red, gold. Basically that’s the colors that I’m playing with. My bridesmaids are wearing either turquoise or teal.

‏‏Okay, alright. Grey is a metal color, and teal would be considered like a water-type color. Metal makes water, so I think the idea of the teal color and the grey color are very harmonious with one another. White roses I think would stay in that family better. Here’s one of the questions that I get a lot, and that is, “What’s the best color in Feng Shui?” My answer is always, “All of them.” One of the best descriptions I have of that – I have a couple of them. One is like a jar of jelly beans. Who can look at a jar of jelly beans and not be happy, or a crayon box? You see all those beautiful colors, those beautiful array of shades and hues. Another good example of it is the lobby at the Bellagio Hotel. It has that beautiful Chihuly glass in all rainbow colors, and every time you go to the Bellagio, you can barely get through the doors. It’s always so crowded and so popular, and they have the absolute best Feng Shui. I think as far as your color scheme goes, the more color, the better. Throw it all in.

‏‏I love that, thank you so much.

‏‏It’s your wedding!

‏‏December 8th.

‏‏It’s coming up! Oh my gosh! So exciting.

‏‏I know. I’m so excited and nervous and excited and nervous. Cool. How does Feng Shui affect our productivity?

‏‏Oh gosh, what a good question. I love that question, Orion. Okay. I’m sure lots of your listeners can relate to this. If you’ve ever gone to somebody’s home office and it’s a rickety card table or they’re stuck in the corner somewhere or they have their desk pushed up against a wall. They’re facing a wall all day long, which is symbolic of an obstacle, something that they’ve gotta get over or get past. You know what it’s like when – everybody I think can relate to this, especially women – when you walk into your house and it’s just been cleaned and everything’s put away. The laundry’s done. What do you do? You go, “Ahh.”

‏‏Exactly, that’s exactly what I do. I absolutely sigh.

‏‏Yeah, and you’re relaxed. Suddenly the day and everything is full of possibility, but when you come in and you see disaster, the paper bomb that’s gone off.

‏‏So much to do!

‏‏Yes! You see all the wires and everything around your desk, and all the mess and piles – that kind of thing. It brings your energy down. Especially you and I, as entrepreneurs and we work out of our house, we need to have spaces that are supportive. I always say that you can’t be successful in an unsuccessful environment. In order to be successful, your environment has to model success. That means pulling your desk out from the wall and putting it in the middle of the room, like an executive would, like you would see if you walked into a beautiful office of an executive, the CEO of a company. He wouldn’t have his desk shoved up against the wall. He’d have this big walnut thing, just out in the middle of the room with a beautiful view and maybe a sofa and artwork. We should create those same kinds of environments for ourself, in our own offices, as much as we can. Of course, if you got a cubicle, you may not be – you gotta work with what you got. But when you have an office that’s organized, it’s attractive. You can feel that energy. It shifts. It changes. You know what it’s like when you clean the top of your desk off, and it’s like suddenly – it’s like there’s all these possibilities and you can think.

‏‏Right.

‏‏But if you’re having to search through piles to find something and that kind of thing, then you’re just not gonna be as productive, without question. I think beauty is a productivity secret. Just having an office or a home that you find attractive and that you enjoy being in and that people say, “Oh Orion, I love your living room. It’s so pretty! This is a beautiful sofa.” When you feel like your home is attractive and you have it set up and arranged and organized and beautified, you feel more organized and more attractive and more beautified. That just spills out in your life.

When you feel like your home is attractive and you have it set up and arranged and organized and beautified, you feel more organized and more attractive and more beautified. That just spills out in your life. Share on X

‏‏I have a challenge here, because I have two amazing quotes from you. One is, “You cannot be successful in an unsuccessful environment,” and the other one is, “Beauty is a productivity secret.” I’m like wow! This is so powerful. Both of those quotes. I don’t know which one to put on your cover art.

‏‏I don’t know. People might be wondering about the productivity secret, but it really is. We go back to that example of when the house is clean and the sheets are changed and the laundry’s been done and all put away, and you look around. You go, “Everything looks so nice.” You feel good.

‏‏Right.

‏‏You feel your home. You feel your space. You feel it, and that changes you.

‏‏Feng Shui is – how many? – like 5000 years old?

‏‏Something like that, yeah.

‏‏Something like that. Maybe 5001.

‏‏Could be. It might be 5002.

‏‏How is that applicable to our websites and our brands?

‏‏You know, I think that it’s really important that you find a color that sort of resonates with who you are and the type of product that you offer. For instance, if I were a jeweler, I would be looking for colors that are productive colors and enhancing for jewelry. For instance, anything in the yellow tones versus red. You don’t often go into a jewelry store and you see a lot of red. That’s fire. Fire destroys that metal. I would try to use colors that are very symbiotic and harmonized with the type of work that you do. Let’s say I was a massage therapist, then I would want to use colors associated with health and wellbeing. There’s gonna be colors that you find in nature or the greens and the blue of water and the green of trees. I would look for those types of colors. Your brand – you want to have a color that sort of speaks to those elements that are associated with the type of work that you do. For me, I mentioned earlier, going back to your airplane meditation on your website, I have sort of an orchid color because it’s more on that purple sort of spectrum because I like the Feng Shui beige idea. The other thing that you can do for your brand, too, is find one of the colors that fit you personally. For instance, you had mentioned on my website, I have some calculators. There’s paint calculators. If you don’t know what color to paint to bedroom or your bathroom or your kitchen, you can go on there and find what color would be best for it. You can also find out what your (it’s called a) kua number. You can go, and you can get your kua number and find out what directions are best for you. Then it will also tell you, “These colors are more enhancing for you personally.” You can go by the type of business that you’re in for your brand, or you can go by your own personal colors and directions.

‏‏I’m actually on your website, and I’m looking at the kua calculator. How can I figure out what side is my bedroom, what side is my kitchen?

‏‏You’re gonna use a bagua. Basically what that is is that it’s a Feng Shui map. You would align this – it’s like an octagon. It’s like a stop sign. You align it according to the facing direction of your home, which is usually your front door. The front door usually looks out to the street, and if your home is east, then that means – let’s say the front door is east, well then it means obviously the back of the house is west. You would want to use a compass and try to figure out the corners – what directions are the corners. There is a type of Feng Shui that’s very popular here in America, but they don’t even know what it is in Asia. They’re like, “What?” That is there’s a type of Feng Shui that the door to any room or your home is always north. That means that the back left corner is your wealth direction, and the back right corner is the southwest, which is your love direction. I don’t prescribe to that type of Feng Shui because it’s not – it goes against a lot of traditional Chinese Feng Shui, which uses actual directions. You wanna use actual directions. You wanna know that your east corner is actually the east, where the sun rises, or the west corner, where the sun sets. Have a floor plan. It’s the best way to determine what your directions are. Then use a simple compass and assign the directions using the compass.

‏‏Amazing. Wow. I can speak with you for hours and hours, and unfortunately, we don’t have many hours right now.

‏‏I know.

‏‏I really loved everything that we talked about, and I know that we were just touching the tip of the iceberg because Feng Shui is such a complex method. I’m sure you studied for years and years to know what you know, and there are so many questions and so many different tools and ideas around Feng Shui that we didn’t get to talk about. But before we finish here, I know that you’re writing some kind of a predicament for 2017, right?

‏‏Yes, I have a forecast that I do every year. It’s probably not gonna be ready for another couple of weeks. If there’s anybody listening that is interested in finding out what the Year of the Rooster is gonna bring to them and their homes, just stay tuned.

‏‏Right. Can you give us a little preview? Three tips for 2017?

‏‏Sure. Number one is there’s a really beautiful energy that’s coming to the middle sector, the energy is shifting. We’ve had this energy this year of – I’ll call it this. It’s called the “nagging star.” It’s not like these things are really horrible, but it’s also not really great. It’s just nagging things that will annoy you – things like a sinus infection or I had an ear infection literally for five months, stuff like that. Next year, women really should wear more blue colors because there’s a potential that you could be injured in a car accident or need to be careful about frauds. Blue colors are really helpful for women next year. We also have, in terms of the career energy, next year has got some really terrific career energy. You can make good connections through men in particular next year – and men at a distance. If you haven’t done any type of international work or working with people overseas or expanding your contacts, next year, you’re really gonna wanna do that. There’s gonna be a lot of great opportunity coming next year, particularly if you look anywhere a thousand miles or more away from you. In fact, I was talking with a friend of mine. She said, “You know, Katie, I should talk with somebody, a promoter, about having you come and do classes in Australia.” I said, “That’s perfect!” That’s a perfect way to work with the energy next year. We also have a beautiful energy coming to the education sector. This energy is related to taking classes. For anyone who is interested in furthering yourself, this is the year to take a class. Sign up for a workshop. Sign up for a class. It’s going to help you from here on out, here going forward, with making good decisions for yourself because not only is this energy excellent in the education sector, it also helps us with our decision making. When you have opportunities to take a class, a workshop, enroll in some kind of a seminar, take it. Do it. It’s going to enhance you, and it’s gonna help you think more clearly from here forward.

‏‏I was just invited today to a seminar in London, and I was thinking to myself, “Should I or should I not go?”

‏‏Well, then.

‏‏Well then! Well, yes. I am going to London.

‏‏That’s fantastic. Not only that, but I bet you’ll make some connections for work. How about that?

‏‏Yeah.

‏‏Yeah. I love it! That’s fantastic.

‏‏Katie, you’re amazing! I appreciate you. I think that you are just a wonderful, lightworker, and great human being, and so knowledgeable and so kind. Thank you for sharing all this amazing knowledge with us, and thank you for taking the time to give us so much advice. I know that people would love to know more about you, get your books, go on your website, maybe study how to be a successful Feng Shui practitioner through you – where should they go to find you?

‏‏Yeah. First of all, thank you so much for those kind words and just the chance to have a nice conversation with you. You had such great questions! There were such a wide variety of them. It really was challenging. Sometimes I get into these conversations, and they’re really kind of simple questions. They don’t jump around. It was just like a smorgasbord, like a buffet of questions and talk. It was just a lot of fun! Thank you. Well, yeah. If anybody wants to learn a little bit more about Feng Shui, they can find it from my ezine. They go to my website. It’s called redlotusletter.com. If they want to sign up, I’ve got a free 28-day e-course on how to bring more prosperity to your life. I will be in their email inbox every Wednesday rain or shine. Love to welcome you to our Red Lotus family.

‏‏Wow, thank you Katie.

‏‏Thank you so much, Orion. It was an absolute pleasure and delight talking with you.

‏‏Mine too. Thank you so much, listeners. Remember, you cannot be successful in an unsuccessful environment, so surround yourself with beauty and live a stellar life. Until next time. This is Orion. Bye bye.

Your Checklist Actions to Take

✓ What color resonates most deeply with you? Sit down with a piece of paper and jot down notes about what this color evokes or represents to better understand how it suits you.

✓ Take the calculator quizzes on Kathryn’s website to gain more insight into how best to incorporate feng shui techniques into your life and home.

✓ Determine your Chinese zodiac sign and examine how it fits you. You might learn something new and gain insight into yourself.

✓ Are you a single woman? If so, and you want to use feng shui to help change that situation, add pictures or statues of men to your home to invite masculine energy.

✓ This holiday season, feng shui your dining table. Incorporate flames and the colors red and gold with the tablecloth, candles, napkins, and decorations.

✓ Kathryn explains that flowers in the bedroom are actually competition for men. Get rid of them to create a more inviting room for men. 

✓ Everything starts at your front door. Rearrange and redecorate your front door area (inside and out) with fresh paint, decorations, plants, and so on until it’s beautiful and welcoming.

✓ Feng shui your workspace as much as you can given your circumstances. Organize your office, make it attractive, and pull your desk away from the wall and into the center of the room.

✓ In 2017, jump at opportunities to do two things: pursue career opportunities in other countries or at least a thousand miles away, and take classes.

✓ Sign up for Kathryn’s free 28-day e-course about how to bring more prosperity to your life. You’ll learn even more of the incredible information you’ve heard in this conversation.

Links and Resources:

• Red Lotus Letter 
• Twitter – Kathryn Weber
• Twitter – Red Lotus Letter
• Instagram – Kathryn Weber
• Feng shui
• Bagua
• Louise Hay

About Kathryn Weber

Kathryn Weber has over 20+ years of feng shui study, practice and professional consultation. Her witty, no-nonsense style appeals to audiences, making her a popular speaker and radio show guest. She is often called on by media to explain feng shui in down-to-earth terms, and has been featured in Seventeen, First for Women, Faces, Conceive, Realtor.com, and Natural Health magazines, and on websites around the world.