Margaret M. Donahue - Dorm Room Feng Shui: Find Your Gua > Free Your Chi ;-)

FIND YOUR GUA > FREE YOUR CHI ;-)

Katherine Olaksen
Elizabeth MacCrellish
Margaret M. Donahue

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Deb Burns, Siobhan Dunn and Sarah Guare

Cover design by Kent Lew

Text design by Wendy Palitz

Cover illustration by Kent Lew

Text production by Jennifer Jepson Smith

Indexed by Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications

2005 by Katherine Olaksen, Elizabeth MacCrellish, Margaret Donahue

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the authors or Storey Publishing. The authors and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional information, please contact Storey Publishing, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247.

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Printed in the United States by Versa Press

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Olaksen, Katherine.

Dorm room feng shui : find your gua * free your chi / by Katherine Olaksen,

Elizabeth MacCrellish & Margaret Donahue.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-58017-592-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Feng shui. 2. DormitoriesMiscellanea. I. MacCrellish, Elizabeth. II. Donahue,

Margaret. III. Title.

BF1779.F4O43 2005

133.3337dc22

2005007469

This book is the result of a true collaboration. Elizabeth contributed her writing skills, Margaret contributed her in-depth knowledge of feng shui principles, and Katherine ensured that the focus of the book addressed the needs of college students everywhere.

As Katherine discovered when she sought to improve her dorm room using feng shui, it is difficult to find a helpful guide that provides solutions to the specific challenges facing people who live in small, shared spaces. Most books on the subject reference the living rooms, dining rooms, hallways, and other standard parts of houses and apartments. While this book is focused on the college dorm, much, if not all, of the advice given can be equally well applied to anyone living in cramped quarters, whether it be a studio apartment, boarding school dormitory, sailboat you name it.

Bringing Dorm Room Feng Shui into being has been both challenging and fun for us. Our hope is that this book will help you to balance your chi, as well as help you to attract the people, energies, and events you most desire in your life. And, finally, we hope that the environment you create around you supports and clarifies your lifes purpose.

Live your dreams!

Oh no! Someone wants you to read another book? Excuse me, like you dont already have a stack of textbooks on your desk? (Okay, you sold them to throw a party for 300 of your closest friends, but same difference, right?)

Deep breath. Count to 10. Go to your happy place. There is no need to stress. This book is:

a. easier to read than Cliff Notes

b. going to make your life all dreamy like a Sunday morning eating Krispy Kreme donuts in bed while getting a foot massage (well, maybe not that exactly, but if you check out some of the suggestions in here, things are definitely going to improve for sure).

However, let me be clear about one thing: Feng shui is as layered and complex as Egyptian hieroglyphics, and there are people who take feng shui very, very seriously. And Im not trying to dis that, but what you need to understand is that this little book is not that. Im all about taking it lightly. Which is not to say that we dont have a major problem to focus on here Hello, have you seen the place where youre going to be spending many, many months of your life? Honestly, how does anyone expect to fit a computer, a printer, a refrigerator, a microwave, a stereo, a flatscreen TV, a desk, a bed, and a roommate, and all her stuff, into one small space? (Ha just kidding about the flatscreen, of course.)

Well, outside of a sledgehammer and a couple of sticks of dynamite, theres not a whole heckuva lot you can do to change the size of your room. But what you can do is maximize the good energy and minimize the negative. How? Keep reading.

Whether youre headed to school for the first time or returning for another year of shared, cramped quarters, you know several things. You want to be comfortable. You want to have some of your favorite things around. And, of course, you want your space to be fabulous.

What are you going to bring? Too much stuff, probably.

Decide carefully what to take to school, be selective, and choose deliberately. Keep in mind that everything is made up of vibrations and everything holds energy. All of your possessions contain energetic imprints of what was going on in your life when you acquired them and patterns of what has happened since then, so think carefully about what each one means.

Start out with as little as possible, along the way adding only things that you really love or that you really need. The nine oversized stuffed animals your boyfriend won for you at the fair might not really be a necessity.

Although it flies in the face of our consumer society, whose motto is Buy, Buy, Buy, the truth is that less is more. Nowhere is this truer than in a very small space. So when it comes to your room, step one is to focus on the clutter and clear it out not like sending it on vacation, but for good. And in case you are wondering, clutter is anything that you dont use or anything that you dont love. Period. No exceptions. (Reread this paragraph until the concept sticks.)

The reason you want to ditch the clutter is that it holds you in place. Clutter prevents you from moving forward. If you feel you really cant let go of stuff, get a friend (or a condescending acquaintance) to help. The rule is love it, use it, or lose it.

Once youve hauled off those boxes and bags of clutter to a secondhand shop or the dump (and stopped at your favorite coffee shop for a double latte on the way back to celebrate your good work), youll find a room with new space.

Dont rush to fill it back up. If you want new experiences to come into your life, you have to create the space for them. Also, do try to keep the area under your bed free and clear it will help you get a good nights sleep.