ECOCHI IS BUILT ON THE
FUNDAMENTAL BELIEF THAT
“HOME” IS WHEREVER YOU
ARE, AND THAT IT IS
ESSENTIAL TO NURTURE YOUR
INDOOR SPACE SO THAT IT
NURTURES THE SPIRIT
WITHIN.
A Recipe for Transformation Takes Shape
Kitchens inspire me. While I love every room that makes up a home, I must admit that I find kitchens especially enchanting. This is the heart of the home, a place where love can be expressed through creativity. In fact, I have never lost my sense of awe at how one can take a classic recipe, and with a pinch of this and a dash of that, something delicious and original is born. Given my adventurousness in the kitchen, it is exhilarating and not really surprising to me that all the hard work and the years of accumulating knowledge in a variety of disciplines has led me to the creation of the new discipline I call EcoChi. EcoChi is built on a solid foundation of three basic, tried and true ingredients: feng shui, green and sustainable living, and environmental psychology.
I will soon describe all three prongs of this discipline in detail. EcoChi has given me what I wanted so badly for so long: a powerful strategy to help people experience their spaces in an entirely new way, and in so doing, transform their lives.
A Whole Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts
In the early 80s, I looked for and found every entrepreneur’s dream, an unmet niche in the marketplace, and I established Debra Hope Creations, Inc. This online gift service was designed specifically to provide businesses and organizations with the type of gift item they could be proud of sending out for corporate events and special occasions. The custom-designed gift baskets I created were received with raves, reorders and referral business. Like most endeavors of passion, creating these packages was, for me, the highest form of self-indulgence.
The process itself was so much fun. I would choose a basket from my inventory—anything from a painted basket with handles to a natural wood tray. Working out of my design studio, I would blast Rod Stewart on the stereo and begin the creative process while singing, dancing and sipping a freshly brewed cup of decaf hazelnut coffee. First, I would place an array of products into this basket, which acted as the “pot.” This could include gourmet foods, chocolates, bath products, stationary and other items of all shapes, sizes, colors, scents and tastes. These were my “ingredients.” I would then design my end product, which was something magnificent and far beyond its individual components. My “recipe” was then entered into the computer, with the list of components and a photograph so each design could be exactly reproduced for future orders.
The music I listened to, the colors and scents with which I surrounded myself, the taste of hazelnut and the panoply of textures I worked with all brought joy to my life because they engaged all of my senses and created a wonderful Chi energy. As a result, Debra Hope Creations became a successful international business with happy employees and delighted customers. I tell you this story because forming and running that company lives on in EcoChi— the pinnacle of all my many lessons learned. So here are the basic ingredients, which, once imbued with my own “secret sauce,” became the EcoChi System.
Feng Shui
Feng shui is a design method that involves purposefully arranging a space so that it has an uplifting and life-enhancing effect on the people who occupy that environment. When designing beautiful buildings, rooms and outdoor spaces, it takes into consideration the surrounding aspects of nature and the specific landscape and topography of a site.
The ancient Chinese, undistracted by television, cell phones and the Internet, devoted their time to studying the mysteries of life. They masterfully created fundamental disciplines and life-enhancing applications, all based on their strong appreciation and understanding of the natural world. Lying on their backs at night and looking up at the stars, these Chinese sages studied the universe, nature’s cycles and the relationships these cycles created. They then translated these relationships into numbers and symbols (Trigrams). This is how feng shui was born.
Feng shui literally means “wind and water” in Cantonese. Wind represents the shifting energies (Chi). Water represents contained Chi at rest. Chi (qi) is the dynamic movement of non-tangible energy or vibrations. In India it is known as prana, in Japan ki, in Arab nations Baraka, and for Polynesians mana. In the western world we have no word to express this concept. The closest description in our language is “life force.” With feng shui, one can enhance and amplify the Sheng Chi (auspicious energy) and eliminate or minimize the Sha Chi (inauspicious energy) in order to bring about a desirable balance.
Many people with little or no knowledge of feng shui think of it as merely moving furniture around to reposition it in some more advantageous location. That is so not the case! Having studied feng shui for years, I can tell you that there are no shortcuts to understanding all aspects of this intuitive art. Feng shui, like an onion, has many layers. The most well known School of Classical Feng Shui is called Form School. Form School consultants work with Earth Chi—the forms of energy we can see. They change the flow of energy in a space by intentional selection and assignment of furniture, or by specific placement of a decorative item. Another school, the Compass School, teaches the practitioner to go into a space with what is called a “Lao Pan” Compass (English spellings of all these Chinese terms vary). This compass is used to determine the directional influences on a property in relation to the universe in order to engage the Heaven Chi— the energy we cannot see.
Classical Feng Shui teaches that Heaven, Earth and Humanity energies need to be balanced to attain health and prosperity. These energies are called the “three gifts of energy” or the “San Cai.” Since I am a visual person, I actually like to think of these feng shui energies as a sandwich. The top slice of bread is Heaven, the invisible Chi. The bottom slice is Earth Chi, the Chi we can see. In the middle is the human experience. The relationship between these three layers is the arena in which the feng shui practitioner orchestrates this artful science. The energies of heaven, humanity and earth must be manipulated so that all three interact with each other like a beautiful song. I believe that in order to balance the Chi energies of a property, the most thorough feng shui consultations use both Form School and Compass School strategies. To put it simply, without both the top and bottom slices of bread there is no sandwich!
The Five Elements
Throughout this book I will be referring to the word “element” or the term the “Five Elements.” I would like to introduce you to these “Five Elements” so that you can fully grasp how they factor into my EcoChi concept.
Just as nature goes through cycles of change, so do we. We are the seasons, we are nature and we are the elements. In feng shui, the Five Elements are earth, metal, water, wood and fire. These elements are symbolic of the forces at work within the universe and how these forces impact our minds and bodies, as well as how they affect all other living creatures. The Five Element Theory is also the basis of Traditional Chinese Medicine, qigong practices for energy healing, and acupuncture-based therapy.
ENERGY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FIVE ELEMENTS
| Color | Season | Direction | Weather | Personality | |