It can be really fun to notice how different spaces feel. One day in Seattle I was shopping with a friend. There are a couple of stores in the same neighborhood that carry items of similar flavor and interest. But the feel of the stores is very different. One has a Venusian feel and the other has more of a hip vibe. Even more striking, the first store feels like it is really cared for, energetically “owned” so to speak. The other feels like it is less “owned”, there is less a sense of presence in the shop.

Honestly, I had not thought much about it, but my friend comments when we enter the second store and I begin tuning in with her. I like both stores, but tend to enjoy lingering more in the first store. I spend more time there, making decisions about potential purchases. Some of this is the flavor of the store, but much of it is the difference in the sense of presence.

This same friend, Cynthia, lets me use her meditation room to see Inner Space Technique clients when I am in Seattle. This room is separate from the rest of the house, sitting as its own building in the back yard. It is striking how different that room feels from the main house. In the house, you can feel the whole family, both as individuals and as a family unit.

But in the meditation hut, it is very different. Cynthia reserves this room exclusively for meditation type practices. It is not a room where homework is done or hobbies are enjoyed. But she does open the room for friends to engage in meditation groups and for practitioners like myself to see clients. Energetically the family members are absent, and Cynthia is nearly imperceptible. The room is clearly taken care of, owned as you will by Cynthia. But when I see clients there it does not feel like Cynthia’s space. She is a transparent holder in the background, and the space belongs to me and my client. It has to do with her clear intention for the space, both physically and energetically.

It can be enlightening to notice the purposes of the rooms in your home, notice if and how they feel different to one another, and if there are changes you want to make in how you feel in some of the rooms. If so, how will you go about changing the feel in those rooms? Through light, color, texture, what you do in those spaces? Clear intention and then a commitment to the intention can make a world of difference.