Maria McCullough remembers the “a ha” moment that changed her life. The career educator was working as a principal at a Solano County elementary school when a fifth grade teacher asked for permission to paint her classroom green.
“I asked why she wanted to make that change and she explained that she had been reading about feng shui,” McCullough recalls.
McCullough quickly learned about the ancient Chinese practice of arranging spaces to create balance and harmony. The teacher, who had been learning about feng shui practices, explained that certain shades of green can promote peace and tranquility, and the color change might provide a calming effect for the students. McCullough loved the idea and gave permission for the paint job. She also decided to start exploring feng shui techniques in her own life.
“I really got into it and started practicing it in my own life,” says McCullough.
“There’s an old expression: when the student is ready, the teacher appears. That was definitely the case in my life.”
These changes occurred more than twenty years ago, and the results were significant and transformative in McCullough’s approach to life. A major change occurred when McCullough and her husband traveled to Encinitas, California, so she could take an intensive course with Terah Kathryn Collins, who runs the Western School of Feng Shui. Once she was a certified essential feng shui practitioner, McCullough found the philosophy changed her world view entirely, and she began consulting for clients to help transform their homes, businesses, and landscapes. During the COVID-19 lockdown, McCullough found she could help a wider range of clients with virtual meetings on the computer. McCullough is thrilled with the relationships she has formed through her career change.
“Once someone hires me as a consultant, they are welcome to exchange texts and emails with me for life,” says McCullough. “I believe everything is a journey, not a one-and-done. My clients seem to really like that I am available for advice and insight once they get to know me.”
McCullough has found that her enthusiasm for the practice has inspired her own creative expressions, and she has contributed “Everyday Feng Shui” columns to various Bay Area publications, including the Benicia Herald. She teaches classes at various community centers and adult education campuses in the East Bay. In May 2024, she published Empower Your Life Through Feng Shui: An Easy Eight-Step Guide to Help You Achieve Your Goals, a book that goes beyond homestyle tips and encourages readers to find a happier and more fulfilling life by utilizing feng shui techniques.
Maria McCullough
“Empower Your Life Through Feng Shui is like a workbook.. People can write in it and reflect on their spaces and their life,” says McCullough. “It’s not about one quick makeover to clean up your clutter—it’s an ongoing process.”
McCullough employs the “Bagua map” to every space she is helping transform. Part of the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, this nine-sector grid helps dictate the flow of a home or workspace. The sectors include sections for health and prosperity, fame and prosperity, love and relationships, family and physical health, spiritual health and well being, children and creativity, knowledge and wisdom, career, and travel and helpful people. Each sector contains recommended colors and earth inspired textures—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—to help create a natural flow through the space.
While the techniques are ancient, McCollough stays current with her homestyle tips.
For example, she recommends that distracting technological elements such as televisions and computers are not ideal for the primary bedroom in a home.
“The bedroom is a place to relax and for romance,” she says. “A television can affect sleep at night.”
Similarly, she insists that the bedroom is not a place to set up a home office. That work area can go in the career space on the other side of the house. Of course, the design of all living spaces will vary based on the home’s layout and square footage.
McCullough says she sees the world differently due to her experience and practice. A native of Milan, Italy, McCullough refers to “intuitive feng shui” when visiting ancient buildings and homes in the Old World. “When I walk into a building or a home, I look at the space with that intuition. It’s amazing to be in an old building that feels right because it was designed using those principles.”
Even in the modern East Bay, McCullough says she can feel feng shui in unexpected places. “Whole Foods stores hire a consultant to go through to employ feng shui throughout the building,” she says. “In some other stores, you’ll notice a more chaotic layout and find yourself getting frustrated unexpectedly.”
McCullough says that the home is the most important space to employ feng shui, as a sense of balance and flow provides sanctuary.
This is the ideal energy for the home, which should be a place to relax and recharge. Effective feng shui principles in a home allow the resident to enjoy their creativity and be open to changes and new opportunities in life. On the other hand, a cluttered or chaotic home can vacuum inspiration and idealism from a person’s perspective.
“Houses can either nourish you or drain you,” McCullough explains.
“I go into many houses, and sometimes walk in and feel instantly frustrated.”
While her consulting work takes her all over the Bay Area and virtual spaces, many examples of feng shui success are close to McCullough’s life in Benicia. She and her husband moved to Benicia from Clayton in 1997. McCullough’s parents had lived in town and the couple always liked Benicia’s small-town feel. While visiting Benicia to attend a sports game, they happened to walk into an open house, and were instantly smitten.
“It was like the home was calling to us, and we were living here one month later,” she says. The home had water views, was walking distance from downtown, and had other ideal factors, but still required feng shui tune-ups to several rooms. “My grandson would come to visit when he was about 8. He lives in Long Beach with two siblings and a dog, and the kind of natural chaos that goes with all of that. But he would visit us in Benicia and say, “Grandma, your house feels so good!”
Empower Your Life Through Feng Shui is available at Bookshop Benicia, at fengshuibymaria.com, and at many other book retailers.
