If you've never had an energy reader assess your space, read this

Plus: This newsletter looks a little different! Because I am.

I’m Emily Grosvenor the Editor of Oregon Home magazine and the author of Find Yourself At Home, a home lifestyle and design book from Chronicle Books. This newsletter is about evolution of the self through design.

That’s the face of a lady who just had her house painted.

Recently, I got a request for a home energy assessment from a newly divorced father. He was in the process of adjusting his life based on his new family constellation and was looking for help shifting the feeling in his home for the next stage of being.

In his previous relationship, he hadn’t been allowed to truly occupy the home with anything of himself. The divorce had happened, but he had continued to confine himself to one half of the bedroom, leaving the rest of the home to tell the story of the partnership he had left. We spoke about why that was happening and what simple changes he could make to re-enter his life.

Fathers aren’t my usual clients.

More often, the people who reach out for help are women who need support as they move through a difficult moment or through one of life’s inevitable life transitions.

These women may already be a little woo, or, like me, identify as woo-adjacent (what I am) or woo-curious.

They suspect there is something going on in their home — they can feel it — and they want someone trained to identify energy blockages to help them shift things for them.

But everyone benefits from a space aligned with their goals, values, personhood, and dreams.

Everyone.

Even if they are not being marketed to.

Even if their algorithms only see them as a demographic avatar.

My specialty is storytelling through home design.

I help people identify the stories they are telling themselves about themselves through their spaces, and then we collaborate on ideas to rewrite those stories through traditional Feng Shui adjustments, visual cues, values-based design, and other modalities.

More simply, I help you rewrite your story at home.

I’m not a traditional designer (at least not yet, give me a moment).

I’m not coming into your home and telling you to demo your whole life and rebuild it in the image of a Pinterest board.

Instead, what I do is identify where you might be blocked and how you can make your home a better collaborator in your life.

You can do this without a 100K budget to renovate your life.

In many cases, you can do this with what you already have at home.

You can do this as a prelude to whatever comes next.

So here’s a breakdown of what a consult looks like:

1. You call me and we set up an in-home (if you live within an hour or so of McMinnville) or virtual consultation.

2. We identify three areas of your life where you might need some movement.

3. I take a look at what’s going on in your spaces. No need to apologize for anything at all, this isn’t a before/after HGTV show. You get to show up as your true, soft-bodied self and can feel safe with me.

4. We talk about how you feel in the areas in question in your home and the corresponding areas of your life based on Feng Shui and environmental psychology.

5. Together, we identify ways to adjust the energy in those spaces. I call these “spatial shifts.” Sometimes it’s as simple as moving furniture or painting a room. Other times, if you’re ambitious, we can dream up something bigger together.

6. We continue through the other areas you are concerned about. The most important feeling for me here is curiosity. I am deeply curious about your art, your colors, your energy, you feelings, your stories, and your desires.

7. You always get some immediate takeaways and can jump into action. I also send you a detailed write-up on my findings with further suggestions of what you might adjust. You are free to choose what resonates most with you.

8. You start sending text messages with images of all the progress you are making and my body floods with happiness with and for you.

   

   Seeing clients jump into action gives me smiling-in-the-sunshine-next-to-a-blooming-cherry-tree feelings!

Here’s the thing that surprises me every time.

With a little gentle guidance, even someone who has felt stuck, overwhelmed, unheard, unsupported, and generally flailing in-the-moment can turn things around in a home when they understand what to prioritize and what steps to take.

Houses will always ask for more of you.

Life will always ask for more of you.

Knowing where you want the most movement, where to start, and where you can make the most impact (the life that reverberates outside of your walls) is the most important step.

That’s what I’m made for.

After we meet, you jump to action.

Often, the clients I work with turn things around quickly.

Within an hour they have made some of the quick changes — taking down drapes that feel oppressive, removing objects associated with a former partner.

Within a few days, they have made bigger strides. Moving furniture around. Reducing visual clutter. Re-thinking spaces that bothered them before.

Within a week, they are feeling more agency in their lives — like they can show up more fully as the person they long to be (or who was in there all the time, just a little overwhelmed).

A few weeks later, BIG UNEXPECTED CHANGES start happening. Good things. New jobs. Possibly lovers. Exciting ways of looking at the world. Shifting concepts of the self. Fresh changes to relationships. More flow. Less stickiness. More direction. Less stagnation.

The impact of this work still astonishes me.

But I will tell you this:

It always feels like magic.

If you’re curious about setting something up with me, just reply to this email.

What changes have shifted the energy the most in your own home?

Wait, what?! What happened to your header?

I’ve been on Substack for about a year and a half now, and it’s time for me to get serious. What I mean by that is that I have done some playing around here and have explored different types of writing based on what moves me day-to-day. I’ve figured out what I care about writing rightnow. I’m feeling moved. That’s all fine and good, but I want to be a real Substack! Which is to say, eventually, I want to go paid. So there’s the money thing. But also, and more importantly, Gagalin font is a terrible idea for a design Substack. I knew that at the beginning, and I’ve known that for 20 months, and I’ve been giving myself time to figure myself out a bit more before deciding how to adjust the overall look and feel of this newsletter. You beautiful person! So many of you have stuck with me through Gagalin font! Also, the computer I just replaced had not been producing greens properly for a few months, so I didn’t trust myself. Anyway, I played around with some logos and headers for an afternoon. I considered hiring someone. I even considered ChatGPT for logos, a really bad idea. I asked myself over and over again whether I really needed the stars (I love the stars). And I decided to drop them — not from the email, but from the online newsletter. You see, I am 46 years old and I no longer need to get a gold star from anyone. You could say I have become a gold star. I went with something simple, that can be changed out on whim based on whatever green I’m vibing with at the moment. Also I may change fonts. Adam says the first one I tried looked a little too “Kellogg’s.” I don’t know. It’s evolving! Very simple, two fonts, two colors. I’ll probably changed it again. But, for now, thank you! For reading, for telling me in the grocery store that you are reading, for laughing with me about #neutralcheck, and, for a few of you, for throwing some money at me to support this project, even as it is changing. I am so grateful. Let me know what you think!

Questions no one has asked me

🎥Why don’t you feel like shopping or consuming or participating at all in the consumer marketplace at the moment?

I know I mentioned I watched Parasite a few weeks ago, but it really did a number on me. My entire worldview has turned upside down. I am rethinking everything I know about desire based on what I learned watching a poor Korean family work in the household of a rich one. I am rethinking my own dreams. Please someone talk to me about Parasite!

✨What was the best thing at the Oregon Country Fair this time around?

Fair kids — we have them. Check out the pants. I practiced my Sashiko Japanese mending technique on them!

We went on Sunday, the hottest day of the festival. I mostly hung out with our younger son and once we fit in a circus performance, I was pretty good. As always, lots of options for GF/DF eating. Found my paradise at MA Cacao, a Portland chocolate maker that makes this drinking chocolate my kids love. This was the first year that I delved into the company’s store and products a bit more and I ended up ordering the ceremonial cacao. Obsessed! Did I just write a paragraph about the evils of consumerism and then suggest a product in the next? I DID! It’s complicated. We all know that.

😦What have you been doing differently this week?

I’m going through our bookshelves and saying goodbye to the mom I thought I might be. I really thought that if we had a lot of books on our hallway shelves, our kids would get curious and explore there. It is not happening. It has never happened. They read what their teachers force them to read and otherwise they want to read Manga. I still feel annoyed and disappointed about the whole thing, but the culture has changed and they have their own interests. Oh well!

Thanks for joining me! You can support me by following me on Instagram or buying my book Find Yourself at Home. Find the discount code for my Unwind Studio needlepoint page here, code EMILYGROSVENOR. For Feng Shui or spatial consults, just reply to this email.