This column comes with an advance warning: You may not believe it, but I swear to you, it’s true. It involves a feng shui seminar The Home Guru Team sponsored last week for my fellow associates at William Raveis Real Estate to celebrate my birthday. I had recently met a fascinating feng shui practitioner named Deanna Trust whom I invited to join the Home Guru Team in order to offer her services to listing clients over a certain price point.
Midway through the two hour presentation, my mouth was open, my eyes open even wider, as I realized that, unwittingly, I had created a set of conditions within my home that has revolutionized my life within the past three years.
Would you believe me if I told you that only a few years ago, as a direct result of the tragedy of 9/11, I was down on my luck, deeply in debt and seemed to have few options open to me? Having been the owner of one of the country’s most successful lifestyles public relations agencies in the 1980s and 1990s, I was forced after 9/11 to take a 9 to 5 non-profit job that I found less than gratifying and was doing odd free-lance PR and editorial jobs to make extra money. The only bright spot was my part-time, at that time, entry into real estate.
To take my mind off things, I decided to convert my daughter’s former large bedroom into my ideation/work space. Looking for a theme but not wanting to spend much money, I remembered that I had a collection of nautical prints and oil paintings in the attic that my wife and I had inherited from our adopted Aunt Pearl. I had never really been attracted to seascapes but I thought they looked more masculine than the little girl needlepoints and flowery wallpaper in the room. I asked my regular painter Joe Pascarelli to strip the wallpaper and to paint the walls a color that would pick up the primary tone of the nautical theme, a medium teal, a color that normally I would never choose.
Then, I moved my collection of crystals, about 200 of them, from a guest room on to the shelves of my new room and, because I’ve always had a statue of my patron saint, Joseph, accompany me wherever I sleep, I took him along for good measure.
As soon as I occupied my new space, unexpected things started to happen, but I didn’t make a connection. Readers of The Home Guru started calling, saying that they felt they already knew me through my column and wanted to list their homes with me. My real estate business doubled in one year, then it doubled again the next year. The same thing happened in my PR business: it doubled the first year, and the next year, it doubled again. I made new friends. New investment opportunities came my way, unsolicited. The press reported more on my activities. So I thought, hey, I’m just on a lucky streak, until the moment in the middle of Deanna’s lesson when she said:
“In feng shui, we work with five elements that operate in harmony in nature: among them is wood, the element that feeds fame and success . . . and water feeds wood . . . so a good color to paint a room where we spend most of our work or sleep time would be a water color, either green or teal, and it would be good to have images of water in evidence.”
My mind started racing as she continued: “To energize our intentions, we might also add a crystal or two and, for good measure, maybe an image of the patron saint of the home and productivity, St. Joseph.”
By this time, I was in a near state of apoplexy. I raised my hand and said, “May I tell you how my sleep and work space is decorated? I told my story to the group. Deanna didn’t seem at all surprised, while my fellow associates may have felt that I was just adding drama to the proceedings. But I swore to all, it was the truth. And it was all done unwittingly!
“You just made your intentions known to the universe and the universe responded,” Deanna explained in a matter of fact way, adding that obviously my bedroom was in the fame/wealth quadrant of my bagua, whatever that is, but who cares about the details when all the basic elements are in such alignment and working, without my having consciously planned it?
As readers may know, I’m in the process of moving to a new home. Can you guess how I’m planning to decorate my work/sleep space?
PS: If you want to talk with feng shui specialist Deanna Trust about a consultation, you may call her directly at 973-366-3570. But fair warning: you may find yourself in a some future situation that people won’t believe.
Bill Primavera is a Realtor® associated with William Raveis Real Estate and Founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc., the longest running public relations agency in Westchester (www.PrimaveraPR.com, specializing in lifestyles, real estate and development. His real estate site is: www.PrimaveraRealEstate.comand his blog is: www.TheHomeGuru.com. To engage the services of The Home Guru and his team to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.