Stone, brick, metal, concrete, glass, or wood.
All are gathered or composed without fixed programming that instructs a designer on how to use them. With these materials, we create the buildings we love or hate to be in, decorate the rooms we refuse to come out of, and choose the homes we see as forever.
Contrary to belief, there is no set or predetermined way to use or fill up a space. We give life to a space based on our emotions and subconscious. What lies in our subconscious is how we go about our design process.
For example, if two people were given the same 700-square-foot apartment, more than likely, each person’s space would look different.
One’s subconscious may harbor many memories of discomfort towards cramped and cluttered spaces and negative experiences dealing with excessiveness, leading the conscious thought to flee from any ideas or arrangements that could potentially steer one to being triggered.
The other has values of excessiveness and abundance carved out by their personal experiences and beliefs, leading their subconscious to perpetually feed their conscious mind the desire to fill a space continually.
In the words of Neville Goddard, “Your subconscious mind simply pours all the fruit of your habitual thinking into your lap.”
Our subconscious doesn’t tell lies about ourselves. It cannot lie to you; it can only take the information gained from every internal and external conversation, lived experience, and visual experience and use that as a guide to build on oneself.
What you consciously feed the unconscious mind as the truth will be stored as code for later responses and actions. The way you react in any situation/room/space is never an accident.
Through repeated behavior, forming opinions for ourselves, and what we consume, we unknowingly train our subconscious, which acts as the silent motherboard of our lives.
For example, through repeated encounters with a fear you may have, our subconscious slowly learns to deactivate the immediate fear trigger in that situation.
This relates to how we feel in certain spaces and what we will and will not allow in our space.
It can explain why so many who lived in poverty and had to share tight and cramped spaces may not understand why they can never live with another person or why the thought of a cluttered/chaotic space may put them on high alert, leading to a heightened emotional state.
What you choose to do with a space is not so much dependent on how much you were given. The amount given is never an indicator of how the space will end up looking. If that were the case, many rooms, spaces, and interiors would look alike.
What you hear, say, and experience all play a role in how a space is filled. The topics we say no to, the content we turn away from, and the buildings we can’t stand to be in may be seen as conscious emotions and physical experiences, but truly, they are reaffirmations for the subconscious.
Experiencing life, engaging in human interaction, and, most importantly, being present in reality are all ways in which we unknowingly build our creative intuitions and elucidate our design language.
We all have our own design language.
We are all creative and use creativity in our daily lives. Our personal design language is what makes you and your space you, and why we’re able to distinguish between each other’s work and personalities/lifestyles.
Without forming our own opinions and being rooted in reality, how could one know what one truly wants?
When we fill a space with opinions not of our own, we become insatiable, and everything must keep changing to rid us of that feeling. Part of being content and at peace is knowing who you are.
If you cannot have an intrapersonal conversation and leave with a strong sense of self, how could you expect your room/space to possess an identity strong enough to withstand the coming and going of many other personalities?
It will simply fall and succumb to the pressure of needing to be something else or cease to exist as its own entity, void of authenticity. The layer of authenticity that ideas can hide behind when attempting to bring them to life drastically wanes when you are a conglomerate of other people’s ideas.
So, to create an environment that means something to you, it becomes imperative that we remain our authentic selves, leaving room for influence but denying space for imitation.
Delivered by Michael Ogbonna
