What is your home environment telling you?

We spend much of our time in our homes – they represent our “caves”, our safe places, where we settle in, our “nest”.  Imagine that you are seeing your home for the first time – what does it convey to you?  Do you see it as it really is right now or differently – perhaps how it used to look, how it is supposed to look, how it would look if….?  

I believe that your home environment both reflects you and tells you how to “be”.  There is a two-way connection both from you in the way you have arranged your home and the way you take care of it and from your home to you that represents the “you” that you would like to project.  I don’t mean that there is some phony projection of you for other people but there is a projection of you that you see yourself – what you tell yourself about you. 

If there are areas of your home that you dislike or feel less than positive about, these are like those parts of yourself that you would like to change.  No one is perfect so of course we all have these areas both in ourselves and our environment.  Then there are those areas that you feel great in and make you feel happy and secure. I have noticed that when I am in an environment that is just “hits the spot” for me like in someone else’s home, a store, or a hotel room, something in me relaxes and releases so that I can be more “me”.  On the other hand, when I am in an environment that seems dangerous, dirty, or discordant, I feel wary and unsettled and part of me has my attention on that.  I am very conscious of sounds as well as sights – even if I am in a great looking environment but music that I don’t like is blaring, I don’t feel completely comfortable.

It is an interesting exercise to try to see your home as if for the first time.  What do you see?  What would you change?  I had a chance to do this when I sold my home a few years ago.  Our realtor helped us to “stage” the house – he told us to remove everything on our countertops to make the place look bigger.  We had the usual in the kitchen – blender, coffeemaker, toaster oven, etc. and various “things” in our living room like porcelain, etc.  We removed these and put some flowers out. Suddenly the house looked quite different- I almost felt like taking it off the market and staying! Imagine if I had done that before I was selling it.

So, what do you want to project?  Do you want to be more “cool”?  Greener?  Neater?  Less “stuff”? Fancier? More casual? You have the power to make the changes.  Maybe start small, maybe a massive effort, it is your choice!  Have a home that supports you and is more “you”!

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