For an overview of the 28 days to peace go here – https://wordpress.com/post/catherinestrang.com/1455 This posts takes about 2-3 minutes to read and the exercise as long as you wish.

Today’s topic and the last of the first week’s theme of mindful awareness, is to become aware of your immediate environment, your home.

With today’s suggestion we will revisit the exercise from Day 1 and combine it with today’s topic by viewing your home from a heart centered perspective.

When there are are areas of the home that are messy, cluttered, dirty, broken or are decorated in a way that does not reflect who we are now we can end up not really noticing, we get used to it on a surface level. However, we do notice subconsciously and this has an impact on our mood and energy levels. Our home is a direct inner reflection, it is indicative of the care we afford to self and of what we present to the world. Of course there is the opposite extreme to what I mention above and that is a home that is clutter free, clean and sterile, a bit lifeless.

This post is not a prescriptive one about possible meanings of what a homes interior may mean. While themes may overlap, each person is still unique after all so what I am proposing today is simply a reflective and aware look at what your home is like right now and how you feel as you look around you.

Wherever you are sitting close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, make the exhalation long, letting go of anything else that’s on your mind. Then slowly open your eyes, look around your room as if you are seeing it for the first time. What is your immediate impression? Notice the decor, the furniture, soft furnishings, objects and art etc. Is it ordered or cluttered. Is the placement/arrangement of furniture and objects pleasing to you? How does the room make you feel? Do you feel it reflects you, or who you are now?

Close your eyes again for a couple of breaths then open them and look around once more. Is there anything you would change? What could you do right now that would make a difference? Make you feel uplifted? Taking action always makes a difference to our mood, when we know action needs to be taken but we don’t then a tension will build, if that continues the tension becomes more chronic and can lead to a paralysed kind of inertia and eventually even poor health. The psychological effect the home has on us cannot be underestimated; just think about what it feels like getting into clean bed covers, or what new decor or a spring clean does for our mood?

You can continue this exercise for each room. But it doesn’t have to be done all at once in a formal way, perhaps intend that for the rest of the day as, you move about the house you could spend a few seconds or minutes looking at your surroundings as a stranger would and notice your first impressions.

Of course, if upon opening your eyes to your surroundings you view all that you see with love then simply bask in that appreciation!