Show Notes

Kayla: Welcome back to the Designer Practice Podcast and I’m your host Kayla Das.

In today’s episode, Patricia Lohan will share how to integrate Feng Shui into your office space.

Hi, Patricia. Welcome to the show. I’m so glad to have you here today.

Patricia: Hi, Kayla. Thank you so much for having me. I’m just delighted to be here.

Patricia, before we dive into today’s episode, please introduce yourself, where you’re from, and tell us a little bit about you and your own business journey and really how you got into Feng Shui specifically.

Patricia: Yeah, sure. So, my name is Patricia. I have a twang of an Irish accent because I’m from the west coast of Ireland. I’m currently sitting on a small island in the Ionian in Greece. I live here for six months of the year with my husband and my small fluffy bichon frise called Toby. And I’ve been in business since 2010. As an entrepreneur, a lot longer because I worked and set up a business with my father and that kind of was the seeds of my entrepreneur journey. I founded that I worked with him. I was 24 and I had 30 staff and it was a very steep learning curve.

And I realized like maybe eight years in, I politely asked to leave because I was absolutely miserable. It was just not for me. I was actually supporting my dad fulfilled his dream and his dream business and not mine. But I didn’t actually know it. I didn’t know that I was so lost. I didn’t realize that I just wasn’t fulfilling my full potential. And I didn’t really know what I was going to do.

So out of nowhere, actually out of my mouth popped I’m going to India to become a yoga teacher. So, I had been going to one yoga class a week. It wasn’t like I was this kind of like a yogi dedicated practice, but I was going once a week and I ended up in India for, I was going for a month and I ended up there for nearly a year. And it opened up my mind, my heart, my spirit to just a completely different way of life, a whole different way of being. And all I can say is that what I do is I help people change their lives through changing their environment and you don’t have to move to India to do that. I went to India I needed to go to India to change things, but I trained in yoga. I trained in lots of different holistic therapies and practices. And I also touched on feng shui, believe it or not, while I was there and the Vastu, which is the Indian version of it.

I’d always been interested in feng shui. I’d even had my parents hire a feng shui consultant when I was about 16 for their business. I actually found someone in Ireland who did feng shui, and we had her come and do the business because I just have this book about it. And I was like, there’s something about this.

So, fast forward to new city, new business. I started teaching yoga, doing sound healing. I was very highly intuitive. So I’ve been able to read cards. It was just all the things that kind of opened up while I lived in and was in India, I got back to Ireland as I just set up in this new city. And I had a beautiful thriving practice working with people one to one.

So, you’re talking about therapists. I had clients come to see me. I worked with kinesiology, Reiki, all these different modalities. It was just a wondrous time. And I ended up feng shuing my apartment to calling my soulmate.

So while I was in India, I had come across this woman and she was like, I’m pulling in someone for love. I’m going to do all these things for my bedroom. And I was like, Oh, cool. So, I had all that. And then I moved into a new apartment in Dublin and I just moved into the city. And I was like, okay, I’m not leaving here until I meet my husband. And my new flatmate just rolled around laughing at me. She just didn’t think she was like; this girl is absolutely nuts.

And I just went. Hmm, Feng Shui. So, I completely renovated my bedroom. I did all these things for love. And very soon afterwards, actually met my now husband. That actually started the ball rolling on people asking me about falling in love. Especially in more spiritual and open-minded circles, there’s a lot more women to men. And the women were like, where did you find him? How did you find him? I was like, well, I did this and this and this and this. And I have like YouTube videos that have like thousands of views basically telling them the exact things I did. So that was like the feng shui. Again, it started to work then.

But then I realized that when I visited his house, I was like, he’s done feng shui too. So, Ken had done some around his bedroom and his house. So, I was like this guy. So, I moved in with him. So that all kind of came to fruition. And, I said, I really would love to do the feng shui. And he said, I’m interested too. And this course came up and I said, you know what, I’m going to do this. And he said, me too. So, we both went, so we’re both trained in it. I had no interest in teaching it, I just was a passionate enthusiast.

And I headed off to the class. He came with me and we came back and we feng shui’d our own house. From a business perspective, I had a busy therapy practice, like people booking in, I didn’t have anything to worry. I did sound baths. I worked with children in special needs hospitals. I had like lots of things going on. I wasn’t looking for anything, but I had a massive boost in media exposure. So, I did the Feng Shui and got all of this incredible media exposure. So next minute, I’m like in the papers on the radio and it was just like, wow.

And then we had a six-figure windfall, like literally out of nowhere. So, we were living in a half finished house. It was concrete floors, like begged, borrowed, you know, lent furniture. And all of a sudden, I was able to have a car and get our driveway done and finish the house because all this money just came out. And people around us were like, what have you done? I was like, “well, we did this feng shui.”

I think a lot of people listening and therapists and practitioners would get the sense of when you’re studying something you’re studying, but then it can come very naturally to you. And you’re like, oh yeah, I don’t know how I got that information that just came through me or how I know this thing. And that was very much the sense I had when it came to feng shui. So, I will be working with my clients. In my practice, and I’d have some young kids and they would come in and I’d be like saying to the mom, tell me about their bedroom. What colors is it? How’s it decorated? Like these children were like severely on the spectrum. They were having like serious issues in school. It was coming to kind of calm them, calm the parent. And then I was like really diving into their bedrooms and then going, okay send me photos.

So, I’d be just kind of figuring it out through that, essentially other clients would be coming and I’m not sleeping or whatever. And I’d be like, tell me a bit more about your office. And that’s literally what started to happen was that I started integrating it in with my clients.

And one day I’m walking down the street and one of my clients. Literally said to me, “Hi Patricia. I saw you; you started to do the feng shui I always wanted to do that. Can you come to my house? And I was like, “Oh, okay.” And that was the start. It just started to take precedence.

And we were getting married. We wanted to travel more and we ended up moving to India and then actually to Bali eventually. And we got to Bali and I just had a little Facebook group and did lives about Feng Shui and about all different things I trained in. And that was the thing they really wanted to hear about. So I grew that group, created a program. And now we’ve had thousands of people go through our trainings. My little ounces of success are like nothing compared to what we’ve seen with our clients. And I know it’s a long story, but it’s just trusting the flow of life and essentially feng shui is about flow. It’s about creating a space that’s harmonious with life and your therapy room, the spaces that you spend time. They’re impacting your energy. They’re also impacting your client’s energy. And when you start to become conscious of it and everything starts to change in your life.

Kayla: That’s an amazing story. How you found your husband to how you found your business to where you are today. It sounds like it all like flowed through and oh, it’s such a great story.

Patricia: And I think that’s the thing feng shui, it’s a 5000-year-old practice. And when you look at the symbol for feng shui it’s the yin and yang symbol, basically. And there’s this line down the center and that line, is the essence of the Dao, like the philosophy of the Dao and it’s allowing life to flow through you. And when we really tap into that it just it’s better than you could ever have imagined.

Kayla: That’s amazing. So for any listeners who may not know what feng shui is or maybe they’ve heard the term but not really sure how it applies to say their business and their practice. What is feng shui?

Patricia: So, first of all, just going back to that idea of the flow and feng shui is a 5000-year-old practice. I like to describe it as acupuncture for your home. So essentially the words feng shui, when you translate it, the characters into English, it means good health and good harvest. So, the harvest links back to the abundance. So, it’s basically creating spaces and living in a home that is good for your health and vitality and also for your abundance. So, it doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about your home or your office or your therapy room, whatever space you are in. It’s about making sure that it is the most supportive and harmonious for you.

And for me, the easiest way to describe it would be acupuncture for your home or your office, your practice, we want to make sure that it’s all in harmony and they’re going to put specific needles and specific points to balance the space. And that’s what we do.

Kayla: So why is it important to consider using feng shui in therapy offices and what are some of the benefits of doing so?

Patricia: So, one of the things that most people would think about with feng shui is that it’s about where your desk is and where your what type of chair you have and that all actually does matter and I’m definitely want to talk a bit more later.

But essentially, when we talk about having a building or any building, and there’s buildings that are good for people that are very supportive for people, very supportive for health. There’s also buildings that are not supportive for people that you’re like, why am I not getting any clients? Why is there more bills than there is money coming in? Why am I not being seen in the world? So why am I not being recognized? Why are my clients not getting the success they want to see?

So, if you’re working in an office space, that is basically bad feng shui, it’s going to impact every part of your life and your business. So, one of the things is, people will say to me, how will I know if my place is bad feng shui, and I’m like, well, how is business? Literally, how’s your business? Like how’s the flow of clients, how’s the success rate, how’s your bank account? The real core part of Feng Shui is it literally looks at every aspect of your life and business. So for a business and for a therapy room, it’s the health of your business. It’s your contractors, the people that you work with, it’s your team. It’s like your reputation. It’s your fame, like how people recommend you. Do they recommend you? It’s your success rates. It’s your finances. So, every part is basically connected with your business.

And if those things are not going well, and you know that you have the skills and the ability and the talent, and then that’s not happening. Well, maybe it’s not you. Maybe it’s not the funnels are broken. It’s the fact that you’re sitting in an environment that’s bad feng shui.

Kayla: So, what is good feng shui? And this might even go into what are some of the do’s and don’ts to feng shui?

Patricia: So, there’s one thing that’s important about feng shui is that there’s many layers to this practice. Okay. So, when people come into my world they’ll often see like my YouTube videos or my free trainings and the things that you might’ve heard about feng shui. So that’s the top of the iceberg. It’s like what you can see. And some of them will be literally generic things about setting up your office. So, I think we’ll go into kind of like good feng shui. There’s like good feng shui in terms of the set-up of your office, what you keep in your office, what you don’t have in your office. And I’ll go through all those.

Well, the other thing is the hidden energy. So, I’m just going to talk a little bit about that because when people come into my world, they’ll maybe have like an ounce of information about Feng Shui and they’ll think, Oh, it’s because my desk is in the wrong thing or because the toilet is placed this way, or it’s because I’ve heard that the door is in the wrong place. And I’m like, the door doesn’t matter. Like genuinely 99 percent of the time, the door doesn’t matter. But there’s this hidden energy.

So again, back to the acupuncturist analysis, you go to the acupuncturist, they’re going to kind of look at your body type, they look at your tongue, look at your eyes. They’re also going to take your pulse and go, yes. And that’s essentially, they’re literally checking out the energy of the body this is what we do for our clients. We go into kind of the details of what’s happening energetically. And it’s not what you can see. It’s not like I could look at you and be like, the liver meridian is off like as an acupuncturist, you know, it’s more like we have to get the information and that’s what we do for our clients and work on that level.

So, there’s a lot of hidden energy that could be the main thing, but there’s a lot of things that you can do, which I’m going to talk about now in terms of the optimum setup for a practice in a therapy room, which I’ve done myself timeless times, and I’m actually sitting in my own office with optimum setup.

So, the first thing is. setting up your space with a firm intention. So having a clear vision of like, well, what’s my vision for this space? I have seen a lot of desks and office spaces that have a lot of toys. Like if you’re working with kids, Play therapy. That makes sense. Like, is it aligned with your business?

So, the first exercise I would recommend people to do is start with fresh eyes. Imagine you are a brand-new client driving up to your office. Is the parking easy to find? Is the signage easy to find? Are the directions easy? This is not just about ease of like logical stuff, but it’s about bringing the chi and energy into the business, into the building. If it’s hard to find for the person, it’s going to be hard to get the chi in. So, when we’re talking about chi, we’re talking about the energy into the building. So, it’s like the mouth. Like, if we don’t feed ourselves, we’ll starve. Same goes for your office space. So, is there good signage? Is it easy to find? And then what’s the experience? Are the plants all dead? Is the door rattling and not working, or is it hard to open? Does the door get jammed? So basically, it’s a feedback loop. So, if there’s a struggle at the front door to get in, it means it’s a struggle to bring money in opportunities. It’s hard to get stuff in. So, you want to think about flow and ease.

What’s the images on the way in. Is it like health and vibrant and happy? Is there a welcome sign? Like I know this sounds like, oh, but it’s about the experience and you will have that experience as well going in. This is the nice thing is that you’re going to be going in ahead of your clients.

So, you’re like, I remember one of my therapy rooms. And I had hired a therapy room in a house that had lots of different other therapists there. And I said to the woman, I said, like, do you mind if I buy a new welcome mat? And can I like polish the brass on the door? And she laughed at me. She’s like, you’re never going to get that fixed, cleaned up that brass. And I was like, just watch me. And I swear to God, I went out, scrubbed it up. And all other therapists like, Oh my God, it looks amazing now. And I was like, yes. And I got new flowers at the entrance and I changed a few things. Everyone benefited. But I knew that when I came in, I was like, this is good chi, I’m going to bring it nice. So that’s like these little things. And all those little things matter.

So then you get into your therapy room. Is there an open close sign? Does it feel welcoming? The waiting room, like it’s all the experience, the music, the smells, the touch, all of this is feng shui as well. It’s that whole experience. So that’s the first thing.

And then you go in to the space. And you want to really think about, first of all, your own seat. And you’re like, Oh, well, I’m thinking of my client, but you need to be sitting in a place where you have a good, strong chair, like a long, strong high back chair. Like I’m the boss. Think of any movie scene where there’s like a big CEO, he’s on the top floor. He’s on a beautiful, big leather chair. He’s got the furniture around him; he’s got a big table. He can see what’s coming in. This is important. They are not just doing it for niceties. They’re doing it because there’s a real reason to be able to be the person who’s in charge in the space. So, you’re back to the wall, so you can see the door, and not necessarily behind a window. A desk that’s solid oftentimes glass desks, the chi comes in and then it just goes through your lap. So you can kind of start losing opportunities. I had a client recently, her desk has a glass, she had just put a tablecloth over it. And for me, this isn’t about big expenses. It’s about how can I shift the place to make it feel really beneficial? So, back to the wall, see the door, be able to see the client. The client is not going to be there full-time. So, it’s okay if their back is to the door. And then you set it up.

Now, the next thing is this fresh eyes exercise is going through what’s actually in your office. You know, as I said, toys not professional, but maybe you’ve got your mission statement. Maybe you’ve got your work certificates up in the walls, books. There might be people going, well, this makes sense if I have people coming in person, but I do everything on zoom now. And I just take the corner little office and it doesn’t matter. Nobody can see it. And I’m like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you’re still spending all that time in your space.

And I had a client who was a Tony Robbins coach, and she didn’t have in person clients. Everyone was virtual, but her desk was pushed up against the wall. So, she couldn’t see what was coming at her. She was in complete overwhelm. And when your desk is pushed up against the wall and you’re in a corner, you feel cornered in. Complete overwhelmed. The energy is coming in. It’s like, I’m stressed out. I’m overwhelmed burden on your shoulders, whereas you flip it around. She can see you’ve got this sense of space. Her bookshelf was covered in books for cookery books. I was like, where’s the Tony books? Or even some personal development books. I don’t care whatever your practice is, have it lined up with that. And she’s like, Oh, they’re kind of all over the house. She used to be a professional chef. So, I was like, get rid of all the cooking, put them in your kitchen. Bring in the things that represent that into your space.

And then from that next point is then like a massive declutter. So, I have worked with clients one to one. I’ve gone into their offices and you walk in and you’re like, Oh, and I remember once going into an office and be like, this is going to be grand. We’ll only be here like an hour or two. That’s grand. I can get onto the rest of the house with her. Five hours later of decluttering because the storage was impeccable. And this is a major problem because, if you have paperwork and files from clients, you may not need to keep all of them, number one. And if they’re not clients anymore, get rid of it. Because there’s no space for new, every drawer was just jam packed. And there was lots actually sitting around her desk. It was lots of legal papers from legal suits and drama. I was like, you don’t want them in your field. Let’s get them away from you, like not right beside you. Every time you open your desk, you get triggered by this, there’s something that’s going on in your business that you’re like, how are you going to feel good? So, there’s that idea of just becoming conscious of what’s in your office and just clearing out and making space. That’s a lot. This is what you do.

Kayla: I love that you also introduced the virtual aspect because a lot of therapists and coaches now are online or at least part time online. And I can already hear some therapists saying, Oh, well, that’s okay. That’s fine and dandy, but I don’t necessarily have an office space that clients come to. But it really does make you feel a certain way.

And although listeners can’t see my background. But as you were going through it, I am not set up the same way mentioned. The door is on my left, behind me is a closet. I am up against a wall and there’s a window behind me. And I’m just thinking that now, how can I organize myself to include feng shui? Because I definitely get where you’re coming from because sometimes it feels boxed in. So, I love that you highlighted that piece to it.

Patricia: A hundred percent. Even just now thinking about it for yourself, like, as you move things around, as you say, maybe re-position yourself with the back to the wall and you can see the door, then you have some space to put up on the walls around you to be like, Oh, what kind of art would I like up here?

You know these fun, synchronistic things. They happen a lot in my life, but my assistant Jeanette, when she replies to people, she just keeps shining bright and we always talk about power houses and our community being power houses and light themselves up to then they shine for everyone else and kind of like lighthouses. So, it’s kind of our thing.

I never said to her, to sign off, keep shining bright. It’s just her thing. To keep shining bright. And I’m just laughing because I have like a sign up here in my office. It’s shine brighter than the stars. And this is the kind of thing. It’s like, what’s going to feel really empowering for you in your workspace?

And on your desk, having a picture of your family. It’s a great thing. Because you’re like, why am I doing this? But not like the whole family, everything on the walls of the family. It’s just I’m going to have one specific thing here on a picture that motivates me. Why am I doing this with my family? Maybe you have a picture with the rest of your team, or maybe you want to have a space that you think of like an image.

I remember working with a client in LA and she wants to change in her career. And she brought this picture. She took my instruction so literally, because I was like, think of an image that makes you feel strong and empowered. And what image comes to your mind? And she got this beautiful picture of a black stallion. And the black stallion, she was just like, I want to charge ahead in my career. And she said, horses are my favorite thing. So, there was a lot of symbolism in it. And that’s really important for you to think about what’s the symbolism of what’s on the walls, like what are you taking in what’s around you? And I love playing with that for people because you could bring in authors of the people that you respect or inspired by.

So, in my home, this is not done intentionally. But basically, in my home, in my family recreation area, it’s where my bookshelf is in my house in Ireland. And I don’t have many autobiographies, but the only one I had was Richard Branson’s. And I got to go to Necker Island and I met Richard Branson, but I didn’t just meet him. I happened to learn how to play tennis about two years earlier, and he plays tennis a few mornings a week, and we were invited to play tennis. So I had like coffee and tea with him every morning the whole time. It wasn’t intentional, but there was a whole like synchronicity of I came home and I’m like, “Oh my God, I got the autobiography of him.” Because I live in Greece half the time. So, I didn’t even realize, you know, and I was like, man, that’s kind of crazy. So, like, when you start to think about like, who are the people that I want to aspire to be like, who are the influences I want in my space that inspire you. That kind of thinking is so powerful in your space.

Even your mission statement up on the wall. Like, why do I do this? How do I help? What are the success stories I have? And I’m sure it’s for the same with you, Kayla. But the fuel for me doing this is, it’s not me. I’m delighted. My life has turned out way better than I could have imagined. But it’s the things I hear from my clients that happens. I’m like, “wow, God that’s amazing. I’m so happy.” And that’s what this is really about. And every time you want to step into your space, you want to feel good because you spend so much time there every day.

 It needs to be inviting and I just another kind of side, especially for people, I use this all the time during COVID because I do a lot of talks with people working from home. And I was like, I want you to imagine that your client is coming to your office. How would you set it up? Because I’m telling you, you’d be tweaking things very differently. So, think from that place, if someone was to happen to come, what would I do?

And it can be just treated like a fun thing something enjoyable. Like I’m getting to set this place up to be ready for someone. But also, you take your business more seriously when you have your office set up and a reflection to it.

Kayla: I agree. Because you’re sitting at your office most of the day, whether you’re virtual or not, like this is your space that you’re going to be at the entire day. So, what is around you is going to make you feel that certain way. So going back to that example of when you mentioned that one of your clients had like a pile of legal stuff there. That would overwhelm anyone if that’s just piled up, every time you look over to the left, it’s there. Whereas, yes, it’s still something that you have to deal with, but it doesn’t have to take up your entire space, both physically as well as mentally.

Patricia: Exactly. And I think of one lady’s office, like I remember doing these zoom calls and seeing a lady’s office and I was like, I don’t know what feedback I’m going to give this lady, her office was amazing. She had an oak desk and beautiful chair and all these oak units. I was like, wow, this is fantastic. It’s like the dream setup. And then I was like, okay, let me see. I’m like, she’s on this call for a reason. There’s a reason she’s here. What is it?

So, I’m like, that a piece of art. So, it was a winter scene. When we just think about winter for most people, it’s like hibernation. It’s slow down. There’s no leaves, there’s no growth. It’s kind of stagnant. It’s like, okay, we don’t really want winter theme in our business. So, I was like, I don’t know about winter. I think that that season isn’t the optimum season. Like maybe we want to think about summer, growth, flourishing, like fruit, you know, we want to put flowers are in full bloom. We want to things that are full summer vibe.

And instead of saying winter scenes really bad because it could have meant a lot to her. So, I was like, tell me a bit about this picture. And she’s like, that was my ex-husbands. And I was like, okay. So that didn’t work out, obviously. It should not be in your office because we want things that work out in your office. And we certainly don’t want it in your house. So maybe it’s time to let it go. And that was like a big, like penny drop going, Oh yeah. And I suppose also, this is important for thinking about business and personal, because you’re going to have personal paperwork. Does it need to be in your office? Can you separate it? Can you create some clearer boundaries with that as well? So, not on your desk, but in a certain place, okay, it’s okay to store some of it in your office, but making sure that it’s like more organized.

Kayla: I love that. So, do you have any additional tips or advice for listeners when setting up their office space to support clients through feng shui?

Patricia: So, I would say like in terms of the whole practice, it’s really important for you to get into a space where you’re like excited about walking into your space. And for people working from home, I’m going to give you one specific tip. And this is about creating clear boundaries between your work and your home. I’ve seen it for myself as well at times I can be like, Oh, I’ll just head into the office on a Saturday afternoon. And I don’t need to do that. There’s nobody working on my team. And it’s okay if it’s a by choice thing but if it’s becoming really regular and you can’t have no boundaries with your work hours and getting an open and closed sign and putting it on your door is really useful. Like literally just like I’m open, I’m closed.

And then there’s just the idea for people who may have a double use for their office. And it’s not a bad thing if you work from home and it’s the spare bedroom as well. How often is the spare bedroom used, could the bed be made into a murphy bed so you get a bit more spaciousness and you’re not jammed in the corner. It is good to kind of see these thoughts, could it be a sofa bed instead of a real bed if it’s not being used, then you can have this sense of like, oh, I actually own this space. But if you do have to keep that plate used, put like a shawl over it. There’s some people who maybe their office space is in the middle of the living room. Can you just pack everything away at night time? So, you just turn off and have some good storage facility, like a good kind of boxes.

What I used to do when I worked in another home that we had here, I didn’t have a spare office. So, I basically worked from the table at the kitchen, but I had a box where I finished my work. I put everything into it and then I put it away. So, I was just like, the table then was clear. It wasn’t like, this is where I’ve sat and worked all day. It’s over there. So these little boundary things are very useful for those who are working from home, but they’re not able to define an office space.

Kayla: I love that. Patricia, you have a free training that you’d also like to share with listeners. Can you tell us a little bit about what it is?

Patricia: Yeah, sure. So, I have a training called a Biz Boost and it’s basically an opportunity to boost your business using Feng Shui. And I created this training basically because I have seen thousands of offices and I really wanted to help people and support them in thinking bigger first about their business. So there’s a lot of mindset and very, very good prompts to get you thinking bigger about your business.

And then there’s six videos that kind of walk you through, setting up your office and kind of answering all the big do’s and don’ts beyond what I’ve covered today. And it’s a beautiful opportunity to step into kind of the next level of your business and give it a boost.

Kayla: Amazing. So, to sign up for Patricia’s free training, 6 Days to Magnetize your Office for More Success, Abundance, and Flow, check out kayladas.com/patricialohanfreetraining

That’s kayladas.com/patricialohanfreetraining

Or you can simply scroll down to the show notes and click on the link.

Patricia, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today to discuss how to integrate feng shui into our practice office spaces.

You’re so welcome. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed it. And I’m looking forward to supporting you even more.

Kayla: Thank you everyone for tuning into today’s episode. And I hope you join me again soon on the Designer Practice Podcast.

Until next time, bye for now.

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