What Do You See?

Look around the room… What do you see?

When you walk into a room, and everything is clean and neatly ordered, the colors match, the pictures on the wall are straight, and nothing is out of place, it just feels nice. You might even look around and appreciate it. But take that exact same room, and hang a picture crookedly, or let a small pile of clutter accumulate, and what’s the first thing you see? I bet it’s not the 90% clean and cozy all around… I bet it’s the one or two little things that aren’t quite right….

If you’re like me, all you can see when you look around your home is the stuff that needs to be done, the stuff that isn’t quite right, all the things you’d like to change, move, upgrade, or throw away. In my experience, I don’t easily see what is right, what is beautiful, what is orderly, or what is wonderful in my home, because I’m so busy judging myself for all the other.

Yesterday, I tried this little exercise where I looked around the room and tried to mainly focus on everything that I liked about it, the things I love. And it was really really hard! So much easier to see all the other stuff. Maybe that’s because there is a lot of it. And maybe that’s because it really bothers me on some unconscious level. I don’t know. What I DO know is that I do the same thing when I look at myself in the mirror.

It occurs to me that this must be a survival mechanism, to notice that which is disruptive, uncomfortable, or ugly. This is really helpful, if you are noticing and then right away taking steps to remedy the situation. But it isn’t at all helpful when you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff that needs your attention and help. Nor is it helpful when there isn’t anything you can do to make things better.

So, if it’s true that “what you focus on grows,” and if all I focus on in my home is what’s wrong with it, does it follow that more clutter, disarray, and chaos will follow? And if all I see when I look in the mirror are faults and flaws, does it mean that this is what I will continue to portray?

I wonder what would happen, and how different my experience would be if I focus only on what I love about my home, and ignore the rest, and how would I feel about myself if I took the time to look in the mirror every day and find something beautiful to see?