Where Do We Start?

Don't you know yet? It's your light that lights the worlds.

— Rumi

An undisturbed natural habitat is in harmony. It has great luminosity. The trees in such a place have created a strong web of connection among their own as well as the other trees in the land. They communicate and have a complicated system of teamwork that we are only starting to understand.

The wildlife is in harmony with the land and each other. The land provides just enough food to support the wildlife and the food chain that has developed over millennia. The ecosystem constantly strives for this balance, course-correcting itself as needed.

When humans entered this habitat millions of years ago, we were part of this balance and part of the ecosystem's ability to course-correct. But as we developed agricultural practices, we outgrew our dependence on the habitat for survival. We were, for the first time, making significant impacts on the land, which allowed us to increase our population. We inevitably upset the inherent balance. Our activities to develop our infrastructure and protect our "ownership" have disturbed the ecosystem and have led to fragmentation and lowered the natural energy of the land.

Although some indigenous tribes and cultures still use ancient ways to determine best placement of structures and ritual and ceremony to honor and respect the land, the only care in modern building practice is toward efficiency and profit. The majority of our homes were built post-WWII, long after industrialization and the development of artificial building materials. These materials have increased efficiency, convenience, and lowered cost, but they do little to enhance the luminosity of our homes.

Many of the conditions of our homes are set: Our homes are on the land it is on — whether it was honored or not. The design and materials it was built with — whether beautiful or used for efficiency's sake, whether handcrafted or machine made — may not be things we can change. So what can we do to make our home a more luminous space?

There are two significant aspects completely within our control:

1. What we put inside our homes physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

2. What we hold inside of us.

OUR HOMES HAVE A POWERFUL IMPACT ON OUR LIVES

Research proves that we are connected to our built environment in unseen ways. Environmental psychology, a branch of psychology established in the mid-twentieth century, studies this connection and the impact of our environments on our cognitive functioning, behavior, and physiology.

Color has a dramatic impact on our emotions and behavior. The color red energizes and even sometimes increases aggression, whereas the color green is calming to most. Blue flooring can sometimes disorient people on a subconscious level as unstable because of its association to water. And dark ceilings make the room feel more closed in, like a cave. Lighting, decor, and many other interior design details can have a huge effect on how we feel in those spaces. Not only do they influence how we feel, act, and behave in the moment, but when we spend time in them longer term, they will have a great impact on our lives.

The fact that we are so intimately engaged with the spaces in our homes makes the psychology of home even more profound.

THE IMPORTANCE OF NATURE

Since natural environments emit the highest quality of light, incorporating nature into our spaces will increase their luminosity. That is, we should actually bring the outdoors in.

In the 1970s, the psychologist Erich Fromm coined the term "biophilia" to describe humanity's inherent need to connect with all things living. E. O. Wilson, biologist, and Stephen Kellert, professor emeritus at Yale University, coauthored several books on biophilia more recently that have brought this subject to prominence among environmentalists, educators, the health care sector, and even the architectural design industry. The design movement that emerged from this research, biophilic design, is in many ways akin to feng shui. The goal of each discipline is to create a space that will enhance well-being for its inhabitants through a greater connection to nature.

However, how each discipline approaches the end goal couldn't be more different. Biophilic design incorporates a series of well-documented and research-based guidelines for architects and designers. Feng shui provides a philosophy of life that was created from observing the natural world thousands of years ago. One is tangible and finite, and the other is often intangible and intuitive. I like to say biophilic design is the yang, and feng shui is the yin.

For instance, with biophilic design we would use natural materials like wood and brick, the colors of nature, and aspects of nature such as natural light and fresh air. But feng shui speaks to a deeper layer of nature that is communicated through an esoteric language of yin and yang and the five transformations of energy, also known as the Five Elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

Feng shui is rooted in Taoist principles, the ideology that gave rise to the religion of Taoism, and was developed perhaps three to four thousand years ago. One of the two main religions of China, Taoism embodies the belief in the wisdom of nature and its cyclic influences on human affairs. The natural powers of the Cosmic Trinity — the realms of Heaven, Humanity, and Earth — have a corresponding influence on our reality. Their forces interconnect and influence each other and are essential to understanding the movement of energy and patterns of the universe. The fundamental forces of nature include the flow of chi, the theory of yin and yang, and the five natural elements.

In our explorations together, I will incorporate aspects of both feng shui and biophilic design and actually present a merged, synergistic view: Since yin is nothing without its counterpart yang, the two together — the ancient and the modern, the feminine and the masculine — have an important role in creating more beauty, harmony, and balance in our daily lives.

WHAT ARE ENERGY AND CONSCIOUSNESS?

The term energy can mean many things. I am referring to it as chi or life force energy in Eastern cultures. Energy is invisible, yet can be more powerful than physical matter. Energy encompasses all matter and what we call empty space.

The term consciousness is just as broad and vague. It relates to being awake and aware of our surroundings....