How to design your environment so that it nourishes you. A Happy Hour Conversation with Maggie Minor

This week's show is with Maggie Minor who believes that what we surround ourselves with has a profound affect on our subconscious and that by simply making a few changes in our home décor we can uplift ourselves and open up our mind to new possibilities. She is the founder of Maggie Minor Designs, an online resource for colorful furniture and artwork, tips for making your home a more positive place, and consulting services to help you design a home that aligns with what you want.

In her former life, Maggie spent almost 15 years traveling the world…as a graduate student in Australia, a student and backpacker in Europe, a Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria and a humanitarian worker working in Asia and Africa. Her memoir, Adventures of a Curious Sculptor, recounts her long journey from adventurer to artist, and her appreciation for all of the beauty that surrounds us.

In this show we explored how and why what we look at in our homes and offices has a profound subconscious impact what we think about and therefore how we feel. There is a revolution going on right now about about food, spirituality, relationships, and exercise, but no one is really talking about curating what we look at everyday. 

Maggie would like to help people think more about how they create their environments with a special emphasis on things that they look at most. It’s a simple shift that can make a huge difference.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Humans throughout history have been wired to be impacted by their visual surroundings - it's imperative to our safety- whether it be to locate fruit (or remember where the poisonous ones are) or to hunt or avoid animals. Our environment is constantly being perceived via our senses and is in our awareness, whether we realise it or not - so we can either leave our environment to chance or we can curate environments that serve us.

• Go around your house and ask yourself: "How do I want to feel in this room?" Look at each item in the room and decide whether it creates the feeling you want.

• Easy starting points include: What do you look at first thing in the morning? What's giving you 'Should' messages? What do you see when you first enter your home? What do you see when you leave your home? Start with those places first.