Practice: Zen Your Space
Make your space energise and inspire you.
This practice is about:
1. Assessing your space. Pick a space that you spend a significant amount of time in, where you want to feel focused and productive.
What about this space is already working for you? What about it is calming?
What about the space could be improved? Is there anything that’s a source of stress?
2. Identifying the smallest, most impactful improvements you can make. You probably don’t need a complete room overhaul.
What small, creative updates would make the biggest impact in how you feel in this space?
3. Making upgrades and maintaining zen.
How to practice
First, before you enter this space, try to clear your mind.
Be a blank slate: as open and as non-judgemental as possible. Assess your space as if you’re experiencing it for the first time.
When you walk into your space, what are the first few sights or sensations that you notice?
What’s the visual focal point?
What does this room immediately make you think and feel?
What does this room immediately make you want to do?
Then, settle into the space for a while. Look around. Try to identify the feeling you get from particular objects, lights, sounds, or smells. Be as specific as possible.
Are there particular objects or aromas that draw your attention? Or is there something about the layout or organization that feels untidy or cluttered?
How could this space be more supportive of your goals, to make healthy living easy for you?
Below are some examples of the more influential features of a space.
Lights
For the artificial lights in the space, consider the spectrum of light that your lamps are using. Warmer tones tend to be more calming than cooler tones.
If natural light is available, invite it in by opening curtains or using light, transparent curtains.
Objects
Keep helpful objects in sight and easily accessible. For example, if you can, leave out a foam roller or a yoga mat as a reminder to spend time with gentle, relaxing massage or yoga at the end of the day.
Alternatively, if there are objects that you’d rather use less often, keep those out of sight and out of reach. For example, pack up and store the video game console when you’re not using it.
Cleanliness & Tidiness
If your space is one that naturally accumulates clutter (like an office or the kitchen table), establish a system of de-cluttering. Identify the familiar culprit items that create the clutter, and create a designated place for each category of item. (The official designated place may be the trash or recycling bin. That’s ok, too.)
“Mise en place” is a french term used to describe a system of organization in the kitchen. The term can be translated to: “a place for everything and everything in its place.” You can apply that to any room.
Emotional Connection
A sense of connection can foster a sense of focus.
If there are other people who share this space with you, are those people aligned with (or at least aware of) your values, priorities, and goals?
If other people aren’t aware or respectful of your goals, they’ll be creating a more stressful space. Consider what you can do to share the space in harmony of each other (e.g., do you need to have a crucial conversation?).
If you don’t share the space with anyone else, non-human things can also foster a sense of social / emotional connection.
For example, you could bring in:
plant life
pets
candles
pictures of people you love or admire
pictures of landscapes
books you love
Take advantage of small creative ways that can make your space feel more warm, welcoming, and safe.
Why to practice
The environments we live in are powerful influencers of our choices.
Both consciously and subconsciously, the surrounding environment is constantly giving us clues on what to do next — what to want and what to avoid.
If you're unaware of the effects that your environment is having on you, you may end up making unintentional choices that are moving you away from your goals.
Building a supportive space is about taking a step back, to look more broadly at what's around you.
How exactly are the people and things around you affecting the choices that you're making?
No one acts in isolation from their environment.
Trying to change your actions without considering the influence of your environment will be a struggle. It may leave you feeling like you don’t have the “willpower” to change.
But it's not only about your willpower.
(It’s also not only about the other synonyms for willpower: like a lack of determination, drive, restraint, resolve, self-discipline, self-control, resilience, can-do spirit… or any other way to say that "you're just not trying hard enough".)
Willpower is only one part of the picture.
The key to unlocking more progress may have less to do with willpower, and more to do with looking at the big picture.
If you zoom-out to look at the big picture, you may find some new creative solutions for getting the change that you want, while doing less work.
The more support you get from your environment (for example, in a clean, organized, intentional space), the less work you'll have to spend fighting against it. And the less effort you’ll have to demand from the brute force of your willpower.
That means more energy invested in moving you forward, more effortlessly. Maybe, you can do less work and let your environment take some of that workload off.
