5 Tips To Create A Magical Home Environment

This audio is about how to fill your home environment with beauty, lightness, and joy. We discuss our top tips for transforming your home into a restful and enlightening sanctuary. Believe it or not, this simple act of improving your home environment can have profound positive ripple effects on every area of your life. Whether you’re feeling stuck, stagnant, or struggling with relationships, money, or self-confidence, give some of these tips a try.

Transcript

Welcome to Awaken Life.

I'm Michael McIntosh.

And I'm Arielle Hecht.

Today on Awaken Life,

We're talking about the five tips to a magical environment.

Wonderful.

So here we are in this wonderful world and a lot of people spend quite a lot of time in their homes,

Especially after the Coronavirus.

Lots of quarantines and whatnot.

So if we are going to live in our home and we are going to spend time there and we have all this stuff and there's loads and loads of things we can buy.

We live in a society that has enormous amount of products,

Loads of variety.

It's a bit over the top really.

So what are we going to do in our environment?

What kind of environment will lead us to feeling better and will lead us to a beautiful future?

And considering that our environment has such a significant impact on our life experience,

Our well-being,

Even our state of mind,

Our environment,

Our surroundings has a significant impact.

And so we want to design our environment because it's something we are in control of to,

To a great extent.

We want to design our environment to be so incredibly supportive of our highest good and our highest pursuits and our highest level of consciousness.

Because why not?

It's an act of love to support ourselves in that way to enrich and enlighten our environment.

Because the world is of course a huge place,

Lots of different things,

People and situations.

When we come home,

It's our sanctuary.

It's our sanctuary where we can rest and replenish ourselves.

So it's really important to make it beautiful,

Magical,

Enjoyable,

Nurturing.

So this session,

We are assuming by the way,

That you have already done a space clearing,

Because we've done other sessions on space clearing,

Clearing out all this stuff.

And in essence,

If you haven't learned that,

We recommend going through all of your different things and making sure that they all feel good to you and getting rid of all the stuff that doesn't.

And we actually recommend a lot of people remove literally 80% of their stuff,

Which might sound a bit alarming.

But once you start doing it,

You realize so much stuff we don't use is pointless.

We bought it years ago,

Someone gave it to us,

It's sitting in the back of a cupboard,

You know,

The food that we haven't seen for ages hit in the back of the pantry somewhere.

So there's all these different things that are basically just junk.

And whenever we've done space clearings,

We realize we're literally hoarding junk we didn't even realize we had.

And so we recommend getting rid of loads and loads of stuff that you no longer need,

And giving it to charity,

You know,

And we have a nice little expression,

The bigger the pile,

The bigger the smile.

The pile of stuff to give to charity.

That's right.

A big pile of,

So you could imagine a big pile of bags full of clothes and stuff and furniture and everything else.

The bigger the smile,

Get rid of it and you feel really,

Really good.

So we're not going to talk about that today because that's a separate topic.

Someone asked us once you've done a space clearing and you've removed all this stuff,

What are you going to do to keep the rest of your home beautiful?

So that's what we're talking about today.

So the first tip is the level of consciousness of all of your items.

And in many ways,

This is subjective,

Because different items,

Different things in your home might trigger different memories,

And therefore different states of consciousness,

Right?

There might be a big beautiful picture.

For example,

We have these pictures of light that represent the divine that represent the light,

The supreme.

And those are really elevating for our level of consciousness to look at or to use for meditation.

So that's an example of something elevating.

Another feature is beautiful music raises your level of consciousness.

If you have some items in your house,

Though,

That are tied to really negative experiences or relationships or past traumas,

Every time you look at it,

Even though it might not have those associations for someone else,

If it has them for you,

And it's weakening to you,

And you feel it brings you into a lower state of consciousness,

Then that's really something you want to deeply consider letting go of in your environment.

Yeah.

So the level of consciousness means what state of being does it create when you see it or you connect with it?

And also,

What level of consciousness went into that thing?

So for example,

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata,

Such a beautiful piece of music,

And such a high level of consciousness,

You're just listening to classical music in the garden with the flowers,

It's just pristine,

It's just fantastic.

So some music,

Certain situations,

Just naturally raise us to our higher level.

And if somebody put a lot of love into say,

Making some furniture or into an art piece,

And it has just a beautiful vibe to it,

Then that's a higher level of consciousness.

If you want to get into this in more detail,

You can do kinesiology,

And you can use David Hawkins map of consciousness,

And you can actually calibrate the level of consciousness of music,

Art pieces,

Furniture,

Everything,

You know,

I don't recommend going into that level of detail.

But what you can do in the kind of simpler version is just to tune into it and think,

Okay,

Is this raising my vibration?

Or is it either neutral,

Is okay for some things,

You know,

Like pieces of paper that you're going to use for printing.

But when it comes to furniture,

Artwork,

You know,

Curtains,

Various different things that you have,

If it doesn't raise you up,

Then you might as well put something there that does,

Because this is your beautiful home we're talking about.

Right.

So you want to ensure there are quite a few things that are uplifting,

Supportive of higher levels of consciousness.

You know,

For other furniture,

It's understandable too,

If you don't like look at the couch,

And I'm like,

Wow,

It just raises me up to this euphoric state of consciousness.

I mean,

It doesn't,

Right?

I like our couch.

It's this cool green color.

And I like the chairs we're sitting on.

But it doesn't like lift me up into this altered higher state.

You know,

That's not what we mean.

So you might feel neutral towards it,

But it's pleasant.

You like it,

You like how the colors in the room,

You know,

Meld together and it all it's all part of the symphony of the room,

You know,

But it doesn't have to be that each item.

Oh my God,

This thing is just,

No,

But then again,

You're about your chair that you bought recently for your meditation.

I love the chair.

I love the color,

The feel.

So that would be more uplifting than some of our other furniture.

Exactly.

So and actually,

As we're doing this,

We're realizing perhaps there's some upgrades for us now that we're talking about this,

You know,

Because it's when you notice that some things really make a big difference and other things don't,

Then,

You know,

It really changes the game.

One thing we did when we moved into this house is we bought this very expensive espresso machine,

Which I'm not even using anymore.

I stopped drinking coffee,

But it's such a beautiful produce,

It's such a just a beautiful art piece in its own right,

You know,

It just looks lovely.

That it kind of dictated the standard of all the other stuff in our house because it was just like it raised the bar.

And,

You know,

We're not trying to be materialistic about this.

It's not like,

Oh,

We have to have the best stuff.

What we're talking about is,

Does the things that you have help alleviate your suffering in some way and raise you up into something higher than you would be otherwise?

Because every single thing,

Every object has energy.

And some energy is discordant energy.

And some energy is harmonious energy,

Which is why we like some things and don't like other things.

And so you'll start to understand what we mean about the levels of consciousness as we get into these other tips.

Right.

So to start with,

I would definitely make,

Ensure you remove the things that blatantly are draining and bringing you down.

Sometimes they're gifts or items from other people,

Things that really remind you of negative situations,

Circumstances.

Definitely,

Definitely let those go.

You don't have to hold on to them.

You really don't.

So,

You know,

Start with that.

And again,

I think also keep in mind that it doesn't have to all be immediate,

You know,

And I totally understand we don't all have the finances to just go out and buy like every single piece of furniture is at the highest level.

And we just love it.

But over time,

You can start to replace one thing and then you replace something else.

And it can be in harmony with your life,

With your finances,

Like,

You know,

In the flow of things.

But definitely start with getting rid of those things that are blatantly draining.

And then you can over time even just,

Just gently,

Beautifully update,

Upgrade things.

And when you do buy something new,

This is key,

Don't just buy something that's kind of,

Okay,

It'll,

It'll work,

You know.

And even if you have to wait until you find something better,

Don't settle.

So when you do buy new things,

Make sure that they're,

They're really just right.

They're really,

They,

They bring a beautiful element of color and feeling and beauty into your home.

That's right.

And remember this,

There's a big difference between doing this for external reasons,

Like trying to make other people be impressed,

Impress the neighbors or impress your friends.

That's not a reason to do things.

This has to be,

For it to be meaningful to you,

Think about what is it that brings your level of,

Of joy and peace up.

It's not about impressing anyone.

A lot of people spend huge amounts of money buying stuff that they don't actually really like very much,

But they think other people will like and that makes them feel better about themselves.

So that's a different game.

We're not interested in that.

So the second tip is that when we buy things,

We can ask ourselves,

Who do I want to be?

And does this represent who I want to be in the future?

So the first place to start is just ask yourself,

Who do you want to become in the future?

So when you imagine a vision of yourself,

Your future elevated,

Happy,

Free,

Successful future self,

What does that look like?

What do you look like?

What are you doing?

What are you wearing?

And you can take some time to think about this and maybe make some notes of what you see,

Because we're always moving towards something.

And this is an opportunity to get clear on your vision and who you're becoming.

And the clearer you are about that,

The more you can discern what types of things will support that vision,

Which we'll talk about in the next tip.

But first of all,

Who are you becoming?

Right,

And it's an opportunity to be creative.

And,

You know,

Maybe you grew up in a house and everything was black and gray.

And,

You know,

Maybe you've unconsciously copied that,

But you don't really like black and gray,

And it doesn't feel uplifting to the vibrant,

Joyous,

Creative,

Lighthearted person that you feel you really are and are becoming.

So,

You know,

That's a good thing to keep in mind,

It might mean that your vision of yourself includes so many different colors,

Or a lot of white or lightness,

Or,

You know,

Different textures and shapes,

And,

You know,

So it's just a really an opportunity to allow your inner creativity to shine.

Hmm.

Because one of the things that we may not realize is that our current stuff is based on our previous self.

So everything you have now,

You bought in the past,

Even if it was yesterday,

You bought it.

So an older version of you with a different awareness,

Different level of wisdom,

Different level of consciousness,

Different needs and situations,

That version of you in the past purchased various products which now exist around you.

So our previous self has gifted all this stuff to us now,

Our current self.

And some of those things,

Frankly,

No longer apply.

And so what does your future self want to experience?

And one of the things that we share in our work is that whatever we want to become,

We want to do,

We can't always do every single thing we want to do right now,

Because a lot of stuff takes time and it takes practice,

But we can do some level of it right now.

So let's say,

For example,

You imagine yourself being in this beautiful home with lots of like light and light coming through and all these beautiful things,

And you're really happy and you're wearing a long flowy dress or something.

That might not be possible to buy this big house and all these different things right away.

But what could you do to move in that direction of feeling?

How could you have some elements of that so that you could even bring some of those things with you into the future?

Maybe you buy like a dress that will be a different style than you normally wear.

When I do visualizations with people,

They often tell me they're wearing different clothes or doing different things.

I remember many years ago,

I had a client and I asked her,

You know,

Imagine your perfect life in the future.

And she imagined it.

And I said,

Well,

What do you see?

And she said,

Well,

She wakes up and she sees flowers next to her.

And then she goes downstairs and there's flowers on the kitchen table.

And then she does some yoga.

And then she goes outside for a walk.

And this was her vision of her future.

And she was putting this off like it wasn't possible.

And I said,

Well,

Why don't you just buy some flowers now and put them on your next to your nightstand and on the kitchen table.

And then you wake up and you see flowers and you go downstairs and you can do your yoga and you can go for a walk.

And even though that's simple,

It changed her whole perspective and it changed her life because she realized she could experience that thing which would bring her more joy very quickly and very cheaply.

She could even cut flowers from outside.

She lives somewhere with lots of flowers doesn't even cost any money.

So who do you want to become?

Who do you want to become?

The third thing is,

What is the stuff or the physical things that represents this self image?

So once you know who you are becoming,

Then what is it that represents that future you?

So here's some examples.

Artwork.

What kind of art?

What kind of images would your future self like to look at on the walls?

So I remember when I was younger,

I used to have posters that I just stuck on the wall with some,

What do they call that sticky tack stuff,

You know that blue stuff.

Always some little pins.

That was my idea of art,

Just sticking posters on the wall when I was a teenager.

I realized that's not really like the highest type of art,

You know,

Then you saw upgrades canvases and then to frame stuff and then to actual artwork.

And nowadays,

You can go on to these various websites like great big canvas and all these iCanvas,

There's so many of them.

And you can get masterpieces printed up and sent over to you for a couple hundred bucks.

You know,

Just wonderful art,

You know,

It's not original art,

Fair enough,

But it's it looks great.

And if you get to a point where you can spend $20,

000 on original art,

Fair enough.

But if you're not there yet,

Then you can just buy some really beautiful big pieces for you know,

100 $200.

And oftentimes they're on sale,

So you can just get them really easily.

So that's an example of what type of artwork would your future self like to see,

That's going to pull you into a new version of yourself.

And when you start flipping out your pictures,

It's kind of like living in a new reality.

Right.

And you know,

What type of feelings states do you want these pictures to inspire in you?

And do you or is one of your goals to perhaps have more time for meditation.

So you want to arrange your home a room in your home for that,

You have a nice place to sit,

You have a beautiful picture.

And then it's all very supportive,

Your environment's very supportive of how you see yourself and who you're becoming and what you're stepping into.

So think about the types of activities that you want to be doing more of.

Think of the types of images,

Reminders you want to keep seeing.

And have fun with it.

Yeah.

And remember,

You can get some version of it.

Like if you want to play the piano,

Fair enough,

You might not be able to buy a grand piano.

You know,

They're like $20,

000.

You might not be able to get one right now,

That's fine.

But you could get an upright piano for 500 bucks or even $300.

Or even I've seen them giving them away,

People who don't want their piano anymore.

So it's important to move in the direction that is going to help you get to where you want to go in the future.

And things like the things that you eat with,

The books on your bookshelf,

And even buying books that help you move forward or having a garden.

Once you make one step in the right direction,

It has a knock on effect.

That's very interesting.

We recently,

With the coronavirus,

We couldn't travel.

So I thought,

Well,

I'm just going to make the garden nice then.

So I got one plant,

A few plants,

And then I thought,

Well,

This is cool.

I mean,

This looks just so nice.

Why don't we get more?

Why don't we get more?

And then that one trip down to get some plants led to many other trips,

Which led to a beautiful garden.

So oftentimes just doing one thing in the right direction inspires a whole long line of other things and move you to something more beautiful.

The next tip,

Number four,

Is extremely important as you do all these things is to consider quality,

Not quantity.

And another way of saying this is you can't afford to be cheap.

Can't afford to buy cheap.

This sounds a bit counterintuitive.

Yeah,

We've had so many experiences where we buy something that's cheaper and it breaks,

It falls apart,

It ruins something else.

And we're like,

Gosh,

And then you have to spend the time and the money getting rid of it and getting something new.

And it's expensive.

It actually is more expensive than buying the nice item that lasts for many years and you enjoy it.

And it was a good investment.

Yeah,

We recently bought a fountain for our garden and we got one that was,

You know,

It was nice,

But we didn't actually like it.

And we were just sitting there going,

Yeah,

I don't know about this.

So we took it back and there was another one which was,

Which actually wasn't that much more expensive.

We got it on sale and it was just a remarkable thing.

So sometimes what I've noticed personally is that if you spend twice as much money on something,

Often you end up getting like a 10 times better value.

It's not twice as good.

It's 10 times better.

And when you think about it,

Quality things last a lot longer.

So we're talking to you on good microphones.

These microphones could last for 25,

50 years.

You know,

A lot of them come with lifetime warranties.

You can buy cheap stuff,

Then it breaks,

Then you have to buy again,

Then it breaks,

You have to buy again,

Then it breaks,

You have to buy again.

All that time spent on buying it again and fiddling around with things and sending stuff back and all the rest of it is such a waste of time that you can't really afford to do it.

And that's why I've been trying to do it.

So we've learned that quality,

Quality really makes a big difference.

So it's better to just not buy anything and just hold off and then save up the money if you need to and then get something quality and it'll last for years to come,

Years to come.

And the fifth tip is just some of our top personal top tips and things that we've personally found help make our life more magical.

Number one actually is plants.

Plants.

We weren't having any plants for a while because we wanted to be able to travel and not worry about it.

But we realized that,

You know what,

It's worth having them.

We can get someone to come around and water them.

And it makes a huge difference,

Doesn't it,

Arel?

Yeah,

They're beautiful.

They're alive.

They can have some that have flowers.

We have some fruit trees and shrubs and it's really special.

I think it's a great way to get a good taste of the plants.

It's really special.

I think it's important now more than ever in our modern age,

Technological age where we're less and less connected to nature.

I think it's really important we surround ourselves with beautiful plants,

Beautiful colors,

Beautiful nature.

It helps us connect back to that healthy,

Wholesome,

Natural world.

And especially things like honeysuckle,

Which are really nice.

They smell nice as well.

They look wonderful.

They smell beautiful.

It makes the whole experience better.

Right.

And you can also grow your own food.

Our neighbor does that.

You can grow some kale and greens.

It's all very rewarding.

It's healthy.

It's helpful for our mind and our bodies to be around living plants and greenery and the beauty of each plant.

And you can grow herbs easily.

Even if you live in a city with a little house,

A lot of people grow herbs on their windowsill.

So plants are great.

Another thing that makes a big difference is lights.

So you can buy Edison bulbs,

These kind of old school lights or cool light lighting features.

Because when it gets dark and light and you put on some beautiful looking lights that just light the place up really nicely,

It makes a huge difference to the feeling of your space.

And they're inexpensive and it makes a massive difference.

Right.

And something else I love are the Himalayan salt lamps.

I love the warm glowing light that they emit.

So we have several of those.

I absolutely love them.

I think they create a really nice atmosphere.

I also love red light.

Red light is beautiful for meditation.

It just supports you entering a deeper state of being.

I've even seen recently there's books and books about red light therapy.

So whether,

You know,

And that sounds very interesting to me,

I think red light is healing.

And,

You know,

It's something you can consider in your home as well.

A red light bulb maybe in your meditation room or somewhere else in your house.

Yes.

And lights like string lights that go outside.

We have them in our garden.

So you go out at nighttime and there's lots of beautiful lighting.

It just makes a big difference.

The other thing is,

Of course,

Artwork makes a massive difference.

If you don't have artwork that inspires you,

Then it's probably time to consider.

And there's,

You know,

Countless pictures of different beautiful nature scenes or paintings that you can get printed up really big even and not expensive.

So really take the time to do that right so that it,

When you see it,

It illuminates you in some level.

That's the whole point of art.

Music and art and the arts are designed originally to illuminate us,

To elevate us to higher consciousness.

So being surrounded by beautiful things makes a huge difference.

Another thing that is not often mentioned is what we eat with.

We're always eating every day,

You know,

We have bowls and plates and spoons and forks and everything.

And most of the time not much thought goes into that.

But what are you using to eat with?

We've realized that,

You know,

What you put in your mouth every day has an effect on your health.

And the most healthy thing,

According to many studies,

Is silver.

You know,

You might have silver shield,

There's like these silver tinctures people take because silver is beneficial.

So it's worth buying silverware,

Actual silverware.

And some people say,

Well,

That sounds a bit fancy,

A bit ridiculous.

But when you think about how many meals you end up having over a 10 year period,

You realize that it's basically cost nothing.

And it can make a difference to your health and it just feels better.

Weighted spoons and forks made out of silver,

It just feels more like it.

You deserve quality.

It's not that expensive,

There's tons of them to buy.

Same thing with your bowls and plates.

What are you going to eat out of?

Do you like your plates and bowls?

Are they the right size?

Does it fit the food you want to eat?

Does it feel right?

We got some plates recently that were way too heavy and we were putting up with them.

We thought,

No,

Let's just get rid of these and have something better.

So a lot of these things that we use every single day over and over and over and over again,

Hundreds and hundreds of times,

That might as well be given some serious attention.

Do it right.

And then you can benefit from having something that makes your life just that little bit better every single day,

Multiple times.

Yes.

And we've already mentioned music.

Music is beautiful.

We try and stay away from too much internet and technology,

Computers,

Cell phones.

So we have iPods.

I think you can still buy them.

Old school ones.

And then you can buy little like stereos,

Like mini little stereos these days where your iPod music just plays out of that.

And it's really nice.

So we're record players.

We have records,

Record players.

So lovely music,

Uplifting music,

Meditative music.

This is all really helpful.

Yeah.

So if you're listening to beautiful music and you've got beautiful art and you're eating out of nice bowls and things,

You have plants around,

The lighting is just lovely.

These aren't very expensive.

It doesn't cost very much,

But it makes a big difference.

Records are great.

I love love records.

We have tons of records because we want it to be offline.

And it's something nice about taking out a record out of its sleeve,

Putting it on.

And,

And it's just something nice about having a,

The old school analog things.

And even having a water,

Water features in your home.

Like we have three fountains,

Four fountains.

They're great.

Fountains are amazing.

We have found though,

If we are a bit cheap about it,

They can have these loud buzzing noises and it's not very pleasant.

But there,

There are some great fountains around.

Currently all of ours are outside,

Outside fountains,

Indoor fountains.

Having some sort of water feature can be really uplifting.

Yeah.

Makes a huge difference.

Water features,

Bird feeders.

We have hummingbirds here,

So it's lovely to watch the hummingbirds coming to feed.

They're so sweet.

And of course a garden.

If you can have a garden,

Then plant some jasmine and plant things in the ground that grow up really big and they become these magical vines that smell beautiful,

Look beautiful.

And also your library.

I remember reading one of the,

One of these quotes on,

On some of the plants we bought that said,

If you have a garden and a library,

Then you have everything you need.

I just thought,

Wow,

That's spot on.

So nice library of some beautiful books,

Physical books that inspire you,

Beautiful flowers,

Beautiful music.

These things are all easy to get,

Inexpensive,

And just really illuminate things.

You know,

Much better than TVs,

Massive TVs,

We haven't got a TV.

We don't have any big TV screens or anything.

Instead we have beautiful pieces that just lift us up.

Another thing is essential oils.

Fragrances make a big difference.

And you can have an essential oil diffuser.

There are some really pretty ones with glass and wood.

So yeah,

That's nice.

Beautiful essential oils and meditation space.

Perhaps one of the most important things is somewhere,

A sacred space where you can sit down for contemplation,

For prayers,

For meditation,

Where you feel safe.

And it's just,

Just somewhere that you feel nurtured.

Just create that environment.

You know,

Think about what would you like to sit on,

Make it really comfortable,

Make it uplifting if you'd like,

Like a sweet little statue,

You know,

Then get one of those.

Like what makes it beautiful?

A houseplant.

Make it really lovely.

And you'll get back so much from wanting to sit there,

From wanting to be in your uplifting home environment.

And of course your bedding.

Is your bed comfortable?

Are your pillows comfortable?

Is it organic and non-toxic and colors that please you?

So making sure that you can get a good night's rest,

That it's a good mattress,

That it's clean,

Healthy,

You know,

Having a beautiful space to sleep makes a massive difference to our well-being.

And you know,

This wouldn't be complete if we didn't mention the fact that the only reason we're actually able to do this,

One of the reasons,

Is because we realized that we were spending way too much time on our phones and online.

And as a result of turning the phone off and turning the internet off and spending more time offline,

We started to look around and realize that we had a house.

Because when we were looking at our phones and our computers and going online all the time,

When you look at a screen it's almost like the rest of the world disappears.

So we turned everything off,

This was back in I think 2016,

2017,

Started experimenting with being offline.

And what we noticed is as soon as we turned it off,

We'd look up and go,

Hmm,

All right,

We have a house and let's make it nice because we now live in our house rather than having our mind in the online world.

So ironically,

When you take more time offline then you'll start to make your home better.

And so we actually have a place where we put our internet,

Our wi-fi plug and our cell phones and put them in the back of the garden.

So right now here we are,

We can't go online,

We haven't got a cell phone,

People can call our landline but we're living in our house,

It's beautiful and that's how we can actually make this nice because we have the mental space to pay attention to our environment.

Right,

And any one of us can do this,

Any one of we can all reclaim our mental space,

Our time more,

Our environment,

Definitely minimizing the online time frees up a lot of time and space to create beauty around you.

And remember that your environment has a significant impact on your well-being,

Your state of mind and it is very,

Very helpful and supportive to bring consciousness,

Light and attention to it.

Wonderful,

So there we have it,

There's the five tips.

This has taken us many years to fiddle around with so hopefully you found this useful and you can put some of these things into practice and start to create a beautiful space that nurtures you,

Nourishes you,

Inspires you and will help you become the person that you want to be.

Enjoy the process,

Have fun,

Make it inspiring and magical,

Sending you lots of love and namaste.

Reviews

Good quality mind elixir during cleanup, thank you!

Some very useful ideas, thank you. Love and blessings 💖 x

This was really enjoyable to listen too. Im moving out of State, and have sold 95% of the things Ive owned, some things over 45 years old. I am looking forward to starting my new life with far less things. Your talk has inspired me to replace things that bring about a feeling of love and warth to my future life.
Thank you.