Music to Inspire your home

As I mentioned previously, music can create an incredible feel in an environment. It can also make an environment unbearable and annoying. Think about some places, like big chain stores where the music was so annoying and bothered you so much that you had to get out of there as fast as you could. On the same note, think about places and people homes you have been to where the music was so soothing, engaging, enlivening and supportive of the space that everything felt great.

In my experience creating the perfect play lists, developing a well rounded and supportive sondtrack for your home and life can really help change the vibration and feeling of your space. While it is important for you to discover for yourself the right blend and mix of types and kinds of music, here are some suggestions that have worked great for me and my clients: (performer:album title)

Asana: Ohm Shanti
Bebel Gilberto: Momento (or just about anything Bebel puts out)
Lemongrass: Spa Sessions
Lsola D'Amore: The Ethereal Experience
Buddha Bar IX by Ravin
Destination Series
Eden: A collection of global chill
Xen Cuts
Anything by Nitan Sawhney
Anything by Girish
Anything by Snatam Kaur
Anything by Krishna Das
Siddartha--Spirit of Buddha Bar: Awakening
Baraka
Barramundi
Peter Nashel: Bee Season
Mark Oliver Everett: Levity
Ekstasis: Wake up and Dream

This should get you started. Feel free to explore these and others on iTunes and other places online. And explore new groups and artists in all genres.

I will post another group of recommendations in a few weeks.

Design a ritual

One thing I’ve learned from my clients is that there are many reasons for designing or redesigning our homes. Sometimes our reasons are purely practical. We may want to make our living environment more functional, comfortable, beautiful, elegant, or modern. We may want an “upgrade,” with better quality furniture, carpet, tile, lighting, cabinets, interior/exterior paint, etc. Perhaps we’re in transition – we’ve gotten married, divorced, widowed, or we’re relocating long distance, or we’ve bought a new house, or we’re moving up in the world – and we want a fresh start in an old or a new place.

Yet I often find there are deeper reasons motivating people to create new home environments. Our house truly does represent our self. And, consciously or not, designing our home is a powerful way of conceiving, redefining or expressing who we are. It can also be a way of reinventing who we are; and a way of marking or ritualizing significant personal changes, phases and transitions in our life.

Why do you want to design your home? Have you been experiencing changes, growth, or upheaval? Do you want to create environment that will support or invoke more creativity, love, peace, joy or stability in your life? Are you looking for spiritual renewal, a way to initiate growth and change on deeper levels? Do you want your home to more accurately reflect and embody who you are now, or who you’re becoming?

Think about it. Find out what’s true for you.

Sacred Design Tips: Storage--Keep it neat

Clutter can all too easily creep into and take over any of our environments, distract and detracting from our ultimate goal of relaxation. It may be clothes scattered on the floor, books and clothes on the bed or night table or random items on the dresser. Whatever it is, clutter interferes with our physical environment, our visual field, and clutters minds by gnawing at our subconscious. Ignoring clutter isn’t the solution, as it only desensitizes and distances us from the home environment that ought open us up and nourish us.

There are easy and affordable storage solutions to help us to get the most out of our environment, as well as make our bedroom a more serene, orderly and sacred place. Rather than purchase a sterile plastic industrial laundry hamper, how about a gorgeous painted laundry trunk. Elegant wooden bookshelves can also provide a beautiful showcase for statues, knick-knacks and framed paintings and photographs that have special meaning to you.

How about a quality dresser or armoire, a piece that truly inspires, for your clothing. Or, you can personalize your present dresser, wardrobe or chest of drawers by sanding, repainting or staining it. You can make it a family weekend project. Choose colors that are in harmony with your bedroom scheme. And let your children paint special details that will forever charm you, and make them feel part of the process and the space. They will be proud that mom and dad asked them to contribute.

Sacred Design Tips: Scent

Scent has an effect. And when it comes to scent, natural and organic is always best. Several excellent options for bedroom scents include fresh flowers, scented or essential oils, incense, and scented candles. For safety, candles should always be placed away from linens and bed sheets, on a stable, non-flammable surface. Some candles give off quite a bit of smoke, which is not the scent you want permeating your bedroom. Smokeless candles are available. So it is important to investigate candle options, note the different types of wax and wicks. Large, stable candle bowls filled with soy wax and non-lead wicks are safe and ideal for bedroom use.

Sacred Design Tips: Music

In February 2005, the Journal of Advanced Nursing reported that older people with sleep problems noted a 35 percent improvement after they started listening to 45 minutes of soft music before bedtime. After the disastrous hurricane season of 2005, FEMA reported ways to relieve extreme stress in children. One of their recommended tension reduction techniques was creating and listening to music. Clearly music has major implications for quality of sleep in both adults and children. A wonderful way for families to bond in the bedroom is to listen to music before going to sleep for the night. Setting a sleep timer in advance can make listening to peaceful music as easy as pressing a button, with no need to worry about dozing off without shutting down the stereo.

Whether we choose to listen to a classical orchestra, soft jazz, Native American drumming, or the chanting of Benedictine Monks, the music that speaks the most to us often carries the most sacred energy. As with any sensory aspect of our bedrooms, it is important to take care to ensure that music is not harsh, aggressive, intense, or laden with a bass beat that will throw off our body’s natural rhythms. You may also want to try waking up to your favorite music as a way of starting the day off on the right foot. Setting your alarm to a classical or jazz station will wake the family up in the least jarring way, and set a tone for the day that is both positive and restorative.