Daydreaming, doodling, thinking, making, resting: these are the kinds of things we do in creative spaces. Today I want to talk about our personal environments and how they can affect everything from our current mood to our future life. My special Island friends, nice to be back with you all. Lately, I have been getting to see more of the intricate beauties of the place we live in rather than the main attractions whilst on my pushy. I think I can safely say that we all appreciate Woorim as our surf side’s main attraction, but I’m really loving the bike path on the way to get there.
There are some quite lovely little locations along the path where the trees overhang and the Australian bush crowds together along with dainty native flowers. It is all rather sweet. Sometimes it’s just overwhelming – the beauty. If you’ve got the time, I suggest a morning ride over to Woorim, making sure to stop and smell the native roses! The slow pace of the bike will allow you to ‘feel’ the landscape and make connections with your place and yourself. Landscapes determine, to a large degree, lifestyle.
They shape the people and the places we make. One a more personal scale, our living rooms – the spaces we inhabit and cohabit – affect our wellbeing and personalities. I often look at home and land design online for fun and inspiration. It’s fascinating to see how people with their personalities and ideas pour into a space to make it both functional and beautiful. What’s more interesting is how much variety there is out there in design.
You go from a moody, modernindustrial style bathroom with brass appliances and dark walls to quaint backyard rustic she-shed with cottage flowers and all. One for getting clean and stylised in, the other for getting down-right dirty and creative in!
All these ‘spaces’ give us an ambience for lifegiving activities. For this reason, we must be thoughtful for where we invest our time and, inevitably, our mind into.
There is a scientific name for the concept we are meandering through here and it’s called psychogeography. Colin Ellard, a cognitive neuroscientist, says psychogeography is, “the study of the relationship between the places that we move through in our everyday life and the effects that those places have on our minds’ (Ryan, 2015). Basically, a large part of the research coming out of studying this concept points to our need to be near and exposed to nature on a daily basis.
I desire to dive into more research regarding psychogeography, but already I know by instinct what makes me feel good, creative, peaceful and happy. Being exposed to nature: I whole-heartedly agree with that! Yet what about being exposed to colour? Or textures, smells, shades of light, text, temperature, music and sound, people? Or combinations of all or few of these things!
The possibilities are literally endless and this is just talking about the physical stuff, we are also soulful and spiritual beings. Moreover, we are unique individuals that respond to stimuli differently. I encourage you to find places and spaces that make you come to heal and come alive. From there, and once you are filled, you can then carry that goodness alive in you and re-create new spaces for the now and the future to come.
Ryan, R 2015. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/how-our-surroundingsaffect-the-way-we-thinkand-feel/6758818