Zensational!

Chi-ching! Many of the UK's most successful companies are turning to feng shui. The idea is that once your

"Our founder, Hans Snook, was really into feng shui," says a company spokesman. "When we moved in to this building it was set up according to its principles, right down to the fish tank and the plants." It took just six years for Orange to be hailed by Oftel as the best-performing network in the UK, and last year its customer base reached nearly 10 million.

Feng shui is based on the premise that there is a conscious connection between our environment and the inner self. Thus our workspaces are a reflection of our subconscious. Making the right changes to our exterior space facilitates a positive shift in our inner-world, bringing us back to balance. However, according to feng shui, clouds of less benevolent energy can also get in the way.

Consultant Catherine Howie seeks "energy alignment" in a building through an idiosyncratic combination of feng shui, space clearing and dowsing to treat stress: the feng shui improves energy flows, space clearing and dowsing pinpoint negative energies.

"We've all walked into a room and thought it felt weird," she says. "That may be because of something called 'predecessor energy'. There may have been a hospital or a battleground on the site of the building, or troubled tenants living there before you, and you have to think about the energy that is left behind. The more traumatic it is, the more the energy imprints itself in the structure of the building. Over a prolonged period of time, if nothing is done to clear that space, it builds up.

"We request the plans of the building first and give the client a questionnaire to detail exactly what they would like to achieve from the space clearing. In the case of offices, where predecessor energy is likely, it is important to identify who was in the building before and how well they did." The process is tailored to the business and a plan is drawn up for the clearing, healing and balancing. Finally, Howie undertakes a feng shui analysis of the office. "We change seating positions and the colours of the interior décor, so energy is more supported."