It's All About Chi

By Kim Kuhteubl

For most people, buying a home involves a gut feeling. It's the feeling you get when you step over the threshold and you know that this house is the one. But what if you're buying from a blueprint? How do you predict the way you'll feel once your home is built and you step inside? Komal Gaitonde consulted feng shui practitioner Helen Williams of Place Right before she and her husband purchased their semi-detached two-storey in North York to help them guarantee they'd have that feeling.

"This is my first house. I wanted to have the energy flow accordingly," says Gaitonde, a call centre employee at CIBC. "One thing I was very particular about [was that] I didn't want the stairways there the moment you open the door. We went through all the layouts. We did a survey of the barren land and she [Helen] also came with me to the sales office. I said I need modifications with the floor plan. The full second floor was revamped."

Feng shui (pronounced "foong shway" or "fung shway") is the ancient Chinese art of placement. Literally meaning "wind water," the goal of feng shui is to achieve harmony, comfort, and balance not only in one's environment, but also in life. After a consultation, Williams may advise a homeowner to put a picture in a different place, paint a room another colour, or angle the driveway in a certain direction to enhance wealth, relationships, or serenity. Proper placement of buildings and the objects in them encourages the flow of chi, the refined or good energy.

"The whole point is to create a place where people feel better in their homes," says Williams, a feng shui practitioner for 12 years and a featured speaker at the recent Real Estate Wealth Day hosted by the Learning Annex. "I was with a lady the other day and I said, 'what do you feel when you stand on this spot? Do you breathe easily? Do you get a tightness in any part of your body? Do you feel relaxed and at ease in the space?'"

Using the birth dates of Gaitonde and her husband, Williams determined that the couple's best purchase would be a north- or west-facing house. In feng shui, the energy of the earth is extremely important, and although new subdivisions impose limits on location, Williams offered Gaitonde these tips: choose a home in the middle of a row instead of on a corner since the homes on the sides offer protection. Do not choose a home that sits on the end of a t-junction with a road pointed at it or one that is adjacent to highway baffling because of the negative energy of rushing traffic.

Many new subdivisions are adjacent to hydro fields, which is the main concern that prompted Gaitonde to seek the advice of Williams in the first place. If electricity runs through the wires, Williams recommends living at least a couple of blocks away. For some, the excess magnetic energy may cause confusion, fatigue, cravings, or depression. In the Gaitondes' case, the hydro lines were a half a mile apart, and since Williams still felt the chi of the land, she told Gaitonde the choice was hers. Once the home was built, Williams cleared out the energy of the building process and evoked the chi of the new home, encouraging it to come alive.

"Feng shui is just one part of life. You can't have everything according to it," says Gaitonde with a wry laugh. "But I've tried to create an energy flow. In fact, you wouldn't believe it. After moving into this place, my relationship with my husband has improved."