Belinda chats with Feng Shui expert, Jane Langof

Welcome, guys. I'm Belinda Smith from Renovate and Real Estate, as you all know. And with me today is Jane Langmoth, and Jane is a feng shui expert. So I'm really pleased to have her with me today. How are you, Jane?

Good, thanks, Belinda. Great to be here today. Thank you for having me.

Oh, you're welcome. All right, so I'm really excited about finding out more about feng shui. And I know when I was talking to you about putting this together, we had a really open conversation and I probably come from a position where as a renovator, I was a little bit biased towards just renovating the property from what, you know, what, from the starting place, from what we're given and really not paying attention to anything else other than improving the look of that property and, you know, gaining profit from that property. And then you brought some really important things to my attention, particularly in relation to demographics. So as a renovator, what should people be considering when they're doing a renovation?

Well, I think that if people are doing renovations and they're looking to appeal to the Asian demographic, they're not wanting to alienate any feng shui conscious buyers, then they really need to take notice of feng shui, perhaps get a consultant, at least be aware of of the issues and what they can do to improve the energy in a property and make sure that they avoid big feng shui mistakes that can cost them a lot of money.

Okay, so when you say big feng shui mistakes that can cost people money, is that because you're in danger of excluding an entire demographic if you don't take notice of the rules and the regulations and the laws, that there are.

A lot of people who really believe in feng shui and they will go to the extent of looking at floor plans and checking out a property online and will write off a property if there's something wrong with the layout and if they perceive that there's an issue that's going to create bad luck and that sort of thing in the future. So it's something that you need to be mindful of. Not all Asians are that student strict about their feng shui, but there is a large population of people, and not just the Asian demographic, who are very feng shui conscious and want to make sure that they're providing the best possible opportunities to support their relationships, harmony and health for themselves and for their families in their homes.

I've seen it really grow in popularity both with people advertising courses on how to learn the concepts of feng shui as well as you know, coaches in the space and you as a consultant in the space, when it comes to property developers and renovators, et cetera, and home designers, it is growing in popularity. And, you know, it's something that I, as a renovator, shame on me. Have ignored just a little bit until we had our conversation the other day and I thought, this is so important. It is important. So where does, where does it all come from? Like explain feng shui to somebody who's never heard of it before and the meaning behind it.

So feng shui is the art of balancing the elements in a space to create what, optimal flow of energy, harmony, well being for its occupants. And it's about your relationship with your environment and how your environment can impact you and impact your mood psychology, mindset, things like that, and therefore impact on your luck. And feng shui was developed 3,000 years ago in China. Ancient Chinese masters discovered that different patterns of energy affected people in different ways. When people were aligned with positive energy, they found that they experienced periods of good luck. And when people were aligned with negative energy, then they would experience misfortune and obstacles. And from those observations came a defined set of guidelines, rules, calculations, mathematical systems that developed into what feng shui has been over the years, and it's carried forward all of those thousands of years later to building and architectural layouts and the things that we look at today in buildings and homes.

So there are people like yourself who really specialize in ensuring that the design is feng shui friendly. Is that the right term, terminology? Sure. Yeah. Okay, so what perhaps name three things that you would really consider when designing a home. To tick all of the boxes.

So one of the big things that I would look at is the front of the property and the front entrance, to make sure that the front entrance is open and inviting, that there's a clear path to get to the front door, and that inside the entrance you've got a space where energy can circulate and be contained to move and meander through the properties. So we're looking at the flow of energy within a floor plan and how the home receives the energy from the front. So I think those are two really important aspects. And then if you think about the rooms that are really important, I believe the bedroom is paramount because that is where people spend most of their time in a home. So I think it's really important to get the layout of a bedroom really supportive. And that allows for people to sort of relax, rejuvenate, etc. And also the. The living space in terms of the kitchen and the living room to make sure that that is, is a place where, where, you know, there's vibrant energy and families can gather.

So it's about peace and prosperity and just creating a home and the whole feeling of the energy circulating. So for example, a big faux pas, is that like having a front door that's aligned directly in front of the back door, so energy goes whoosh through the front and out the back, that kind of thing?

Yeah, that's right. That's right. So in feng shui, it's believed that if you've got your front door in direct alignment with your back door, that it's like energy in, energy out. Money comes in and money goes out way too quickly. If you think about it from a practical sense, you know, you've got the energy that you're receiving at the front of the home. You don't want people to be quickly drawn towards the more private areas of your properties. So usually you have the more public areas at the front of the property, the more private spaces at the back or in the bedrooms, and you want the chi to flow in a more regulated manner that allows the people to focus on the front public areas of the space before going and escaping from the, from the property.

Is it becoming more acceptable amongst the average jo? Like, are people more open to it now than they used to be?

I believe so. I really, I really think that's the case. Just a lot, a lot more people now, I feel, have, have heard about feng shui and know a little about it. Whereas when I first started on my Feng Shui journey 15 years ago, it was less, less obvious to people what it, what it was. And I got a lot more questions about what are you doing? What is that? And whereas now people say, oh, oh, yeah. And then they ask me questions about their house. Yeah.

And the things that they could do to improve. Okay, so what is the no go In a bedroom?

The best thing to do is to have your back, your bed head up against a solid wall. So preferably no windows. Or if you must have your bed against windows, they should be those high ones. So solid wall is preferable. And you want to be located diagonally opposite the door of the entrance to the bedroom. Ideally it's best not to have an ensuite that opens up in direct alignment with your bed. Quite often I see that in floor plans. And the other thing is that we don't want plumbing behind our head as well or things that could cause disturbances like electromagnetic fields. Definitely don't want to have electrical meter Boxes placed on the bedroom wall. It's best to have those on a garage side or someplace where people are not spending a lot of time.

So interesting. There's so much. There's so much to do, or there's so much more to this, and this is something that people like yourself study full time and build careers around. Here in Australia, probably in Asia, this is really common. But here in Australia, it's becoming more and more common. Jane, tell me a little bit about how you got started and how you became really interested in it and. And your studies and learnings.

Well, the first time I actually. I actually came across feng shui was when I was in my previous career. So. So I started my career as an accountant, funnily enough, had a massive career change. But during that time, one of the girls who was in my team showed me this article on 100 Ways to Improve your feng shui. And I was just fascinated by it, and I thought it was fabulous. And I couldn't stop reading it. So I held onto it for a couple of weeks, and then that kind of went by the wayside. But I. But throughout that time, I was interested in interior design because I was renovating my own property. Fast forward. I had got pregnant, managed to engineer my own redundancy from my corporate career, and I was told by one of my girlfriends that I must go and see this particular clairvoyant and psychic. And I did. And she said to me I wouldn't be going back to my accounting career anymore and that I should go and study interior design and eventually study feng shui as well and combine the two, and it'll be a great business and I'll do really well in it. So I followed her advice and I did it. And I've got to say that what she said came true.

I'm not surprised. I've been to a few psychics, and there's plenty of boxes I can tick. I find that all very interesting. We've changed a lot, I think, in our homes, in our relationships to nature and bringing indoor plants back in style and. And just, you know, particularly with what's happened in the world in the last couple of years. We just want peace and serenity and goodwill and calm and texture and layers of. Of, you know, neutral colors and woods and all of those, you know, kinds of natural components.

And.

And so feng shui is kind of in alignment with just our getting touch with ourselves again and pairing it back to nature.

Exactly. Getting in touch with nature is really important and being grounded. So having a little patch of grass, where you can walk out on and connect with nature is really great. And bringing nature into your home and having that connection inside with indoor plants and so forth, flowers and that sort of thing is really awesome. And it's a great way of improving the energy and a very easy way of improving the energy in a home.

What about gardens and the exterior? Is feng shui something that calculates the design of the exterior of a home as well?

Oh, definitely. So when I do a feng shui consultation, I'm looking at the forms around a property, so the gardens, the landscapes, and also things like water features and where the best places are to put them to activate really good positive zones, like the wealth sector of a home and making sure that we're not using water or fire to energetically amplify negative energies that are found in their home. So as part of my consultations, what I do is I focus on the physical environment, which are all the things that you can see. The other thing that I do is also look at the intangible energy in a property, which is looking at the energetic map or geomantic chart of a home, which is somewhat like a horoscope that can indicate how supportive the house is for health, relationships, wealth, and so forth. And what we do there is we look at the individual sectors within a home and figure out what the configuration of energy is and how we can maximize that or, you know, reduce unfavourable influences where possible.

How long does it take to really assess a property and, like, roll out the improvements or at least lay out for the property owner those improvements?

Consultation takes a number of hours. Yeah, so usually when I go out on site, I spend a couple of hours, maybe two hours on site, and the time just goes really fast. You know, I tell clients one or two hours, but we just start talking and then it just flies. So there's so much to it. It's just about going through every room and the outdoors and talking about the people and the occupants and what they really need to achieve in their space and how they can. How they can just improve the energy to help themselves and help their mindsets and, and. And, you know, improve their luck.

So it is. There's a real relationship with, and a connection with getting to know the humans who occupy that space and what they want. Well, like, what outcomes? What are their desires and hopes and dreams and.

Exactly.

So it's very, very traditional, isn't it? So are there something. Is there something simple that if somebody said to you, okay, what is one thing that I could apply to my house right now. What would you suggest?

I would say that the number one thing that somebody could do to improve their feng shui is to declutter. And I think this is something that you like. I think I've. I've heard about it on your website also. Yeah, but decluttering, decluttering is. Is the number one. Is the number one improvement that you can make to your feng shui without really being a feng shui thing. I mean, clutter wasn't invented 3,000 years ago. When feng shui was first developed, there was no such thing as clutter. But now it is causing blockages, causes instability, stagnant energy, and stops people from being able to achieve what they need to and welcome the opportunities in their lives.

Yeah, I have to agree. And it's not appealing to anybody else to look at, but also, it seems to. Somebody said to me once, when you clutter or you grab a whole lot of things around you, you're grabbing a whole lot of things that you have to do. Like, at some point, you have to either tidy them up, or you might be gathering things for DIY jobs or tucking them aside for later in case you need them, but they're always in your mind and it just stops you from being free and moving forward.

Exactly. It stops new opportunities from coming into your life because there's no room for it. There's just too much stuff. Yeah.

So I won't show you the other end of my office, then. All right. So color. Is there an association between good luck and colour?

Yes, there is, definitely. I could talk about this a lot and in colour. So we're looking at things that. Colours that are associated with good luck from a cultural perspective, which are colours like red and gold. And they're not necessarily colours that you would incorporate in your own home, but they're important for commercial spaces, certain commercial spaces. So I work a lot in the hospitality and gaming industry, and that's where we consider the use of lucky colors. But in the home, we associate colors with the five elements. And the five elements that are used in feng shui are fire, earth, metal, water and wood. And each of those elements has particular colors that are associated with it. So, for example, the fire element is associated with the color red, and shades of red, such as pink and purple and those sorts of things. And in a feng shui consultation, we figure out where the areas are that require those particular elements to charge up the really good energy or reduce the effect of the negative energies. So the use of color is really important. Overall, I'VE got to say we don't paint a whole room in red. Definitely. Neutral color schemes, I think, are always the best. And if there are certain elements and colors required, then we bring them in in the form of accents.

So if somebody were to be building an apartment in, building a block of apartments or building a home in an area where there is high Asian population as your main targeted demographic when you're selling a home, then give me a number. Out of 10, how important is it to consider feng shui and the design and the color scheme, fixtures and fittings?

10.

Yeah.

I think if you, if you don't, then, you know, there's. There's an opportunity cost of. Of losing. Losing some people, buyers at the auction and who doesn't want more competition at an auction to get the prices that they want?

Have you seen somebody miss out on a buyer if they haven't considered feng shui or miss out on opportunity?

I have because I've been looking for. I looked for properties myself when I lived in Melbourne for a while, and when we moved back to Sydney, I was looking for properties and I was very quick to make a judgment on whether I would even see a property or not based on its. Its floor plan. So it, it is definitely something that needs to. Needs to be considered.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's the same as, like, if you're building a house and you're, you know, it's on the coast and you just don't take any notice of the fact that your main demographic are young people who like the beach and you just do everything completely wrong. So it's the same. But particularly with feng shui, when there's that whole luck component of it, like, it's really important to people if they feel like, you know, it's not. It's not only just not feeling comfortable in a property, it's the opposite. It's like this. This property might bring me bad luck. I don't want bad luck. Like, it can be really repulsive to somebody if their needs aren't met.

Yeah, that's right. I've. I actually met a developer who built a property in Hurstville and he was unable to sell it and recover his costs because he had made some. There was some big errors there and he didn't even know about feng shui at all. And when he met me, he told me about his story and how he lost everything. Was really terrible situation. And I hope that he's recovered since. But, you know, that's a good example of making sure that you're aware of the parameters that you need to cover when you're building a property. And feng shui is one of them.

Yeah, it is all about researching the demographic and really doing the right thing by their expectations so that you appeal to them, to the majority of the buyers. So who are your clients? Like, who does call you?

I have varied clients. It's usually people who are looking to. Who have Asian clientele or looking to appeal to the demographic. Quite often it's people like in commercial organizations where, for example, I work with people who are doing office refurbishments and they have Asian clients, or I work in gaming and hospitality where you've got casinos, who want to make sure that they're not alienating, feng shui conscious people and the club industry also, and also work for property developers, renovators, mums and dads, people who are building homes especially, especially if they're looking to make sure that they're creating an environment that is very supportive for their families and just wanting to make sure that they're doing things right the first time and they're not making something that's going to be costly, you know, making costly mistakes that's going to affect them later on.

So when, through the process, do they contact you or should they contact you when they're about to do the design and then maybe do they contact you later when they're styling the property or.

So people contact me at all stages. So the best time is really at the concept stage of design where the designs are still just lines on a page and can be easily changed and rectified. But I do work with people also who have an existing home and want to improve the energy there. And there's always things that we can do to improve that. But the biggest bang for your buck is to do it at the concept stage times. So I really like to work with people who are doing sort of building and renovation work and get the energy right at the start.

Yeah, fantastic. Is there anything else that you would like to mention that we haven't covered today that you think might be a benefit to anybody in my space, My guys who do renovations and some do small developments as well, a lot of people just would like to improve the energy in their own home. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Oh, look, I think it's a really good idea to consider the, the energy flow and containment within a property. So there are trends towards certain things like everything being open plan, for example, which I don't think is a great thing. I think it's a good idea to have some areas where you can actually really contain that energy, get away from the kids and have a quiet space. Parents can have a quiet space on their own that can be closed off. So not everything that has to be open. You know, I don't necessarily think that bedrooms should be humongous spaces. I think smaller can be actually better in some ways to really provide that nurturing environment. But yeah, flow and containment is something that's really important. Also be careful of water features too, because they can amplify energies that you might not want to happen. And what you can do with water features is you can test them to see whether they work in particular sectors of the home. So if you've got a aquarium or small little water feature and things have been going wrong in life, we'll switch it off or move it and see what happens. So water's another big thing.

Yeah, no, it's so interesting.

I'll tell you something else, something else that I, that I have done with my clients, which is really interesting and a bit woo woo, get out there.

That's good.

I actually work with a spirit medium who is a ghostbuster. So occasionally I may have trouble with a client, may have trouble with spirits in their home and they might be experiencing obstacles, delays, all sorts of, you know, issues with DA's going through council problems, problems with neighbors and so forth. And they've had the spirit medium come through and get rid of the, the bad juju. And, and it's just been amazing as to what's happened there, how, how blockages have been cleared and things have been able to progress. So I found that a really fascinating part of my career. Now, spirits is not something that I can really feel or sense and I actually don't want to because it scares the hell out of me. But having somebody who I can call upon to do that sort of thing is, you know, adds a different sort of facet to my work. It's really quite fascinating. I love it.

Look, I had a big clearing here in this house. That's a whole other story. But anyway.

Oh wow.

A big old mansion here. So the creepiest house around. All my kids friends called it so. Yeah, I called in somebody too. It was fascinating to watch her walk through the house. Fascinating.

So one thing that is really important to know about a property is also who lived there before, what is the history of the property. So that's so important for yourself if you're trying to find a place for your own family. It's what happened in the home before. Was there a, you Know, was there a divorce or were there people going bankrupt or was there history of violence? It's really important to know that so that you know what you're dealing with. And then, you know, we get that sort of energy treated.

Yeah.

Or avoid the home if it's like a history of extreme violence.

When I walk into a space, into someone's home, I can kind of feel like I get a feeling. I get a feeling of, this is lovely. I'd like to lay on the lounge and put my feet up. I'm very comfortable here. Or if it's really. I'm no good in spaces that feel cold and very sparse, that just makes me feel cold. So do you get that same kind of feeling or is it beyond that feeling? It's also applying the knowledge that you have.

Yes, it's beyond that feeling. But what you've raised is a really important point point, and that is balancing yin and yang. So what you mentioned about cold and sparse rooms is where there's an imbalance of yin and yang. So, and by yin and yang, we mean the, you know, hard and soft, open and closed, cool and warm. And we. We really need that balance to make a room and a home feel good. If we don't have that, then. Then that's when. That's one way of recognizing that something's not right in a property and you.

Can feel it out of balance. A lot of real estate agents, I find, will advise clients not just to declutter, but just to clear everything off, you know, just to really make a place sparse. And I think that it's really hard for people to connect to a space and feel welcomed in a space if it's really sparse. And I never really knew why, but, you know, there's a whole energy, this yin and yang. It's a whole energy behind it. Excellent. Thank you so much, Jane. Thank you for joining me. I've learned so much today, and I know my students and people out there in the community are going to learn a lot from this as well. And like I said right at the beginning, it wasn't until I met you and had a really big, deep dive into feng shui that I realized that it is a really important part of designing property, of building and renovating, and it shouldn't be dismissed. And in particular in demographics, where there is a large Asian population and this is, like, not just important, it is, like you said, it's a 10 out of 10 of importance to those people when they're buying property.

Spot on, Belinda.

Thank you. Where can people find you, Jane.

They can find me through my website. So I have a website which is feng shui concepts.com au I'm also on Instagram and social media, LinkedIn and YouTube also.

Thanks so much for joining me. I really appreciate it.

You're welcome, Belinda.