0:00:00 - (Linda Habak): Foreign. I'm Linda Habak, and this is Build Beautiful. This isn't just a podcast about design. It's about the people behind the work and the truth behind the journey. The quiet pivots, the bold decisions, the failures no one sees, and the moments that change everything. Each episode, I sit down with architects, designers, developers, artists, and creative entrepreneurs, not to talk about success, but about what it takes to get there.

0:00:33 - (Linda Habak): The process, the doubt, the grit, the heart. If you believe in creating with meaning and living a life with intention, then you'll feel right at home here. Welcome to Build Beautiful, where design meets depth. What if the way your home feels, the flow, the placement, the quiet details could shift the way your life unfolds? Jane Langhoff doesn't just design interiors. She listens to the energy beneath them.

0:01:07 - (Linda Habak): With roots in corporate Australia and a heart tuned to intuition, Jane's journey into feng shui is a story of realignment, of choosing presence over passion and following a deeper sense of knowing. In this conversation, we talk about her book, Feng Shui A Homeowner's Guide to Abundance and what it means to truly live in flow. We explore the emotional resonance of space, how intention alters atmosphere, and the quiet power of a home that supports who you are becoming.

0:01:37 - (Linda Habak): This isn't just about interiors. It's about alignment with self, with place, and with possibility. Welcome to my conversation with Jane. Jane, hi.

0:01:49 - (Jane Langof): Hi, Linda.

0:01:49 - (Linda Habak): Welcome.

0:01:50 - (Jane Langof): Thank you. It's so great to be here.

0:01:52 - (Linda Habak): Oh, I'm so happy to have you. Let's start with your corporate background. So you obviously moved into this work after a career in corporate.

0:02:01 - (Jane Langof): That's right.

0:02:01 - (Linda Habak): Can you tell me about that transition and the work you did and the pull to come into this intuitive work?

0:02:07 - (Jane Langof): So it was a big change. I was working in finance as an accountant.

0:02:12 - (Linda Habak): That is a huge change.

0:02:15 - (Jane Langof): It's from one side of the brain to the other.

0:02:17 - (Linda Habak): Absolutely.

0:02:18 - (Jane Langof): And I. When I had my first child, a friend of mine suggested that I go and see this particular psychic spirit medium.

0:02:25 - (Linda Habak): You're talking my language, Jane. I love this stuff.

0:02:28 - (Jane Langof): And she said to me, jane, corporate career is over. You need to go and study interior design. And I had just had a little baby, and I thought, wow, this was something that I was really interested in when I was an accountant because I'd been renovating my own home and something that I entertained doing for a while, but because my work was so full on, it was crazy. There was no way I could have done that. But now that I had the baby and I was on a break from the corporate career, there was opportunity to do that. So my mother looked after my daughter and I went to design school.

0:03:00 - (Linda Habak): That's amazing.

0:03:01 - (Jane Langof): And I did that for a while, and then halfway through the course, there was a break in the course. And I was frustrated because I wanted just to finish the whole thing and start practicing. So I went back to the psychic. This was a while later. And she said to me, don't worry about this now. You need to study feng shui and combine the two. And I can see you being really successful at it. And I thought, wow, that's a good idea to have a niche in interior design.

0:03:25 - (Jane Langof): So I started investigating that. And as soon as I opened those feng shui books, I knew that that was exactly where I needed to be. But then instead of it being interior design with a bit of a side salad of feng shui, it became feng shui done in a beautiful and practical way. So now I practice predominantly in feng shui, and I work with a lot of designers and architects and project teams to bring the ancient Chinese art of feng shui to interiors and community spaces and buildings.

0:03:53 - (Linda Habak): That is absolutely incredible. And what did you have to unlearn from your corporate life in order to really kind of step into this very intuitive work?

0:04:04 - (Jane Langof): Well, it's intuitive, but it's also quite technical. So there are a lot of technical aspects to feng shui that determine how to read the energy of a space. I guess the biggest transition and the biggest learnings from moving to this was to believe in myself and try not to worry too much about all the noise and what other people think. Because being in a corporate career, there was a lot of status involved in that. And then moving to feng shui, to a field that people don't understand or misunderstand, was a huge leap.

0:04:37 - (Jane Langof): And I had people around me saying, what are you doing? Go back and become a financial controller again. Or whatever I was doing before. And I just had to kind of block out that noise and unlearn, I guess, if you unlearn the fact that other people's opinions are not as important as my own.

0:04:54 - (Linda Habak): Wow, that's super inspiring. Honestly, do you have a practice around, you know, if ever that sort of voice comes up for you? Because I know it comes up for all of us. Is there a practice around how you deal with that?

0:05:08 - (Jane Langof): There are a lot of things that I do, so I use affirmations. I do gratitude, journaling, and I also meditate.

0:05:14 - (Linda Habak): Do you do that every day?

0:05:16 - (Jane Langof): I try and do it every day. I can't always do it every day. It just depends on what's going on. But most days I'll do that.

0:05:24 - (Linda Habak): How has your life transformed in doing these things?

0:05:27 - (Jane Langof): It's taken a complete 360. So even the whole affirmation, gratitude and meditation thing only started happening around the time that I was writing my book. Prior to that, I was doing it a little bit, but not religiously. And I found that I really needed that when I was writing my book because it took a lot of discipline to get it done and tapping into the right energy, I guess, to. To be able to feel that I could share my story and the way I view feng shui.

0:05:57 - (Linda Habak): That's amazing. And when you. When you referred to opening up the feng shui books and you just knew that was. That was it for you?

0:06:04 - (Jane Langof): Yeah.

0:06:04 - (Linda Habak): What was it about those books or what you read in those books that kind of crystallized that moment and crystallized it for you that you knew this was the path you had to take?

0:06:15 - (Jane Langof): Well, I started studying, so I didn't just read books to get into feng shui. So I found the best feng shui masters and colleges to study with around the world. And I just had this feeling that when I was there and when I was immersed in this new art, which was a new art to me at the time, that I really felt like this was my path. It was just like a destiny thing for me. Feng shui was something that I'd come across in the past and that I was interested in, but really to consider it as a vocation was something that I would never have expected for myself at all.

0:06:53 - (Linda Habak): It's incredible. Okay, we need a lesson in feng shui, because I know very little about it. If someone was listening to this and they really didn't have any knowledge or prior understanding, can you give me a 10 minute rundown on what it is? And then what I'd love to unpack is how can we integrate it into the work we do? If we're a designer or an architect, sure.

0:07:17 - (Jane Langof): Well, feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of designing your living and workspaces to create the optimal flow of energy. It's about your relationship with your environment and your surroundings, and how the energy in your surroundings can impact you on a mental, physical and spiritual level. So feng shui is not actually based on superstition and it's not religion. There are roots in those ancient practices, but true feng shui is about energy flow and getting the energy flow right in our buildings to support the occupants that live there. So it's creating an underlying environment that's super supportive for people that it allows them to live a life of abundance, success, create that well being and harmony in their lives.

0:07:59 - (Linda Habak): It's amazing.

0:08:00 - (Jane Langof): So ancient Chinese masters discovered that different patterns of energy affected the human body and mind. And when people were aligned with positive energy, they experienced periods of good fortune, whereas if they were aligned with negative energy, they experienced periods of misfortune and obstacles. And from those observations came guidelines, rules, mathematical systems that form the basis of the traditional Feng shui theories today.

0:08:26 - (Linda Habak): So how are you applying all of that theory in practice on a daily basis?

0:08:32 - (Jane Langof): So I would read the energy map of a building. So let's say, for example, if I had the floor plan of a home, I would look at when the building was constructed, so the age of the building, the occupants that live there, the orientation of the building to the degree, and that data forms part of what's required to analyse the energy flow of a building. So from there we work out what the energy map is, which then tells me where the positive and negative energy zones are that might relate to wealth. So for example, I would find the wealth sector in a building which everyone wants to know about, where's their wealth sector?

0:09:05 - (Jane Langof): Look for the energy that relates to harmony, health and relationships and see where that is aligned with their home and their floor plan. So if I was working with a client from scratch, I would be mapping this energy out and seeing how can we tap into that wealth, energy. Can we put the entrance there? Can we put a living space in there so that the energy is activated? Can we whack a swimming pool in that location or a water feature that you can see from that room?

0:09:33 - (Jane Langof): So there's a whole lot of different principles and things that you need to consider. That's the energy map, which is the intangible energy layer. But we also look at the physical aspects as designers do. So we're looking at the physical layouts, looking at the flow and containment of a room. Yin and yang is really important. So Feng shui essentially is looking at the balance of yin and yang and yin and yang of all sorts.

0:09:57 - (Jane Langof): So we're looking at openness and enclosure, high and low, soft and hard, masculine and feminine, all of those things that you would consider as a, as a designer as well. So I would marry the energetic layer with the physical aspects. And it's really important that you get that balance right because there's yin and yang in everything. And making sure that you're getting a space to be practical and beautiful is so important.

0:10:23 - (Jane Langof): When you're looking at the Feng shui of a building. It's not just the feng shui formulas or what you might see with these energy grids and things that you might see online.

0:10:33 - (Linda Habak): I have so many questions, I don't even know where to start myself. I had questions prepared, but honestly, they're out the window now. So, couple of things. How do you apply these theories into practice? And like, can you give me an example? How do you balance the hard and the soft and the yin and the yang? There's that question. And the second one, because it might lead into it. How do you tap into and work alongside an architect or a designer to support them with introducing the theories of feng shui to a client?

0:11:03 - (Jane Langof): When I work with an architectural designer, what I'll start with first is the floor plan. Of course, I'll go and visit the site if I can. I do work with clients online as well when I can't visit the site myself. And there are a lot of online tools that we can use there. And then I would analyze that floor plan from a feng shui perspective. So I would work out what the energy map is of the floor plan and then see whether there are any changes that I can identify or adjustments that we can make to tap into those positive energies. Now, when we can't do that, we use the elements, the five elements that are used in Chinese metaphysics.

0:11:39 - (Jane Langof): And those five elements are fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. And each of those elements relates to a particular color, shape, and material. So if we've got a room, for example, where we've identified some. Let's say there's some negative energy that relates to illness, we might need to introduce the metal element into that room. That will be through the decorating process. So we could have a beautiful, beautiful metallic lamp, or like those candle holders that you've got here on your. On your mantel, things like that that represent the metal element, we can use that to help to harmonize that intangible energy.

0:12:13 - (Jane Langof): And then we'd also look at what we can do in terms of those physical aspects. So, for example, if I see a design where the bed is placed in a way that it's aligned with the door, I might suggest that's not the best place from a feng shui perspective. Can we move it to this area, Therefore, can we shift the door, or can we make some adjustment? If not, there might be another way that we can handle that.

0:12:37 - (Jane Langof): Some designers or architects might get a bit concerned that somebody else is messing with their design.

0:12:43 - (Linda Habak): That was my next question. Do you get any pushback and how do you handle it?

0:12:48 - (Jane Langof): How do you deal with it?

0:12:49 - (Linda Habak): Yeah, how do you deal with it?

0:12:50 - (Jane Langof): Well, I'm not the feng shui police, so I will give my advice to the client and whoever's on the project team, whoever's making the ultimate decisions. And it's up to them to decide how far they want to take the recommendation recommendations. Because I've got that design knowledge. I'm not going to do something that's crazy. And it all needs to be practical and beautiful and make sense. I have worked in spaces before where I've gone to homes of people who've had a feng shui consultation and they've been told that they can't live like a normal person.

0:13:24 - (Jane Langof): For example, they've had to pull their fridge out and whack it in some strange place, like in their dining room, pull it out of the cabinetry. Or they've had to not allowed to use their stove. And so they've got to get some make makeshift thing on their island bench. I've worked with somebody who wasn't allowed to use their laundry tub, so they were washing their undies in the bathroom sink. So is that the craziest thing that you came across?

0:13:47 - (Jane Langof): Crazy things that I see like that, wow. Or there was another lady that had her bed pushed jammed up right against her wardrobe because she was told it needs. Her bed needs to be in this particular sector of her room. And then she had to kind of turn sideways to get her clothes out of her wardrobe. And her room looked crazy, like there was all this empty space on one side of the room and the bed was jammed up against the wardrobes.

0:14:10 - (Jane Langof): So that is not living in harmony. In harmony. No, it's not. And there's a lot of misinformation, misinterpretation of feng shui, where things go wrong and that other designers or architects or even just general public will look at that and say, I don't want anything to do with feng shui. And so I guess that's part of the reason why I wrote my book, is to just debunk a lot of misinformation out there and to show that feng shui should really be beautiful and practical and it should enhance your life, not create fear.

0:14:42 - (Linda Habak): Absolutely. Because your book is called A Homeowner's Guide to Abundance.

0:14:47 - (Jane Langof): Yes, that's right.

0:14:48 - (Linda Habak): Love the title. Did you write the title and then write the book, or did you go through the process of putting the book together and then realized that actually the heart of the book is about abundance?

0:14:59 - (Jane Langof): Well, I knew that I was writing about abundance, and I knew that that had to be incorporated into the title somehow. So I guess probably half or maybe a bit longer through the writing process, I sort of workshopped some titles and came up with that one.

0:15:13 - (Linda Habak): I love that. What does abundance actually mean to you?

0:15:16 - (Jane Langof): I think people think that abundance is just about money, but it's not just about money. It's also about living in harmony, about wellbeing. It's about health and living your best life, I guess.

0:15:27 - (Linda Habak): Absolutely. And what's your vision for your future with this work?

0:15:33 - (Jane Langof): My vision is that feng shui will become a mainstream consideration when it comes time to building and designing a space, and not just something that's very narrow and very niche because you've got Chinese clients. Because feng shui is appealing to many more people than just the Asian demographic, even though that's where the origins lie. I work with mostly probably non Asian clients and people who are just interested in wellness and wanting to create positive energy and create a house that supports their wellbeing and their success.

0:16:10 - (Linda Habak): I love that because I think as designers, that's our goal. We're looking at creating homes for people to actually support their soul, support who they are, their family, and to be the best version of themselves. So it's very aligned. The type of people that come to you, are they mostly coming to you and seeking you out? And who are they? What's their psyche? Or the driver?

0:16:35 - (Jane Langof): Yeah. So I work with homeowners, so homeowners will come and find me because they know that building and renovating is expensive and they want to get it right.

0:16:44 - (Linda Habak): Yeah.

0:16:44 - (Jane Langof): Or they might have had some prior experience or knowledge or ties to Asia where they've heard about feng shui. I mean, it's just something that's. There's more exposure about it now. So more people are finding out about feng shui now. I think after Covid, that really shook a lot of people up. And people were then really interested in wellbeing. And so with that push for wellbeing, I mean, wellness real estate is just huge. It's growing at over 20% each year. And it's like a multi trillion dollar industry now.

0:17:11 - (Jane Langof): Feng shui is very much aligned with that. So I work with developers, I work with people in property who know that feng shui is important to a lot of people in the community. And regardless of whether they think they may believe in it or not, that it's important to so many people. And you want everybody showing up to your auction when it comes time to sell yeah, absolutely. So why not consider it when. When you're designing a space?

0:17:35 - (Linda Habak): Many years ago, we sold a house. We lived in house in Tremoine, and The number was 44.

0:17:42 - (Jane Langof): Oh, yeah.

0:17:43 - (Linda Habak): And the agent said, it's not going to sell. And the other damning thing was, from a feng shui perspective, was our front door opened out and you could see right through to the backyard. Yeah. So there was a glass door and there was nothing blocking, stopping the energy. And so everyone kept saying all your abundance is just flowing right through the house.

0:18:04 - (Jane Langof): That's right. It's energy leakage. That configuration is about energy leakage, and it doesn't necessarily mean that. I mean, yeah, it's about sort of wealth coming in and wealth going out straight away. And there are things that you can do to slow that energy flow down.

0:18:18 - (Linda Habak): Can you give me some examples?

0:18:20 - (Jane Langof): Yes, absolutely. So I get asked about this all the time, and that is one of the big feng shui, no nos, I guess when you're designing a house, if you can avoid having that front and back door aligned, what you want to do is you want the energy to meander through a property rather than move too quickly in straight lines. So that's the principle that we're trying to achieve here. And when you've got that front and back door alignment, it moves too quickly out. So we need to slow that energy down.

0:18:45 - (Jane Langof): And how can we do that? Well, we can have beautiful pendant lights along the hallway. You could have artwork down the walls. You can have a gorgeous console table with some accessories on it that is like a drop zone that when you walk in, that makes you stop and put your keys down and appreciate a beautiful artwork above it or a gorgeous sculpture or some flowers. You can have a round rug, for example. You could have a runner that goes from the front to the back. So there's a lot of things that you can do to slow that energy flow down.

0:19:15 - (Linda Habak): So basically, things are holding energy, material things are holding energy. And can it be negative energy as well as positive?

0:19:24 - (Jane Langof): Absolutely. So in feng shui, we work with qi, and qi can be used, I guess, in English, interchangeably with energy, but it's more than that. So the way I learned about qi was that qi is matter, which can be things that you can see and feel and touch, physical things, and also formless. So form, as in something that's physical and formless. Things which can be like emotions, for example, and their potential to become. So, for example, you're sitting on a. You know, we've got a chair here, for example.

0:19:56 - (Jane Langof): I can show you that chair and say, come and sit on this chair, and it can be a really nice thing, or I can pick up the chair and throw it at you, and it's not a nice thing. So it's about the potential as well as. As what it actually is in its matter state. It's about harnessing the energy flow, making the most of the positive energy, reducing the negative influences. So something might be positive to you, but negative to another person.

0:20:20 - (Jane Langof): So it could be an unwanted gift. For example, that was something that could have been beautiful energy to some person, but you hate it. So. Yeah. If it's in your home, you don't want to be having that sort of stuff around you that creates a negative vibe, I guess.

0:20:35 - (Linda Habak): Do you ever. Or have you gone into a home and you felt the negative energy immediately? And do you then share those thoughts with the people around you? Like, how do. Because you must be analyzing, even subconsciously, spaces all the time. So how do you manage that?

0:20:51 - (Jane Langof): I don't give information out to people unless they ask for it. Sure. So if somebody asks my opinion on something, then I'll share it in a diplomatic way, but I won't say, yeah, I've walked into your house and it's a disaster. Fungsheit.

0:21:09 - (Linda Habak): Oh, that's the best fung shite. I love that. I'm going to use that. So, so good. Can you give me a couple of other examples of, I guess, just interesting things to really kind of harness this idea of feng shui? And as a designer, what are some things I need to think about or look out for other than the obvious things?

0:21:29 - (Jane Langof): Yeah, there's so many. There's so many things. Okay, good.

0:21:32 - (Linda Habak): All the time in the world.

0:21:34 - (Jane Langof): So we don't like to have the front door in a direct alignment with the stairs, if possible. Now, hard to move that once the place is done, but I get calls from real estate agents all the time saying, jan got this property, it's not selling very well, and the front door is aligned with the stairs. What can you do about it? And I say to them, well, why didn't you call me two years ago when you were planning this place? We could have avoided it.

0:21:57 - (Linda Habak): Jane, I wish I had known this. Every one of our property developments, the front door is aligned to the stairs.

0:22:03 - (Jane Langof): Yeah.

0:22:04 - (Linda Habak): Everyone.

0:22:05 - (Jane Langof): Yeah.

0:22:05 - (Linda Habak): Oh, this is like, my mind is blown. I'm gonna have to call you from now on.

0:22:10 - (Jane Langof): Yeah.

0:22:10 - (Linda Habak): So.

0:22:11 - (Jane Langof): Well, there are things that we can do to help. Okay. So again, it's about slowing that energy flow down because you've got that the stairs aligned with the door and the wealth flows straight out. Right. It seemed to be that. So what do we need to do? You can hang a pendant light again in the foyer. Perhaps you could put a round rug on the floor or have some interesting flooring in the foyer area. You could have some pictures either going up the stairs or artwork on top of the stairs.

0:22:40 - (Jane Langof): So there are different things that we can do to help to mitigate that. But yeah, the. The ideal is not to have it in direct alignment, if that's possible. The other thing is about flow and containment in a space. So we like to have a balance of openness and enclosure. And I think Covid really taught us that when people were living in fully open plan houses, it was very difficult for people to do their schoolwork and to work and to concentrate because there was too much noise.

0:23:08 - (Jane Langof): Having a space where parents or people who don't like the noise can retreat to is really great. And then also looking at the containment of spaces. So let's say, for example, bedrooms. Okay, I see this a lot where we've got bedrooms that are open, humongous spaces where the beds are open onto these resort style bathrooms where there are no doors between bedrooms and bathrooms. Not ideal from a feng shui perspective. So okay when you're going to a resort, but not the best if you can't close it up.

0:23:37 - (Jane Langof): And the reason is that from a practical perspective, if you've got people living in a home and they want to get ready at different times and one person wants to sleep, it's pretty noisy and disruptive. So there's that. But generally speaking, from a feng shui perspective, we don't like to have the door of the bathroom opening onto the bed. So you want more of that, I guess, that sense of enclosure.

0:23:59 - (Jane Langof): So if you're standing at the door of a bedroom, the ideal is to have the bed in the space that's diagonally opposite the door with the bed head against a solid wall.

0:24:11 - (Linda Habak): Right.

0:24:11 - (Jane Langof): Ideally not with a big window above it, little windows or those sort of skinny windows.

0:24:16 - (Linda Habak): Highlight windows.

0:24:17 - (Jane Langof): The highlight windows can be okay, but ideally you want to have the bed against a solid wall in the space that's diagonally opposite the door because that gives you a sense of protection and security. You can see exactly who's coming in. You've got that support behind you.

0:24:32 - (Linda Habak): Talk to me about open spaces with kitchen, living, dining, which lots and lots of homes these days have that floor plan.

0:24:40 - (Jane Langof): Yeah.

0:24:41 - (Linda Habak): What are your thoughts in relation to that with feng shui?

0:24:43 - (Jane Langof): Well, I'm a big fan of the open living kitchen sort of concept, as long as there is a space for people to retreat to as well, so that it's not the whole place isn't open just to create that balance where the energy can really settle and where people can feel comfortable in quieter spaces. When you're designing the layout of furniture, I like in a living room, I like that L shape configuration like we have here, L shape, U shape, Z shape, rather than the situation where you've got the two big sofas opposite each other, creating that, I guess, more of an oppositional sort of energy.

0:25:24 - (Jane Langof): But when it comes to the kitchen, there are so many things that we can look at. For example, we want to make sure that we are decorating with earthy products, which is much better, because the kitchen has a lot of fire element in it. So we want to avoid the color red in great expanses. So I've seen homes that have had bright pink splashbacks or red cabinetry, thinking red is a good feng shui color and it'll bring you good luck. But no, we don't want our spaces to look like Chinese restaurants.

0:25:55 - (Jane Langof): So let's go for earthy tones, because if you think about those five elements, the five elements all relate to each other, and they all have an impact. So the fire element is reduced by the element, elementally reduced by the element of earth. So the earth, earthy products, things like marble, ceramics, are really great in kitchens. And then if we talk about the study, having your back up against a solid wall is great for your authority.

0:26:24 - (Jane Langof): So if you sit in a space that's diagonally opposite the door, that's the area where the energy is generally most contained. So have your desk there. If you have enough space where you can have your back towards a solid wall and a view to the door and also a view to nature out a window, then that's really great for your creativity, and that's a really good feng shui arrangement effect. Also, if you can't have a view out to nature, then at least having a plant would be a good thing. So plants are great to have in living spaces.

0:26:55 - (Jane Langof): I tend to keep them out of bedrooms because they can bring a bit of yang active energy to a room that should otherwise be more peaceful and quiet, as mirrors are as well. So you have to be careful with mirror placement.

0:27:08 - (Linda Habak): So what do you recommend? In a bedroom, for instance, is there a best practice for mirror placement?

0:27:15 - (Jane Langof): Yeah, try and have them behind a cupboard door if you can, not facing the bed. Mirrors are believed to Reflect, amplify energy in the room and reflect unresolved issues between couples, really.

0:27:30 - (Linda Habak): So a big floor mirror that doesn't face the bed, but just facing a different direction in the room is not that.

0:27:37 - (Jane Langof): That would be, that would be better than having the mirror facing, facing the bed. But I tend to keep mirrors out of bedrooms. I'd rather have artwork and keep the mirrors in the dressing areas or behind a cupboard door.

0:27:50 - (Linda Habak): Okay.

0:27:50 - (Jane Langof): So the ideal in feng shui is to have that energetic support from behind. And that goes for properties as well. To have the energetic support from behind where you've got that land either slightly sloping up or you've got trees behind you to give you that support and the open space in front.

0:28:08 - (Linda Habak): I'm trying to visualize all of these properties now with that, you know, that.

0:28:12 - (Jane Langof): New signal is a good example of having you've got water in front of you and water is correlated to wealth. So that's a very good feng shui graph. Great.

0:28:21 - (Linda Habak): I'm gonna tell my accountant husband that.

0:28:23 - (Jane Langof): Yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:28:25 - (Linda Habak): Tell me, are there any lucky objects that we should have in our home?

0:28:29 - (Jane Langof): Lucky objects? That's an interesting one because I often talk about tacky lucky objects in interviews and in my book. The thing is, you don't really need these so called lucky objects to have good luck from a feng shui perspective. So I often come across people who've got these three legged money toads and waving cats and, you know, gold coins and things. They're not actually required from a feng shui point of view at all.

0:28:57 - (Jane Langof): You can have really good energy and positive flow through your home without those by using those five elements that I mentioned before. So water is one of those elements that's seen as a element that brings luck to people. So, you know, you'll know that waterfront houses are very prized, and having a water feature is seen as a lucky thing or a fish tank. But you have to be really careful with water because water amplifies energy regardless of whether it's positive or negative, really.

0:29:25 - (Jane Langof): So when it comes to water features, you want to know that where you're placing your water feature is a good spot energetically. So the different places will activate different areas in the energy map in various ways. And so when I work with a client, I want to make sure that the swimming pool or the water feature is placed in a spot that's not amplifying any negative energies. Or if it is, then what can we do about that to mitigate where possible?

0:29:51 - (Jane Langof): But generally speaking, water is seen as one of those elements that brings a lot of prosperity to a home. Even parks are regarded as water.

0:30:01 - (Linda Habak): Really?

0:30:01 - (Jane Langof): Yeah, because it's a big open space.

0:30:03 - (Linda Habak): Okay. So if your house is overlooking a park, for instance.

0:30:07 - (Jane Langof): Yes. Quite often you'll find that if a house is overlooking a park, that those houses are worth a lot more money than those that are not. So think about the houses around Centennial Park.

0:30:18 - (Linda Habak): Yeah, absolutely. Let's talk about your home.

0:30:21 - (Jane Langof): Yep.

0:30:22 - (Linda Habak): Tell me what rituals or design principles anchor your home.

0:30:26 - (Jane Langof): I went through a big design process with my home. So my home was an old 1950s house that I could see had really good bones and had a good flow and structure. But it was very much stuck in that era. And we had to bring it into the modern day. There was an enclosed kitchen that we. We turned that into a butler's pantry and opened up the back to create a big open living space area. And then had, as I mentioned before when I talked about that balance of openness and enclosure created a living space that could be closed off with the doors, with a beautiful fireplace that I could sit in there in silence, read a book, do some work. Whatever I wanted to do without being bugged by the TV and all of. All of that sort of thing.

0:31:09 - (Jane Langof): That layout alone helps me to be a calmer parent and to scream at my children less.

0:31:16 - (Linda Habak): I love that. I wish I had known that.

0:31:20 - (Jane Langof): And also just having enough storage in the home, making sure that what I decorate the home with are things that I like or love or at least are neutral about and not dislike. Because then when I walk into a space, it's like a feeling of calmness or that I've arrived and it's a sanctuary and something that I really like. With the laundry, we want to make sure that we've got enough storage that you can put the dirty stuff away. That it doesn't all have to be hanging out there to make you feel upset or worried or unsettled.

0:31:53 - (Linda Habak): We don't have a very good laundry in this house. Cause it's an old sandstone house. And when we actually finish our washing, we fold everything and we leave it on a bench. And I'm constantly yelling at the kids all week long, please put it away. And it really gives me stress and anxiety.

0:32:07 - (Jane Langof): That's right.

0:32:09 - (Linda Habak): That's to your point. You want those spaces to just feel calm and organized and in flow.

0:32:14 - (Jane Langof): And I guess that's where the nagging mum has to come into it and just make it happen. Hey, yeah.

0:32:19 - (Linda Habak): And then you just like, figure out.

0:32:21 - (Jane Langof): Well, what's their currency? Is it the iPad? Or the computer, take it away. You're not having that until you get this done.

0:32:27 - (Linda Habak): Yeah, that's true. Sadly, my kids are older, so I can't do that anymore. But anyway, what does living in alignment feel like to you right now?

0:32:37 - (Jane Langof): It's living the feng shui lifestyle for me. So I touched a little bit before about the rituals that I go through, which is the gratitude, the affirmations, the meditations. I do those sorts of things. I exercise regularly, and I set up my home to make it easier for me to do the things that help me create a healthy lifestyle. For example, in my kitchen, I make sure that what I've got in the kitchen is all mostly healthy stuff and that we don't have things that can derail my diet or that can lead me to a path that I don't want to go down.

0:33:10 - (Jane Langof): Dr. Phil called it the no fail environment. When I was pregnant with and actually breastfeeding one of my daughters, I used to watch Dr. Phil, and he talked about this no fail environment, and that really stuck with me. And it was about creating an environment that doesn't let you get derailed. So making sure that the stuff that you've got in your kitchen is all fresh, that you need to spend some effort to prepare it and create healthy meals for yourself. And there's not just these bad options for you to take. So it's even about the way I store my items in my room and preparing myself the night before for the next day to make sure that I'm doing the things that I want to be doing, like going out for that run or going to the gym. And doing things like that just made.

0:33:55 - (Linda Habak): Me think of a question. Can you feng shui your pantry? Is there, like, a way? I'm just curious about how far down the line can you apply the feng shui principles not just to the design of a space and the layout, but it almost feels like they're life principles.

0:34:13 - (Jane Langof): Yes, you can absolutely feng shui your pantry, go through it and declutter it. That's, like, the easiest thing that you can do. So decluttering is not a traditional feng shui principle, but it's something that's so important in this day and age. Clutter didn't exist, you know, thousands of years ago when feng shui was first developed. But now our houses are overrun, our homes are overrun with stuff.

0:34:37 - (Jane Langof): Stuff that is blocking energy flow, creating obstacles that's stopping the energy from flowing freely through your home and blocking new opportunities from coming into your life.

0:34:48 - (Linda Habak): Did you ever go back to the energy healer that you saw and have you gone back and circled back with her and told her that you. She's changed your career and you've got this incredible career as a feng shui master.

0:35:00 - (Jane Langof): Yeah, she's one of my friends now.

0:35:02 - (Linda Habak): Oh, that's amazing.

0:35:03 - (Jane Langof): She became one of my friends and now we actually work together when I have clients who've got problems with spirits in their homes.

0:35:11 - (Linda Habak): All right, you gotta talk to me about this. Cause I live in Hunters Hill and Hunters Hill is known for having spirits run down the river the spirits jump into. I know this sounds really woo woo. And people are gonna listen to this and think it's crazy, but stick with it.

0:35:26 - (Jane Langof): Guys, we've heard story.

0:35:27 - (Linda Habak): I've heard many, many stories of people with haunted houses down along the river in Hunters Hill. And they've had people come in and clear the spirits because they've had really bizarre, weird and wonderful things happen, particularly at night. Wow.

0:35:40 - (Jane Langof): Yeah, I didn't even. And I live in Hunters Hill.

0:35:43 - (Linda Habak): Yeah. So there you go. I've heard many stories and I kind of think. I don't want to believe it, but I do, and it freaks me out and I'm scared by the whole thing. But.

0:35:52 - (Jane Langof): Well, I think you need to be more scared about physical people, real people, rather than the spirit, rather than the spirits.

0:35:57 - (Linda Habak): Yes, that's true.

0:35:59 - (Jane Langof): And if you do have spirits in your home, you need to do something about it because some of those spirits are earthbound and they need to. They need to be sent off to the light.

0:36:07 - (Linda Habak): Sent off to the light. So how do you work with this person? And obviously you work in collaboration. What does that look like exactly?

0:36:15 - (Jane Langof): Okay, so I'll give you an example. So if I have a consultation with a client who knows that they've got a spirit there or has sensed something or so many things have gone wrong in their life. And I will say, do you think there could be something like this? And they'll say, well, there could be. And so, well, they will contact the spirit medium and she actually clears the spirit over the phone. She's that good. She can do that over the phone in a home. Which sounds crazy, but it actually works.

0:36:40 - (Jane Langof): But when we have development sites that we work on for commercial clients, we have to be there in person together.

0:36:45 - (Linda Habak): Right.

0:36:45 - (Jane Langof): I'll usually be there with the sage, burning the sage, because that anaesthetises the spirits and then she connects with them. It's like a. She said it's like a radio station where she talks to them and she can talk to them and Hear them and hear their stories and then she sends them off. But extraordinary experiences, working with her over the years. Because I didn't really think about spirits before I was doing this, and especially when I was an accountant, it was not something that I thought about at all, except being a bit scared by dark spaces and things. But since I started working with her, just so many stories that I got from the clients just made me believe that this is a thing.

0:37:24 - (Linda Habak): Is there one story in particular that cemented this for you? Like the belief in this for you? Can you share it?

0:37:32 - (Jane Langof): Yeah, I will. And it happened in my own home. Yes.

0:37:35 - (Linda Habak): Tell me everything.

0:37:35 - (Jane Langof): So that when we first bought our home, which was an old 1950s home, the people that had been living in there were there for 60 years and they had a big family. The only occupant that was left there was the mum, the matriarch of the family, of the grandma, and she sold the place and then moved out to a retirement home. There was this particular smell that was in one part of the home, in the front room, that would not go away. And no matter how hard we tried, we got the carpets cleaned, pulled the curtains down, did whatever we could, and this smell would not go away.

0:38:07 - (Jane Langof): When I spoke to Kerry, the spirit medium, my friend, she said to me, you got a spirit in your home? This was just over the phone. She detected it. You got a spirit in your home, we gotta clear it. And I'm like, what? And she said, yep. She said that it was the spirit of the husband who had died and he'd actually died in the room, really? And that he was confused and he didn't know where his wife went and who are these people?

0:38:32 - (Jane Langof): That was what the smell was, apparently, because spirits can manifest in different ways and smell, persistent smell that won't go is one of them. Anyway, she cleared him out of the house and she said to me, do you notice anything different now? And I said, no, I couldn't tell. I wasn't that attuned to those sorts of energies. We went off to lunch, we came back, and she dropped me back at home. And then I walked into the room and that smell had completely disappeared. I was gobsmacked. And then my husband came home a few hours later and I brought him to the room. I said, what do you notice different in this room? And he said, the smell's gone.

0:39:06 - (Jane Langof): And it was just bizarre that this smell had completely gone away after being around there for months and months. There's been another incident where apparently I brought home a spirit from a Building site. And he was in my teenage daughter's bedroom because there was this smell of B.O. in her room. It wasn't just her and it wasn't her. And I thought, maybe it's some rotten food that she's left in there or dirty clothes.

0:39:30 - (Jane Langof): Yeah. Spoke to Kerry, the spirit medium, and she said, no, you've got a bikie in this room. And I said, that's disgusting.

0:39:40 - (Linda Habak): So she's easy that spirits can attach to us.

0:39:44 - (Jane Langof): Well, this spirit didn't attach to me. Apparently this is a spirit of a bikie who hopped in my car after I'd been at this building site and came home with me.

0:39:54 - (Linda Habak): It's nuts.

0:39:55 - (Jane Langof): It is crazy. It's nuts.

0:39:57 - (Linda Habak): I love it.

0:39:57 - (Jane Langof): So she said to me, jane, from now on, you've got to do this procedure where you energetically protect yourself and imagine yourself in a bubble with white light and put a blue cloak around you. She said, this is what you've got to do. Like this ritual every day.

0:40:12 - (Linda Habak): Imagine that.

0:40:13 - (Jane Langof): Because I'm going to. I'm going around with where all these energies are. And I don't know, they can see the light or they like me or something. And they.

0:40:22 - (Linda Habak): You're lovely. I can understand why they're attaching themselves or jumping in your car.

0:40:27 - (Jane Langof): Jumping in my car. They're not attaching to me. They can't do that.

0:40:30 - (Linda Habak): No.

0:40:30 - (Jane Langof): Yeah.

0:40:31 - (Linda Habak): That's amazing. That's. Yeah.

0:40:33 - (Jane Langof): Crazy. It's crazy. It really is.

0:40:34 - (Linda Habak): It's crazy, isn't it, that there's this whole other world happening alongside of reality, that most people would listen to this and just go, that's just nuts. But I hear a lot of stories like that and I think, you know, I'm interested. I'm definitely interested in the woo woo side of things.

0:40:53 - (Jane Langof): It's more common than you think. And once you start talking about it, then people will tell their stories. But because it's. It's taboo, people don't want to talk about it. Even feng shui is a bit taboo. Like, some people don't even want it known that they've got a feng shui master working on their homes. Although now it's sort of coming out into the fore a bit more. So what I'm. What I'm finding that clients are wanting is they're wanting people to know when they're building or they're renovating, that a feng shui master is looking at this place and is helping them with the floor plan.

0:41:22 - (Jane Langof): Because I've got signage now, like you have signage on properties on the Construction fencing. I've also got signage that goes up on. On the construction fencing too, to let people know.

0:41:32 - (Linda Habak): Absolutely. So it's almost like it's a marketing.

0:41:35 - (Jane Langof): Absolutely. It's a way to let people know that we've considered these issues and that the builder and the designer is cognisant that feng shui is important to the potential buyers of the property.

0:41:48 - (Linda Habak): Is there particular areas around Sydney that you focus on or that the demand is greater?

0:41:54 - (Jane Langof): There are some where the demand is greater. So Chatswood is a big one. North Shore, like we're looking at Mossman, Neutral Bay, those sorts of areas. Areas that are, you know, sinai. Those sorts of places that. Where there are good schools. Even Hurstville. I spoke to a potential client in Hurstville who said to me, I built a property and it was meant to be a huge money spinner, bought it really well, didn't even know what feng shui was.

0:42:22 - (Jane Langof): And then when it came time to sell, the estate agent said to them, look, you've got these feng shui problems. And this guy was gobsmacked and said, what? What are you talking about? And so then he was in touch with me and said, okay, next time I build, we'll be speaking. Because he made a on his properties and had to go move back in with his mum and dad. And it was a disaster.

0:42:41 - (Linda Habak): Wow. And this was a property developer.

0:42:43 - (Jane Langof): This was a property developer developing in Hurstville.

0:42:46 - (Linda Habak): Gosh. What are the top three things then? Just as a summary of what we need to think about if we're designing a brand new home or doing a development.

0:42:56 - (Jane Langof): It's not just about the layout. So I mentioned earlier, you know, the front door facing the back door or the front door in direct alignment with the stairs. There's having the door in the bedroom in direct alignment with the bed. There's so many things, and I've talked about a lot of those in my book, but it's also about the landform as well and where your home is situated. Being at the end of a T junction is not great from a feng shui perspective. If you're living in a home and there are a lot of variables that determine how bad it is or whether it has an impact at all. So firstly, I'll say that if you're in a commercial property, it might not be as bad as it is for a home, because when you're driving up. So let's just tell people what a T junction is. That is where you've got a street that's directly facing the home.

0:43:50 - (Jane Langof): So as you Drive down the home is at the end of that street. So people need to turn before they hit the house. I guess that's the idea. So. So the problem with T junctions is that you've got that energy flow directed straight towards the house. The threat there is that the car or a truck or bus or whatever can drive straight into the place. So that's number one. Threat number two is that at night you've got cars coming down the road and turning, and then you've got the flashing lights disrupting people that are living in the home.

0:44:24 - (Jane Langof): And then the other issue is that there's a privacy issue because people are always driving down, seeing what you're doing. They can see what's going on in the home and all that sort of thing. So there are a few issues there that make T junctions undesirable. It's something that can impact property value from a feng shui perspective, for sure, because people who are in the know will know they want to avoid the T junction. So what can you do about it? There are. There are ways that you can mitigate the negative issues with a T junction. So you can build a big stone wall, for example, to help to give you that physical protection.

0:44:58 - (Jane Langof): You can put some solid curtains and window coverings on your windows so that you don't have that problem with the lights flashing around. And you can even do sheer curtains so that you don't have so much of an issue with privacy. Sure. And then you can also have trees as well. Trees or plants that can be helpful too. Which remedy you use is dependent on the situation. So it always depends on the situation, as, you know, would in design, like, what sort of window coverings you use is dependent on how much light is coming in, whether there's glare and.

0:45:29 - (Jane Langof): And whether it's darker or all that.

0:45:31 - (Linda Habak): So we're coming to the close of this great conversation. We ask every guest to finish off with, what does Build Beautiful mean to you?

0:45:40 - (Jane Langof): I think Build Beautiful means to build with intention and to consider all aspects of design and energy flow in a home building in a way that helps the clients and the occupation occupants of the home to really live a beautiful life.

0:45:58 - (Linda Habak): Yeah, I love that. It's beautiful. Thank you. That was amazing.

0:46:01 - (Jane Langof): Thanks so much for having me.

0:46:07 - (Linda Habak): Thank you for listening to Build Beautiful. If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love it if you'd follow the show, leave a review, or share it with someone who's building something meaningful. It matters more than you know. Follow us on Instagram at the Build Beautiful podcast. Until next time. Keep creating with intention, and together we build beautiful.