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The Secret to Success May Be in Your Dorm Room

The Romance corner at work

With so many decisions to make in college, could deciding which side of the room to sleep on be the most important?

I was the first to arrive in my dorm room on moving day, and I had a choice to make: Luck or Romance? See, the extra-long twin beds were in the two farthest corners from the door and, according to Feng Shui, the left corner would bring good fortune; the right would stimulate romance. I dumped my boxes of bedding on the right mattress – one week later, I went on my first real date. Coincidence? I think not.

Feng Shui (pronounced “Fung Shway”) means wind/water and comes from ancient Chinese Taoism. It is the study and application of how objects affect energy (chi), and how that energy flow affects your life. The object of Feng Shui is to lure chi – energy – into certain aspects of your life which are represented by 9 specific areas of your house, or dorm room in this case. There are a number of ways to decide what each area represents but I’ll go with the easiest: entrance-based.

Fame

From your door, look into your dorm room. Straight ahead is the wall for Fame and Reputation. If you’re majoring in Drama, Communications or Business (or just want to throw really great parties), pay special attention to this wall. Each of the 9 sections of the room has its own element and color associated with it; Fame’s color is red, its element is fire. If you have a lamp with a red shade, red curtains, a red wall hanging or even a flame-shaped plant, put them along this wall. It’s also the perfect place to hang any awards you’ve won.

Romance

The farthest right corner from the door is the Relationship corner (to the right of the Fame wall). Don’t put a TV or computer here if you can help it, since you may find that your primary relationships are either fictional or all online. The color for this corner is pink, so if you like pink, you are in luck. If you don’t, here are some other ideas: Put pairs or groups of pictures here. There should be no outstanding single object in this corner, so it’s a perfect place to show off collections or pictures of friends.

Creativity

The wall to your right is for Creativity. Keep this area neat and clean; Clutter really blocks up the chi and you want that energy to flow smoothly when you are writing college papers. Metal is the element for this wall, so round mirrors and metal lamps are perfect to grab the chi and put it to work. My computer desk was on that wall, so I decorated it with magnetic poetry (that’s creative, right?), silvery fabric, and pictures that inspired my creative side.

Travel

If you want to study abroad – keep the right corner closest to the door clean and uncluttered. This is the Helpful People and Travel corner. Hang posters or calendars here with pictures of where you want to go, and you might find yourself there sooner than you thought. It’s a great place to put old postcards and pictures of people you think of as your mentors.

Career

Where you are standing now, in the doorway, is the Life’s Path or Career area. The most important thing to remember here is: Don’t Block The Door! If you have to step over last week’s blue-jeans to enter the room, chi is not flowing. Chi does not jump over laundry well. So clean up!

Knowledge

Knowledge and Learning also has its own corner immediately to your left. Something in Feng Shui that I’ve never quite understood (called the I Ching) says pictures of mountains are good for this area – my guess is that mountains symbolize wisdom and contemplation. But this is also a good place to put images of deities and wise people, not to mention all your schoolbooks, your computer, and television.

Family

The wall on the left side of the room represents Health and Family. If you’re squabbling with your parents, check out what you’ve got going on with this wall. Having the color yellow here can create disharmony with the family, but calming colors like green or blue will help relationships stay chill. Wood is the element here, so wood furniture will help keep your parents off your back and make your siblings less annoying. That’s the theory anyways, but I think it would take more than a wall to prevent my mother from giving me her opinions (maybe a very tall, thick wall would work…).

Luck and Money

The last and most important corner is the Good Fortune and Wealth corner at the far left of the room. You want to draw a lot of attention to this corner since by drawing attention, you will be attracting chi to help bring you luck and money. If you have clutter here, well, you are literally out of luck. Don’t keep a trash can or laundry hamper here either, or anything that is broken. Plants are great as long as they are healthy. Anything expensive works well here (the “it takes money to make money” approach to Feng Shui), and bright rich shades of purple, blue or red are the perfect colors. Windchimes will draw chi upwards – always a good thing – with the occasional tinkle.

So, how did my Feng Shui work out in college? Well, after that first date, I had a first boyfriend – then ditched the first boyfriend – had three lovely young men walk me to my door one fine evening, and met my current boyfriend. We’ve been going out for five years now. Does Feng Shui work? I’ll just say that it doesn’t hurt to try.