AOK Today #4 - Joyful Surroundings

AOK Today: Enhance your space/s (even just a corner of it!)

"Too often we move through the physical world as if it were a stage set, a mute backdrop...in reality it is alive with opportunities." Ingrid Fetell Lee

How It Works: While we are often made to feel bad for looking to the material world, it is full of power for joy! Redesign your space, thinking of the following: 1. Light and Colour - light is a pure form of energy, especially sunlight which modulates our immune system, and colour is that energy made visible (a dance between light and matter); 2. Repetition and textures - Abundance isn't about accumulating things [but] expanding on Kondo's method: like weeding a garden - a process of removing the background noise to create a canvas on which to build a joyful home. Surround yourself with a rich palette. Think like a kid in a candy store: one of the most iconic images of joy in our culture. 3. Nature - reminds us of freedom, our roots (for most of human evolution - eighty thousand generations - nature was not a place we went to but a place we lived in). 4. Harmony (balance and symmetry) - A symmetrical form suggests the present of life. Linked to this, harmony in an environment offers visible evidence that someone, some force, cares enough about a place to invest energy into it. See the pictures above for ideas!

Cost: Free!

Why I love it: I LOVE this AOK, because as a psychologist, there are few wellbeing interventions that require a one-off investment - this is one! It also doesn't require focused mental engagement or practice. This self care AOK continues to bring joy each and every day. Coming home and waking up can be more joyful :) Even if you implement this in just your room, or one little corner because you share your space, or your work space - it is WORTH IT!

Happy Giving |XOX|