How Feng Shui, Color, And Intuition Transform Your Space with Lisa Morton

This is iDesignLab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design. Curator of interiors, furnishings, and lifestyles. Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott. iDesignLab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution and style and trends. Today on iDesignLab, we're joined by Lisa Morton, interior designer, feng shui master teacher, and creator of the intuitive home method. With over 20 years in design, Lisa blends feng shui, color psychology, and holistic principles to create homes that elevate health, clarity, and joy. Host of the feng shui living podcast and author of Aligned at Home, she helps us design spaces that truly support how we live and thrive. Welcome to the iDesignLab podcast. Today we are joined remotely by Lisa Morton, who is a designer who has a very special philosophy that I can't wait to dive into today. I'm sure you've all heard of feng shui or feng shui. We're hoping you're going to guide us on all the right things from spelling to saying it and all that it encompasses. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to talk about feng shui, holistic design. I really see this as so important in the future of the design world. Yes, and this is a wellness philosophy that is so important into all of our lives today. I do think it's such an important philosophy that we bring into our homes and our life as well. But before we jump into that, you were, you have been an interior designer for a long time, correct? Correct. A little over 20 years now. But, and the feng shui was not in your original aspect of your interior design when you started out? My goodness. Feng shui was not even in my vocabulary. I had no clue. It was not in my world whatsoever. I kind of joke that sometimes now I do the crunchy design, right? And that was not the type of person I was. I did a little residential design directly out of school and then got into, I fell into my dream job or thought was my dream job at the time, designing private jet interiors. And I did this for several years and it was fantastic. I got such a unique niche. Right. I got to use amazing materials and meet outrageous people and everything was completely custom. It was such a wonderful experience. But it is that that led me to this work. I kind of joke I was on call for seven years. Right. That was my work was my life. Yes. And so I had to, I had to overcome a lot. I had a lot of perfectionism creep up and just general burnout hit to be honest. I was a rigorous schedule. You were keeping meeting deadlines and. And also it was a schedule of constant travel, constant international travel. I go in on Tuesday and go home pack your bag. You're leaving in three hours to go to Paris. Oh, wow. It's exciting. It's exciting on the other side. It's exhausting to do that nonstop. So, but you're, you're, you're doing the interiors of private jets and so forth. That's a very unique, you know, scope of work. And also the price point, right? I mean, you're specking out outrageous materials and custom carpet. I'm sure. I mean, literally like silk carpets and backlit onyx in the bathroom. And monogram some shirkel or. Yeah. They were very special, very unique. And it was a wonderful experience, but you know, it did just take a toll on myself. And so then I started doing all the things you're supposed to do during a difficult time like that, doing the meditation and practicing yoga. I altered my diet, started walking more, exercising more, doing all the things and. Going back to nature. Yes. Yes. I'm a nature lover and that was, that was huge. But for me, it was really looking at my environment and I got to thinking, well, how can I help my space support me? Right. On just functioning and looking beautiful and having cool things around me. How can I help it? How can I set it up to support my body? And then it was kind of like trial and error. I started studying holistic design. I started studying feng shui. This was 10 years ago. And now I've studied it. I've trained in it, learned it. And now I get to help so many other people. So explain to us. Explain to us and tell us exactly what that means feng shui for people who are listening or watching. It has to do with alignment. Exactly. Bingo. Bingo. So feng shui is actually over 4,000 years old and was first documented in Southern China. And it's this beautiful approach to arranging your space, to aligning your space, to discovering how your space works, right? How it flows, what you need in your space. And when we can do this, then we can bring everything into harmony. And I noticed clients, after we work together, they might just be more joyful in their home and like their home. But other things, their nervous system is going to soften, right? They might be able to walk in at the end of the day and their shoulders drop. They can take a bigger breath. Right. So if we start at the very beginning, I guess, how did you decide to dive into this? And what was the first step you took? I mean, I can imagine reading things. I've read things through the years because I randomly will have clients ask me about certain questions. And I almost feel like ignorant if I don't have the answer. Like, oh, if I don't know feng shui, what are they going to think of me and my design expertise? But there's certain little things that trickle out into society. But what do you think, like, was your beginning core to basically institute it as a way of design? So I started reading books, like so many people, because I wanted to have a little knowledge to add to kind of the holistic design I was exploring with my clients. Because after I left my aircraft job, I started my own residential design firm. And I was working and doing this as well as studying and learning. And I started working one-on-one with a teacher, feng shui teacher, and really understanding the principles and started implementing little things. And some of my clients didn't get it. They maybe weren't even interested in it. And that's okay. But I still had this knowledge if I were to select a, or recommend a drapery fabric, right? Well, maybe I'd suggest blue versus green, right, if we have the option. Just because I have that knowledge that blue is going to bring them more fluid and more of a sense of creativity in this specific space. So it was a really fun experiment. I know. And to actually, I feel like to have that bandwidth to even, as you're designing, that's just such another layer that is so fascinating to me. I mean, what are some of the main principles of feng shui? I mean, I know there's random, like, a bed isn't supposed to face a door, or I mean, there's some random like... And you just mentioned color. So color having a big difference. And you always are black and every room has to have. I remember a number of years ago, I moved my company to a new location and one of my employees, she called me and she said, listen, I got to talk to you about where I'm sitting. And I said, sure. And she took me over to her desk. She said, I can't sit here. I said, why? She says, because I'm not facing the... And I forget which direction she wanted to face. She says, I have to face, I don't know if it was north or south or east or west. She's like, if I don't, I won't be able to do the work that I should be doing here. And I was like, thumb found it at the moment. But then I learned a little about that she was very much into feng shui. So we have a few different things we work with. Number one is balancing yin and yang. So something that's yin is very quiet, very still. Think of a spa vibe, right? Peaceful music, soft colors, enticing aroma therapy. And then something that's yang is kind of the opposite. I always joke like a casino, right? Loud, active, it's those rooms where we have our friends over and we laugh and tell jokes, right? So we work on balancing yin and yang. We also use a five element system. So you were mentioning some of these fun things you hear about arranging this or moving that or... This all stems from using the five elements system, right? So there's a right, it's not just a bunch of tips or tricks. There's a system. So we have wood, fire, earth, metal and water. And feng shui describes the world in one of these five elements. So maybe it's not a... You're picking out the blue sofa. You're picking out a blue sofa that brings in a water element and fluidity. Or the green sofa that will bring in a sense of growth and renewal because it's a wood element. And then we have a third step with that included Baguam map. So it's a map that we overlay over the floor plan of the home to decipher these different energy centers of your home. So you have an energy center that connects to your daily life, what you get up and do every day, your career, your life path, one that connects to health, right? All these different energy centers. And when we can work on one, say you're struggling with your health, you know, I have clients call me. I've had this bug nonstop. I don't know what to do. Well, now we know where to go to look at your space. So when you start with this space, let's say you have a new client. Do you start with the whole house or a room or if the client only wants to do, let's say their living room. What's the first steps that you take? Well, we need to look at it holistically. So we won't just start with a room. Yeah, I was going to think it would have to be a whole project would be for success, I would think. It's like you need to take the full commitment. Yeah, because one area is going to influence another area, right? It's all going to work together. So it's really looking at their space and also looking at their goals. What are they leading in life? What are they looking for? Whether it's goals like starting a new family or starting their new business. So that's where you start with a client from a standpoint of your first meetings. Yes. And then would you say the next step is that you'd use the overlay plan to create your furniture plan? Because I always start with a furniture plan technically too. Start my design process. So it's kind of a mixture of things. It's not like a traditional interior design process, right? We're going to decipher anything and then the way I do it is I provide them. It's like a 20-page report. So they have all the information about their home and then we can dive in and then we can explore and move furniture pieces around and bring in, you know, a lot of times I'll even work with other designers. So I'll be like, okay, we need a mirror somewhere on this wall. They need artwork over here to draw the eye there and we can collaborate too. So are you instantly when you walk into a room like how I can, you know, okay, this needs to go here and that needs to move this way, like in a funk-chway sense versus a style aesthetic? Certainly. It just gives you a different sense set of lenses to look at the world, right? So I might see something that just isn't working. I had a client recently that I walked into their front foyer and it was my first time meeting them. So I had to be careful. But I walked in and they had a framed photo of their children, which was beautiful. And right next to it, a cactus plant, which cacti are very, very bad funk-chway. I'm sorry. I know they're very fun looking, but they're bad funk-chway. And I just couldn't handle the effects of a cactus next to their beautiful children. So I instantly asked to move it. That's so funny. So go back to those five steps. Tell us what they are. Explain them. So it's the five element system. So we have fire, water, wood, earth, and metal. So we want to bring fire in when we need to lift the energy. You know, it's winter time. I get the winter applause. So we need to lift the energy a little bit. So that could be through the color red, a bright fuchsia, through candles, brighter lighting, or even triangular shapes. Water, we talked about water a little bit. It's about creativity and fluidity and just allowing free, flowing thoughts, ideas, emotions. So we can do this through a water, maybe a water feature, or the color blue, the color black, or any type of pattern with a wavy design to it, or watercolor artwork. So black is technically part of the water step? It is. It is. A lot of people are. It is because think about this. If you were to go to the ocean and you jump in and the water is pale blue at the very top, it's beautiful and you dive deeper, right? It gets darker. You dive deeper, it gets darker until the bottom of the ocean, it's black. Right. So they're connected. There's a connection. I love to work with the wood element, especially if someone is recovering from an illness. The wood element is all about regrowth and renewal and moving forward. You can bring this in through plants, flowers, which I love to have fresh flowers in my home every week, and the color green as well, or artwork showing flowers, a landscape, trees, something like that. And then any type of vertical stripe. And then we have wood. So wood is, I'm sorry, earth. Earth is like grounding, stability. On those days when you're frazzled trying to catch up with your schedule and do all the things, you need more earth element in your life. That's beige, tan, brown. If you're needing more earth element in your environment, I would suggest low sofas. A low rectangular table, a big textural throw or a chunky rug. And then we have the metal element, which I love in home offices because the metal element is all about precision, all about focus. So that's metal objects, the colors gray and white and pastels. So the idea or the philosophy is not to have all five in one space, or is it? We want to balance those five elements for the activity in the space, right? So a bedroom we want it to be more peaceful, more calm. We'll have less fire, less wood element, more of those calm, peaceful elements. And then a kid's game room or an exercise room will bring more of those fiery, more wood elements in and less of the grounding earth. And is there any philosophy behind like a floor selection that has to do with falling into any of these categories? Certainly. Of course, I always love to default to natural materials as natural as possible. Yes, I do too. They just make our bodies feel better. But then a wood element, so if you have wood flooring, that's a wood element, right? But it also has horizontal lines. So an item in your home might not just fall into one of the five elements, it might have to be a combination. Okay. So it has those long linear lines. So it's going to be grounding and a sense of renewal by having wood flooring. A tile is going to be really grounding and centering. You know, if you want to have a leopard carpet, which I've seen before, right? Some of those wild patterns, that would be a fire element. I did a closet once and we had leopard carpet in there and it was great. She loved to dress fashionably and, you know, just wild and it was perfect for her. That was probably good energy for being creative within that space. Definitely, definitely. What's the fastest way a person can feel a shift in a room if they don't want to do a complete redesign? Okay. Well, this goes back to something you mentioned earlier about placing your body in a certain direction. So we have what's called the command position. And this is the ancients wanted to have a mountain behind you and then for protection and then a valley below so you can see your enemies coming. And then a little protection on the sides, but we can mimic that in our environment and it makes us feel so much more comfortable and at peace. So to do this, you want a solid wall behind you. Right. If you're working at a desk, you want to have that solid wall behind you, not open and exposed. And then you want to be able to see the door off to a side. This also works in your bedroom. You want to have a solid headboard behind you against a solid wall and then see a door off to a side. I also eat, sleep and breathe this stuff. So I also will take those with me to a restaurant. I was going to say, that's exactly what I thought about when you said in a command position because I feel like my dad growing up, my husband, like they always want to sit facing out. Like that's the fatherly role, you know? Like, but it also just puts your body at ease. So maybe a Saturday night, I'm tired, but we're going out to a dinner. I will ask to have that table in the corner so I can have my back to the in the command position and then I can feel more supported during that time. I've never heard it said that way. It's interesting. Give it a try. I always say any of the Feng Shui Cures that I recommend to anyone, give it six weeks. Right. You have to experiment with it. I always tell clients if you don't like it, you can move things back, right? After six weeks, but give me six weeks and it's very rare they move things back. So you created the intuitive home method. Explain that in its relation to wellness and Feng Shui. So this goes deeper than designing a home. There's there's a coaching aspect in here because I work with a lot of people feeling stuck. They call me I'm feeling stuck in life. I don't know what to do and I know my environment is influencing me. I don't know what to do. So it's 30 days of transformation. Yes. Oh, it's powerful. We just we look at our space with fresh lenses because we don't often we don't often look at our spaces. We're so used to being in it. And it's so true because even when I start a project and I'm referring to pictures of clients houses and then they come in and I might have them. They're like, that's my hat. Like you just don't even pay attention to what you're walking by every day. It just becomes, you know, just becomes whatever in the corner. Like it just disappears, right? It disappears. But it is serving. It's still affecting us whether we recognize it or not. Yes. So I actually have a practice. I'll share with you that I send my clients on when we do this and I have them go to walk. Okay. Go around the block, come back, take a few fat breaths of fresh air and then they have them enter their home through the front door as if they were a guest and they'd never been there before. Wow. I might try that myself actually. My head is really fond of seeing. Yes. I'd love to have you come to our house and walk through the house with us. Showing us room by room. That would be the shift. Yeah. How we could shift and change. Okay. Let's go back to the, I have some more questions. Let's go back to the method. Yeah. The interior development method. So the next step is releasing because we know we have, we all have stuff. We all have clutter. I even have clutter in my own home. Yeah. But we know how that affects us. We don't need to get into that. We know it's heavy. It brings on a lot of emotions. And sometimes it isn't clearing all the clutter from your home. That's what I get. I like to dive into with my clients. It's not always that. Sometimes it is removing that one thing standing in your way. How do we? It might be a photograph of someone that you framed and put on the table and it's not a good relationship anymore. Right? It may be a family heirloom that just isn't feeling right or something you brought into your space or you're hanging onto a box of paperwork that's in the corner. It's, you're not noticing it, but it's still affecting you and affecting your nervous system. So we release. The next step then is implementation of Feng Shui. So I do the full Feng Shui review of their space, tell them what they need to know. And then the last step of this is how do we keep them moving in the right direction? How do we stay the course and we put together the hands and systems? Wow. So how long does it take you to assess a space? Typically I can have it turned around in about a week. Okay. Just depending on workload and everything. Right, of course. But it's typically a week and then you're ready to go. I do a video recording to share everything with you and then we do some follow-up sessions and everything too. So it's, we're definitely working together. And that's why I created the intuitive home method because I have some clients that just want the information and they're going to implement it and do it on their own. And then I have other clients that want to work together. They want the support as they're doing these adjustments and shifts to their home. So your report is like a detailed report room by room of all of the different things that could change or should change or be repositioned? So I'm like, what do you really, really want? Because this can feel a little woo and a little out there, but it's really powerful once things are aligned in our space and it's truly supporting us that things can come to fruition and it just feels like magic. And I think that's a really good thing. And I think that's a good thing. It's truly supporting us that things can come to fruition and it just feels like magic and wild, but it's just energetic alignment. So if you want something big, if you want the promotion, if you want to grow your family, if you want whatever, you know, we can work towards that. That is just so, so cool. It's very fun. So when you're starting this process, I mean, do you start it with like a normal agreement? What is your business structure in a little bit of a nutshell? Somebody was wanting to bring you aboard. Sure, sure. Yeah. I have a few options on my website, including the intuitive home method and we just work together. We plan a schedule. We put it together a system. I can, you know, I do kind of customize a lot of things because I have a lot of clients that are going through things. I divorce illness, you know, we have the great things, right? But then sometimes there are the other things that aren't so wonderful in life and they need a lot of support. So oftentimes I'll customize something for them. You know, most of my work is virtual. I get to work with clients. Which is amazing. I was going to say though, but I think that's really amazing. Yeah, that was a question I was going to ask is how much of it can you do virtual? There's amazing things I could tell you about your life from just looking at your floor plan. It sounds wild. I believe it. I believe that. So when you say floor plan, you mean just like a blueprint or photos? Traditional floor plan drawing or sometimes clients will submit their own drawings, which I have to get a little creative if they don't have the builder drawings, but we can work. Google Earth tells me so much about this place as well, right? Real estate websites, right? Right. Realtor.com. So, so it's a floor plan with the position of all your furniture? No, no, we don't even get into furniture. That's like another layer. It's literally just looking at the arrangements. What's next to what? Where the children might be sleeping, where those rooms are, where the bathrooms are in relation, how your front door is connected to the other spaces. That alone can make huge shifts. We might want to draw your eye in a specific direction from the front door, right? Or we might want to draw your eye away from the bathroom door. Right. So it's photos that you're looking or video? It's photos, video, and online. Or a Zoom call with someone walking around with their cell phone short. When I first started doing most of this virtual work, I was like, oh, I really want to do this. This is going to work. But then I was like, okay, my 75-year-old mother, can you Zoom? I can teach anyone. Yeah. Zoom. It's easy. Click a button and we'll make it work. Isn't that the truth? Yeah, because I realized like walking into people's houses, you walk into certain rooms and you can feel like this room is like a fun room. This room feels wonderful. But then you walk into other rooms and it's like, oh my God. Or it's uncomfortable. Yeah. It's like clutter. Yeah. And I guess we tend to be a little more in tune since we do this for a living. But I would say what are the first, oh my gosh, no, like the big no-nos? Well, of course, clutter. We want to limit as much clutter as possible. But number two, which I'm sure you- And when you, I hate to interrupt, but clutter, because we live in this mass consumption world. So can clutter be organized or like layered properly or is clutter like a mess? Or just too much stuff. Yeah. Release, release, release. I actually wrote this quote down the other day because I saved it. It was fascinating. 80% of the items we keep are never used. Correct. Yeah. Our house is a great testament. But our house is like everything that we have in our house is like from some place or something that we've done in life. It's not stuff that we just bought and has really no meaning. Everything has a meaning to it. Well, that's what's important. That's what's really important. And it's getting rid of the things that don't bring you joy, that don't light you up when you look at them. I mean, you might have your great aunt's decorative vase that was so important to her. But if it's hacked away in a box and you see it once every three years, you're not enjoying it. Right. And put it on your computer screen. Put it on your phone. Interesting. Frame it. Yeah. That's so cute, actually. Make something from it. But the next big thing is, which I think you will fully agree with me, is the toilet lids open. Yes. That's a huge pet peeve. Wait, wait. Say that again? The toilet seats open. Oh, that's bad? That is very bad. Of course it's bad. It's not a... I always want the first thing you see when you walk into a room to be something beautiful. So you enter the room and your eyes go to something beautiful, whether that's a beautiful piece of artwork or a beautiful rug or something decorative. Not you walk into the bathroom and there's the toilet drain. It's so funny you say that because this pet, we have a house that we just, we purchased it four months ago because we flip houses as well as decorating houses. We just put the house on the market and I found myself like three days ago, they did some showings and I went in afterwards and I noticed that one of the toilet seats was up and I thought to myself, I got to close that because Tiffany would close that immediately. Yeah, that's the first thing I know. And I walked away going, that's strange. I closed the toilet, but I'd actually make the bathroom look proper. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. I have a... I've worked out a lot of yoga studios over the years and especially for one woman who in multiple studios. And in all the bathrooms, we would put a little side on the back of the toilet that said, for good feng shui, please close the toilet lid and everyone would generally have a laugh, but they do it in the end and that is what was most important and it was cute. And then they might even bring it back home and it would get implemented into their own life. I think we should definitely. That's a big one. The next one is not using your front door. Oh, wait. Tell us about that. This is interesting. So the front door in feng shui is considered the mouth of sheet. This is where energy comes into your home, right? And new opportunities, new fresh energy comes in. So true. Yeah. So if you're not using it, you're probably feeling pretty stuck or stagnant in life. And I know we have garages. Right. I don't want to go through the garage, but I encourage everyone to come up with a plan, come up with a reason for using your front door, maybe put the dog leash, you know, and in the table next to the front door, or that's where you take your morning walk in and out of the front door or you get the mail through the front door. Yes. Get it flowing, make it beautiful. I love that. That's another interesting thing that you bring up because we were watching a movie the other day, and I realized that every movie that you watch, everyone enters and comes in and out through the front door of the house, even TV shows. But we go in and out through the garage. And I realized like in our neighborhood, everyone goes in and out through their garage. But you're also right in saying it is such an exciting energy using the front door because every time you do go open the front door, it's to greet a friend, greet a guest, like the girls, my girls have music. He comes through the front door. You know, you get your packages through the front door. Amazon comes to the front door. So what other interesting, those are two good ones you brought up. What other ones are there? So I have a default. If you want to do nothing else to your home, but you still want to lift the energy a bit, find the centermost area of your home. To do that, you can walk to what would be the center of your home or look at a floor plan drawing. You want to find the centralmost location. So using that tool that I mentioned earlier, the Bagua map, this specific energy center is connected to health and well-being. However, the way the Bagua is laid out and the energy from this Gua connects to all the other Guas. So if you're improving this one area, you're essentially improving your entire home. We don't have to dig deep into every space, but if you love on this area, so that might, that's those like normal things that make sure the light bulbs aren't burned out. Make sure the floor is swept. The rug is clean. The glass on the artwork is clean, right? But then how can you enhance it? Bring in a beautiful bouquet of flowers, which is my favorite. I was just going to say, is every room supposed to have like a living thing or is that an old wives tale type of, I mean, I always like my references of Feng Shui was like a black item in a space. A black item? Yeah. And there's like some teacher at one point or like, I think it was even like in a class was like, yeah, even if it's just a speck of black in a rug, it's important to have that black. Well, that would be the water element. So you can have that touch of the water element. But you want to, I would have a speck of each of the elements, right? You don't have to default to color. So that can be through other things, through the shapes, through the patterns, that watery pattern for a water element. If you don't like blue or black, because of course we're designing beautiful spaces and we want our client to love the colors we're using. So when we can break patterns and shapes, that makes it easier. Yeah. And not everybody wants a lot of color and some do. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I think the plants are most valuable in a monochromatic scheme. Mm-hmm. For me, texture, when you have a monochromatic scheme, texture is key. And plants, those are the two keys to making it work. So what was one of your big client transformations that was like, wow, this is, this is why I'm doing this? I had a woman reach out to me. And this was several years ago when I was, I'd trained in it already for several years, but I was still, I was at the crossroads where I was questioning, do I stick with traditional design? Do I fully dive into this? You know, just trying to navigate. You were looking for a sign. Yeah. Yeah, right. Trying to navigate that. And so I went to this woman's house and she told me she needed some help with a few things and that was it. So I had all my samples with me and I'm walking up to her front door and walk in. Nice as can be. Felt completely normal. We did a quick walk through the house and then we sat down at the dining table. And she sat across from me and looked me directly in the eyes and said, Lisa, I'm dying. I need your help, help setting up my space. So when my children, so when I'm gone, my children and my husband can go on living. Right? So they're ready to go move forward. She'd been battling cancer for many years and rounds and rounds and it was just, it had taken a toll and she'd made this decision. So we did some general, just needed some upkeep, right? Yeah. Needed some new carpeting in their sitting room. Needed some new furniture. But then we did it with Feng Shui and Mind, right? We did these adjustments knowing they needed grounding during this big time in their life. They needed comfort and coziness. They needed a sense of renewal when the time comes. So a lot of earth element, a lot of wood element. And then the other thing is we created some really special moments in the house. So they love to go on trips and travel and had tons of photos. We made a beautiful collage wall. So they could enjoy and look at these together as a family, right? You know, during that time and then down the road when she was no longer there, they could still enjoy this collage wall. Right. So for me that just even having her call me and us being put together in the same room, I was just like, okay, I meant to do this. She lived for a couple more years and then passed. And it was a very touching moment in my life. So how would somebody like that lady, how do they get to you? I mean, is it a refer, referral most of the time? Is it through, you know, online? Is it through their own research? Like how does somebody get to that? So I actually just published my book last fall, Aligned at Home, which is a great resource to start exploring this. And then if you do want to work together, I also have a podcast called Fung Shui Living Tips for Busy Women. So I created this podcast because gosh, we are all so busy. Yes. And this, there each episode is maybe 20 minutes long. Okay. With quick tips that you can go home and implement tonight. I love that. Easy adjustments to make yourself feel better. So you can check out the podcast for. What's the name of it again? Repeat the name. So we have Fung Shui Living Tips for Busy Women. And is it available out there iTunes and for people to follow? Wherever you get podcasts also. If you like video, it's on YouTube. YouTube too. All right. Great. No, it's a good place for people to. I know because it's, I say this a lot being in this business is interior design and the business of design is still such an untapped market. And my opinion, you know, it's now becoming more well known, you know, for the last many, many years, it was like a luxury that people would have an interior designer. And, and I feel like the curating process, it's, you know, furniture stores just can't do that for clients. It's a relationship. You're building this foundation and design and you're really curating your home and your family's safe space and a place to be proud of and, you know, to enjoy. And it's such a, you know, at the same time, wellness, I mean, has to be the number one selling feature of everything in the marketplace today. Everybody wants to feel healthy, less encumbered in this very busy world. I mean, I can't imagine how awesome of a resource you are that you took this on to kind of marry these two philosophies. It's been a wonderful experience to, to be able to help people. I, I've always kind of been a helper. I love doing, you know, supporting people. And this is a deeper layer to do that and help them through those difficult times, also help through the amazing times. And, and, you know, it design is, it's so valuable, whether it's Feng Shui holistic design or more just, just traditional design, like not getting into the Feng Shui holistic design, whatever. It's so valuable. Having your home make you feel, make you feel welcome at the end of the day. Have you ever had a project that was so challenging that when you looked at it, you were puzzled or challenged on how you could help or assist? I actually worked on a condo down in Miami. And the concrete jungle. Well, the layout, it was literally, it was this really wild shaped building and the condo actually formed a triangle. Uh-huh. And there's a lot of weird shapes in these buildings. I know. And it just was, I told him, I'm like, here's the thing. This is telling me that you're broke, your relationships, you're not feeling supported. And all these different things. And he's like, yes, I just got divorced. I just moved here. He's agreeing, right? And I'm like, your space is reflecting this. You're not going to move forward if you stay in this space. So he ended up was trying to decide between the two. Does he stay here and move to the other one? I'm like, move on. If you're ready to take another step in life and move forward, you got to get out of this. You got to get out of here. Did he move? That's crazy. That is so crazy. And that's another thing I find so interesting about it too, is because even as I get calls for renovations or, you know, different architecture styles, I just feel like not studying Feng Shui, but you walk in and the architecture has terrible Feng Shui. Just, just in placement of like, as I'm trying to do what I do, just it doesn't make sense. What do you do in those circumstances? Like these crazy buildings are, I feel like in the nineties, architects got tried to be super creative and they went away from the classic, you know, rectangular spaces. And now they have all these cur, there's always angles everywhere. I said, half of what I do is really just square up spaces. Yes. I have so much respect for architects. However, they don't always think about how you're going to furnish it. Number one, how the people are going to move through the space. How are they going to walk through the space or move about it? So that's where we come in to really be able to furnish it. It can be tricky. I use a lot of, I think I mentioned a couple of times, I like to use different tools to draw your eye in certain directions. So maybe instead of the cement pillar, we'll draw your eye over to, you know, six feet to a plant. Right. So that goes away. And that's not something you're visually experiencing, but the green plant, which makes you feel renewed, is where your eye is going. If that makes sense. So just getting creative, using artwork, using all the tools we can. That's so interesting. Are there conferences or conventions that people can go to learn more about this? I actually do my own, I do some trainings. I offer a certification that I don't know of any. There are some online things. There are also some great books. YouTube videos, go explore. Here's what I will say. What I struggled with and why I wrote my book is because when I first started studying this, I would read one book and I kind of get it. And then I'd read another book and I was thoroughly confused. I'm like, wait a minute. The other one said yes. That's me too. Okay. Whatever I have read. I don't know where it begins and ends and then how to actually make it work. Exactly. So then this is my goal in writing my book. I want it easy to understand. So Feng Shui, like so many other things, over years has shifted into different schools or sects. So I'm also a Yogi. So you might practice Vinyasa Yoka and then your friend might practice Ashtanga. It's similar to that. So there's multiple different schools of approach. Yes. Okay. And so that's kind of the key is to find out that person, maybe how their approach works and then continue studying that approach versus just random books because that's what will get you confused. Yeah, it is like it. I would think it's like yoga or like most things. Like the practice has to be continual and has to be in harmony versus like you don't want to be putting that little speck of black in there. You're not supposed to. Well, I think it's important to recognize too. We don't live like they did 4,000 years ago. Yeah, exactly. We need to live in our current home with a melting pot of people and different traditions and practices and materials and electronics. And I was, yeah, I was going to ask about electronics and all of that. I actually recently have a client who's very into health and in wellness. She's a Yogi as well. And she found this company locally here in South Florida that comes in and basically puts all these little objects in places to, I can't even think of the right word, but take all that technology. EMS. EMS, yes. So, I mean, is that a part of this? I mean, in this new as you grow with technology, I mean, what we're like you said, houses aren't built. Like so these electromagnetic frequencies, we have electronics everywhere and, you know, we can't really escape them. Internet, you know, wireless signals and things. So we can use different things around our space. Now, this is, I would say this is more of a, this is something I do with my clients, but not everyone in Feng Shui might get into EMS. Right. But it's important to recognize there's different things you can do to support yourself. One of my favorite things, probably the most wonderful thing I've ever bought, I'll say it, is a grounding sheet for my bed. Our specific child who has one. I, since we bought them, it's amazing. That user. So people listening and watching a grounding sheet for their bed, but is grounding sheets for your bed. They're different. Is this the blankets that really, really heavy? No, it's actually a sheet that has metallic threads woven through and then you plug it into the ground. Only the ground outlet. There's just one little nub. It's like the ground in your, in your home. And you can, there's, this can be a really deep dive looking into this, but even just being aware, are there several electrical outlets near your head where you're sleeping? Yeah, I had a client who didn't want her son's headboard on one wall because all the what do you, the electric boxes were on that block in the garage. That's, it's definitely important. And people will notice if you're being affected by this, you might feel foggy headed. You might just be always sleepy. You're not resting well. That would be me. It's interesting to look at and just look at where, where you're spending long periods of time so that could be in bed, that could be at your desk, that wherever you're spending long periods of time and what's around you. So what does the grounding sheet do? Does it like ward off all that electric? So it actually plugs into the ground, the ground wire that goes down into the earth from your home, right? And so it, it mimics that, that connecting to the earth. Wait, what, how does it do that? It's like a ground. So I don't know how to best explain it, but it kind of pulls the electricity away. Yeah. Yeah. Everything's grounded. Every home has a grounding rod, right? It's built. Yeah. And it connects to the electrical that then connects to your sheet. And this is just one, they're a grounding mats. Yes, I've seen that. Yes, I've seen that. So this is just just one little way to get into supporting your body. I mean, that's really what all this work is about. There are different things you can do if you want to get Lena a little more woo rocks and crystals, right? They're, they're just what she did to she. And then these triangular crystals. We could talk for days. They're so totally options. I mean, it's such an untapped. It's just beginning, I feel like. For the average person who would like to learn more about this, how much time does it take to really fully understand and bring this into your life? Is it as easy as reading your book and then don't write a book? No, but reading your book and close and finish reading it and really have a full great sense of. I think you'll have a great understanding and you will feel reset in how you look at your space, right? You will have you will have different lenses to view your space, right? And you'll be able to see things you didn't see before and realize, oh, well, that's why I never felt comfortable sitting in that chair before. Right. Things will click and things will make sense. If you want to, I mean, I've studied for over 10 years. I think you can you can go deep and it takes a long time. But you don't you can make great, amazing, wonderful shifts for your home, your life, your family, just with a few easy adjustments. I love that. So what's one easy adjustment that you'd like to leave our listeners with today? Well, I I made up a word and it's called nestorations. I love it. I wrote about it in my in my book and it's all about tending to your nest, right? Tending to this beautiful nest that's our home and it doesn't always have to be big, little things. It can be an example of a nestoration. It's just it's slowing down and taking an extra moment to to infuse your home with a little love. So that could be making your bed and instead of quickly making it, take an extra minute, smooth out the blanket with love, adjust the trim on the pillow. So when you walk this night, it feels really good. I do all of that. I do all of that. Just a little just slow down. Take one extra minute as you're doing an everyday thing. I do that too at night before I go to bed. I like it to wake up and you feel, you know, like your house was taken care of. Exactly. Exactly. And I love it. It's also that that energy and time that you're putting into it. It's just a brief moment, but it's it's it's implement. It's infusing your home with love and care for it. And it will just come back. So putting flowers into the house every week, would that be part of that? I I'm one of those people I struggle with the winter laws, so I started this a few years back and I call it the flower challenge. And I encourage all my clients to do the same to every week, bring in flowers. And it can even just like a small little bouquet or just even a clipping of a house plant from a neighbor, right? Every week, bring in plants or flowers into your home as a gift to your home. Not to you, but to your home. Tiffany's been doing that forever in our house. The six rooms in the house every week. I'll go to Costco to make sure you bring the flowers. I love it. Flowers and Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's is the best. I know that's why we go. Our kids and our kids, you know, they eat the girls, they cut the flowers in six rooms every single week. There's fresh flowers. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Oh, I feel like in our profession. But now you've made me feel so much better about it. I always look at it. You're spending the money on flowers. She's going to die by the end of the week, but she's insistent. And my kids are now too. And it does make a nice difference. It does. That's not what element the energy of renewal and regrowth and moving forward and taking that next step. So it's a beautiful thing to bring in worth every penny of your investment. So do you ever do classes with groups of people? I do. I do offer some classes. I have a really fun one that is my favorite to do. It's called Color Mastery and we dive into color because I feel like color appeals to so many people, whether you're into design, whether you're into Feng Shui, whether you're just like an artist or curious about color. We talk about a little history about color, some color theory, but then we get into color psychology, which is so fun. It's huge, too. That's just another big component. Yeah, it is. So color, we get into color psychology and then we talk about putting together a rough palette. Like if you're not working with a designer and you're like, I'm lost. Here's how you can start, right? And think about the things that you are selecting, right? I love to get into a little bit of trends in this as well because trends are fun. And I always say, people, you don't have to follow a trend, right? It's used as inspiration, but you need to know prior to implementing that trend, how it's going to affect your body. For example, the deep, moody colors that have been so popular. Right. They're great, but you need to know that that is going to put being just surrounded by the burgundy, the charcoal, the chocolate brown, the navy. It's going to put your body into a feeling kind of like the winter season. OK. I want to curl up with a cup of tea. It's cozy. Yeah, it's a cozy palette. You're not going to be super motivated to go get on the trend bill. So you just need to be aware of that. Yeah. That's one of my favorite classes. I really think that's fascinating. Well, there's so much to learn and tap into. We're so grateful for sharing your information with us today. And I want to read your book. I'm going to definitely. I would love to send you a copy. It's it's I would. I think it's it's something I feel like I'm doing subconsciously. So I'd love to understand why I'm, you know, kind of connecting to some of those philosophies in my own design process. We appreciate you joining us today. Thank you so much. And I have to say, I think being in the design world, I think you start practicing these things naturally without knowing. But once you have a word to put with it or a description, it all clicks and you're like, aha, I understand that. Yeah. And I would love that. You're doing things. Absolutely. I would love to, you know, understand more. I do think it's so important and especially in, as we said, this world where everybody's eating healthier, they're making healthier lifestyle choices. Like, why not connect that to your home? I mean, that's just one more step of alignment. And what's your website that our audience know? Sure, it's pure living with Lisa Morton.com. And it's spelled M-O-R-T-O-N pure living with Lisa Morton. All right, we appreciate it. Aligned at home. Stay with us. Don't leave it as we wrap up. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the I Design Lab today with Lisa Morton. I Design Labs podcast is an SW group production in association with the five star and TW interiors. To learn more about I Design Lab or TW interiors, please visit TWinteriors.com.