Summary of Happy Starts at Home Change your space, transform your life by Rebecca West

This book is about feng shui without feng shui in it.
The TOC (table of contents) clearly illustrates what you can expect from it. Happy starts with you and how you define your perfect place. Are you financially fit – establish an abundant life in your home. Do you want to be healthy and well-rested – discover the geographic cure (move things out of sight that might trigger temptations). Do you want to have more friends? Create an inviting place for social gatherings. The big one: love. How to create romance, companionship or starting a new relationship. Interested in creating a family identity? More people work from home now so how do you make sure that your workspace work for you and how to set the scene for success. On spirituality: how to create care for your soul connection in your home? And finally, how do you build your self-worth and represent it your home? Say yes to your happy home.

Use your home as a tool to make better changes happen in your life. Through aligning your heart, home, and health, experience first-hand how small changes make a big difference.

What does it take to be happy at home?
It’s not about buying or not buying a new sofa. It’s about whether your home is working for you in the best way. Your home can directly improve your well-being and contentment with better health, sleep, and relationships, and ultimately decrease your stress levels to increase your all-round happiness.

Design expert Rebecca West helps you to learn how to achieve a geographical cure without actually relocating and how to redecorate so you can feel best in your space. Along with beautiful photographs, there are a variety of self-assessment activities to connect your financial, emotional and physical health to your space to ensure it nurtures your vision – and while doing so, investing your time and money more effectively too. With the valuable advice in Happy Starts at Home, you can commit to a philosophy of buying fewer things and doing more to discover what’s holding you back, in order to find joy and create a home that makes you smile.

The key is to start with the why. Ask yourself, “Why do I need to make a change to this space?”

The wheel of life – bagua model – how happy is your home?
There is no feng shui in this book but Rebecca starts with a classic wheel of life quiz which is popular in life coaching and is similar to feng shui bagua model. The quiz: how happy is your home? covers key areas of our life that might be relevant in relation to our homes. You’ll be asked to sore it on the scale of 1-5. It is a good self-reflection exercise on prioritising what is important to you right now. Questions range from “I sleep soundly through the night in my bedroom” to “Everything is in good repair in my home” to “My home reflects my values”.

The wheel of life covers the key domains of life such as
• health & fitness
• love & romance
• social life and friendship
• self-wealth
• play & creativity
• spirituality
• sleep & rest
• family
• career & growth
• finances and money

The Wheel of Life

See similarities between the wheel of life and bagua model

Feng Shui Bagua and position of different life aspects

Top tip from Happy Starts at Home: Change your space, transform your life by Rebecca West

Rebecca West says that this book is not an interior design how-to book guide but it’s about aligning your heart, your home and your health type of guide. Here are a few tips or reminders to make your home happy.

1. Fix things. Incomplete jobs create unconscious stress. You know it. Get it done. Small fixes = big relief.
2. Manage stuff. Everything in your home takes up space in your mind and heart. Humans do have feelings about things. Figure out what things in your home supports you and what sabotage your happiness.
3. Every choice about your home influence you on many levels, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, financially, self-esteem-wise, and so on. Your home can actually help you to decrease your stress levels and increase your happiness.
4. Create an inviting space to yourself and others. Are you proud of your home? If not, this might affect your social life. Remember, the home is never done. It’s work in progress. Don’t apologise or beat yourself up for not measuring up. It’s YOUR home. You’re connected to it right now and you belong there, even if it might not feel like that. If so, change it. The book offers lots of good tips such as: make it tactile and use lots of soft objects; make it approachable, homely and relaxing; make it human scale by avoiding large artworks that create an oppressive look; make the sitting arrangments conversational and so on.
5. The geographical cure is about adjusting your home and removing physical cues that can trigger unwanted behaviours. For example, if you want to reduce watching TV, move it away so you don’t see it so much. If you want to read more – simply, get more books around – research suggests that 80% of people say that books make them happy (and you don’t even have to read them but that’s another research).
6. Want better sleep? Make it about sleep and remove anything that is not about sleep or sex.
7. Designing a family home. Create an environment that says so. Make it practical and messy is fine too. If you have a large family, it will probably never be super tidy. Prime your family home with cues that suggest subliminally activities that you value. For example, if outdoor activities are important to you, get easy-to-clean flooring and good storage for outwear.
8. Your home as a mirror of yourself. By making changes in your home environment,  you can shift your inner reality. Interior design applies to you exterior reality and inner, mental, emotional and spiritual reality. Start with what’s there. Say yes to your home. Love your home as it is. It’s a story. Look at it as a useful tool for self-reflection and honest evaluation. And work on it to reflect who you are and who you’re becoming. And don’t take it too seriously or personally (it might not be easy initially). Because you might have a few second-hand things, it doesn’t reflect on your self-image. Reframe it as ecological move. And get that ‘sweet home’ sign or something similar, it might be cheesy but it works. Every home is unique. There are no ultimate rules. It just has to work for you and your family. Love your home.

To sum up
This book is an example of a modern, holistic, western, interior design approach that produces results without any eastern feng shui principles. The aims of this book and feng shui are similar ie to create harmonious homes. It’s a great reminder about using your common sense as well as an aesthetic sense for creating a truly homely home.

Get Happy Starts at Home: Change your space, transform your life by Rebecca West

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RESI findings confirm feng shui insights and environmental psychology research about happy homes. You can take part in RESI The Science of a Happy Home survey – go to the end of the blog.

The Science of a Happy Home checklist

1. Adaptable – Can meet changing needs
Adaptable homes are able to meet our changing needs and respond to our daily rhythms, as well as the long term changes in our lives.

2. Connected – Provides space to interact
A home is a place to connect, giving us the space to interact with family and friends while also maintaining our relationship to the outside world.

3. Mirrors – Reflects who we are
Who we are should shape where we live. A home should be a mirror which reflects our values and personalities – uniquely tailored to who we are.

4. Nourishing – Provides healthy conditions
To be nourishing our homes should provide the conditions we need to thrive, optimising everything from light levels to air and sound quality.

5. Relaxed – Makes us feel at home
After a long day our home should help us switch off, with spaces that make us feel calm, comfortable and at ease.

6. Secure – Provides shelter, safety & stability
Homes that are secure provide us with shelter, safety and stability, and we don’t have too much to worry about in terms of looking after them.

Read the full Report from RESI, Commissioned by Alex Depledge – The Science of a Happy Home

You can take part in RESI The Science of a Happy Home survey

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One Week (1920) staring Buster Keaton and his new bride trying to build their marital home from flat-pack form (IKEA-like precursor) with predictably hilarious results and timely feng shui warnings. The key lesson is about placement non-attachment.

One AM (1916) Charlie Chaplin after a night out, finds his home transformed into an obstacle course, with stuffed animals becoming alive, an animated table having a mind of its own, an unmountable staircase and a foldaway bed providing the biggest challenge. Feng shui nightmare.

Big Business (1929) with Laurel and Hardy starts with them trying to sell a Christmas tree which evolves into a row with a suburban homeowner, leading to the gleeful trashing of valuable furniture, priceless objects, even the fabric of the house itself. The home theme as a site of destruction to warn us about holding a grudge, not letting go and ultimately not sweating the small stuff. Lesson: small things can lead to big things – the yin and yang of things.

One Week (1920) staring Buster Keaton

One AM (1916) Charlie Chaplin

Big Business (1929) with Laurel and Hardy

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Feng shui tips for homes

Declutter
Obviously. Feng shui is about clarity and flow of energy and reducing stress. Cluttered homes can be stressful. Every time you look at clutter it is a potential stressor – you know deep down that you need to declutter. Also, another common-sense feng shui principle is that when things are not working or not flowing, we feel that life stagnates. So, clear clutter – you’ll feel better, have more space and clarity and positivity fill flow in your life. Don’t obsess about decluttering though. It’s natural to have some clutter, and mess here and there.

Open windows regularly
Yes, feng shui is about fresh air too. Feng shui means wind-water and air is probably the most element in life – we can’t live without it for long. So open windows regularly, even in winter. Oxygenate your home. Research suggests that indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air pollution. Obviously, if you’re living by a very busy road with lots of pollution (check online if that’s the case). Also, it will wake you up and give you clarity. If you’re a driver, you know already that to prevent feeling sleepy when driving they recommend opening the car windows to allow for some ‘fresh’ cold air (this is a question on the DVLA driving test).

Make your home natural and avoid chemicals 
This follows from the previous tip. We have so many chemicals at home from everyday products. We can’t really control the air outdoor but you can in your home. Choose ecological, non-chemical products and as natural as possible. Don’t use artificial air fresheners – use natural flowers. Don’t use scented candles – and no candles at all – candles create big indoor pollution. Air your home on a regular base – especially if you get new furniture or carpets or paint walls.

Have regular spring cleans
This is one of the best feng shui principles. Spring cleaning will refresh your home and make it clear and energised. This will allow checking for any mould or any unwanted health home hazards. You will also throw away things that you don’t need. Make sure that you air your home well during the process.

Change things on a regular bases
Any change, be it environmental or otherwise boost your dopamine levels (dopamine is our success and motivation hormone). We don’t like something, get rid of, give it to a charity, etc. Or if you don’t like a particular part of your interior design – change it. Live is a process. Your home is a process. Feng shui is a process.

Check for geopathic stress and electro-smog
To make your home healthy, you need to check it for geopathic stress and electro-smog which are probably the most important health hazards in your home.

Love you home
The more you do to your home the better until there is just maintenance. The more you love your home, the more it will work for you. Put some positivity and energy in your home and it will work for you in return.

If you’re not sure what to do or need further feng shui tips for your home, call your feng shui consultant. If you don’t have one, please contact me.

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