Creating the perfect environment at your home or office is fundamental for you to start thriving, being happier, more focused and relaxed.
It is a fact that our environment can affect our mood, our productivity and our creativity.
Beautiful surroundings make us happier, more creative and productive.
- Do you sometimes feel depressed in a particular space?
- Is it hard for you to sleep in some bedrooms?
- Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed in certain spaces?
- Do you, on the other hand feel relaxed in a specific place?
- Does a particular color make you anxious?
- Do you have a preference for a color or color palette?
Well, all this is happening for a reason.
The way we respond to precise surroundings is determined by many internal and external aspects:
- Our own cultural background
- Our personal taste
- Our artistic and cultural influences (indeed, we all have them, though you may not be aware all the time)
- Our job
- Our social status
- Our aspirational status
- Our personality, this is key!
- Our personal circumstances
- Our professional circumstances
- Our educational background
- Our emotional experiences at a given place
And a few more…
To put it simply, you are drawn to certain styles not by mere choice- that choice is influenced by many aspects such as the above mentioned.
When José Ortega y Gasset said “I am I and my circumstance” , he was probably not thinking about what color to paint his living room but it can rightly be used in this context*.
We spend most of our time in our living and working environments, shouldn’t we make them work for us?
And I am not only speaking about making your surroundings aesthetically pleasing, which is important, very important, but about combining external beauty to the emotional power they possess.
Your surroundings can definitely affect your mood and your performance. Learning how they affect us and what we can do to make them work to our advantage is a skill you can learn.
Therefore the key to learning the necessary skills to create your best environment starts with understanding and furthermore acknowledging your starting point.
It is fair to say, learning this skill will be a game changer. In my years as a designer I have seen it time and time again.
People start thriving and being more positive after making some simple changes in their surroundings.
Don´t feel overwhelmed if you don’t know where to start, this is why I am here. To help you make the most of your space, to make it into an advantage for your personal and professional life.
So now, just have a look around you.
How do you feel in the space you are in now?
Try answering with two or three adjectives, feelings work best and let me know.
Be a detective and start gathering clues about how your environment is making you feel.
- I have omitted the end of the actual quote to be able to apply it to this context.
Originally published at medium.com