This is going to be a different blog. Up until this point, I have been sharing how my journey and key life experiences over all these years shaped my process of creating interiors. These experiences taught me key creative principles, including the importance of the relationship between interior design and behaviour.
This week I would like to share with you where I am at, my own personal struggles with lockdown and my desire to re-create and re-shape our existence. I need your help to do it. My sincere view is that in order to create the change needed, we must all fully participate so there can be collective movement.
These unusual times require us to think and do differently.
Since we have gone into lockdown, time feels like it has ceased to exist. One moment seemingly blends into the next. I have been fortunate enough to continue working throughout lockdown as my interior design studio is just off our house, but it has reached a point where it feels like we are operating in a strange time warp of sorts. On the one hand it feels like business as usual, and on the other, virtual meetings take more out of you; there is definitely a mental strain that I have never experienced before.
Walking freedom
My partner, from the beginning, found a way to manage himself mentally and physically. He walked everyday to the shops, created daily challenges for himself, found ways to help his contractors and family either financially or with supplies. His energy has been boundless, and he has been a huge source of inspiration for everyone. Particularly me. His sincere desire is to make sure that everyone is ok and he makes that his life’s work. He says the most important thing for him was walking and making sure that the lockdown didn’t impact his perception of freedom. He says no-one can take anything away unless you let them.
Wetsuits and swimming pools
My son has taken it the hardest with not being able to play sport, be outside and engage with his friends as he used to. In the beginning he stayed very active, jumping in our pool with his wetsuit on, staying connected with his friends but eventually he got quite bad flu.
I thought it was COVID-19 but he tested negative. The doctor advised us that it had a lot to do with our unusual circumstances and that many other people are going through the same thing. My son says he feels like so much has been taken away, he feels a sense of loss as so many key events in his life were cancelled this year. Now, I am so grateful that he has been able to be in the sea again. I have definitely seen an improvement in his mood and motivation with being able to surf again. We underestimate the impact of freedom and the power that nature has on us.
A time to be still
I had my own set of challenges. I found myself taking time to be still. To re-engage with my own thoughts and goals. I reflected on individuals that have impacted my life. Looked for the gifts in these circumstances and how I could make a positive contribution through all of this. How I could let go of the old to let in the new.
Being still. Being truly still is a powerful, prayerful and mediative practice that enables you to become more conscious of what is happening around you and facilitates flow in your life. Our busyness blocks our minds and our thoughts. It is a practice that I use regularly in the interior design process to help me unlock any creative block I experience when I start a project, or when I am dealing with a unique challenge.
We are the creators of our stories
I learnt to do this spending hours on my bed in my yellow room when I was ill and trying to create a new world in my mind. It is how I would process the events of my life (not that it had been a very long one until then) and attempt to understand myself better. Even as a little girl I was very clear on the kind of person I wanted to be. I knew I had the power to change if I took the time to understand my behaviour, really look at it and if I took accountability for my emotion, whether it was good or bad.
After all, we are the creators of our own stories and one needs time to write a good story.
Initially, during lockdown, there were a lot of positive benefits that people experienced from just pausing. Being together with loved ones, resting, clearing out clutter, re-organising their home and work spaces, reduced stressed and so on. It seemed a matter of managing the flow of tasks, keeping people together and getting through what we never imagined would be one of the toughest lockdowns in the world.
Don’t let it get to you
Now, the impact of being still for too long is taking its toll on people. A lot of people are also getting ill, not only COVID-ill but just ill, from being inside for so long and dealing with the seasonal challenges, because we can all only absorb so much as human beings. Many people are operating in a vacuum without their usual support systems such as their parents, schools or friends. There is a real need for people to break out of this routine, connect and generate new energy. I am seeing it all around. I am recognising it in myself.
There is a balance needed between generating energy and being still. If you are still for too long, you become lazy and unproductive. If you take on too much, you burn out and your ability to operate at an optimum level mentally, emotionally and physically is severely impacted. It requires significant focus to know when to swing the pendulum and for how long, when to up your game and when to pause.
The added financial burden and uncertainty for many people at present is also a very real thing. So many small businesses have closed shop, so many people have lost their jobs. Our challenge is going to be on re-creating our story in a way that makes sense for us. It is going to require us to be realistic, open and positive so that we can see the opportunity through the chaos.
Finding a field of dandelions
Dewitt Jones, a well-known photographer from the National Geographic, talks about celebrating what is right with the world. He shares his story about his journey as a photographer. My favourite story is where he tells of his assignment from National Geographic to go and photograph the spring flowers.
He gets sidetracked on the way, and starts his journey later than he should so, when he arrives at his destination he is not happy with the light and he decides to come back another time. Time passes and he goes back only to find he has missed the flowers completely and in their place is just a field of dandelions. His first reaction is to leave. Given that it is just a field of dandelions. But he thinks to himself that he is not certain what he would get if he had to come back again so he decides to just let the dandelions be.
It was there the whole time
He embraces the dandelions and begins to photograph them. He takes photos from the top. He takes photos from the bottom. He gets under them. He blows them. He picks them. He takes photo after photo. Then in a split second. There it was. The moment. The frame. He got that perfect shot. It was there just waiting to be found. It had been there the whole time.
I love this story so much I got my friend @Shiralee Siebert to paint an enormous painting of a dandelion to remind me how important it is to keep going. Today, I remind myself of this story and share it with you. We may feel that our flowers are gone and we have been dealt a bed of dandelions but from where I sit, I am going to see these dandelions, I am going to embrace it, and I am going to use these unusual moments in our world to bring uniqueness to my work and my life. I am not going to let them take my light away.
These are the moments as people, whether we are creative or professionals, where we can design and do extraordinary things in our work and lives.
We are more powerful together
We, each individually, have the power to do good, or do harm. It is in the small things we do everyday that culminate in the big moments of our lives. Let us take the time to re-create our world. Let us make sense of this chaos. It is only if we do this individually in our lives, that it can culminate into something greater than us as individuals.
Big, hairy, audacious goals
I asked you when I wrote the first chapter of My Yellow Room – what do you dream of? Write it down. Take a big piece of A3 paper and write down that big hairy audacious goal (thank you Lauren Dallas, @futurefemales and Phi McCann, @peoplehaveinfluence for that great word). The bigger the better. What do you really want for yourself? What are you doing? How do you look? How is it with you? Who is with you? How do you get there? Challenge your intention. Is it to do good? Is it for good? Is it to offer only what you uniquely can offer?
Operate out your true intention
When we work from our true intention, doing what we truly should be doing, there is freedom and there is flow, not just for you but also for the people around you. Things happen in the most unusual ways and you seem to create and generate good things all around you. When our intention is not right, when we are in pain, operating out of fear or sadness it reflects in what we say, what we do and how we behave. You cannot truly contribute beauty when inside you are bound by old emotion that does not serve you. Our thinking must change in order for us to make the world better than what it was before lockdown.
We need to let go of the old in order to move into the new.
This is the creative process, but these are fundamental life lessons that apply to us all. Be all you can be. Give all you can give. Be kind to yourself when you mess up. Make it right. Learn. Never stop dreaming. Never stop growing. Never let them take away your light.
Love from the yellow room.
2 Responses
A profound piece to reflect on. It is so true – so much has shifted and we need to reflect on it and decide how we move through it so that we don’t miss out on the dandelion moments!
A beautiful piece of writing and a reflection of your soul. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for the lovely feedback so good to know that it makes a difference.