3-2-1 HOMEwork

A discussion this week with a dear friend, reminded me of an article I once posted on my blog at Integral Life. It was about how our homes reflect and influence our inner lives.

I have made a few adjustments to the original article and am reposting it here on my website: 

Homes reflect and influence our inner lives.  Taken further, our homes also reflect and influence our behavior, our culture and the society we live in. 

Becoming mindful of the fact that one’s choice of home – its location, architecture and decor, is a reflection of one’s inner landscape, can be most useful when doing shadow work.

Clare Cooper Marcus points out that many of the preferences and dislikes in our homes are projections from the unconscious.  “As with dreams, we can live our lives ignoring them”, Cooper Marcus reflects. “But if we care about personal and spiritual growth, becoming who we truly are, the messages implicit in the dwelling – its form, location, decoration and state of order – and our feelings about those messages can be rich sources of insight.”

Cooper Marcus suggests jotting down images, words and feelings about your home (home in the 3rd person) and then speaking to your home and letting it speak back to you (home in the 2nd person). Ask it questions and listen to its answers. Tell it things and listen for its response. 

I would propose taking this one step further by lastly speaking as the home (home in the 1st person). Take what you heard the home saying and say it as if you are the home.  This way you will hear yourself saying things about yourself and this will complete the process I have called 3-2-1 HOMEwork. 

Doing this HOMEwork provides useful insight not only into one’s current state of being but also into those aspects of the shadow that need to be embraced. 

It is not uncommon for people doing this exercise to only focus on the aspects of their home they find bothersome. Remember too, to look for those things that you like about your home.  We often need to remind ourselves that the shadow is made up not only of those things about ourselves that we don’t necessarily like and haven’t accepted yet, but also many wonderful aspects of ourselves that we have yet to acknowledge.

3-2-1 HOMEwork  also makes us aware of how a change in surroundings can help us bring about the changes necessary for growth.

Architects over the centuries have been aware of the fact that our spiritual paths can be encouraged by the surroundings we find ourselves in.  The need to reconcile humans with nature, reflected in the architecture of Hundertwasser (who incidentally was fascinated by spirals) is but one example of this.

The home and its location can and does help to foster growth and change.  One need only think of those inner city areas where a general cleaning up, the planting of trees and the creating of gardens has taken place.  Statistics have shown that such areas have a significant drop in crime rate over a period of time.

The magnificent steel and glass construction of the Berlin Hauptbahnhof train station is an examplar of the need for transparency.  And yet even in such a mammoth construction, the fact that the glass roofs had to be shortened by approximately 100 metres because the construction process was taking too long, shows how time constraints can detract from the original plan.  How often is this not an excuse, and maybe a valid one, in our own homes and lives? But more than that, how often are we mindful of this fact?

Doing 3-2-1 HOMEwork has many benefits.  I believe that this process can also prove to be a useful tool for businesses wanting to redesign the working environment of their employees. 

So are you ready to move around your furniture? Or maybe its time for new furniture or even a new location!

Bibliography

Cooper Marcus, Clare. (1995). House as a Mirror of Self. Conari Press.

Fairall Morrell, Monica. “Home: A Mirror of Inner Being”. Natural Medicine Issue 44, December 2008/January 2009.   www.naturalmedicine.co.za 

Gympel, Jan. (1996). The Story of Architecture. From Antiquity to the Present. KönemannVerlagsgesellschaft mbH. 

Hard Rock Cafe

Knowing that I am a keen photographer of Dubai’s architecture, a fellow instagrammer, @femsta, recently asked me if I had a photo of the Hard Rock Cafe on Sheikh Zayed Road. I replied that I would set out to take one upon my return from Canada. 

This morning saw me heading that way only to discover a building with signs that said it was to be demolished. I went around taking photos of what remained.

 

Unaware of the history of this building I had to do a bit of research upon my return home. 

Dubai’s Hard Rock Cafe opened in 1997 in an area that was then the outskirts of Dubai. Its architectural theme of a mini Empire State Building in the desert, with a globe at the top that read “Save the Planet” and two great mock electric guitars outside the building, gave rise to many differing opinions. 

Chuck Berry performed at its opening, and despite its architecture and location Dubai’s Hard Rock Cafe grew in popularity.  The cafe’s rock ‘n roll style became highly popular and people “trekked” across the city to visit it. Michael Jackson had lunch there in 2005, confirming that his shoes on display there were indeed his.

2002 saw the property boom in Dubai, and soon the Hard Rock Cafe, once in the middle of nowhere, was surrounded by construction and major development. The hotel to which the cafe was attached was shut down in 2008 when the land it was on was sold to developers. As a result the cafe lost its alcohol licence. Thanks to the lobbying of the public the cafe managed to stay open for a while but eventually had to shut its doors in 2009 and await demolition.  

A new Hard Rock Cafe has since opened in Festival City in Dubai but redevelopment of the old site has been delayed by the collapse of the property boom. As a result the old Hard Rock Cafe is still standing in a state of decay as I found it this morning.

Looking at photos on the internet of what it had once been and then looking at the photos I had taken, was a strong reminder that nothing is permanent. Everything is in a state of flux. 

Night becomes day and day becomes night, spring will soon become summer, technologies will change and develop, my website is already a year old, my holiday to Canada is over, and I will soon be moving apartments. The knowledge that my jet lag will pass too is a comforting one! 

Clinging to an idea of permanence only causes suffering.  Mindfulness of the ever-changing now brings with it an openness to the new, a realization of the importance of compassion for all beings, and a willingness to be part of the creative process. 

In the seventies Eric Clapton used to hang out in the very first Hard Rock Cafe. When he asked the young proprietors to save him a regular table by putting up something like a plaque, they suggested they put up Clapton’s guitar. This was done and then a week later they were sent a guitar by Pete Townsend of The Who. The concept that made the Hard Rock Cafe famous had taken root. 

 

The two guitars outside the decaying building on Sheikh Zayed Road might be weeping, but I would like to think they do so gently because they know and accept that they too will one day no longer be. And that too will be okay.

“I look at the world and I notice it’s turning

While my guitar gently weeps”. 

Notes on the Skyline

For a while now words have been hiding from me. Or perhaps they are always there and it is I who have failed to find them. This evening they flow from my fingers as if asking me to let them loose to speak of the spoken and attempt to point to that which is beyond mere letters.  

While attending a poetry recital this afternoon by Bahareh Amidi, I was aware that  words filled the room but that so much more that was unspoken permeated the air. 

The lady who hugged the poetess afterwards, clearly deeply touched; the college professor standing, clapping and calling for more; a chat with a young man, Abhinav Chauhan, whose desire in life is to get rid of the word hunger from the dictionary; the two calligraphers I met afterwards whose work spoke of an inexplicable beauty; all these little happenings and others were filled with an energy which words could not express.

The poet Rumi wrote,

“Explanation by words makes many things clear,

but love unexplained is clearer.”

And so I write - if only to allude to the unexplained love which is everpresent.

As I drove home from the Emirates Literature Festival, the skyline at sunset was breathtaking.  I attempted to capture it and have called this piece, “Notes on the Skyline”.  Each building seemed to be singing its own note to make up a beauty which far surpassed the sum of the parts.

The architectural beauty of Dubai has been part of my life these last few weeks where the weather has allowed the flaneur in me to stroll Dubai’s streets.  I have attempted to capture the beauty of Dubai in my instagram pics and to allow these photos to speak for me. 

It might sound like a cliche but we are all notes on the skyline of life. Each note is vital for the symphony of life to be heard. 

Each one of us is also a stroke in the calligraphy of life. The flow and patterns of our beings interweave and become an expression of beauty and significance. Those with ears to hear, will hear this beauty.  

The words of one of Bahareh’s poems still ring in my ears:

“Life is knowing that we are all here and we are all connected”.  

This evening I celebrate life.  

Spaces to Places

Recently opened in Downtown Dubai, The Pavilion is a contemporary art space which not only encourages dialogue between art and its audience, but is also a vibrant space for the neighborhood, with galleries, a cinema, library, espresso bar and restaurant. The architect Abboud Malak has said, “It’s anything you want it to be; just come and bring your computer or socialise. It’s a versatile space and encompasses everything.... The people will make the space what it is.”

I often go there to do research, write or hang out with friends. The design with its natural woods has a very calming effect. It is a place where creatives can work, socialise or simply be.

Spaces become places when individuals or communities endow them with meaning. Spaces become places through the participation of people.

One’s experience of a particular space evokes emotion and memory and gives rise to what is often referred to as a sense of place. Some spaces are so designed that they encourage the individual to spend time there alone, others invite participation and interaction with others, and others encourage both.

Right now, we find ourselves having to move, more and more, in online space. 

 

In a sense we have become online nomads, meeting fellow travelers from different places, countries and cultures in a space not limited by time. We often tend to wander from site to site, perhaps unaware that we are actually in search of online oases. These are sites that nourish and refresh, and where we are met with online hospitality.  When this is not so, we simply click away and are transported down another corridor.

Whereas many see today’s technologies encouraging placelessness, this need not be the case. What is required of us now is a special generation of architects and designers, creators of online spaces which become special online places for current and future users. 

Physical spaces designed by architects to encourage reflection or interaction are not empty. Their features encourage occupants of the space to interact with it in a particular way.

Online spaces need to be created in this way too.

Just as decorators move shapes around to find the right place and the right fit, so too the positioning of words, widgets, links, videos etc can be approached with mindfulness.

It is encouraging, for example, to see new blog technologies coming in to being that will move away from the linear and allow positioning of videos, pics and words all over a blank page. Such collage like blogging will most definitely promote creativity.

The spaces we occupy online deserve our respect.  We can declutter by regularly emptying our mail boxes. We can consider not retweeting that which we have not read or watched.  A mindful online presence will require that we don’t simply fill the space we encounter with mere words, simply for the sake of filling it. 

If we have our own website, we should be aware that the home page is an online door. What image does it portray to the first time visitor. Does it encourage the visitor to enter? Is it welcoming? Does the architecture of the website enable the visitor to meet others there? Does it encourage the visitor to return? Does the visitor feel at home there?  Does its mindful design include windows that provide vistas, and bridges that lead to new sites. 

Is it a pavilion, a dome, a light filled space where others are encouraged to be?

 

          I saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do 

anything I wanted. - Jack Kerouac

The space where we meet online is like this too. It is certainly vast, and when we look at our handheld gadgets, it is certainly glowing. What are we going to do with it? What are we going to create?