Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Quality Furniture is serving as the space to book appointments with visiting freelance feng shui consultant Anna Hunter. Hunter will advise home owners and businesses in the art of arranging their environments from Sept. 22 until Sept. 30.

"Feng shui is about the relationship of human beings to their space," she explained. "All of the work of feng shui is based on the work of the tao, or more commonly known as 'the way.' It is absolutely not a religious practice any more than cooking Italian food makes you Catholic. It is a method of working with your space."

Hunter served in the field of social work in Alberta prior to working as a Feng Shui consultant. She started analyzing space professionally 12 years ago and has since travelled around the country consulting for homes, clinics and businesses.

"Feng shui is considered to be a very compassionate art because you have to be very caring about the people you're working with and in applying the knowledge," she said.

Hunter advises residents of a household or workers in an office about how to harmonize the intended use of a space with their needs. She examines the floor plan, interviews the residents about the way they use the space and the experiences they have with it, how they want to use it and how it makes them feel.

Sometimes the places where we spend most of our time make us feel ill at ease, but we don't notice the discomfort because we have become accustomed to it, she explained. The purpose of the space and the way it is structured may be out of sync.

"We use exactly the same principles in positioning soldiers in terms of how you position yourself in your space so you feel relaxed, comfortable and in charge," Hunter said. "This helps people use their brains more effectively, helps their bodies rest and when the body can rest it can recover from things."

Last year Hunter consulted for Sherri Hughson, executive director for the Military Family Resource Centre, to help centre staff with their goal of fashioning a reception area that is comfortable, inviting and nurturing.

"One of our primary functions is that when people are new to the community we are their first point of contact and welcome them in," Hughson said.

"If you have a space that is doing exactly the opposite of what your goal is you're always going to be at odds with that. And there had been a lot of negative energies in and around the centre as it was so it was making a clean slate and starting from scratch."

The centre used warm colours and opened the space through the arrangement of the furniture among other simple changes to achieve their goal.

Architect Wayne Guy also hired Hunter to assess his home and his workplace.

"I think when you hang out in a space you tend to be blind to a lot of its imperfections and I think having someone come in with fresh eyes, especially with her background, is helpful," he said, adding he has studied the ancient Chinese practice himself.

The philosophy behind feng shui seeks to permit the flow of chi, or energy, through a space. Guy explains it as being similar to a water course.

"In some places you want it to flow and in some places you want it to rest, like in congregation or meeting areas," Guy said.

"Regardless of the theory one uses there's always a preferable way to structure space and I think feng shui brings the oriental sensibility and philosophies toward that ordering of space. Intuitively, after all is said and done, it makes sense."