Katie Rogers is scheduled to give an “Intro to Feng Shui” presentation at the O’Neal Library on April 20 at 6:30 p.m. There, she will share what she’s learned about the practice since incorporating it into her life 25 years ago.By Ana Good
Local feng shui expert Katie Rogers said she discovered the ancient practice almost by accident.
Rogers was living in Austin, Texas, at the time as an editor for a publishing company. She felt flooded, drowning in what she described as a “sea of gray cubicles under fluorescent lights.”
Rogers said she did what she could to liven up her own cubicle, and over lunch with colleagues one day, she shared her ideas about improving the interior design of businesses to help boost employee morale.
“If you make it pretty, make it functional and happier,” Rogers remembers telling her colleagues while pitching the new business idea, “it will help everyone working there feel happier and that will help the bottom line of the company because it will make them more productive.”
Intent on further exploring what she thought at the time was an original idea, Rogers set out to browse through the interior design books at a bookstore in Austin that very weekend. It was there she first stumbled upon a feng shui book.
“I picked it up, went to a chair in a corner of the store, sat down and read for at least an hour,” Rogers said.
She slowly began incorporating feng shui practices in her own home and eventually into those of her friends, who would let her come over and rearrange their furniture. Rogers said that soon afterward, remarkable things began to happen, beginning with a promotion at work.
“I thought, ‘Can it be this powerful?’ I got hooked, I got obsessed, and I made it a career,” she said.
Rogers is scheduled to give an “Intro to Feng Shui” presentation at the O’Neal Library on April 20 at 6:30 p.m. There, she will share what she’s learned about the practice since incorporating it into her life 25 years ago.
“I’m excited because a lot of people in this region don’t even know what it is,” she said.
Rogers, who grew up in Mobile and attended Vanderbilt University, received her certification in feng shui in 2004 through the Feng Shui Training Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
What is Feng Shui?
Asked to define feng shui in her own words, Rogers explained the art form centers on the notion that space has a powerful effect on people.
“Therefore, if you make changes in a space, it can be a way to create a better life,” she said.
Rogers said that over the years, she has seen countless examples of the ways feng shui has influenced her clients’ lives. Because the practice is steeped in symbolism, Rogers said she often employs another of her interests – psychology – when working with a client.
“If say, a young woman comes to me and wants to get married, but says she’s not having any luck with dating,” Rogers said, “I’m first like a detective who goes into their space to look for clues on their psychology around that. It’s uncanny how this can show up in a space. Feng shui is really steeped in symbolism.”
One of her favorite examples of the power of symbolism happened when a friend of hers in California asked for her help.
“She told me she was dating all the wrong guys, so I said, ‘OK, let’s go look at your bedroom because the bedroom symbolizes intimate relationships,’” Rogers said.
When she looked in her closet, Rogers said her friend had 10 bouquets of dried roses from ex-boyfriends on a shelf.
“It’s like you don’t know what you’re living in until it’s pointed out,” Rogers said. “I told her, ‘This is symbolizing you living in the past and holding onto these past relationships. It is not creating space for a new relationship.’”
Rogers said her friend was quick to act.
“She ran to the kitchen to get a garbage bag,” Rogers said with a laugh. “When we took those dead flowers out of that space, she had to sit down on the bed because you could feel the shift in the energy of the space.”
The changes for her friend also came quickly, Rogers said.
“She did get a boyfriend like a month later,” she said. “It happened fast.”
Rogers said one’s space can reveal what is going on in their psychology, which could be representing blocks in various parts of one’s life.
“You can use feng shui for anything you want to have happen in your life,” she said. “If you’re looking for a new job, or you are having financial problems, there is symbolism in that.”
“When I start with a client, the first thing I ask is, ‘What are three things you want to improve in your life?’ I ask that even before I ask about their space so that we can have a guide as we go through their space.”
When she works with clients to improve the feng shui in their homes, Rogers often identifies what she calls “feng shui no-nos,” such as having only one nightstand.
“I’ll usually say, ‘Now, tell me about this,’ and we can have a conversation about it,” she said, “and then I’ll give a suggestion of how to fix it.”
No-No to Clutter
One of the big “no-nos” of feng shui is clutter, Rogers said, which can be a real block for people as an excuse not to move forward in life or represent a lack mentality.
Still, Rogers said it is important to not be too extreme in the de-cluttering and stumble into another “no-no,” which is to render one’s home void of personal touches and looking too much like a museum.
“One of the main features of feng shui is the front entrance of the home,” she said. “A key word with feng shui is ‘inviting.’ I’ve gone up to clients’ houses, for example, where I was wearing wedges or something similar and they had pavers where you feel like you are going to break your ankle. That is symbolically not very inviting. In our language we say, ‘It will turn the chi away from your home.’”
To invite good energy into one’s home, Rogers said, it is important to have for example, a doorbell that works and numbers that are clear on the outside of the house, as well as a little bit of color near one’s front door.
“Basically, if FedEx can’t find you, chi probably can’t find you,” Rogers said.
Having a leak in one’s home is another “no-no.”
“That represents a leak either in their energy, meaning their health could be being affected, or their money. The idea is to go fix the leak, spend the money to hire a plumber and that represents taking care of their finances.”
Another time, while working remotely with a woman from Florida, Rogers noticed that the woman had many tangled-up bushes and trees on the edge of her property near the street.
“I said to her, ‘tell me about these. When I look at them, I feel like I can’t breathe,” Rogers said.
The client’s response, according to Rogers was, “Well, I do have asthma.”
Rogers said she told the client to get the area trimmed up. After she did, she told Rogers she felt better and reported less frequent asthma attacks.
Rogers said she especially likes instances like these where she has been able to help people in areas involving their health.
When another client, whose son had been diagnosed with ADD, asked for her help, Rogers encouraged her to rethink her child’s bedroom.
“There was just a lot of energy going on,” she said, referencing too many instances of red and busy Star Wars posters. “The bedroom needs to be a quieter space.”
Some of the changes, which she referred to as “fixes,” are common sense to an extent. But in other instances, people can’t immediately see what should be changed.
“People just don’t know the impact an image or a color can have on them,” she said.
Along with completing a questionnaire that details what clients want from their sessions, Rogers asks them to send her a floorplan of their home to help guide her suggestions. Though she no longer offers one-on-one de-cluttering with her clients, she does host a virtual group de-cluttering session every January.
Even when she works with clients who hire her for interior design suggestions, she still incorporates feng shui elements.
Rogers said she moved back to the Birmingham area in 2010 and always knew she wanted to educate people in Alabama about feng shui. At first, the thought seemed a little daunting. Compared to California, where feng shui is a household term, Rogers found many in Alabama knew little of the practice. Yet, she found success.
“It’s been very well received,” she said. “There are enough people that are receptive to feng shui that I could build a career. It’s a great life, a fun career, certainly out of the box.”
For more information about Rogers and her feng shui business, visit katierogersfengshui.com.
English (US)