Our environment has a way of affecting how we feel. Feng shui principles were created with this idea in mind in order to promote positivity and mindfulness in our surroundings.
Because our environment can have such a big impact on us, there are ways to use this to our advantage. The connection between organization and prioritization is significant, so organizing an area around your goals and priorities can do wonders for you.
After deciding on your most pressing priorities, you’ll want to find your pain points in order to correct them. You’ll help yourself by creating an environment that encourages you to prioritize tasks correctly. It’ll help you to stay focused on your goals.
In perfecting your organization, the flow in your surroundings will be conducive to the life you visualize for yourself.
In order to organize your space to reflect your priorities, you’ll need to decide what they are. Maybe they are to read more, cook at home, write often, get more work done, meditate every day, watch less television, or sleep better. You might want to spend more time with friends, complete some of your projects, or focus on self-care.
Each person is different, and they may have more than one priority they want to focus on. Deciding what yours are will be paramount in deciding how you will organize to reflect them.
Marie Kondo, a tidying expert and host of Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, talks a bit about this aspect of organization. She suggests that you visualize how you want to live and what your lifestyle goals are — this will help you to organize with that image in mind.
Now that you’re aware of your priorities, identify your pain points. What is hindering you, or what obstacles do you come across while focusing on them?
For example, if you want to focus on reading more, creating a space to facilitate reading can help you to naturally gravitate to your goal. If you have furniture blocking your bookcase, you’re unlikely to get much reading done. On the other hand, placing a book, phone, or tablet in the bathroom can let you prioritize reading during downtime while relaxing in the bath.
While this style of organization may lead to unconventional choices, it allows you to truly focus on what is important to you.
Do you feel too overwhelmed by your messy office to get work done? The quality of your office environment really can affect your productivity, so organizing it can help you to stay focused. Maybe your television is keeping you from getting good sleep or getting your meditation in. Screens have a way of disrupting sleep patterns and distracting us from important tasks.
Identifying these pain points will provide guidance as you plan your layout.
Help yourself to create an environment that reflects your goals by making organizational decisions with that specific goal in mind.
For example, your bedroom is an intimate and personal space. If you’re trying to focus on self-care priorities surrounding positivity and mindfulness, free up vertical space and eliminate clutter under the bed by keeping your mattress lower to the ground by choosing a different mattress foundation. This will also keep your body physically grounded. Keep your yoga mat close by to help create an easy flow between the bed and the mat, encouraging meditation.
Go through your living spaces, decide how your priorities can be reflected in each room, identify any pain points, and organize accordingly.
If your priorities are about cooking, for example, organize your kitchen in a way that helps you want to cook. Creating a positive space in the room meant for a certain activity will help you want to be there, creating an environment that reflects your goals.
Remember not to get lost in the organizing; remember why you’re doing it. This will keep you motivated and grounded as you create a space that works for you.
Your goals don’t have to be overwhelming, either. Sometimes, just starting a morning routine is a great goal for positivity through your day.
Organize your home so that your morning routine comes easy to you. As you’re buying items, getting rid of others, and reorganizing your space, think about how each decision will help you achieve your goals and reflect the priorities that will get you there. This can help you to make decisions and stay focused.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, remember this activity is meant to help. If it isn’t, take a break.
Without flow, your space isn’t conducive to your lifestyle. This is why feng shui principles include removing clutter.
Clutter works as a roadblock and obstructs the natural flow of how you interact with your space. Work on minimizing the roadblocks that disrupt the way you move through your home.
This also includes accessibility to tools that will help you accomplish your goals. Keeping your books nearby, your pots and pans at a reachable level, your yoga mat ready to go, your bath bombs near the tub, and so on will help you to flow through your priorities in your environment naturally.
We all know what it feels like to be in a space that makes us feel motivated and positive. Though each person’s version of that is different, we all know that feeling of joy.
The idea is to recreate that feeling in a way that helps us to focus on our priorities. Doing that involves determining what your priorities are, identifying your pain points, helping yourself fix those pain points, focusing on your overall goals, and creating a flow that works for you.
Your space is yours to design, so work to organize it in a way that allows you to accomplish your goals and focus on your priorities.