Ep 039: How Feng Shui Creates Happier Homes and Families with Patricia Lohan

Jennie (00:01.184)
and video looks good to me, which is amazing. We always have a technical issue. So if dad being late is the only issue we have today, that's fantastic.

Papa Rick (00:11.474)
And I had, I was late because I, because I had the thing torn apart. I took, I had it all was moving things around and I forgot. I did that about two weeks ago. We took a little time off. And so it's like, Oh crap. I got it. I hope my camera works again.

Jennie (00:18.2)
Yeah.

Jennie (00:27.819)
I had mine stuff was all taken apart too. Okay, cool, awesome. Welcome back everybody to the Relational Parenting Podcast. We are here this week with Patricia Loewen or Lohan.

Patricia (00:43.625)
Perfect.

Jennie (00:44.735)
Loan, Loan. Awesome. And Patricia, you are a, are you a Feng Shui master? What do you, what is your title?

Papa Rick (00:45.768)
Lohan

Patricia (00:57.769)
I am a Feng Shui. I don't know. Master feels like a little bit like, whoa. And I'm a Feng Shui expert. I know a lot about Feng Shui. I've helped thousands of people with Feng Shui, but I don't know if it makes me a master in terms of this ancient practice that is like thousands of years old. But I do and help people with this incredible process. So that's me.

Jennie (00:58.255)
HAHAHAHA

Papa Rick (00:58.278)
Do they have rank?

Papa Rick (01:03.586)
Hahaha!

Jennie (01:27.831)
awesome.

Papa Rick (01:27.95)
That reminds me of a description, Jenny and I did karate for a while. That reminds me of a description of ranks in karate. You know, there's no Feng Shui Emperor. It's just something people have been doing for thousands of years. You know, you know, don't worry about your rank. You know, that's cool.

Patricia (01:45.747)
Yeah.

Exactly. And you know, if it's really... Go ahead.

Jennie (01:48.535)
Well, I love it. We're sorry. Go ahead. That's okay.

Patricia (01:54.061)
If it's, you know, if what we're doing, what I'm doing is really helping people and making a difference, um, you know, and I think this practice for me, Feng Shui, I'm always learning more from it. And I'm always learning more from, as I work with more clients and more people, it's an evolving process. It's a journey of growth. And Feng Shui is about flow and harmony and balance. And it's.

It's an internal, like when I first learned about, when I first got into it, I was like, it's about this external, get your environment, but it's actually about you and your environment. For this, it's been such an evolution now that it's not just about fixing your home and doing things with your house. It's how you operate in your environment and balancing and harmonizing yourself as well. So it's a much deeper practice than I would have first comprehended.

Jennie (02:56.331)
I love that. It's very, it's, it's almost spiritual in a way. Like you're, you know, I've seen the quote a hundred times, um, that your, your external environment is a reflection of your internal one. And I think the older I get, the more accurate that becomes. Um, because there's like parts of my house that are like very well planned and put together. And then there's like,

Patricia (03:13.961)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (03:24.923)
there's a room here or corner there that I'm just like, I don't know what to do with that. So I'm just gonna ignore it until someday I have time for it. And I think that happens in life too. We have, we prioritize different pieces and parts of our lives at different times and different phases and different stages and getting everything, getting all of your ducks in a row. I don't know that that's even a realistic.

Papa Rick (03:43.916)
Yeah.

Jennie (03:54.083)
thing to have every duck in a row all at once. I think that we are regularly prioritizing what we can and cannot hold at any given time. But I love that you say that Feng Shui is, you know, it's an external practice, but it also has evolved and you realize that it's an internal one because I think that applies to most people in most places of life. Nothing really changes until...

we do the inside work.

Patricia (04:27.017)
Yeah. And, and I think that, that what I've realized is that as people have come into my, into our world and into our powerhouse Feng Shui world is that it's a really nice, subtle, easy way to start changing your life. Like becoming more aware of your environment. It's not like I need to go and shake up and fix everything inside of me that when I start to actually become more conscious of my physical environment, if I start to more look at

what have I got in my home? What areas are being neglected? Because every part of your home represents a different part of your life. So when you have this extra layer of information, you can go, oh, right, well, this is why my relationships are not going so well. This is why my kids are fighting because of that area that seems to be overlooked. And it's unconscious. Like it's not, we don't realize it.

Jennie (05:22.273)
Mmm.

Patricia (05:23.013)
So when you have this new layer of consciousness about your physical environment, it starts to illuminate things. And then, you know, it's that quote, like you don't know what you don't know until you do, and then you do, and you're like, oh, okay, like I didn't do this picture or that photo or this thing with the setup of my children's bedroom or whatever it is that changes it. And then you're like, oh, now I can change that. So that's really powerful. And you know, I love that you...

Papa Rick (05:37.994)
Oh, aha.

Patricia (05:51.765)
of picked up on the idea of like Feng Shui being spiritual. And one of the things is that it does come from the philosophy of the Tao. It comes from that Chinese lineage. It's a 5,000 year old practice. It's connected with Chinese medicine. It's connected with that five element theory, but also like fundamentally all of that theory comes from the philosophy of the Tao. And the

Patricia (06:21.065)
flow of nature into the flow of life. And how I see it, you know, if you do acupuncture in your body, it's about bringing your body into balance. But when we just look out into nature, all nature is working in harmony. The rivers, the trees, they're just in these different cycles. And what we want to do with Feng Shui and what we're doing Feng Shui is bringing that sense of harmony into the home.

Jennie (06:35.867)
Hmm.

Patricia (06:46.757)
And then it links in with ourselves, like that our bodies are also in harmony, that our minds and hearts are in harmony. And that is how do we do that? You're connected to source. You're connected to spirit. You're connected to the life force energy and you're allowing it to happen. And so that's it is for me and has been a very spiritual practice.

Jennie (07:01.861)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (07:09.966)
Very interesting. It's kind of like immersing yourself in the flow. One of the visualizations I use for spirituality is being in a stream and going across stream or fighting the stream or being with the stream, you know. And I like that idea of, okay, immerse yourself in the stream and get with it. Okay. All right. I like that explanation. Thank you. Thank you.

Patricia (07:14.546)
Mmm.

Patricia (07:34.245)
Yeah. And that even just...

Jennie (07:35.487)
When it's like a...

Jennie (07:41.635)
I was just gonna say it's like an ecosystem is the thought I had, like a functioning. When I was building my garden for the first time last year, I just kept thinking of like what, you know, there's the plants, you know, the co-planting and the plants that help each other and feed the soil and help each other grow. And then there's the plants that if you plant them together, they'll steal nutrients from each other. And then there's also like the water source and the,

Papa Rick (07:44.983)
Hmm.

Patricia (07:44.986)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (08:10.787)
Like the drip irrigation system and each different kind of plant needs a different amount of water. And, and then there's also like this tree that overhangs and it, it gets a certain fungus on its leaves. And if those leaves get into the fall and get into the garden without being picked up quickly, then that fungus will get into the garden and disrupt the ecosystem. Like all these different pieces. And I just had that visual when you were describing like nature and the reflection of that, like our, our homes, you know, our homes, you know,

house us, but then it's also there's relationships inside of the home and then a relationship with ourselves and how we move and communicate and feel. Yeah, it's creating a functional, healthy ecosystem inside the house.

Patricia (08:59.285)
100%. And, you know, there's a few things there. But the first is that idea of like, well, if you were to kind of draw a symbol that would represent Feng Shui, it's that idea of that yin and yang symbol, like, you know, that interaction, like, if it goes too yang, it's too busy, like, and every house, what we want is to be in this center line, which is exactly what you're talking about the river, we want to be in the flow, we don't want to be like, like too much, if there's too much flow, it's too much.

Papa Rick (09:12.208)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (09:27.065)
If it's like a tiny trickle, there's no movement. So then it's like, what is this like center line where we can be in harmony and flow? Like that's that. That's that. That's essentially what the Tao is and living the Tao and breathing it in your within your home. And as you talked about the different parts of the garden, like that's exactly what we would be looking I'd be looking at in people's houses. But from, you know, partially from an energetic, like an invisible energetic plane, partially from a

Papa Rick (09:31.651)
Thank you.

Papa Rick (09:53.79)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (09:54.253)
aesthetic space in terms of, you know, if we have like a lot, like just think about that yin and yang energy. If a child's bedroom is painted all red or a child is in a racing car bed, you know, it's like a red racing car bed, fire element, it's a race car. And we're like, why is my child like, why is he not sleeping very well? And you're like, well,

Jennie (10:12.536)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (10:12.882)
Hahaha

Jennie (10:17.659)
Hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Papa Rick (10:17.878)
Hahaha

Patricia (10:22.225)
It's a race car and it's red, which can create aggression, anger, frustration. You're like, this is the element of fire. It's like nature is like, you know, it's like a creative force and it's great for like passion and energy in certain parts of your home, but like not in your kids' bedroom, you know?

Jennie (10:25.785)
Yeah.

Jennie (10:32.559)
Hi.

Jennie (10:41.259)
Right, right.

Papa Rick (10:42.486)
I remember as a kid wanting one of those. I don't know if it was the sixties when those became popular, but that's so funny, you know? Cause it's like, we, the world makes us want stuff that is not very good for us sometimes, you know? That's cool. That's funny.

Jennie (10:45.626)
Yeah.

Patricia (10:59.686)
It is so true, you know, the world makes us want things. And, you know, this is where even, you know, I just have this thing right now where I'm like Pinterest and Instagram are like, I don't know, they're like a pest for people to try to achieve this like perfect perfection, this like perfect home. Like if it has to like be like this and achieving that and just creates so much stress.

Papa Rick (11:03.15)
Ha ha ha!

Jennie (11:12.968)
I'm going to go.

Papa Rick (11:13.045)
Uh...

Jennie (11:21.868)
Yeah.

Patricia (11:26.905)
And when I come on to shows or I'm talking to someone, I'm like, that is not what Feng Shui is about. It's not about it being able to come out of a magazine. It's about everybody getting on well and your kids happy and you're doing good in your business and your career and you're feeling good. It's not about this like striving for social perfection and be able to post everything. So it's like, look at me, I have this. And then, but everybody's like.

Jennie (11:36.4)
No.

Patricia (11:54.085)
not happy in the house or unhealthy or, you know, there's lots of other things going on.

Jennie (11:57.315)
Yeah.

Jennie (12:00.651)
I kind of think of it as like setting yourself up for success, setting up your environment for success, because each human being has different needs and different abilities and different weaknesses and strengths and all of these things. And I'm coming at this from kind of an ADHD perspective right now in my own life of how I've...

Papa Rick (12:00.775)
Yeah, social.

Patricia (12:10.101)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (12:29.235)
altered my own environments. Like I know now that it was a coping skill, but I didn't, before I knew I had ADHD, which was most of my life, I just did these things automatically because I knew like, oh, if I don't leave this out as a visual reminder, the next time I walk by it, I'll forget to do that task. Or if I don't put it in my calendar, or I don't write it down, or if I don't do this.

One of my, you know, I realized now that was an adjustment I made for myself to cope with ADHD. Um, whereas like, I also want things complete. I want everything to have a home in an assigned place, but I don't always put things back in their homes because I leave things. I leave remind visual reminders all around the house for myself or different things. Um, so it's kind of like a, it's kind of, it's.

It's just like this catch-22 for me sometimes. But anyway, that's kind of how I currently view Feng Shui, is kind of setting your environment up for whatever your needs, your family's needs, your kids' needs, whatever your needs are. And then each room has its own function, and each space has its own flow. And I kind of picture you as someone who can come in

you ask all the questions and you figure out what the family is struggling with and maybe what their needs are specifically, and then you're able to kind of design and help build a space around their specific needs versus it being where you walk in and you're like every living room needs to look like this, every bedroom needs to look like this, every office needs to look like this.

Patricia (14:22.697)
So definitely there's a lot, like one of the things that as you were talking, is like I like to talk to and tell people about, you know, the idea of like making your home like a vision board for your future. You know, what is your, your vision? Like, you know, for families, where would you like to travel to? Do you have pictures of that up? Like, how do you want to feel in your house? Is it like?

Papa Rick (14:35.909)
Hmm.

Patricia (14:43.705)
Is there just sarcastic comments up on the post signs, the sarcastic signs, or is it family together or artwork that feels really empowering and joyful and playful? What is the energy that you wanna feel? Or is it dark, single images of people? I've seen the gamut of artwork that you can imagine. And honestly, it literally...

Papa Rick (14:49.326)
Thank you.

Jennie (14:59.844)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (15:07.592)
I'll bet.

Patricia (15:13.173)
dictates the vision of like, of, it literally tells a story of what's happening in the home. When I look at the art and the paintings, just that alone is one part. And that can be such a fascinating thing for people to even start looking at it. It's like, well, you know, in my office right now, I have like some different, I've got all, Jenny asked me about like the unicorn and the pictures and, you know, it's so, everything that's right behind me.

Papa Rick (15:19.583)
Yeah.

Patricia (15:41.401)
actually, except just the stay weird one, which is just a personal reminder, just stay on. Keep being you, being Patricia. But the other pieces have like a very significant connection with me, like the little Vespa and the couple picture. My dad actually bought it for me. We were all on holidays together in Italy and he just was like, you know, we were all there and he's just like, I want to get you girls all like.

Papa Rick (15:46.286)
That's what that is.

Jennie (15:46.651)
I'm going to leave.

Patricia (16:10.045)
a present from our holiday here. You know, he passed a year ago and he's here with me, you know, and it's like, and I got, I picked it and I was like, he just, you know, it's like, that's so, you know, but anybody coming into this office is going to see a picture of Vespa. But that means like, that picture means so much more. And the unicorn is from like my best friends and mentors that I just absolutely adore, you know, so when you come into a space, you don't know, like, but on my sidewall, I have a big picture of the skyscrapers.

New York with adventure on it, because I just love adventure. So every piece can tell a story and it can mean something to you personally that nobody else needs to know about. But it can really have a massive impact in you and your environment. So from an art perspective, like that is like one of my favorite things for people to look at it when they even to start with this concept. You know, you talked about.

Papa Rick (16:56.152)
meaning.

Patricia (17:05.765)
me coming into a house and them telling me what they want. Well, I say, and telling me what's going on in their lives. And there's different layers to this. Like one layer is, you know, what's on your walls, what's currently in your home that's here. And is it aligned with what it is that you wanna create? You know, I just come to mind, you know, I remember looking at this lady's house and around her house, she had lots of single women pictures, a few family photos, several pictures of her kids and stuff.

Papa Rick (17:24.176)
Thank you.

Jennie (17:24.397)
Yeah.

Jennie (17:32.751)
Hmm.

Patricia (17:35.413)
there was very few of groups of people together and her husband worked away from home for years. He just never really was there. He was there at the weekends or whatever, but she ended up being a kind of single mom and the art was just all single women everywhere. So it was just very, I was like, oh, that mean, it's interesting when you can kind of look at pieces of art.

Papa Rick (17:45.299)
Oh my.

Jennie (17:46.767)
Hmm.

Jennie (17:51.887)
Um.

Hahaha

Patricia (18:04.425)
But when we would look at someone, and what I think, just going back to the very beginning, when I was talking about Feng Shui, is about flow and alignment. Everyone can have their vision of what they want to unfold for them, but we know that life has its own force, and it knows, like God's Spirit has a better, usually a much bigger, better plan for us, if we allow it. And when we work from a Feng Shui perspective, I work...

Jennie (18:19.555)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (18:25.85)
Thank you.

Patricia (18:31.345)
like on an individual. So every house is unique. So like functionalized like acupuncture for your home. So every house has its own unique energy blueprint. And it's not like, I'm gonna do your house and tell you, Jenny, you do these, you put these remedies like this plant and this crystal and this stone and this metal and this water in this, in the same areas as Rick, you know, you do this. No, it's completely different. But what we're really doing is,

Jennie (18:39.518)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (18:58.021)
is putting in these elements, these specific ones, like we're starting an astrology reading for a home, and we're putting them in to balance the energy of the home. And that then basically is going to, and what I've seen happen is that it brings that energy of flow into the home. So then those people's dreams and, you know, big part of, as I said, that this work has really evolved into is that inner, you know, inner work around.

Jennie (19:07.803)
Hmm.

Patricia (19:26.173)
What is it that I want? Like, how can I create? What's my bigger vision? Why am I here? What's my purpose? And I've seen people like access deeper parts of them. Like I've had lots of people become way more creative, just like start painting or start doing different practices that blow my mind. I'm like, oh wow. And unexpected things start to happen in their lives or their children start to get on better or deepening connections because...

Jennie (19:40.164)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (19:51.081)
That's already there, the potential is already there, but the energetics may not have just been in place for it to happen. So what we start to do is energetics, it's not necessarily about here's the couch, put the couch here. Most of the time, the couch is in the only place that it can go, like in a living room, you know.

Jennie (19:59.469)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (20:02.53)
Hmm.

Jennie (20:05.807)
Yeah.

Jennie (20:10.158)
Yeah.

Jennie (20:14.331)
So there's, so with the audience, right, that we're speaking to, mostly parents, tell me, tell me about a time or a family or maybe a collective, you know, maybe you have several families that you've helped as a collective memory of a time when maybe, you know, the children's behavior or the struggles that the parents were experiencing.

specifically in parenting were helped through setting up a more functional feng shui environment in their house.

Patricia (20:55.841)
Yeah, for sure. You know, and what's so interesting about this journey with families and parents is that, you know, I originally just like was speaking to like pair like to women in general, like help you get more abundance or help with your career and something like really dropped more recently where I would, we have a weekly wins in our community where people just share different things and literally.

Jennie (21:13.114)
Yeah.

Patricia (21:22.109)
this morning, like literally I can just like read the one from, I read one this morning and I was like, Oh, so this lady just joined our community a couple of weeks ago. And I know that she actually just joined for her business. And this is where it's fun. So she's like, I'm finding, let me see where she said it. I'm really enjoying quality time with my youngest kid who for years didn't want to be near me. Massive shift.

I also received wonderful email from my headteacher about my eldest daughter who's excelling in school. And this time last year she wasn't even at school. So this is, she's within a couple of weeks and I just said to her, how amazing this is this list around your children. She said, I know it's quite amazing with my children. I should have added that they're also getting on so well. They used to fight constantly.

Papa Rick (21:49.917)
Hmm

Jennie (21:58.351)
Wow.

Patricia (22:13.469)
And yeah, then her then she's like playing my playlist in the background. She's like, my husband is wondering what kind of music he's listening to. But like, because I don't know what playlist she has, but it has ACDC and my husband loves ACDC. So it's like one of these. We're just so random, because usually my songs are so like positive and uplifting. So there's just like this one random ACD thing that her husband came in and was like, what are you listening to? Never listen to ACDC. So like.

Papa Rick (22:21.102)
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Jennie (22:21.835)
I'm sorry.

Jennie (22:31.469)
Nice.

Papa Rick (22:39.214)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Jennie (22:39.547)
I'm going to go to bed.

Patricia (22:41.873)
So like Sherry is being Sherry came in kind of found my world because she wanted help with their business. But as a default, what's unfolded is that, you know, there's just create it's created more harmony in her home for her kids. And oh, and the other one was, oh, she just said that my husband got paid. Like so literally the other day, like last week, she's just like, my husband hasn't been paid unexpectedly. And then she's like, oh, now he's got paid. You know, so I was like, just let it go. Trust. It's all good. Don't worry. Your house is portrayed. It's going to come like.

Jennie (23:07.928)
Mm.

Patricia (23:10.473)
Focus on, you know, what are you, what are you grateful for? And this is literally how I've ended up talking on these more parenting podcasts because it's like they'll share, Oh, this has happened in my business. So this happened. And then all of a sudden it's all these trickle things with like, like kids are getting on better at school or they're getting better grades. Or they just, you know, we had like one, um, like we've had lots of different wins for different children, but with one lady whose daughter had intellectual disabilities and basically.

Papa Rick (23:28.491)
Yeah.

Patricia (23:40.617)
like throughout her year, but she'd functioned, they had functioned the house and she was like an amazingly bright student, but ended up getting into university and had this idea and then got like a 50,000 euro grant, got featured in the media, like all of these things just started to unfold. And she's like, for most of my life, I've been like worried, like what will happen with my daughter? And now she's like got this business.

Papa Rick (23:55.982)
Wow.

Patricia (24:05.769)
helping people and with this grant and it's just amazing. But what we start to see is just like, I think that the women get more confident and more flow and then it just encourages everyone else because I am a firm believer that, you know, the parents are the thermometer of the home, like of the energy of the home. So once they start to, you know, make changes and start to think, you know.

Papa Rick (24:26.676)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jennie (24:26.715)
Um, mhm.

Patricia (24:31.301)
One of the things I invite people to do is to look at every area of your life and from our Feng Shui perspective, I'm like, well, what is it you want? How do you want to feel? And what are you doing to bring you to that place? Like, what are you doing? OK, you've got your Feng Shui remedies in, like the house is covered, you know, your house is good now. But what are you doing yourself to step into that space? And then it just, I don't know, facilitates the children to do the same.

Jennie (24:45.455)
Yeah.

Jennie (24:51.831)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (24:54.99)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (24:59.662)
Sure, that's a skill or a sense you could pass along to children. I hadn't thought about that. The whole idea of timing and, you know, this is like a technology to help control or not control. This is like a technology to interface with the bigger spiritual picture, help you get in tune with that. That's, I'd never thought of it that way before. That's really, that's really eye opening for me. Very cool.

You can do something about it. What are you doing to make this happen?

Patricia (25:28.36)
Yeah.

Jennie (25:28.387)
and

Jennie (25:31.947)
Yeah. There's a lot of pieces there with like, you know, kind of typical manifestation advice, but then also something that we've talked about a hundred times on the podcast is that the parents, I love that you said the parents are the thermometer of the home because they are the parents, the way that the parents, the moods of the parents, the energetics of the parents, the actions of the parents.

Papa Rick (25:52.416)
Yeah.

Jennie (26:01.155)
The relationship of the parents all trickles down to the children, how the children act, how the children relate to themselves, to the world, to everything, their moods and behaviors, their energies. And we've said so many times on here that modeling is a parent's best tool. If you want your kids to do something or behave a certain way or have a certain habit or whatever it is.

The first thing you need to do is look at yourself and say, am I doing that? Am I getting dressed first thing in the morning? Am I jumping? You know, am I? Yeah, well, yeah, emotionally, am I regulated? Or am I yelling at my kid every time I get mad? Oh, well, don't, wow. Why do you think your child's yelling every time they get upset? Things like that. And yeah, so that's, I think that this

Papa Rick (26:34.564)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (26:35.559)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (26:40.498)
Am I regulated?

Jennie (26:58.883)
this could be such a fantastic tool for parents, for anyone, but for parents and families and our audience here to really like think about this, to really look into this as something to add to your home life, to your ecosystem, as something that brings even more mindfulness. And I love that word harmony that you use, Patricia.

Patricia (27:05.183)
Mm.

Papa Rick (27:05.777)
Yeah.

Patricia (27:26.837)
Hmm.

Jennie (27:26.919)
I wrote that down because I always say peace. I'm like, can we bring a more peaceful environment, a more harmonious because that's like things aren't always just peaceful, but if things are working together towards the greater good, that's the goal, right? I think this could be, and I even said on our phone call, I was like, I need you to help me because we're, I don't think I've announced this.

Patricia (27:40.654)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (27:44.466)
Yeah.

Patricia (27:51.061)
..

Papa Rick (27:51.438)
Thank you.

Jennie (27:52.907)
on the podcast yet, but we're almost 17 weeks pregnant. So if anyone has noticed my face exploding recently, I've announced it on social media. Yeah, but I haven't said it out loud on the podcast yet. And so we're planning a baby nursery and all of these things. And so Lewis and I are for the first time really stepping into like

Patricia (27:59.802)
Amazing!

Patricia (28:05.229)
How exciting!

Patricia (28:12.495)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (28:21.539)
being parents and how our house is shifting and things are moving and how everything, we're altering our ecosystem a lot right now. So when we were talking last, Patricia, I was just like, oh my gosh, I need all of your help. But yeah, back to the point is that I think this is a fantastic tool for any parent to have in their tool belt.

Papa Rick (28:32.95)
Yep, yep, recalibrate.

Patricia (28:34.012)
Hmm.

Patricia (28:39.131)
Yeah.

Patricia (28:44.245)
And I, yeah.

Jennie (28:50.619)
Because it's real. It works. Yeah.

Papa Rick (28:50.934)
Yeah. Like what we talked about before. Now we're conscious of it. Excuse me.

Patricia (28:52.057)
Yeah it is unlike I think that you go ahead.

Patricia (28:59.201)
Yeah, exactly. And like for me, as I don't know, some things are like coming in that feel important to share here, you know, you just touched on like setting up the nursery and you're just going to be so mindful of like setting up the nursery. And I do have a resource I can share with you for nurseries and for bedrooms set up for parents. But in terms of like what I would say to parents listening is it's like, how are you looking after your own bedroom? Like have you created your own

Jennie (29:07.61)
Yeah.

Jennie (29:18.843)
Oh great.

Patricia (29:27.497)
sanctuary space for yourself and created a room that is like dedicated to you and your relationship, you know, and this is one thing that I think is so important is that we often spend a lot like How our home space can get overlooked and we can pass by things and oh it'll do and it'll do but how are you tending to? Your own space and this as we know ripples down into for the children as well as they see it

Papa Rick (29:52.206)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (29:52.218)
Yeah.

Patricia (29:54.473)
you know, are you creating a beautiful, loving space for you and your partner? Like, I always invite my people to like, make sure that your bedroom is just like, very, like that you walk in and you're like, oh, I just want to sleep. I know this is the most relaxing then place for me. You know, do I have, do you have a picture of yourself and your partner that feels, that really reminds you of a really happy time to, to really, you know.

Papa Rick (30:12.877)
Hehehe

Patricia (30:21.673)
I don't know, anchor in the positive energies from your relationship that you've got, like a reminder in that anchor. You know, also like keeping underneath the bed clear, like no work equipment or no work stuff in your bedroom. You know, I remember working with a lady in Manhattan and we went into her space. She had this amazing apartment. They had loads of space that she wanted to call in a baby. And I get to their bedroom and I'm like, okay, so.

who's this? And she's like, Oh, that's a picture of my grandfather. I was like, do you want him to watch you while you're in bed? She's like, Oh, no. So like family photos out, you know, family members photos out. And then, and then, and that's the same with like spiritual pictures. Like I don't recommend them in your bedroom either. Like you're like, you don't want to like Jesus watching you. Like, no, like baby cat, but you know, but from that, just no, it's, and it's disrespectful. Just, it's just like a weird.

Jennie (30:54.519)
Oh no!

Jennie (31:01.339)
Bye!

Jennie (31:11.467)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm.

Patricia (31:19.005)
So like no spiritual pictures. And then in the bedroom, you know, no family, families and friends. I've just seen like every type of picture in different bedrooms, but really just like what's gonna, what do we want our relationship to look like? And can we bring artwork that represents that, us two together and any of the children, no family, no children, none in the bedroom. But the other thing is, you know, making sure it's, yeah, so that lady in New York.

Jennie (31:20.175)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (31:29.602)
Yeah.

Jennie (31:41.371)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (31:47.653)
So the fat, I was like, granddad picture gone. And then beside the bed, it had like, there was space on both sides, but on her husband's side of the bed was literally piles of folders. And I was like, what is all that stuff? And she's like, oh, that's all his work files. And I'm like, so there's three people in this relationship in this bedroom, because literally, like it was high, as high as the bed of paperwork.

Jennie (32:03.127)
Uh-oh.

Yeah.

Patricia (32:11.337)
And I'm like, that has got to go. Like there is no way. Like you want to call in a baby? I'm like, there's no space. And there's two people, this guy has two relationships. Like one with his work and one with you. So we have to change it. So she got rid of that. And then the same with, you know, calling in a child. Like, is there space for the nursery? Okay, you're going to have a nursery. Right. Let's make space in the nursery. I remember one lady wanting to call in child. And I was like, show me where the nursery is. She opened the door.

Jennie (32:12.597)
Oh my gosh.

Jennie (32:18.498)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (32:18.954)
Yeah, that's something else.

Papa Rick (32:25.631)
Exactly.

Jennie (32:27.297)
Yeah.

Patricia (32:40.541)
room and it was literally like rows and rows and rows of um railing with clothes and handbags and shoes and I'm like so where's the baby gonna fit like there's no space in here you know so it's like this it's like setting up your environment to where

Papa Rick (32:52.862)
Um.

Jennie (32:54.507)
Yeah.

Patricia (33:02.421)
to be that vision, setting up this, making the space for it in your life, in your relationship, in your bedroom. So, you know, that's that idea of in your bedroom, if you don't have it to be a space for connection, for romance, for the two of you, it's not gonna happen anywhere else in the house. You know, it's not that sense of connection just isn't quite available, you know? So creating your own bedroom and that also then reflects back. So a lady had me on her podcast.

Papa Rick (33:20.983)
Yeah.

Jennie (33:22.532)
Yeah.

Patricia (33:29.585)
a few weeks ago and we were chatting just about the Zen room and she was like, oh my God, my children take individual turns to want to come up to my room because it's so beautiful and Zen. And then she's like, but I don't even want to step into theirs. And she literally was like, I'm getting off this. I'm going down to their rooms. I'm going to start organising. I'm going to start thinking about like how I've done this for myself, but I haven't done it for them.

Papa Rick (33:42.178)
What?

Jennie (33:45.787)
Hmm.

Jennie (33:51.865)
more.

Papa Rick (33:54.622)
Yeah. And she'll need their help. That'll be interesting. That'll be an interesting experience. Yeah.

Jennie (33:54.671)
home.

Jennie (33:57.827)
This makes me... Yeah.

Patricia (34:00.596)
Yeah.

For sure. Yeah.

Jennie (34:03.899)
This makes me feel good because I feel like we, our bedroom is very, and this is for the first time in this house that we moved into a year and a half ago. My, the last two bedrooms, so my husband and I's last house that we lived in, and then my house that I lived in before that was very, very colorful.

Um, which I don't think there's anything wrong with, but it was, but it was very like vibrant colors and, um, and lots of stuff on the walls and plants everywhere. And, and I loved them and they were very representative of like a phase or period of my life and it was like my insides, like all over the room and, and I loved it.

for that time, but when we, and then he and I moved in together and we had a very like, we had like royal purple as like the color on our bed and the walls were gray, but we again had a bunch of like stuff that was representative of us on the walls, which is fine. It was just like every wall had stuff on it. And in this house, I

Patricia (35:25.69)
Mmm.

Jennie (35:28.615)
really wanted a more neutral colored bedroom. I wanted less stuff on the walls. And I just, you know, slowly over the years, I think, and I learned six or seven years ago to quit putting photos in my bedroom. Photos of friends, family. I studied Hinduism for a while and it was like, all my god and goddess figurines, devies and devas.

They belonged in different areas of the house, but you don't put them in your bedroom ever. It's disrespectful. And so things like that I cleared out many years ago, but when we moved into this house, I knew that I just had a feeling. I was like, I need a, I want a more neutral bedroom, which shocked him because he'd seen my last two bedrooms that I had designed and he was like, wait, what? So I mean, it's like whites and grays and blacks and,

Patricia (35:58.281)
Yeah.

Patricia (36:02.398)
Yeah.

Patricia (36:20.475)
Yeah.

Jennie (36:27.619)
very like light powdery blues. And we each have a dream catcher that were gifts to us, I think from each other over our side of the bed. We have our bed, our end tables and our lamps. We each have a clock. We each have like the books that we're reading for fun.

not for work. Um, we have our massagers, like a, we have like a back massager and a theragun and a humidifier. We have like some functional stuff, like I'll lay in bed with the massager and read my book, you know, but there's no work. There's no laptops allowed. Um, we have a cell phones down when we get into bed policy. Um, and then we have one photo. That's just kind of a placeholder, not photo painting.

Patricia (37:08.82)
Yeah.

Jennie (37:28.243)
Um, that's a very neutral color and really isn't a painting of anything. And then we have the Desi Durata poem blown up on in a framed thing, which is the poem that was read at our wedding. And that's it. So we have like all neutral colors. We have a bit, but anyway, what you were saying, all those things that makes me feel good about the progress that I have made of like setting up a sanctuary. And I.

Patricia (37:37.382)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (37:41.895)
Beautiful.

Patricia (37:53.619)
Mm, for sure.

Jennie (37:56.343)
And I am aiming for that with children and I'm lucky in that I've worked in a lot of homes. Um, and I, and I've gotten the experience of seeing. And deciding what I would want in nursery and an older child's room to look like. And one of my big things is there will not be, their bedroom will not be their playroom. Their toys will live somewhere else. Um, the toys will live in a bin and.

Patricia (38:18.232)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (38:21.317)
Hmm.

Patricia (38:22.168)
100%. If possible, you know, I think this is the

Jennie (38:25.751)
Yeah. I know that's not always possible. But there'll be a bin in the living room on the main floor. Eventually we'll finish the basement. There'll be a playroom in the basement. But like there'll be books. There'll be some bookshelves in their room and there'll be a bed in their room and there'll be a chair in their room and there'll be stuffies and blankets and pillows and.

their clothes in their closet and stuff like that. But like their bedroom will be their bedroom, will be the place they sleep, relax, calm down.

Patricia (39:02.165)
100%.

Papa Rick (39:03.922)
And whatever, and whatever they're needing, you know, when they grow up and start to have little personalities, right, factor all that in.

Patricia (39:08.26)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (39:13.654)
Very interesting. Yeah, this is a real this is a real tech.

Patricia (39:15.331)
Yeah, it's beautiful like what you've done.

Papa Rick (39:20.918)
Go ahead, go ahead, I was just thinking out loud, sorry.

Jennie (39:21.571)
Thank you.

Patricia (39:26.273)
This is, you know, what you've already created is amazing. And I think that when you start to become more aware, you know, and even my own bedroom is like so calm, like, and it's the complete opposite of the rest of our house. There's other areas of our house that are like we've a living room that's, you know, just about that yin and yang. Like we have one room in our house that is very bright. It's like we're our kitchen, our dining room, but there's lots of light. There's amazing views of the Dublin Mountains and.

Jennie (39:50.147)
Hmm.

Patricia (39:53.597)
there's bright paintings and brightness in it. And it's very me. Like if you walked in, like you would know this is the address is. But our living room, which most people are a bit surprised when they come into our house, because they're like, when we first decorated it, it was like yellow and bright furniture and super bright. But now it's like a quite dark, it's a dark green and it's very yin. So it's that like, it's a place where we'll go with like the fire and it's cozy, but you have these.

Jennie (40:01.433)
Yeah.

Patricia (40:19.673)
opposites of rooms. So you've created these spaces. So bedrooms need to be more yin. They need to be places of calm and relaxed. And then you have those yang rooms, which can be bright and light and where you're living and where you're spending time. And it's about that dance within the house and knowing that, you know, the room or whatever it's designed for, you know, I know that when we spend time in, I know when I spend time in my little,

living room that's like all green, dark and everything. It's like, I'm just kind of going deep and reading a book and with my friends or the fireless and cozy. And I don't spend much time. We don't spend a ton of time there during the day because we're out in the bright rooms. So it is finding that and bedrooms to be that more in and calm. So it sounds like you've done an amazing job. And yeah, I'm just onto that with the kids and with the closets and the rooms. Like I love that in terms of

Jennie (40:53.017)
Yeah.

Jennie (41:01.121)
Yeah.

Patricia (41:14.965)
If you can, and I suppose this is always about like availability of space in different people's homes, but for what I've seen over the years with families and with bedrooms, and especially with children and their stuff, is that a lot of people see the solution to the access that children have is more storage containers. And I'm like, no, storage containers are not the answers, not storage solutions. It's about...

Papa Rick (41:21.623)
Yeah.

Patricia (41:42.925)
making sure that what's in your home is being used. Like that it's been, that it's, you know, because oftentimes there's, that children get accumulate a lot and then it just gets into that storage container, it doesn't move and it's just left. There's like another one and another one and another one. And that from a Feng Shui perspective, like when I'm talking about Feng Shui, I'm talking about it being like flow and ease and.

Papa Rick (41:58.848)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (42:02.252)
Yeah.

Patricia (42:07.421)
those storage containers look innocent. But for me, that's where the energy gets stuck and stagnant. Like they look innocent. It's like, it looks organized, but it's not that it's not organized, but it's like, is it being used? Is the energy flow being used? So when it comes to Feng Shui from that perspective, when I went, if I go into someone's house, like I work virtually all the time now, like it's not, we don't do in person, but.

Papa Rick (42:12.834)
Hahaha!

Jennie (42:22.49)
Yeah.

Patricia (42:35.933)
when I would go into someone's house and see, you know, the dishes on the counter or the kids playroom covered in toys or the laundry basket full and the laundry room a bit busy. Like people will be like, often people are like, oh, my house is a mess. Like you can't come and see it. This is a bit of an excuse. This is like, and they're like, it's all bad feng shui. And I'm like, those things are life. You know, the kids playroom with toys scattered or their bedroom. I'm like, that's life. That is not bad feng shui.

Jennie (42:58.979)
Yeah.

Patricia (43:03.517)
that you know you're gonna eventually fill the dishwasher, you know that the laundry is gonna get done, the toys are being played with, and it's the storage container that's been there for a year with full of kid stuff that hasn't been touched, that's the problem to me. Cause I'm like, there's nothing moving there, it's just creating stagnancy. And where we have stagnancy, you have dis-ease, disharmony, and that's, and it's like left unconsciously there. So that would be always my invitation to people is like, don't buy more storage containers, get rid of this.

Papa Rick (43:14.156)
Yeah.

Patricia (43:33.009)
And you know, it's, we have this, I don't have children, but my husband and I had a very interesting relationship with bookshelves. So originally in this office, I had a giant red bookshelf. In our living room, we had a huge bookshelf. In our kitchen dining room, another huge bookshelf. So when you have bookshelves, what do you put on them? Books! So they were just like full of books, like both also this one, they were just jammed.

Papa Rick (43:44.546)
Ha ha ha!

Patricia (44:01.981)
Some of them were replica books, because when I met my husband, like we had very similar interests, so some of the books were like duplicates. And then I was like, what are we doing with all these bookcases? So slowly but surely we just got rid of them all, like all of them, which was, it's a dance, because you're like, oh, like, will I ever read this book again? No, no, no. Is there someone else that would benefit from this book? Yes, yes, yes. And now we have...

Papa Rick (44:10.378)
It had to merge.

Papa Rick (44:31.415)
I don't know.

Patricia (44:31.881)
like a few little shelves that are very well curated books. They're like books that if someone came to my house, I'd be like, you know, all that one that you might like that or they, we also, when we're not here, our house is on Airbnb. So I'm like, these are, you know, interesting, diverse, different, but there's only like two shelves as opposed to three giant bookcases.

Jennie (44:59.035)
Hmm.

Papa Rick (45:00.854)
That's really interesting. Now you're hitting me personally, because I like books, but you're right. It's time to... Some of them are like old references. Some of them are really for work. I'm at home now. A lot of them, some of them, a shelf of them I carry to work so that people know I read them. You know, it's like, here's my, it's kind of like, here's my technical history. Right? It's like a resume or a, what do they call it? An ego wall kind of thing.

Patricia (45:07.942)
Yeah.

Patricia (45:14.757)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Patricia (45:27.411)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (45:31.222)
Um, and now all of a sudden I'm looking at my bookshelf saying, no, I'm never going to pick up that math book again, or, you know, some of these are past their past their prime. And then there's other ones like my kids have given me, uh, gave me a, uh, nice, uh, not Tolstoy, uh, Tolkien, uh, Lord of the Rings set. You know, I was a big, I'm a, I was a big Lord of the Rings fan and they, somebody went to New Zealand and got me a nice book set. It's like, okay, that's a, that's a keeper there. That's.

Patricia (45:31.471)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (45:52.454)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (46:01.762)
There's so much, there's so much to this. There's so much timing. There's so much, so many ripples. You know, this is, this is even the bookshelf thing. Yeah. Uh, you know, the, the ripples of passing out your books, you know, handing off, passing them along, paying it forward. Maybe, you know, this is, uh, golly folks pay attention to this. This is hitting me hard. I'm going to have to reorganize.

Patricia (46:06.002)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (46:10.514)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (46:29.558)
things. I have storage containers too, and I've learned to think of storage containers as garbage cans. Don't hang onto the garbage can once you've filled it up. If you're never going to pull that... You know, if it's like Christmas stuff and Thanksgiving stuff, that's fine. But if it's just stuff you don't know what to do with, just throw it away. Very interesting. Very interesting, Patricia. Yeah.

Patricia (46:37.054)
Yeah.

Patricia (46:41.545)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Patricia (46:50.277)
Yeah. And it's like, they're my nemesis or donate it, you know? And I love that when you said like, these books are like my ego shelf. It's like, look how many books I've read, you know, like, look how smart I am. And that is so, and it's okay. You have to come to an ego place and be like, oh yeah, I see that. But also for me, I was like, this is kind of like a mad story. But when I first, like one of my very first Feng Shui consultations,

Jennie (46:50.667)
Yeah, or donate it.

Papa Rick (47:02.73)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Patricia (47:18.269)
was in this little farmhouse in the middle of nowhere in Ireland. And this lady hired me, I got to her house and we were walking around, this small little bookshelf. And I was like, tell me about this. Cause you know, I'm not like, I don't tell people get rid of all your books. Cause just like you talked about the toll store, you're like, oh, that has a different meaning. There's complete, that's not, that's nothing to do with like I'm holding onto this for whatever. There's a different connection to different meanings. It's the same with a piece of art.

Jennie (47:41.133)
Yeah.

Patricia (47:47.749)
I see a piece of art and I'm like, oh, that's a terrible piece of art. And I'm like, tell me about it. And then you're like, oh, this is the story or my... And then they're like, oh... Tell me more. Then you can give your diagnosis. But when it came to this woman, I was like, tell me about this bookshelf. And she's like, well, that bookshelf, that's there since I moved in. So she had moved in with her husband into his family home.

Papa Rick (47:54.68)
That's right.

Jennie (47:56.455)
the consultant's line is like tell me more about this

Papa Rick (48:00.781)
Hahaha

Papa Rick (48:07.342)
I'm gonna go.

Jennie (48:07.503)
Yeah.

Patricia (48:18.097)
And I was like, so like, and the books. And she's like, oh yeah, those books are there since. They were there too. And I'm like, okay, so when did you move in? And she's like, 32 years ago. 32 years.

Papa Rick (48:18.843)
I don't know.

Jennie (48:19.009)
Oh wow.

Jennie (48:24.355)
Oh my goodness.

Papa Rick (48:30.418)
Yeah, she doesn't have anything to do with the books. Yeah.

Jennie (48:34.318)
Oh.

Patricia (48:36.529)
you know, just, you know, we just think, and most of us may not live in our houses for that long or have lived in them for that long, but, you know, the idea of just that area, I have no idea, I can't remember what area of that, that area of her life that represented, but imagine just like moving that and just like the kind of like little ripple shift of like something moving and changing in that environment. And, and I always think about

Jennie (48:36.804)
Wow.

Papa Rick (49:01.453)
Exit.

Patricia (49:03.005)
the different areas, like you talked about the storage containers being the garbage, unless it's, you know, what are the logical things to store? And our attic, I can tell you, I know exactly what's in our attic. And we seem to have a lot of, I said again this time, we have a lot of Christmas decorations. Like it takes up a third of our attic space. Because he loves like-

Papa Rick (49:09.017)
Hahaha

Jennie (49:12.666)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (49:23.693)
Hahaha!

Jennie (49:24.035)
Right? So many.

Patricia (49:27.517)
outdoor ones and all of this, but I'm like, at least I know that every year that's just going to come down, it's going to be moved, it's going to be used. And it has a purpose. Like that's the thing. If there's stuff in your, in your, and it's waiting, but that, like just in terms of like location of things, like the attic is literally buried down on your shoulders, your head, you know, when I've had seen people like literally do clearing of their attics, they felt a relief.

Jennie (49:30.427)
I don't know.

Papa Rick (49:37.586)
It's waiting.

Patricia (49:54.793)
their mind has felt clearer because it's a mirror. It goes back to the sentence at the very beginning, your environment is a mirror of you. So oftentimes things in the attic are a mirror of like the mind and the overwhelm and the stress, the busyness, and then the at the basements can be this, the unlooked at. It's kind of like, that's not, I'm just gonna push that out of the car. I'll just put that in the basement. I'll put that in the basement.

Papa Rick (49:56.144)
Interesting.

Patricia (50:19.409)
don't want to look at it, put it in the basement. And that can be very reflective of people who are just not ready to deal with things. And you can do it in the attic as well. But this, if we talk about the ripple of this, the idea of, say, for kids, letting go is a muscle that we have to build. Everything change, and that's the idea of Feng Shui, it's about change and flow, and life is about change. Nothing's ever gonna stay the same. So...

Jennie (50:19.832)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (50:27.139)
That's.

Jennie (50:42.33)
Yeah.

Patricia (50:48.913)
If children start learning to let go of physical things, like on the physical level in their childhood, they're gonna be better in life on the heavier things, on the emotional things that they're all, and this is a life skill in being able to let go and declutter and it's okay, life is moved, we're gonna change and not hold on.

Jennie (51:00.407)
Hmm.

Papa Rick (51:15.018)
Yeah.

Jennie (51:16.787)
I love that you just said that because I was just thinking that I wanted to bring up the idea of toy rotation, which I think is becoming more and more popular and well known in parent circles is that parents, to keep the house from becoming so cluttered or so messy throughout the day, especially when you have young children who are lots and lots of toys.

Patricia (51:25.906)
Mmm.

Jennie (51:43.583)
You know, and then, and then it's just like the whole floor is covered in toys. And every night, you know, you're either trying to get the kids to clean it up or you're cleaning it up and putting everything back in bins. Um, and toy rotation where you only have like a certain number of toys out at any given time, and then the rest are in a storage bin in the basement or wherever the closet, wherever it might be. And then every light couple of weeks or every month you, you.

take those 10 or 20 toys and put those in the bin and pull out the other ones. And it keeps kids interested versus having access to 600 toys all of the time, because then they all become boring, right? They get sick of all of them. And then they're, they wine or they want new ones or whatever. So it makes like the excitement of the toy last longer, but it also reduces clutter in the home in general.

Patricia (52:26.013)
Yeah.

Patricia (52:29.821)
Mm-hmm.

Patricia (52:34.27)
Yeah.

Jennie (52:41.775)
Um, and so I think of toy rotation is almost like a seasonal thing too, is where like toys get rotated. And then the last thing that you just said, Patricia, I'm the kids learning to let go of physical items translates into their emotional intelligence and, and strength and resilience and, and ability to change and, and shift and, and step into a new phase of their life. And I think that's.

Patricia (53:00.341)
Mm.

Jennie (53:08.703)
huge and it's something I've never really thought of before. And I don't think I've ever said that. I don't think I've said that yet on the podcast. I think in our family, this is a very vague memory. But then I've also worked with families where every year at Christmas time-ish, the kids, mom or dad or both would go

down with the kids or they'd go through their toys and the kids each had to pick like three or five or 10 toys that they wanted to donate that year for Christmas. And it was one teaching them to let go and, and because they were going to get a bunch of new stuff for Christmas anyway, but it was teaching them to let go of toys. They really, and think like, do you really like ever play with this? Huh? Do I, you know, when's the last time I touched this toy? And two, it teaches them to

Papa Rick (53:46.625)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (54:03.842)
make choices.

Jennie (54:06.747)
pay it forward to pass that on to someone, you could put it in the Toys for Tots bin, you can go donate it to Ark or Goodwill, and then another child gets to play with that toy, and especially if it's like plastic, then that's one less toy being toxic thing that's gonna end up in the garbage dump. And...

Patricia (54:09.373)
Hmm

Patricia (54:28.696)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (54:33.511)
Yeah, I just never really thought of the releasing of the physical toy. I've always thought of as a great practice for kids. Um, I'd never really thought of the connection to it actually training their emotional health as well. Um, I think that's such a beautiful concept because it is, it's hard. We get emotionally attached to our things and it becomes almost like a scarcity mindset too of like, well, but someday I might need that. Well, then you'll be able to.

Patricia (54:48.393)
For sure. Yeah.

Papa Rick (54:55.083)
Yes, we do.

Patricia (54:58.988)
Exactly.

Jennie (55:01.603)
Like believe in your ability to purchase it at that time or get access to something at that time.

Patricia (55:06.302)
Yeah.

Patricia (55:10.117)
It's like the, it's a bit as well like the books, like, will you be able to Google it? Like, will you be able to Google it or get that information if you can't, if you, you know, and, you know, I definitely with the kids, I've seen such a change. And one of the fun tricks I had with my clients, I say to their kids, I'm like, you know, get them to, you know, it's very similar to the Santa list, but like, get them to think about where they want to go, what they want to see happen for themselves. And, you know,

Jennie (55:16.152)
Right?

Papa Rick (55:17.122)
Hehehehehehe

Patricia (55:36.061)
What are things they want to welcome into their life and write a list? And they're like, okay, well, there's 10 things on the list. So we need to get rid of 10 things. We need to make space for them to happen.

Papa Rick (55:45.962)
Yeah, yeah. That's a great idea. I like that.

Jennie (55:46.199)
Yes.

I am.

We are, gosh, this conversation's bringing up so many personal stories for me. So I hope everyone's enjoying this dive into my life.

Papa Rick (55:56.042)
Yeah, yeah. It's a, it's a new thing we're thinking about is, is really, is really paying attention to our environment, you know, being conscious and doing it, doing things consciously. Yeah.

Patricia (56:00.345)
Yeah.

Jennie (56:13.635)
When I'm really in the thick of it right now, because Patricia, when you and I spoke and scheduled this interview, I wasn't pregnant yet. And now I'm almost 17 weeks in and I am like, we, so the room, two things, and I don't wanna forget them. One, I have a question about the books. Don't let me forget. And two, the nursery, the room that's becoming the nursery.

And we've known that was gonna be the nursery since we moved in. But in the meantime, it turned into our like zen slash workout room. So I was a yoga practitioner for years. And so I have mats and blocks and blankets and I've got, you know, the Hindu devies and devas and I've had an altar with like all my crystals and candles and.

flowers and conch shells and sage and like, I mean, all of, all of the things. And so I've had, I've always had a space or part of a room that was completely dedicated to yoga, all of my yoga books. I mean, I have a bookshelf that is just yoga studies, just yogic Hindu books. And, and just all kinds of like ceremony. I've got like,

Patricia (57:12.379)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (57:37.311)
eight decks of cards, different tarot cards, and I would do readings and all kinds of things. And so that bedroom, my husband and I both wanted a place to work out. We tried to make it in the basement, but our basement's not finished and we never wanted to go down there. So we made this like a combined meditation workout room kind of all in one. And we were, we loved it. We were like, oh my gosh, this is great. We have a whole room just dedicated to all this stuff.

And very recently I started clearing out that room. We had to kind of accept that we didn't really have a space for that anymore, unless we got rid of our guest room, which we also don't wanna do. We wanna be able to host family and stuff. So as I'm clearing out, I'm moving some of those books onto different bookshelves around the house. And I'm...

Papa Rick (58:20.15)
time moves on.

Patricia (58:29.225)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (58:32.919)
you know, basically coming to the conclusion that this, this giant altar with all of my yoga tools, it doesn't have a place and it's not going to, at least for now. And so I've been, I've been working with the acceptance of this thing that has taken up space in my life for seven or eight years now and has been like,

a mate, like a major devotional thing, the acceptance of, of boxing that up for now until we do finish the basement, um, and having those tools. I know. Well, we will have space for a workout space eventually. Um, and some of those key items have moved to like the landing at the top of the stairs, some like extra special ones, but a lot of those

Papa Rick (59:05.172)
End of.

into storage containers.

Patricia (59:11.915)
Hahaha

Jennie (59:26.203)
pieces are being wrapped up and lovingly boxed away in order to make space for this child that we have been praying for nine months and is finally on her way and we are committed to building a sacred space for her. So coming to terms with something that's been such a huge part of my identity being

Papa Rick (59:36.215)
Yeah.

Jennie (59:56.351)
some of it boxed away, coming to an acceptance of that, but then also knowing that doesn't mean it's not part of me still. It doesn't mean I still can't, like my yoga mat's still going to sit out at the top of the stairs. I can throw it down and do yoga anytime. I can meditate anytime. I have, there's many spaces in my house where I can just sit and meditate and

Patricia (01:00:06.93)
Mm.

Patricia (01:00:14.154)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (01:00:22.859)
So kind of releasing the need for a physical representation of something that is innately just in me, if that makes sense.

Patricia (01:00:33.57)
Yeah, for sure. And I think like it's a dance, you know, it depends on your space. You know, you have to just allow for your space. Like for example, you know, in my office now, I have my altar here beside me with my crystals, my deities, all the things over here, but I didn't have it in my office for a really long time. I just had like one little space that I was like, oh, I can actually do that now. But before my husband was in and

Jennie (01:00:39.328)
Yeah

Jennie (01:00:52.334)
Yeah.

Patricia (01:01:00.189)
You know, speaking about this, the spare room is always a very interesting one because we have a spare, two spare rooms. And we just basically were like, no one's going to be in office now. We're like, we don't care. People come, we can move the stuff because it's like we used to share it. Me and Ken used to share an office and we're like, well, what's our priority? And we're like, well, we don't have that many visitors, like really. And if we are, we can just change it. So we had someone come the other day. We were able to move things. It didn't take, it took us five minutes, but it also gave Ken a space that he has for his work. And that.

Jennie (01:01:13.175)
Yeah.

Jennie (01:01:24.25)
Yeah.

Patricia (01:01:30.161)
because Ken now has his own space, I have my altar space and he has his in his office. But just to, and like if there's special pot pieces that you love, like they can still be in and around your home in different places that you have that anchor of it. So the packing away is totally cool. And if it's like knowing that there'll be a space or just kind of putting it out there and be like, Hey home, is there some places that this could be rehomed?

Jennie (01:01:37.529)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (01:01:37.556)
Hmm.

Jennie (01:01:45.028)
Yeah.

Patricia (01:01:59.649)
My little altar is very mobile because I purposely had like all the smallest little things ever because we're on the road so much so I want to be able to bring some of them with me. So I have like one little bat thing that it all wraps into so it just kind of pops out. But in our house in Greece there's no space for it. We have a small space and there's no space for it in Greece. So I'm okay with that but when I'm here and I have a bit of space I'll do it.

Jennie (01:02:00.28)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (01:02:08.078)
Interesting.

Jennie (01:02:10.02)
Yeah.

Jennie (01:02:14.348)
Aww. Yeah.

Patricia (01:02:28.021)
It is a dance with like prioritizations and how beautiful that you've made the space for your new baby to come in. But also just know that you can still bring some of those pieces into different parts of your home and have them as little anchors for your connection to spirit and that beautiful history. And you know, I would not be adverse to doing something with a spare room, you know.

It's interesting. Murphy veds.

Jennie (01:02:58.563)
I'm kind of, so as we're talking, I'm thinking like we don't, the spare room is, it's in like one of the smaller bedrooms. There's really nothing, there's really no space. Like once the bed is in there, that's it. That's all that's in there. I mean, like a couple of little end tables and a mirror on the wall, but that's it. And that room, we literally don't touch that room unless we have someone coming to stay with us. There's nothing in that room.

that we use. I have some coats and stuff in the closet, but that's like, um, and I, and I do, I keep thinking one though, how important it is to us to be able to host people. We love our people, like our friends and family, like that's a vat. Let's value. Number one, um, is our community, our tribe of people. Um, and I mean, I would say

maybe six or seven times a year, we have somebody staying in that room. So it's less than once a month. And in between, we literally don't step foot in that room. And I'm like, it feels like a waste of space sometimes. But it's not like a Murphy bed where we can flip it up.

Patricia (01:04:19.185)
Yeah, it's so interesting.

Jennie (01:04:22.975)
and like work out in that room and then flip the bed down went like it's a big queen. It's a nice bed. It's like it can't carry it downstairs and then carry it back up every time someone comes to visit. Yeah, I don't know. We're sitting on it right now. But. Yeah.

Patricia (01:04:33.051)
Yeah.

Patricia (01:04:38.505)
Play with it, stay with it, exactly. And you know, you just, these things can change. Some, you know, we can check out. I've been looking for our, cause with Ken, I was looking up for our bedroom in our, where was I looking for? I can't remember one of our houses. It's for a Murphy bed in one of our rooms anyways, because I was like, and they're really easy to make on air. I've been literally looking up Murphy beds. But I'm, yeah, the thing is,

Jennie (01:04:46.041)
Yeah.

Jennie (01:05:05.997)
Really?

Patricia (01:05:06.013)
when you see that space and you can sit in it and be like, you know, sit in the space and be like, yeah, kits and everything, it's pretty amazing actually. But the other part is just, it's about honoring yourself and you know, what are the spaces, you know, for me, I don't have like a space to my husband in his office, it's better set up for his meditation space. But for me, I just meditate out on the couch in our very dark room in the mornings and it's perfect. You know?

Papa Rick (01:05:06.262)
Yeah. You can get kits.

Jennie (01:05:33.104)
Mmm, yeah.

Patricia (01:05:33.501)
But if I'm in Greece, it's different. There's a lovely couch and my husband does it in the bedroom because we don't have that space. So just because you haven't got a, for me, like so interesting, I've worked with people in like tiny studio apartments. One lady had this like a New York studio apartment. She worked in it, she lived in it, she ran her business from it. And you would not know, you would not know the difference between it being her workspace during the day and her.

Jennie (01:05:41.21)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (01:05:49.91)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (01:05:53.995)
Yeah.

Jennie (01:05:56.356)
Yeah.

Patricia (01:06:02.533)
living room when she finished work, like so it was like living room workspace to nighttime, like to the stance where we even swapped out the colors of the cushions so that it was like a swap of like, this is a different place. So this is where it's like, there's, you can be creative with it and be like, Oh, well, how, how could it work? And, and how can I, how can I work this and find the space that's going to work for, it's going to be best for me. Um, that's where, uh, where it.

Jennie (01:06:14.715)
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Jennie (01:06:19.844)
Yeah.

Jennie (01:06:28.739)
Yeah.

Patricia (01:06:30.505)
where it all, and I've seen it happen in people using their spaces very efficiently and very fun, but like, Alexa's apartment in New York just blew my mind because during the day, had beautiful couch with a throw and art and her desk all set up. And then at nighttime, like basically when she finished work, it swapped out for evening set up and it was completely different.

So it's fun to be able to like, you know, our environments don't need to be set in stone. Like there's always going to be flexibility to change things around.

Jennie (01:06:57.957)
Wow.

Jennie (01:07:04.282)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (01:07:06.198)
Very interesting. That makes me think of tiny houses and, you know, the application of Feng Shui to various, you know, it's like, uh, like with a kit, okay, here's one room. Here's a little space. And then you, you kind of work it up to an enormous complicated space with multiple people, uh, to get a handle on it. That's making up making a New York studio apartment.

Patricia (01:07:11.258)
Mmm!

Papa Rick (01:07:34.038)
different places. That's got to be interesting.

Patricia (01:07:38.373)
Yeah. Oh, yeah. And it's it was just amazing. Yeah. Go ahead.

Jennie (01:07:39.299)
Alright, so I have a, I have a...

Jennie (01:07:43.824)
No, sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead and respond to that, yeah.

Patricia (01:07:48.777)
And even like literally just this week, we had one of our clients herself and her family lived in a small mobile home slash kind of caravan while they're waiting to buy a new home. And we functioned it because she said, when we moved into the caravan, things weren't going that well. They've been trying to get the right houses. They'd all fallen through. And she's like, I just need to change the energy of where I am right now. They change the energy of this. It's gonna help me get what we want.

Papa Rick (01:08:00.301)
Mm-hmm.

Jennie (01:08:02.427)
Hmm. Yeah.

Papa Rick (01:08:13.847)
Yeah.

Patricia (01:08:15.837)
You know, so the size of the house, so the size of the space doesn't matter. We can change the energy of every space.

Papa Rick (01:08:17.56)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (01:08:24.362)
Yeah, no matter where you are, that's a great lesson for everybody.

Jennie (01:08:33.338)
So Patricia, if there was one...

Jennie (01:08:42.203)
Can do you, let's see, have you noticed or has there been one or two consistent things that you could offer the parents that are listening that you've noticed help families harmonize something small or simple that you could share with our audience that they could put in place on their own to help harmonize the parent-child.

relationship.

Papa Rick (01:09:14.05)
Good starting point. Good starting point, yeah.

Patricia (01:09:18.593)
Yeah, I would start, the very first thing I would do is start with fresh eyes around your home. And that means just like arriving in your home as if it's the first time you've been there and just having a look around at the places that haven't been touched, just kind of become more conscious of your environment. And that is, it's a massive thing. And I've literally had people message me and tell me, I just...

moved this and did the fresh eyes exercise and I feel better. And I'm like, great from this one thing. So you walk around, you're like, that shouldn't be there. Why do I still have that? That's broken. Let me get out of it. Anything that's broken, that's not working. Like get it out, you know, any of those storage things gone. And that is going to, first of all, like have a ripple effect because we have no idea the impact of broken things, not working things.

Jennie (01:09:49.933)
Yeah.

Jennie (01:09:56.685)
Yeah.

Jennie (01:10:03.139)
Yallah.

Patricia (01:10:11.801)
in our space and how it's impacting the energy for everyone in the house. And the second thing I would say is very simple. Have a beautiful family photo in your living room of everyone together. This does not need to be the perfect family portrait from the Christmas, you know, thing, just from the funnest time out you had, whether it's a selfie on your phone, just like bring that beautiful energy into your space, remind yourselves of that time when everyone's great together.

Jennie (01:10:16.996)
Yeah.

Jennie (01:10:25.139)
Mmm.

Patricia (01:10:41.157)
And then do the same in the children's bedrooms, like bring in a picture of the family together to remind and to keep anchoring in that sense of connection and happiness and joy within the family.

Jennie (01:10:57.423)
I love that.

Gorgeous. And Patricia, what are the services that you offer and where can people find you?

Patricia (01:11:11.189)
So people can find me at patricialohan.com and that is where I have lots of different resources for different people. And actually I have one specifically for parents. Typically it's moms who come into my world. So it's patricialohan.com board slash moms. And there's a guide for setting up your bedroom. There's also a resource, a meditation for a peaceful and harmonious home. So that alone will just like help you set that intention and anchor that in.

Jennie (01:11:27.992)
Yeah.

Patricia (01:11:40.053)
and a video training about bedrooms for children. That's a great place to start. And I also have like a mini course, which gets you kind of started into understanding what Feng Shui is. People typically work with me through my powerhouse program, which is a process that they come into our world and send us the information about your home.

And we create a bespoke report based on the information you sent to us about what's going on, how things are working, send us like where your house is. And we, we do all the analysis and basically you have your bespoke report to implement while myself and my team support virtually to get all the remedies in, get it into balance, get into harmony. And we've got a beautiful community of women from all over the world practicing

journey in this process and seeing just beautiful things happen for themselves and their family. So it's a it's a joy.

Papa Rick (01:12:43.874)
That's what it looks like, folks.

Jennie (01:12:43.976)
Awesome. And all of that, we will link all of your links in the show notes so everyone can just scroll down and find you and click very, very easily. Is there anything that we didn't touch on today that you wanted to share?

Patricia (01:13:02.329)
I think we're good. If you take action on some of the things that we've talked about today, like you're going to see some changes and feel better about your environment. So yeah, that's enough. And you don't have to do it all together and all today. Just like do one thing at a time.

Jennie (01:13:19.563)
Yeah, I love it.

Papa Rick (01:13:22.38)
It's an ongoing journey. It's an ongoing thing.

Patricia (01:13:25.061)
It's a journey. Yeah, it's a journey for sure. And enjoy it, you know, enjoy it.

Jennie (01:13:32.639)
Yeah, it feels good when you do declutter or organize even just like one small thing. I feel so accomplished that day. I'm just like, ah, that's another weight off my shoulders.

Jennie (01:13:49.251)
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being here and spending time with us.

Patricia (01:13:55.357)
You're so welcome. It's been a pleasure and yeah, I really enjoyed this. Yeah, you too.

Papa Rick (01:13:56.302)
Yeah, it's great to meet you, Patricia.

Jennie (01:14:04.591)
Awesome. All right, everybody, we'll check out Patricia Loewen at the links in the show notes and we will see you next week. Happy parenting and good luck out there.

Patricia (01:14:21.365)
Thanks a million.

Creators and Guests

Patricia Lohan
Guest
Patricia Lohan
Patricia Lohan is the creator of PowerHouse Feng Shui and Author of The Happy Home: A Guide To Creating A Happy, Healthy, Wealthy Life and Become a Business Powerhouse Using Feng Shui. She helps parents make their homes & businesses magnetic to money, luck, and blessings. She shows you what they don’t teach in business school, what lies between the lines, and your top-secret tool for success. She has helped thousands of people across the globe embrace Feng Shui and creates lasting changes in their businesses, homes, and lives. Patricia has seen first hand the power of the mind, surroundings and inner healing, clearing and aligning everything so it works holistically. She loves entrepreneurship with 15 years of experience running and growing three successful startups of her own.
Ep 039: How Feng Shui Creates Happier Homes and Families with Patricia Lohan
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