After studying Art History at Stanford University and became Feng Shui consultant, Dana Claudat designs your dream life. Claudat using Feng Shui not to just rearrange furniture but change your life. In an interview with Dana Claudat, learn what Feng Shui really does for the body.
Shyvanne Delva: How did you get into Feng Shui?
Dana Claudat: I got really lucky in an unlucky moment of life. I got into feng shui by accident and necessity, the same way I think many people find their passions. I had been living a pretty chaotic Hollywood life that I thought was healthy, but it was very chaotic and non-stop in an unhealthy way. I wound up in the hospital with an autoimmune reaction. I was fine, thankfully, but I landed at home for a few months recovering.
At home, I looked around and I finally saw in close detail how my home looked like the home of a stranger. It wasn’t a home. It was a place to live, nice but not at all anything that resembled my life. I’d heard of feng shui and was ready to do anything I could that could possibly make my life better and more organized. A few hours on Google and I signed up for a training course that would ultimately move from my intention of a few weeks of study to a decade of study across so many disciplines- art (my background), color theory, holistic healing, physics, anthropology and even biology.
What was intentionally an experiment became a world of feng shui I created, and my own way of approaching it that’s much more gorgeous, simplified and yet really powerful from what I’ve seen so far!
Delva: When people think of Feng Shui, they think of energy, moving furniture but what does Feng Shui do for the human body?
Claudat: Feng shui is all about creating balance and, in my viewpoint, creating connection. When I say connection I mean: really feeling grounded, present, focused and calm by using space to help to you show up for every day.
Often you hear the New Age adage that “your relationships are a mirror of you.” To extend it, your home is a mirror of you. While I am not a doctor or healer of any kind, I have seen amazing things happen when people become more connected to their lives and their spaces. Weight loss, allergies clearing up, more glowing, happy people… Essentially, if you do more of what you love and live with more of what you love around you, the effects will radiate through your whole life.
Delva: People are looking to achieve a healthy life. What steps would you say are great to achieve a healthy life?
Claudat: Step One: Clear clutter in your home, ridding it of all the excess stuff you don’t need. Step two: Clear clutter in your life, subtracting out all out the negativity and draining energy people and places. Step three: Start fluffing things up with creativity.
I believe that when people live more unimpeded, free-feeling lives they can both enjoy better health and experience more of their personal genius that lies within all of us.
Delva: Do you think there is a connections between Feng Shui and fitness?
Claudat: Feng shui creates balance by allowing energy to circulate freely in a space. That same free-flowing energy is that of athletics. If you go to an acupuncturist with an ache or pain, they will work to get the energy flowing and take the stagnation (where energy has balled up and become stuck) out of your system. In feng shui, when you get the energy flowing in space you experience a flow of energy in your life that does, I think in many cases, lead to more active lives. It’s hard to be lazy and very inspired at the same time.
Delva: Do you think Feng Shui can help in all people’s problems?
Claudat: I think life is integrated. Chances are if you have lots of problems they will be reflected in your space. Designing a better environment with the tools of feng shui can support your intentions, but you can perfectly feng shui your home, choose to live on junk food and cling to negative relationships and things won’t just magically change in your mood and body. It’s not magic… its practical magic… a tool that strongly influences life but doesn’t wipe out or surpass your own personal participation in thoughts, words and actions to create your future!
Delva: How should one go about adding positive energy into their lives?
Claudat: Adding positive energy is as easy as letting go of negative energy. You need space in your life to let in the new. If you are overwhelmed by negativity, it’s often easier to decide to let go of things to create the space- the bandwidth in your life and emotions- to make a change.
Delva: What is the best piece of advice you received?
Claudat: My dad was terrifically bad at living his life, but he told me two things I will never forget:
First one for relationships; “People will show you what they are willing to give right from the start. If that’s what you want, stick around.”
It’s proven very true.
The second was after a failed trip to buy clothes for school when I found nothing I wanted: “You don’t settle. That’s amazing. Don’t ever settle. There are people who will settle and they’ll live their whole life in regret. It’s better to hold out for what you want and do what you love that to take what you think you can easily get.”
That one never fails. Never settle.
