Recently came across a study which again verifies the affect that our environment has on our behavior.

This study focuses on home offices that were a result of the restrictions brought about from the virus, but the principles involved apply to all of our interior environments.

The goal is to work in an environment that makes the most effective and productive uses of our time and isn’t that what the goal of working should be?

A place where what needs to be done can be done without distractions and which enhances results for time spent.

A space that is congruent with our physical, emotional, and psychological needs as well as our business requirements.

Individual needs will vary per individual, but try to have excellent lighting, some access to outdoors, even if just a view, and different activities during the day to refresh and restore our energy while trying to avoid in a rut routine in a dull monotonous environment which saps our energy and enthusiasm.

A home offices is a part of our residential environment and should be manifest as such.

Any resources expended to making our working environment more effective and productive will prove to be an excellent business investment.

Food for thought.

During this present situation around the world with the virus, many are restricted to staying more in their homes and health becomes a top priority.

Our physical health in all ways necessary for our living is most important.

But, our psychological and emotional health are also important as all aspects of our health are tied together and inter work with each other.

The colors in your home, the lights, natural and man made, the arrangements of spaces, your furnishings, and all of the physical things that you see and use every day, all of it together, manifest in how you react and use your residential spaces and are important parts of your emotional and psychological health.

When you have intelligent design and quality aesthetic interiors in all of the these components, your day to day living is much more comfortable, efficient, productive, enjoyable, and beautiful.

And aren’t these things more needed and used in the present stay at home requirements?

Any resources you have expended in the past, are doing now, and will do in the future will greatly enhance your living as monies well spent.

Think about it.

” Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. ” Alexander Pope 1711

This pearl of wisdom from over four hundred years ago has relevance to our homes today.

Looking at the designs of the outsides and insides and furnishings of the majority of residences in this country today, one finds that the styles more often used are those that go back to previous periods of civilization.

Yet, the latest in sizes, technology, choices, et cetera for television screens and receptions, the latest in computer availability, smart phones, smart cars, and smart appliances are constantly being chosen moving to the new as it becomes available.

There are many and varied reasons why these choices are being made.

Much goes back to the habits, culture, and comfort aspects of that with which we are familiar, the emotional aspects of human behavior patterns, and the fears and discomfort of the new and unknown.

What are you missing in your life’s journey when you only live with designs of past periods?

Authentic designs only come into being if they are manifest and representative of the times, materials, life styles, et cetera when they come into being.

Every thing else is but a copy or interpretation or repeat.

In which would you prefer to live?

The choice is yours.

Food for thought.

Crediting my grand mother with the saying: ” There is more than one way to cook chicken.“ seems to have some relevance to some of the situations involving our residential life styles today.

Due to the restrictions placed by the virus, more people are working and some are raising and educating children from our homes.

Also, these restrictions have severely reduced our social contacts with other people thus making it more important for the emotional and psychological activities than now must take place in our homes.

Perhaps these changes to our residential life styles can be an incentive for us to take a critical look at all of our interior spaces, how they are used, and for what purposes.

Are we making the best uses of our interior spaces? Can more and/or different activities take place in different than currently used places?

Is there any space any where in our house that is not being used or could be used more productively or efficiently?

Are we making the best use of storage, natural light and views, sizes and shapes of rooms, their relationship to each other, and traffic patterns?

There can be situations here in which imagination and creativity manifest more results than knowledge.

As in all interior design situations, we need to work with the laws of physics and the principles of aesthetics.

Food for thought.

The virus is affecting the entire world and putting more demands on our living environment.

How do these demands, with which we have to live today and which are probably going to make changes to our residential uses more permanent, say about our homes?

Basic shelter from the elements is first. We need plumbing and power sources for lighting, indoor climate control and for living activities. Resources for activities of human expression are needed.

Above these requirements, life is enhanced when we express our emotional selves and life styles in our home environment.

Because of the virus, new requirements are coming into focus.

There is now a need for cleaner and healthier air, eliminating objects and activities for better germ control, more spaces and larger spaces for more and more varied activities at home

Think about how these changes affect you personally now and in future for long term results.

We generally choose to eat foods that taste good. Using this same approach we can make changes to our residential environments that also allow us to live with beauty.

A well designed residential interior combines beauty, functions, personalities, and life styles to be complete.

Using the laws of physics and the principles of aesthetics, we are unlimited in what we can manifest for our living environments.

Food for thought.

Taste as related to personal taste which is not about what you eat or the guidelines and standards in manners and social graces but what affects you personally is the definition of the word used here.

Taste, for residential interior design, refers to the preferences of the choices you make in your living environment.

There are many factors which determine the choices we make for our residential interior designs.

Early childhood experiences are a big factor and well as influencing experiences through all of our lives.

Such makes sense as we can relate to why these preferences are made.

Another factor which might not be as obvious is what is in us from our ancestors.

What is in us can be traced back to the initial stages of humans existence.

We may not be aware of it but it is there.

One’s personal taste for residential aesthetics can be educated and enhanced through various means, but underneath it all there is some element of our personal taste from some aspect of our past that will come up and be manifest in our aesthetics choices.

We are all human beings with billions of activities going on in our brain constantly which affect the tangible and intangible manifestations of how we live.

Seeking to know and understand ourselves increases the quality of our living experiences.

Food for thought.

We are getting into the new year with many positives and many negatives happening.

In this country, we will have a new government administration in office and progress is being made with the virus.

Many successful executives and companies during this time of year evaluate and analyze their situations for changes and improvements to become more productive and profitable.

In the same spirit of evaluation and improvement, it can be a good time to take a close intelligent look at your residential interior environment especially now that because of the world’s medical situation we are spending more time in it.

What is best as is and what needs to go and what can be added to make things better?

Intelligently taking these steps can raise our level of living aesthetically, psychologically, emotionally, intelligently, and financially.

Are not the expending of the necessary resources to achieve such results worth the efforts involved?

Think about it.

Food for thought.

There is more and more evidence scientifically being made known that our physical environment affects our emotions, thinking, and psychology.

These scientific truths are becoming well aware to much of the world’s population with the restrictions placed on our movements and the requirements to stay home imposed by the virus.

These facts only reinforce what we should have known and practiced in our lives before this pandemic.

An intelligent and quality aesthetic thought out, planned, executed, and maintained residential interior is a tremendous factor in our quality of living our lives.

Perhaps you don’t care and such is not important to you while staying in your present residential environment.

Perhaps the intensity imposed by today’s restrictions will make you more aware to improve your residential environment to the best and healthiest it can be when such options become available.

The choices are yours.

How do you choose to live your life?

Food for thought.

For what ever reasons, the entry for 12-21-2020 did not appear. It is being repeated here.

Beauty is in and of itself of merit.

It is a basic nature of the human race which nutures our being and enhances our existence.

Beauty is in all things if we look for it and not just in works of art.

All physical manifestations are composed of line, form, mass, color, and texture which are the defining characteristics of all physicality.

When we look to see, these elements are acknowledged and can be experienced.

During these trying times around the world, it is more important than ever to seek, acknowledge, and appreciate beauty in all it’s forms which are ever present in all that we see.

Our mind set and what we think determines what we experience in life.

Positive approaches to and building on what we have increases itself.

What do you choose to experience in your life?

Food for thought.

“When you change how you look at things, the things you look at change.” unknown

Our mind set, how we look at things, determines what we see.

For most of my life, I’ve heard people react to non-realistic works of art: “What’s it suppose to be? or, “It looks like”.

It’s not suppose to be, it is what it is. Look at things aesthetically for what they are. Not what you project onto them.

This analysis is still used by many people in many cultures around the world for any thing that does not fit their concepts.

If such is your position, grow up, educate your self, expand your horizons, and stop evaluating the world according to where you are.

There is a song popular during the second world war: “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and don’t mess with Mr. In Between.”

Taking such a posture, when looking at and approaching life, will open up new worlds of beauty to you and make your life more positive and fulfilling.

Think about it.

You do think, don’t you?

Food for thought.