The Feng Shui Doctor: Ancient Skills for Modern Living

by Paul Darby, Martin Shaw (Foreword)

Paul Darby has an international reputation as a Feng Shui master who specializes in practical solutions to everyday problems in the home or workplace. Steeped in the energy wisdom of ancient China but refreshingly modern and no-nonsense in his approach, he takes from tradition what is relevant to 21st-century living and distils it into his own distinctive blend of up-to-the-minute practical alchemy. The Feng Shui Doctor is a complete how-to manual, to help us optimize energy flows inside or out to create an environment in which we feel happy, healthy and at peace. Paul conveys his twelve years of experience in the form of concise principles and precepts, tackling questions such How can we enhance our well-being by arranging the elements of a room along the principles of chi (natural energy)? What can we do if the layout of a room is radically out of step with the chi and cannot be changed without inordinate expense? How can we prevent interference from TVs and computers from damaging the natural energy flow within the home? How can we use water, wind-chimes and mirrors to correct energy imbalances? How should we decorate different rooms to ensure that they are serving our deepest inner needs? Full of down-to-earth solutions and creative suggestions, The Feng Shui Doctor will help you make your home a source of healing and harmony in your life.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Denise みか Hutchins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book years ago but was never inspired to properly read it until I finished reading both KonMari Method books last month. Therein, feng shui is briefly mentioned a couple times, and, as I am now in the midst of wholeheartedly performing my KonMari tidying marathon, I thought reading this feng shui book would give me some good ideas for how to reorganize my house once I was done decluttering it.

At the beginning of The Feng Shui Doctor it is explained that the book was designed to be a quick reference, able to be carried around everywhere and referred to at any time. It’s certainly built to meet such a demand, small dimensions to fit in any bag and generally sturdy construction with thick pages and cover (except my copy’s cover, already being a used book when I obtained it, became detached as I reached the last few pages; nothing a bit of glue and some bulldog clamps won’t resolve, though) but I don’t feel this is a book that I personally will keep around now that I’ve finished reading it. I’m not saying the book has failed in its purpose--indeed I think many people would find this an excellent reference--but all of the information that I found most useful is not anything that I won’t be able to internalize and recall from my own mind (or at least take simple note of and find again in Google Docs) whenever it’s needed.

When I started reading this book, I was wary of anything too mystical. It’s not that I don’t enjoy learning about mysticism, it’s just that I have no intention of applying mystic ideas to my home organization and decoration. I’m looking only for practical advice that has solid reason behind it. Luckily, this book assuaged my doubts immediately. The author even included a line specifically explaining that feng shui can only create a good environment, it can’t magically make things happen for you. There was so much practical advice that I found almost the entire book to be of use to me. There were, admittedly, some things that I just won’t bother to do--like making sure certain colors are in certain parts of my house or moving all my books so that they overhang and mask the horizontal lines of the bookshelves--but I estimate these types of recommendations did not make up more than half of the contents of The Feng Shui Doctor. I was excited to find a great deal of useful, down-to-earth suggestions such as not keeping knives out in the kitchen (the mystical reason: unlucky, knives slice chi, etc; the practical reason: even when kept in a knifeblock, knives are dangerous, and keeping them in a cupboard also keeps them from getting dusty and dirty), don’t seat anyone with their back facing a window at the dinner table (natural instinct kicks in, making the person feel exposed), and keep the front porch lights on when it’s dark, at least until bedtime (this is especially good for me, because I work nights and come home in the dark! So I was already doing this, to be honest, ha ha).

Although I won’t be keeping this book with me forever, I still found it very helpful, interesting, informative, its advice practicable, and its reasoning understandable. I highly recommend it for anyone who has no foreknowledge of feng shui and would like a basic overview as well as those who would like a way to carry around the feng shui basics with them. This was a great place for me to start so I can only imagine it will work just as well for anyone else.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great way to step into the art of Feng Shui. The advice is very very practical. It is a good read with plenty of Paul's gentle humour. There's no 'you must do this...or that'.