In 1987, when my husband and I were founding Iatreia Institute for the Healing Arts, a group practice mental health clinic in Texas, it was my responsibility to design and arrange the physical space to best serve what was to transpire there. I met with a design consultant, Ralph Caplan who shared with me a poem he wrote about the importance of the spaces in which we live and work.
Everybody needs a here,
A nest, a niche,
A room of one’s own.
A space with enough
of its own character
to accept yours.
A corner that belongs to you
as much as you belong to it.
Ancient practices like the Navajo “Hozho’ have long recommended living in a holistic environment of Beauty, Balance, and Harmony for well-being. But the notion that the environment has a powerful effect on our ability to heal was just beginning to emerge in the scientific community at that time. I found early studies that documented the shorter stays of patients who had a view of the natural world outside their hospital windows. This caused me to include views of outdoor gardens from each interview room, and a sculptural clay water fountain for the entrance to the waiting room. But confirmation of the impact of the environment on our feelings and our ability to focus and process memories has had to wait for neuroscientists, using brain imaging, to confirm neuroplasticity. In Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross’s recently released book “Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us we learn that enriched environments cause our brains to grow, and impoverished environments cause our brains to shrink. An ordered environment helps our brains to establish saliency – having what is important stand out so that something significant that merits attention is given that attention. In the brain, as in our gardens and living spaces, pruning strengthens some connections, while others atrophy and eventually then permanently disconnect.
Melody LeBaron is a grief expert who has written about transforming space and self. She appreciates that as we grieve losses, take the time to realize who we are without the people, objects, and projects that gave our lives meaning, and shape a new life without them, we need and desire a sanctuary, a place of safety and peace. To assist people in letting go of what no longer serves, she teaches decluttering. Rather than living amid boxes, piles, and bags of stuff from our past, Melody suggests, “When the form, function and feeling of our home is serving us, our energy is freed up for our work in the world.”
To honor and stay connected to the past artist and InterPlay co-founder Cynthia Winton-Henry constructs memorial shrines to commemorate things, processes, and people she grieves. She moves these holy arrangements around to overcome the familiarity principle, where, after a period, we no longer notice something that is in our space. This relocation brings what we love newly to our attention, and this practice helps us live our best lives now.
Visit Cynthia’s memorial shrines at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWbXP-MA6ac
