Have you ever considered how your home influences your behavior and feelings?

Have you noticed how everyone behaves differently at different events?  If you are gathered for a social event with a group of friends or if you’re gathered for your spouses work event with a group of strangers, each event makes you respond differently, speak differently, interact differently.

We do the same with our personal environments.  If we are stuck in an office, we often feel uptight or overwhelmed by its demands.  If we are walking in a forest, we often feel a sense of smallness and removal from the rest of the world.  When we are at the beach we are filled with a sense that life is moving as slowly and peacefully as the sound of the crashing waves.

So now, I ask you.  What feeling does your home evoke in you?  When you sit on your couch or walk through your kitchen, do you feel relaxed and at peace?  Do you feel overwhelmed and at odds?  Write down what you are feeling in each room.

Now, imagine if you can the last place you felt truly relaxed, peaceful, and joyful?  Let me ask you three questions…

1. Where were you at?
2. What were you doing?
3. What were the surroundings and decor like?

There is a distinct link between our surroundings and our feelings. Your home should evoke a sense of gentle-joyfulness.  You experience your home in every one of your senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.  Design is a language that speaks to your senses and evokes emotion.    I love the way Ilsa Crawford calls design a behavioral queue and space as a place that should make you feel human.

Our homes queue us into what we do next.  The way it flows is how you’ll travel through it physically and emotionally.  Your home should materialize how you want to feel…relaxed, productive, peaceful, energized.

The way to discover how to decorate and design your home is to go to all your favorite places and discover through your senses what about that environment speaks to you.

1. Is the space light or dark?
2. What textures are throughout the spaces?
3. What are the smells and tastes you enjoy experiencing here?
4. What are the sounds you notice and enjoy?

When you’ve answered these question for ALL of your favorite spaces where you feel most like yourself, most like the person you desire to be, most at peace with the world.  Take all these elements back home and use them to discover your style and comfort.

Spend a little while contemplating these senses and designs.  Then choose a space that is manageable to incorporate them.   Allow room for error as your tweak and refine your perfect space.