Linda Rubright

Thirteen years ago, I accidentally got into feng shui.

There was an organization near me that offers an assortment of low-cost classes to the community. The courses range from the typical (How to Scam Proof Your Life and Basic Bridge) to the less expected (How to Flee the Country and Intro to Pig Roasting).

My mom was coming for a visit and I was looking for mother-daughter entertainment. It was February in Colorado, so options were a bit limited. I browsed the weekend’s available classes. Medicare 101 seemed like a bit of a downer. Dad would probably have questions if we signed up for How to Flirt, and neither of us had an immediate need for Traveler’s Polish. Then I saw a class that had something to do with using feng shui to attract the life you want.

It seemed tolerable.

I signed us up.

On the morning of the class, Mom and I pulled up to where it was being held—what appeared to be an old military base. We walked into what was likely the former mess hall and/or the site of the Boot Camp Talent Show.

The instructor came over and cheerfully gave us our workbooks in a three-ring binder.

Moments later she jumped into the class content. She began by telling us her success stories—sleep issues resolved when unsettling paintings were taken out of a bedroom, lost loves reunited when photos and other items were moved to a specific area of a room, and enormous raises occurring seemingly out of nowhere with the addition of a handful of common household items to particular areas of the home.

Mom and I perked up.

The instructor explained how energy moves through your home in a specific way and that different areas in your home represent different areas of your life (such as money, love, or health). If you can improve the different areas of your home that represent these different life areas, then energy will flow more freely and easily to them—and guess what happens next?

Money, love, health, etc. will flow more freely and easily to you!

Wait just one minute, I thought. Can I really just move some things around my house and by doing so, get all the things I wanted in my life?!?

After the class, my mom and I jetted off to the Tattered Cover and bought every book they had on feng shui.

I was determined to do this.

Until, I thought I wasn’t.

Every time I attempted to decipher my class binder and my book pile—I ran into the same problem—the rules twisted my brain. To exacerbate the issue, even when I did start to grasp it, it still involved sifting through 100s of pages of what felt like a giant load of woo-woo mumbo jumbo—all of which was intended to add depth and perspective, but in the end was just, ahem, clutter.

Then I thought I had spent my entire career helping Fortune 150 companies translate incredibly complex ideas into simple explanations easily digested by the masses. Could I, I thought, apply that skill to feng shui, too?

I made a spreadsheet with the different areas feng shui could support (love, reputation, money, family, health, creativity, children, skills and knowledge, travel, bring helpful people into your life and more) and what to do in each of these areas. That evolved into some rough but user-friendly cards/cheat sheets with less mind-bending instructions, which evolved into my recent book Lazy Luck: Get Money, Love & Happiness with Feng Shui (The Super Easy Way).

My user-friendly approach to feng shui quickly proved to be successful.

Days after I rearranged my home and office to attract a better job and more money, I went out to dinner and ran into an old work friend who told me she had been meaning to get in touch—she had the perfect job for me. A few months later I had that job, no commute, and a 30 percent raise.

I was so enthused that I started doing feng shui for friends and family. When people were in a tough spot, instead of taking them out to dinner and drinks, I would go to their houses and start moving a few things here and there in the area of their home that represented the part of their life that happened to be not so incredible at that moment.

Without fail, my friends, and then eventually my feng shui students, would call me days or weeks later and tell me about the jobs or projects or checks or bonuses that arrived out of the blue… about the hot piece of something they met in the cereal aisle and are now excitedly planning their third date with...about the peace that had come over their family they never thought possible… about how life just felt more fulfilling, easier, happier, and finally, under control.