women's self-help book reviews

The past couple of weeks I’ve been co-teaching a course with a friend of mine. The course is called, “Ready, Set, Go: Tools for Positive Life Change,” and one of her contributions to the “Ready” part was teaching about feng shui, with the idea that clearing the crap out of our space gives us room to make positive change in our lives. Perfect. Two areas of my bedroom have really been bugging me in their stubborn tendency to accumulate, er, stuff. And now that I’m un(der)employed and have both the time to tackle it as well as the slight desperation of wanting to get things going in the prosperity and career departments, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Even better that she lent me the book, “Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life: How to Use Feng Shui to Get Love, Money, Respect and Happiness” by Karen Rauch Carter.

What a fun book. I was hooked right away. Even though last week I was waking up in the middle of the night with PMS insomnia (been slacking on my acupressure – see Woman Heal Thyself) I hardly cared because there was nothing more enjoyable for me to do than read about the nine areas of your living space/life and how to activate them. And so it happened that in the middle of the night, I’d be compelled to rise out of my bed to do some seemingly trivial act like grabbing my plum colored journal from across the room and bringing it to my nightstand, all because I needed some purple in my prosperity corner. I diligently took notes in my little “goals” book, creating effectively nine “to-do” lists.

As I make changes prescribed in my “to-do” lists, I write the date beside the item, so I can “scientifically” keep records and be able to notice a) when my life changes and b) what changes in my environment may be responsible. It is not exactly a controlled experiment as I am really changing many things at once, so all my scientific note-taking may well be in vain! Just now while writing this review, I took a five-minute break to tie red ribbon around the apartment’s outgoing drainpipes so as to prevent chi from leaking out.

As your space (and your life) is divided into nine areas, so is the book divided, and this makes it easy, after you read the introductory chapter, to hone in on the areas you are giving top priority. I didn’t do it this way; because I so enjoyed the book I just read it cover to cover. I made some improvements in almost every area, every area if you include the deep cleaning, with the vacuum cleaner edging attachment and everything (oh yeah!). I have to say the chi is flowing a lot better now. I’m really enjoying my bedroom, and every time I step in there I marvel at how nice and neat everything looks. And I love my “love and relationships” corner, all nicely pinked out (see pic).

Love and relationship corner, nicely pinked, paired, and hearted up.

In each of the nine sections Rauch provides a list of “power tools” and “hazardous materials”, the sort of “do’s” and “don’ts” of stuff to have and not have in that area of your space, and each section ends with a short list of “immediate action items” for that area. These make the book very easy to read and to use to make changes. I also really enjoyed the stories of clients’ issues, how they were caused by the space, and how their lives changed, sometimes dramatically, when Rauch helped them make changes. Hey, this would make a great reality TV show! (Perhaps it already is one?)

Humor, as well as helpfulness, makes a great self-help book in my opinion, and that is one of this book’s strengths. She pops in the funny when you’re least expecting it, which makes it all the funnier. In the section for Creativity and Children, when discussing that fire is a hazardous material, and triangular objects because they resemble fire, she says, “Eat your bowl of Doritos somewhere else.” In the section on things that can impact your sleep, the last paragraph says only, “If you have mirrors on the ceiling, get out of the seventies.”

Feng shui does all seem a bit like magic, I have to admit. But I can understand the power of intention and putting positive focus on something you want to improve in your life. Also I can understand the utility of changing something physically to anchor that intention, to bring it into physical reality. Further, it is fun moving your stuff, and I know from my background in educational kinesiology that playful positive emotions helps focus our attention in a positive way.

So I haven’t seen definitive results yet, although perhaps a little patience would be appropriate – I made most changes in the past last week and a half. I have gotten a few promising work calls, and one new steady client. The scientist in me knows that it’s very possible this would have happened anyway, and that it’s impossible to determine if the feng shui helped. But I have some belief that it’s working, and anyway it was a fun process and motivated me to deep clean (just before Chinese New Year too, which my Chinese friend informs me is very good).

Over the years I’ve read a few other feng shui books; this one is by far the most fun to read, the least overwhelming, and the easiest to use to make practical changes.