Geopathic Stress and the Garden

Geopathic Stress literally means sick-making Earth and refers to the non-beneficial effects this type of Earth energy has on human beings and other mammals.  As a Feng Shui consultant, my primary concern is making sure my clients are not sleeping over or spending a great deal of time exposed to this energy.  While one might think of Geopathic Stress as "bad"it isn't detrimental for all living organisms and is in fact an integral part of the natural order.  Geopathic Stress is simply a naturally occurring energy that is Yin in nature and beneficial for insects, certain kinds of plants and the ideal energy to help your compost pile break down.

Once identified, one can remedy the effects of Geopathic Stress in the home and also use it to advantage in the garden.  How might one identify these lines?  Aside from dowsing, one can look at nature to get some clues.  Often this will manifest as the dead spot in the hedge row where the bushes won't grow properly or in the cancerous growths on certain trees. Areas of Geopathic Stress are also havens for fungi, mold and insects - large ant hills or bees nests are often found there.

When I first moved into my home I dowsed to locate the lines of Geopathic Stress (GS) on my property and where they continued into the house and marked them with survey flags.  It was not surprising to find an enormous oak within these lines as Oak trees love this type of energy.  You can see from the photos the two lines coming from the back of the property intersecting under the oak and continuing on toward and into the house.

Once spring arrived, the bed behind the house (shown in the photo on the right) was cleared of overgrown bushes and a new herb garden was planned.  Since this is primarily a culinary and healing herb garden, having vibrant, healthy plants was of vital importance.  Knowing where the line of Geopathic Stress was allowed me to work with this energy instead of against it to create the optimal growing conditions and hopefully happier plants.  The line of GS that runs through the garden is marked in the photo with orange flags.

The list of plants that prefer or dislike GS that I received from my teacher was not terribly long and many of the herbs I planned to include were not listed.  Therefore, a little experimentation was in order.  I knew from the list that nightshades prefer GS so the tomatoes and peppers were easy to situate.  All of the others were dowsed to determine their location and some were sited based on pre-planting growth rate observations.  One exception was the rhubarb of which I had 3 small seedlings.  I decided to put two within the Geopathic Stress zone and one outside to see what happened.  Well it turns out that Rhubab (as my dowser friend Lee confirmed) likes GS.

This is the Rhubarb plant that was planted outside of the Geopathic Stress zone.  

You can see it is growing but rather thin and spindly.

This is one of the two seedlings planted within the Geopathic Stress zone.  You can see how much larger the leaves are and how much more full it is in general.

Below is a bird's eye view of the same plants.

 Below are all three are in a row, the smallest is furthest away near the pedestal.

The enormous Comfrey plants are in the foreground.

By observing the plants growing in the Geopathic Stress zone I have added the following to my list of plants that either thrive/tolerate GS and those that don't.  I hope to compile a comprehensive list as my garden and experience expands and will list a few more as the season progresses.
Mondarda Didyma (Bee Balm): Thrives/Prefers GS (based on some pre-planting observations of growth rate both within and without GS)
Matricaria Chamomilla (Chamomile): Thrives/Tolerates GS
Angelica Archangelica: Thrives/Tolerates GS
Melissa Officinalis (Lemon Balm): Does Not like GS (also based on pre-planting growth rate observations)
Symphytum (Comfrey): Thrives/Tolerates GS (these plants have grown more quickly than any other in the garden)
Calendula: Thrives/Tolerates GS

Geopathic Stress can either harm you or help you, the key is knowing where it is and what to do with it.  If we listen and observe, Mother Nature will give us clues on how best to work with her.  It has been great fun for me to work with the Earth to co-create a garden that is in harmony with the energies and spirit of this place.  So far the results have already been quite remarkable!

American Society of Dowsers Annual Convention - Reflections

One week ago today I returned from the American Society of Dowsers annual convention in beautiful Vermont.  It has taken me a whole week to process and begin to digest all of my experiences from such an amazing gathering.   It was a wonderful opportunity for me to deepen my knowledge, particularly for water dowsing, and to connect with others who are using dowsing in Feng Shui and Space Clearing.

Wait a minute, you may ask, what is dowsing?  It is an ancient method of using tools to tap into our intuition to locate things or gain information not available in conventional ways.  Most people are familiar with dowsing as it relates to finding underground water often referred to as "Water Witching".

What does does dowsing have to do with Feng Shui you ask? Everything!  The earliest Feng Shui masters were employed to locate optimal sites for dwellings of the living and the dead.  Dwellings for the living need access to good drinking water but should not be located on negative earth energy lines - or what the ancient Chinese referred to as Dragon Lines.  You may not be able to see these energies but like the waves of energy that send a text to your cell phone, they do have an effect.  With public water supplies and a scarcity of land, particularly in urban and suburban areas, locating underground water or negative earth energies are no longer part of the usual home siting process.  These issues are however are of great importance to Feng Shui practitioners and locating them by dowsing is an integral part of the way I work.

The convention offered talks on an array of subjects but what was striking to me was that talks on Feng Shui and Space Clearing were filled to capacity and some beyond capacity.  One popular topic of discussion at the convention for both speakers and audience members was the prevalence man-made energies like EMF and Radar in our homes and their effect on us.  There seems to be a real hunger for this information - people want to know if their homes could be harming their health and more importantly what to do about it.

I am grateful that so many at the convention addressed these issues not by way of fear but from the view point that knowledge is power and once identified we can be instruments of change.

A beautifully decorated home rife with detrimental energies is like getting dressed for the party without taking a shower.  By identifying and correcting these energies you set a solid foundation for great Feng Shui and grace-filled design!  If you want your home evaluated either as part of a Feng Shui consultation or as a Space Clearing please contact me for more information.

Farrow & Ball Alternatives

I must first begin this post by saying that I am a huge fan of Farrow & Ball's colors.  I often recommend their paints to clients and the results are always beautiful.  There is not a bad color in their edited collection and the hues are sophisticated and nuanced.  They are truly one of a kind.

That said, sometimes using Farrow & Ball is not an option either because they are not available or not in the budget.  In those cases the same look can be achieved with a close alternative color.

Even before I closed on my new house I knew that I had to have a Brinjal bedroom.  This Farrow & Ball color #222, is a deep, velvety aubergine with hints of wine and chocolate (no wonder it is such a fabulous color).  For months I have had piece of cardboard painted with the test color next to my bed imagining the whole room that cozy.

The time has now come to paint but since I have splurged on new silk drapes and window hardware, I need to save some money elsewhere.  So, I have chosen a Benjamin Moore's Dark Walnut.  It is not an exact match for Brinjal, no other color would be, but it is extremely close with just a hint more chocolate which I love.  Also, if you want VOC free paint, which I always recommend, but don't want to splurge on Benjamin Moore's Natura paint you can have your color made up in Ultra Spec 500 which is a less expensive VOC option.

Farrow & Ball, Brinjal, Modern Emulsion, $80/gallon

Benjamin Moore Dark Walnut, VOC Free Ultra Spec 500, $30/gallon

I am thrilled with the results and since I needed 2 gallons for two coats of paint, I saved $100.  I will be offering some other F&B alternatives in future posts so stay tuned!

Happy Painting!

The color on the wall is Benjamin Moores' Dark Walnut, the Farrow & Ball Brinjal is painted on the cardboard below it.   You can see that the Dark Walnut is slightly more red and slightly more chocolate which I actually prefer.

Here is the finished color, the rest of the room is still in progress, room shots coming soon.

The Light of Day

When I woke yesterday the ground was silver with the first frost of the season.

As the weather grows colder and the days shorter, we are spending more time indoors and receiving a lot less natural light.  Seasonal Affective Disorder, or depression caused by a lack of sunlight, has received a great deal of media attention but even without depression you too are affected by less sunlight.

Blue/green light found in full spectrum light like sunlight causes serotonin levels to rise making us feel alert and active.  Red/Orange light, found in most of our indoor lighting, causes melatonin levels to rise making us feel more relaxed.

Perhaps you notice that you are more tired or sluggish these days - you may have even chalked it up to the busier schedule that follows summer vacation.  The problem may not be your schedule but your lighting.

Consider the areas where you spend most of your waking hours during the day, especially where you work, and check your lightbulbs.  If you find that you are using incandescent bulbs here simply replace them with full spectrum bulbs.  Likewise consider the lighting next to your bed or places where you like to unwind before sleeping, if you have full spectrum or fluorescent lighting in these areas consider switching to incandescent bulbs here.

Make the switch and see how you feel, you may still miss summer but it may make the colder months more bearable.

Proper lighting is good design and good health!

Downsizing

I have been hearing the word Downsizing quite frequently these days.  It is the result of and reaction to the tumultuous economic times in which we live.  I suspect that what comes to mind for most people when they hear the word is the corporate type, lost revenues, workers laid-off.  What I am more aware of is how often the word downsizing pertains to our homes.  Thankfully, it seems the McMansion days are becoming a thing of the past.

Whether driven by economic factors, life style changes or as an environmentally conscious choice people are choosing smaller homes.  Decorating magazines are also promoting this concept as House Beautiful's July/August issue was again dedicated to small spaces.

I love that the design community is embracing this trend and showing readers that bigger is not necessarily better and that smaller spaces can be fabulous.  Achieving proper scale is also an important concept in Feng Shui where the goal is a space that is neither too large nor too small but like Goldilocks just right.

I too am becoming part of this trend as I recently downsized to a new home this summer. Though my old house was a modest home of approximately 2,000 square feet, my new home is smaller and has fewer rooms. Not having a dedicated room for my office in the new house was a challenge but it has forced me to be creative with my use of space.  Now, instead of having a formal living room that is never used, I am claiming the nicest room in the house as my office and it is now used almost as much as the kitchen.  As a decorator it seems a waste to create a beautiful room and never use it.  As a Feng Shui practitioner I see an unused room as a stagnant space which is not beneficial to a home.

People may dream of having the big house but in terms of actual living we tend to spend most of our time in the coziest rooms. I remember helping a client who lives in a large, beautiful, waterfront home re-uhpolster a pair of club chairs for their favorite room.  They had a big formal living room and a large family room off of the kitchen yet their favorite room was a tiny cozy den.  Perhaps we will begin to seek out homes comprised only of the rooms we really spend the most time in and do away with these unused spaces.

I am glad that people are becoming aware of the appropriate use of scale and I look forward to exploring this concept both for myself and for my clients. Personally, it feels good to be in a home that is just right and I hope to help others achieve that feeling as well.

Aparigraha

A few weeks ago, my yoga teacher introduced a word to our class, Aparigraha.  It is a sanskrit word that means non-possesiveness or non-clinging.  It is also one of Yamas or Codes of Restraint which you could liken to the commandment thou shalt not covet.  Aparigraha adds another dimension to the concept of not-coveting which is a kin to the Buddhist ideal of non-attachment.  Aparigraha means letting go of the things we are holding on to.

The appearance of this word at this time in my life is certainly no accident.  With all of the major life changes that are happening to me now, there are many things that I must let go of in order to embrace the life that is waiting for me.  For me, aparigraha means letting go of a home that I love, full of memories of my children when they were small.  Letting go of the idea of what I thought my life would look like.  As I pack to move, aparigraha is my mantra as I size up what to keep and what to give away.  It is the word that I repeat as I give away books that are like old friends that have moved with me from the city to the suburbs, toys, holiday decorations, craft supplies, unworn clothes, unused electronics, all the "stuff", all the clutter.

In Feng Shui clutter is an important issue.  Clutter in a home is like a blockage or a stagnation.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture is employed to open up blockages or stagnation so the life force or chi can circulate unimpeded throughout the body.  Clutter in your home is like a blocked artery in your body - blood is a life force and when blocked can cause serious illness like heart attacks or strokes.  Clutter, even in your closets, can affect your life and can affect your health.

If we hold on to the things that no longer serve us then there is no room for anything new to come into our lives.  By letting go of so many things I am creating an open space ready to receive new things and experiences.  Explore what the word Aparigraha means for you and ask yourself what you can let go of - you may be surprised to see what happens!

Changes

According to the Chinese Five Element Astrology Calendar, February 4, 2012 commenced the year of the Water Dragon.  The Water Dragon is an auspicious symbol that portends a year of great changes.

The Water Dragon has already brought many changes to my life both personally and professionally.  On a personal level I have re-claimed my maiden name following my recent divorce.  I have also expanded professionally, completing my training as a Feng Shui practitioner.  I look forward to incorporating this ancient knowledge into both my life and work.

To reflect both of these changes, I have re-named my business Beth Grace Design and moved my website to a new url, www.bethgracedesign.com.  I have also started this blog as a forum to share design and Feng Shui topics with all of you.

I am excited to see what blessings the rest of this year has in store for me and I hope the water dragon brings you good fortune and prosperity too!

The gorgeous water dragon print shown above is by Diana Moll, and is available for purchase in her easy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/qipapers