Posts Categorized: Sense of Space

Although I took this photo at a shop in Japan, it is not just in that more traditional country where gender roles are still often colour-coded: Western countries still market an abundance of cool colours to men. Every shop I go into, I’m greeted by an array of cool, bland, hard colours that do nothing to inspire warmth, intimacy, and connection.

If the colours of the room set the thermostat to ‘cool’, how hard to you end up having to work to heat things up? And if the tones are blue or grey, how easily does your mindset follow suit? Blue bedding in particular can lead to any number of challenges, from moodiness to fuzzy emotional boundaries, while blue towels in bathrooms can strengthen the downward energy flow already present in these spaces beyond comfortable levels.

Both of these spaces benefit from neutral to warm colours, which create a welcoming, comfortable atmosphere (and in the bedroom, warmer relationships). It doesn’t mean you have to go full-out pink or red – balance is key. But warming things up in these spaces – where we will spend time in various states of undress – can go a long way towards raising one’s mood and inclinations for connection.

Although I took this photo at a shop in Japan, it is not just in that more traditional country where gender roles are still often colour-coded: Western countries still market an abundance of cool colours to men. Every shop I go into, I’m greeted by an array of cool, bland, hard colours that do nothing to inspire warmth, intimacy, and connection.

If the colours of the room set the thermostat to ‘cool’, how hard to you end up having to work to heat things up? And if the tones are blue or grey, how easily does your mindset follow suit? Blue bedding in particular can lead to any number of challenges, from moodiness to fuzzy emotional boundaries, while blue towels in bathrooms can strengthen the downward energy flow already present in these spaces beyond comfortable levels.

Both of these spaces benefit from neutral to warm colours, which create a welcoming, comfortable atmosphere (and in the bedroom, warmer relationships). It doesn’t mean you have to go full-out pink or red – balance is key. But warming things up in these spaces – where we will spend time in various states of undress – can go a long way towards raising one’s mood and inclinations for connection.

The Japanese have a remarkable knack for creating entrancing entrances. Their capacity to use space intelligently and to create balance is such that even small spaces can take on an inviting air. With their traditionally small homes, they can face many challenges in integrating functionality together with aesthetics, but their capacity to bring life to any space is clearly visible even when walking around busy areas.

This traditional restaurant in the Toranomon business district of Tokyo is surrounded by modern highrises, but this mainstay of the area continues to occupy a main corner surrounded by lush plants, whereas its neighbours are all steel, glass, and concrete. The varied forms of the plants, together with their life-enhancing (which includes oxygen-producing) properties, literally breathes life into the area around the entrance. The angled sign and entrance, differently coloured landing, and hanging curtain that moves in the breeze all contribute to this wonderfully inviting entrance.

The entryway of your home or business is what attracts attention and therefore energy (in the form of customers or circumstances) into your life, home, and work. Personalize and optimize it to make it truly inviting.

The Japanese have a remarkable knack for creating entrancing entrances. Their capacity to use space intelligently and to create balance is such that even small spaces can take on an inviting air. With their traditionally small homes, they can face many challenges in integrating functionality together with aesthetics, but their capacity to bring life to any space is clearly visible even when walking around busy areas.

This traditional restaurant in the Toranomon business district of Tokyo is surrounded by modern highrises, but this mainstay of the area continues to occupy a main corner surrounded by lush plants, whereas its neighbours are all steel, glass, and concrete. The varied forms of the plants, together with their life-enhancing (which includes oxygen-producing) properties, literally breathes life into the area around the entrance. The angled sign and entrance, differently coloured landing, and hanging curtain that moves in the breeze all contribute to this wonderfully inviting entrance.

The entryway of your home or business is what attracts attention and therefore energy (in the form of customers or circumstances) into your life, home, and work. Personalize and optimize it to make it truly inviting.

Nature expresses itself instinctively, without any restriction other than its innate form and state of being. Flowers are a marvellous way to bring such uninhibited expression and freshness into the home.

This gorgeous arrangement in my cousins’ country home in Sweden is so beautifully appointed and expressive: the simplicity, colours, and varied forms add richness to an already lovely view. Colourful flowers and lush plants raise the energy of a room and are essential for a warm, welcoming space. Additionally, the non-linear shapes help to compensate for the straight lines required to make our homes practical and liveable, bringing a truly lived-in and integrated feel.

Flowers and plants love you back without a price tag (provided you water them well) – align and freshen up your space with natural life!

Nature expresses itself instinctively, without any restriction other than its innate form and state of being. Flowers are a marvellous way to bring such uninhibited expression and freshness into the home.

This gorgeous arrangement in my cousins’ country home in Sweden is so beautifully appointed and expressive: the simplicity, colours, and varied forms add richness to an already lovely view. Colourful flowers and lush plants raise the energy of a room and are essential for a warm, welcoming space. Additionally, the non-linear shapes help to compensate for the straight lines required to make our homes practical and liveable, bringing a truly lived-in and integrated feel.

Flowers and plants love you back without a price tag (provided you water them well) – align and freshen up your space with natural life!

Airtime for Super Bowl advertising in 2017 has been estimated at between $5 and $5.5 million for a 30-second spot – which means companies will pay up to $183,333 a second for access to your brain through your eyes (plus the actual production costs of the commercials themselves). Why are they willing to pay so much? Because what people look at influences how they think – and advertisements are crafted to create associate desired states of being with a product in order to increase sales.

If what you see in a commercial for seconds is so valuable, then what about the things you’re looking at for weeks, months, and years in your home and work environments? Your brain isn’t only receptive to programming from television or print advertising: you are always being imprinted by what is around you, very often subconsciously (especially when looking at things for an extended period of time). What you see forms your thinking, and not necessarily in the ways you anticipate.

Contemporary Feng Shui offers insight into the silent conversation you engage in with your environment. Choose images and objects that you not only love but that also inspire the state of being and the self you aspire to experience. Vibrant plants, beautiful art, favourite objects, varied colours and materials, and inspiring displays help you cultivate a whole-hearted expression of your deepest self in the world.

Airtime for Super Bowl advertising in 2017 has been estimated at between $5 and $5.5 million for a 30-second spot – which means companies will pay up to $183,333 a second for access to your brain through your eyes (plus the actual production costs of the commercials themselves). Why are they willing to pay so much? Because what people look at influences how they think – and advertisements are crafted to create associate desired states of being with a product in order to increase sales.

If what you see in a commercial for seconds is so valuable, then what about the things you’re looking at for weeks, months, and years in your home and work environments? Your brain isn’t only receptive to programming from television or print advertising: you are always being imprinted by what is around you, very often subconsciously (especially when looking at things for an extended period of time). What you see forms your thinking, and not necessarily in the ways you anticipate.

Contemporary Feng Shui offers insight into the silent conversation you engage in with your environment. Choose images and objects that you not only love but that also inspire the state of being and the self you aspire to experience. Vibrant plants, beautiful art, favourite objects, varied colours and materials, and inspiring displays help you cultivate a whole-hearted expression of your deepest self in the world.

The pictures we choose to display speak to us louder than we might think. Images of the past that are shown in the home have presumably been selected because they represent important life events and relationships. But if photo arrangements are not regularly updated with newer images alongside the older ones, we can start thinking our best moments are behind us.

Pictures of children when they were younger not accompanied by more recent images can lead to offspring believing that they are being treated as if they were still kids. Wedding and honeymoon pictures that are not placed alongside more recent depictions of the happy couple might lead to that couple feeling less than happy in present time: any emotion around the difference between their imagined future at the time the photo was taken and their actual current reality will come to the surface in the relationship dynamic.

It is not a problem to feature images of friends or relatives that have passed on. Surround them with images of people they knew and those who they may never have met – this will help one’s entire family and community of friends feel more appropriately connected to the past and to the evolution of relationships and life itself.

Another note: don’t display family pictures in the bedroom. You don’t want your relatives watching you in bed, do you?