Where you live can have a profound effect on you…if it doesn’t fit, your life can feel out of synch. You may not even realize it, but somehow being at home doesn’t refresh and nurture you as it should. This sense involves both interior and exterior space, and today I’m going to talk about your exterior sense of place.
We sometimes forget that place exists on so many levels…from the universe to our own back yard. When I lead seminars I often guide people through an exercise to help visualize ‘your place’. Most people have a special place (real or imagined) that keeps calling you back, a place that just thinking about puts a smile on your face. What it is that makes your place special is different for everyone, but usually involves different senses…it could be the smell of fresh baking bread or salty ocean air…the feel of the wind in your face or the sun warming your body…the sounds of birds singing or the buzz of the city. Whatever it is, it is what speaks to you.
Most of us have lived in different places in our lives, and most likely some have felt more like home than others. Flip through mental pictures of favorite places where you have lived…think about what you loved about them…and also think about what you didn’t like about them and your least favorite places. Do your places have anything in common?
I had an ‘a-ha’ moment a few years ago, after we moved to our current home. We were leaving a place that had served us well but never really felt like home…I like to call it our ‘place holder’. We left it to find ‘our place’. When we walked into our current home we knew immediately it was the right place, before we even saw the whole interior. The location and setting were wonderful, the interior was dreadful…it was perfect! We gutted the interior and made it ours, but the setting is something you can’t change…so it is vitally important that it fits.
That ‘a-ha’ moment I talked about has to do with location and setting. I realized that our current home is a compilation of places and things that were meaningful to us in the various places we had lived…a creek running through our back yard, nature setting with city nearby, walkability with a grocery store within walking distance…here is ‘our place’…
…what does ‘your place’ look like?
