This is the third way your home affects you. Your home is a vehicle for expressing yourself, even if you are not a professional home decorator. It is one way of distinguishing yourself from others, of expressing who you really are.
Teenagers often express themselves by throwing their bedrooms into disarray, creating chaos, choosing intense colors and wild posters while they try out different personalities. In doing so, they are trying to define themselves as individuals separate from their families.
Military barracks or monasteries do the opposite. Here your personal space should be simple and undecorated. In doing so, our attention is kept away from your personal needs and, in monasteries, is focused on a more universal conscience or awareness.
A revelation of yourself
Your home, therefore, may become a revelation of your innermost self. Don’t worry about what is “right” or what “matches” the style in a particular room. Just choose the things you love and that truly express your soul when you create your home environment. The energy and care that you invest in creating your own environment, an environment that really resonates with your aspirations and feelings, will create a space that radiates harmony and warmth, beauty and peace, and these are the qualities that will reflect in your life and that will determine what you attract.
Theme styles
Whether you are aware or not, we create themes in our homes. A minimalist theme in a dining room with a crystal table and black cabinets might indicate elegance. A country theme in a sitting room, with flower vintage textiles might indicate a desire of being more in contact with natural rhythms.
The theme design you choose for your home provides valuable information about yourself. Usually there are three main reasons for the design styles we choose.
Theme style as metaphor
A theme is often a metaphor of your inner self and may symbolize a quality that you want in your life. For example, you may have a very hectic professional life, but when you get home you look for a sense of peace. In this case you may choose the simplicity of Zen Buddhism for your home with Japanese calligraphy on your walls, sliding rice paper doors or lamps.
Theme style as ancestral memories
There are memories passed down by your ancestors that may explain why your are drawn to a specific style. Research has found correlations between ancestral homes and thy types of homes in which people feel at home.
Theme style based on experiences from past lives
Although the philosophy of reincarnation is not predominant in Western societies, a large percentage of the world’s population believes in past lives. I had an Italian friend, for example, who was attracted by the Native American culture and had chosen many Native American objects for her house. She later discovered she had Native American ancestors and, through past life regression, it came out that she had been Native American in a past life.
How is your home organized? What is the theme style you have chosen for your home? Does it reflect a quality that you want in your life? Is you home in line with your inner self?
Leave me your comments below and don’t forget to take a moment to share this post on Facebook or Twitter if you got a lot of value out of it!
To your unstoppable prosperity
Hey Paola
I have a couple of Feng Shui books here to use when I move or my new house and i also have a friend who specialises in it so I will be using her services also.
I love the idea and concept that of what Feng Shui does for the energy in your home. Again I can’t wait until I move, this makes me even more excited 🙂
cheers
Nat
Hey Nat,
Feng Shui does help. Everything is energy, we are energy and so are our thoughts and everything we surround ourselves with. When you understand this, you can use the energy in your environment to support you and attract what you desire.
Have a great day
Hi Paola,
I love your post, it is something I am passionate about too, great work. Thanks and look forward to some more from you. Will go ahead and syndicate this for you. Namaste.
Brooke
Thank you Brooke for your comment. Feng Shui is fascinating indeed. I love working with energy, at all levels: spiritual, mental, and physical. I start my day meditating and practicing exercises to boost my energy. Since I started doing this, there are no more bad days. Difficult times do exist and will never disappear: they are just part of life. It’s the way I approach them that has changed. And Feng Shui too is playing an important role: energy blocks are also reflected in your environment. When I cannot find them through meditation, I look for clues around me. And the messages are there!
Namaste to you
Paola,
I subscribe to the theory that “less is more”.
I don’t require many furnishings as that presents
clutter. Clutter absouletly drains my energy.
What makes me happy is a house that is in
balance. I love a home environment that is well
organized and everything in it’s place.
The few furnishings I do require have to be
elegant and of a decent quality.
So I suppose my theme for my inner self
could be coined:
“Elegant Minimalist”
I have a couple of “soon to be teenagers”
and as you can probably imagine their
“home environment inner selves” are not
in line with mine so I struggle with
balance from time to time.
Thanks for sharing this post Paola.
Take care,
Kevin
Promethean Life
Thank you for your comment Kevin.
It’s not always easy to find a balance between our preferences and our children’s “inner selves”. My teenager daughter has just entered the “teens’ stage” and I expect to see the manifestation of her “inner self” pretty soon.I think I will follow my mother example of when I was my daughter’s age: she simply closed my bedroom’s door so she could pretend she didn’t know how it looked like!
Paola,
This is the first time I’ve been to your blog. I enjoyed your post. I find it very interesting and often fascinating when I go to visit another’s home. Years ago I was in a profession that most of my client calls took place in their home. It’s amazing the stories they share when you ask a simple question about something they have on the wall.
We recently moved into a historic home that was built in 1893. It was interesting to find that a lot of our furniture fit very well with the home and the time period. Blend in a mix of modern things and it makes for a very comfortable retreat.
Thanks for sharing your post.
Hi Don,
I’m very happy that you enjoyed my post. Your historic home must be beautiful and I love the mix between historical and modern styles!
I really like the way you talked about expression of ones inner self.
Nice article by the way. 🙂
Thanks Keith!
Interesting Paola,
I have completely renovated 5 homes, and all were extremely different. I guess that reflects my interest in diverse demographic. I am the same with music, having a love for country, modern, jazz, classical and nature, while I enjoy silence when working.
Awesome post Paola! I definitely agree! As anyone can tell in the back of my videos my desk surroundings absolutely express me. I am studying more into Feng Shui and look forward to implementing it more in my home!
Great stuff… 🙂
Hi Jenn,
thanks for your comment. When you start to implement Feng Shui more in your home, try not to introduce too many changes at the same time. Any change you make affects the energy flow in your home and in your life. Too many changes may cause a lot of energy moving around and it may be difficult to control the resulting effects. You should focus on one area of your life you want to improve, make the necessary changes and only then move to the next area.
I wish you a very enriching Feng Shui experience!!
My spouse is very into Feng Shui, and everything being spaced a particular way to maximize positive energy. However, unfortunately for her she married the kind of chaos. We make it work, though.
Great post, Paola. Your home is definitely an extension of you. I’m passionate about interior design and landscaping. My theme varies, depending on what catches my fancy at that moment. Every so often I change themes. But I usually stick with classic and simple themes.
Hi Paola,
You are not the regular blog writer. You certainly have something important to add to the net. Such a wonderful blog. I will return for more.