Recently, The New York Times had an article about the Higgs particle. The Times described its elusiveness as “a snowflake in a pile of slush.” The Higgs is so elusive that it takes trillions of smashing of protons in Large Hadron Collider in Switzerlan to be able to observe that something was there. Yes, was is the correct verb because the Higgs does not linger. So the snowflake that landed on what became the pile of slush is long gone. Yet, without the snowflake there would be no pile of slush. Without Higgs scientists posit nothing would have mass and what we experience, as the universe would not exist. So, you think, how does this relate to person/place?

My theory is that flashes of inspiration are not unlike the Higgs particle, …that in the zillions of synoptic connections going on in our brains throughout our lives, flashes of inspirations are so elusive that if we do not grasp this flash it is gone forever. Footnote #1

What does it take to be able to pluck an inspiration from the noise of our brains? Why do some people seem to be able to ferret out these lightening flashes and some people don’t seem to have an original thought in a lifetime?

Perhaps inspiration, or making mass from an elusive electro-chemical message can be culled by observing working spaces of geniuses, people with with known flashes of inspiration. Look at the desks of Al Gore, Tina Fey, Albert Einstein, Yves Saint Laurent, and Will Self, the few I have selected to compare. The common thread is easy to spot. They all have workspaces that might be described as messy or to describe it without cultural stigma, they all have a highly complex visual field.

Pictures are: Tina Fey, Will Self, Milton Glazer, Al Gore and Albert Einstein’s work spaces.      click here:    higgs particle desks -Display

You get the message, these creative people who are used to snagging the unique thought amid a dazzling array of options. The “ah-ha” moment apparently doesn’t happen as frequently with lineal thinkers or those who surround themselves with order , as these work areas attest. It seems that creativity resides in experiencing options. The saying, “As it is above, so it is below” is the underpinning of my belief that the more your inner world is expressed in your outer world, the closer you are to attaining your maximum creativity. Moreover, the more choices there are to stimulate and mull over; the more likelihood there is that flashes of enormous creativity will emerge.

Like the Higgs particle something has to stimulate you into making the fleeting, illusive idea into a body of reality. From the flash, grasped comes the innovation.

Footnote #1 The human brain is composed of about 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) interconnected by trillions of connections, called synapses. On average, each connection transmits about one signal per second. Some specialized connections send up to 1,000 signals per second. “Somehow… that’s producing thought,” says Charles Jennings, director of neurotechnology at the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

One of the observations I have made over the years as I evaluate people’s homes to determine if their spaces are configured to support or thwart their goals is to look for iterated icons.  When I point these out to my clients, very often, they are surprised and didn’t realize how many….(fill in the blank) they had selected and installed in their spaces.

However, recently, while reading Jonathan Foer’s book “Moonwalking with Einstein” I came upon a explanation.  While there is still to research to be done about memory, it is generally accepted that there are two kinds of memory, declarative and non- declarative.

Declarative memory are things you are aware of remembering, like the color of your house, or what you had for dinner last night.  Simply put declarative memory is the memory of facts and events that can be consciously recalled.

Non-declarative memory is things remembered but not consciously, like riding a bike, skiing or all the many things you do in a day that are done without conscious effort.  Moreover, non-declarative memory can be forged if a word is flashed rapidly across a screen so that you are unaware of seeing it but still not only register what it is but have this word influence you.

In a now infamous use of accessing the non-declarative method is the Popcorn Scandal or Subliminal Advertising.  Advertisers by flashing the word, picture or even a slogan of popcorn across a movie screen faster than a person can consciously register the word but slow enough to make a subliminal message. When the popcorn word, image or slogan was thus used, many in the audience left their seats to purchase popcorn that was suddenly desired.  Most of the time they had no intention of buying when they came in.

Subliminal messages are hidden messages that act on your subconscious mind. They influence you without you realizing it. And this is the stuff of the non-declarative messages laced through your environment.

These are hidden messages that sustain behaviors that you may wish to change.  In the case of the “Popcorn Scandal” one would only have to have the word, picture or slogan, removed from the screen so that a person normal preferences would be reinstalled.

The question for you to answer is what in your world is flashing non-declarative messages and are those messages supporting or thwarting your highest goals.

I am giving a free teleconference call in March that will address non-declarative messages in a home or business.  Should you want to participate contact me at nancileewydra@gmail.com

If you care to evaluate your spaces for these messages, you can contact me and send me pictures so that I can evaluate the non-declarative messages in your home. Nancileewydra@gmail.com or 772 559 5538

I bet you think that if you wear vertical stripes you will look slimmer?  Well, you are only partially right.  Kyriaki Mikellidou of the University of York, England reports that this “old wives tale” should be adjusted.

Horizontal lines win the slim look

The phenomenon is based on the Helmholtz illusion, in which a square made up of horizontal lines appears to be taller and narrower than one identically sized consisting of vertical lines.

Thus, proximity with horizontal lined objects will garner more attention mainly because they appear slightly bigger.  Remember the eye seeks to identify what might influence security and larger objects tend to harbor more threat than small.  But don’t’ tell that to a tarantula.

The Specificity of Healing

 Introduction

Choices we make in our physical spaces reflect the set of precepts, which govern what we think, and the actions we take.  This individualization is an important addition in any modality that incorporates an intention supportive to healing.  

While the work of Ester M Sternberg brilliantly codifies the universal nature of the human response system to healing, my work is an attempt to provide individualized assessments to the relationship of one’s physical spaces to beliefs and attitudes that may be supportive or detrimental to healing.  I use the word healing not in the sense of “cure” but as an interior support to the process of mending. 

An individual’s belief system can be translated into an ombudsman to support attitudes, behaviors and become a transcendental guide geared toward desired results?

Iterations

We create spaces to support life styles.  We fill these spaces with possessions, which transform the space into ones that reflect who we are and what we have adopted as our core values.  We imbue objects with meaning, most of the time subconsciously, but when we examine what we choose, we often find an iteration that shows the depth of importance that the imbued meaning has in our lives.

Collections

Collections are the most visible example of this phenomenon.  However, two separate people collecting, let’s say military metals, will not have the same meaning relevant to the collection.  It is up to the professional to help ferret out each person’s meaning. 

Classifications

             Collections

            Seating

            Tables

            Artwork 2 and 3-D

            Accessories

            Window Treatment

            Fabric Design

            Floor Covering

Storing units

Containers

Living objects, plants, pets, etc.

In addition to collections observe iterations in classes of objects.  Seating is one classification.  Take a person who has almost 100% of armless seating in their home.  The person in question has 21 seating units without arms and only 3 with arms.  Counting object with the same classification like “chair” is another way to ferret out what may underscore a person’s belief system.

Content

Another area to evaluate would be content.  People often choose artwork with a common theme, like landscapes, boats or people.

When the greater majority of artwork, wall or three-dimensional is housed within the umbrella of the same theme, this too should be counted. 

 We tend to gravitate to similarly themed objects thus; we create a narrative within the walls of our homes.  

It is important to uncover the string that connects the messages that we place in our living spaces that speak to us and cement our beliefs and connections to people, ideas and beliefs.

I am having a teleconference call this Thursday in which I invite participants to email me their lists so we have evaluate the message inherent in their homes.  An example of one person’s list is below 

Assessment List #1

            List all items that relate to each other in your home   This may include, furniture, art work, accessories, colors, prints, and collections.  An example is below

1. 1.    23 armless seating
2. 2.    multiple fabrics without propose draped hither and yon
3. 3.    artwork with human theme paintings, lamps, statues,…almost all approximately 60
4. 4.    heads without bodies  approx.. 20
5. 5.    area rugs approx. 25
6. 6.    containers pottery, bags, bowls approx. 15

 Should you desire to be included in this teleconference call email me at Nancileewydra@gmail.com by Wednesday evening,  May 30^th

GUESS WHAT? I figured out that the element AIR should be added to feng shui! Since traditional feng shui’s five elements excludes AIR I have never considered it. But finally I figured out why AIR should be considered an element of design. contact www.feng-shui-institute-of-america.com to sign up for our free conference call Thursday 8 PM EST Jan. 26th