Does Your Home Reflect Your Healthy Lifestyle? Interview with Laura Benko

Do you want highly effective, practical, and relatable advice for a healthier home?

Laura Benko is a Holistic Design Expert.  She uses her skills as a modernizer of feng shui as a  go-to lifestyle expert in addressing psychological and energetic aspects of a space.

She has a unique approach to helping people live a better life through consultations, large scale projects, ongoing television segments and academic lectures.

Laura has been featured in Newsday, Entrepreneur, New Jersey Life, Elements, Decorating Solutions, AM New York, New York Magazine, Martha Stewart Whole Living Sirius Radio, The Nate Berkus Show and can also be seen every Saturday morning on the television show Live It Up! (WLNY).

Keep reading for our Q&A conversation about feng shui, holistic design, and tips you can implement now to create a healthy space at home!

What is the mind, body, spirit home design philosophy all about?

Mind, body, spirit, home is my concept of connecting all parts of who we are – emotionally, physically, spiritually, psychologically – within our own personal intimate environment; our home. Your home can often be a mirror, a subconscious microcosm, of your inner life that can symbolically or literally manifest practically everything that is going on in your life. Illness, fears, scattered thinking, anxiety, lethargy, hopelessness…you name it. Over time, your life challenges will begin to reveal themselves in your personal space. In my 12 years of practice, I’ve never not seen this to be true! There are so many actions you can take to address these issues, though. It first begins with shifting your perspective and connecting the dots between your environment and yourself.

Feng shui often gets misunderstood.  What is a common misconception about this tradition?

Ah, there are so many misconceptions about Feng Shui! A contributing factor to the misconception or confusion is that it has been around for thousands of years and over time, hundreds of varying schools of Feng Shui have emerged. Unfortunately, with so many differing schools, there is a lot of conflicting information. Where one school might put an emphasis on direction, another might be more focused on your date of birth or the placement of the main door to your home. Misunderstandings of this ancient art usually occur when you take parts of information from multiple schools before thoroughly understanding one.

The most common misconceptions are that Feng Shui is a religion or a style of décor, like a “Zen look”. It’s not some new-age hocus-pocus and it’s not about moving your couch and getting rich. It’s a multi-layered system that involves design, psychology, nature, science, urban planning, ancient traditions, sustainability and much more.

How is your work different?

That is hard to answer because I feel like I can’t honestly compare my work to another consultant in a fair way. I’m not sitting in on their consultations or lectures. Some of my peers are extraordinarily talented and I do know that we all have our own unique niche. Some are great at staging, others excel at the architecture end of it, and others keep it very traditional and superstitious. I suppose my niche is getting deep with my clients, getting to their core issues by addressing all areas of their life and offering creative solutions that effectively address their struggles. And I try to present Feng Shui and Holistic Design in a way that is practical, relatable and simply makes sense.

The Nature Fed Movement is all about the way our environment nourishes us in body, mind, and spirit.  What tips would you offer to create a holistically designed, “nature fed” home?

Take your cues from nature. Humankind resonates with nature and nature often operates in cycles, (from a huge scale such as planetary cycles down to a woman’s internal fertility cycle). Cycles are all around us, so if you syncopate your natural rhythms to these Universal forces, you are aligning yourself with an easier flow, where life will serendipitously unfold and opportunities reveal themselves more easily. Here are three tips to help make that happen:

1. Change up your surroundings with the seasons. It can be small adjustments like rotating artwork, collectibles, photographs or painting a room. Coordinate these changes to the seasonal shifts.
2. Dovetail tasks or activities with the energy of the season, like “spring-cleaning” and a detox in spring or taking up contemplative, solo activities such as meditation or journaling in the winter.
3. Surround yourself with nature in your home. I love gifts from the earth like large-scale crystals, shells and driftwood. Use natural fibers like silk, linen, jute, cotton, hemp or flax. Things like vinyl vertical blinds, plastic furniture and synthetic rugs would be “UN-nature fed” and those feel so dead and toxic to me!

How would you help create a holistically designed home workout space?

Fresh air is key. Even if it is cold outside, crack a window and get the air circulating. Make sure the imagery you are surrounding yourself in the space is motivating. That means forgo the placid lake for something more dynamic. If possible, avoid working out in your bedroom. You would be creating active energy, imbued in the matrix of the space that you would later need to relax in. Don’t mix the two.

When would a feng shui consultation be beneficial in a person’s health journey?

Often consultations can be most effective when my clients are going through a pivotal time in their health journey – whether its physical health issues such as cancer, pain or obesity, or it’s emotional health issues such as grief, anxiety or depression – I can help them set up their home to support what they are going through so they feel empowered and enlightened in ways they might never had thought about before.

We both believe essential oils are incredible healers in the home.  How do you use the power of aroma in holistic design?

Personally, I use lavender essential oil spray every night before I go to bed and I love it. I also create my own aromatherapy blends every day to add to a sea salt scrub that I made. Depending upon my needs that day, it can be one of the following: geranium, lemon, jasmine, peppermint, cedar wood, neroli, rosemary or tea tree. My husband and 7-year-old daughter love using these scrubs too. I also use a diffuser to fill the air and I focus on the emotional healing properties of that particular scent. Selecting the scent of the day is the best part. Yesterday I made a batch of soy candles with essential oil scents.

My clients, for example, if they have hormonal issues, I might recommend geranium or if they are depressed, I suggest lemon. I tune in to my intuition when I make an essential oil recommendation based on their specific needs. I also encourage them to explore the many ways they can tap into these intoxicating scents from nature that can have a profound impact on their well-being. A good, pure essential oil is like a super charged, invisible energy link that can accelerate healing, change your mood and affect your mental outlook.

Visit Laura Benko at www.laurabenko.com.